How to Grow Your Company in 2026: Introducing The PS360 Contractor Operating System

We lay out the PS360 contractor operating system and use our retreat as a case study to show how to shift from chaos to clarity. The focus is direction over speed: build vision, roles, processes, and metrics before pouring gas on marketing or hiring.

• planning the 2027 retreat and waitlist perks
• new two-coach model and James joining as coach
• mini-retreat on 30 January and the 2026 course map
• why foundation beats fast growth and lead-chasing
• seven tenets overview and how to phase work
• vision and org structure for different growth paths
• role definition for owner vs operator vs PM
• 10-step project process and core documentation
• financial metrics that drive weekly decisions
• hiring playbook from sourcing to 90-day ramp
• leadership shift from boss to leader
• quarterly focus, monthly goals, and accountability

Come next Friday. January 30th, we’re doing a four-hour retreat sprint on Zoom. If you’re in coaching, it’s free. If not, it’s a couple dollars. Go to contractorcuts.com to sign up and we’ll ship you the 2026 course map.

Struggling to grow your contracting business? The Foundations Program is designed to help contractors break free from the chaos and build a business that runs smoothly. You’ll get a customized training program, 1-on-1 coaching, and access to a full paperwork database—including contracts and the Client Engagement Agreement. Join the Foundations Program today! 🚀

Go to ProStruct360.com or s

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Email us at team@prostruct360.com

Want to learn more about our software or coaching?
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Transcript

Welcome Back And Retreat Recap Plan

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover the good, the bad, and the ugly of growing a successful contracting company.

Announcing PS360 Contractor Operating System

2027 Retreat Waitlist And Perks

New Coaching Model And James Joins As Coach

Mini Retreat On Jan 30 And Planner

Theme: Chart The Course, Direction Over Speed

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to Contractor Cuts. My name is Clark Turner. I'm James McConnell. Thanks for joining us again this year. We've taken some time off. So welcome to Contractor Cuts. Thank you guys for joining again this week. We are back at it 2026. Um, we just came off the retreat this week, and so we are high on life, uh, really enjoying what happened at the retreat. So today we are going to go through in a very abridged version of the retreat. Now it's not just, hey, we're listen to what we did, but more what we're talking about today is kind of what the next probably six months of contractor cuts is going to be covering. Uh we're diving deep into a lot of topics. The the retreat was 16 hours straight, or well, of two days, eight hours a day of non-stop information and growth, and we're gonna cover kind of walk through what we did on the retreat to really kind of dive into if you're listening, where are you at with your company? What do you need with your company? Um, and then some of these topics, we're gonna kind of uh really dive into what we announced on the retreat, which was the PS360 PLD. Yeah, the PS360 contractor operating system. Uh and so we're gonna dive into that and we're gonna be covering that in the next uh handful of podcasts as well. So getting started though today, we we we want to do kind of a couple announcements. Number one, we've got we've already started planning the 2027 retreat. So if you missed it this year, we've actually now on our website, if you go to contractorcuts.com or ProStruck360.com uh and find contractorcuts that way. Uh we are gonna have a sign up if you want to get on the waiting list. We're gonna have kind of two payment tiers. If you are on the waiting list, we're gonna release uh early fall, late summer um the sign-up form for the 2027 retreat. And if you're on it, those that are on that retreat, that sign up form will be the first in the door as well as some discounted rates. Um, it's always easier for us to get people to sign up early than late because then we can plan accordingly. And so we're trying to incentivize that. So go to our website, country to cuts.com, sign up for uh next year's waiting list. Uh you'll also get some benefit. We're gonna do some random stuff throughout the year where we're gonna do some one-on-one stuff and some group stuff from that and send additional information throughout the year. So love to get you on our uh wait list. Also, and more announcements. Um James McConnell is officially in 2026 coming on as a coach for Pro Stroke. So uh he has been part of the team. That's right, baby. He's been part of yeah, where's the clapping in the background? The uh he's been part of the team since the beginning. He's helped me create almost everything we do. Um, you know, I've bounced stuff off him. He's he's been kind of running our lab in terms of testing a lot of the stuff and working this out together. Uh and so this year he's he's we've already started um bringing on some coaching clients for James, uh, and he's coming in full-time um as a coach with us. Um so super excited about that. We're also changing how we do coaching. Uh, and so new signups and and new coaching clients coming in are gonna get both James and I, um, depending on what what track you're on and what you're doing and what you're needed. We kind of have two different specialty areas, and so we're gonna kind of try and combine that, and and it's a really cool new way that we're launching in 2026. So if you're interested in coaching, please go to contractorcuts.com or Pro Struck360, reach out. I'd love to have a one-on-one call with you about that. If you're launching into the new year and you need a game plan you didn't make on the retreat, I would love to meet with you one-on-one and kind of have that conversation about game planning for you and kind of launching into the new year. Um I think that's it on the announcements. Oh, one last announcement. Yes, we're the retreat's gonna be at Dolly World. Dolly World. Or Six Flags. Or Six Flags over Dolly World. Yeah. Uh no, it's not gonna be there. But we'll announce where it's gonna be and kind of what we're doing as as uh we go throughout the year. Um, but it's we're it's gonna be so good, and I'm pretty excited about where where we're going with it. There's gonna be different choices of classes and a bunch of other things that we're gonna be breaking out on it. Um, and we are going to a new location. I don't think we'll be in Nashville next year, but we're not gonna announce that quite yet. Um, last announcement. If you did miss the retreat and you're like, man, I really want that content. I wanted to go, I couldn't be there. If you're one of the coaching clients that couldn't be there, um, we are doing January 30th and two Fridays or in a week from this coming Friday. Uh, I am going to do a four-hour uh retreat sprint over Zoom. So if you want to be on that, want to sign up for that. Um, if you're in coaching, it's free. It's gonna be a couple dollars. If you're not in coaching, um, but go to contractorcuts.com and sign up for the retreat there. If you sign up, you're gonna get one of our uh 2026 course maps. This is a journal planner for the entire year that we printed up ourselves. Uh, and I'll walk you through this. But this is something that you will be able to track everything month in and month out. This is what we use in coaching, even if you're not coming to coaching. Come to the mini retreat, get one of these, we'll ship it out to you if you sign up for the retreat and and really launch into 2026 well. Genuine ostrich leather. Genuine, for sure. All right, so that is all of my announcements. So, today, what we're gonna be running through. Um, I'm we're gonna walk you through the retreat, like we're telling you a story of what happened this weekend. Um, it's not just to brag and hear about the stories of what happened, but also we're gonna walk through the content that we covered and kind of how your brain should be processing coming into the new year, growing your company, what I got to be looking at. And really, this is kind of a preview, like I said, of the next six to twelve months of contractor cuts and what we're gonna be covering in uh the podcast uh as well as in coaching. Uh so Monday, we get we get on the retreat, we get to the intensive, we start fresh thing Monday morning. And so we start the retreat going through kind of the whole the whole the whole theme of the retreat was chart the course. And so we we kind of started the retreat. Why is that our theme? And it, you know, it feels very cheesy, it felt very kind of you know on the nose of like weren't there.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Clark was wearing a captain's hat. Uh he he had uh a really beautiful compass rose. I dressed dressed as Jack Sparrow and did the accent the entire retreat. He was rum drunk the whole retreat. By day two, James was like, you know you don't have to do that. You have to stop. You have to stop. Some of the good content's not landing because everyone's just so uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

No, this is not true. This is all lies. Uh but but the whole the whole chart the course was I mean, we went through it and and it was like we're in the harbor, we're trying to get to the new world and start a colony, and it's like you gotta get through the fog, you gotta have a a course chart, and it was more about direction over speed. You know, if you go really fast in growing your company and don't have any direction, you're gonna end up further away from where from where than where you started. And so, how do we chart that course? How do we get through the fog? How do we pack and build the right team to be on the boat? How do we go in the right direction? So we avoid the temptation on the way where we see another island, like, oh, that'd be fun to stop there, but instead we go to the new excuse me. You throw up a little like a bubble in my throat. You you get to the new world, you set up the like kind of it was a it was a theme of everyone just wants to hop in the boat and go. Let's go, go, go, go, go.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Let's do some marketing and let's pour gas on this fire and almost an affront to the grind culture of where to find more sources of revenue, where to find, like, how do we increase revenue, increase revenue? It's almost like no. No. Just slow it down.

Laying Foundations Before Marketing And Hiring

SPEAKER_00 8:08

It's funny when I talk to guys interested in coaching, but the uh I always say, this is the worst sales pitch I can give you, but it's it's the honest truth. My goal is not to increase your revenue over the next few months. My goal is to lay a foundation for your company then then in this year. Let's do enough work to pay the bills and keep where you're at right now. But I want to really build a foundation of a fire that we can then pour gas on top of. Like let's you can't build a gigantic house on a small, uh, unplanned foundation. And so the goal is in coaching A, we're gonna build a foundation, we're gonna get direction, we're gonna understand what success looks like this year. We we're gonna look at where you have holes in all of your processes and how you operate and how you hire and all that stuff. And then from there, that now that we have the the course charted, that's when we start going that direction and start really increasing, pouring gas on that fire to grow you, and that's when the revenue speeds, and that's when the revenue comes in, and that's when that's when we start growing. So that was the whole the theme of it, uh, and kind of where we started in the retreat. We then got into kind of the meat of the entire retreat. So day one of these retreats is I am going to hit you like with a fire hose of information, and I'm gonna show you everything that your company should have in it. And to be honest, like you end day one feeling a bit like a failure, a bit like you're way behind, and and that's not on purpose, but that happens and that's part of it.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

And and I am, you know, obviously in the in the coaching world now, but I'm also running a company and I felt the exact same way as everybody in there.

Day One: Firehose And Finding Your Gaps

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Yeah. Yeah. So it it almost ends heavy because and we'll go through it, but we're going through the really the seven tenets of our contractor operating system. Uh, and so we lay it out and we kind of walk through it. And day one, it's like, oh man, I'm missing that. Oh, I don't do that. Oh, I haven't done that. Oh, and part of this is like, I want to show you why it's not time to hire probably for your company. Let me show you why it's not time to pour five grand a month into marketing yet. Let me like, let's get this stuff organized and then let's run it. Like, let's go after this stuff is in place. And the way that the operating system's built is we got to do all of these things, but we have to phase them and we have to grow them. And you know, number one has to be done before number two starts, but then we gotta circle back to number one and get kind of phase two on it before phase two of number two starts, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

So it's you need one A, two A, three A before you go to two B. Yeah. Yes, correct.

Day Two: Priorities, Quarterly Focus, Accountability

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Correct, correct. So it was kind of laying it out and saying, like, this is like one Z, like this is what you need to have, and this is why we're doing it. And some of the stuff we kind of got into, like, let's write our vision statement, let's do this, and let's let's look at job descriptions and that sort of thing. We we went through it, but also it was more like pinpoint what you're missing, pinpoint what what's good. Like, if this is great, like if you're an eight out of ten, awesome, write that down. Let's let's let's put that on the shelf there and let's go on to the next one and look at where you're at there. Because what we want to do is start rising all of them and and getting you, you know, I'm really good at this, but I didn't even think about doing this, and so I need to start there, where other guys are really bad at this, but they didn't, you know, they are really good at the other thing that you're not good at. So they need to focus somewhere else. So being able to lead 50 guys and girls through this to be able to figure out for their company what's the problem and where are the biggest fires that we're gonna start with? That was the goal of day one. Like lay it all out there. Day two, the what day two was is solving those problems and and really kind of organizing how we fight these battles. How where do we start? What's one, what's two, what's three, what's our focus for 2026? What does December 2026 look like? And what are our big three focus points on that? And then we take that into the planner and we say, okay, this is what your focus is for this year. Right now, the three biggest focuses for quarter one is A, B, and C. So if these are your focus, uh, you know, increasing my product quality, which is how I onboard subs and and labor and how I train them and maintain them and get the best ones and make them, you know, want to work here. And how do we do all that? How do I onboard them right? What paperwork do I need? So we do deep dove into that. But maybe that's your number one for this year. So we write that down, and that's gonna be in the first quarter, what are we gonna do about that? So by the end of the January, what are you gonna do? So February, our goal is what? And so we start laying it out, and we're not gonna lay out every month right now because we don't know how fast we're gonna go and what what you know what storms we're gonna hit on the journey. But as you're going to there's mermaids, there's whales. I mean, there's all sorts of dangers. Yes, Krakens. But as as you go, that's why we we we look at it as a at the beginning of the quarter, I want to look at the quarterly goal, knowing our annual goal. And then every month we're gonna look at monthly goals, and we set at the beginning of each month. This month, I got all this stuff done last month, or hey, I was slammed last month, I didn't get to any of it. Cool, so we're gonna do that this month. And that's what coaching is. That's what coaching is an extra set of eyes, assessing that, helping guide that from a non-emotional place. Like you're running this company, you get paid if it does well, and so there's some emotions tied to it. Um, but also the coaching is the accountability side of like, hey, what's going on? This is the third month in a row you said you're gonna do this and you're not doing it. Like, what's what's happening here? Let me let's solve this problem to where we make it even more bite-sized pieces because obviously it's overwhelming for you, or obviously you don't know how to do this. So let's get you some training on it.

Why Entrepreneurs Need External Accountability

SPEAKER_01 13:39

I think that's probably I think some guys have voiced this, but I think probably more people have uh know this and haven't said anything, but the entrepreneurs, I don't think a lot of them have accountability in their sphere. Yeah. Like they are doing things by themselves constantly. It's it it it passes or fails on their own skill and ability. And so having accountability come alongside of you is like I don't like it's I have never had that in my in my in my sphere. Like I I need more of that in my sphere because there's things that I know that I need to do that easily come off of the off of the books because I feel like I need to focus on something else, but having somebody be able to redirect you a little bit and remind you of why that thing is so important is really valuable. Yeah.

Seven Tenets Overview Of PS360

Tenet 1: Vision And Structure

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Well, and there's really two sides of the spectrum with guys coming in and coaching. We've got like one side are the guys coming in, they know how to do construction, they don't know the business side, they don't know how where to start, where to how to grow, how to do anything. They just need kind of the we need to get them on training wheels and then up and running and going fast. Uh, and so that's kind of the the guys on that side of the spectrum. The other side of the spectrum is a guy that like that that's in coaching right now. That Sunday night we talked uh for a while, him him and I, and you know, he's fresh into coaching, it's probably been two to three months. Um, and he was like, Clark, you know, my fiance and I were, you know, I was telling her about what the program is and what we're learning, kind of what we're doing. She was like, You kind of do all that already. And he and he said, I might be learning 10% more of how to run a business, and I'm getting tips and tricks and how you guys do it, and it's really helping, but throw all that away solely for the accountability of getting my money's worth. It was like solely that I know that there is somebody who's like a business partner to me that's gonna show up for me, that we're gonna sit down on next Friday, and I gotta get this done, or I'm gonna show up empty-handed, yeah, is worth the price and then some just to have that because I'm actually getting movement now. After I've been doing this for years and years and years, yeah, I've got movement forward. So you know, there's all sides of the spectrum, and there's still learning everywhere it is. And what this is, and what I love about the coaching is we're not gurus, right? We're not like, oh, sit at my feet and learn from me. It's more speak for yourself. I feel like I'm such a guru. That's true. We'll call you guru, James, moving forward. But I'm not a guru, and you know, it's I've I've just done this a lot, and we've been doing this for years and years and years, and so we've learned from those mistakes. So even if it's someone who's got a high, high level of knowledge on the business side to have a business partner-ish style person to bounce off. Like, am I being crazy? Am I making this decision because I want to do it, not because it's the best thing for my company? Or I got someone to show up for, so I need to I need to build, you know, that's that's the fun, you know, all sides of the spectrum is great. So, anyways, that that was fun. That was one of my favorite conversations that night. Um, just kind of understanding, like, oh yeah, that's we're good for everybody, right? It's it's it's helpful all across the spectrum, even the guys have been doing it for 20 years that know what they're doing, but need another set of eyes on stuff. All right, so we get into the retreat. We did the chart the course Monday, uh, and then we get into the operating systems. So the the PS360 contractor operating system has seven tenets to it. I'm gonna cover them real quickly. We're gonna dive into these deeply uh throughout the next um uh number of months. Three hours. The next three hours, the next 16 hours, we're gonna cover this retreat now. Uh number one, it's vision and structure. You've got to start with knowing what you're doing, where you're going, why you're headed that way. You got to understand the structure of the company and understand the structure. One thing we did on day two during the breakout for the new people first timers, uh, or you know, new to the retreat, new to new to ProStruct in our systems is I run them through an org chart from one man show through multi-city. Every single hire, what you have to do when, how you do it. Now, not everyone wants to be multi-city, not everyone wants to have multiple industries at their serving, or you know, we do commercial and residential, we also have a custom home build. Like, you we can build that, or you can build, you know, like us. We're in Atlanta and Austin and Lexington, like you can build it any way you want. We customize it. Some guys say, you know what? I don't want that headache. I want to kind of grow what I'm doing here and just kind of keep this going and make good money with where I'm at. Awesome. Let's get you to that spot and let me show you on our org chart growth. Uh, this is where you'd pause. Like this, you're you're a 2D right now. And at 2D, this is a great spot to pause and collect cash. Or let's go to 3E and pause right here and collect cash, right? Like the whole goal of this is to customize a company around you, but we have to understand the structure of what we're building before we start building it. You gotta have blueprints before you build a house. You don't just say, Well, I know we want a door here, so go ahead and frame up a door. Uh, you gotta understand the org and the structure of what you're doing and what the goal is. Now, like we said a second ago, that's one A, right? We are gonna circle back as these continue to grow, and one B is gonna look different. And so, what does that look like? And that's part of the long longevity of coaching, too, of like, hey, I feel like you've made some decisions this year that are really taking you more light commercial, uh heavy commercial with this company, and I feel like you're really thriving in that. Why why don't we look at your vision and org chart and kind of change your structure a little bit going into year two? Because let's let's start doing light and even some heavy commercial, some ground up stuff on the commercial side, because that's really fitting where you're growing to.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Well, and back to accountability, that's why it is fun to be an entrepreneur, or what what is fun about that is a and I feel this all the time, like when I'm doing random projects at my house. One of my favorite things to do is not have a map and to come up against a problem and fix it real time. Like I get a buzz off of that. Like I'm I it's so exciting and fun to just be in the moment and then pivot when you need to pivot and just see what comes out the other end. And that is probably how a lot of people get to where they are. But then it gets to a point where now you have people dependent on you. When I'm in my garage, you're doing something, there's no there's no stakes on on what happens. It's just fun. But then you have people dependent on you, you have crews dependent on you, you have employees, you have kids, you have a wife, like the things start to become a little bit cumbersome, and then it's like, well, there's not any fun anymore, and now I have to figure out how to make what's here work. Yep. And so again, accountability in that and being able to shift in the right directions, but sometimes you have to first take an inventory of where you're at, what kind of resources you have, and what is the next best step.

Tenet 2: Role Definition And Ownership Vs Operations

SPEAKER_00 20:53

I I always say we are really good at running full speed through the forest and not hitting trees. We're good on our feet, we can shoot from the hip. I can run through a forest and not hit a single tree. The problem is you start building a team, they can't keep up. They're hitting trees. They're they're frustrated. They don't like it, and so we got to slow it down, and the and the slower pace through the forest is frustrating. But that's how we get other leaders to start leading the team through the forest and how we can actually step out of the forest and start managing it, right? And so we're really good, and it's so much fun to run full full speed through the forest because I can dodge like we're good at that. It's the slowing down part and the which direction we're running and why and how and all that stuff that is is not fun, and so we don't do it, and that's the accountability side.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Because there's always when you're running through the forest and you have people with you, there's that one person that's like, Oh, look at this tree. This is interesting. You're like, What? Yeah, no, no, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

The the other I I I use on the retreat, but uh I quoted someone else. I don't know where I got it from, but I heard it forever ago was entrepreneurs are usually the most competent in the room and the least consistent in the room. And I think that's so true of like we can solve any problem because it's fun. And as soon as it becomes not fun, I'm on to something else, right? And so it's like we're we're not consistent with it. We're really good at the first 10, 50, 70 percent of the problem or project that we're doing is the last 10% that we're all like, well, let me go start a cabinet company, right? And it's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We you got time for that. Let's do cabinets next year. Let's get this product built that you're creating, right? Yeah. Sit in your filth for a minute.

unknown 22:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

So that's the vision and structure side of understanding where you're going. Number two on our contractor operating system is role definition. Now I know where we're going. Next, I need to define my role. I need to understand. If you're a sole entrepreneur and what we did on the retreat, is I want you to list out the difference between you as an owner and you as an operator. Those are two different job roles. You as a project manager is different than you as an owner of a company. Those are two sets of skills, and you're probably pretty good at one and maybe good kind of good at the other, and you're missing skills on both those. I want you to list out the role definition of each of those roles. Now, if you're in a team, if you've got a partner, if you've got employees, this one is beyond critical because I see a lot of partnerships that are like we just kind of both do everything. I'm kind of more in charge of the crews, and he's kind of more in charge of marketing, and it kind of, yeah, usually people call him if we're trying to get a quote, but if I answer, I'll give them the quote. That is two brains doing one brain's job. And so, how do we start separating out those role definitions? And we look back at number one, the structure and the vision of where we're going and start building and saying, hey, James, I know you are currently the office manager, the project manager, the head of construction, the janitor, like you're doing everything as a one-man show. Let's start defining what those roles are so we can start figuring out who we're hiring first and how they're gonna sub how they're you're gonna support them in that role.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Can I say one thing that is really hard about doing that? Yeah, please. Um It's a point of anxiety, I think, for a lot of people. Because they feel the weight and they feel the pressure of doing all those things. And uh to the point of like the entrepreneur running at full sprint, it's easier to just grin and bear it and get to some place that you have no idea. Yeah. But to sit down and like list out all of the things that you're doing makes you think of oh, that thing that I'm not doing right now, but that is part of my job. Oh, that thing that I'm anxious about that is coming two months down the road, but I've put I've locked that away until two weeks before that thing, because I know it's only gonna take me that much time. Listing that stuff out is just like, oh shit. Oh no. Oh gosh. Yeah. And you leave that feeling drained and you leave that feeling well, maybe I should just keep doing what I was doing because this feels worse than running.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Well, one of the things I I remember when we we did we call it buckets where you write down like where you're spending, like separate the buckets of where you're spending your time in your week. And it's like, hey, if you play video games for lunch every single day, put that in a bucket. That's okay, but let's be accountable for where your time's going. And let's look back and be like, oh, I'm spending 10 hours a week playing video games, and my 30-minute lunch turns into an hour and a half, and you know, I just sneak downstairs from my upstairs office and I didn't even eat.

unknown 26:29

Yeah. Yeah.

Tenet 4–6: Marketing, Financial Metrics, Hiring Playbook

SPEAKER_00 26:31

So like let's start defining a what you're doing. Like, keep that log. Let's not get in the micro like I bought stamps. Next, I bought, I bought markers. But let's do like I admin work where supply, like, that's an hour a week that I'm doing. And so start figuring out where your time's going and then what roles you're doing and why you're doing it. Am I an owner doing this? Am I a project manager doing this? Am I a laborer doing this? Why am I delivering materials every single job? I guess I'm kind of right. And so starting to understand your role and what you're doing and what you shouldn't be doing is where kind of the coaching where I start with a lot of guys. Um, so vision structure, role definition, number three. This is probably the largest of the seven. This is the most robust, and probably 70% of the work you need to do is in number three. Core process documentation. This is a big one because it's the eight core processes that you have to have in place to run a full-scale company. Um, I'm not going to cover all eight of them today. We don't have time, we're going to get into it. But we start with the 10-step project management process, which is from first contact to final invoice, what is every step of those 10 steps from your desk estimate, site estimate, revisions, pre-con uh under construction, uh like all of the things that we that you do on a project, whether you are a tradesman, whether you are a commercial side, there is that step process that we need to lay out because that's how we start duplicating. And us as entrepreneurs that are in the business that started a company, 90% of this is in our head, and we're just reactive. And so getting it to where we can train someone is the most difficult part because the smarter you are, the harder this part is. Because if you if you don't, if you can naturally think like it's common sense, you just call them back the next day if they didn't respond to your email and send I send them an estimate, so I'm just calling the next day. It's not common sense to the person that you hire next. The the project manager you bring in does not have common sense often, right? The the what you believe is common sense is not. And so, how do we process this of how we want it to run? And also when you lay those 10 steps out and lay out how you're doing it, that's where I, as a coach, can step in and start really getting the efficiencies tight. Well, why are you doing it that way? And why are we doing it this way? And let's do this. So we've got kind of a skeleton of your 10 steps of what you should be doing, kind of a full-size company. This is it. And so in coaching, that's where I would start with guys. Let me walk you through my 10 steps. I want to hear your 10 steps and like how you kind of walk through from first call to final invoice, and let's start merging them. And I'm gonna pick apart, hey, that doesn't make sense why you're doing it that way. What if you tried it this way? And we form your 10 steps process together to like that. Is it this is what you're gonna how you're gonna operate for now. Um, so that's the first one. And we go into weekly management, office, and product like training subs. There's a bunch of different, like I said, there's eight different ones in this, and this is where we live in in process documentation. This is probably, like I said, 70 to 80 percent of where you're gonna spend your time in these in these seven steps. Um, but it's a good one. Yeah, it's a great one. It sounds so boring. It is, it does sound so boring. It's also the it outside sounds boring when we get into it with guys. It's the juiciest part that they're like, oh hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, slow down, let me. Oh, that's how you oh that paperwork for the onboarding. Oh, that's the final walk process that you do to exit the job where you don't go back seven times. Oh, that's how you organize the office paperwork. That's like all of the light, the most light bulbs go off during core process documentation because it's boring because you don't know what that means and how to do it. Once we lay out, like, here's how we've done it. Take a hundred percent of what we've done and implement it, or take what we've done and let's rebuild it for your company and your style. Right. And so that's the coaching part where we're walking them through that. But it it it is tedious. I shouldn't say boring. It's tedious. It is for for most entrepreneurs who are forward progress means I'm doing good, and when I'm not moving forward, I feel like a failure. This is slow it down, and we're gonna pause here and build this out. Feels like well, just pull my fingernails off instead. Like that feels more enjoyable because I'm not getting that forward progress. But once you have some willpower, start defining, and again, the eight core processes don't look at me like that when you say when you have some willpower. Hey James, when you have some willpower, uh sitting down, like we're not building eight processes. The first two are level one, the second two are level two, and the last four are level three. Level three is once you're hiring employees. So don't even worry about that. So it's kind of broken down to what you should be doing now. Yeah.

Tenet 7: Duplication And Scalability

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Um and but the temptation is well, if I'm gonna spend time here, let me just let me just build it out because I know where I want to go, let me just build it out to that. Well, the problem with that is there's all sorts of things that you specifically would do differently, little tweaks that you would make that it's like it's not worth spending time building out to this point because you need to feel what it's like being in this spot to know what are the little tweaks that I need to make for me and my company.

Breakouts: Product Quality And Leadership

2026 Planning With The Course Map

SPEAKER_00 31:47

And the core of it is accountability is like going to the gym. You never want to go, and once you actually do it, it feels good. Yeah. Right. And writing down processes is now an accountability system of what you have to follow yourself. And so it's like, well, I I need documentation on my job sites, you know, I need photos once a week of everything that's happened when I do my my my Monday site walks. Great, I can do that. Fast forward three months, bro. You don't have any photos. Well, yeah, I mean, I've got them on my phone somewhere. Yeah. That's not when you hire someone, is that a good answer? Like, and so it's like this is the process that you have to follow because you're gonna train the next guy and you're setting the bar. And however high you set the bar, any employee is gonna be at best 90% of that. You can't expect them to have the same view of your company as you have because they are an employee, not an owner. And so if I set my bar low, they're gonna be out 90% of that. If I set it up real high to perfection, they're gonna be out 90% of that. And my coaching and my my uh being a leader is trying to get that last 10% and trying to keep them, keep them getting hitting that hundred. But if you're setting a larbo, larbo, a lar bar, a low bar, delicious. If you're setting a low bar, they're gonna have a low bar as well. Um, so that's that's number three, the core process definition, the most boring, the most important, and actually the most fruitful part of this uh in reality. All right. Number four is marketing and client acquisition. Once we have our roles, our core processes, I want to start figuring out how clients are coming in the front door. Um, and on top of that, quickly, with that, kind of alongside of that, is number five, which is our financial metrics. Now, financial metrics are probably the number one thing that will make or break your company. Secondary, secondary after that, the second thing is hires and bad hires, which is number six. Secondary word. How to say, how to say the next one? I'm gonna write a word down, James. Can you pronounce this for me? No, so uh the the next three, four, five, and six are marketing, client acquisition, financial metrics, and a hiring playbook. And those kind of happen a little bit succinctly because uh my financial metrics are very important because if I if I'm not making money and not using my dollars to make decisions for my company, I I got no company. Uh the core one of the core process documentation is is financial maturity and how to actually document what what documentation do I need to look at my numbers? And and the difference of a core process of financials and the step of financial metrics is the way I the metaphor I use is the core process is what an accountant does in a big company. The financial metrics is what the CFO does of the company. I take the numbers from the process and I now implement on decision making. I'm now looking at them weekly and monthly, and I'm um reading my reports, not only reading, but it makes sense to me, and I'm making decisions from those. So the financial metrics comes once I A, have everything organized for my core processes, and I actually know how to, I can job costs, I can see my material costs on this job. And hey, this job went from 38% down to 29% profitability, and that's the third job in a row. We've lost at least 10%, uh close to 10% of profits. Like, let's look into this, what's going on? Let's dive deep into this. And if we don't have the processes in place first, there's no financial metrics to look at. And so there, you're you're making decisions on flawed numbers. So that's why it's it's separated out. We've got to have the process of how we do financials in place. We got marketing client acquisition, financial metrics. And the last one, or number six, it's not the last one, is the hiring playbook. It's it's it's its own process, but we pulled out of core process documentation because it is an art of how to hire. And it's who to hire, when to hire, how to hire. These are everything you got to do to hire from from finding the right person to how to interview, to how to onboard, to how to keep them happy and how to fire them. The whole HR playbook, the hiring playbook from start to finish, you gotta have choreographed perfectly because that is again the professionalism that a person is feeling comfortable with saying, Yes, I'm gonna work here, versus, hey, uh, welcome. Here's your first day. I guess I gotta order you a computer and just hop in my truck and just watch what I do, and hopefully you'll start doing it too. Right? Like that's how most guys hire. Um, and my buddy one is really good at construction. He's gonna he's gonna come work for me. What's he doing? I mean, whatever I need him to do. Cool, he's your assistant. No, no, no, he's gonna like be a project manager, kind of a foreman for me. So, what does that mean? Uh I don't know. We'll just figure it out. So he's an assistant. So he's an assistant to you, right? You're still the bottleneck of your company. Everything runs through your brain, and that's the problem. Yeah. So number six was hiring playbook, and number seven, and there will be a test at the end of this podcast about these. Uh, number seven is duplication and scalability. You can't do number seven until one through six are matured. Duplication and scalability is duplicating yourself, scaling the company, and growing it from where it's at to on to more. So that again is a one-off process that we don't even think about or touch until one through six are matured. Um, so I kind of want one through six A, one through six B, one through six C, and now let's go to seven. Uh, that's kind of the process of how of how it works. So that was a lot. Yeah, and that was not even two hours. No. So that was what we did on the retreat. We covered these things, we dove deep into them, and we started unpacking our companies around each of these and what's working, what's not, what do we have, what do I need, all that stuff. Um and then day two was taking all this, putting it together and saying, okay, where are we starting? Like, where you've seen the entire elephant. What's our first three bites? Like, we can't eat everywhere. We can't just say, okay, I'm gonna start here, here, here, and do this, I'm gonna do all six of these perfectly, and seven will be ready by March. That's not how it works.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

And if you remember the diagram I showed you, the third bite would consume the full head.

Community, Evenings, And What’s Next

SPEAKER_00 37:46

That would be James drew it out on a whiteboard so I understood how to eat an elephant, and it was it was amazing. We should have, you know, we should have taken a picture to put it in next year's. I thought you would have, and I'm kind of pissed that you didn't. I can redo it. That'd be great. So that was day one, and kind of day two was doing the same stuff of breaking it down. We had more breakout groups in day two with kind of we did a deep hour and a half on uh uh process of the core process, the quad product quality. I've had such a problem talking today. That's okay. It's all right. It's been a long week. It's been a long week. Uh we did product quality, which was how to onboard, maintain, and develop crews um and labor. And so we spent an hour and a half on that, which was kind of a deep dive. I had all of our paperwork of what we do to onboard, all five documents that you need and all that stuff. Um, and then we all then we went into kind of the game planning. We did some breakout groups depending on what level your company was on. Um on the on our executive level, we did a lot of uh a session call from boss to leader and how to hire. Like what's the difference of being a boss and being a leader in your company?

SPEAKER_01 38:53

It was a good one.

How To Join Coaching Or The Mini Retreat

SPEAKER_00 38:54

Yeah. It was, I mean, it's convicting for me to even teach it because I'm not good at it. It was a mirror. It was hard. Yeah, uh, it was it was pretty much what a great leader looks like and how your how your employees need to be led versus I lead how I like to be led, which is different from how people receive being led. Right. And so how it's hard to lead other than the way that you would like to be led. Yes, yes. And so kind of what's required of that, how do you identify that? How do you dive in? It was uh it was a really good session, I think. Um, and then we kind of got into the next hire and what you need and that sort of thing. So that was a good breakout session for the executive, and the other crew uh stayed with Emery to do marketing and kind of what you need marketing-wise. And we kind of flip-flopped, and breakout B was me with the larger uh kind of the standard crew um doing a lot of the org chart stuff, and Emery was doing kind of deep dives into meta and Facebook ads and kind of the the goal behind paid ads uh and and where you should start. Um and then we finished out the day two with the 2026 planning. It was like three hours, and I wish we had five, um, but it was really kind of launching into coaching this year, and so we we and we walked through this book, the uh 2026 course map, and kind of looked at how we're gonna plan out the year and how we're gonna do this. And now we're kind of landing the plane this coming week with my coaching clients and your coaching clients of this is okay. So let me see what you got. Let's let's let's actually lock it in. Let's write it in here in pen and and start have setting some real real life goals for you personally in this company. So that was it. Both nights. I mean, the fun part too is we have a lot of fun in the evenings, right? We do. We uh do night one.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

We went to a place. We went to barbecue. Yep. But what was the there was a music place we went to? Um Robert Category ten. Category ten. Category ten.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

We were about ninety percent of the people in there was our crew. Um we had live music.

SPEAKER_01 40:57

We had some we had some uh Bold individuals that started the dancing. Mm-hmm. And then everybody everybody eventually got in on it. Most everybody. Most everybody. I didn't see you out there.

SPEAKER_00 41:09

Uh I had just talked for eight hours.

SPEAKER_01 41:11

Oh. Seems like a guy that probably needed to dance.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

I sent my wife out as my uh my representative.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

Sacrificial in the second night though, we hit a couple different places. It was a blast. It was a blast. We ended up at a karaoke bar.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

I think the last group I heard got home at like 4 a.m., 3 45 ish, somewhere like that. So I I wasn't in that group. Um I I think I stayed out till about two. That was that was pretty good for me. That was really good for me. Yeah. Honestly, that was uh powering through. But yeah, it was a lot of fun. I mean, karaoke was fun. We went we kind of split up that last night. Uh me and a group went to a cigar bar. I went to a piano bar. You went to piano. I went to cigar. It was very classy. Class. Class. Oh, Trey Classé. Trey Classe. Uh, and then yeah, it was it was a whole lot of fun. So I'm excited about the follow-ups. Um, if you were on the retreat, thank you for coming. Thank you for being there. It was a lot of fun. Um, it meant it meant the world to us and our team to have you guys there. Um, I'm gonna be sending an email out to you guys about what what's going on next, how we're gonna uh launch into coaching for those coaching clients and the new ones that that have signed up. Um and if you're not in coaching and you're listening to this, no problem. Come come next Friday. We're gonna be doing a, like I said, January 30th, we're gonna be doing a mini retreat for four hours. We're gonna get you this book. And and if you just come to that and do nothing else, sign up for that. Let's walk through what planning for year 2026. And then if you want to come to the retreat next year and you don't want to be in coaching, awesome. If you just want this and that's it, awesome. We're we're not trying to sell anything. If it's if we're a good fit and and you feel value for having a partner like us, great. If you want just some some resources, perfect. We had some couple people on the retreat that just came to the retreat and that probably won't be in coaching this year. Uh they'll probably come on next year's retreat and potentially get in coaching after that. But um, for us, it's kind of we want to meet you where you're at. We look at you holistically as a company of where you where are you going, like long-term relationship with you. We're not trying to push coaching on anybody. So please come January 30th. We'd love to see you uh in that meeting or in that in that mini retreat for four hours that Friday morning. So well, James, thanks for everything you did on the retreat.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

Clark, thank you for everything you've done on the retreat. Yeah, well Captain My Captain. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

Thanks for listening, guys. We'll see you guys next week. Bye. Bye. Got too serious.