Sharpen the Spear Coaching with Richard Walsh

Richard puts 1000% into whatever he undertakes, from his service in the military to his first job, all the way to his six children and wife. He started a landscaping business, then pivoted during the crisis of '08/'09, and later began a fitness facility. After selling it, he continued to help others through coaching. His passion shines through in this episode, and you'll get a few laughs while learning how to take control of your business and connect the dots. Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!

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GOLD NUGGETS:

(13:41) - Family Over Business

(18:23) - Entrepreneurial Reinvention and Discipline

(26:04) - Entrepreneurial Growth and Transformation

(32:02) - Building an Exit Strategy

(39:06) - Real Net Profit

(45:56) - Living Room Sanctuary and Bad Clients

(52:41) - Business Nightmare Turned Success Story

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Richard’s Links:

Website | https://sharpenthespearcoaching.com/
Linkedin | Richard Walsh

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Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Dale Cardwell, Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!

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If You Loved This Episode Try These!

• Turning Logs into Luxury: Leroy Hite’s Firewood Revolution

• Lessons for Business from Hiking the Appalachian Trail | Jerry Travers

• Revolutionizing Health Care Delivery - Dr. Brian Hill (HipNation)

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Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!

Transcript

Chris Lalomia: 0:01

it is so much easier to go out and do it and for me to go out and lay crown mold and put crown molding all around my basement, which is what I did here Nice job. But then it is thanks. Then it is to sit down and go. Where do I want to be in 10 years? Where's my business? But because when I'm done laying on the crown molding I'm sweating, I'm sore, I know it. I think you know that was accomplishment. Back to the working out thing. But when you're sitting there and trying to think about where do you want your business to go and where can you, that's the heavy lifting that has to happen, but it doesn't feel like it sometimes. What do you think about that?

Richard Walsh: 0:34

Yeah, I've got the answer. I have the answer for it. I'm going to solve the whole problem right here.

Alan Wyatt: 0:39

Yes, son, it's called.

Chris Lalomia: 0:42

Welcome to the Small Business Safari where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own own personal and professional goals. So strap in adventure team and let's take a ride through the Safari and get you to the mountain top. It's only been a week, but it feels like a month, alan. How long has it been? Three months, right. When we go, we go too long and not uh, not talk. I uh, I started to go through allen withdrawal. I just can't handle it.

Alan Wyatt: 1:28

I know that makes me feel special. That's good, uh, but you're thinking about me when you're out jet setting around like I wonder what allen's doing just so you know not a lot of that setting right.

Chris Lalomia: 1:36

So, uh, my son just graduated from uga we're very excited for that went up to the mountains, played a little mountain golf for the first time in a long time. That was a big-ass cigar you had in your mouth.

Alan Wyatt: 1:47

I did too.

Chris Lalomia: 1:48

Huh, I don't smoke them as much anymore, but we had to have the victory. Well, that one kind of made up for it. Yeah, that was awesome. And so last week I did do a little cool thing. I got invited from Barbara Heil-Sonic, who has been on our podcast, to help a charity, which is a really cool charity I'd never heard of and it helps abused children to convalesce and to grow, and they're called Sapria, so shout out to Sapria. I'll put those guys in the notes. But I walked in right, I walk into this place. It's down in Buckhead, which is very fancy, as you know, in Atlanta and I had to walk in with a sport coat on. I had to take off the uniform with a truss and toolbox and go back to the corporate world days of wearing the shirt again. How'd they fit? How'd?

Chris Lalomia: 2:33

the coat fit A little tight buddy, a little snug, a little snug. You know the working out's not working out. So I walk in and I just got done working with my mastermind group and for those who listen know that I'm part of a mastermind group. That's really helped me not only grow my business, but helped me personally and professionally hit goals and really process issues. And one of the issues I processed was I need to tell a better story about the trusted toolbox. And we had a story brand teller on and we had Lisa McGuire, and so, as these guys are helping me process the issue, they're giving me all this advice. And we had a story brand teller on and we had Lisa McGuire, and so, as these guys are helping me process the issue, they're giving me all this advice and the hey, I'll give you a referral and I'll give you a name. And you got to be doing that. And you know why your business is so cool is because really, you focus so much on training and the culture of your company to be able to scale, to have 15 handymen, much less just one that that's a great story, but you've got to have somebody tell it more eloquently. You and I'm like, yes, thank you, of course.

Chris Lalomia: 3:24

So I wrote down Lisa McGuire. I go to this Buckhead soiree fancy, fancy. You got the code. I walk in and there she is, and no kidding. And I'm, I'm just staring at her and she's looking at me and she comes and goes hi awkward pause you've ever had. I just sat there and looked at her because in my head I'm like did I talk to you already? Did you know I was supposed to talk to you? And so I finally just blurted it all out. And so Lisa McGuire, who's come on the podcast and has her podcast as well, is going to help me tell the story. The trusted toolbox, but that's just how it kind of works in the world of the empire of podcasting.

Chris Lalomia: 4:02

That a good episode by the way, yeah, and you know what it might be second to this one we're about to do. Really, I think so Big guy.

Chris Lalomia: 4:11

Get my expectations up. I don't know, I haven't. So I haven't had a chance to actually talk to Richard. We have Richard Walsh on from and he's a business coach and we'll talk about his business in a sec. But we read his bio and I just went yeah, we got to have this guy on. It's going to be long. And before we got started on the podcast, we're like all right man, at least he's from the Midwest and he's going to talk our language and we're going to have to drink while we do it. So, richard Walsh, welcome to the show. Can't wait to talk. Cheers.

Richard Walsh: 4:39

Cheers, guys, cheers. Thanks, chris and Alan Appreciate it. Yeah, looking forward to it, let's do it, let's do this.

Chris Lalomia: 4:45

So the official title of your coaching. I kept screwing it up because I kept saying Sherp and Sherp and I was like Sherp, this Sherp that I've got two pages of notes. You must be, I do. I have a lot of notes, I know.

Alan Wyatt: 4:59

That's a and uh, two pages of notes. He must have been a little nervous for you I.

Chris Lalomia: 5:03

I was a little, and you can tell that I'm better winging it, because I couldn't even come up with his business name.

Richard Walsh: 5:07

So you want me to see chris want me to do it for you, could you, could you introduce yourself? Please to us. Yeah, let's, let me take this off your shoulders.

Alan Wyatt: 5:14

You seem you seem, you seem trouble. I I gotta mop your forehead. You're sweating, man, I'm excited about this one.

Richard Walsh: 5:20

Yeah, buddy. So sharpen the spear. Coaching, that's the name of the business, right? So sharpen the spear. I have a very, as you may find out, I've kind of got a warrior mentality mentality, right. Us marine champion, boxer, black belt, internationally recognized steel sculptor I don't know how that fits in the warrior part, but it's kind of cool. I've done some really cool stuff. Um, husband, father, father of six children, born children, so much anymore. Yeah, so it's great. So Sharpen the Beer. It's really about honing the entrepreneurial warrior on the battlefield of business. I love it.

Chris Lalomia: 5:55

Yeah, so let's go back. Did you get in the Marines right out of high school? Was that a college? And then going officer candidate school? How'd you go?

Richard Walsh: 6:03

No, no, college wasn't going to work for me, so at 17 I went to marine corps so I went in I was I call it university usmc, it kind of sounds like a university, but yeah, they run it a little different so how long were you in four years?

Chris Lalomia: 6:19

four years. And then did you keep up the boxing when you left and I started boxing after? The Marine Corps? Oh, okay, oh, so you weren't boxing in. Oh, I misread that. Okay, we just killed people and stuff like that. We didn't.

Richard Walsh: 6:30

Yeah, you know sweet science or anything you know. You just kind of down and dirty, you did your business, so I need some a little more finesse.

Chris Lalomia: 6:38

So he's like. So I got plenty of violence in those four years, so I waited till after.

Alan Wyatt: 6:43

Then I decided to hone my violence into a more crack into the box, and it's funny that, from that perspective, boxing is actually much less violent. It is not how most people think about boxing.

Chris Lalomia: 6:53

No, not at all. Well, excellent. So you did that. But you had to come out and you had to go do work stuff. So did you go corporate world? What'd you do?

Richard Walsh: 7:04

corporate world. What'd you do? So I came out like I'm gonna work. Right, so I'm a jarhead. I was a stinger gunner. Okay, that's a shoulder fire, anti-aircraft missile, heat seeking intercept missile with a life expectancy of three to five seconds. After firing my life expectancy, what jet? Yeah, it was. Uh. So you can imagine. They brought that out in around vietnam. You can imagine who they put in those positions. Right, would you think it's the best of the best? Or did they go to the brig and grab some guys? That's right. So I was in the early eighties, so some of those traditions had hung on and you can imagine how that was. We won't get into all that, but it was. It was interesting. So, getting out, I got to work, I got to make money. So I literally started digging ditches with a pickaxe to lay cable, back in the initial cable days. Right, five bucks an hour. I swung a pickaxe down in Tucson Arizona.

Alan Wyatt: 7:51

Oh, good Lord.

Richard Walsh: 7:52

Two, four inches at a time. Guy behind me cleaning out this trench, you know, got to go 18 inches deep and that's what I did all day, five bucks an hour, and I'm like man this is is, you know, and I'll tell you what. It was me an army ranger. He was our foreman, had another navy guy, big squid we had him and like one other dude helping us, we hand dug more trench than anyone on the entire western united states. We're doing like 1100 feet a day, savages, right, we just like it was just a challenge, you know. But, um, anyways, so working, working for people. I was doing that. So I got to make money and what I tell people is I am the finest employee you'll ever want, right, I show up early, I'll stay late. You don't have to tell me what to do. I get things done, I do it better, I do it faster. I'm awesome. You're living pure joy. If I'm working for you Till about the 12th month mark, then I have to run your company. I was waiting for that.

Chris Lalomia: 8:46

I was waiting for the entrepreneurial spirit was going to kick right in. Yeah, so it is birthed, we're running this thing like crap, and I'm going to tell you how to fix it from my pickaxe stance Exactly.

Richard Walsh: 8:55

And I realized too after four years in the Corps that I really didn't like taking direction.

Alan Wyatt: 9:00

That doesn't go over very well in the military, does it?

Richard Walsh: 9:03

No, it's a different life. My son is now in the Marine Corps, so that's interesting to watch too. But yeah. So I said, well, I'm here digging, I'm shoveling, I'm doing stuff for five, six bucks an hour. And then I got a side gig to do this granite, this place in Phoenix, to shovel some granite and spread it in the backyard. And I made $ a thousand dollars in a day. And I just went oh wait, it's the same five or six dollars an hour or a thousand a day. Let me think what should I do? I think I'll buy a wheelbarrow and a shovel and that's birthed the whole beginning of the business thing.

Richard Walsh: 9:41

And it was 100 degrees out and I'd shovel 35 tons of granite, dump it, spread it. I mean, I was lathered up, I was hot, I was tired, but man, I made a grand in a day. Let's rinse and repeat that five, six days a week. Okay, that'd be all right. So that was my like epiphany of you know this. This is the way I got to go. Whatever it's going to be, it's going to be for myself.

Chris Lalomia: 11:18

I love it. All right. So you start that. But now you're a solopreneur doing this stuff, but you had to keep growing. So you obviously have somewhat of an interest in business besides your side of interest that you have. So how did you start to look to scale that, or was that the one you started to scale?

Alan Wyatt: 11:35

I think it would be really hard to try to find other people who really got into 3,500 pounds of granite a day in Phoenix with the same level of intensity that you had.

Richard Walsh: 11:45

Yeah. But here's the beauty, this is where the business part comes in, right. So I'm doing this and, yeah, I can get some guys and they can help me and everything else. But then I met a friend, a friend of my father's, you know, and he had a dump truck and he had some equipment and stuff and he did some excavating. I'm like, hey, man, can you help me on this job? He said, let me come down see what you're doing. We're gonna move 50 tons of gravel, you know, and put it in the back. Everything goes okay.

Richard Walsh: 12:05

And I'm like, well, I got a couple guys, we got shovels. He goes, let me show you something. And he goes, he took two wheelbarrows and he put them, you know, point to point. He took his back out and he scooped the gravel and he poured it in one wheelbarrow, he scooped another, he poured in there, we picked up, ran it, dumped in the back. We did that 50 tons in like two and a half hours, okay. And he's like you gotta let the machine do the work. I'm like, oh, this will scale to me. Okay, this is how. Where do I?

Chris Lalomia: 12:31

get one of these. This is this is grog likes machine.

Richard Walsh: 12:34

Yes, right this is like this is amazing, okay. So I'm still young and dumb and I get it, but I'm like I'm coachable, okay. So I started to. Then that actually turned into guys, that turned into custom water features. So I'm doing waterfalls, boulders, all that stuff. Really love that. One of the first ones to do that.

Richard Walsh: 12:51

That's what I scaled and I grew that into being the best in the country. I did some amazing projects, massive things, award-winning. I incorporated my steel sculpture. I taught myself how to do steel sculpture, did world-class exhibits on that and stuff and that kind of growing. It was great, like, okay, I got a crew, I got all this, I got an office manager. I'm still doing a lot of the stuff, you know, but I'm also an artist. I got to play and I don't look like an artist, but I'm an artist, so I can do cool stuff, so I can play that role too. And then it got to the point where, hey, we're really cranking things, you're going great, I'm getting unbelievable margins on what I do, because no one can do what I do, and that's a really good position to be in.

Chris Lalomia: 13:30

That's definitely not a commodity, bro, that's definitely being unique and have a unique selling proposition. So beautiful, All right. You're rocking, you're on top of the world, you're it Beautiful.

Richard Walsh: 13:39

All right, you're rocking, you're on top of the world, you're it? Yes. So I get married and poof, we have six kids. That's a whole nother story, but there's six little kids under four years old in the house and like that's really good. Then 08 comes. Okay, do the math. Yeah, so right now I have a 19,. Two 18s, two 17s and a 16. Holy cow, yeah, it was fun. Not a lot of sleep those first couple years. Who needs one more wife?

Alan Wyatt: 14:04

too.

Chris Lalomia: 14:04

Oh my god, I have a friend who has has triplets and then a fourth 16 months after they the the that their youngest just graduated from college as well this year, and I thought that was insanity. But what you just decided, just described now that's a football team. That's unbelievable. It's that's unbelievable.

Richard Walsh: 14:20

It's cool and my wife still wanted triplets.

Alan Wyatt: 14:23

Oh boy.

Richard Walsh: 14:24

Really. So yeah, we didn't get the triplets, but the rest worked out pretty well. Yeah, you did good. That's awesome. It's a cool story, but we'll share that later maybe, so I've got that that 08 comes that awesome year of 08, 09, right when everyone like yeah, I don't remember that.

Chris Lalomia: 14:43

Yeah, well, we we have a lot of therapy.

Richard Walsh: 14:46

You just coasted right. Just coasted right through, like everyone else. Yeah, um, that was hard. And guess what? People didn't have to have a pond in their backyard. They just could say no to that.

Chris Lalomia: 14:57

It wasn't a must-have when did you really start to feel it? I mean, I think that's one of the things, as, a year ago we talked about, you got to be ready for a recession. Even you know, the recession that we remember in 08 was cataclysmic. And then we lived through COVID, which is another complete just turn it all off shutdown. But as you're looking at the recession and we got into seven and eight when did you really start to feel it and how did you start to feel and sense it? November 5th 2008 bingo.

Richard Walsh: 15:26

The day after the election, my phone started ringing oh, we're out, we're not gonna be able to do it, we're out, we're out hanging up, we're out, we're out. Lost a half a million dollars in a day. Oh god, people just canceling. And they weren't wrong to hold on to their money, right, and they were the smart ones.

Richard Walsh: 15:44

And I'm like wow. And at the end of the day I'm sitting at my desk and I'm looking over my office manager. I said I think it's over. I think it's over, I don't. This is one day I said we're not, we're not going to make it.

Chris Lalomia: 15:59

Yeah. And so what do they always tell you when you run your own business? Never get too high, never get too low. And you're sitting there going we're done, it's over, it's out, we're out, we're out, we're done.

Richard Walsh: 16:08

Yeah, it's, it's like you know, and we're we're going into the winter, so I'm like, okay. So we started limping through all nine and it just kept getting worse. You know, I'm like there's nothing to do. I'm like we're found like everything from being so good, so great and this is part of the whole story. There's a lot of things when you're doing really well as an owner especially an owner that's responsible for more things than they should be I didn't do, I call it, pushing it off to the left of the desk, and that pile kind of grew that came back to bite me in 2009. And literally, for us, everything evaporated, lost, the house, business closed down, everything. Like I'm just finished. I'm like, okay, I forgot what we're gonna do. I'm living six kids. We get nowhere to live. This is interesting. So we had to figure things out and, uh, that was the start.

Richard Walsh: 17:06

But at that same time, I remember waking up this one morning with another epiphany, and it was you know, I've got these six little kids and when I I come home whether it's seven, eight o'clock at night, you know, because I worked a lot of hours they just attack me, right, they just want to see you. They run, they jump all over you. It's awesome. Matter of fact, it's so difficult with six small children that age, like in diapers. I moved, we all slept in the family room on, like the egg crate mattress thing, all of us, all, eight of us. And it's kidney sign, restore stuck a bottle in their mouth, change them in the dark, I don't care. I'm like I'm not going up and down stairs every time a kid drops, okay, cause I have to sleep. So I and I wanted to take a load off my wife's shoulders and kind of handle the night stuff, since she's doing it all day. So that was one little element. But I did realize like wow, that's kind of what they, they love. That one day I'm leaving, my one son is like chasing my truck, crying as I'm leaving the driveway. Like you look in the rear view mirror, your kid's crying, running after the truck. You're like what am I doing? You know, it's like these kids they don't see me all day I'm not doing stuff. And and I just realized, like you know what, if I stay on this path, all my children are going to know is business comes first, comes before Comes before. Family comes before. Faith comes before friends. It comes for everything. You sacrifice everything so you can be number one. They didn't care what I drove. They didn't care you know where I worked, what I did, who I knew. They don't care even what we lived, where we lived, really Right, and that was a big. That's what helped me kind of close the business and really say it's over.

Richard Walsh: 18:36

I've been defeated in a sense because I'm like I'm not going to do that to my kids. So I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't know where I'm going to live, but I know I'm not going to do this. So I'm going to start again, because I'm not big into losing either. I'm going to start again, but I'm going to connect the dots and what happened and what I did wrong, which was a lot of dots and then I'm going to rebuild. Whatever I'm going to do, I'm going to start again and get that right. I'm going to be around for my kids. We homeschooled them all the way through high school, right? So I just like we're doing that and I'm just going to be involved. Now, I wasn't a stay-at-home dad because I'm going to run a business, but I understand I created the schedule that made me be around like as much as I wanted to.

Chris Lalomia: 19:15

So so what was the reemergence, what was the new idea? That the epiphany because it still took I mean again, looking back on it now, you, you said it was November five, eight, and at nine it was that slow bleed out, and Helen and I talked about this before. I think every entrepreneur hangs on about way too long.

Alan Wyatt: 19:33

Wait, that's the number. Yeah, Way too long. Yes, way too long. Wait, that's the number. Yeah, way too long.

Chris Lalomia: 19:39

Yes, so now, 10 sucked, 11 sucked, right, yeah, so uh, 12 sucked, it's about 13 when it came back right, yeah, well, uh, I started to see the rebound for me in 12. But then again I was in the handyman business. Yeah, smaller ticket items came back. 13 took to remodeling. Actually people went okay, I guess. I guess I better change out and do some more stuff. Yeah, you're looking at remodeling new construction.

Richard Walsh: 19:57

You were 10 years waiting. Yeah, that's right, exactly Right.

Chris Lalomia: 20:00

It was that.

Richard Walsh: 20:01

That just crushed the industry. That was like man, the door was shut and locked with three different bolts. I mean that was horrible, but yeah, so what I did, I really, I really started thinking like, well, what have I done in the past? Where am I at? What am I going to do? How do I reinvent myself? One thing I knew, though, guys, was I was never going to do what I did. I'm really weird. I'm an all or nothing guy, like so, like anything I had left, and I did own everything. I had equipment, trucks. I sold everything right, I didn't want anything to do with sold every welder. I sold every piece of equipment, every truck. I have video like burning my polo shirts, that's like scorched earth, I mean I'm like I'm, I'm never, I'm never going to have my identity in my business.

Richard Walsh: 20:44

Burn the bridges Cause it's like my company is called Rick rock. So if you just part of my name, I'm like if you only saw me with that hand on the jeans and what that, that was like that was my identity. And I realized, like I, I'm never doing that again. Okay, because then, because all that is about me and if you make the business all about you, you're going to go down some bad roads, you know, without even knowing it, but you are. So it's kind of tricky. So that that was one of the things I said hey, that's all out, it's going to be something completely new Now.

Richard Walsh: 21:16

I was a big workout guy, fitness guy, you know, boxer. I trained people. I trained elites down to you know, intermediate school stuff. I've done all that. So I'm like I think I'll, just for now, I'm going to start being a trainer again. I'm going to start training people. I think that'd be fun.

Richard Walsh: 21:29

So I started training people. I went to Anytime Fitness and you fitness and and you know me, I'm just kind of like do things really well. I became trainer of the year. Okay. So I'm like I'm trainer of the year like, okay, I got all my own clients, I'm building this whole thing there. I'm like, and they weren't kind of super friendly to me. So I'm like, well, let's go start my own gym, because I'm an entrepreneur. So I went and opened a gym, you know, and uh, and it was a boot camp style training.

Richard Walsh: 21:52

I created, by the way, training programs, did all this and scaled that up. And that was awesome. That was really great. 30 minute workouts, guys had seven a day and people lining up, you know, paying a couple hundred bucks a month to be there. And it was. It was great. So, really scaled that up. But that gave me all my freedom. Cause now, at different times, I hired trainers and people come and do the training and stuff. I'm like, yeah, this is good. Now, it's not huge. I'm not like you know, making $100 million, but I'm like, yeah, this is manageable, this is scalable. And I started putting these things together. You know those dots. I connect like, okay, don't make that mistake, don't do this Delegate. So we had this three-word thing. We say, you know it's automate, delegate and eliminate. Right, those are three things we always want to do automate as much as you can, delegate everything else and eliminate whatever you don't need, and the elimination that I always remind people is me right, get me out of this job, get me out of this role.

Chris Lalomia: 22:48

That's a great, I mean, it's a beautiful way look at, automate, delegate and then eliminate I love it so.

Alan Wyatt: 22:52

So, with what you've learned at this point, do you think you could have gone back and started the rock business over and done it differently?

Richard Walsh: 22:59

Yeah, my kids have hounded me to do it again because no one's better than me. You know, I have a winery two miles down the road from me that could use. I'm like all I have to do is just pitch it. 15 foot high water feature. People come for photos. It'll put them on the map. I go, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it, I'm not gonna. I can do two different ones. I could do wedding venues. I'm like I'm not even gonna offer. I'm not getting sucked back into that, you know burn the bridges.

Chris Lalomia: 23:26

Yeah, that's discipline, bro, because honestly, I can't tell you I've been as disciplined. I would have said absolutely, because I will do anything if you're a big whore, I am a wh whore.

Richard Walsh: 23:35

Well, that's my. You can probably say this my wife would like me to do that. She's not that, but she's.

Chris Lalomia: 23:41

Oh, yeah, whoa, whoa, yeah, whoa, especially if you listen to that. I did not call your wife that at all. That's right. That's right Anybody who?

Alan Wyatt: 23:48

homeschooled all those six kids like that. He in a black belt and you just called his wife a whore no, I didn't.

Chris Lalomia: 23:54

No, I didn't, and I do not live in atlanta, uh, and my name is alan wyatt. I look really like him now you're addressing.

Richard Walsh: 24:02

I think the name on the box is the vander holyfield right. He's still down there in atlanta.

Chris Lalomia: 24:05

He is, but yeah uh, so you, but you resisted it. I mean, actually that's the shiny object syndrome. And that's another one. Uh, we joked about you not doing it. Uh, made light of it, but that's, that's discipline. That's like, no, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not going back down that path again. I'm going to stay on this because this seems like my best path for my personal success, right?

Alan Wyatt: 24:27

and he obviously is good at absolutely everything he does, so he's got that confidence in his back pocket. Yeah, whereas for most people you would advise them go with what you know yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right.

Chris Lalomia: 24:40

I think if I was sitting back I'd say man do?

Alan Wyatt: 24:43

do the rocks? Do you do the rocks? Put some sculptures on it. You sell it for a lot of money.

Chris Lalomia: 24:47

You know, sculpture, that's a creative outlet. Yeah, I would talk you into it, I would have tried you gotta remember.

Richard Walsh: 24:52

There's one caveat to the. You know I'm good at everything I do. I'm too dumb to quit, okay. So, like you, ever read the book Grit, you guys ever read that book Grit? I have not. No, no, grit is by Angela Duckworth. If you ever get a chance, it's phenomenal. The research is unbelievable. But it says the reason people succeed in business. The number one reason isn't capitalization, isn't this, isn't smart, it's grit. And she I mean you're talking 300 pages of research and the people, it's just hanging in there, it's staying in it long enough, mastering it, the constant practice, all that kind of stuff. And a friend of mine, big entrepreneur buddy of mine, he actually sent me a text. He goes have you read this book? Because it, because it's about you, okay, so I'll check it out, you know. And yeah, I scored 97 on the grid scale, okay, so I'm kind of up there, but but it really is it is that perseverance.

Chris Lalomia: 25:47

I'm kind of up there. 97, yeah, yeah, I got a feeling he's like 1000 he's incredible humility right there.

Richard Walsh: 25:54

I'm kind of up there you're the best at humility that's right enough about me, let's talk about you.

Chris Lalomia: 26:00

Can we talk about me again, please? All right, so you're doing the fitness. You didn't do it, um, but yeah, it's so. So you scale what multiple facilities yeah, I got a couple going.

Richard Walsh: 26:10

I'm like what you know and I liked it, but I didn't love it and here's, here's a problem. And this is a warning to people who are really into what they do, like I'm a great trainer, I love people who want to work out and I am the results guy. Ok, you will get results from me, because I will take it to near death and I'll bring it back and it's all good, right.

Richard Walsh: 26:31

So I mean I train guys to go in the military. I train my son. He did three days for seven months straight before he went in the basic military.

Alan Wyatt: 26:37

I trained my son.

Richard Walsh: 26:37

He did three days for seven months straight before he went in the basic. Basic was easy talking, we tried, right. But like, if people didn't like that and they just kind of came and did a workout, it's really irritating. I didn't like that, like I wanted to kick him out of my gym because I didn't really understand why. I knew what it was. But there's a gym model, right, and you get as many members you can and you pray that 80 never show up right, because that's the number.

Chris Lalomia: 26:58

Yeah, they don't anytime fitness right park all the cars, right, so.

Richard Walsh: 27:01

But I was too much into like I only want people who want to be just monsters, you know, and that's not a good business model. Okay, there's people that want to be around, people who train hard. They just want to be in the atmosphere. Just that's why they go to sports games. Right, you're right. They want to be on the field playing. They want to be around the people playing.

Chris Lalomia: 27:19

Yeah, you want to swim with the sharks. If you've had that mentality right, you're going to go to the gold gym back in the day and you're going to see how much you can throw up. You know you're going to. You're going to go play sports and you don't want to go play with the young kids, you want to play the older kids and get your ass kicked and see if you can go beat. That's not a warrior mentality, it's a challenge mentality. I mean, I've always believed in that one, 100%.

Richard Walsh: 27:39

Yeah, I mean, boxing for me was like that. You know there's four steps to the ring to go up before you step through the ropes. They're the longest four steps you ever take in your life. And when you spar every day, every day, you have to walk those four steps, slide in there, either take a beating or give a beating. And it's usually taking the beating. And I'm sparring with pros, I'm sparring with everybody like take all comers and yeah, you get rocked Some days.

Richard Walsh: 28:05

You have good days, but that's one of those perseverance things. Every day, six days a week, go back, do it again and again and again and really get those skills up. So again, that really transfers over the business too. So, yeah, so I did that. But then I got okay, I'm going to get into contracting. So actually I moved from there, sold the business, then moved into roofing and exteriors. So I'll do that. That looks pretty cool. I got a buddy who does that. I can do that, we can get subcontracted, we can do this. And I figured it all out. I did a roof. Oh look, I made five grand. That's kind of cool. It only took us a day.

Richard Walsh: 28:40

So I'm back to that lure again and I started doing that for about five years and that was good. You know I can't say I loved it, you know, but it's a great income generator. So if you're looking that way and say I'd love to have an income generator that's pulling in 150, 200 000 that I'm not involved with, I'm okay with that, right, let's make that happen and let's do that. Call my apple orchard like like a business is like an apple tree. I don't want an 800 foot apple tree, okay, that keeps growing and growing and growing, because that's unmanageable and undesirable. And the only thing that grows continuously is like cancer. And what does it do? Kills the host, right.

Richard Walsh: 29:24

So how about I have, how about I have, an apple orchard of 20 foot apple trees? Each one's a business and I create it that way that can be self-running, self-managing and do that, right. So, uh, moves into that frame. And at the same time, people are talking to other business owners like man, you like completely, you know, failed in 089. You came back, how'd you do all that? So I started helping people like, well, I did this, this and this, and then they come back for more advice. You know how it works. The I call it the mentor role. You know the one you do for free.

Chris Lalomia: 29:53

That's right, coach the mentor role you do for free I put that in my book. I'm like you don't ever ask somebody to be a mentor, because all it is is asking for free advice and a cup of coffee yeah, that's it.

Richard Walsh: 30:02

It's not even good coffee it's not even good coffee.

Chris Lalomia: 30:05

Yeah, it's not, and I'm not really paying for good coffee either, right?

Richard Walsh: 30:09

yeah, makes a little mushroom coffee okay so it's, it's, uh, so, so that was like well, I'm really good at training, I'm really good at coaching. I'm like helping all these people, I help people get fit, I send people in the core. I'm like I maybe I'll be a business coach, because I didn't have any business coaches when I came up, and even if there were, as one thing, guys, I never asked for help. I was one prideful, ego-filled dude. I'm doing it all by myself. Ain't no one helping me? And I had multi-billion dollar clients who were offering me advice, free advice. Now what do they know? What do they know? It's not going to work. I mean, so you own a couple of professional sports teams and you make this and these businesses? They can't tell me what to do. So I wasn't too great.

Chris Lalomia: 30:55

You don't know, my business as well as I do. Yes, yeah, I might. I might have said it a couple times, yeah, I I resemble that remark too.

Alan Wyatt: 31:03

Yeah, I hate it. I hate it. All that, all that intellectual information oh my god, capital that you could have gotten if you just open your ears and listen, yep yeah, it's, it's shameful it was straight up painful, like

Richard Walsh: 31:16

I. I'm like now it's all about the help. Like you don't live without someone helping you, like you seek it out right. I mean we're. And if you look at anyone at any level who's successful in many different areas, it's because they're getting that help. They've got that good counsel right. They they hire a coach, they bring someone whether it's physical training, business training, whatever it is, spiritual stuff, whatever they got going on they always hire that. So I really kind of assumed that role. I'm like oh, I think I'm going to write a book. Someone said you should write a book and I go, yeah, I'd like to write. I wrote a lot since I was a little sophomore. So, okay, I'll knock out a book. So I'm going to to believe what happened, weave my story in there and I end up calling it Escape the Owner Prison. It was the contractor's new way to scale, regain control and fast-track growth while loving life. So I'm like, isn't that cool? Now, the hardest part of that book was the title and the subtitle. Writing the book was easy. The cover was a lot harder, so I wanted to show them the journey.

Richard Walsh: 32:21

What were some of your other working titles that got canned? I had 27 working titles, so it was like well-oiled machine and all this different stuff, right, I went with the 28th. Okay, they still working. I'm at a track meet for my son, he's running. I'm talking to another buddy of mine. He was a business owner and I said I've been working on these titles, man, but I came to know what do you think about this? And I go escape the owner person and he just looked at me and goes that resonates, that's a title. That was it. I'm like done, I got the title Okay.

Alan Wyatt: 32:44

Escape the owner person. How many titles did you have, Chris, when you were working on?

Chris Lalomia: 32:48

it. Yeah. So my book ended up becoming From the Zoo to the Wild your Guide to Entrepreneur.

Chris Lalomia: 32:58

It's called the zoo to the world it is, it sucks. I can't even say my own, um, but you know, I would say I did not have 27, I'm not an overachiever, that was the first one that came to your mind. No, I was. I think I had like four or five, uh, and I can't even think of anything that was better than from the zoo to the wild because, um, that really epitomized my world.

Chris Lalomia: 33:17

Coming from corporate America, you're talking about being an owner and not being there, but I was stuck in the concrete jungle of corporate America and I had, I wouldn't say golden handcuffs, but, man, I had that golden wall. I mean, there was just a lot of money being thrown at me and it was hard to give it all up and to get out of it and realize you had other options. And then you get out in the wild world of running your own business and next thing, you know, you're digging trenches and getting down 12 inches and laying 1100 linear feet and, uh, and you had just been, uh, you know, with your custom suits and your Mercedes and cause, when I did it, I jumped right into being a handyman and I hired another guy and I was a handyman and I was doing all the work of life right along with him, just to make sure I understood all the processes and everything I wanted to build. And I'm pretty handy. So, yeah, you know, but I. But what I think is funny, and that's why I want to ask you this one it is so much easier to go out and do for me to go out and lay crown molding all around my basement, which is what I did here.

Chris Lalomia: 34:15

Nice job, then it is thanks. Then it is thanks. Then it is to sit down and go. Where do I want to be in 10 years? Where's my business? But because when I'm done laying on the crown molding, I'm sweating, I'm sore, I know it. You know that was accomplishment. Back to the working out thing. But when you're sitting there and trying to think about where do you want your business to go and where can, that's the heavy lifting that has to happen, but it doesn't feel like it sometimes. So what do you think about that?

Richard Walsh: 34:39

yeah, I've got the answer. I have the answer for you.

Richard Walsh: 34:42

I'm gonna solve the whole problem right here yes, done it's called put your windows up everybody that's right everyone just deep breath pull over it's called exit strategy, okay, and people think, okay, when I'm I'm done, I'm tired, I want to sell my business, so I'm going to contact a broker and we're going to get a valuation on my business and I'm going to see what I can get. That's not an exit strategy. That's like stupidity. Okay, it's like you waited way too long to do this and you are going to get pennies on the dollar and you're going to be miserable and you're going to run out of money before you die and life's going to be terrible.

Chris Lalomia: 35:15

That's what you did, right? I haven't done that, oh, okay. No, I'm actually in the middle. I met guys that you're going along the journey with me. I'm in year three of my five-year exit strategy. I just hired a general manager here in Atlanta Because of exactly what you're talking about is, I didn't want to be the idiot selling for pennies on the dollar because it's still a handyman business, but I'm going to take a swing at the big leagues and try some, uh, bigger ideas, so it's awesome here's the here's the important thing.

Richard Walsh: 35:40

Let me break this down real quick. So, exit strategy I said there's two times to start right. The first time to do an exit strategy is like the day before you launch your business, like you should have your exit strategy before you launch your business. Did not have that, yeah, don't like almost everybody. The second time is right now. That's the next best time right now. Right now, Everyone's going to do it.

Richard Walsh: 36:03

They get caught in making money and getting the business off the ground and next thing, you know it's 10 years and you haven't done your exit. And you think I'm never selling. This is me, it's my business, I'm going to do this till I die and all that great stuff. But if you go back to November 5th of 08, sometimes you'll have a choice. So if you're going to be forced to sell due to an economy or some other kind of shift today who knows whether it's AI or who knows what? You know the Chinese come, I don't care what it is, but you're going to be forced to shift. So if you haven't had an exit strategy where you're actually preparing for that end, you're building a business to sell even if you're never going to sell. So even in a hard time, instead of getting 10 cents on the dollar, you'll be able to get 40, right, Because you built it. It's attractive to a buyer. So there's always someone who's going to assimilate your business right.

Richard Walsh: 36:54

But no one wants to come and start your business over. No one wants to come and create systems in your business. They don't want to do the process. They don't want to hire all the people. They want that I said. Here's the goal. If I set 10 years as my exit and I want X amount of millions or whatever the number is, how I want that transaction to go is that someone comes in. They're interested in my business. We negotiate, I get my price, they write a check, they hand it to me. I shake their hand, I'm out the door, they're in. Nobody knows the business was sold. Customers don't know because it's humming. It doesn't need to right. They can make their changes after I go. I'm not going to be retained for a year and a half to you know. Make the transition, Because if you have to do that you haven't built a good business.

Chris Lalomia: 37:35

Yeah, you bring up some great points that I you know. I just again talking to people about this. It's funny how many people say and this is an M&A guy who was talking about this Everybody says you know, I'm going to, I got a five-year plan, but they always say five years because five years never happens and so they won't. They won't actually continually work on it. But what you don't know is that that discipline you have to put in place.

Chris Lalomia: 37:56

You know things I'm doing today making sure my books are solid. We close the books every month. We do it on the 15th of the month. Following, trying to get that even tighter hiring a general manager, getting myself out of the business, making less money guys, I am. I mean, I'm making less money right now, but building towards that exit, being able to say look at this trusted toolbox, selling somebody on the future of what you're doing, so that when somebody, like you said, buys it and nobody even knows that it got sold, that's when you've done the right thing. Your culture is strong, your process is strong, your systems are strong and it's hard to do and I'm not doing it without a lot of help a lot of help.

Richard Walsh: 38:31

I think another thing, chris, is what people don't get, whether it's five years, 10 years, 15 years, I don't care what the time is. The other part of exit strategy is like okay, how am I going to take my active business income and use that to build my passive income? How am I going to acquire assets that are going to generate income for me? If I want to exit in 10 years and I want to leave and I want to be have a passive income, I need 80,000 a month. Okay, that's what I need to live on. Let's call it my ideal living thing 80,000 a month. Well, what do I have to do? Is that two houses a year, three and a half houses a year? Commercial property? Is it other investments? What do I have to do to make that happen? To be at that number so my passive can replace my active business income? That's what I want to do, because now, no matter what happens, I'm covered If I didn't get a dime for the business.

Richard Walsh: 39:24

At the end I've got 80 Gs a month coming in because I built it that way. I had a plan for my money. It's called Parkinson's law. Right, if your money doesn't have a plan, a place to go. It will evaporate right. So I can come and give you a hundred bucks per year. You'll stick that in your pocket, you'll buy out a couple of drinks, you'll buy some more bourbon there, you'll go to lunch, everything else, and five days later I was hey what happened to that.

Richard Walsh: 39:46

You don't know what you spent. It's a good time. Well, that's what happens to most people with all their money, Because they don't. You know, it's 10%. Hey, I'm going to tie 10% of the church.

Chris Lalomia: 39:54

Richard, I have a really good big fast boat, though I mean my go fast boat is big you know what I'm saying?

Richard Walsh: 40:01

Well good, Until it runs out of gas, until it, damn it.

Chris Lalomia: 40:05

Oh my God, I knew there was coming. I knew there was a hook. You know, I got six inches on my truck. It's lifted up, man, it's way up there. My truck is way lifted, way lifted, bro. You know what I'm saying. Bigger than yours, monster truck.

Richard Walsh: 40:19

You know what that gets you. There's a great saying I learned from a mentor of mine and I've always used it.

Alan Wyatt: 40:26

It's just awesome um, and I've always used it. It's just awesome. I use it when I did you buy him mushroom coffee.

Richard Walsh: 40:34

You had a mentor. Sorry, we can break out the coffee, but you're getting this for free and there's no strings attached, okay, okay. So it's just a little saying a lot of guys again, we talk about ego. They, they're they're judging their gross revenue right. And I did 100 million, I did 25 million, I did this, you know. And then I'll get in with these guys and we're coaching, we're building, we're systemized. I'm like, well, let's talk real net profit. You know R&P. And they're like, well, what do you mean? Well, I know what my profit is. No, no, your real net profit. You're showing me profit like book profit. But where has all the money really have to go? When you've paid everything your taxes, your salary, your income, everybody on the team, everything, all your capital reinvestment, all your replacement costs, everything else, how much is left on the table that has nowhere to go? That's real net profit. Okay. So the saying goes, you know, gross revenue feeds the ego, profit feeds the family 100% man.

Chris Lalomia: 41:28

I call my bandy lines my profit number. Hey, chris, how much you demand? I did 6 million last year as a handyman. How about that? Hey Chris, how much you make? Hey, I made, I did 6 million in a revenue. Let's talk about vanity, not my sanity.

Richard Walsh: 41:41

You're right. How about you guys doing 10 million a year and they're barely bringing home a hundred grand?

Chris Lalomia: 41:49

I mean it. Uh, you know, especially in the home services world, it's, it's a tough biz, bro. It's tough to not be a commodity, it's tough to be a unique selling proposition, tough to be doing that. Um, but you know the real net numbers out there. I mean I, I just couldn't tell anybody. I mean there's, there were years it was 3% and there were years it was 12%, but not much more than that At the end of the day, back to your real net profit.

Chris Lalomia: 42:09

I mean, looking at it realistically, don't give me these bullshit numbers. Realistically, numbers, those are the real one. And that's what I told people before they started. They're like, hey, what should I expect? Oh, no, no, no, I was told. I'm like, dude, I built my entire business plan on 20%. Yeah, and how'd I do that? How'd that go? Yeah, Not big wise doing it like a consultant, because that's what I had known before. But you know, we started looking at the hard costs and what you've got to do and I have to W2 all of my employees, I got to buy all the trucks, I pay for the gas, but I do that to create the great quality system of the trusted toolbox and the handyman and being able to scale to 15 people. So back to what Richard's saying you got to know your numbers and you got it, but you got it. You got to. Also, you just got to really understand what your real net profit is, because I think a lot of people get really tied up into that number. I'm six, I'm 10.

Richard Walsh: 42:59

Good for you. I'm a hundred million.

Chris Lalomia: 43:00

Great. Where's your house? I'm renting.

Richard Walsh: 43:05

What it's and and and you know they get to those gross numbers too. And the fun part is I go in there and I'm like you know what I see? Waste, inefficiency. I see ungodly amounts of like you know how much money you could actually have. You're just focused on this big number, but nothing is run right. You could have 1.5 a year instead of a hundred thousand. I'm like like in like six months I could change that. Like I do it all the time. I'm like what are you doing? You're running and gunning so hard, being out front and being the man beating your chest. I said you gotta lock that ego in a box, man, and we gotta go to work. We can fix this, but who you gotta? That means no one cares. No one cares. No one's going to be there for you when you're busted. Do you mean I have to sell my?

Chris Lalomia: 43:53

go fast boat, Damn it Well.

Richard Walsh: 43:58

I'm not saying go sell everything. I'm just saying that these guys who are so driven by gross revenue, it's just like man, I'll take you out in a heartbeat. Yeah, I can beat you and you won't even know it, but I can live large because I got real money. You just have paper money. You have book money it looks like you have a lot on the books, but you don't have any reality money. That's the challenge.

Chris Lalomia: 44:22

Man, I've enjoyed this. This has been awesome. We're starting to run out of time. How can everybody get the chance to talk to you? Talk about real net profit. Sharpen the spear, got your book going on. How can everybody get ahold of you?

Richard Walsh: 44:35

SharpenTheSpearCoachingcom is the best thing. Tons of information on there. You can contact me via that Love to talk to you about your business. You know, if I can help you, that'd be awesome. We'll do a really cool discovery call. I got a lot of ways to see right where your business is right now and help you that way Escape the owner prison. You can grab on Amazon. I'm going to give you guys the link to that. But go to Amazon, look for escape the owner prison by Richard Walsh and you'll find it there. Get a copy of that. If you really want to talk to me and you want me to give you a free gift, contact me via my website. I'll give you the audio version of escape the owner prison for free give you the audio version of escape you under prison for free all right man, big listen right there.

Alan Wyatt: 45:13

Book mentor did you, did you? Did you read your audio book? You're you know, I would.

Chris Lalomia: 45:17

There's no way you let somebody else read that thing except for he's all about outsourcing and having you know delegating.

Richard Walsh: 45:22

Well, no, he didn't say no one's gonna choke up during the certain parts of that book that I did, which is just like all right, you just, you just remember. So, so it's a. You know I had to do it oh man, I'm going to listen to that one.

Chris Lalomia: 45:33

I'm going to. I'm going to get that up because I have not been listening to a lot of podcasts lately. I've been listening to a lot of audible books, um, and I just that's where I've been finding my time in the in the truck when I'm doing. But getting back in the podcast trail, yeah, it's always good to get out there.

Chris Lalomia: 45:50

One of the things I just got done, laying this down on my sales guys, is one of the guys had made a comment in the hallway and he didn't think I heard him. And he says man, I've been working 60 hours a week. And I grabbed him and I said when you say you're working 60 hours a week, you know, and you're doing five appointments a day, my question for you is in between those appointments, are you listening to the sports talk radio? You listen to hard rock, you listen to classic rock or you listen on how to be a better salesman? Are you listening to Seth? Are you listening to Zig? Are you listening to guys who can help you earn more money, or are you just telling me you're working 60 hours a week? Well, I, uh, no, I'm in another thing. When you say you're working 60 hours a week. Are you flipping up the laptop after the kids went to bed and you're watching the Braves game baseball and just doing your thing? Or are you really focused on trying to make money? Because don't give me the 60 hours a week, because this job is a 40 hour a week job and if you really want to go make a million dollars, you know you want to go get your 100 to 150 000 a year and and, uh, commish, that's how you make it and that's the discipline you can hear from richard talking.

Chris Lalomia: 46:54

I love it, man. I think this is just dynamite stuff. So, richard, this has been awesome. Guys go out there, check it out. He offered you up a free audible book, richard. We talked books already, so I've got grit and I've got your book, uh, and so that's one of our big questions is a book you'd refer, and I think you've got us on that one. I think that one's pretty good. What's the favorite feature of your house?

Richard Walsh: 47:16

You know I'm going to say it's my living room dining room combination, but in particular it's this leather chair I have that. I join every morning about 4 am with a cup of coffee and I love it. It's quiet, it's's dark, I do my little bible study, then I read, I listen to music, I meditate on the day and I just really get prepped to go to the gym, because then at 5 30 I go to the gym and get my workout in. So that spot in my it's, I love it as a baby grand piano. There's a nice farm table there's. They're kind of just. It's just, it's just a place of peace. I love it. That's awesome man that I'd love that one.

Alan Wyatt: 47:51

I I have a question, not part of our four questions, but where can we see your metal sculptures?

Richard Walsh: 47:57

go to. Well, you want to go to the where they're at or like online well, I don't know.

Alan Wyatt: 48:03

Do you want in atlanta?

Richard Walsh: 48:04

otherwise I'll go online no, I the the online. If you go to rickrock, this is r-i-k-r-o-c-knet. Jump on there, you'll see all my work. It's like my living portfolio of water features, the sculpture and everything. Did you ever go back to?

Chris Lalomia: 48:21

doing that? Did you? Are you? Are you doing some of that anymore? Any of these sculptures for funsies? No, you, you know better than that I did. I just was asking. I want to hear it. I would have thought that'd be how you know better than that I did.

Alan Wyatt: 48:28

I just was asking I want to hear it. I would have thought that'd be how you know. It blows off steam.

Richard Walsh: 48:32

No man, maybe get the bridges bro no, he's out, he's done if you go to the garfield park conservatory in chicago, which is the largest conservatory under glass in this country, you can go see sugar from the sun, which is the most cutting edge exhibit in the world on photosynthesis. I built everything in there it is. It's a permanent exhibit, all core 10 steel. It is spectacular, world class. I mean it is unbelievable. I did a piece for the shed aquarium in chicago. That's now in beaufort, north carolina. I believe they bought it kind of cool thing there. So yeah, I got stuff around, but yeah nice, these photos are amazing.

Alan Wyatt: 49:08

You know, you really, you really have a future in this. Uh, no, that's a past, bro.

Richard Walsh: 49:13

It's a past, it's you know it's like when the artist dies. It's worth more.

Chris Lalomia: 49:17

All that stuff's worth a lot more, yeah in fact he got rid of how's your health maybe? Maybe I'll buy a piece he gets. He got rid of that like candy man. Quit my company. They don't just burn the bridge.

Richard Walsh: 49:25

They blow.

Chris Lalomia: 49:26

What I did, though, guys they blow up the river the whole thing, they kill it all. He's never going back one thing real quick.

Richard Walsh: 49:31

I did this. So there's a 60 foot canopy of steel trees I made. They're low with epiphyte plants and they actually move with the wind and stuff inside this conservatory each tree. I had five kids at the time. My section wasn't born yet, so each one has their name hidden in the weld bead texture on the tree so they can go back in like 50 years and show their kids. Hey, my old man made this. See that it's got my name on it.

Chris Lalomia: 49:52

You're depriving the world of your art, richard yes well, scarcity, you know what that makes, money scarcity, oh, I like that idea.

Richard Walsh: 50:00

Yes, all right, all right, we gotta have we gotta have the last question?

Chris Lalomia: 50:06

and because I love this stuff as a remodeler, as a guy works a lot of houses, we want a diy nightmare story. I'm talking fire, flooding, uh, pests, I mean the whole world. Bring it down, a diy nightmare story so wow, um, I didn't.

Richard Walsh: 50:24

I don't fail at things, I'm just kidding. So I thought about, I thought about the script. Can I give what people never hear about? I don't fail at things, I'm just kidding Ah, hang on, so I thought about. I thought about the script. Can I give what people never hear about and you can appreciate this. They always hear about the bad contractor. Right, I had this problem. They never hear the other route, the other side the bad client.

Chris Lalomia: 50:44

Yeah, can I share that story?

Richard Walsh: 50:45

Yeah, let's do it.

Alan Wyatt: 50:49

I have a good one, I'll bet you, every one of our listeners is going.

Richard Walsh: 50:51

Oh, yeah, I want to hear, oh, finally yeah, I thought we should start like a yelp, like a yelp for contractors I know it's called bad on your bad customerscom.

Richard Walsh: 50:59

I know I want that, karen, I think they have something like that. But so I had this guy on the north shore of chicago and we're getting lake forest illinois and I'm I'm building this water feature for this guy. That is the finest thing on the North shore 300 tons of boulders, I mean, it's coming down. I have cantilevered waterfalls off the end of the pool with boulders and everything else and it's. It's unbelievable, right, bluestone patio streams that, dropped on off the hill, looks like they're going in the palm, but they're not in the lake, you know, and beautiful stuff. And I'm working, working. He keeps coming out. He's like, hey, can we do this and this? Yeah, okay, we'll do it, I'll take care of you, I promise, you know. So we started about 110,000 for the project and now he adds about 70 grand worth of stuff and he's going to take care of it. We get the handshake. You know that's, he's good for it. Right, got the twelve thousand square foot house, got the gym in the basement, got the trainer, all this stuff. And he's that guy.

Richard Walsh: 51:51

And you know, as contractors you usually get the gut feeling on someone. You get these indicators, these little red flags. I had a couple. One was, and I'm sure, real quick. So he's talking to me about hey man, how many times can you press 235? And I go 13. I go, how about you? He goes, oh, three or four, and I go 13. I go, how about you? And he goes, no, three or four. And I go, which is it three or four? I go. Dude, if you lift man, you know what you can do. It's not three or four, I'd say four. If I got four, I'd say four, I got 13. I didn't get 14. I didn't say 13. So I'm like he this. So project's all finished. It is spectacular and you can see that on that website too. It is amazing.

Richard Walsh: 52:33

And so I got the change, all the additional. It's an additional 70 grand he owes me. So I walk up to him and I got it and I go okay, his name is Lou, I go, lou, I got, I got the fund. He goes okay, and I pull it back and I go. But I'm going to make a prediction before I give this to you. My prediction is you're going to try to nitpick all this stuff and you're going to screw me out of this money. It's exactly what I said. And I handed it to him. He opened it up and down the bottom line. He looked at me dead serious. You're right, I'm going to screw you. And I went. So we're standing next to my pond. I'm thinking, yeah, I'm going to drown him, yeah, we're going for a swim.

Alan Wyatt: 53:07

Yeah, did I mention I was a black belt, right yeah.

Richard Walsh: 53:11

So I just started walking away. I took a breath, so I walk, he goes. Well, you got to understand, I know you're nitpicking he goes. Well, where are you going? I go. Well, I'm going doing that, I'm not paying that, I'll give him 10 grand, that's it. And he walks. They start walking out and both lawyers are looking at each other. I'm like, okay, they're looking at each other. I'm following old Lou out the door and he's heading for the elevator. My lawyer, thinking you can't. He's holding me back and the door's closed and he's looking at me. I'm like I'm just, yeah, so it was. My legal fees were only 9600, though. That's the good news. So I made 400 on that, so, but it was a long time. But so the judge let that go. You did not get. Yeah, that was a settle. I'm like you know what this guy is, a piece of work. And let me give you the final, best part of this whole thing.

Richard Walsh: 54:11

And so now I'm down the road about two miles. I'm going to do another magnificent pond for this really nice couple, great people, like super nice. I'm painting a picture, I'm writing out the contract. We're by their pool and the birds. I'm about to slide. So I go. Let me tell you a quick story about a guy down the road. Okay, so I tell him about Olu, the whole experience. Then I slid the contract over. I don't recommend anyone do this. I put my hand and I said do you know what I'll do to you if you don't pay me? And the guy just goes one hit. I'm laying down. You know what I'm like, okay. I'm like okay, I'm just telling you I'm not going through that again. He became one of my best clients ever, became friends. We did some additional business together. It was really cool. But yeah, that was my hurtful nightmare story.

Chris Lalomia: 54:56

Oh man, you know you get in business and it happens. It's happened to me and it's just not even fun. You're trying to do the right thing by people and people just don't do it, man, because the general public is flipping crazy. So with that man who wants a handyman, business Call me Kind of a bummer, you're ending on.

Chris Lalomia: 55:14

No, I'm not going to end on that, it's still fun. You know what's rewarding. I just got done talking to my not the sales guys, I was talking to my project managers this morning and we're about to kill this awesome bathroom and I said, man, this thing I'm putting this in for the national competition. We're part of Nary. We're going to put this in for the contractor of the year award because this bathroom is just popping man. We had a designer help us with it and it's coming together. And it came together about three weeks faster than we thought it would. So how about that? We exceeded expectations in terms of timeline. We came in under the at the same budget without any change, controls that he didn't initiate. So he is thrilled, we're thrilled, it's been great. I said isn't that cool when you can have one of those kind of customers? And that's why you do what we do, nice, and that's how we do it. Guys, get out there Sharpest Spear. Richard Walsh, you got to go check him out. We got to keep going, keep rocking, make this.