Authentic Business Adventures Podcast

Keith Dickinson - Dickinson Manufacturing Solutions

There is a special type of magic that comes with working with your hands.  Something that cannot be duplicated by sitting at a desk or hanging out in a boardroom.  As a former mechanic, I have an appreciation for the professionals of the world that get their hands dirty to make their money in business.

Keith is one of these professionals.  In this buisness podcast episode, Keith Dickinson takes us on the journey that he has taken from learning the skills needed to become a master machinist onward to owning his own manufacturing business that creates incredible items for their customers.  Items that you and I may live with everyday and not even notice.

The skills that are needed to become a great machinist combine the head, heart and hands.  Keith illustrates this point proudly as he tells the story of his business and shows how he cares for his employees and clients in a way that very few companies do.

There is something incredibly moving about having pride in your work.  Keith and his crew have it in spades.

Enjoy!

Visit Keith at: http://dickinsonmfg.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

 

[00:00:05]

You have found Authentic Business

[00:00:06]

Adventures, the business program that brings

you the struggle

[00:00:09]

stories and triumphant successes

of business owners across the land. Coming

[00:00:13]

to you actually onsite at Dickinson

Manufacturing with Keith Dickinson here.

[00:00:18]

We're typically at the Sun Prairie Media Center

underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie,

[00:00:23]

but it turns out this place is cooler,

so we'll just run with that.

[00:00:27]

Today, we're welcoming/preparing

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to learn from Keith Dickinson,

the owner of Dickinson Manufacturing.

[00:00:32]

So, Keith, how are you doing today?

I'm doing great.

[00:00:35]

This is cool.

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I'm excited

because the last time I was here,

[00:00:39]

you had machines on this side,

but I don't think you had anything here.

[00:00:43]

Right.

So that was prior to 2014.

[00:00:47]

Yeah, it's been a while.

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We started in 2005, OK.

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And this space had the wall going

all the way and 30,000 square feet.

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Three thousand square.

Thirty thousand.

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I wish.

Yeah, I know.

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A 30 by a hundred.

OK.

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And then in 2014 we added up the space and

it's about half of what we already had.

[00:01:11]

So we're in like forty

five hundred square feet.

[00:01:14]

Nice.

Yeah. That's cool,

[00:01:15]

so you guys are growing?

[00:01:17]

We haven't added any space since 2014.

Sure.

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Sure.

And we didn't add any equipment this year.

[00:01:23]

So we're not I wouldn't say

that we're growing, but we're stable.

[00:01:27]

Sure.

[00:01:28]

Well manufacturing business

in 2020 I imagine that's

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that's okay.

Stables good.

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Yeah.

Plus this can't be cheap.

[00:01:37]

No.

[00:01:38]

Well they're not

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totally crazy expensive but. I mean you got

space, you get operator, you got

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the machine itself, care

and feeding all that jazz.

[00:01:48]

Well I, I've heard that

machining in general is one of the highest

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capital equipment investment

industries that there is.

[00:01:59]

So that's perfect segway because I want

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to ask you, how did you

end up in this business?

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Well, how far you want to go back?

[00:02:08]

Well,

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15 years in a day I suppose. OK.

[00:02:12]

So I've been a machinist

all my adult life.

[00:02:15]

OK.

You went to school for it?

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No, but I was very, very, very fortunate.

OK.

[00:02:21]

I started on the East Coast. OK.

Right after high school I joined

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the service and I was

in the army for three years.

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When I got out, I moved from Wisconsin

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to Connecticut,

where my girlfriend at the time

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lived.

So I got a job out there as an industrial

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X-ray repair technician.

Industrial X-ray repair technician.

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OK, so was that

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trained by the army then

when you're in there?

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No, I was actually

in multi-channel communications.

[00:02:51]

Oh, wow.

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But they were still big

words. We got wires, it's all good.

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They asked me, what makes you think

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that you could be an industrial

X-ray repair technician?

[00:03:03]

Sure.

And so I told them, look outside,

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I drive a 57 Buick Roadmaster

and I keep it on the road.

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So maybe I could do this job. How hard

can it be? So, exactly.

[00:03:17]

So they taught me and I was

a repair technician.

[00:03:21]

All right.

[00:03:22]

And that's where I first

saw metal being cut.

[00:03:25]

OK.

And when I saw metal getting cut,

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the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

Really?

[00:03:32]

Oh, my God.

Love at first sight.

[00:03:35]

I said, that's what I've got to do.

Oh, nice.

[00:03:38]

Yeah.

And that was back in the day when

[00:03:42]

pretty much all companies, you know,

were trusting enough to give their

[00:03:46]

employees keys and say, come in and fiddle

around with the equipment if you like.

[00:03:51]

Just be careful.

Sure.

[00:03:52]

So I'd come in on my off time and I'd make

[00:03:54]

candlestick holders or who knows

what, just to have fun. OK.

[00:04:00]

And then I got married and I was going

to I needed to make some more money

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and they weren't willing to give

me as much of a raises I wanted.

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So that's what sent me out

to find a machining job.

[00:04:13]

All right.

[00:04:14]

So I saw one in the paper one morning

and they said and I called them and they

[00:04:18]

said, Do you know how

to read a Vernier calliper?

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And I said, sure.

[00:04:22]

And they said, do you know

how to read a micrometer?

[00:04:24]

So, yeah, no problem.

[00:04:26]

So they said, well, can you

get to an interview by 10:00?

[00:04:30]

Yeah, I'll be there.

[00:04:31]

So I talked to my boss and he said,

yeah, sure, go get to the interview.

[00:04:36]

So this is like 8:30

in the morning.

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So I run my ass down to the library

and look up vernier calliper

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and I look up micrometer and I found

out what they were and how they worked.

[00:04:47]

All right.

[00:04:47]

And I went to the interview

and got the job nice.

[00:04:51]

And then I trained under

this guy Lou Baumer.

[00:04:55]

OK.

Eighty two year old man at the time.

[00:04:58]

Wow.

[00:04:58]

And taught me machining like nobody

could have taught me machining.

[00:05:02]

He had 60 years under his belt.

Exactly.

[00:05:05]

All right.

[00:05:06]

So that's where I learned

the basics of machining.

[00:05:09]

Sure.

[00:05:09]

And from there, I just went

on to different places.

[00:05:13]

And again, I was fortunate.

[00:05:16]

I went to a shop where I did a lot of R&D

[00:05:20]

and research and development

and and building equipment.

[00:05:24]

All right.

And then I ended up moving out

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of Connecticut and ended up

at Lockheed missiles in space.

[00:05:31]

Oh, yeah, great.

[00:05:33]

That's a pretty good job.

[00:05:34]

I would have stayed there except for they

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stopped doing their

manufacturing in Austin, Texas.

[00:05:38]

Oh, all right.

[00:05:40]

But it was very interesting

and I learned a lot.

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Connecticut to Austin,

Connecticut to Austin.

[00:05:46]

Then we were we were making a remotely

piloted aircraft, small aircraft.

[00:05:53]

So how long ago was this?

[00:05:54]

This was in the late 80s.

[00:05:58]

Early 90s, OK?

[00:06:00]

And then they lost the contract.

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So they laid everybody off.

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And I found myself at another company

making parts for Applied Materials.

[00:06:09]

You know who they are?

[00:06:10]

They make the machines that actually

make wafers for, like, IBM.

[00:06:14]

Oh, interesting.

Okay.

[00:06:15]

So they would like

[00:06:18]

they would make the milling machine

that then I would buy I'd be IBM.

[00:06:22]

Sure.

[00:06:23]

And then I'd make my product

on their machine.

[00:06:25]

Oh interesting.

OK, so that's Applied Materials makes

[00:06:28]

the semiconductor machine and I made

parts for those pieces of equipment.

[00:06:32]

OK, so I had some, I had some very,

very good mentors and training and from

[00:06:40]

from from Texas.

[00:06:42]

I ended up going to California

[00:06:43]

and machining for about a year and a half

and then brought me back to Wisconsin

[00:06:49]

and we started the business in 2005.

[00:06:53]

So why did you decide to start a business

versus just finding another job?

[00:06:57]

Yeah.

[00:06:59]

So what happened in my career,

[00:07:01]

although I had some very,

very good training and I always.

[00:07:05]

Worked my way up to the top,

[00:07:07]

I was the lead in the research

and development department at Lockheed.

[00:07:10]

Yeah, but then I lost my job anyway.

All right.

[00:07:14]

So I had no control over if

I was going to have a job.

[00:07:18]

I love it.

I love it.

[00:07:19]

So now nobody can sell this place but me.

It's on you.

[00:07:24]

Exactly.

You hold it.

[00:07:25]

And if I make correct decisions,

[00:07:29]

I

[00:07:31]

glean the benefit of that.

[00:07:32]

And if I make bad decisions, well,

...

Vinnie Fisher - FullyAccountable.com

The overnight success, as we all either learn the hard way or gather as we explore this business world, is hardly overnight.  It typically takes years for entrepreneurs to make some mistakes and learn just what works and what does not.

The real successful people are happy to share their experiences with others, working as a bit of a Sherpa to would-be mistake makers.

So when I was contacted by FullyAccountable.com owner Vinnie Fisher and I did a little homework, I was excited for this interview.

Vinnie takes us on his entrepreneurial journey that includes growing a business into 7-figure revenues in months, and realizing that the business was losing money.  The numbers don't lie, we just need to be aware of them.

Then he takes us to his current business that tackles the numbers issue.  For a very niche market.  Vinnie explains what has lead to him running by the mantra, "The niches bring the riches."

Vinnie takes his education train down the track even further by offering some of his books to our loyal listeners at no cost.  check them out here: https://fullyaccountable.com/promos/authenticbusinessadventures/

Enjoy!

Visit Vinnie at: https://fullyaccountable.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

 

[00:00:05]

You have found Authentic Business

Adventures, the business program,

[00:00:08]

that brings you the struggle

stories and triumphs and successes

[00:00:11]

of business owners across the land. Coming

to you remotely because we're able

[00:00:15]

to interview people nationally,

which is super cool.

[00:00:18]

Today, we have Vinnie Fisher,

chief executive officer at Fully

[00:00:22]

Accountable. Vinnie,

how are you doing today?

[00:00:24]

Great, James, thanks for having me.

[00:00:26]

I love what you guys are doing.

[00:00:27]

And my team is excited

about all this stuff.

[00:00:30]

And I love I love what we talked about

earlier how, like, the show went bigger.

[00:00:34]

And so we're happy to be a part of your

[00:00:36]

community and share our

stories of how we got here.

[00:00:39]

Yeah, this is we just jumped on the name

[00:00:41]

Authentic Business Adventures,

and that's just it's long.

[00:00:46]

There's three huge words some people

can't spell, but here we are.

[00:00:49]

We got to just run with it.

[00:00:51]

So I'm happy to have you on the show.

[00:00:53]

Like I said, you got some cool books

on your on your back table there.

[00:00:56]

Yeah.

You know, those are two I wrote.

[00:00:59]

One of them is a book,

[00:01:00]

The CEO's Mindset that I wrote about

eight figure hosting company we had

[00:01:04]

and learned that I kind of set out to sell

something that I thought was a good thing

[00:01:08]

to sell and realized I needed

to build a big company.

[00:01:12]

And so I kind of was a journey of me

breaking that business and what I would do

[00:01:15]

if I was going to build

another one. And the other

[00:01:17]

book next to is called False Prophets,

where I woke up and realized that I didn't

[00:01:22]

have any connection to my finances

and I was a gross revenue guy.

[00:01:25]

And then one day realized that it's about

[00:01:28]

what I keep and bring in to the bottom,

not when it comes in at the top.

[00:01:31]

And so.

Right.

[00:01:33]

That's funny, I used to work for a guy

[00:01:35]

that would get so excited

about making a big sale.

[00:01:38]

This is back in the day and all that jazz,

[00:01:41]

and he'd sell just thousands of dollars

of memory back when memory cost thousands

[00:01:46]

of dollars, then he'd be like, yeah

super awesome.

[00:01:50]

And I saw an invoice or bill of lading

[00:01:54]

really that showed what he paid for it

and then what he sold it for the like.

[00:01:59]

Let me know if he made two percent.

Exactly.

[00:02:02]

He had to write it out

for net 30, net 60, something like that.

[00:02:06]

And so that Web hosting company I owned,

[00:02:07]

it was a large Web hosting company,

and it was exactly that.

[00:02:11]

Lots of people on the team.

[00:02:13]

And, you know,

I had these false assumptions that we were,

[00:02:17]

you know, Web hosting,

especially shared hosting thin margins.

[00:02:20]

But you have customers for a long time,

so you make up for it in length of customers.

[00:02:24]

Well, these faulty assumptions that we

were profiting about five percent when we

[00:02:27]

were losing money at five percent

and so much flow of cash coming in.

[00:02:32]

And these longer contracts,

[00:02:34]

I basically almost bankrupted us

with some really faulty assumptions.

[00:02:38]

Same thing just focused on gross revenue,

never really how to a mindset around

[00:02:43]

focused on net revenue services,

money coming in and money going out.

[00:02:48]

But when you look at the bank statement

on any given day,

[00:02:51]

it looks like you're rich

and you realize when we got to the end

[00:02:54]

of a month or a quarter, we'd be like we

brought all this money and where is it?

[00:02:58]

And then we'd have this like

deficit to the bottom line.

[00:03:01]

And we always felt like this leaky bucket

we could never get a good answer to it

[00:03:05]

except for we just weren't paying

attention to the leaky bucket.

[00:03:08]

And, you know, in that business

cycle now because I broke it.

[00:03:13]

Nice that, you know,

[00:03:14]

it's interesting that you take

responsibility for that completely.

[00:03:18]

Yep.

So that is admirable.

[00:03:21]

That is rare that people, I always say you

[00:03:24]

got to look at the top

to figure out who's at fault.

[00:03:26]

Right.

For anything.

[00:03:27]

That's right.

I built it.

[00:03:29]

I broke it and I went on from it.

[00:03:31]

And that was a great business

that literally we hadn't even had a chance

[00:03:36]

to sell it in the middle

of where it was running decent.

[00:03:39]

And in my arrogance, I'm like,

now we're doubling down and we're double

[00:03:42]

down on some of my decisions

that were blinded decisions.

[00:03:46]

And ultimately, you know,

we we broke a company that at one point

[00:03:50]

was the seventh largest

shared hosting company on the planet.

[00:03:53]

And so, you know, hey, like you know

I'm thankful I without some of those

[00:03:57]

experiences, I wouldn't be the leader

and have the organizations we had today.

[00:04:01]

But, you know, it was a very expensive PhD

[00:04:05]

I'll accept that.

[00:04:07]

But with great humility, I would say

that that was really on on my feet.

[00:04:12]

It was a, it trickled down from the decisions

[00:04:15]

that I would have made

in my late 30s and early 40s.

[00:04:18]

Sure.

[00:04:20]

Did you, when did you start that business?

[00:04:22]

So we started it in

in my mind in late 2009.

[00:04:27]

But we launched it to the world

about the middle of 2010.

[00:04:32]

And it's really had massive growth

[00:04:35]

at the end of eleven into twelve

into early thirteen.

[00:04:39]

It was about the end of 12 and 13 where we

started having

[00:04:44]

the biggest issue was my board, including

me, who was the majority control of it.

[00:04:50]

We decided to bring a professional CEO,

[00:04:53]

meaning we handed the ball

off for me to somebody else.

[00:04:56]

And one of the biggest problems we didn't

[00:04:58]

either appreciate or realize was how

many levers I was really pulling.

[00:05:02]

And in my arrogance,

I thought maybe I wasn't pulling as many

[00:05:06]

as I was or even didn't

really understand that.

[00:05:09]

And so when I stepped away from it almost

[00:05:11]

immediately, we started to have a massive

decline in almost every area

[00:05:16]

of the company and then almost 500

people on payroll at that point.

[00:05:19]

And by the time

I stepped back in and assumed,

[00:05:24]

like recognize control of it,

we went from about four million a month

[00:05:28]

in revenue to a little over

about a million eight.

[00:05:30]

And we were nose diving into that.

[00:05:33]

And we just we were able to pull the plane

[00:05:36]

nose back up just enough to kind of soft

crash land and sell it off for parts.

[00:05:43]

Wow.

[00:05:44]

So you built that thing up to five

hundred employees and a couple of years.

[00:05:49]

Yeah.

So we had I remember in

[00:05:52]

it was late 2010.

[00:05:54]

We did about one month, we did a little

over two hundred eighty thousand revenue.

[00:05:58]

We were building websites like

the Builder Wick's version stuff before

[00:06:03]

anybody was doing that, you know, and we

had to because nothing existed tech wise.

[00:06:08]

So we just by nature had to build

these flat five page sites.

[00:06:12]

So we were building the Web

builder version that you now just kind

[00:06:16]

of click and get as part

of your GoDaddy sign up.

[00:06:19]

Well, all the tech that didn't exist,

we kind of created back then.

[00:06:23]

And well, once our offer kicked into gear

where we could build that as part of your

[00:06:28]

shared service, we went from two hundred

eight thousand the next month in.

[00:06:33]

Almost three million in revenue.

[00:06:34]

We had this massive explosion,

we were thousands of websites behind

[00:06:39]

in building, we were hiring by like

20 people at a time type stuff.

[00:06:44]

It was that kind of craziness.

[00:06:46]

And like we were like,

where do you grab on to a rocket?

[00:06:51]

The tale,...

Marek Zmyslowski - Entrepreneur, Author and Builder of Businesses in Africa and Beyond

Sometimes you meet people in the business world, and I suppose, beyond, that make you feel a bit lazy.  Not in a bad way, but more in a way that motivates you to do even more with all that you have.

Marek Zmyslowski is a person just like that.

I read his book, Chasing Black Unicorns: How Building the Amazon of Africa Put Me on Interpol's Most Wanted List.  Catchy title for any aspiring entrepreneur, right?  It's a great, compelling, interesting read that keeps you enthralled.  How many business books can do that?

In this interview with Marek, he details some of his story of deciding to become an entrepreneur and then going out and doing it.  Again and again, challenges be damned.

In the end, or at least, as the story continues, he started some companies, sold some companies and got the girl.  The best part is, he is still out there hustling, just like we all should be.

Enjoy!

Visit Marek at: https://marekzmyslowski.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

 

[00:00:05.860] - Speaker 1

Authentic business adventures. The business program that brings you the struggles, stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Coming to you remotely, well everyone's remote now in the COVID world. What are you going to do? My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur, author, speaker, and helpful coach to small business owners across the country. And today I am super excited to get Marek. I'm going to try not to kill your name. Zmyslowski.

[00:00:33.340] - Speaker 2

Good.

[00:00:34.080] - Speaker 1

Awesome. He's the author of this super cool book. I don't know if you guys can see it here. This is Chasing Black Unicorns how building the Amazon of Africa put me on Interpols most Wanted list, which that title doesn't grab you as an entrepreneur. Nothing will. Nothing shy of free money or something like that. So, Marek, how are you doing today?

[00:00:53.660] - Speaker 2

I am great. Thank you so much for the invitation. And I guess you're right, that title is an attention grabber.

[00:01:01.310] - Speaker 1

That's the whole point, right. Awesome. I got to say, I read this book and there's not too many business type books that I can read cover to COVID very quickly because a lot of them are dry, like so depressingly dry, which for something like business seems weird because it's exciting and yours almost reads like a James Bond novel kind of thing.

[00:01:29.660] - Speaker 2

Thanks. I mean, that was my intention, really? I am a huge fan of stand up comedy. I think that's one of the hardest form of art, because you have to be good at so many things at once, and you're getting feedback immediately, and then you realize that comedians are one of the smartest people in the world, and they actually have a very serious message. But they give you that message by making you laugh, because when they make you laugh, they get your attention, and then you really open up to them. And I really wanted to somehow transform that into a book. And then I realized, let me just have this book tell you a story because I've been living in Africa for eight years and I already knew that I have some stories that I went through that people really want to listen because my friends would be like, tell me about this, tell me about that. So I know there are some interesting stories that I knew that if I put it in the writing, hopefully they will either make you laugh or they will make you scared or they will make you be nostalgic or whatever.

[00:02:28.560] - Speaker 2

And the moment I have that attention, that is the moment to give you some business insights in that couple of minutes when I just opened you up by telling you something funny or sad. And I wanted to have this favorite kind of a book, not to business, but also not just not just biography, because who am I to write a biography? I just used the stories of my life to make the business part not so dry and I'm so happy that you said that. From what you said, it kind of worked.

[00:02:59.140] - Speaker 1

Yes. Interesting. I'm trying to think I went to some in laws place of some kind, I don't remember which one, but I took the book with me and all these locations that we were trailing to just within us, and I realized I was packing the book. And like, that's weird because normally I'm just like, let's just grab a book so there's something to read here and there. And I was finding myself escaping escaping the whole in law stuff so that I could actually read a few more pages.

[00:03:29.140] - Speaker 2

Sorry for your in laws, but thank you.

[00:03:31.630] - Speaker 1

Yeah, but it was cool. It was very interesting, the whole Nigerian prison thing, the whole dealing with funeral business, which is super compelling. And just the whole build up and dealing with the other coworkers employees and all that, I guess we can chat about as we go on. Yeah.

[00:03:51.790] - Speaker 2

So those ten years in Africa, if you live in Africa long enough, adventures kind of come to you and if you're lucky, you will live long enough to tell the story. And that was also in my case. Africa has given me extreme adventures, both positive and negative. On the positive side, we were able to build this company and put it and do an IPO on the stock exchange. On the negative side, I got into trouble with some powerful people in Nigeria that wanted to put me to jail unless I pay them. So that also extremely on the negative side and also as a businessman, I also kind of like the very early stage of any economy. That's how I opened my first business in the very early stage of economy in Poland. And then I was looking for that chaos, that economical last Wild West, and I found it in Nigeria and then in Kenya and so on. But this type of business and those type of opportunities also come with a price of corruption and a lot of risky things and so on. And the side effect of that is that sometimes you have some crazy stories that you can share with other people.

[00:04:58.620] - Speaker 2

That was my case. Like I said, we don't want to say too much, but I do. Running a funeral business and also dealing with mafia in Poland.

[00:05:07.760] - Speaker 1

Yeah, that was an intriguing story because I was thinking, I guess I've heard of stuff semi related to that, I guess, in that business, just because it seems like a business that's not going away, people die. And I heard of it more with coffin sales and stuff like that. Just a surreal. Like who has a dream that they want to be a coffin salesman, but there's crazy money in there and there are endless supply of customers or at least people that are buying on behalf of someone else.

[00:05:41.060] - Speaker 2

That's true. That was also my thought process. Really as crazy as it sounds. Because I was this young dude and I knew I wanted to do something in the digital space. And I knew that, okay, every smart guy, all my fellow guys from my university that knew how to code, knew how to build software, they all wanted to build a second Facebook or second MySpace. So all the talents go there. So I was like, what type of sector no one wants to go to? I'm not going to go to a club and impress a Garrett and I'm doing a startup in the federal business. So I was like, maybe this is how I'm going to keep my potential competition away from me. So that was my methodology of thinking. But then you realize that you're not the first one. In the early 90s in Poland when capitalism was being born, who would open a funeral home? Someone that didn't have a chance to open a business in any other sector. And who was that in Poland? All those guys that used to work for the government, all those shady guys that used to work in the secret police, all the spies, all the people that now everyone hated because they were working for the communist government.

[00:06:52.080] - Speaker 2

So they were like, let me just open the funeral business because no one else wants to do it anyway. And those type of people are not just the most honest, most professional managers you could think of. I didn't know that at that time because I was a CNN group in the year 2000, something that was trying to do business with them. Those 60 year old guys with very complicated past, let's just put it this way. And that's how I ended up like trying to do business and selling software to those type of people. And that's how I kind of got into the rabbit hole of dealing with those type of guys here.

[00:07:31.300] - Speaker 1

That's interesting. So do you know or did you code or were you more entrepreneurial minded or you just outsourced the code or find some buddies to code?

[00:07:42.490] - Speaker 2

So my last line of code I wrote, I think in 2006, 1st line of code for my first funeral startup, I wrote on my own. But then I realized that this is not what I want to do, that I'm kind of being pulled into the business side. I've realized I like the sales part of the business, whether it's setting the vision to your clients, to your employees or fundraising or whatever. That's what I really find satisfaction, while at the same time I'm not the smartest programmer and I could find people that can do the same thing three times faster and three times better while they have the problem of building a business out of it. And that's how the young and young kind of came to life. I found my first co founder who seemed like my Auntie Tesla, right? Everything I was good at, he was treated. And the other way around and we became this good duo. And that was my pattern in every other business I opened. Afterwards, I would find someone that would complement my weaknesses. And that's how you can run a business,...

Vivian Probst - Author, Speaker, Poet, Playwright, Consultant to the Affordable Housing Industry

Vivian Probst has dedicated her life to making the world a better place.  Her latest project is the book entitled, Tha Womun Who Forgot Who She Was.  Note the different spellings.  You see, Vivian has taken on the challenge of modifying the English language to remove the dominating patriarchal tone.  Not an easy task, right?

Like many societal challenges, educating the public about the issue is one of the most difficult parts.  After speaking with Vivian, I believe that if anyone can make progress in this regard, she certainly can.

Listen as Vivian lays out the issue of a male dominated language and details her plan of getting this fixed.

Enjoy!

Visit Vivian at: http://vivianprobst.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

Héctor Colón

There are a plethora of similarities between fighting and business.  Some in business may even equate a day in business as a fight, battle or even war.

The mindset, confidence, success and power all encompass both.  No one knows this like Héctor Colón, the CEO of Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin.  From being a seven time world champion in the boxing ring to guiding a non-profit in the boardroom, he uses his fancy footwork to get the job done.

He is releasing his memoir, Against All Odds shortly.

Listen to this episode of the best business podcast to hear how he did and does it.

Enjoy!

Visit Héctor: http://www.lsswis.org/Staff/Hector-Colon.htm

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

Steve Schleicher - Voice-Over and On Camera Talent

Remember that dream job you were going to pursue?  The one that was awesome and ended up not happening.  Well, Steve Schleicher is a guy that became a teacher and for many years was enjoying himself.  Then he remembered that dream he had way back when.  So he became a voice-over artist and actor.  All while still being a teacher.

Steve describes in this interview how he became a multi-faceted voice-over artist and how he does the bad guy roles as well as the goofy dad roles while acting.  Maybe the goofy dad roles aren't acting so much as just portraying his likeness on camera.

Whatever the case, this is a fascinating interview with an interesting guy that may just help you take some steps to get your dream job.

Enjoy!

Visit Steve at https://www.steveschleicher.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

Nicholas Hinrichsen - WithClutch.com

Nicholas has gone the distance in Silicon Valley.  After starting up Carlypso and selling it to Carvana, he started WithClutch.com, a website built to make refinancing your car easy.  That alone is impressive.  Add to that mix some Stanford Education, his experience with his business partners in YCombinator and raising $10M in venture funding, and you have a solid guy that knows his way around start-ups.

I wanted to quiz Nicholas about the venture funding world.  How do you get financing and what is the deal with these high valuations of companies that have yet to make any profit?  Nicholas had all of the answers and more.

He is super awesome entrepreneur and I had a blast chatting with him.  You'll enjoy listening to Nicholas while you learn the ins and outs of funding your business.

Enjoy!

Visit Nicholas at WithClutch.com

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

Today's guest is Nicholas Hinrichsen, Stanford MBA and founder with a successful exit to Carvana.com. Before selling his business, Nicholas raised $10M in funding from angel investors, lecturers, professors and institutional investors.

 

After three years with Carvana, Nicholas left to start WithClutch.com, a digital platform to refinance auto loans. 20M car owners can save thousands of dollars in minutes and usually don't even know that refinancing a car loan is even an option!

Judith Joy - Yes With Joy

Achieving your dreams is a fantasy to most people.  Something commonly left to those that are lucky, from many people's perception.  Judith Joy takes that idea and alters it a bit, essentially asking her clients, "What do you want?" and then, "What would that look like?" and onwards to, "What if you could actually achieve that?" by taking them through an envisioning process.

Judith is the author of a few books, most recently, Dear Future Lover, a book about how she manifested her husband.

This is a positive woman with an interested outlook and she had a lot to share on this episode of Authentic Business Adventures.

Enjoy!

Visit Judith at: https://yeswithjoy.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

Barbara Schlaefer

Health insurance is expensive, we all know that.  Businesses are expected to absorb the constant increases as they get told they are lucky to only have that 10% increase.

But what if there is a different way?  What if you could lower your costs to insure your employees as well as offer better service?  I was intrigued by this and Barbara Schlaefer spelled out exactly how to do just that in this episode of Authentic Business Adventures.

Enjoy!

Visit Barbara at: http://jc-rose.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

Gary Tree - Advanced Building Corporation

We all need healthy food, clean water and fresh air.  We also need some shelter.

Gary Tree is the Vice-President of Advanced Building Corporation.  I brought Gary on the show because he is the rare gem in the construction world that understand the value of communication.  He shared his diverse experiences with us in this interview and brought some interesting things to light, in the construction world.

Advanced Building Corporation does mainly commercial construction projects in the Midwest.

Enjoy!

Visit Gary at https://www.advancedbuildingcorporation.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

 

[00:00:03]

You have found Authentic Business

Adventures, the business program that brings

[00:00:06]

you the struggle

stories and triumphant successes

[00:00:09]

of business owners across the land

coming to you remotely,

[00:00:12]

but also through the Sun Prairie Media Center

brought to you by Bank of Sun Prairie.

[00:00:16]

My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,

author, speaker and helpful coach.

[00:00:19]

And today we have Gary Tree,

[00:00:21]

the vice president,

co-owner at the

[00:00:26]

Advanced Building Corporation, general

contractor here in Madison, Wisconsin.

[00:00:29]

So you guys do commercial?

[00:00:32]

We do predominantly

commercial, little bit of residential.

[00:00:35]

High end residential.

All right.

[00:00:36]

Depending upon a client.

Yeah.

[00:00:38]

So there's two main reasons

that I want to get you in.

[00:00:40]

One is that from the networking group

that we're a part of,

[00:00:43]

you have a lot of insight, just

broadly speaking, in a business sense.

[00:00:47]

So I feel like there's a lot of insight.

Thank you.

[00:00:49]

Yeah.

And two, I guess probably three, actually.

[00:00:53]

Two is that you bought this business.

[00:00:55]

You were an employee, it sounds like.

Yes.

[00:00:57]

And then you bought it

with a few other employees.

[00:00:59]

Yes.

[00:00:59]

Two other fellow employees,

associates got together and purchased

[00:01:05]

the the business from the owner

who was looking to retire.

[00:01:08]

That's cool.

[00:01:09]

And then thirdly is that you're

in the commercial building phase,

[00:01:13]

which blows my mind from a bidding

standpoint,

[00:01:17]

because there's the whole goal is to bid

a lot of times I imagine they're blind.

[00:01:21]

I imagine sometimes you're dealing

[00:01:23]

with government

and you're dealing with millions

[00:01:25]

of dollars of the projects that I

just can't wrap my head around.

[00:01:28]

Like how many?

I don't know how deep you guys get,

[00:01:30]

how many boxes of screws are

going to be in the sky scraper?

[00:01:34]

Well, we bidding is about

40 percent of our work, OK.

[00:01:39]

The other portion that really has to do

[00:01:41]

with negotiated and return

customers. Our focus

[00:01:47]

is really on a client for life and to

[00:01:51]

generate a trusted relationship

where we're seen as

[00:01:56]

a trusted party.

Just like you trust your dentist.

[00:01:58]

Sure.

Oh, all right.

[00:01:59]

So that's that's where we want to go.

[00:02:01]

But at the same time,

[00:02:02]

we recognize that the business here

in Madison is so diverse,

[00:02:07]

the economy is so robust and there's

so many different sectors.

[00:02:11]

So we found a way to participate

in a lot of them.

[00:02:14]

Yeah, both commercial and to some

extent residential manufacturing.

[00:02:20]

The a lot of government work,

some Madison Metropolitan School District

[00:02:26]

work, a lot of work for UW remodels

down downtown on the campus.

[00:02:30]

Sure.

[00:02:31]

And for Dane County and some of their

parks and other facilities in town.

[00:02:34]

All right.

We do the dirty jobs.

[00:02:37]

We do the stuff that other

folks don't want to do.

[00:02:39]

Sure.

And after you've done a lot of them,

[00:02:42]

you begin to see a trend in terms

of your cost and efficiencies.

[00:02:47]

And we don't count screws

and we're putting together a bid.

[00:02:50]

OK, we we look at the overall job and go,

[00:02:53]

gee, this feels kind of like

the one that we did over here.

[00:02:56]

All right?

And we were pretty good with that.

[00:02:59]

So we price accordingly.

Sure.

[00:03:02]

And we found that we're competitive.

[00:03:05]

OK, we do a fair amount of work.

[00:03:08]

We're fairly successful.

[00:03:10]

And then we take that same pricing model

and we apply it on our negotiated work.

[00:03:16]

OK. So we don't get greedy.

[00:03:18]

Sure. We want to create value for people,

for clients and help them appreciate

[00:03:25]

what we can do in terms

of leading their projects.

[00:03:28]

OK, so let's talk about that.

[00:03:30]

Let's just run down the road here estimate

because it's fascinating to me and I say

[00:03:34]

that's fascinating because I come from

when I first started my business,

[00:03:38]

had a printer repair company

and just pricing for that service.

[00:03:42]

Right.

Which is right.

[00:03:43]

Half hour.

Forty five minutes at a job.

[00:03:45]

And parts are very easy because, you know,

it's a fifty dollar, one hundred dollars,

[00:03:49]

five hundred dollars part,

whatever it is, it's very simple.

[00:03:52]

Right.

[00:03:52]

Whatever algorithm you can apply to,

that's super basic.

[00:03:56]

Then I look at fifty million dollars

[00:03:58]

building or I think of like the Viking

stadium was that was billions of years.

[00:04:02]

Yeah.

Just stupid amounts of money.

[00:04:04]

But I think.

How do you know.

[00:04:07]

Because a small fraction of that would be

[00:04:09]

plus or minus hundreds

of thousands of dollars.

[00:04:12]

Well there is, there's always this,

this range of error and and there's,

[00:04:19]

we don't do a lot of of

multi multimillion dollar job.

[00:04:24]

Well, hundreds of thousands.

Right.

[00:04:25]

Yeah, hundreds of thousands.

[00:04:26]

And we we bid typically three to five

[00:04:30]

million dollar jobs with

without much trouble.

[00:04:32]

But we categorize every area

[00:04:35]

of the building in terms of a square

foot or some kind of quantities.

[00:04:39]

Sure. We can at least have a rough

idea of what the scope is.

[00:04:44]

And we've got some benchmark numbers,

some roundabout numbers that we would use

[00:04:49]

to say, gee, that we've been doing

that work for six bucks a foot.

[00:04:53]

So at X number of feet,

[00:04:54]

that that sounds kind of like

that area is going to be this much.

[00:04:57]

Sure.

And then we'll go out and solicit bids from.

[00:04:59]

From our kadry of subcontractors that we

work with,

[00:05:04]

we can't do the work without them, show

how we treat them is really important.

[00:05:08]

And so it's not just on bid day,

[00:05:10]

but it's on the follow through

and the actual implementation

[00:05:15]

of the project and managing that and

communicating and then closing it out.

[00:05:19]

So we'll reach out to them, get numbers.

[00:05:21]

But a lot of times

[00:05:23]

some of the subs we use are too busy

and don't have time to provide, quote.

[00:05:28]

Sure.

[00:05:28]

And we'll use historical numbers and then

we'll step back and go, gee,

[00:05:32]

that feels like we ought

to be able to do it for that.

[00:05:35]

No, it's a little more complicated.

[00:05:37]

We should probably build a little

cushion in on that project.

[00:05:40]

And then you can't do that on every trade,

[00:05:43]

because if you do, you end

up not being competitive.

[00:05:46]

Right.

So you you look at that and you make some

[00:05:49]

value decisions that's

based on experience.

[00:05:52]

Okay.

[00:05:53]

Just like any one of us that's done

something for a long time,

[00:05:57]

after you've done it for the hundredth

time, you know pretty much how to do it.

[00:06:01]

And you're sure you feel you get a feel

[00:06:03]

for sure, you get a sense of it and then

you adjust on the fly.

[00:06:08]

We have a bit of a advantage because we

[00:06:09]

have a fair amount of our own trades

that that we cover work and self perform.

[00:06:16]

So we're able to control

a little bit of that.

[00:06:19]

But that there's also more risk there,

[00:06:21]

because if you think that your guys can do

that in a crew of five,

[00:06:25]

can do it in 40 hours and it takes 60,

well, you've got 10 years or so,

[00:06:32]

but it does give you the flexibility to be

[00:06:35]

able to control and manage the schedule

of the job and ultimately the quality.

[00:06:39]

OK, nice.

[00:06:40]

And then how do you this is you mentioned

[00:06:43]

subs which the home when you start talking

about communication within construction,

[00:06:48]

that's a whole new topic,

I guess, as far as that goes.

[00:06:52]

How do you I guess you're talking to your

[00:06:54]

sub saying, hey, can you quote us

on this little section of the project?

[00:06:59]

But then I mentioned it takes time

[00:07:01]

for that bit to get totally put

together and then approved it.

[00:07:04]

By the time that all happens,

[00:07:05]

that sub specifically may or

may not have the availability.

[00:07:09]

True.

There's that.

[00:07:12]

Yes, you look at pipelines and things

like that, but you you can never

[00:07:19]

turn down work because you

think you may be too busy.

[00:07:22]

No answer.

[00:07:23]

...