Built Tough: How Roggen Frick Turned Burnout into a Blueprint for Growth

21:04
it you you got to maintain it. You have definitely have to step in and maintain it, but it's not you are actively involved in it dayto-day. Yeah. No, this is great. I have multiple questions on the whole thing.

21:15
Hey everyone, it's Karly. If you're really resonating with what we're talking about and want to get clear on what truly drives you, what your core values are, head on over to my website in the tools and tip section, there is a

21:26
free values assessment. And this is a quick exercise that's going to help you to uncover what actually matters most with you so you can lead and live with more clarity, fulfillment, and momentum.

21:38
I love um because you're you're right. It's like if you are doing the day-to-day, all of a sudden you go from business owner to business operator, right? So putting in these um standard operating procedures and making sure

21:48
everything is running smoothly without you is just it is a top priority. So when you think about workplace culture like what what helps you guys create that workplace culture like do you have certain core values that you follow like

22:01
what does that look like in your company? Yeah, we really value uh safety is the number one and we also value honesty in our company as well. We like everybody to be open with it. We are open with our employees. Our employees are open with us. Um, and we're open with our

22:18
customers because we want to make sure that our customers are satisfied. And that's another value that we hold high at our company is uh customer satisfaction and quality because the customers are really what make the business happen, right? And so we've got this culture of be safe, have a nice

22:38
clean workspace, do things right, and if there's a problem, you can come to somebody and talk about it, and we're going to figure out how to fix it and get through it together. And the team dynamic from those aspects really help everybody feel like they're

22:57
in working together on it and that they're not just there for the paycheck. They're not just there for the job, but they're there as a team and they're working towards achieving something, which is, you know, making the products

23:09
for our customers and making sure that our customers are satisfied. And then our employees love hearing the feedback of um, you know, you guys got another fivestar review on Google. This is what the customer said. They're happy to they're happy with your work. They think

23:22
the welds are good and everything like that. And just making sure that they they know how much they're appreciated. That's amazing. Um, so one thing that you're doing to just keep them engaged in this culture, right, in these core

23:35
values is sharing the Google reviews, which I love. I think that's so important for every person in the company, um, whether it be the janitor to like the senior leadership team to actually hear stuff like this because

23:46
everyone wants to make an impact. And when they get to feel that, it's it's your right, it's like it inspires them. They want to do more, they want to do better. Yeah. Yeah. And something I like to do at the end of the year is I show I pull

23:58
up a map of the United States and I put a dot on every single product that's out there to just show them. I'm like, look, this is where all of your work has ended up all across the country. It's on islands in the Pacific and everybody that every one of these dots is a happy

24:16
customer. And you know, just being able to show them that and then when I go visit customers in the field and show them pictures of their product in Alaska or in Florida or in Pennsylvania or

24:28
wherever I'm going to visit a customer at and show them like your your product has made it all the way out here and it's doing its job. Yeah. So part of it is just making sure that it stays alive through all the

24:39
engagement that you're having with them and kind of sharing them in these little ways. Are there any more ways that you keep them engaged with the core values outside of the things that you shared? Uh the a way that we keep them engaged with safety because you know that's one

24:52
of the biggest challenges that I think um companies have is instilling safety because it's really easy to just be like you're doing this wrong. You're doing it wrong. You're not being safe enough. And just really um

25:05
reprimanding people for doing the wrong thing, but instead we encourage them for doing the right thing. And you don't want to you have to be careful with it because you don't want to create a culture where people are going to be lying about their injuries and they're

25:17
not going to report it or things like that. So, we built a culture of like, you know, we're going to go walk out in the shop and we're looking for seat belts on the forklift. We're looking for a face shield when they're grinding. We're looking for safety glasses. We're

25:29
looking for gloves. We're looking for those things that are, you know, it's not like that way you can still report an injury if you get an injury. That way it's not like encouraging them to hide it, but we're looking for those things.

25:42
And if they're all doing that, then they get put into like a lottery at the end of the month where there's prizes handed out. And so you could get the number one prize every month is you get a whole day of of paid day off.

25:55
That's cool. They probably get super stoked for that one. Yeah. And the minute that we started doing that, it really started helping our safety go up quite a bit. like we started having less uh incidents where people forgot to put on a seat belt

26:08
and people were running with their face masks and now everybody's like telling each other, hey, make sure you're wearing your seat belt, make sure you're wearing your safety masks and make sure you're wearing your gloves and things like that and it's really helped improve

26:19
that. So, you know, just some incentives I think are very positive because people like to be incentivized instead of reprimanded. Absolutely. I think everyone likes that. Even as adults, we prefer it, right? Our psychology. So, let me ask

26:37
you a question, too, because uh yeah, I talk about core values all the time. I love them. I think it's amazing to see companies who really are engaged in their core values and the results it has on their employees. So, we kind of got

26:48
to hear how you've been structuring it. We kind of got to hear what it looks like on a day-to-day basis, how you're sharing it, how you're maintaining it. What would you say having these core values within the company has had an

26:59
impact on? How has it really helped the company to thrive and what do you think your company would be without them? Without them, I mean, if you don't have a set of core values in your company, then you don't have you don't have like

27:13
a shared set of things or values that you stand behind, right? And I mean, a lot of companies might have core values whether they realize it or not, whether they've written down bullet point items and said these are our core values. Um, but really identifying what those are and

27:30
then driving them and helping, you know, incentivize them and bringing attention to those is something that is very important in your organization. I think that if we did not have that, I don't think that our safety would be as good.

27:44
I don't think our quality would be as good. I don't think our customer satisfaction would be as good. Um because you can tell that when like I mean if you're doing business with I mean we all have to do business with somebody you know our toilet breaks or

27:56
the air conditioning goes out or something like that you know you have to call somebody and get a hold of them. You can tell when a company doesn't have their core values and their things altogether because they're maybe they don't have good

28:09
customer service or they don't pick up the phone or the employee just doesn't sound very happy to be talking to you. And it's those things that are going to hurt your sales and hurt your business. And so you really have to be building a

28:21
good positive culture where people want to be there because if they want to be at work, they're going to portray that positivity onto your customer base and your customer base is going to go, I want to work with those people because

28:33
they seem like they have it together and they're not going to let me down. Because if nobody wants to work at that company, how do I know that they're going to make my product properly and deliver it on time and meet my

28:45
expectations? Yeah. No, that's perfectly said. You're definitely preaching to the choir. I say this all the time how important core values are and I just I really wanted to keep cementing it in people's heads by hearing the actual impact it makes on your business and if you didn't have

29:01
them like how it actually would be such a detriment cuz you're absolutely correct. It brings the whole team together and that is 100% felt on the customer side of things. And also it just makes your business like you as a business owner enjoy your business so

29:14
much more. Like to be able to show up and have a team to work with as opposed to just trying to run around like put out all these fires and manage all these people who really don't like working there. Um it really makes your job different. It makes your leadership's

29:27
job different. It's it's amazing. Like it's amazing what it can do. So thank you for sharing those dynamics. Yeah, it really is. and you know the journey along the way. You know I think we've rewritten our core value list. You

29:38
know I don't know how many times we've went through it but it's something that we've been doing early on in the company. You know we started out with a list like 20 values and you know we've gotten it like kind of confined down and even if it's not something we post all

29:51
over our website and brag about everywhere. It is something that I know what these core values are and it's something that I'm going to portray to my employees and it's something that I'm going to make sure that they're living

30:02
by as well. Yeah. I love that and I I think another thing that you had shared that I really want to reiterate as well is that every company has core values whether they realize it or not and it's just asking yourself those quality questions to pull

30:13
it out because your company's already demonstrating of very specifics that of core values you guys are living by and this just puts it all together connects the puzzle pieces gets everyone to understand it to a greater degree make

30:26
sure they know it make sure they're living by it they hold up to those standards when you hire you even hire by the core values you don't ever want someone who doesn't align with your values in the company. Yeah. That'll mess up your team,

30:38
right? Yeah. And you know, it's like and if you're not if you don't like at least sit down and evaluate what your core values are, you know, you might be surprised that your core values might actually be bad core values. You know,

30:49
if you're not critical of it and and identifying what you want them to be, then they're just going to be whatever they end up being. Yeah. Yeah. And then Yeah. Then you're stuck with those until you actually dive

31:00
in and shift it. Yes, that's a great point. And let me ask you as well because you were mentioning in the software and I love this one too is that you're tracking like it sounds like metrics. Are you doing KPIs for each

31:13
employee? How does that work? What are you tracking to make sure that you can oversee stuff from a broad perspective as opposed to just being in the grit? So when it comes to this is true for construction and manufacturing because you're building things. Uh production

31:32
times are very important. That's like one of the number one things that we're tracking because material costs I can't really control fluctuation of that. That's going to cost what it costs. But I do track it because I do need to be

31:43
able to change my pricing based on that. But production hours are something that I really look at because the way that we run the company does have influence of how long it takes to make something. There are ways that I can change the process to improve it. And so we track

31:60
our time by the operation. We're tracking how long does it take to cut this product? How long does it take to weld this product? How much time are we putting into quality control? There was a period there where there was we weren't having like major quality issues, but every once in a while, you

32:16
know, we'd send out a product and there was like a couple welds missed or something got shipped out wrong. You know, one time they even managed to load out the wrong color and it was like they switched up to customer orders and got

32:28
shipped to the wrong place. And so then, you know, we have to go deal with the customer and refund them or make a correction, things like that. And I was

32:36
tracking quality control time and how much they were spending on quality control. So, I go start looking through the records and I have 30 minutes built into every product to do a quality control check. And they were spending about five minutes or less. They clock into it, clock out, hit

32:48
complete, and go through. And so, I caught him and I was like, "Listen guys, we need to really make sure that we're doing a good job on quality. I don't care that you're spending your time doing it. I need you to because it costs me more when I have to go and fix

33:00
a product that's all the way across the country now." Yeah. So tracking all these different metrics and the production times are very important. At the end of the year, I sit down with all of the data and I sit through all of our the skew numbers

33:14
of each product and find out how long it takes on average for each product. um to make everything analyze the costs so I can make the pricing for next year as well as analyze is there ways that we can improve the process and is there ways that we can um that we can uh not

33:34
just improve the process but produce sorry I lost my train of thought now that's basically you're going through you're going through all the dynamics of why you're tracking it to make sure from

33:46
start to finish like everything Yeah. Yes. How we can improve the process, but also how can we set better goals? Because if we're, you know, if we're making the product now uh two hours under the goal time, you know, we're

33:59
making it six hours instead of eight, well then I'm going to start setting that down. Okay, the goal now is to hit it six hours. Can we beat that or at least meet that? Yeah. No, I think what's really helpful about what you shared, too, is all the details about the specific KPIs you're

34:11
setting. People tend to get really confused with KPIs and and do really broad general ones, but yours are great examples that they're there to reach very specific goals. And those very

34:23
specific goals, it's like these are the measurements that actually are required to ensure those goals are being met and those are the goals that are important to your company as opposed to just setting random KPIs and metrics. And I

34:36
mean, they don't really give you as much, but these are very specific to what you guys want. Yeah. you know, and you got to identify the KPIs that are important to you because there's all these KPI tools out there and they'll give you hundreds of

34:48
KPIs. You might not know what most of them do or most of them mean. You might know what a handful of them mean, but are they really going to tell you a story that's important? And when I'm going when I'm sitting down, I I sit

35:00
down for pretty much the entire month of November and analyze all of the data from the e-commerce store, from the manufacturing software, um from QuickBooks, from all the different data points that I have and start analyzing different things to see where can we improve.

35:17
Yeah. No, that's amazing. Um, it's funny because it reminds me when I first started coaching, the KPI that they told me to do was on my sales calls and how many were closed and what was my close rate and stuff. And I realized at a

35:28
certain point I don't even care about that. That wasn't my business model. I wanted to provide such great service that I could just have repeats and referrals. And if I wanted to market, I could market. And having random sales

35:40
calls all the time doesn't track that at all. But like tracking how many people repeat, how many refer, what are the top referers, like where is it coming from, why is it there? like that gave me the actual necessary data and the people who

35:51
aren't repeating, the people who don't refer, was I never hear from again. It's like going back and getting customer feedback surveys and understanding what the gap was. Was it actually something that I was lacking or was it just not a

36:03
match, you know? And it's Yeah. getting all that data that's important to you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's funny like you talking about calls and stuff. You know, I know that there's a lot of

36:14
companies out there. They measure your like success as like a call rep is like about like how much time you spend on the phone, not necessarily by how many sales you bring in or how many dollars revenue or

36:25
anything like that. It's about how much time you spend on the phone. And so I don't run, you know, a big call center that's trying to sell different things. I don't know if that's the most important metric, but

36:39
just make sure that you do know what your important metrics are for sure. And it's funny because um there's ones that I've spent very minimal time on and the you know, it didn't last very long, but there's

36:50
clients that I've really invested a lot of extra time in, but again, like the the repetition, the referrals I've gotten have been just it's just instrumental for my business. And so I couldn't I couldn't be more thankful.

37:03
And so it's like, do I really want to track how much time I'm spending with them? No, I get bonus time, man. I love you guys. Like, thank you so much. What else do you need? What else do you want? What else can I do? Tell me. Like, how else can I serve?

37:15
Yeah. Yeah. So, really, yeah. Understanding those metrics or we're just going out there copying people, not doing things that are valuable to us, our customers, and it's confusing. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, there's no cookie cutter model for a business. So just because a successful business is

37:33
tracking these metrics and this is what's important to them, you know, unless you have an identical business, it's probably, you know, it might not perfectly align. Yeah, absolutely. And let me ask you

37:44
too, because I know we're talking about core values within the company, within the people. What about like the values that are passed on to the customer? Like are there certain promises that you guys make to the customer that the employees are just basically paying attention to

37:57
on a regular basis? Yeah, one of the things that we try to do is we try we because construction is always we it's a joke in the industry. It's a a dollar short and a day late. You know, they're always behind budget or they're always over budget and behind schedule. It seems like, you know,

38:14
especially if you're driving through a road project, you can feel that. And it's it's it's a joke, but in a sense, it's true. I mean, that's a constant battle on a construction project of trying to keep that under control. So, when we get a lot of customers, you

38:26
know, they need this product yesterday. Yeah. Uh because something went wrong on the job, a change happened and now all of a sudden they need my product. So they need this now. So one of the things that we try to do is we try to keep our lead times down and we do that by one keeping

38:45
popular models in stock. That way there's ready to ship inventory. We can just ship it out the door and get it to them. Um, but the next thing that we do is because our manufacturing process is so lean and efficient that we can push

38:59
products through really fast, we can usually get a product out the door in two weeks or less. And so we're always tracking how much time we have because, you know, if we get a really big order,

39:10
that's definitely going to push us back to three weeks, maybe four weeks, depending on how big of an order that is. But we track that and when we tell a customer that we're going to have a product to you at this time, we really take pride into making sure that that

39:23
happens. Now, sometimes the ball gets dropped. Sometimes I can't get a semi-truck because there's not enough truckers out there on the road to cover loads. Um, you know, we're all limited by the challenges of the economy. But we

39:37
really try to do our best to make sure that we get the product to you on time and that it's going to be a quality product that's going to that's going to solve your problem. Yeah. No, I love that. And it it's also again just to reiterate just having

39:50
those processes and systems in place to ensure that these things can move quickly because when they're not in place, the bottlenecks just come up so much faster, so much harder. But when

40:01
there's just these like really standard operating procedures and everyone's following this method, like it just makes it easier to pump things out more quickly. Yes. And then having the the the main

40:13
products in stock is helpful because that stuff can just go out the door, you know, and then we're usually building the stock. Our main schedule is build it to stock. But then every once in a while, you know, we get an order something custom. Somebody wants something custom done or they need

40:27
something that's not in stock. Well, then that's just pushed to the front of the schedule in front of all the rest of the inventory that's getting made and then we can get that done a little bit faster. Yeah. No, it's amazing. It's funny

40:39
because uh it's this also really reminds me of the fashion industry. It's very similar. Everything's due like last week, last month. Like why am I just hearing about it now? But it was the same thing. Like if we hadn't had put

40:52
the strategies, the operations in standardizing things, like we just couldn't do it. And so the more we standardize things, the more people could come to us last minute and be like, I need this and I need the final

41:04
image and I need it to this person and so and so by this date and it's like we do it like we can do it. It's going to be a little crazy, but we can get it done. Um, so yeah, I think it's just reiterating again is just have as much

41:16
standardized as possible because then when those those little hiccups come through, guess what? Like you can manage them. You can figure it out. You can put the time and energy in there instead of all the standards like operating dynamics,

41:29
right? Yeah. I can focus my attention towards the the stuff that needs my attention, you know, and that's I'm even doing that same thing right now. I'm working on building out content creation and building out our YouTube

41:40
channel and you know trying to make videos to showcase our products. That way people know what they are and how they can help them out. And so I'm trying to come up with a standardized process of just making the videos. That way I can keep those coming out and

41:54
still be relevant in front of people. Totally. Totally. This is so valuable. I don't I just don't know what I would have done if I haven't done something on on the back end. Everyone's like, "How are you so consistent with your content?" And I'm like, I have a very

42:06
like I do. I have a standard operating procedure for my content so I can be consistent with it. Otherwise, everything falls through the cracks. It'll just fall through the cracks. Yeah, it does. And that's one of the downfalls I've had is I haven't been able to be

42:19
consistent enough with the content creation of the business. You know, we'll go through these periods where, okay, we're getting a lot of Facebook posts out, Instagram posts, LinkedIn posts, and things like that. Didn't really I always tried, like I

42:29
said earlier, I have the hardest time delegating out things that I'm good at. I'm good at making videos. But then I just kept pushing it, pushing it, pushing it, pushing it. Now I'm finally like, okay, I need to hire a video editor

42:40
and get somebody that can help me and build the process and start delegating the same way that I delegated the operations, but for the marketing side of the business. Hey everyone, it's Karly. So, if this conversation is really hitting home and

42:53
you want to get a real snapshot of what's working and what's not in your business, head on over to my website in the tools and tips section and you can have the business performance health check. In just about 15 minutes, you're

43:06
going to see where the friction is and where your next growth opportunity lies within your company. Yeah, 100%. And I'm curious once you delegate that to a greater degree, what are you bringing your time up for? like

43:19
what's the next step in the stage for you that you're wanting to invest more time in? The next step that we're doing is, you know, once we get the processes down of of content creation and marketing and a

43:30
process of launching new products, I'm going to be spending a lot of time with my dad of developing new products and new solutions for the industry because there's a lot like our products are very niche. Um, and what we've found is that

43:46
if you want these type of niche products, you need to go to a different vendor for every single one of them. So, we want to be this kind of like one-stop shop for all these kind of niche products or these replacement items or things that you need for your equipment and for excavation. And

44:04
there's a lot of different products out there that we can produce to do that as well as just making sure that, you know, we might even be looking towards getting other manufacturers that maybe they're not so good at selling their products,

44:15
but they're good at making their products or finding distributing things from a wholesaler um through our site and reselling things like that. So, just expanding our offerings is really what my goal is with the company.

44:28
Yeah, that's awesome. I think that the fact even you're giving some separate examples of how to do that, right? There's an opportunity for you to do the manufacturing, but again knowing maybe I'm not going to be the best at it, but

44:38
there's some people who have the best product that just suck at marketing it and sort of taking on that individual like as a manufacturer, which is also a great strategy, right? So, it's like just kind of checking in to see which

44:50
one works best because expansion can go through so many different levels. Yeah. I mean, once, you know, I start looking at the business, I'm like, well, we've got an e-commerce store. We're really good at shipping things around

45:01
the world now, and we're we can manufacture metal goods. Well, there's definitely I can put effort into any three of those parts of the business and grow it out more. There's opportunity in all three of those areas. Yeah. And it's expansion based on your unique strengths, which I love. So, it's

45:19
not like unrealistic expectations to dive into things and have crazy learning curves. You're like, "No, these are our strengths. Let's figure out how to like utilize them in this very specific way." Yep. And then how can how can it

45:30
complement what we're already doing is really the biggest thing. Yeah. No, that's very cool. I love that. I love that. And let me ask you as well is so you are the second generation founder. I know you talked about that a little bit in the beginning. So, what is

45:46
some of the most challenging part of the dynamic and how did you guys get to the other side of that of like the father-son dynamic? Totally. You know, I give all the credit to him on that because he realized that I have

46:01
ideas and that I have foresight for the company to be able to take it to another level that he couldn't see. And I know that a lot of dads will sit there and, you know, I'm the dad. I'm boss. I know what's right. You know, he

46:15
actually took a step back and he let me take the reigns and run it because I did the first time around. I started the company and proved it that it was a business. And then the second time around, um I have the degree now, which is something he didn't have. He just grew up the school of hard knocks,

46:35
made his way through a construction career and got successful with it, and knows a lot of hands-on skills and knows project management. But when it comes to product marketing and logistics and uh content creation, all these other aspects that you have to do as a

46:49
business, he let me run that. and um he listened to my ideas and I think that that was important um because we have a good relationship where we can go back and forth with each other and bounce ideas off of each other and support each other

47:06
in those ways instead of just one of us being in charge and the other one just running, you know, doing things that the other one says. Yeah. No, that's amazing. And I think this is also it's going towards the art of delegation and partnership, right? Like sometimes we think about delegation

47:23
and just having someone new, having an employee, an individual like that, but this is in partnership. And with partnership, um, we sometimes focus on the things that are similar and we only appreciate those things. But when we

47:34
really appreciate someone's differences, what makes them unique, all of a sudden we're understanding where their strengths are and then feeding that in such a way that it's like you're you are you're delegating that dynamic to them.

47:46
You're helping them grow there. You're pushing them to grow there. And that's like a true caring relationship, you know, when you actually understand someone to that degree and both challenge and support them to get it together and move forward in that unique

47:60
genius they have. Yeah. And we really, you know, and that's like we really helped like nurture each other in that way because, you know, he's really good at coming up with ideas. He's a really smart guy with coming up with the ideas of the

48:11
products. He's come up with all the ideas of the products. I'm really good at executing the products and getting them out on the street and making sure people know about them. And so that's where we can help

48:22
each other out a lot. And and you know, another thing to that family dynamic too, uh, is when we're not working, we don't talk about work. So like Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinner or just a weekend together that we're just relaxing, we just don't talk about work. We talk about other things and

48:46
really just try to not talk about bare iron works and what we're doing there and separate that family and business relationship. Yeah, I think that's a really helpful dynamic, too. Caveat, I actually work

48:58
with my husband. So there have been times when like right before bed we're laying in bed and he'll start talking about something I'm like not the time babe not the time like I'm about to pass out. I do not want my brain working at that level right now. Go to bed. So just

49:14
even having those conversations where we're like okay let's try not to talk about things after a certain period of time right because there is that realistic dynamic that you also want to have like still your normal relationship

49:26
still your normal life. Yes. And that's the it's a balancing act because you can't let one out hurt the other. Y can't let business hurt the family. Can't let family hurt the business. You have to try to keep them as separate as

49:38
possible so that you can be successful in both. Yeah. No, it is a different dynamic, but it is an inspiring one when you can definitely work with family and kind of see things pass on to generation to generation. I know it can be challenging

49:50
in certain dynamics, but seeing that happen is pretty cool like when it actually does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think you got to be realistic. Like my wife and I, we've kind of come to the conclusion that we're too strong-headed to probably work

50:02
together, at least at this point, you know, if we wanted to do a company together. Maybe down the road we'll do a little bit better. But, uh, yeah, you know, we've You got to be realistic with it because you don't want to be

50:13
like, "Oh, yeah, no, we'll be fine. We'll get through it all." Even if we have differing ideas and things like that and we argue to the point that we have to come to an impass. But yeah, be realistic and go, "Okay,

50:25
you know what? Maybe maybe our relationship isn't good enough to have a business on top of it. Maybe it should just be a relationship. And relationships change, scenarios change, so it could change down the road. But

50:37
no, they do. Um, my husband and I are that way. By the way, we did not think about that before we got into a business. And that was something that we really had to learn how to navigate. And we really had to do a lot of personal development work on ourselves. Yeah.

50:49
To sort of shift that dynamic. Um because we both have that very we we both can be really hard-headed. We're both very strong. Um we both take a leadership role and having two individuals like that can really clash.

51:01
So yeah, it is true. You're accurate and we we did not understand that in the beginning. We understand that now, but it took some time to sort out. Yeah. Yeah. It just makes some more hurdles to jump over, but you know,

51:13
if you're willing to work with each other, you can get through it. Absolutely. Absolutely. And let me ask you a question as well, cuz what's something that you would love to share with another founder who still is

51:25
running 12 hours a day trying to hold it all together? What would you love to share with those individuals? I would say that if you're starting your business and it's early on, I would say that you need to have a good understanding of your finances so that you can make sound decisions. And then

51:42
once you have a good understanding of your finances, trying to find areas where you can spend money to hire the right people to fix the weaknesses and hire out those things that are drowning you. I love that. No, it's really beautiful advice because, you know, you can

52:00
you can only hire a $200,000 a year manager if you have $200,000 a year to spend. Same with a $50,000 year manager, right? You have to know how much money you had to spend to solve your problems. Yeah. It's absolutely true. Um, one of

52:13
my friends, she's in marketing and she gets hired from time to time by startup companies who can afford her but wind up giving up a percentage of the actual company, which is interesting. So, there's also a cost to some of these

52:26
other strategies cuz now she has stake in these companies and she doesn't have to stay if she doesn't want to, but she will hold stake in your company, which is quite fascinating. So, there's a cost to not having cash flow,

52:37
right? You know, and one of the ways that we navigated that challenge early on was uh time because money is time. It's just an exchange. People are giving up their time for the money that you give them. And so, one of the incentives that we

52:50
did to get our manager because we couldn't quite afford hiring a manager at the time was we gave them extra vacation days. Nice. More more paid time off than um you know, most companies would give somebody. And you know, that can be a draw for people. So, be creative with

53:07
how you're going to solve your problems. I love that. I love that. My top priority is usually not to give away parts of the company unless it really is a strategic advantage and then you go for it. But otherwise, you get creative in these other ways and as he said,

53:20
focus on your finances. Yes. Uh well, Broen, thank you so much. This has been so informative. I feel like we've gone over so many details, um, so much information for people and it's been quite inspiring and I would really love for you to share more about where people can find you and check out Bear

53:37
Iron Works so that they know where to go, which we'll also include in the show notes for you guys. Yeah, you can go ahead and go visit baron.com. That's our website and that's where all of our products are. Um, and you can contact me by reaching the

53:49
general line there and asking for me or you can find me on LinkedIn, Robinfrick. Awesome. And thank you again for today. This was quite inspiring. Yeah, thank you. I had a good conversation with you.