The Huddle - Episode 211. Always On the Job: Time, Burnout & Being the Bottleneck
For many business owners in the trades, stepping away from work is easier said than done.
There is always another call to return, another estimate to finish, another crew waiting on an answer, or another problem that only one person seems able to solve. Over time, being the person everyone depends on can turn into something much heavier. It can create burnout, slow growth, and make the business harder to run rather than easier.
In this episode of The Huddle, Paul and Jose are joined by Andy McWilliams, who stepped into the conversation while Daniel was away. Together, they talk honestly about time, pressure, delegation, and what happens when the owner becomes the bottleneck.
The conversation is a reminder that working hard and carrying everything are not the same thing. Growth often requires better systems, more trust, and the willingness to let other people take ownership too.
If your business feels like it cannot move unless you are personally pushing every part of it forward, this episode
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What is up team? Welcome back to the huddle, the number one podcast employing. We're here every week to help
you guys gain forward progress in your career. Simply put, we're here to help you win. For all the new viewers,
welcome to the team. Quick mention of today's sponsors, NFCT
and Divergent Adhesives. If you got an adhesive uh or a project
that needs a demanding adhesive, make sure to check out Divergent. And of course, every week nearly we talk
about training and and being properly prepared for your project.
That's where NSCT comes in and all their great trainings over there. I know Andy,
you could attest to that. Uh, my boy Jose, you know, and Daniel, our
trainer, is off today. So, Andy got the pleasure of stepping in. Thank you,
buddy. No problem. Love you. Thanks for joining us today. Uh, Andy's
been on here several times and, uh, sometimes, you know, fills in as a uh,
guest uh, of the moment. I'm not sure if that's the case here or if he just
happens to be here. And uh either way, he's a wealth of knowledge and we're uh
really happy that he's here. So today's topic real quick is being the
bottleneck. I mean, it's a lot more than that. It's always on the job, you know,
kind of the um uh let's see what is the ex always on
the job, time, burnout, and being the bottleneck. So bottom line here is uh I got a lot to
say about being the bottleneck for a company uh typically
uh you know or um specifically when you're starting off. So anyway, thanks
everybody for joining us today. Mr. Jose, how's the how's the weather up in
uh Grand Rapids treating you? You got the got your Top Gun glasses on, ready
to roll. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. my uh my gamer glasses because I'm looking at a screen a lot
and my eyes are getting burnt out right from the screen. But um the weather's nice, man. Probably mid 80s again today.
Um humidity is kind of going away a little bit. Got rid of all that smoke from Canada. Kind of blew by, blew over,
like engulfed our state. Um so I mean so air quality is a little bit
better than it has been. Can't complain. But I'm in here wearing
this sweater because Daniel's got the the air conditioner set to uh uh North
Pole while he's gone. Like he left and then put it on North Pole. So
it's a little free. Well, Andy, tell us uh for those of in the audience and who will be watching
this podcast later, tell us a little bit about yourself and uh your role over
there. Yeah. So, um, you know, installer, been
an installer my entire life and I switched over to the technical side back in 2019 and I've been working for Naval
ever since. So, my role at Naval is uh at this point senior technical manager. I handle um incoming claims, oversee the
claims department along with, you know, product development, um, you know, tons
of different technical aspects. Um, there's a lot to name to be honest with you. Um, ASM testing is is one of the uh the
biggest things that we we do um on top of trade shows
um trainings, installer trainings. We try to, you know, all of our distributors have installers that come
in and we'll we'll go train them. So, there's a lot to it. Fun stuff. Yeah, for sure.
So today's topic being really
pointed at the burnout and the the the being the bottleneck and a lot of
installers uh can probably you know find this very relative to
their life. Like you're you're the guy that gets the call for the job. You're also the guy that's got to figure out
how to get the job done. And then you're the guy that gets called to finish the job. And opportunities sometimes overlap
other opportunities and you find yourself sometimes drowned in opportunities.
Well, don't feel pregnant because that goes that happens even at the dealer,
commercial dealers, retailers, everybody has that kind of
problem. The key is um hiring good
people, right? Having good people manage their uh roles and responsibilities. But
trust me, we're going through it right now at my company. We have a gentleman that's out of the
office for a elongated period of time that is was unexpected and all of a
sudden you're jumping right back into you know trying to just keep your your nose I won't even say the head. I I
think I might have a straw to keep myself uh breathing oxygen at the moment. So, I know all about this
burnout and and how things uh can affect your your psyche and your performance
and your mind. I thought that'd be a good place to start is like how do you handle that
workload, Andy, when you just got through saying, "We do installer
trainings, we do trade shows, we do this and that and the other." So, that has to
be stressful and hard to keep up with. How do you handle all that? uh you know, management I think is the
biggest thing and and having the not being afraid to say no. And this just goes back to even when I was running my
installation company. Um I I got to the point to where I, you know, everything
looks so enticing to me. You know, there's a 1,700 foot job here, 2,000 here, 4,000, you know, yes, yes, we can
do that. Yes, we can do that. and and all of a sudden, like you say, we're now we're just barely, you know, able to
finish one job because, you know, we're spread so thin. So, I think learning to
say no, I can't do it now. Can you wait?
Can we, you know, here's my next available date, right? Um, I think that's the for me
that was the biggest thing to do is is being able to manage that, you know, and manage that expectation with my my
clients, right? They so they understood that they couldn't just call me and get me whenever they wanted. They had they
they knew that when they [clears throat] called I was going to give them a a date range because I was so busy there was no
way for me to get to it immediately. But at first, believe me, [laughter] and I have to give big ups to Brian
Wilkersonson because he told me, you know, he he's the one that told me that. He was like, "Hey, you got to learn how to say no every once in a while, you
know." Well, and and specifically at the installer uh you
know role in this whole industry like
if you are in high demand, you should probably let your customers know that, right? It allow it kind of opens up the price
book a little bit. You don't look, you know, it's a scarce asset to to be a really good installer. So charge for it
first off and make sure that you're you're covering if you can't do it. I
mean I have to negotiate with our subs all the time on timing. Like if I have a particular guy I want on a particular
job. We got to negotiate all the time on timing because you know the the really
high quality guys, the experts, the masters, those guys, they they are busy.
You're not just going to have them start a job tomorrow. Now, sometimes I can negotiate with them to pay them a little
extra to jump over and do a one day or something, but starting a job or something is
uh you know, you you you just have to know. And obviously, just like you said,
having your getting your clients kind of um I forget the the word you used, but
used to the fact that you're busy and they're going to call you and you're going to give them a date range. We have
those guys that we know we we can't just call them and and they're going to be on the job tomorrow,
right? That's why we hire uh in-house guys because we can move them around where we
where we need and when we need, but our subs, you know, they're they're
the good ones are going to always have work going on. You might get them for a day if you have treated them right over
the years. They want to help you out, but it's going to be a helpout. It's not like a standard operating procedure.
Sure. Yeah. 100%. And if Go ahead. I was good. I think um part of that too
is u like you said the calendar and being open and honest, right? But but doing your best to look ahead with the
team, whether you're subcontractor or you you have employees, is is being able to look ahead and try to game plan. Um
then that's that's very important. And it all goes back to the communication thing, right? like the the back and
forth. Uh you know, we got to talk to the crews, got to maintain open communication and understand where we're
at on projects and understand when specific projects are heavy on the body
physically and heavy on uh the the brain mentally, right? like finding that
balance to to to create that open communication knowing that we have a
little bit of uh a fluctuation in the calendar like a fluff day or two um you
know on larger projects so that we can fit in one day projects for other people. Um I'll be honest those one day
projects those two-day projects are the ones that usually are because you're maintaining a relationship and you're
trying to fit it in. Um, and it's hard it is hard to say no, but it it's how
flexible are they? Do they need it done by this date? You know, because I can make it work. You want it on Monday,
Tuesday, but man, it's Friday morning. I cannot adjust my schedule that quick. Can we make it work on next week,
Thursday, Friday? you know, communication and and sometimes it's no, sometimes it's yes,
and I guess depending on what it is and if they're willing to wait or they have that flexibility as far as the end user,
that makes it a lot easier, too. Yeah. Well, talk about the the [snorts] part
that, you know, we talked about calendar like the technical or practical side of
it, but what does this do to your work, to your mental? Like right now, I could tell you I'm probably at an eight of ten
on stress. Like it's we we we've we are so busy and and
losing a guy unforeseen, you know, non-planned kind of thing uh for an
unknown length of time can, you know, put a mental load on you. Mhm.
You guys, when you get a customer that calls and asks you for something and you're like,
particularly you already have a contract, you're scheduled to do the job in my case, and you know, you got to
pick up the pieces as someone's not there. You know, you don't want to displease people. But at the same time,
the way that I've dealt with it is just it's still like I can't I can't do
everything right now. You know what I'm saying? So, even if it's a um something
I'm supposed to be on top of, I might still tell the client like, "I can't get
back with you today. I'll get back with you. Let's do it in the morning." Uh and I
that and finding a way to disconnect after work, like truly not
not deal with this stuff when you get off are the two things that I I try to
do to keep my brain from exploding. Yeah, please elaborate. Teach me how to do that,
man. Well, I'll tell you what not to do, and this just my opinion, but don't turn to substances to
Oh, yeah. uh maintain yourself. I know a lot of uh a lot of great installers that
destroy their lives by turning to substances to do that disconnect. Look,
a lot of times the growth comes through this hardship and through the the pain
like I'm going to learn at the backside of this and I'm going to put in some systems and maybe change a process here
or there or uh you know make sure that the coordinators are more involved with
the jobs. uh they can handle a little more or you know there's going to be some change around here because of it.
That's that's positive change. Doesn't mean heads are going to roll. We're just going to make some process changes so
that people not everybody has to be stressed out when something like this happens. Exactly.
It's a very specific thing. But whether it's my specific thing or your specific
thing that you're thinking of as you watch this, understanding that a lot of times it's
growth and processes and change that comes out of these hardships. I mean, you don't you don't build a muscle by
not making it hurt, right? That muscle has to hurt grow.
Uh it ain't much different than your brain or your your than your muscles.
Like sometimes you're going to go through the the a hard thing and you're going to learn some lessons if you keep
an open mind to it. That's what I I try to tell myself is like, okay, what am I what am I going to learn from this so
this doesn't have to happen again again? Right. Yeah. That's uh that is one of the hardest things. And you're
right about uh turning to substance abuse as an outlet to to deal with it.
It really doesn't look it really doesn't do anything for you, right? Like I know that I quit
drinking like cold turkey years ago and now I can have a drink or two. Um
I babysit the drinks. I get made fun of all the time because one drink will last me six hours, right?
I [laughter] can attest to that. But um you can get some fruity drink and it sits there and gets watered down by the
time everybody tells me buy fufu drinks. But but then like also like I used to smoke cigarettes. I I used to smoke pot
back in the day, right? Like these are all things that I quit cold turkey. And I know that a lot of people don't do
that. And to say that I tried to do that, it didn't happen. But I leaned on some
of those some of that after work, right? To re relieve pressure, to relieve stress. Um, and to say I didn't lean on
that, I'd be lying to you because otherwise otherwise then it was my hobby. Well, I think pretty common
a pretty common thing, right? Particularly alcohol. Not that I'm
saying that having a drink is a bad thing, but if you're using it to disconnect and just go numb.
Are you guys getting any feedback? I'm getting a little bit. Yes. Well, my
could be on me. Um, or it could be Andy went away when
Andy muted. Uh, the if it if you're on a phone, Andy,
sometimes if you have that phone sitting down, your speaker will bounce up and cause a little feedback. So,
yeah. No, that's weird.
So, but anyway, that it's kind of a common thing that happens and uh sorry,
you're gonna have to deal with the feedback because I'm going to just go ahead and keep talking. But what I'm getting at is it is very socially
acceptable to to have a drink and that's fine. I'm not putting, you know,
badmouthing. I'm saying don't use it as a tool to disconnect from your stress.
Right. And um you know, this is going to sound like really weird. Uh I I replace all of
that with my quiet time when I'm alone and there's there's no other distractions. I I do
kind of either make a mental list or or a written list to organize my thoughts and my moves for the next day or for for
the next week. And then I I break that down too, right? like it doesn't always happen in the order that I want it to
happen. But that is um that's what I do after work. That's part
of my decompression, so to speak, from from the the work overload. It's doing
my part to it helps me sleep better at night, right? Because now I can actually relieve some of that pressure because
I'm taking a breath. All right, that's kind of organized. I know my next steps. I feel better about tomorrow. Yeah, I
can't I I'll second Andy's, you know, calendar and your to-do list. I mean,
having both of those kind of, you know, in order and they're going to get out of
order, jump them back into order, do your very best. But, you know, a guy
told me a long time ago like when I get super stressed,
he's like, "Dude, you're not curing cancer, okay? You're not on the brink of a breakthrough of cancer." Although it
can feel like that type of pressure, we got to put things in perspective. You know, there's a lot of times in my life
when I was super stressed out. I couldn't even tell you why I was today. Like,
you know, I can I can look remember I was, but why?
Like this too shall pass. Yeah. Yeah, dude. Tom Hanks, this two shall
pass, brother. I You know what? I tell my son that all the time, dude. We don't use the word I can't and this too shall
pass. And um you know it's so it it it always everybody's issues whether it's work,
personal right and it always seems like the hugest thing in your life at the moment because it is the block right it
is it is what is hindering um progress in in one way shape or form and
this two shell pads right and and what did I say u
uh compartmentalize you you compartmentalize you consolidate um and then you um but in order of importance,
right, to get through the the clearing. Uh, and that is part of the calendar,
that is part of the notes, that is part of updating all of that so it makes sense. And since I'm a very visual
person, it's got to make sense visually because I I cannot keep in order the
thought process and the next step because as soon as another problem arises, right, it it throws a wrench
into the the pattern that I was trying to create. And and I think that's everybody, right? That's not just me.
That's just me thinking out loud and going over my thought process because that's just and that's life. Um, you
know, and and I I wrote some notes and you got to find out where the issue is
and try to find the solution and work backwards. Yeah. Also,
uh, a nice tool for people, um, I tell my managers this when they get super,
you know, overburdened or over like overwhelmed is you can only do what you
can do and just put one foot in front of the other. I know that sounds really elementary, but I find solace in the
fact that like I'm on this podcast. It's not like I've got I don't have 15 other
things right now [snorts] waiting for me begging for my attention. But I'll tell you [snorts]
this was next on this was my next step and I just take the next step and the
next step and just put one foot in front of the other. Do your very best and let the chips lay where they are. Sometimes
you're not good enough. That is the fact. I know in the today's society they want you to believe you're you're the
greatest of all time. You can do whatever you Well, some days in some circum circumstances you're just not
good enough. And that's okay. It's just that one day. Put one foot in front of the other. Do your very best. If your
very best is not enough for that scenario, for that circumstance, take
solace in the fact that you did your very best. more I get more stressed when
I know I didn't do my very best or I avoided it or I find myself like trying
to um distract myself and watch a watch oh I I need to go learn about this new
AI thing. Yeah. Yeah. Right now you you see so
I I feel that in my soul right now, brother. I'm just letting you know. I feel that right now. Like there's you're
getting pulled every which way and you have to you definitely have to
prioritize and and pick out that thing that's most important at the moment
because in in two weeks when the other things that aren't that important
is is just that order of operations. I guess I I I I don't really know where I'm going with that, but every every
item has um a deadline, right? Every item has the the level of
Well, they're all deadines. They're all perceived deadlines, you know. That's that's what I'm getting at
is like usually you can recover from these types of You sound way better, Andy, by the way.
Oh, thanks. Do I look any better? You do. I don't know what you did. What filter that is, man, but I need it.
[laughter] But yeah, I think that you know juggling
all these uh things that we juggle as uh leaders in our respective companies and
in in industry. On top of that, a lot of times you don't prioritize, right? I
mean, let's just be honest. You It's hard to figure out what's the most important thing when you got four clients. None of them do you want them,
you don't want any of them to feel like they're less important than the other. And
you're going to make a choice. And if you got four clients, three of them are going to think you're wrong. And the one
that you chose is going to think you're right. Right. I mean, it's just do do your thing, man. Just keep doing your
thing because tomorrow will come and it won't be as bad.
Yeah. And then what you know, so like um recently I spent a week out in uh in
Milwaukee for for baseball. Um and
I know what comes with trying to take time away from work, from the office. I know what comes. I know that I still
have to look at things every single day, right? And you know, and and the parents
who work for someone, they're like, "Dude, you're still working. Why are you working? Why do you got to go work?" And
it's like, do you guys understand? Like, I don't have somebody else doing that
for me. Like, this is the role that I chose. This is what I what I do to make
a living. This is this is part of my responsibility and I've accepted it. If
you guys want to go off and do what you got to do, do it. Um, but I have to
maintain, right? Even if I'm not there, I have to maintain. I still had guys working on my projects while I was gone.
They're got to check in, make sure everything's good. Um, you know, I'm not try definitely not trying to micromanage. I'm just trying to make
sure that I'm up to speed in case I get a phone call or an email that I need to address with with with a client. Um, and
and and that's all it was. Well, that daily check-in can be invaluable sometimes when you're gone,
you know, just, hey, how's things going? I'd rather know things are going okay or make a preemptive call than get a call,
you know, mid swing at a baseball tournament that all hell's breaking
loose, you know? Right. And and you know they that old thing where no news is good news.
Nah. No. I don't I don't know about that anymore. Right. Like the old I don't believe that one day.
No news. No news is uh it could be good news, but it could also just be uh a tsunami building,
right? So yeah, no u a constant influx of news or updates is
always great to have and it and it does relieve the stress levels when you are
away from your desk, working away from the office and and you know you have uh multiple things going on. Um, and I know
you can appreciate that a lot more than than I can because you you've been practicing it longer. But, uh, it's one
of those things where the communication and that open line of communication really helps uh, maintain stress levels
or mitigate high stress levels, right? It's like, that's going good. That person's taking care of it. The crew leader's taking care of it. Daniel's
taking care of it. Like, I'm good. I'm in the clear at least for today. Tomorrow, I'll check in and make sure
that everything's still good and we'll go from there. Well, and frankly, sometimes you are like the end of our the title is being the bottleneck.
Sometimes you are the bottleneck even if you've built I'm the bottleneck in multiple situations right now, but um
you don't want to be the bottleneck for your entire workflow. So,
no, that's you know, getting some pe some help. Uh, you know, I know some
installers that do this fantastically well and they're they're they've got
help. They've got somebody to help keep their schedule up to date. They got somebody that helps keep things moving
for them. Uh, and they can focus on installation. Uh, what I know a crew
that, you know, it's his it's u it was his wife and now it's, you know, an
employee. Um, installers sometimes think the only employees they should have is other installers or or help. But if you
get that one person that can do your fillings and talk, you know, kind of
order material stuff for you, you need a couple trials, you need some glue, you need some stuff, they can, you know,
quick phone call and they get it taken care of for you. Uh, they can check on if you have a few crews, they can help
with crew management. um like you do reach some point where
you need to hire somebody you can trust to take some load off and you know that
never goes away. I mean I'm in the situation right now I've got to hire a few people. We're in the hiring mode
regardless and on top of that you know what I discussed early on in this podcast uh is happening. So you don't
really grow out of it because as you unless you stop and you decide this is
all the larger I want to do be um and that's that and that's fine too. I know
some guys that they run the business out of their house and they've got little shed out in the back or a a metal
building and they do what they can do and no more. They tell they say no a
lot. That was us. That was us for a while. We didn't say no a lot, but that was still us for for a long time.
Sometimes I miss those days to be honest with you. Sometimes those are some of the days that like it was when I it was
just me and a crew and a few guys and you know, you start thinking like, yeah,
that there was some, you know, there was some some merit to that. Well, there's merit to each step.
and you just have to decide where you want to go and practice good good
management of your time. But those are techniques. At the end of the day, I
don't care how good your techniques are, you're going to end up in a spot where you have a heightened stress level. And
my encouragement is handle it the best that you can. treat
people around you well, as best as you can, and realize that this this day is
just another day. You'll get a new chance at it tomorrow. And typically, these types of problems don't last a
long long time. You know, uh Lesie says, "We all know fight or flight
uh when it comes to stress, but your body mind isn't meant to be in continuous fight orflight mode. It isn't
healthy. Uh, and we all have to find ways out of that survival mode mentality where
everything is defcon one. Don't let other people's stress dictate your stress. It's easy, but it's critical. It
isn't easy, but it's critical. And I have to I read that right away because it is one of the truest that that's a
great statement. At the end of the day, a lot of our stress come from other people
projecting their stress onto us and then you feel it and you're like,
"Oh, oh, I got to do jump through rings of fire and this fight or flight thing."
You never get away from that. That's your amydala, you know? I mean, that's your your monkey brain trying to keep
you safe. And uh if you're a fight person, you you attack it dead on. And I
have people here at my office and I can tell you who's the fight orflight type people. And I'm not saying one's right
or one's wrong, but I run to the fire. I run towards it and I always have. Uh
there's people that retreat and sometimes they handle it better. I'm not saying that one's right or wrong, as I
just stated. I'm just saying, and I think Leslie's point here is it's your cortisol levels are not meant to be in
that that heightened state for long periods. And that's what causes the the stress
levels, right? And and that's where when everything does start bottlenecking, right? It doesn't because you're right. It doesn't matter what level of any
career or anything you have, the stress levels are real and and everything does bottleneck. And um and it's one of those
things where they're going to stay heightened until you figure out a way to find a solution
or like you said, right, run straight into the storm or take a step back or run away from it until you figure it
out. And sometimes, you know, there's a balance that that everybody does. Sometimes you do got to step step back before you just dive right in like,
"Okay, hold on. how am I going to approach this? And then you you go, you know, off of sometimes just disconnect for a few
minutes. Don't try to just say, I'm letting go.
I don't care for the moment for this 10 minutes or 20 minutes. I just don't
care. That doesn't mean I don't care for long term or I'm not going to take care of the problem in another hour, but
right now for 10 or 15 minutes, I don't care. and just just walk away.
And I'll give an example as an installer when we used to work, you know, doing some intricate cuts on on on something
and we just couldn't get it right. Right. And this tight cut and we just and I would tell like stop. You're
getting you're getting mad. You're you're you're not going to take your time. You're not going to rush it through or or you're not going to take
your time. You're going to rush through it. Stop. Walk away for a few minutes and come back. That piece will still be
there in five minutes after you think about it. that piece will still be there in 10 minutes after you think about it.
And that applies to us, right? I mean, outside of a deadline on a bid, most of the things aren't going to like,
you know, give it a few minutes, walk away, relax.
Don't think about it. And that's the hardest thing to do is to not think about the problem that's causing you that. But a lot of there's a there's
ways you can do this. There's breathing techniques. there. Stuff like that [sighs]
[gasps] for just a few minutes can be a lifesaver, you know, for your for your
brain. And sometimes the only solution is taking off your tape measure and chucking it across the room and saying, "Take that." [laughter]
Well, I really appreciate Leslie's uh
comment on that. And it is a fight orflight mode. And when you get a chance
to stand back and really um re-evaluate I the the other thing I would say is
like from a lower uh energy level so to speak a lower
height a lower stress level think about what can be done different. Don't try to
fix the things in the moment. A lot of times that's where we make we we
compound our problem. Step back, take a breath,
get through the day, get through this situation again. This two shall pass. I promise.
And come come with a creative mindset. You
can't have creative mindset and a fight or flight, you know, being a fight at
the same time. So, you got to get out of this to get into that and think about how you can solve that problem,
you know. And I will add um to this whole the whole topic too and and and sometimes the the whole bottlenecking
bottleneck effect and the burnout is caused by um you being excited and ready
to run and jump into something that you you're not prepared for, right? and it and it starts causing damage that you
know you didn't you didn't foresee the damages because you just seen what you wanted for the outcome and it all it's
all very promising and and I'm going to go back to this past week where my son's
been wanting a new desk for his bedroom right but he wanted a power desk and this and that and we got a few new
tabletops Daniel gave him a tabletop we found the base on Facebook marketplace I
went and bought him a base for it on the way home I was like look dude It's getting late. It's 7 o'clock at
night. I know you're going to want to go home and put this whole thing together, right? But we have to make sure we have all the right things. You got to clean
your bedroom, right? There's some things that have to happen before this can take place or or before this should take
place. Yep, Dad. I got it. I understand. Right. He got home. I went back to work.
Came home a little bit later on in the evening. Guess what? The desk was all put together.
Room was not clean. the motor was broken because he did something he wasn't supposed to do or so
he thought it was broken. It wasn't operating the right way. He didn't take the time to find the right screws, popped through the tabletop, messed up
the whole like like all right and in instead of being all upset, right? Because I was upset that he did it. I I
waited till the next day and we talked about it and I said, "Did you take the time to find the right screws?" "Nope."
"What happened? I broke the tabletop." "All right. Did you take the time to make sure everything was clean in your
room? Nope. Then what happened? I messed up the table because I tried to set it down on something. I didn't have enough
room and it went down and messed up the motor. Like, all right. So, you know, and I went and fixed everything the next
day. And then we talked through it the whole time and I said, "This is why it's
important to sometimes understand when you have to put your hands up and take a step back and say,
"Let me organize my thoughts and prioritize these steps." Um
that's he had to he he had to live it. He had to live it himself, right? It's just something simple like that, but he
had to live it. Yeah. And you know, he's only 13 years old, so it's a good lesson, right? Small lesson,
inexpensive lessons. Well, if you've ever put together a piece of IKEA furniture, sometime or one
of those pieces, you know, that stuff can get frustrating. Sometimes you do just got to walk away, think about it,
and the solution comes to you. One of the best pieces of advice I've gotten is
like walk away and detach from the outcome for a moment. Just detach from
the outcome for a moment. If you are a god-fearing person, give it
a prayer. Detach from the the outcome. if you just
that it doesn't matter but just constantly trying to solve the problem
in this heightened uh emotion that can be damaging. I want to point uh
tell Rin glad your your uh wife is okay sir. I'm very glad to hear that.
I see no comments today guys so I'm sorry I'm not interacting with that. you're the uh fire run to the fire type
of person as well, you said. And I I can tell you that that can be one of the more stressful people. You got to get
you got to get you want to figure it out right then. And there is still a time where I have to
walk away and just think about other things for a moment.
So, you know, I I will um I will say that I don't always make the right decisions when I'm the because I am the run into
the fire type of person. And I don't always make the right decisions, but I have I have noticed over the years that
when somebody else that I know is running straight into the fire and they give me a call, I'm able to calm them
down and help with a solution, right? No matter if it's, you know, something with
their house or personal, it's like, "Hey, dude. All right. Hey, hey, you're excited right now? let's
let's give me a little more details. Let's try to figure this out. Let's let's see what's going on. Right? And then and then I don't know anything, but
it's I'm able to calm them down. And then they start dissecting everything and then they go, "Huh,
I think, okay, you're right. You know what? I missed this or they missed this and you know, I got to make a phone call
real quick. I'll call you right back." I can't tell you how many times I've gotten a solution when I'm just driving
or just not not at work about a work thing and it just kind of comes to you.
That's what happens when you kind of step back and you don't engage all the way with the problem for a few minutes.
And that's all again these are these are, you know, there's technical like
have a calendar, your to-dos, you know, be responsible, communicate. Those are
technical practices or practical um practical steps you can take. But
managing your mind is is the hardest thing. It's the hardest thing for me. And yeah,
you know, sometimes I want to choke people out and sometimes I want to like,
you know, give up. Sometimes I I don't want to do it anymore. Uh but at the end
of the day you it it all kind of gets reset when you just kind of stand back
and and uh you know think about something else for a few minutes. Think about something you enjoy. Uh just take
a little bit of time away from the problem of being the bottleneck and um
you know who knows uh I I may walk out of this podcast with some new uh new uh
things taken care of. uh myself because it gave me a chance to just disconnect
from my day and jump on here with you guys, talk about this kind of stuff. It's
something we all face every single day. And I hope that uh you know, through
some of these um practical techniques as well as, you
know, mental techniques that you might find a little bit of help and um you
know, get through get through the day as they say. and then you know you know attack it again tomorrow.
I did see like uh through like social media some social media um channels and all that like uh advertising small
little electronic devices now that help you focus and they give you x amount of time right like you could put it use it
like a calendar where you have you know two hours to focus on on this this subject and you put a timer on and
that's what you should be focusing on. So I so I think that that there are things out there um to make it easier if
focus is the issue, you know, and I could use that sometimes. I'll be honest. But like on my my phone, I I do
have um um Apple Music or YouTube Music. And I do have a couple channels that are dedicated to just helping me disconnect.
And I I typically when I want to really disconnect, I put these headphones on
and not not these earbuds. Um and this helps block everything out. and I play that, you know, white noise or or static
in the background and then I just focus in on what I'm supposed to be doing. That's one way that helps me. Um I I'd
like to hear other ways that help everybody else. Well, that's called time blocking, you know. And if you can time if you're good at time blocking, there's
a lot of people I mean that build I'm not good things, big things, and they they
do it because they're able to like just block out the time to do the the thing.
They they're the type that can accept they're not going to finish everything in that time frame. But time blocking is
uh you know, another technique out there. Rollins says, "I make no fast judgment. I look over all the options.
He says, "Ask my wife. I don't let things stress me out. I believe the
Lord's in control." Believing in a higher power, I uh I I firmly uh submit
to and you know, we're not a religious podcast, but I often say I believe in
Christ and and the the ability of understanding that, you know, Lord Lord
is in control. And uh just take some time. It's it's it's not a again
stepping back is one of the keys to this no matter what. So
all right well we are ending getting to the the end of the podcast here and
yeah you were here for the whole time. Thank you brother. Yeah no problem. We had a little bit of technical difficulty. I thank Andy for
uh joining us for a brief a little bit of time. We had some some sound issues.
I have some sound issues on my side, so we'll fix that uh for the next podcast.
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