Contractor Evolution

If you'd like to apply for Breakthrough Academy click here: https://trybta.com/PCEP49 To download the Critical Convos Template click: https://trybta.com/PCDLEP49 The Los Angeles Rams have on the wall of their locker room a mantra.  That mantra is, “The standard is the standard.” It serves as a reminder to the team that the standard is non-negotiable. Excellence is self-evident, and it is always the goal.  No if’s and's or but’s.   Now, the actual results may miss the mark.  Perfection is not possible, and human beings by nature are error prone and that’s okay.  They as a team can accept losses, dropped passes or other missed assignments.  They learn from them, get better, more resilient, and move on.  But what is NOT up for debate and never will be is the standard. Okay admittedly, I am a football nut, but lemme try and bring this back to our world.  Your Business is a game of human beings making commitments and then following through.  But where the real work begins is in the managing of the follow-through.  The people in your business are going to make mistakes, are going to screw up, are going to have lapses in judgement, are going to say and do things they regret.  This much we know is inevitable.  What matters, is your ability to effectively coach them back to the standard.  And this the hard part. Today's episode is on what we call Critical Conversations.  How to communicate when the stakes are high.  These are those conversations you know you need to have, but would rather avoid.  Your project manager blows up inappropriately at a customer.  Your Journeyman shows up hungover and late for the 3rd time in a month.  Your usually excellent sub-trade partner messes up their scheduling and pushes your entire project back two weeks. You can’t build a performance culture, a strong brand, or leaders within without Critical Conversations and yet most people, even accomplished entrepreneurs, are terrified to have them. In today’s episode Igor and I break down a 5 step process for how to have these that will reduce whatever anxiety you feel about these and facilitate a way more productive conversation for everyone involved. We’ve also included a super easy to follow downloadable framework you can download and keep nearby. I hope you enjoy this, and remember, the standard is the standard. Why you need to uphold your standards, especially when it's uncomfortable How to decide if a Critical Conversation is worth engaging in so you don't waste your emotional energy How to define the focus of the conversation you're about to have Where you should have the conversation and how to set it up with the person you are talking to The way to have a critical conversation so that you're able to explore both parties perspectives The simple action plan that creates a foundation for positive behaviour moving forward  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you'd like to apply for Breakthrough Academy click here: https://trybta.com/PCEP48 While business tactics, skills and systems make up a big part of our discussions on the show, we’d be remiss to not also talk about the importance of having a balanced life outside the walls of your business.   A lot of you are husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, community members, fitness enthusiasts and adventurers. Balance is a virtue worth striving for and that means spending our time in a way that allows us to express our core values, be with the people we love, and do things that we enjoy.   Yes crushing goals and making money is great, but if your life outside of that is empty, what are you really achieving with your time here on earth? So today on the show we’re going to explore how one super successful 8 figure contractor has implemented a life planning process to drive his business strategy and truly show up for the myriad other components of his life.   Blaise McDonald owns Mac Renovations.  Before MAC, Blaise was an industrial electrician working in a very hands-on capacity. Since entering the business 10 years ago, which was founded by his dad has gone from about 2 Million a year in revenue to close to 15 today. In that time, he’s grown his team from 12 employees to over 40 exceptional project managers, carpenters, sales people and administrators and he is one of the highest performing entrepreneurs we work with at Breakthrough Academy. In this episode you’ll learn: How a deeper and more meaningful “why” improves his clarity of thought, motivation levels, and entrepreneurial enjoyment The way to think about planning your business vs planning your life The detailed personal planning system he and his wife use to chart the trajectory of their shared life and how that drives his approach to business When you add life goals to your list of already existing business goals, does it make it easier or harder to achieve everything? How life balance is actually (almost) possible for a busy entrepreneur How to incorporate accountability into your personal goals See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you'd like to apply for Breakthrough Academy click here: https://trybta.com/PCEP47 In a chess match, a player’s first sequence of moves is known as an “opening”.  The opening is a memorized series of 8 to 12 moves that, ideally, sets up the chess game in an advantageous way for the player.   Execute the right opening and you’ve created some leverage for yourself.  Execute the wrong opening, or make a mistake during it, and you’re fighting an uphill battle. Now when I say “Master your Opening” what I’m talking about specifically here are the first few minutes of your sales call.  I’ve heard different businesses call sales calls different things. You might call it an estimate, a quote, a consultation, an appointment, a design meeting, a discovery meeting, but for the sake of clarity I’m going to refer to it as the sales call. I know what you might be thinking.  Aren’t the last 10 minutes the most important?  Aren’t those precious moments when you’re “closing” the most important?  When a pen is being put to paper, or when a deposit cheque is being cut?   The closing moments ARE crucial, but to me the opening is the most important because it’s what sets up the close. The customer usually makes up their mind about whether they would do business with you in the first ten minutes, not when they are staring at your quote. My goal in this episode is to increase your sales conversions by covering a few core principles which I’ve learned including: Why the first 10 min of your sales call is more important than the last ten minutes The 3 things that you need to accomplish in the first 10 min that will help you close the sale 1 little mindset trick to perform before you talk to your prospect How to convey likability right off the bat The best way to establish a Leader/Follower dynamic during a sales call Where to insert trial closes into your sales calls so the customer doesn't ever feel blindsided See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you'd like to apply for Breakthrough Academy click here: https://trybta.com/PCEP46 To download the Employment Agreement CQT click here: https://trybta.com/PCDLEP46 Welcome to Contractor Evolution and our 6th and final episode of the Ultimate Hiring Funnel series. Over the last 5 weeks we’ve tried to lay out the fundamental steps involved in attracting and hiring the talent your business deserves.  Building a world class hiring funnel is not an easy thing to do, but nothing important ever was.  And if building a rockstar team isn’t at the top of your priority list, I don’t know what is. Last week we talked in depth about the interviewing stage, but we aren’t quite done yet. To close this process out we need to talk about the all important Job Offer Call and Expectations Meetings.   One thing that a lot of contractors struggle with is holding people accountable. Employees make up their own expectations, standards slip, and your frustrations mount. The expectations meeting solves this by clearly articulating the standards at the precise moment when your new employee is the most malleable. Remember this, you can’t hold the line with someone if you never drew it in the first place. To walk us through this we’re excited to have James Dale returning to show.  James is the Director of Training and Development at Breakthrough Academy.  He’s hired and conducted expectations meetings for 100’s of staff all the way from labourers to executives. He’s the brains behind the BTA Management System which he and his team of coaches help implement into the businesses of 400 fast growing contractors.  It also should be mentioned that his fantasy football team is off the chain this year, and he has a black belt in krav maga. So let's conclude this ultimate hiring funnel series with James Dale where we’ll discuss: What's the Job Offer Call and why do you need to conduct one? How to get your candidate excited about the job they are about to start The best way to reinforce the positive attributes of a new hire while prepping them mentally for inevitable on-the-job coaching The prep you need to do BEFORE you go into an Expectations Meeting The 5 parts of the Expectations Meeting that allow a really strong start for any new employee How to come across as a strong leader a new hire can trust See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you'd like to apply for Breakthrough Academy click here: https://trybta.com/PCEP45 To download the Interview Guide Tool, click here: https://trybta.com/PCDLEP45 If you’ve been around long enough you already know the cost of one bad hire….to your profitability, team morale, your brand, and your own personal stress levels.   But what I want you to think about is the cost, over your entire career, of not being an exceptional interviewer…. being someone that is susceptible to frequent hiring mistakes.   As we say all the time on this show, you run a people driven business. Your ability to objectively analyze someone’s previous behavior, and predict their future performance with a high degree of accuracy is one of the deadliest skills you can have as an entrepreneur.  Your growth potential is directly related to how well you can team build, and interviewing is arguably the most crucial step in the whole process.  Understanding a candidate - not just in terms of what is on their resume, but their deep rooted wiring, personality style, strengths, weaknesses, core values, and their wants and needs for the future -  allows you to be an extremely precise decision maker when it comes to personnel.  This is why we are very excited to be joined by James Alisch - Managing Director of 1-800-GOT-JUNK: the world’s largest junk removal service.  James is at the helm of a brand doing 490 million dollars a year in revenue, and is executing a multi year strategy to exceed 1B by 2025.  Over the course of his extensive career, James has done literally thousands of interviews to build power house teams. He knows interviewing inside and out, and we’re thrilled to have him on to share his wisdom and insight on the topic with you.  In this episode of Contractor Evolution we unpack: The 3 things a good job interview should accomplish How to 'Peel back the onion' on a job applicant in the interview process to see their true character The way to interview for character traits and core values so you don’t have to fire them 3 months later The Interview Scoring Matrix and how to use it to evaluate an applicant's aptitude for the job How to manage your energy during the interview to come across as a strong leader The 'Beer & BBQ' test that an applicant should pass when you're interviewing See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you'd like to apply for Breakthrough Academy click here: https://trybta.com/PCEP44 To download the Contractor Interview SetUp Call click here: https://trybta.com/PCDLEP44 Hey, Welcome back to Contractor Evolution and episode 4 of our 6 part Ultimate Hiring Funnel Series. Last week with Asad Zaman we talked about some of the active recruiting and promotional tactics you can lean on besides just your basic job boards.   At this point in the funnel you should be starting to receive applicants… and if you’ve followed the best practices shared over the past 3 episodes you should have quite the volume coming at you.   As we said last time, making a good hire is impossible if you have no one good to choose from.  So now that you’ve solved that problem, the question becomes, “How do we prioritize and convert our best applicants into interviews?” This applicant flow management and interview set up call stage is an unbelievably important step and one that entrepreneurs often don’t take seriously enough.  Not Taking it seriously leads to you wasting your time on the wrong candidates, or worse - being no-showed by your interviewee. To walk us through this we’re lucky to have Danny Kerr, managing director at Breakthrough Academy. Before starting Breakthrough Academy, Danny was the head recruiter for all of Western Canada for College Pro Painters.  He’s the best person we know at this critical flow management and interview set up stage. In this episode we cover: The most efficient way to categorise, process and schedule applicants How to treat referral candidates vs outside applicants The best way to get people to open up on the phone so you get a better sense of who you’re really talking to The questions to ask to draw out their true motivations When to bring up ‘Deal Breaker’ questions  The best way to close out the call and transition to the next phase of the process See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you'd like to apply to be a Breakthrough Academy member, click here: https://trybta.com/PCEP43 To download this episode's free transcript "Where to Find the Top Candidates" click here: https://trybta.com/PCDLEP43 Welcome back to Contractor Evolution and episode 3 of our Ultimate Hiring Funnel Series. I want you to think about your current recruiting strategy. How much of it relies on lucking out and having the right person see your posting at the right time? Are you actively recruiting for top talent or passively waiting for a needle in a haystack?  Making a great hire is impossible if you don't have anyone good to choose from. This is why 90% of the hiring problem is fundamentally "Top of Funnel".  You can practice your interviewing skills all you want (and we will go over this in the next episode), but if you don't have a great pool of candidates to interview, where does that leave you? We've all at some point felt the frustration of posting an open position on a job board only to find that a few days later, only a few completely unqualified people have applied.  This 'hope and pray' strategy has led many lesser entrepreneurs to all but abandon the search entirely, comforting themselves with stories and excuses that often blame lazy millennials, COVID, or government policy.  But that's not you. As an evolved contractor, you know the promotion of your job ads and your employer brand is the missing link in this all-important chain. We're excited to have Asad Zaman on the show to speak in-depth on active tactics and promotional recruiting. Asad is the CEO of Sales Talent Agency, an international recruiting agency that has helped acquire talent for over 1,500 companies - some of them you may know: Harley Davidson, SAP, IBM, Salesforce, and Sonos, to name a few.  Toronto Board of Trade named Asad Toronto's Young Professional of the Year for 2019, and you'll see why in this episode. This guy is seriously dialled. There is a good reason why we chose to bring someone from outside the trades and construction space in for this topic - because the level of sophistication in recruitment, employer brand, and all things hiring - is much more evolved in other industries like tech, where he plays.  There is a ton that we learned from today's conversation. In today's episode, we explore: The three talent pools available to any entrepreneur and why most of us just barely tap into one  The way to think with "strategic empathy" and how placing yourself in the shoes of a candidate will lead to way better results Some specific ways you as an employer can stand out in a highly competitive market The best way to make a compelling offer to your target candidate The (incorrect) common belief systems that hold most contractors back How to integrate a talent acquisition mindset into your company culture See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you'd like to apply for Breakthrough Academy click here: https://trybta.com/PCEP42 You can get in touch with Josianne Gaudette by contacting her company  https://crewhr.co To download the Job Ad template click here: https://trybta.com/PCDLEP42 This is episode 2 of our 6 part Ultimate Hiring Funnel series. Remember we walked you through how to build the all-important Ideal Candidate Profile so hopefully now you've got at least a bit of an idea how to break down a role, reverse engineer that avatar, and really think through the type of person you want to hire. Now the question is how do we use that profile to write an engaging posting that top quality applicants can't help but click on (and apply to). So to do that we're joined by our amazing guest Josieanne Gaudette of crew HR who you should remember from last week's awesome episode. We're going to break down a super easy-to-follow framework that will have you writing compelling job postings that attract the best candidate. And don't worry, you don't need to be a Wordsmith to do this. Josianne also takes us through the all-important do's and don'ts and then how to evaluate your job postings on the scale from amateur to world-class. Some other episode highlights include: The difference between a job posting and a job description What needs to be in a headline to stand out in today’s competitive market How to write a job ad that gets a high performer excited to work at your company The 8 Part proven framework of a winning job ad The best way to visually lay out your job ad Some of the best and worst practices when creating job ads    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you'd like to apply for Breakthrough Academy click here: https://trybta.com/PCEP41 To get the Ideal Candidate Template and Examples click here: https://trybta.com/PCDLEP41 You can get in touch with Josianne by contacting her company https://crewhr.co Welcome to the first part of our Ultimate Hiring Funnel Series, today is episode 1. I'm going to talk quickly about what this entire series is about and then I'll get to today's episode. So look - it is no secret that hiring is hard. Like really hard. Especially in our construction and trade Industries. Labour shortages are a real thing, and yes, perhaps Millennials and Gen Z’ers aren't as gritty as older Generations may have been. And also yes, the government has paid a bunch of people to stay at home for over a year-and-a-half leading to a super lethargic Workforce. We get it. But look, it is what it is and can’t do much about the above factors. What you can do though is build the best hiring funnel in your market…and that is exactly what the next six episodes are going to be all about. Over the coming weeks we're going to explain in plain English how you can think like a marketer and start building an Employer Brand that attracts top talent. It doesn't matter whether you are a seasoned pro, or you just started your business this year. It also doesn’t matter what trade you are in. If you’re in home services and you want to build your dream team this series is for you. Today is episode 1 and we couldn't be more excited to launch the series with our favourite recruiter Josianne Gaudette. Josianne runs Crew HR here in Vancouver. She has a master's in HR and over her extensive 18-year career she's been involved in the hiring of over 600 roles for her huge book of clients. We here at breakthrough Academy have also worked with her a ton over the years and she is a true expert in all things recruitment.  In today's episode she teaches us how to make an Ideal Candidate Profile which is the primary building block for any hiring funnel. Think about it - you can't hire the right person if you don't know exactly what you're looking for in the first place. While that might seem kind of obvious a lot of people mess this up. Josianne explains in no uncertain terms how you can gain tremendous clarity about who you want, and then how to leverage that Clarity throughout the rest of your hiring funnel. In this episode we cover: What an Ideal Candidate Profile is and why you don't want to post a job ad without one How to systematically establish deliverables and accountabilities on an Ideal Candidate Profile  Where personality traits fit in, and how to establish the the traits that will fit the role How to identify what a good job candidate looks like if you haven’t hired the position before What will likely happen if you don't create an Ideal Candidate Profile Examples from a real contractor’s Ideal Candidate Profile See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you'd like to apply for Breakthrough Academy click here: https://trybta.com/PCEP40 Every once in a while, Igor and I like to go through listener questions and really get a grip on the challenges you’re going through daily. So in this week’s episode of contractor evolution I’ve sifted through a few hundred listener/member questions and selected 5 on leadership. Based on the conversations I have every week, I believe these are common challenges for most contractor business owners. In this episode we cover: The most critical management rhythms that keep a company growing 2-3 Keys to retain superstar employees The 2 step process to create raving fans out of your customers The recommended percentage of revenue you should spend on advertising Which types of marketing should be done in a specific order How to implement a culture of accountability without scaring people off See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.