If we are going to talk about excellence and doing well and doing the best with all the gifts we’ve been given, a lot of times I want to hear from somebody who’s been in the trenches like me.
J. Casey Ryals
Chad Brown: So. Med school, insurance agency, trucking company, author… very average.
Josh Melton: You’re successful at what you do in insurance, but you’re an employee and four or five years ago, you’re like, “you know what? I got that entrepreneurial itch.” Your brother had it too. So man, tell us about the launching of that company and some of the ups and downs or pros and cons, getting out on your own journey.
Casey Ryals: This is how it happened. My wife and I, first we started saving. If I’m going to go from being an employee to an entrepreneur, most of the time, unless I’m going to go out and raise some capital, I’ve got to come up with the capital. And, and that’s the first thing we started doing was just putting back and living below the means that we had.
We weren’t sure exactly what that opportunity was going to be. We started talking about what we were going to do with that money to be a blessing.
So the next week my brother called me up and he’s like, “Hey man, I’ve been thinking about this. You know, I want to buy a dump truck. What do you think about partnering with us?”
And man, that just hit me really, really hard.
Chad: So your brother, was he an entrepreneur at the time? Did he have a lot of business knowledge? Did you have a lot of business knowledge when you started going down this path or are you starting from scratch?
Casey: Absolutely from scratch. So even though we’re all employees, I am completely responsible for the day-to-day business of the local agency. And when we started, he was an employee as well. My brother wanted to be a business owner, you know, and I was pumped about just hanging right where I am and having that on the side.
Josh: Yeah. Cause you’re successful. You just said you got a large bonus, you’re running one of the top agencies in the state, you’re doing good.
Casey: I talk about this in the book too, but just, you know, what is my next wise move?
I love those guys who are like, “Hey, think about the vision of where we’re going. And then how do we get there?” And a lot of times with me, I’m thinking about, if I told you my vision I’d be embarrassed about it.
But what I do know is what our next wise move is. I can figure out my next wise move.
And so really what we said is, “How do we get to three trucks?” And my brother was going to be driving one of those three and then the other two we would have as employees and then one admin kind of person.
We got there of course, and we bought more trucks. Now we’re doing concrete work and asphalt paving.
Josh: So when you guys made the decision, your brother calls you and he needs the capital partner, right? And he’s in that business. Was it, “Let’s buy a dump truck and on the side of my current full time work, I’m going to do this,” or was it all in for him from day one?
Casey: We would not have been able to have started this without his former employer. And actually the first truck that we bought was from his previous employer. He does a lot of concrete work and that was becoming his main focus, and a little less focused on the trucking side.
Chad: Okay. So to go from one truck to three trucks and an admin and some employees and some team members, obviously that takes capital, maybe debt, did you just have this overwhelming faith and belief that it was all gonna work out or how much risk was involved in those next steps to get you there?
Casey: I don’t care if you make $20,000 a year or $2 million a year, you can live in a way that creates margin. Most of us have the ability to say, “Look, I’m going to live this far underneath what it takes for my family to thrive.” And so when we made a conscious decision to do that and my wife and I, it actually helped the risk was there for sure.
But it helped us kind of be able to offset that risk because we had already made those plans early on and were putting aside some cash, but we had also made the plans in our monthly budget to offset any potential issues in the business.
I am convinced that if we pursue excellence in what we do, and if we really take care of the needs of our customers, they will find us.
So yes, there’s risk. And we knew that. We made those margins so that we could weather a storm if we had to. And you know, at the same time, it doesn’t matter what level you’re at. You can make those margins if you want to make the sacrifice to do it.
Some success is relatively simple, but then you gotta manage the emotions to take yourself through the necessary steps that are dull and boring every single day to do the things you got to do consistently.
I think if you’re going from an employee to entrepreneur, the absolute first thing is to figure out is that margin. Here’s where we’re going to live. This is the money we’re going to live on, and this is the money we’re going to set aside for growth.
If we want to grow our business right now today, I can absolutely rob my business of all the capital in it. Or I can leave that in there and buy a second piece of paving equipment. We can choose right now to stop using those margins. Or start using our margins for ourselves and stop leaving them in the business to be able to provide more capital in the future.
Josh: So you guys were in business for how long before either you or your brother had to go full time in this gig?
Casey: I think it was about two and a half years. We bought truck one, bought truck two, and then were ready for number three coming around the bend. And again, former employer, this was a conversation we actually had with him because we don’t want to compete with them or damage that relationship.
Chad: I see so many times on the entrepreneur side or the startup side or the employer side, there’s so much secrecy in what’s going on or somebody trying to do something behind the scenes or thinks there’s a problem. In most situations, everybody wants a level of success and a win/win in all situations.
You don’t have to go into business in some secretive format. You can be open, you can share ideas, you can talk to your employer, especially if they’re a great employer. And they may want to help you on your entrepreneurial adventure and to help support you along the way and create situations that are a win.
Josh: So Casey, one of the things that we see with people who are going from employee to entrepreneur is that there is a completely different mentality. You just, there’s just some things you just, you don’t know that you don’t know yet. I say this often. It’s one thing to know how to run a business. It’s a totally different thing to know how to build a business.
Tell us about some of the challenges you guys faced.
Casey: I think you have to be the kind of person who says, “I will figure this out.” I’m going to take it piece by piece. And that’s why I love just asking what’s my next wise move. As an employee, you’re never the one that has to take those steps.
So I’m going to have to be able to have that same attitude, to be able to look piece by piece, whatever it is, and say I’m going to stick with this.
And sometimes it just takes so much time.
You can’t leave work at work the way you could when you had a job. Now we know great managers, great leaders. They do take ownership, right? They treat it like it’s their own decision, but regardless of whether you treat it like your own deal or not, you don’t lie awake at night wondering about debt collectors.
With an entrepreneurial adventure it’s wise to make a plan and think strategically, but then I think you do have to just keep your eyes open. When I see those pieces starting to come together, you know, we think people over process.
Chad: What would you say to all the advice you hear for startup entrepreneurs and people looking to get into a side gig when all they hear is follow your passion or follow what you love and the money will come?
Casey: Kick me off of here if you want. But I think that’s hogwash. I think it’s trash, you know, and you do hear it constantly. Follow your passions. I’m down with doing things that are in line with our gifts and things that we enjoy, but really I’m not going to try to go from worst to first. I’m not a passion follower. I’m not going to follow my heart.
I’m going to follow needs. And when I see needs, I’m going to meet needs. You can become passionate about things if you see that you’re meeting needs.
I’ve been wearing out “Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl, if you’ve ever heard of that. He, as a doctor in Auschwitz, said, “I didn’t write this to tell you about the atrocities of Auschwitz. I wrote this to tell you about what people think when they’re going through that kind of mental torture.”
And this is when he said, “Don’t pursue success. Success is like happiness. It can’t be pursued, it can only ensue when you’re pursuing something greater than yourself.”
That’s what I’m so ineloquently trying to say in Last to Least.
Stop pursuing success, pursue needs. If I can forget me and just pursue needs for a little bit. That’s when I can make a massive impact in any industry.
Chad: Your concept and approach to telling about the company was different than I’ve ever seen in the construction industry. It was really cool, cause it was all about the customer’s needs, serving the customer, performing at a high level. And I love how it mirrors with some of your thoughts there. You can do those things because you built the margins in your company.
And I think so many young entrepreneurs don’t understand their value and they try to compete on price because they fearful of having the work. How did you have the confidence to go a different direction? How did you build this model and not go broke?
Casey: This is the way that I think we were made to work. Service beats price every time.
Chad: So not only you as owners, but your team of employees that you’ve grown are delivering that message for the customer and are living what you’re preaching because this industry is not necessarily renowned for its phenomenal customer service.
Casey: The construction industry is stressful. Everybody wants something done right now. There’s always problems. We can be the person who shows up and removes some of that stress off their back and put it on our back.
How do we go from being trustworthy to being trustable? And I love the two words.
Trustworthy means you actually can believe what I say. Trustable means I can convince you to believe what I say. And if you have one of those two without the other one, you’re a mess.
If I’m trustable, but not trustworthy, I’m a sleazy sales person. But if I’m trustworthy without being trustable, I can be the best case scenario for you to hire me. But you never know it. You never get, you never get my service because I can’t convince you that I’m trustable.
Chad: Let’s unpack that a little bit more. That is such a positive mindset and goes back to what Josh mentioned earlier about your positive personality. Is that something you train yourself to be, or are you naturally that way?
How does our audience in their adventure find ways to approach situations with a positive mindset?
Case: Three questions. One, what is the guiding purpose of my work? I have to actually believe that the guiding purpose of my work is not, it’s not happiness. It’s not my dreams or my passions. I have to pursue something greater than myself.
Two, who achieves that purpose? Who achieves the purpose instead of how can I do it first? What I’m looking at is I have to actually change into a different kind of character. Character traits are what make the building blocks of a personality. What kind of person do I need to be to be able to face these mental challenges, these tough things that are coming my way?
And then three is the how? I can say I’m serving people’s needs, but if every time it shakes out for my good, I’m probably not actually doing it, I’m probably just thinking it that’s a cool slogan. I’m a servant, but if there’s never a real cost, I’m probably not.
Being trustable and trustworthy to me is one of the biggest things that I try to pass along to people around me on my teams.
That’s really the essence of “Last to Least,” answering these three questions. What’s the guiding purpose of my work, my specific work? I think it’s encouraged people to make their next wise move. That’s why I’m so passionate about it.
And what are the character traits that I need to build? What are the actual actions that I need to take forward and make those daily practices? And if I answer those three questions well, I can’t lose.
I think when we remember those experiences that happened in the past, man, that’s a lot of it, it helps to develop those character traits right in that moment to say, I want to be able to do for them. What was actually done for me in the past.
Josh: That makes me think of John Maxwell. He says leaders know the way, they go the way, and they show the way.
Resources:
“[book or resource title, hyperlinked to Amazon Affiliate account],” by [author]
“Last to Least” by J. Casey Ryals
“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl
“To Sell is Human” by Daniel Pink
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