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Mark Eastman

Why is it That Businesses Put More Emphasis on Sells Over Service?

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It Doesn’t Have to Be One or the Other…It’s Our Job as Businesses to Find Both

When thinking about business ownership or leadership, the focus often is on making a lot of money. Not that there’s anything wrong with making money. The problem is when money becomes the driving factor.

We’re all aware of those people who have been super profitable in their business. You know…those rags to riches stories where someone started out with nothing, came up with a new idea and became wealthy.

Making a lot of money is a big reason why so many people decide to start a business.

It doesn’t help that we are constantly being bombarded with some new product, formula or process that is a “shortcut to wealth”. The problem is…most of them aren’t.

This isn’t to say that they can’t or won’t work. What I’m saying is…more often than not…these things sound better than they really are.

After my wakeup call in 2012, while recovering from my accident, I began researching ways to share my construction expertise and business experience with others. I thought, I’ll help construction companies and customers through coaching and consulting.

The problem was…I knew how to run a construction company…not do virtual coaching and/or consulting.

So, I subscribed, bought, downloaded and joined multiple programs, courses, classes and trainings in an effort to turn this new idea into a business.

It didn’t go as well as was expected.

Not that I didn’t gain a lot of valuable knowledge, insight and things that I can and will use.

The problem is that it was the proverbial “getting the horse ahead of the cart” thing. We’re being bombarded through commercials, emails, social media, etc. with the next shiny new thing that is going to be the answer to all our business prayers.

All those things that I was sure were what I needed to get my next business up and going…weren’t.

This led to feeling like I was, “wandering, lost in the business dessert”.

After feeling this way for a while, I began to doubt myself. Maybe that great idea I had wasn’t so great after all. Too often this kind of thinking leads to saying to heck with it and giving up.

In our mastermind last week, Becky Warner shared that she had an aha moment when she realized that starting out trying to sell too much, too early, was a mistake. She said, we need to start with connection and community.

Connection and community…these are the same as SERVICE!

When I heard her sharing her thoughts about this, I felt relief. It was a confirmation that I wasn’t the only one feeling like this.

Starting the journey across the business dessert with unrealistic expectations leads to wandering.

The information that Becky shared with the group confirmed what I had been feeling. I needed to look back at what had worked in my construction business and that was…focus on service, not on sells.

This isn’t to say that sells don’t matter. What I am saying is…

Our businesses are more than just profit.

We have all been given skills and abilities that provide a service to others. If we figure out what that purpose is and use it, we can sell more and make more.

97% of businesses fail within 10 years. This is in large part to their focus on sells and not service. I don’t know about you, but I want to be part of the thriving 3% of businesses that succeed.

If you provide service…the sells will follow.

Why is it That We Too Often Confuse Simple and Easy?

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No One Ever Said That Living Right Would Be Easy

I recently read a blog post from Rabbi Evan Moffic titled, The Difference Between Simple and Easy. As someone who is good at making simple things more complicated than they need to be, I had a light bulb moment while reading. I realized how much of the time we confuse these two.

Simple and easy do not mean the same thing.

For example:

“The Ten Commandments are simple. They are a list of ten things we should and shouldn’t do.

But are they easy? No. If they were easy, we would leave in a world without murder, theft, adultery, or conflict. They are simple but not easy.

Certain acts are easy and simple. Baking a cake from a cake mix is simple and easy. You pour out the mix, add water and eggs, stir, put in the oven, and enjoy.

Some acts can be easy but not always simple. Habits often fall into this category. Take driving, for example.

Driving is easy for many of us if we have been doing it for years. But anyone who has sat with a new teenage driver in a car knows it is not simple! It becomes easy over time.

Now the most meaningful category: Simple but not easy.

Following a diet is an example of simple but not easy. We generally know which foods are healthy and which are not. But we do not have an easy time sticking to them.”

Living right is simple but not easy.

It is easy to look at others and compare ourselves to them, both good and bad.

In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus shows us an example of a Pharisee and a tax collector doing this.

By all appearances the Pharisee had been living right. He was not greedy or dishonest. He had been faithful in his marriage, followed the law and tithed. All things that are part of living as God wants us to.

Then he did something that God doesn’t want us to. He built himself up by comparing himself with a tax collector.

Normally tax collectors were known for overcharging people when collecting taxes and would pocket the extra. They were looked down on by the Jewish people of that time.

The tax collector was belittling himself and feeling inadequate and unworthy. He was asking God for forgiveness.

Neither of these men was completely right or completely wrong.

We need to be careful to not compare ourselves to others.

We need to compare ourselves to what God wants.

This is simple, but not easy.

Like the Ten Commandments as well as the rest of the Bible…it’s all very simple. But living it out in our daily lives isn’t easy.

How Long Should a Contractor Keep Construction Project Information?

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I Plan to Keep Mine Forever and I don’t Think That’s Any Too Long

As a note taking nerd, I tend to gather and keep a lot of information. Some people would say that I go overboard with this…and maybe I do.

Like note taking, the storing of construction project information is going to be different for everyone.

So, what do I consider to be “construction project information”?

When I talk about project information, I’m referring to things like –

  • Project Overviews – A OneNote document for gathering customer info, project info, project goals, meeting notes, preliminary scope of work, production teams and resources needed, etc.
  • Bid sheets – Word document where specific notes regarding dimensions, locations, materials, quantities, etc. are made and the scope of work is started.
  • Worksheets – An Excel spreadsheet where information from the data base is combined with the quantities needed for specific tasks to determine what the price will be for each task.
  • Supplier quotes – This provides a history of what was used previously.
  • Contracts – This Word document is what completes the proposal process and moves the project forward into production.
  • Payment applications – This Excel spreadsheet is used for preparing progress payments.
  • Invoices – QuickBooks documents that correspond with the payment applications.

These are examples of the things that I have saved electronically and/or physically.

I’m not going to tell you that you should gather and keep as much information as I do, but this works for me. The purpose of sharing this topic today is to give you some pros and cons to consider when it comes to saving project information.

The thing that prompted this discussion today is the preparing a window project proposal for a customer. We did the same basic work for them twice previously. Once in 2013 and once in 2015.

A lot of contractors would not still have any information from those projects.

I have everything.

The benefit to having saved all the information from those two previous projects is that it saves time in preparing the proposal for the current project. And we all need to save time everywhere we can.

The benefits include…

  • First – Having done the previous work it provides a jumpstart to the information gathering process. Reviewing the previous notes saves time when it comes to gathering and clarifying the details of what the project includes.
  • Second – The scope of work is almost identical. Whatever the differences are, it’s much faster to save a copy of one of those earlier ones and make the necessary changes. This saves a lot of time over typing it from scratch.
  • Third – The pricing worksheet has a few more changes than the scope of work because of price increases, but it still provides a jump start to the pricing process.

The downside to keeping this information is similar to note taking issues.

If you don’t know where it is and can’t find it…what’s the point of keeping it?

This is one of the great things about computers and storing things in the cloud. You can do a search and find it.

Knowing myself, I’ve figured out that I’m much happier with too much information saved rather than not enough.

Okay…Now I need to get back to work on that window project proposal. I sure am glad I saved all that info to give a head start.

How Many Times Should You Try Something Before You Quit?

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Successful People Accomplish More Because They Persist Without Exception

This is an interesting question. How many times is too many…ten, fifty, a few hundred, how many?

Depending on who you ask, the answer will be different.

For example, if you ask one individual in England, how many attempts should be made at passing a driver’s text, he will tell you…157. Why? Because it took him 158 attempts to pass.

It is reported that he spent over $5,000.00 in fees to accomplish this.

This is some serious persistence.

We don’t know exactly how many times the lady went to see the judge in Jesus’ story in Luke 18:1-8. What we do know is that she wouldn’t take no for an answer seeking justice from the judge. Persistence like hers pays off.

Whatever we’re trying to do will happen if it aligns with God’s purpose and we persist.

Wanting to align my desires with God’s is one reason I include the “serenity prayer” in my daily prayer time.

God, grant me:

Serenity to accept the things I can’t change,

Courage to change the things I can,

Wisdom to know the difference.

Help me to:

Live one day at a time

Enjoy one moment at a time

Accept hardship as a pathway to peace

Take the sinful world as it is

Trust that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will

In everything Your will be done

Amen

Persistence is a choice that we can make.

It is the 7th Decision (link) in Andy Andrew’s book, The Traveler’s Gift. I think this excerpt from the book explains it as well as anything…

“I will persist without exception. I will continue despite exhaustion. I acknowledge the fact that most people quit when exhaustion sets in. I am not “most people.” I am stronger than most people. Average people accept exhaustion as a matter of course. I do not. Average people compare themselves with other people. That is why they are average. I compare myself to my potential. I am not average. I see exhaustion as a precursor to victory.

How long must a child try to walk before he actually does so? Do I not have more strength than a child? More understanding? More desire? How long must I work to succeed before I actually do so? A child would never ask the question, for the answer does not matter. By persisting without exception, my outcome—my success—is assured. I will persist without exception. I focus on results.

To achieve the results I desire, it is not even necessary that I enjoy the process. It is only important that I continue the process with my eyes on the outcome. An athlete does not enjoy the pain of training; an athlete enjoys the results of having trained. A young falcon is pushed from the nest, afraid and tumbling from the cliff. The pain of learning to fly cannot be an enjoyable experience, but the anguish of learning to fly is quickly forgotten as the falcon soars to the heavens.

A sailor who fearfully watches stormy seas lash his vessel will always steer an unproductive course. But a wise and experienced captain keeps his eye firmly fixed upon the lighthouse. He knows that by guiding his ship directly to a specific point, the time spent in discomfort is lessened. And by keeping his eye on the light, there never exists one second of discouragement. My light, my harbor, my future is within sight!

I will persist without exception. I am a person of great faith. In Jeremiah, my Creator declares, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” From this day forward, I will claim a faith in the certainty of my future. Too much of my life has been spent doubting my beliefs and believing my doubts. No more! I have faith in my future. I do not look left or right. I look forward. I can only persist.

For me, faith will always be a sounder guide than reason because reason can only go so far—faith has no limits. I will expect miracles in my life because faith produces them every day. I will believe in the future that I do not see. That is faith. And the reward of this faith is to see the future that I believed. I will continue despite exhaustion. I focus on results. I am a person of great faith.”

It is up to you to decide how many times you should try something before you quit.

Just remember that this is a decision that you can make, but I recommend that you run it by God first.

What’s the Next Step in the Blog Posts to Podcasting Journey?

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If You Really Want to Know…Read This Week’s Solution and Find Out

A few weeks ago, we talked about the reasons why I would want to turn my blog posts into podcasts. We also discussed some reasons why I hadn’t yet. They included a lack of expertise and plain old procrastination.

The main reason why we should…more people listen rather than read.

The next week we talked about how we would get these blog posts turned into podcasts. This post focused on how more can be accomplished if we share the load, especially in areas where I’m not an expert, i.e., recording, sound, etc.

I spoke about my friend Nic at AdWise Creative and how he’s going use his skills to help me get those blog posts into podcasts.

Here’s an update on where we are in the podcasting journey.

  • We have written intro and outro scripts for the construction company focused podcasts
  • I have recorded…and recorded, and recorded…the intro and outro getting them to a usable albeit less than perfect recording 😊
  • Nic has put together the intro and outro sound effects (one of my favorite parts)
  • Nic has combined the intro, outro, sound effects and the reading of a blog post into a preliminary episode

We’re making progress. More than I thought possible. So far, this has been less painful than I expected.

There’s still more to do before these podcasts will be available to listen to, but we’re another step closer thanks to Nic. Before they’ll be ready for public consumption, we have more work to do.

Here’s what will be included in the next step on the podcasting journey.

  • Design artwork for the podcast landing page
  • Research and decide where we will host the podcasts
  • Record more construction company focused episodes
  • Write the intro and outro for the construction customer focused podcasts
  • Record the intro and outro for the construction customer focused podcasts

Adding this to our already busy schedules, means it isn’t going to happen overnight, but we’re on the journey. I’m looking forward to getting these podcasts to more people to help them build their dreams.

Finding solutions and building dreams is what we do.

I don’t know about you…but I’m excited about getting these podcasts out there.

It’s a little like the rush I get when seeing the progress being made on a construction project.

Check back to keep up to date on the progress of the podcasting journey as it happens.

If you know someone you think would benefit from these blog posts/podcasts, share this blog post or send them to the Solution Building web site. Because people signed up to receive the blog posts will be the first to get access to the podcasts before anyone else.

Expressing Gratitude is One Place, as People, We Consistently Fail

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The Words, Thank You, Really Aren’t That Hard to Say

Why is it that as a society we have become so ungrateful? Somewhere along the way we’ve developed a sense of entitlement.

I think a lot of this currently goes back to the 20s and 30s and the hard times of the depression. People that lived then knew struggles and were grateful for what little they had.

After going through those difficulties many parents didn’t want their children to have it so hard and did what they could to make it easier for their kids. Each following generation has seemed to take this sense of entitlement to a new level.

A lack of gratitude is a human condition that didn’t start with the depression. It was around from the beginning. In Luke 17:11-19 Jesus healed 10 lepers of their disease and only 1 came back to say thank You. This is unacceptable.

No matter how bad our situation is, we can always find something to be grateful for. It’s up to us to find it.

When we find it…we need to share that gratefulness by saying thank you.

In 1850 the Lady Elgin sank off the shore of Lake Michigan. Following the crash, Edward Spencer, a young ministerial student at Garrett Bible College, plunged himself time and again into the frigid waters to pull seventeen desperate passengers from certain death.

But those lives weren’t saved without cost.  Edward’s repeated plunges into the icy lake permanently damaged the young man’s health.  Some years later, at Edward’s funeral, it was noted that not one of those seventeen people snatched from death that day ever bothered to thank him.

Gratefulness is a choice.

Consider Anne Frank and her situation when she and her family were hiding from the Nazis. Even in her circumstances, she chose to be grateful. She did this by comparing her situation with others that were less fortunate.  

“Like a breeze cleans smoke from the air, a grateful heart removes the clouds of despair. It’s impossible for the seeds of depression to take root in a thankful heart. God has bestowed many gifts upon me and for those I will be grateful.

I am grateful for sight, sound and breath. If ever there is a pouring out of blessings beyond that, then I will be grateful for the miracle of abundance.”

(The 5th Decision, The Travelers Gift, Andy Andrews)

What are you grateful for today?

There are a lot of different ways to show gratitude.

One of those ways is by doing what we do well. When we do this, it is saying thank you to the persons we are doing it for.

Professional golfer Arnold Palmer was known for his signature and the millions of times he gave autographs to people. He was adamant about it being legible.

“What’s the point of signing something if the person can’t read it or later can’t even remember who it was,” he reasoned. He would be frustrated when other golfers would just scribble something and call it an autograph. Palmer was grateful for people willing to wait for his autograph and he would thank them by signing legibly until everyone was taken care of.

It is much more enjoyable to be around happy grateful people than someone who is grumpy and complaining.

We need to bubble over with joy and gratitude for all the blessings God has given us.

Consider who you need to thank today…both God and/or individuals and then thank them.

Scheduling is Pretty Simple…It Comes Down to Our Priorities

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The Important Thing is to Get Clear on What Your Priorities Are

Scheduling is something that most of us struggle with. We plan out our day and then something happens to mess up that perfect schedule. As the day comes to a close, we beat ourselves up because we didn’t get everything done.

Why is it that we think we can do more than time allows?

Being too busy is a self-inflected problem. We all have a fixed amount of time. Why is it that we plan to do more than time will allow?

I’ve determined that I’m more productive when I overschedule my day. It creates a since of urgency and I get more done than when I don’t. I just have to remember at the end of the day to give myself grace for the things I don’t get done.

Another scheduling problem is the unexpected.

We already have an overscheduled day and then it happens…we end up with scheduling fires that need to be fought. There is no question that life happens and there will be unexpected fires to put out.

Yesterday I dealt with a schedule explosion. I had a day fully planned and unexpected, unplanned things kept coming up.

Fighting the hottest fire isn’t a very good scheduling system.

This is reactive scheduling. It’s much better if we schedule proactively.

The important thing to remember is that we have control over what we choose to do. Even if someone is holding a gun to your head, you have the power of choice.

So…if you have the power of choice…it’s up to you to choose wisely.

You can choose what you’re going to do and when you’re going to do it. Granted some scheduled events are out of your control. But you can choose if you’re going to attend or not. You can pick one event over another. You can decide!

This power of choice is the key to scheduling.

The problem is that too many people aren’t clear on their priorities. Determining what the big rocks are is critical to scheduling. You need to determine what your mission is and align everything around that.

I don’t mean to make it sound like knowing your life’s mission is an easy thing. It takes time and effort to find it. Sometimes it takes a life changing event like being hit upside the head with a board.

Priorities are the difficult part of this.

What makes one thing a priority over another?

This is something that is different for each of us. My priorities are not yours.

The important thing is to start figuring out what your priorities are and never stop.

Back to yesterday’s schedule…

I had planned to write this blog post yesterday. As the day progressed, more and more things continued to come up. I would move things around on the calendar as needed. (Gotta love that digital calendar. 😉)

From a position of life’s priorities…those things that popped up were more important at the moment than writing this post.

As I look at today’s calendar, I’m sure things will get changed as fires pop up or new opportunities present themselves.

If we start with a clear vision, know our mission and prioritize accordingly, we can be flexibly rigid with our schedules.

This clarity of priorities makes scheduling much less stressful.

A Lot of Things are True…But There is Only One Truth

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Belief is Important, But Not as Important as WHAT You Believe in

We are bombarded with information that is presented as true. The flood of information that is out there today makes it hard to know what to believe.

We take something at face value only to find out later that it isn’t true.

Knowing what to believe can be a challenge.

How do we know what to believe?

Knowledge is an important thing, but if we aren’t careful, it takes the place of faith. What we put our faith in is the key to unlocking the life we were meant to have.

Real faith is believing in something bigger than knowledge.

In Mark 9:14-29, Jesus’ disciples were unable to release a boy from his demon. The father of the boy asked Jesus to. “Help us if You can.” Jesus replied, “Why do you say, ‘if You can’?

Anything is possible for someone who has faith!”

At once the boy’s father shouted, “I do have faith! Please help me to have even more.”

After Jesus and His disciples had left and were alone, they asked Him, “Why couldn’t we force out the demon?”

Jesus answered, “Only prayer can force out this kind of demon.”

It appears that the disciples’ efforts were short on faith. For prayer to work we have to have faith.

Knowledge is important but it’s limited.

Faith, on the other hand…if we truly have it, has no limit. Jesus’ followers ask to have their faith made stronger in Luke 17:5-6. He tells them, that if they have faith as small as a mustard seed, they can tell a mulberry tree to pull itself up and plant itself in the ocean and it will.

When it comes to our eternal life…faith in the wrong thing isn’t good either.

Earlier in Luke 17, Jesus tells his disciples that, “Anyone who causes another person to sin, is in for trouble. It would be better for them to be thrown into the ocean with a heavy stone tied around their neck.

He goes on to say that we are to “correct followers who sin and forgive the ones who say they’re sorry.”

This sounds pretty straight forward. If we sin, we are to ask for forgiveness not look the other way.

It doesn’t say it’s okay to sin.

If we believe that Christ is God and that He came to earth as a man and that He is our only way to Heaven…then we need to believe everything He tells us in His Word.

If we believe this, then He is the one and only Truth that we can believe in.

Capturing Thoughts When We Have Them is the Best Way to Keep Them

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It’s Easier to Find a Note Than to Try to Remember a Thought

That’s not to say that finding notes is easy. What I am saying is that whether it’s remembering a thought or finding a note…both require an intentional plan.

I’m sure you’ve had great, earth-shattering ideas when you were in the middle of a conversation or driving down the road or doing some important task. You thought to yourself, “I need to use this idea to…start a business, develop a new product, send a man to the moon, etc.

The problem is…once you get to a point where you can do something with this idea…you can’t remember what it was.

This is a common occurrence. I know it’s sure happened to me more times than I can count.

That’s why it’s a good idea to capture those thoughts when you have them and keep them from getting away. This is a big reason that I take notes and refer to them later.

Over the past several weeks we’ve discussed ways to take and store notes, digital note taking vs. paper, taking notes when learning, and note taking for meetings.

I don’t know about you, but my mind is going non-stop with a million thoughts a minute.

There is always something bouncing around in my head. Like I said earlier, too many times those thoughts were lost into oblivion. Some of them may be best left there.

However, some of them are great ideas. These are the ones that I don’t want to lose. This is why I catch my random thoughts and ideas in OneNote.

OneNote is a Microsoft note-taking program for information gathering and multi-user collaboration. It can gather notes, drawings, screen clippings, and audio commentaries.

Now let’s dig into capturing thoughts and working through ideas.

I catch a variety of different ideas and thoughts in various areas. I separate these into different OneNote notebooks and sections to make it easier to find them later.

First let’s look at my Brain Dump:

This is exactly what it sounds like. It’s my go to for making a note quickly. I go back through it weekly. At that time, I sort them, move them…if need be, decide if they’re worth keeping or take some action on them at that time.

Next is my Daily Action List:

This is a list of actions that are ongoing today, this week and in the future. I refer to it frequently throughout each day. It is constantly being updated. This is a great place to catch ideas that are action related and I don’t want to forget or lose.

Then there’s random educational notes:

Other thoughts and ideas that I may need to catch come from podcasts and audio books that I’m listening to. The example shown in this screen shot is from a Belay podcast about delegating that I was listening to. In this case I was listening to this in my truck. I simply paused the podcast and made a quick voice message. OneNote converted it to writing. These thoughts are now saved so that I can go back to them when I get a chance.

Lastly, we’ll look at a working through ideas:

This form of note taking is just what it sounds like. It’s working through ideas. In this example these are ideas about the future remodeling of an addition to our home. One of the early things that needs to be done in a construction project of this kind is the sorting of thoughts and ideas.

This is especially important when there is more than one person involved.

This is a list of things that I want, my wife wants, and we want. It is a place to catch thoughts so that we can work through the list preparing for the final project plans. Using OneNote, it allows us to both have this list and add to it as we think of new things.

I think that we have covered the process of note taking and storing fairly thoroughly over the past several posts.

If you have any note taking thoughts…feel free to capture them in the comments below.

If you’d like to know more about why and how I use OneNote, you can open my toolbox and take a look.

Children Are Not Restricted by the Impossible and We Shouldn’t Be Either

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If We Continually Put Our Drop in the Bucket…It Will Overflow

Have you ever noticed how often we put restrictions on ourselves? We put up barriers between us and our dreams. We are our own worst enemy.

We tell ourselves, “I could never do that.”

Children on the other hand…don’t see any difference between possible and impossible.

When Jesus fed the 5000 it was a child who stepped up and gave the five loaves and two fish. Notice that he gave them to Jesus…not to the people. He took what he had and gave it to God and let God do the rest.

Think about that…5 loaves and 2 fish fed 5000 men. This is just the men…it doesn’t include the women and children. The actual number was probably closer to 20,000.

You want to talk about something that appears impossible.

The disciples were freaking out, telling Jesus that they needed to send the people to get something to eat, because there’s no way they could feed them all.

Oh, ye of little faith.

Not only did everyone get something to eat…there was more left over than they started with.

This is what God will do for us, if we will just give Him our “loaves and fish”.

It’s not up to us to do the impossible. We’re just supposed to give what we have to God and let Him do the miracle.

We are our own worst enemies. We’re continually telling ourselves that it can’t be done.

Don’t be afraid to dream big, because nothing is impossible for God.

“Great leaders – great achievers – are rarely realistic by other people’s standards. Somehow, these successful people, often considered strange, pick their way through life ignoring or not hearing negative expectations and emotions. Consequently, they accomplish one great thing after another, never having heard that something cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing!“

Persistent Decision, The Traveler’s Gift, Andy Andrews

We’re familiar with what happens when there’s a leaking pipe with a bucket catching the drips. It’s only a matter of time before the bucket runs over if it doesn’t get dumped.

This same principle works when we all give our drips to God. He will multiply them, and the bucket will run over.

We’ve all been given something specific to do. Do whatever that drop is, put it in God’s bucket and watch the bucket run over.