Relationship Building with a “Giver’s Gain” Approach with Jason Avery

Today’s guest is Jason Avery, owner of Avery construction in Tampa Bay, Florida. Jason is the successful owner of three businesses, an author, coach, and trainer. He’s a father, husband and proud grandpa who understands the importance of deep connections and rewarding relationships with a giver’s mentality. He takes a genuine interest in everyone, which has helped him build several successful multimillion dollar businesses.

Jason is known as Tampa Bay’s Networking King. It wasn’t a title that came easy, but in today’s podcast, he’ll share his mistakes and tips that will help you be a champion in your business.

Jason, I’m so excited to have you here with us today. I understand, and we’ll get into this in a little bit, that you are the Networking King of Tampa. You actually have a pretty humble beginning. You weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth. You were in and out of college from what I’ve read, but you were hungry.  I know you have three businesses, Avery Construction, Designer Cabinets, LLC, and Constructing Success. But one of the things that really made an impact on me is that you are passionate about the people who work for you. They’re not just employees to you. You actually take time to mentor them, care for them and get to know their families, and obviously that caring spirit has carried over into your businesses and helped you build a trusted network of referrals. So tell us a little bit about you, your background, and how you got to this place today.

Well, as a kid, I was hell on wheels and I was an entrepreneur from the start. I started with lawns and realized quickly that I didn’t like to sweat it out in the hot sun, so I’d sell the lawn for 20 bucks and then get my buddy Josh to do it for 15. So he was sweating in the sun. I was knocking on doors up and down the road to find the next job for us. It was kind of just born into me. 

My first job at 19 years old was telemarketing, selling vacation packages. That led me to a company that was a $9 million a year outfit selling roofing, windows, and siding storm protection products around the state. They had a huge call center, which drew me in and that was my call center experience.

I learned field sales, became a Manager,  a Director and eventually Vice President.The company was doing between 9 to 20 million during that time. This was in my twenties, and it taught me a lot about business development, team building, processes and systems. Then the federal “do not call” was issued, and that really destroyed the telemarketing industry. So the company had to do some pay cuts. When they announced the second round of cuts, I said, “Look, I’m the highest paid guy. I’ll get out of the way”.

So I launched my second business in life as a home improvement consultant. I did my own marketing and home shows. I’d find people interested in doing projects of all sorts, and put myself in as the middleman to help them find free bids from three local contractors, and vetted and qualified them. 

In that process, I started selling a lot of kitchen projects for people. That led me to a home improvement source. So for the next six, seven years of my life, I managed 30 people in the shops, built cabinetry, and fabricated granite. I had 30 people in the field doing kitchen and bathroom remodeling. Over the years, we weeded out subcontractors by obtaining new licensing and additional qualifications. I learned all the trades.  

A time came when the business owner and I just didn’t see eye to eye anymore. It was time for me to get out on my own, and that was the birth of Avery Construction. That was about 10 years ago. We started with three guys doing labor, and a bookkeeper working one day a week.  The numbers back then were kind of small, but fast forward 10 years, there’re 45 to 50 people working on the average day, or a dozen projects around the Bay area. They completed 80 to 100 projects every year. I have an administrative team that designs and estimates projects, and obtains the permits. I have positioned myself to work on the business, but not in the business. I apply about 20 hours of my week in the business trying to improve it, helping each of the working departments function better. I’ve used my free time to go on and start a couple of other businesses as you’ve mentioned.

 

Nice. You know, one of the things that I like that you mentioned is that you work on your business and not in it.  I think a lot of business owners get bogged down in that. Do you find that to be true? 

A mentor of mine that I truly respect said, “Live in your flame, not in your wax”. That was Dr Misner, the father of modern networking. 

It’s one of those things I knew from the beginning, like accounting, you know, I can do the numbers just as well as anybody else. Math is strong, but to input the data and the tedious things like working on the books, I would procrastinate until the end of the month. Then at the last hour of the last day, I’d kick it out and get it done, but it would wipe me out for days. My flame was out in front, leading the charge.

Our core values at Avery Construction are the acronym, PIE.  PIE for us is Performance, Integrity and Empowerment.  The empowerment piece is really important to me. I try to build a platform that empowers people to go out there and be successful in their groups. I try to set the job up so that I can look at it as an outsider looking in, and say, well, if I had to do that job, I would think it’s worthwhile. If I want to do that job, I look at all of our employees from that perspective; put myself in their shoes and ask, am I paying them the right amount? Am I giving them the right tools and resources and creating an environment that’s desirable to work in? That’s what we’re about. 

 

Great!  How did you become known as Tampa’s Networking King?

When I launched the construction business, I also joined a BNI [Business Networking International] Chapter, and that’s how I started my first year networking. I really wasn’t very good at it. I got one good sale. The second year of networking, I started to get a little education. I went to advanced trainings and things that were offered.  It really is a learned skill.  I didn’t invent this. I just executed well. You have to understand that every relationship goes through a process of visibility, then credibility and then profitability. And even though somebody might know you, like you, and trust you, what’s going to motivate them to stop doing whatever they’re doing right now and do something else? One of the best motivators is to know that you would do it for them.

So as I got the education and learned how to execute well in networking, my mission was to avoid searching for transactions, trying to sell myself to everybody.  Instead, I learned to help everybody, advise them and coach them, and through examples of what I’d applied, show them how I could help them work. Because teaching them about the areas of my business in the process, giving them real world examples, I could help them with all the resources.  Who do you need? I’ll get them for you. I’ll find that person, putting myself in the middle of all those transactions.

It’s like dating. Are you a good matchmaker? Now I understand that every time I meet a chiropractor, that chiropractor could probably benefit from meeting a massage therapist or a personal injury attorney, because every time there’s an auto accident, all three of those people are going to come to the table. When they can come together, that’s rewarding over and over and over again. And if you’re the facilitator of that, your credibility level goes way up and their motivation to return that favor is there. So I build these relationships with a “Giver’s Gain” approach, and I help connect others. Then I’ll ask them if they can connect me with an architect or an interior designer or another general contractor.  

That could be an ongoing revenue stream for many years to come.  It’s not just a transaction. One kitchen remodel is great to have, it makes my week or my month better, but a revenue stream that goes on for the next decade is the goal. So that’s the definition of referral relationship.  So I started getting jobs right away when I met that architect. I said, I do a hundred jobs a year, and there are jobs where I could hire you to do the plans. You’re going to do him a favor by introducing Jimmy. Now, the architect wants to meet; I don’t have to go out knocking his door down. I’m gonna throw a project in their lap just to sort of prime the pump in the relationship, and show them that I mean what I say and I’ll do what I say I’ll do, right?

That’s the basis of how relationships are formed. I’ve done well with it thus far. I’ve got a dozen strong architect relationships, a dozen strong interior designer relationships, a dozen strong contractor relationships. Other contractors also work with me and do other businesses, like designer cabinets. There is a factory in Clearwater where we build custom cabinetry, which we sell to contractors. That company does not sell to the public, because it’s all about the relationship, the ongoing reciprocal relationship. I’m getting business by building for them, but I’m selling it to them at the wholesale price so that they can make some money at the retail level. 

In the consulting world, I coach people. I teach them writing methods. I teach them my cash flow projections, to not rob Peter to pay Paul, how to actually make profits at the end of the day, in a currently very volatile environment.

I’m sure you’ve noticed on the news, lumber is up 600%. Plumbing, fixtures, electrical supplies, drywall and concrete, plus the shipping of all these components, is just going through the roof. So, you gotta be on top of things to manage your business well, to not beat up your clients with changed orders, because that doesn’t go over well. They won’t like you very much, at the end of the day, if you have to hand them a lot of extras. We strive to be transparent up front and give them all the information they need to make an educated decision. We can avoid uncomfortable conversations as the project progresses, because let’s face it– everybody out there has probably heard at least one horror story about a contractor. But they’re usually not the bad guys. They were, you know, good guys that had good intentions, but were bad communicators or documenters, and couldn’t set expectations properly. Then they get themselves in trouble. Right?

 

So you built a strong referral network. You have taken the time to develop yourself and your skill set so that you can coach and train others. Back to communication: you now are going out and training and coaching other people in your area. You had a mentor early on though, is that correct? 

Yes, I have had a handful of very notable mentors throughout the years. I’ve never been too proud to ask for an opinion, or ask for a little advice from somebody who can maybe see things from a different perspective. Even if I don’t necessarily get the perfect answer, sometimes just having the sounding board helps me sort out the decision for myself. I’m always open to mentorship and coaching. Annually in my businesses, prior to the end of the year, I hold a goal-planning meeting. I bring in an outside consultant to actually conduct a meeting for me. I craft some specific questions that I want to ask the staff, and then I sit in the back corner, keep my mouth shut, and let them do the talking.

I let the coach ask the questions and let them respond. At some point, I exit the room, so I can prepare the happy hour afterwards, and I want them to feel totally comfortable to say whatever they need to say;  anything they might not feel comfortable saying to my face. Once they get me out of the room, I get real information. I know what people really think and feel, and how we can make everybody more comfortable and confident in their roles.

 

That is amazing, Jason. That really contributes to the stickiness of your team. Obviously they see that you care. Now you do a lot of leadership development and work with organizations other than BNI. Is that correct?

Yeah. So just to start there, the BNI chapter I joined 10 years ago, had 30 members at that time. Ten years later, we’ve grown to 110 members. We’re the largest chapter in Florida. We’re the second largest in the country, and we’re gunning for number one. In the beginning stage, I had a power team of about five or six tradespeople within the group. Now I have a tradesperson power team that numbers 33 to 35.  I’ve been the president of the chapter twice during that 10 years. The group feels like family now. I’ve been there for childbirth. I’ve been there for weddings, divorces.  We have traveled and cruised together.

But at the same time, I made a mistake. I went wide and I was networking everywhere. You would find me at every function. I was the guy who showed up early. I’d stay the whole time. Then afterwards, I’d take somebody out.  I finally realized that I had to look at networking more efficiently. So I figured out how to do events better. I figured out how to eliminate some of the groups that were less productive, to be more engaged in the groups that were productive.

Now, I’ve been a member in the Palm Harbor Chamber of Commerce for six years. I associate with all the trade organizations, the Tampa Bay Builders Association. I’ve received several trophies and awards through them. NARI is the National Association for Remodeling Industry. AIA is the American Institute of Architecture. ASID is the American Society of Interior Design. Most of these trade organizations only have a monthly gathering. So it’s not a huge time commitment, but it’s definitely a presence. I go right after the targeted relationships that can be most beneficial. I’ve learned to run an amazing business and live a spectacular life and intertwine them.

My job is to motivate those who matter the most. So I’ll buy a foursome to every golf tournament;  I will buy a foursome to every fishing tournament. For every clay shoot and anything that I enjoy as a fun pastime activity, I’ll buy a package of people to go. I invite specific key people to enjoy the event with me. So, if I want to meet architects, I’m going to bring one, same with contractors, because that architect and the contractor would benefit from meeting each other. They enjoy hanging out, build a relationship, and I’m going to be the guy that brought them together. I do it in a way where we’re just playing. We’re having fun, having a couple of beers, and in that deepening of the relationship is where you become friends that go out of their way for each other. You make sure that each other connect, right?

 

You have truly carried the “Givers Gain” philosophy into your professional life, not just within your networking, but your business and your personal life as well.

It was taught to me as a method and strategy that works for deepening relationships. Ultimately, yes, it’s become a way of life. The networking itself has become a way of life. I don’t go out, feeling like I have to find a referral for this or that person today, but I go out feeling like I’m gonna talk to at least a half a dozen or a dozen people throughout my day today. Everyone that I talk to needs something, and if I am a good conversationalist and a good listener, I’ll figure out what that is. One person I talk to here has an anniversary coming up. I’m like, “oh, I have a jewelry guy”. The next person is talking about their car acting up.

“Hey, I got a good mechanic”. If you need a car, I know a salesman who will take good care of you. I just try to be a resource. I connect people with people all the time. We meet each other, you can benefit from some product or service, or just the relationship to be able to share clients who are in the same target market. Yeah.

 

Powerful, powerful stuff. So a lot of our listeners come from a wide variety of industries. We have mortgage agents, insurance agents, realtors, business owners, small businesses, the sales-preneur, the entrepreneur. What piece of advice can you offer, given that you have this vast experience about the power of building relationships, the correct way?

So when you go into most Chambers of Commerce, you are initially asked: “who’s here to sell?”  Everybody raises their hands. Then they would ask: “who’s here to buy something?” We would hear crickets. 

I mentioned Dr Ivan Misner earlier. He wrote a book which refers to the “Networking Disconnect”. That’s what that is. You can’t go into relationship-building trying to sell. Don’t sell people. They don’t like that. It’s going to make them uncomfortable. You have to understand behavioral style differences. Some people like to be communicated to differently than others. 

One of my programs that I co-conduct with a woman named Tiffany Kellogg, is called “The Room Full of Referrals Program”. It is based on the DISC personality assessment.

The simplest way to look at DISC, is, consider the type of person who walks fast, talks fast, thinks fast and makes fast decisions. They are on one side of the spectrum. If you’re the person who likes to research, analyze, compare, and make a decision on a slower, more comfortable pace, then you’re on the opposite side of the spectrum. Now we divide the room in two directions by saying, you people who are like, Where do I get to go today? Who do I get to see? What fun things are gonna happen? How can I help you? Task-driven, right? I’ve got a list. I’m going to check things off the list. I’m going to get it done effectively, efficiently. I’ll be a perfectionist at what I do. 

So when we divide the room in two directions, we get four corners in the four corners sectors.  The faster-paced, task-oriented group is the go-getters, and go-getters are hustling, enterprising people who can just drag things in the ground and make it happen. They don’t really need much help. They will do it by themselves because they can do it fast, and are professional in the way they carry themselves.

 Then there are the people on the opposite side of the spectrum, asking, Why is that person so rude? I can’t stand talking to them. So we gotta be aware of that if we’re trying to build a relationship. That faster-paced and people-oriented person, we call the Promoter; the Promoter is the marketing and sales extraordinaire. He can get 50 people to do things I’ve never even thought about doing, and make it sound like so much fun. They’re an influencer. They’re happy-go-lucky, always multitasking, always on the move. They’re the ones giving the big hugs. They’ve got the big smiles. They like to stand out in the middle, but to the people that are opposite of them, they’re in constant, fidgety motion. You know, it’s like, that person is so flighty, you can’t pin him down. I mean, how could I ever trust them to be confident enough to get this process done thoroughly and detailed? You know, he showed up five minutes late to the appointment we had, so we are aware of these major disconnects and all the behavior.

The Nurturer is the glue that holds your organization together; he’s the one who genuinely cares. He wants to make sure that everybody is heard and feeling appreciated. It’s not as much about the logic of things, as to how it makes us feel. That’s the HR department all day long, right there. They need to be making sure that everybody’s represented, so you’re not turning people over because you’re making that uncomfortable environment. But that Nurturer has a hard time making decisions. He can’t commit because he is so worried about making somebody feel bad. He might write a text message and then erase it and then write it again. Then repeat that again three times before they send it because they are so worried that the person might take it the wrong way and have hurt feelings.

One of the Nurturer’s flaws is he can’t say no. He’s so bad at saying no to people that he gets himself into all kinds of trouble.  He doesn’t want to do things, but can’t say no, and now he is committed. It’s crazy. 

The slower-paced, task-oriented person is the Examiner. I see the Examiner in the IT department and the Accounting department, for he is the detail-oriented, solitary person who works in his terminal, his station, and is processing information, lots and lots of information. He enjoys doing the research. He wants to get near all the notes. If we are having a conversation, he’s the one with three, four pages of notes by the time we are done. Whereas maybe the Promoter was just doing all that in his head, you know? So they are completely opposite.

We’ve got to understand personalities, and learn how we can identify the clues out there. There are clues in an email, clues in a text message, on the voicemail, in the way people dress or shake your hand. So we’ve got to learn how to recognize it, identify it, and then adapt. For example, understand that I’m that super-amped up, charged- up kind of person. There are times when I need to slow it down, lower my volume, change the tone if I want this person to understand me. People on the other side of the spectrum might need to put a little pep in their step and get unstuck from the analysis paralysis.  When we gotta go, we gotta get something done sometime soon, you know?

 

Right, right. That’s awesome. So let’s talk a little bit about your book, Constructing Success: Blueprints for Every Referral-Based Business. Now, knowing that you are this guy who owns this construction company, your book isn’t just for helping people in the construction industry; this book will benefit anyone who is in a referral-based business..

That is correct. Yes. I speak to all the business owners who manage a client relationship. As referenced in the book, that could be anyone from the air conditioning technician to the financial planner. What is the timeline of your relationship? How long does it last? You’ve got to understand that for some people, it’s very short.

For others, it’s a three to six month process. What about a financial planner? I mean, you’re talking about 50 years of relationship, ideally. So, how long is the relationship and what are the natural hazards in your industry that are going to create discomfort? 

Everybody gets excited when they decide to remodel something in their house, until they start the conversation and figure out that maybe husbands and wives don’t always agree. They may be in disagreement about how much they are going to spend or how big or small the project will be, and where they’re going to put everything. So that creates some friction. 

When at last that is sorted out, we get excited again, because we’re ready to contract with jobs and get back on track. But unfortunately they had to go shopping and pick out building materials, colors, etc. So more discomfort. Then we get excited because the job’s ready to start and we begin to tear your house apart, sentencing you to camp out for the next couple of months, making your coffee on the bathroom vanity, which is kind of gross.

You’re going to walk across a cold concrete floor in the middle of the night and pull a dusty cover off your fridge to get your midnight snack. All your personal belongings are unorganized and stuffed in the foyer. You can’t find anything, and you’re taxed with decisions that are uncomfortable because you don’t do this every day. You’ve got time taken away from your work, breaking your focus there. It’s costing much more than you wanted to spend, and it’s very uncomfortable when you see some paint on the walls. You get excited again, thinking, oh, it’s almost over. It’s long from over. You’ve got the floors, the cabinets, the countertops and the fixtures, you’ve got to trim it all out, and get it all inspected. By the time we’re done, most people are just done.  They don’t want any more to do with this remodeling thing, it’s not fun. They’ve met strangers in their home every day for months, and have had zero privacy. It’s not something that people enjoy living through. 

I suggest everybody find a place to get out for a while while they’re getting their home remodeled. But my point to this is, I don’t leave the relationship that way, where the last thing they remember was us coming to collect a final check, while they were worried if we were ever going to come back. What if they found something after we left? What if something broke? That’s again, more discomfort. 

So about two weeks after a project ends for us, we go back with a surprise visit to take some pictures, and we bring them a surprise gift. We buy a classic gift. Our gifts speak to all four of the languages of behavioral style. If it’s a kitchen customer, they’re going to get something like a custom set of steak knives in a nice box, with my logo on the blade, and their name engraved on the handles. So for the Go-getter who likes class, it’s name-brand;  I didn’t cheap out. For the Examiner:  it’s practical and has a purpose. It makes sense to them. The Nurturer loves the fact that I put their name on it. It was such a thoughtful, personal touch. They just love getting a surprise, you know.  You can add some shiny paper and be happy with it, and it’s a really cool gift that makes an impression.

So now the last thing they remember about the experience, is “Wow, those people were so nice. I never thought I’d see the salesman again, but he came back”. It leaves the relationship in a place where now they’re thinking about us and are happy to recommend us. We’ve even given them a conversation starter with steak knives. For the bathroom customers, it’s a salon style robe with their name on it.

 

Right. Nice, very nice. People will listen to this, and I think there will be many takeaways that will help them. The other thing about your book that I was really curious about is how to make your competitors indebted to you. Can you speak to that a little bit?

So I did a podcast a long time ago, featuring Dr Ivan Misner.  Part of the message was called Competition versus Collaboration. The idea of the message was: don’t worry about my fellow contractors competing with me. I want to be friends and I’m going to actually prove my friendship to them by giving them projects that I’m not taking, and making sure that they land those jobs. By doing so, at some point they don’t want the funnel to turn off, they’re going to start reciprocating in some way. So whether they send a job back to me because it was out of their geographic area, or it was a type of work that they don’t specialize in, or whatever, it can become a great collaboration.

How do you do your pricing? I start every job from scratch, then put my numbers together. I’ll give them a glance at my budget sheet and say, here’s how I price jobs. I’ve been saving the data and information for 10 years. I’ve been enhancing it monthly for 10 years and it’s got 900 rows of possibilities and 13 columns of mathematical equations to ensure I know exactly how to sell it out, to pay it out, how to manage it so that nothing is left behind. Everything’s thought of, it’s a comfortable process for everybody.

The criticism I’ve gotten from some of my friends;  they say, why would you share your prices with your competition? Well, because if they’re going to go out and price the jobs to do, I want them to win the job by having a lower price because of ignorance, because they didn’t think of something. But if I teach my competitors how I price jobs, now we’re all pricing in the same fair way that the industry allows for. And may the best man get the job.

 

Right. And it sounds like you’re coming from that place of: Look, guys, there’s enough for everybody, let’s work together.

Absolutely. Yeah. We all have our little niches which may overlap in some areas, but maybe they don’t want to travel all the way to this side of town, and I don’t want to travel all the way to that side of town, so we can send those jobs to each other all day long. Maybe I’m a little too busy and I’m not going to get to a job for three months. They’re not going to wait for me. So I want to make sure I give it to you so you can get it done. We can back each other up and not let the opportunities slip away.

 

Right. Right. Any plans for another book?

I was considering a new book. I have a program that I teach that I scripted myself. It’s called Building Your Empire. It’s all about the infrastructure of business. When I find somebody who is that solo-preneur, I like to help build their confidence, so that they can build an actual entity, an actual saleable asset. It’s just a matter of building the team. I’ll have people come to class prepared with their financial statements, and I help them extract data from their financial statements throughout the day. We plug it into a worksheet with a mathematical formula that reverse engineers their position, how much money you make right now, how much of that money was made by being the owner of your business versus how much of it was made by being the employee for the business.

I mean, if you were to replace yourself as the employee, make what you’re making now, and by being the owner of the company who works on it, now let’s reverse engineer. How many people will it take? What’s the cost of payroll going to be? How much additional revenue will I have to generate? And then how am I going to get that? Well, how many leads will it take, based on my current close ratio and average it, and then ultimately what’s my strategy to get leads in. Then along the way we talk about the people we’re looking for.  How do we qualify them? Where do we find them? How do we train them? How do we incentivize them, turn them over, start all over again. So, just talking about management of people, but in my book, it’s about managing the client’s experience in the classroom.

It’s more about managing the staff. That’s what my day entails, sometimes talking people off ledges. Reinstilling the confidence in them that everything’s gonna be okay, the sky is not falling. Some people unfortunately roll over and fall out. It’s very sad. I’m sad for those people. Others figure out how to innovate. Others come up with new ideas and new concepts that we hadn’t thought of before, that were created by the current environment. So, who are you and who are you going to be in your business? If you’re going to lead a team, how are you going to exude that confidence into them, and lead them to a happy place? My business doesn’t do a lot of finger-pointing;  it doesn’t have a lot of bickering between staff. They may have disagreements, and that’s okay, because we want to see all points of view, but getting them to do it in a professional and respectful way, understanding each other’s communication style differences is so important. We don’t want to make it worse than it needs to be and escalate things. Everybody, all my staff has been through Behavioral Stomp Training.

 

Very good. So, I want to close this out with a couple of questions that I think will help empower our listeners. You’re a husband and a father and relationships are important to you personally and professionally. If you spend too much time on either one, it can hurt the other. So how do you find that balance to show your family how important they are, while making time for the pleasures of life, and keep your business going? What’s that balance? What does that look like?

It is really a matter of time management. So I’m well-scheduled. I use my calendar in my phone.  My calendar is managed by me, my administrative assistant, and three or four other staff members who like to insert things as they come up.  But I know that I need downtime, so I schedule it. These are the times no one is allowed to book me. I do a few vacations a year, where we can include all the kids, and a couple of getaways for me and my wife. We’ll do little weekend trips down to the beach, but it is scheduled in. 

I position myself to work daily on what I’m personally responsible for, so it won’t fall apart if I take that time with the family. But I’m always working as well. My phone is always turned on.  I’m available for people as they need me. I can do the fun stuff and get a little work done at the same time.  I can do my relationship-building on the golf course, or on a fishing trip. I go to networking events with these people that I’ve networked with for years. They are truly some of our best friends, and our spouses are all best friends as well. So my wife comes along to many networking events. 

Our family was started young and blended; we raised four children together. I had two, she had one and we adopted her cousin’s child. We raised the four children, and now they’re all young adults. We are technically empty nesters. We have two grandbabies; our two and a half year-old little girl is my favorite person in the whole world. We take her every Friday night and keep her overnight.

 

Nice. Very good. So Jason, is there a book that you can recommend to our readers that really impacted you?

Probably The E-Myth.  It is all about positioning yourself to work on your business, but not in your business.  There’s a clear difference;  you might be great at your trade, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. Every business has lead times, close ratio, average sale, equal their revenue. Take away your cost of goods, take away your overhead and each of those components can be then broken up to subcategories. You can manage all the little ingredients that go into the pie and make them come out tasting pretty good. So it’s just understanding that as a business owner, your role is no longer to do the service, but to employ people who do the service.  Your job is now recruiting talent.

Your job is managing the processes and systems, building them out, so that the people who are doing the jobs find it easier. It’s getting yourself into a position where you’re not daily putting out fires, but instead planning for how next week could be even smoother or better or bigger or more efficient, and then making sure that the way you’ve built your processes are incentivized.  As an owner, you’ve gotta put yourself in their shoes. Would you want to do that job? Would you be okay with the pay? 

Nobody in my business punches a time clock. That’s part of the attractive nature of the businesses. Everybody creates their own schedule. They’re all handling it responsibly.  If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be here. My CFO sometimes likes to do the numbers at two or three in the morning, then sleep in past 09:00. As long as the job gets done, I’m good with it. I empower people to create their own schedules. Their pay is always set up, you know, a little piece of security, but a much bigger piece of incentive. Whether it’s a finish point of a job, or it’s a price for unit, everybody has incentive-based pay. So there’s no ceiling, there’s no limit that says I’m making the most I can make here. You can always make more.  How do we drive more production, right? Whatever piece you contribute, I don’t have to renegotiate rates with people. I don’t have people asking, how come this guy makes more than I make?  I’ve eliminated that from our environment, everything is an equal playing field. How much can you execute?  What are you willing to do? What are you willing to bring to the table to make as much as you want and help me build the business?  How can you see the workings underneath, so you can position yourself to work on your department instead of in your department?

 

Okay. Great philosophy. Thanks for sharing that. So you also are involved in some charity work, is that correct?

Wait, can we get our hands in some? Yes, sir!  We annually support the Georgette’s Holiday Fashion Show. It’s one of two major events put on by the philanthropic women of St. Joseph’s. One event supports the Children’s Hospital, the other supports the Women’s Hospital. Unfortunately,they lost their main events last year, so this year, in February, we hosted a charity event at my own ranch in their honor. We raised money, just a small dent in the amount that they would have been able to raise, but we’re going to try to do our part.  We’ve been working on wheelchairs for kids. We are going to widen the hospital doorway, build a ramp, and also help out the families that need it most.

We do working donations with food pantries, feeding the community in Palm Harbor. People served were up 300% from the year prior.  We have worked in some community rebuild projects, cleaning up neighborhoods. We’ve done a couple events for breast cancer, an annual fishing tournament that I like to participate in, called Hooked on Hope. And some other things.

 

That’s awesome. Thank you so much for spending time with us today. I know that there’s a lot of great information in here. If someone wants to pick up your book, they can find that on Amazon or Kindle, right? If they would like to visit your BNI, what is your chapter’s name and where are they located?

It is the BNI Referral Masters Chapter. When we resume live meetings, they will be at Ruth Eckerd Hall. While we are still in COVID environment, we have to use Zoom, probably through December. But I can easily send a Zoom link. Just send an email to jason@averyconstruct.com, and I’ll fire off an email invite. The Greater Palm Harbor Chamber of Commerce has a great website with an events calendar, and you’ll find me at most events. Our next major event is a fishing tournament, June 12th, and we’re down to the last week to take on new anglers and business sponsors. We have about 70 anglers so far. Our goal is to reach a hundred. It’s always been a good event.

We’re going to have an “Evening Extraordinaire” in September, a golf tournament in October. We’re going to have a clay shoot in December. This past year, when other Chambers kind of rolled over and didn’t know what to do, we sort of rebranded.  We are now known as the Greater Palm Harbor Chamber of Commerce, or the Greater Outdoors Chamber of Commerce. We just took all of our events outside where people can socially distance, and kept on marching

 

Yep, keep going forward. Yeah. Hey, listen, Jason, what a pleasure. I’m glad that we were able to connect today. Thank you for the information that you’ve given to our listeners. We will be posting your website and contact information on the podcast.  Again, I appreciate you so much. Thank you for your time and wisdom.

Thanks for having me!  You have a wonderful program here.

Important Links:

Website: https://averyhomeremodeling.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AveryConstructionDesignConsultingInc

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/averyremodel/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/averyjason/