Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Standards Before Strategy

A Lesson from a Recent #LIVE365 Morning

This post comes straight from one of my recent #LIVE365 morning LIVES, broadcast from our cabin on a cold Maine morning — hot coffee, snow outside, and a simple but powerful reminder worth repeating:

Your life and business will never rise above your standards.

Not your strategy.
Not your tools.
Not your plans.

Your standards.

Most People Want a Better Strategy

But Strategy Won’t Fix Weak Standards

I see it all the time.

People want:

A better plan
A smarter tactic
Another course
Another tool

But here’s the truth:

Strategy doesn’t fix weak standards.

You can have the best plan in the world — the perfect sales process, fitness plan, leadership framework — and still fail if your standards are loose.

Strategy is what you do.
Standards are how you live.

And weak standards will sabotage even the strongest plans.

What Are Standards, Really?

Standards are the non-negotiables in your life.

Examples:

“I don’t tolerate toxic behavior.”
“I protect my time and energy.”
“I don’t eat like crap.”
“I prioritize rest.”
“I do the hard thing even when I don’t feel like it.”

Standards aren’t motivational quotes.
They’re decisions you live by — especially when it’s inconvenient.

Where Standards Usually Slip First

If things feel off, it’s usually because standards slipped quietly in one of these areas:

1. Time

Letting the day run you instead of running the day.
Reacting instead of deciding.

2. Communication

Tolerating unclear expectations.
Not speaking up when a boundary gets crossed.

3. Energy

Neglecting sleep, health, and recovery.
Running yourself into the ground and calling it “grind.”

4. Boundaries

Saying yes out of guilt.
Forgetting that “no” is a complete sentence.

5. Follow-Through

Breaking promises to yourself.
And if you can’t keep a promise to yourself — how can anyone trust you?

Here’s the Shift That Changes Everything

Stop asking:

“What do I need to do this week?”

Start asking:

“Who do I need to be this week?”

Your future doesn’t need a smarter version of you.
It needs a more consistent one.

Your future self is built by today’s standards.

My Life Didn’t Change When I Learned More

It Changed When I Expected More of Myself

I’ve read the books.
Been to the conferences.
Listened to the podcasts.

None of that changed my life.

What changed everything was when I raised the standard — and held the line.

When standards changed, everything followed:

My time
My leadership
My energy
My results

One Powerful Exercise (Do This This Week)

Keep it simple.

Choose ONE non-negotiable standard for the week
- Just one
- Something you will not break
Identify ONE behavior you will no longer tolerate from yourself
- “That’s not who I am anymore.”
- “I can’t do that and become who I want to be.”

That’s it.

This isn’t about perfection.
It’s about integrity with yourself.

When Standards Are Clear, Decisions Get Easy

I once had a client tell me:

“I didn’t want to go to the gym today — but then I realized this is just what I do now. This is who I am.”

That’s standards in action.

No debate.
No drama.
No motivation required.

Final Thought

If you want to operate at a higher level, stop chasing strategy and start reinforcing standards.

Make something non-negotiable this week.
Draw a line you refuse to cross.
And hold it — especially when it’s uncomfortable.

That’s how real change happens.

If this message hit home, it came straight from one of my daily #LIVE365 morning sessions, where we focus on leadership, discipline, and becoming the person your future requires.

See you on the next LIVE. Facebook. Instagram. YouTube. 8 AM EST. Daily

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

The First Ten Hours: How to Buy Back Your Time (Without Burning Down Your Business)

Most business owners start a company chasing freedom.

And then—almost immediately—they trade a 9–5 for the “privilege” of working 24/7, carrying more stress, more risk, and a calendar that feels like it’s owned by everyone except them.

That’s not freedom. That’s a trap with a logo.

In one of my LIVE365 morning sessions (I go live every day at 8:00 AM Eastern on Facebook), I talked about a concept that hits entrepreneurs—especially contractors—right between the eyes:

Your first ten hours.

Not ten hours someday. Not ten hours when things slow down.
Ten hours back, starting now.

Because once you reclaim time, you don’t just “feel” better… you get your life back.

Freedom Isn’t a Feeling. It’s the Hours You Control.

Let’s start by clearing up a lie that keeps people stuck.

A lot of owners talk about freedom like it’s a future destination:

“Once we finish this project…”
“Once we hire a couple more guys…”
“Once we hit the next revenue number…”

But here’s the truth:

Freedom isn’t margin.
Freedom isn’t revenue.
Freedom is the hours you can control.

If you don’t control your hours, you don’t control your life. Everybody else does.

And I’ve lived that. When everything runs through you—every decision, every fire, every client issue, every approval—you don’t have a business.

You have a bottleneck.

The Four Lies That Keep You Chained to the Business

When owners tell me they “can’t” buy back time, it usually comes wrapped in one of these phrases:

“I’m too busy to change.”
“That’ll slow us down.”
“No one else can do it.” (Translation: no one else can do it like I can.)
“Now’s not the time.” (Winter. Summer. After this job. After the next job…)

Those aren’t reasons.

They’re chains.

And the longer you wear them, the heavier they get.

Step One: Find the Leaks

Time doesn’t disappear. It leaks.

And most leaks fall into three buckets:

1) Repeating Tasks

The same admin stuff. The same back-and-forth. The same busywork you shouldn’t be doing.

2) Repeating Problems

The same preventable chaos, because nobody took the time to build the system.

3) Repeating Decisions

You’re deciding the same thing over and over because there’s no standard—no SOP, no rule, no delegated owner.

If you’re constantly solving the same issues, that’s not leadership.

That’s you living inside a loop.

Step Two: Plug the Leaks (Four Options)

Once you see the leak, you don’t need a motivational quote. You need a move.

Here are the only four ways to plug it:

1) Delegate

Assign it to someone who can own it.

2) Systematize

Create an SOP so it runs the same way every time.

3) Schedule

Put it in the right place with boundaries—stop letting everything interrupt everything else.

4) Eliminate

Some things don’t need to be done at all.

And here’s a key line:

Make tasks “audition” to get on your calendar.
If it’s not worthy, it doesn’t get on.

Why Buying Back One Hour Feels Better Than a Big Check

This part surprises people.

When you buy back your first hour, it hits different than making money.

Because money is renewable.

Time isn’t.

You can always sell another job.
You can always make another dollar.

But no one is making more hours.

That first hour you reclaim is you breathing again. It’s you remembering what it feels like to not be pinned under the business.

Don’t Buy Back Time to Do Nothing—Buy It Back to Do What Matters

Buying back your time isn’t about sitting on the couch.

It’s about redeploying your hours into what actually moves the needle:

Better leadership
Better health
Better marriage and family time
Better planning and thinking
Better growth (personal and professional)

Buying back time is about doing what matters.

Not doing more.

The “First Ten Hours” Breakdown

Ten hours per week doesn’t sound crazy until you do the math.

10 hours/week = 520 hours/year.

That’s not a productivity hack.

That’s essentially giving yourself months back every year.

Here’s how to find those ten hours without nuking your business:

2 Hours: Admin You’re Still Doing

Invoices, scheduling, reminders, uploading, organizing—stuff that isn’t owner-level work.

2 Hours: Phone Calls Someone Else Can Handle

Not the CEO calls. The routine calls. The “someone else can clean this up” calls.

2 Hours: Chaos That Gets Fixed With Systems

Every time you “just handle it,” you guarantee you’ll handle it again.

2 Hours: Firefighting That Goes Away With Structure

Most fires are just symptoms of no standards.

2 Hours: Low-Value Work You Shouldn’t Touch

The stuff you do “because it’s faster if I do it.”

That’s the trap.

The Simple Filter That Will Change Your Life

Ask yourself this question:

“Does this really affect my life?”

If the answer is no…

Let it go.

Some of you need that on a sticky note.

Because you’re carrying things that don’t deserve to be carried—just because you’ve always carried them.

“Who Not How” in Real Life

Here’s what this looks like in the real world:

A VA takes over repeatable admin and content tasks.
Someone else owns the podcast process from “record” to “published.”
Groceries get delivered instead of you burning an hour and your sanity in the store.
A cleaner handles the house so your weekends don’t disappear into “maintenance mode.”

If you can pay someone less than your effective hourly value to do a task…

Unload it.

Not because you’re above it.

Because your time has a better use.

Start Smaller If You Need To

Maybe you’re reading this thinking:

“Bob, ten hours sounds awesome… but I can’t get ten.”

Cool.

Go get one.

Where can you find one hour this week?

One task delegated
One decision standardized
One meeting eliminated
One process documented
One boundary enforced

Momentum doesn’t start with ten.

It starts with one.

Two Books That Will Drive This Home (Over and Over)

If this message hits you—and you can feel that pull to reclaim your time—there are two books I recommend that will absolutely reinforce the point and keep you sharp as you grow:

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan
This book forces a mindset shift that most owners never make: stop asking “How do I do this?” and start asking “Who can help me get this done?” That one change alone will begin to break the bottleneck cycle and create real leverage.
Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell
This is a straight-up playbook for treating time like the asset it is. The core reminder is simple: if you want to grow and scale, you have to stop trying to do everything alone—and start deliberately buying back your hours with the right people, systems, and boundaries.

Honestly, I feel like these are the kind of books you could read a couple times per year—because the lesson is never “learned once.” As the business grows, the demands grow. And you’ll constantly be challenged to go back to the same question:

Am I trying to figure out “how” again… or am I finding the right “who”?

Your Challenge

This week, don’t aim for perfection.

Aim for progress.

Identify one time leak.
Pick one way to plug it (delegate, systematize, schedule, eliminate).
Redeploy that hour into something that actually matters.

And if you want to keep going deeper into topics like this, come hang with me on LIVE365.

I’m live every day at 8:00 AM Eastern on Facebook, talking leadership, business, sales, discipline, and how to build a company that supports your life—not consumes it.

Thursday, January 8, 2026

The Discipline Stack: How Real Momentum Is Built (One Rep at a Time)

Nobody loses their edge overnight.
They lose it one small excuse at a time.

And here’s the flip side most people miss:

The same way you lose your edge is how you build it — one rep at a time.

This is Day 3 of the Mental Toughness for Owners series, and today we’re talking about something that quietly separates high performers from everyone else:

The Discipline Stack.

Not motivation.
Not hype.
Not big, dramatic moves.

But small actions, stacked relentlessly.

Big Results Don’t Come From Big Moves

Most people chase the highlight win:

The big contract
The breakthrough month
The sudden surge of momentum

But the truth is simple:

Big results aren’t built by big moves. They’re built by small actions stacked relentlessly.

Discipline compounds faster than talent.
Consistency beats intensity — every single time.

Anyone can get fired up and run through a wall once.
Real winners are the ones who show up and tap the wall every day.

Endurance Training Taught Me This the Hard Way

You don’t train for an endurance event by doing 100 miles in one day.

You train by:

Running 6–10 miles
Doing repeats
Hitting hills
Showing up again tomorrow

Great weeks stack into great months.
Great months stack into great years.

Business works the exact same way.

Your life is just a scoreboard of what you do most.

Where Discipline Actually Breaks

Discipline doesn’t usually fail during the big moments.

It breaks in quiet ones.

Here are the three most common fracture points:

When nobody is watching
When you’re tired
When you don’t feel like it

Those moments feel small — but they’re decisive.

They are the micro-decisions that shape who you become.

The Discipline Stack: Your Ladder to Momentum

This is where everything comes together.

You don’t need 10 new habits.
You need three, stacked correctly.

STEP 1: The Foundation

One habit you must protect daily. No negotiation.

Examples:

Workout
Sales call
Morning huddle
Quiet planning hour

This is the habit you do even when no one is watching.

STEP 2: The Protector

The habit that ensures the foundation actually happens.

Examples:

Laying clothes out the night before
Blocking your calendar
Packing your gym bag
Accountability texts

If the foundation fails, it’s usually because the protector wasn’t in place.

STEP 3: The Multiplier

The habit that compounds everything else.

Examples:

Reading
Journaling
Planning tomorrow today

This is where momentum accelerates.
Now you’re not just disciplined — you’re scaling discipline.

The 7-Day Discipline Stack Challenge

Here’s the challenge:

Pick your Foundation
Protect it
Multiply it
Do it for seven straight days

And understand this:

One week from now, you won’t be different — you’ll be dangerous.

Because you’ll know what it feels like to operate at a higher standard — and it becomes harder to tolerate anything less.

Final Thought

Discipline isn’t who you are.

Discipline is who you prove you are — every single day.

Stack the reps.
Protect the basics.
Let momentum do the heavy lifting.

And remember:
Nobody builds an edge overnight — but anyone can build it one day at a time.

Saturday, January 3, 2026

Stop Babysitting Adults: Build Leaders, Build Standards, Build a Culture That Wins

It was five below zero up in Island Falls, Maine when I hit record for this LIVE365.

And as much as the weather can punch you in the mouth up here, it actually sets the stage for a leadership truth that a lot of business owners need to hear:

When it’s cold, you don’t complain about the cold.
You adjust the gear.
You get the right layers, the right boots, the right plan—because the conditions don’t care how you feel.

Leadership is the same way.

If your team feels like a mess… if your day feels like chaos… if you spend your life putting out fires…

It’s not because your people are broken.

It’s because your leadership model needs upgrading.

When Leadership Turns Into Adult Daycare

I used to joke that I ran an “adult daycare.”

And if we’re being honest, there are plenty of days where business owners still feel exactly like that:

Constant reminders
Constant follow-ups
Constant fixing things that “shouldn’t” need fixing
Constant emotional babysitting
Constant rescuing

But here’s the hard truth:

If your day feels like adult daycare, it’s not a “them problem.”
It’s a leadership problem.

And before you get defensive—good. That’s the point.

Because the moment you stop blaming your team and start looking in the mirror, everything can change.

The Difference Between Babysitting and Leading

Babysitting is emotional.
Leading is structured.

Babysitting sounds like:

“Don’t forget to do that.”
“I need you to be more careful.”
“Come on, man… we’ve talked about this.”
“Just give it to me. I’ll do it myself.”

Leading sounds like:

“Here is the standard.”
“Here is what good looks like.”
“Here is how we measure it.”
“Here’s when we review it.”
“Here’s what happens when we hit it—or miss it.”

When you babysit, you’re reminding people.
When you lead, you’re measuring performance.

When you babysit, you’re fixing mistakes.
When you lead, you’re teaching standards.

When you babysit, you absorb everyone’s stress.
When you lead, you transfer ownership and hold accountability.

When you babysit, you’re constantly rescuing.
When you lead, you’re developing people.

And here’s the line that matters most:

Every time you save someone from accountability, you steal their growth.

Read that again.

If you keep stepping in, covering mistakes, smoothing problems over, and shielding people from consequences… you’re not being a good leader.

You’re training dependence.

The 4-Step Burnout Loop That Destroys Leaders (and Culture)

Here’s how good leaders burn out and cultures rot from the inside out:

You remind
“Hey—don’t forget to do that.”
They repeat the mistake
Same issue. Same excuse. Different day.
You get frustrated
Now you’re irritated, short, and carrying resentment.
You take the work back
“Just give it to me. I’ll do it myself.”

And the worst part?

That loop feels “productive” in the short term… because the work gets done.

But long term, it creates:

A team that waits to be told
A culture that avoids ownership
A leader who’s buried, bitter, and exhausted
A business that can’t scale because the owner is the system

So the question isn’t whether your team is capable.

The question is whether you’re willing to stop enabling dependence.

The Shift: Build Leaders With Structure, Not Emotion

If you want to stop babysitting and start building leaders, you need four things:

1) Expectations in writing

No guessing. No assumptions. No “they should know.”

Write it down. Make it clear. Have them sign off if needed.

2) Metrics, not emotions

Not: “That really pissed me off.”
Instead: “Here’s the standard. Here’s where you are. Let’s close the gap.”

Metrics remove drama. They create clarity.

3) A review rhythm

Weekly check-ins. Monthly reviews. Scorecards. Whatever fits your operation.

But it can’t be random.
It can’t be “when you remember.”
It has to be a rhythm.

4) Clear consequences (and rewards)

Consequences aren’t mean. They’re leadership.

And don’t miss this part:

Reward the behavior you want more of.

If someone is stepping up, improving, taking ownership—call it out. Reinforce it. Build momentum.

Because culture isn’t what you say once.
Culture is what you inspect and reinforce over time.

Adults Don’t Need Motivation—They Need Clarity

Most people aren’t lazy.
They’re unclear.

They don’t know exactly what winning looks like.
They don’t know how performance is measured.
They don’t know what happens if they don’t deliver.

So they drift.

And when they drift, you get frustrated.

But your frustration doesn’t fix the problem.

Clarity does.

The Leadership Challenge

Here’s your takeaway assignment—simple, but not easy:

Pick one person or one role you’ve been babysitting.

Then answer these three questions:

What expectation do I have that isn’t written down?
What metric isn’t tracked?
What consequence isn’t enforced?

That’s it.

Those three questions will expose exactly why you keep carrying what other people should own.

And if you want to start clean in the new year, here’s a powerful rule Wendy says to me all the time:

“If you haven’t given someone an expectation and told them what to do, adjust your expectation to zero.”

That one stings… because it’s true.

Final Thought

Leading people is work.

It requires you to get uncomfortable.
It requires hard conversations.
It requires standards and structure.

But the payoff is everything you want:

A team that owns outcomes
A culture that holds the line
A business that grows without crushing you
And a life where you’re not carrying the whole thing on your back

And remember—just like the winter up here in Maine…

There’s no such thing as bad conditions.

Only an outdated system.

Upgrade the system, and you upgrade the outcome.

Thursday, December 18, 2025

Decision-Making When You’re Exhausted

Day 356 of #Live365 — December 17

Fatigue doesn’t just slow you down. It lowers the quality of your decisions.

And if you’re in a leadership role—business owner, foreman, project manager, parent, coach—your decisions are the engine that drives everything. When that engine starts misfiring, overwhelm doesn’t just show up… it multiplies.

This is a big deal because most people blame “bad decisions” on the wrong things.

They think:

“I didn’t have enough information.”
“I’m not experienced enough.”
“I’m not smart enough.”

But more often than not, the real reason is simpler:

You were exhausted.

Why exhaustion makes you choose wrong

When you’re depleted, your brain isn’t searching for clarity. It’s searching for relief.

It wants comfort. It wants speed. It wants escape. It wants “off my plate.”

That’s why exhaustion makes urgency feel smarter than intention.

You’ve probably said things like:

“I don’t know why I said yes to that.”
“I should’ve slowed down.”
“I should’ve made that call and gotten it off my plate.”
“Just throw money at it and make it go away.”

That last one gets a lot of leaders. (I’ve done it too.)

The “pressure decision” (and why we all do it)

Here’s the question that tells the truth:

Have you ever made a decision just to make the pressure go away… even though you knew it needed more time?

Most people have.

Because when you’re tired, your decision-making capacity shrinks.

What fatigue does to you:

Your patience drops
Your perspective narrows
Your emotions get louder
Everything feels urgent
Small problems feel big
Hard conversations feel heavier
Decisions feel riskier

That’s why late-night emails feel like a boulder. That’s why Friday afternoon feels like “just do it.” That’s why one more request from someone can feel like the final straw.

Fatigue doesn’t make you a bad leader.

It just makes you a reactive one.

The sneaky ways exhaustion shows up in leadership

When you’re depleted, you tend to default to short-term relief. That shows up like this:

You say yes instead of setting boundaries
You avoid hard conversations (“Let’s pick that up Monday…”)
You postpone important decisions (“I don’t have the bandwidth…”)
You rush to conclusions
You choose comfort over clarity

And here’s the trap:

Those decisions feel good temporarily…

…but they create long-term stress because now you’ve added more stuff to the pile.

You don’t need better decisions—just better timing

This might be the most powerful leadership habit of all:

Don’t make big decisions when you’re depleted.

Not because you’re weak. Because you’re smart.

You can’t lead well when your cup is empty. You can’t pour from an empty cup. And you can’t make clean decisions when your mind is fried.

So instead of forcing it, try this:

Sleep on it
Write it down
Schedule it
Come back with clarity

Delayed decisions are often better decisions—when they’re delayed for the right reason.

Not procrastination. Not avoidance.
Just wisdom.

Energy management is leadership

Most overwhelm isn’t about time. It’s about energy.

That means building recovery into your day before you need it:

Stop skipping lunch and going hammer-down all day
Take breaks like an adult, not like a machine
Protect your mornings (workout, journaling, quiet time, time with your spouse—whatever “resets” you)
Create mental margin so you don’t get cornered with your guard down

Because calm leaders make cleaner decisions. Every time.

Create rules for tired moments (so you don’t rely on willpower)

High performers use rules so they don’t rely on willpower.

Here are a few examples:

“I don’t say yes on the spot.”
“I don’t send emotional emails. I sit on it overnight.”
“I don’t make big decisions after 7:00 p.m.”
“If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a hell no.”
“When things get tight, I pause and ask: What would I do if I wasn’t exhausted?”

Rules remove pressure from tired brains.

A quick self-audit (write these down)

If you want to get real with yourself, ask:

What decisions am I making while depleted?
Where am I defaulting to urgency instead of intention?
What conversations am I avoiding because I’m tired—or because I’m using tired as an excuse?
How would better energy management improve my leadership?
What decision do I need to pause on instead of rushing?

The commitment (simple, but powerful)

Here’s the line I want you to remember:

When I feel exhausted, I will pause—not decide.

Exhaustion doesn’t mean you’re failing.
It means you need recovery… not more pressure.

Protect your energy. Protect your clarity. Protect your leadership.

And if you’re reading this during a season where you feel cooked—good. That awareness is the first win.

Pause. Reset. Then decide like the leader you’re capable of being.

If this hit home, share it with another business owner who’s been running on fumes.

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

End the Overwhelm by Slowing Your Mind

END THE OVERWHELM BY SLOWING YOUR MIND

(From Day 355 of #LIVE365)

Most people think overwhelm comes from too much to do.

Too many jobs. Too many responsibilities. Too many problems. Too many people pulling on you.

But that’s not usually where it starts.

Overwhelm is often the symptom. The real issue is what’s happening between your ears — a mind that won’t stop running. And when your mind is chaotic, it doesn’t matter how organized your calendar looks…

A chaotic mind will create a chaotic day.

THE REAL SOURCE OF STRESS ISN’T YOUR WORKLOAD

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

A lot of stress isn’t caused by the number of tasks you have. It’s caused by the number of uncaptured thoughts you’re carrying around all day.

It’s the mental tabs you never close:

The conversation you keep replaying
The mistake you keep re-running in your head
The “I should’ve done that yesterday” loop
The thing you’re worried might happen next week
The decision you haven’t made yet
The reminder you’re afraid you’ll forget

So even when you finally sit down…

You’re physically resting, but mentally sprinting.

If you’ve ever felt like you’ve got 37 browsers open in your brain, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

YOUR BRAIN WASN’T DESIGNED TO STORE EVERYTHING

Your brain is not meant to be your storage unit.

It’s meant to solve problems.

So when you try to hold on to tasks, worries, reminders, ideas, and decisions, your brain stays on high alert — because it’s trying to protect you from forgetting something important.

That’s why you wake up at 3:00 a.m. and your mind immediately starts producing a highlight reel of everything you haven’t finished.

It’s not weakness.

It’s overload — without structure.

“CALM” ISN’T A PERSONALITY TRAIT. IT’S A SYSTEM.

Most people wait to feel calm before they act.

But calm doesn’t show up first.

Calm is created by repetition, not motivation.

Calm comes from predictable anchors:

Simple routines
Consistent habits
Clear targets
One thing at a time
A rhythm you can trust

Chaos grows in unpredictability.

Calm grows in rhythm.

And here’s the key: slowing down mentally makes you more effective, not less.

This isn’t about lowering your standards. It’s about raising your clarity.

Because clear minds make:

Cleaner decisions
Better communication
Stronger leadership
Less reactive behavior
More presence

Calm leaders move slower — and get more done.

STOP TRYING TO CONTROL EVERYTHING

Mental overload grows when you try to solve:

Problems you can’t fix today
Outcomes you don’t control
Conversations you can’t change
Future scenarios you can’t predict

And that “what if…” loop?

It’ll run forever if you let it.

The calm comes from narrowing your focus to what’s actually in your control — right now.

Ask yourself this:

What’s one thing I can do today that would move me forward?

Your mind relaxes when it has a clear target.

THE FASTEST WAY TO SLOW YOUR MIND DOWN: GET IT OUT OF YOUR HEAD

You don’t need a perfect system to start.

You just need a way to capture the noise.

Write it down.

Not neatly. Not perfectly.

Just get it out.

Because the second you do, your nervous system gets the message:

“I don’t have to remember everything. It’s handled.”

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS THAT CHANGE THE GAME

If you want to get serious about this, sit with these:

What triggers my mental chaos most often?
What am I holding in my head that should be written down?
Where am I trying to control things I can’t — or shouldn’t?
What simple habit would bring me more clarity this week?

A lot of times, the trigger isn’t even the workload.

It’s sleep. It’s no routine. It’s no movement. It’s letting days stack without a reset.

YOUR 5-MINUTE CHALLENGE

Here’s the challenge I want you to do — today:

Set a timer for five minutes
Do a brain dump: write down everything on your mind
Circle one thing that actually matters today
Start there

That’s where clarity begins.

FINAL REMINDER

Your mind doesn’t need more pressure.

It needs more structure.

When you slow the mind down:

Stress drops
Focus improves
Decisions get easier
Leadership gets stronger

So today, don’t try to win the whole week in one day.

Just create rhythm. Create structure. Create one clear target.

Go have a great day.

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Managing Subs Like a General Contractor

Lead Your Subs Like a General Contractor – Not From the Hip

Most contractors think their “sub problems” are about unreliable people:

Guys who don’t show up when they say they will
Sloppy work and messy job sites
Poor communication and last-minute schedule changes
Cigarette butts, energy drink cans, tools everywhere

All of that shows up on the surface. But the real issue almost always lives one layer deeper:

Subs rise or fail based on the clarity, structure, and leadership you give them.

Great subs perform better for great leaders.
Average subs become good under great leaders.
And even great subs will become average under weak, chaotic leadership.

If you want smoother projects, happier clients, and tighter schedules, you don’t start by “finding better subs.” You start by becoming a better leader of the subs you already have.

The Job Starts Before the Job Starts

Most contractors treat the job start as the day tools hit the floor.

In reality, the job starts long before that.

Your subs need more than an address and “start Monday”:

They need:

Scope – Exactly what’s in and what’s out
Drawings – If you have drawings, get them a set
Timeline – Start date, target completion, and critical milestones
Job site expectations – Cleanup standards, protection standards, access rules
Code of conduct – How we behave on site, and how we don’t
Communication protocol – Who they call, how they update, where notes live
Client boundaries – What to do and not do with the homeowner

Subs are not mind readers.

They’re running multiple jobs, juggling multiple GCs, and making decisions fast. If you don’t fill the gaps with direction, they’ll fill the gaps with guesses.

And that’s when things blow up.

Run a Pre-Job Meeting Like a Pro

One of the biggest missed leadership moves in residential construction is the pre-job meeting with your subs.

Most contractors skip it.

Here’s what a simple, effective pre-job meeting covers:

“Here’s the scope.”
“Here’s the sequence: who’s going first, second, third.”
“Here’s the schedule: when you’re on and when you’re off.”
“Here’s what the client cares about most.”
“Here’s what to absolutely avoid.”
“Here’s how we communicate and where we document changes.”
“Here are the non-negotiables on this job.”

If you do this well, you’ll eliminate 80% of your sub-related issues before they ever show up.

It’s not fancy. It’s leadership.

One Point of Contact, One Voice of Leadership

This one is hard, but it’s critical:

Subs need one point of contact.

The minute you step off the job, who does the homeowner go to?
The sub.

If your subs don’t clearly understand your process and chain of command, here’s what happens:

The homeowner asks the sub a question.
The sub—trying to be helpful—starts making decisions.
Or your field guy who isn’t authorized to direct subs starts telling them what to do.
Changes get made. Nobody tells you.
You show up and you’re the last one to know.

That’s how scope creep, free work, and misalignment show up.

Fix it by:

Establishing you or your PM as the single point of contact.
Allowing normal conversation, but insisting someone reduces decisions to writing.
Using your project management software for daily logs, notes, and direction.

Leadership needs one clear voice, not five different people giving mixed messages.

Set Non-Negotiables (Then Actually Enforce Them)

If you don’t define your standards clearly, you can’t enforce them.

Your subs should know:

What must happen
What must not happen
What details matter most
What the client expects
What your standards are and where the line is

Examples of non-negotiables:

No smoking on site
Music at a reasonable level (and nothing obscene or offensive)
Floor and wall protection in place and maintained
Job site broom clean at the end of every day
Little to no direct communication with the homeowner about scope or changes
No helping themselves to the client’s kitchen, fridge, or microwave
No extra work performed without written approval

If a sub does extra work without a signed change order:

“If you don’t get a signature, I can’t pay you. That’s the rule.”

You’re not being difficult. You’re being clear.

Non-negotiables protect you, the client, and the sub.

Inspections > Assumptions

Never assume the job is going fine just because you haven’t heard anything.

Inspections are always better than assumptions.

You need to physically show up and check:

Progress
Accuracy
Sequencing (is work happening in the right order?)
Cleanliness
Communication (does everyone understand what’s next?)

Subs perform better when they know you’re present and paying attention.
Things don’t get swept under the rug when you’re the leader who shows up.

Praise the Good Subs, Replace the Bad Ones (Quickly)

There are really two groups of subs:

The ones who elevate your business:

They show up when they say they will
They take pride in their work
They communicate clearly
They charge appropriately so you can still make margin
They respect your client and your standards

These people are gold. Take care of them.

The ones who hold you back:

They disappear after promising to be there Monday
They leave messes and argue about standards
They blow up your schedule and make you look bad
They’re disrespectful to clients or act one way with you and another with them

Replace those quickly—not emotionally, but decisively.

“I can’t run a professional business with this level of reliability. I need a different kind of relationship.”

Simple. Firm. Clear.

Build a “Sub Startup Packet”

Before your next project, treat it like a fresh canvas and create a Sub Startup Packet you give to everyone who steps on your job.

Inside that packet:

Scope of work
Drawings (if applicable)
Timeline and milestones
Job site rules and expectations
Code of conduct
Communication protocol and software usage
Non-negotiables (cleanup, client boundaries, change orders, etc.)
Payment schedule — when and how they’ll be paid

Then go over it with them. Don’t just email it and hope they read it.

This one move will save you massive headaches, callbacks, and uncomfortable client conversations.

Reflection Questions for You as the GC

Take a minute and ask yourself:

Where am I unclear with my subs?
Do I assume too much and communicate too little?
Do I have a true pre-job process, or am I winging it?
Which subs elevate my business, and which ones hold it back?
If a brand-new project started tomorrow, could I hand my subs a clear startup packet?

You don’t have to be perfect.
Subs don’t need perfection.

They need leadership.

Final Thought

When you lead your subs like a true general contractor—not from the hip—everything tightens up:

Jobs run smoother
Clients feel safer and more confident
Problems shrink
Schedules tighten
And because your schedule tightens, you can often do one or two more projects a year

That extra capacity goes straight to your bottom line.

You don’t build a great contracting business in spite of your subs.

You build it by leading your subcontractors well.