Episode 435: Mental Malware

00:03
What if the real reason your construction business won’t scale isn’t your team, your market, your pricing, or even your systems? What if the real constraint is something that’s running silently in the background and you don’t even know it’s there, right? You have projects, you have a team, you have revenue, you have money in the bank, but you’re still in too many parts of the business. You’re still checking your phone after dinner. You’re still the final decision maker. You’re still a key.

00:33
in the machine that is your business. What if the issue isn’t people, it isn’t software, it isn’t strategy or tactics? What if it’s not AI? What if it’s not even your systems? What if it’s a type of malware? And I’m not talking about your website. You’re listening to the Construction Leading Edge podcast from constructionleadingedge.com, where it’s all about systematizing your construction business to maximize three things, freedom,

01:03
impact and wealth. My name is Todd DeWalt. I’m your host and my team and I have helped over 400 construction companies eliminate chaos, grow their profits and grow their team. So let’s get into it. It was the first week of August, 2018. I had just quit my job. went full time doing coaching for construction business owners and I was in Watertown, South Dakota.

01:32
And I was there to spend a couple of days with a client and I got up in the hotel, woke up, picked up my phone and saw an email from somebody who said, Hey Todd, I think your website’s been hacked, which caused a little bit of panic. So I looked at my website and.

01:50
Sure enough, there was some really weird message. It looked like a terrorist organization had hacked my website, which was not cool because I was supposed to spend the next couple of days with the clients. So jumped into action early that morning, got my website folks to clean it up. And I kept having problems for the next couple of months. Really weird things were happening with my website. I found out that there was malware running in the background. Somebody had installed.

02:19
a website within my website and it was redirecting traffic, messing with performance, doing things I didn’t know about. It was running in the background. So everything looked fine from the outside, but underneath something was corrupting the system. And until we found it, nothing else we tried actually fixed the problem. We had to get to that malware and actually delete those files from my website. And it took a few months to get there.

02:45
And I see something similar happening with construction business owners. And I’m not talking about websites, not talking about technology. On the surface, things look, they look fine. They’re running pretty smoothly, but underneath something else is running that they don’t know about. So here’s what I want to talk about today. I want you to think about this question. What if you are running malware? What if you’re running mental malware that values safety over growth?

03:15
And what if that mental malware is quietly capping your construction business? What if that’s the real reason? And there’s a pretty good chance the answer is yes. Because in my work with hundreds of construction business owners, and I’ve probably spoken with 800 construction business owners over the past eight to 10 years and realized that there’s mental malware that sounds very responsible.

03:43
It values safety over growth and it’s actually what’s capping a lot of construction businesses. So you may say that you’re protecting your family by being responsible, but the version of safe that you’ve chosen looks like 60 or 70 hour weeks, chronic stress, can’t turn it off, not present at home in a business that would fail without you. Maybe you say you’re an action taker, but you’ve been quote thinking about and studying and researching.

04:12
systematizing your business for months or years and you haven’t actually taken action. You’re so competent that you can survive the chaos, which means you may never feel enough pain to outgrow it. Your baseline level for stress is so high, your normal level of stress is so abnormal that you can handle it. You can handle the stress and the chaos, but that means you may never feel enough pain to actually outgrow it and fix it. And think about this, if nothing changes, where are you?

04:42
In five years, revenue might be a little higher, but so are your working hours. Revenue may be a little higher, but so is your stress, your overhead, your risk and the business still depends on you. And that’s not scaling. That’s just scaling stress, right? How long have you been in this pattern? Two years, five years, 10 years. How many times have you said, you know, after this project, something’s going to change.

05:11
After we hire one more person or when things calm down, we’re going to fix this next year, January 1st, new year’s resolution. We’re going to fix this. We’re going to make a change. But at what point does the busy season just become your operating system? At what point does chaos just become normal? Not that the chaos comes down, but your baseline just.

05:37
rises to that level of chaos and abnormal becomes normal. And there’s a pretty good chance that you’re, you’re strong enough to carry the weight. You can handle the stress. you just never build the machine. You just keep carrying that stress. And I’ve seen construction business owners who have to personally approve every change order. They have to meet and deal with and talk with every client. They have to see every schedule. They have to approve every invoice.

06:06
They have to be part of every part of the business and they call it high standards. But what they’ve built is a company that can only move at the speed of their attention. And if your systems only work when you are involved, that’s not high standards. That’s identity protection. I’ll explain that some more. So let’s run a quick scan for mental malware. Imagine your laptop probably has some sort of anti-virus software.

06:35
or you can scan your files, scan your computer for files. I want to run a quick scan for mental malware. This is the stuff that’s running in your head. Just like with my website, there was mental malware running that I didn’t know about that was causing problems. There’s a pretty good chance that if you’re stuck, if you’re not happy with where you are, the problem isn’t software, people, sales, marketing, or even systems. The problem could be that you have mental malware running in your mental operating system. So

07:05
If two or three of these sound familiar, pay attention. If you hear yourself saying or thinking these things, pay attention. See if any of these sound familiar. Number one, now’s not a good time. Now’s not a good time to do this. There’s always a fire, a crisis, uh a project problem. So you believe that there’s going to be some good time in the future to do something, whatever that might be. So…

07:34
You just don’t do anything and that good time never comes. Number two, we can’t afford it. We think about investing in your business, investing in systems. We can’t afford it. You’ll spend money on trucks and tools and computers and labor and overhead without blinking, but investing in leadership or systems feels risky. Meanwhile, the chaos quietly bleeds out profit. And what you have to realize is.

08:03
The cost of inaction is often the highest cost. You think you can’t afford it, but in many cases you can’t afford not to do something. Number three, this is very common. When things calm down, then I’ll fix this, which is saying future me is going to be better equipped to solve this problem than present me. And that is sophisticated procrastination. The truth is like what you’re telling yourself is when the conditions change,

08:33
then I’ll take some action. But the truth is you have to change first and then the conditions follow. Number four is very common. I don’t have time. This is one of the top three that I hear from people. I don’t have time. I don’t have time. I don’t have time to put systems in place. I don’t have time to hire people. I don’t have time to fix the problems. You’re too busy mopping.

09:02
to turn off the faucet. That’s what you’re saying. If you’re saying you don’t have time, you’re basically saying you’re too busy mopping to turn off the faucet. Or you’re saying my broken leg hurts too bad to go to the emergency room. Number five is something I hear periodically. It’s what I call the snowflake syndrome. And it sounds something like my business is special. My business is different. My customers are different. My

09:30
Projects are like art projects. My business is unique. It’s a special snowflake You try something halfway. It doesn’t fully work and you say see I knew it wouldn’t work for us because our business is special so you have commit and Here’s what I found half commitment is ego insurance Half commitment is ego insurance number six. I’m not ready yet. I hear this periodically I’m not ready yet as if

10:00
you’re ever going to feel ready to make a change as if at some point there’s going to be this warm glow, this light that lands on you and you feel ready and you’ll say, I finally feel ready. Here’s the deal. Readiness isn’t a feeling that arrives before action. will always have to start before you’re ready, but this mental malware says I’m not ready yet. At some point you’ll feel ready and then you’ll do it. Number seven.

10:28
Nobody cares like I do. Nobody will take ownership. Nobody cares as much as I do. And the truth is at a certain size, every extra thing that you personally touch makes the company more fragile. It sounds responsible by saying nobody’s going to care as much as I do. So I have to be like this mother hen who covers everything. Number eight, I hate spending money. I hate spending money. I have heard these words and this is what keeps people stuck.

10:56
I hate spending money on systems or coaching or hiring people. So I’ll just deal with it myself. But what they don’t realize is that the lack of systems or lack of the right people or lack of coaching is costing them thousands of dollars a month in profit bleeds and missed opportunities. So the question shouldn’t be, does this cost money? Of course it does. The question should be, does this money come back with friends? Instead of thinking, I hate spending money. You need to start thinking about.

11:26
I hate wasting money or I like making good investments. Number nine, if I’m not involved, things will fall apart. I have to maintain control. So if things fall apart without you, that’s not proof that you’re needed. It’s proof that the system isn’t finished. It’s proof that your business is designed to fail without you. Number 10 and number 11 are really common for companies, especially who want to scale. They say we just need to sell more work. Maybe things are.

11:54
the business is as profitable as you want. You want to scale. So you think we just need to sell more. We need more leads. We need more sales. We need more revenue. But the truth is without structure, you don’t fix chaos with volume. Without structure, you don’t fix chaos with volume. You just magnify it. Number 11 is another one that I hear commonly with companies who want to scale is we just need more people. We just need to hire more people. Same thing without structure. You don’t fix chaos with more people. You just magnify it.

12:24
And in fact, it’s been proven that we just need to hire more people is a root cause of failure. The FMI Corp did a study and they found that 75 % of the companies that ended in financial crisis believed that we just need to get the work and we’ll find the people to staff it. So number 10 and 11, watch out for those. We just need to sell more and we just need to hire more people. Years ago, 24, 25 years ago now, our

12:53
oldest daughter, Madeline, was about a year old. And this vacuum cleaner salesman came to our house. Now we had just purchased a very expensive vacuum cleaner because we had a brand new baby. She was crawling around. We wanted to make sure the carpet was clean. So we had just paid for a really expensive vacuum cleaner. And for some reason, I think it was my wife’s friend who came over with this other new vacuum cleaner.

13:22
And we did it as a courtesy to her friend Sue. So Sue was demonstrating this vacuum cleaner and I’m like, we’re not going to buy a vacuum cleaner. We just bought a vacuum cleaner. Well, at some point, Sue pulled out a little piece of filter fabric, put it over part of the vacuum cleaner before it went into the filter bag. And she said, I’m just going to run the vacuum cleaner over your carpet and see what it pulls up. And I’m thinking, man, piece of filter fabric is going to be.

13:47
pristine because we’ve been vacuuming with this really expensive vacuum cleaner we just bought. Well, after a few minutes, she pulled the vacuum cleaner apart, pulled out the filter fabric and there it was. There was dust and debris and all this flaky stuff on the filter. And she showed us the stuff that was there that we didn’t know about. There was this dirt and debris that our baby, Madeline had been crawling around on and we didn’t know it was there. But.

14:17
Once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it and I couldn’t not act. So we bought that vacuum cleaner that night. It was because there were things going on that I didn’t know about. Any of those mental malware files sound familiar. I don’t have time. We need to hire more people. I hate to spend money. We’ll do it when we, when things calm down.

14:46
I hope that you can’t unsee that now that you’ve seen it because under all of those reasons, and here’s the thing about this mental malware, they sound really responsible, right? They sound responsible. Like I hate to spend money. My business is different. When things calm down, I’ll fix this. You’re going to do something about it, right? That’s what mental malware tells you. Or we can’t afford it. Now is not a good time. Those sound really responsible. It sounds like you’re doing the right thing for your business.

15:16
But the truth is that’s what’s keeping you stuck. It’s these responsible sounding beliefs that are running in your mental operating system. That’s what’s keeping you stuck. And the tricky part is it sounds really responsible. So I hope now that you’ve heard this, that you can’t unhear it and that you’ll take some action. And there’s one more thing underneath all of those other reasons, all of those mental malware files,

15:46
is one deeper program. It’s one deeper belief. And it goes something like this. Whenever you’re thinking about change, whenever you’re thinking about any sort of meaningful improvement in your life, whether it’s to lose weight, get in better shape, change your business, scale your business, be a better husband, be a better father, save money, whatever it is, there’s this

16:15
file that’s running really deep and it says something like this, if I give this everything I’ve got, if I fully commit, if I really let go, if I leave it all on the field and it fails, maybe it means I’m not enough. This thing that I’m thinking about committing to, if I give it everything I’ve got, if I fully commit, if I let go and it fails, maybe I’m not enough. So instead, you hedge, you hold back.

16:44
You delegate halfway, you invest halfway, you commit halfway because half commitment protects your identity. Half commitment is ego insurance. gives you an out because you can always say, well, I didn’t really give it 100%. It didn’t work because I didn’t give a hundred percent. I didn’t lose weight because I didn’t really stick with the plan. I didn’t get stronger because I wasn’t that consistent and

17:13
I didn’t think it was going to work for me anyway. And you find all of these really responsible reasons to protect yourself from the shame of failure because half commitment protects your identity. Half commitment is ego insurance. gives you an out. You can always say, well, if I had given it 100%, it would have worked, but I didn’t. But to protect you from the sharp, short pain of possible failure,

17:39
That voice, that mental malware sentences you to slow, dull, five years of pain of underachievement, 10 years of pain of underachievement, 20 years of pain of underachievement. So that mental malware, there’s this thing in your brain trying to protect you from the sharp, short pain of possible failure. So it sentences you to the slow, dull pain of years of underachievement. Jim Rohn.

18:09
said something that really stuck with me that I heard years ago. He said, we must all suffer from one of two pains, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons. We must all suffer from one of two pains, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.

18:37
The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons. What’s happening is there’s this mental malware in your brain that’s trying to get you to avoid the weight of discipline because it’s telling you what if you fail and you have to face the reality that you weren’t good enough. And by avoiding the weight, those ounces of the pain of discipline, you’re being stuck with

19:06
the weight of regret after it’s too late. After your kids are grown and they’re out of the house, all you’ll have left is the regret that you were so busy working in your business. At some point, it’ll be too late to regain your health. When you’re in a hospital bed having bypass surgery because of stress and overeating because your lifestyle was a wreck because of your business, you’ll be left with the

19:36
Regret that weighs tons your relationship with your spouse if once that breaks You’ll just be left with regrets that weighs tons. We’re gonna suffer from one of two pains The pain of discipline or the pain of regret and the difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons So imagine something different Imagine you have a business where revenue grows profits grow, but your working hours

20:05
stay the same, or maybe they go down. Problems get solved without escalating to you. Problems get solved and you find out about them later, or maybe they’re just getting solved and you don’t know about it. You’re able to step away for a week and things don’t wobble. You can actually take a proper vacation to Europe. Go to the Amalfi coast of Italy or head to Rome or head to Scotland.

20:33
Get away for a week and the business runs without you. Imagine that you are no longer the emotional load bearing wall of the company. Imagine you’ve built a business that moves forward without your nervous system holding it together. This is where some of you are, your nervous system, your brain, your memory is holding the business together. But imagine that you’re not needed for this business to function. In other words, you’ve got a business that runs without you.

21:03
The first step for many of you, if you’re still listening, is you need to identify that mental malware and then erase it. We need to clean that mental malware. So how do you start cleaning the mental malware? How do you delete these files from your operating system? Here are a few steps, three steps to get started with. First, you can’t defeat what you don’t define. So you have to catch it. You have to identify it. So every time you hear yourself say or think, now’s not the time.

21:34
We can’t afford it. They won’t do it like I will. I’m the only one who fill in the blank. Or you think I hate to spend money or we’re going to do this when. Whenever you hear yourself say that or think those things pause and ask, is this logic or is this mental malware? Am I trying to protect my ego or.

22:02
Is this really the right decision? And then label it as malware. So catch it, label it every time you hear it from yourself or when you hear it from your team. Second, run the five year test. Whenever you hear yourself say this or think something, ask yourself this, use the five year test. If I keep believing this for five years, where does my life end up? If I believe this thing for five years, where does my life

22:31
end up. If I keep saying, we’ll do this when I have more time. When things calm down, then I’ll fix this. Now is not a good time. I’m not ready yet. We just need to sell more. If you keep saying these things for the next five years, where does your life end up? More revenue and more stress or structural independence? So look out five years because mental malware wants you to think about just this moment.

23:02
and you have to extrapolate out five years. So run the five year test. Third step is to take one courageous structural action. Not a busy step, not busy action. I’m talking about structural action. Delegate a real decision. Document one repeatable process. The next time you hear yourself say, it’s easier just to do it myself.

23:27
Nobody could do it like I can. I’m the best. I’m the only blah, blah, blah, blah. Install one leadership system, delegate, document a process and delegate that to somebody else. One of the best things you could do is take one fully unplugged day. No email, no texts, no phone calls, no meetings. One fully unplugged day. Go somewhere. There is no cell phone service. If it doesn’t feel uncomfortable, it’s not deleting malware. There will be discomfort.

23:58
If it’s comfortable, it’s not working. I once heard growth and comfort do not ride the same horse. Growth and comfort never happen together. You get one or the other. You get comfort or you get growth. So if it doesn’t feel slightly uncomfortable, it’s not deleting malware. You’re just rearranging the furniture. So those are the three steps. Identify it, label it, run the five year test, and then take one.

24:25
courageous structural action, do something to fix it. The next time you hear yourself believe, think or say mental malware, take a different action. Because it’s like this, it’s like you’re playing a record. If you remember a vinyl record from way back in the 1900s, people used to listen to music on these plastic records and it had a needle that they would drop on it and it would just play. And this is what happens with mental malware.

24:54
When a situation pops up, your brain is lazy and it just drops into one of the grooves on the record. No, I don’t have time. Now is not a good time. I hate to spend money. This won’t work for me. I’m a special snowflake. And it just drops the needle into that groove and plays the same song basically. And as long as you keep playing the same song, believing the same mental malware, you’re going to keep getting the same results. So what you need to do is scratch the record so it doesn’t play anymore.

25:23
and recognize, this is mental malware. I don’t like where this belief has brought me or how it’s kept me stuck. So I’m going to scratch the record and I’m going to take a different action. So let me ask you this. How long have you been thinking about fixing this? Right? How much is the cost of inaction? How much is it costing you to not grow your business? If you want to make $500,000 a year,

25:52
And you’re only making a hundred thousand dollars a year. Then that’s really expensive. Not knowing how to make $500,000 a year is costing you $400,000 a year. Right. That’s the cost of inaction. How much profit is being left on the table in your business through the form of rework schedule delays, loss, productivity, giveaways, not to mention missed opportunities. Right.

26:20
How much is it costing you physically with your sleep, your health, your hairline, your waistline? What about your relationships with your spouse, your kids? A lot of you are out. I see it. I have talked with you. I’ve seen it. You’re looking for software. You think you’re going to solve it with software, with a unicorn employee, with marketing, with sales, with leads, with AI, maybe even with a specific system or an SOP, but

26:49
If you’re dealing with mental malware, you don’t need an operating system upgrade. You need to clean up the mental malware that is quietly, but painfully holding you back. That’s where you need to start. Because when you upgrade your mental operating system, then things become possible that were previously impossible. Right? So if this episode stung a little bit, if it hit you, if you recognized some mental malware, that’s your signal.

27:20
Right. If you want some help undoing this mental malware and going through the process to get the right systems in place that will force you to face and delete this mental malware. Then the next step would be to schedule a business evaluation call with my team. We’ll identify where your structure is reinforcing safety instead of growth, where it’s protecting your ego and your identity.

27:45
and we’ll map out a plan to build a company that runs without you, without your nervous system holding it all together. There’s a link in the show notes to schedule a business evaluation call, or you can go to constructionleadingedge.com forward slash apply. So that’s one action. If you know you need to do this, if you’ve been putting it off, go schedule that business evaluation call. Another action item, I have a five minute action step for you. I want you to write down one sentence that you’ve been telling yourself.

28:15
One of those mental malware files, maybe it’s now is not the right time. Maybe it’s, hate to spend money. Maybe you’ve been a victim of the special snowflake syndrome. Do believe your business is special? Write that down and then below that answer this question, write this down. If I keep believing this for five years, what does my life look like? So write down that mental malware, one thing that you’ve been believing and then write this underneath it. If I keep believing this for five years, what does my life look like?

28:44
That’s where change starts. If you know you need to put systems in place in your business, go schedule a business evaluation call with my team. Otherwise, write down the mental malware and then ask yourself the question, if I keep believing this for five years, what does my life look like? My name is Todd DeWalt from constructionleadingedge.com. I hope this stung a little bit and I hope you take action and I’ll see you next time.

29:09
It’s Todd, before you go, if you own a construction business and you know you need to put the right systems in place, whether it’s to be able to scale up, to be able to take a proper vacation, step away from day-to-day operations, if you know you need to make it more profitable or even prepare it for a future sale, if you know you need to make some changes in your business, there are really only three options. I want to clarify this for you. Option one is do nothing. Keep doing the status quo.

29:36
Same inputs, same results. Keep doing the same thing that you’ve been doing. Option two is to DIY it, to do it yourself. You can try to reinvent the wheel, piece together solutions from books and podcasts, hope that trial and error gets you where you want to go. In my experience, this is the path of most resistance. Or there’s option three, which is to find a proven system that delivers the results you’re looking for.

30:01
Think about it, sort of like when you sign up for software for project management or bookkeeping, you probably didn’t try to code your own software, right? You found a system that works. So that’s a proven system that gets you the results you’re looking for. Well, if you’re ready to systematize your construction business, we’ve helped hundreds of construction business owners implement our proven processes, including our nailed to handoff pre-construction system that works for home builders, remodelers, commercial general contractors,

30:27
and trade contractors like electricians, plumbers, roofers. The first step is simple. Schedule a free business evaluation call with my team. Just click the link in the show notes to book your call. On that call, you’ll walk away with clarity on the hidden root causes of your biggest challenges. You’ll learn about the pitfalls that you want to avoid as you move forward with your business. And you’ll walk away with a customized roadmap that you can follow to get where you want to go. This is not a sales pitch, okay?

30:57
There’s no pressure. We may not even talk about working together. You may not even hear about our program. This is all about evaluating your business. It’s going to be the most valuable hour that you’ve spent working on your business in a long time. So don’t wait, click the link in the show notes to book your free business evaluation call. Now, and the last thing, if you’ve been enjoying this podcast and getting value out of it, I’ve got a quick favor to ask. Could you take a moment and leave a five star rating and maybe a short review on the platform that you’re listening or watching on?

31:27
It really helps the podcast grow. lets other people know what to expect. Plus I love to hear your feedback. means a lot to me. Thanks so much. My name is Todd DeWalt from constructionleadingedge.com and I’ll catch you on the next episode.