You can build a respected construction company, keep loyal employees for years, and still feel like the business is consuming your time, money, and peace of mind.
That was the position Daaron Yester found himself in after nearly three decades in business.
His company had a strong reputation, experienced field leaders, and long-term employees. But declining revenue, missed change orders, weak financial visibility, underpriced work, and an owner trying to do everything had pushed the business into an unsustainable position.
In this episode of The Construction Leading Edge Podcast, Todd Dawalt talks with Daaron, owner of DYC Framing, about the systems that helped him take back control. Daaron explains how clearer roles, stronger financial management, a better estimating process, and healthier accountability reduced his stress and allowed him to focus on the work only he could do.
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Who This Episode Is For
This episode is for construction business owners who have built a strong reputation but still feel like the company depends too heavily on them.
It is especially relevant if you:
- Own a trade contracting, custom building, remodeling, or general contracting company
- Have experienced major swings in revenue or profitability
- Are borrowing money to keep the business operating
- Have change orders, extras, rework, or productivity losses draining profit
- Still try to oversee operations, finances, estimating, sales, and field activity yourself
- Have capable employees but have not given them clearly defined roles
- Avoid reviewing financial reports or do not understand your true overhead
- Suspect that your markup is too low
- Allow clients or general contractors to dictate how your company operates
- Want to spend less time driving between jobsites and more time leading the business
Problems This Episode Helps Solve
This episode helps answer questions such as:
- Why can a respected construction company still struggle financially?
- How do I know where profit is leaking from my business?
- What should I do if I am borrowing money to fund operations?
- How can clear roles reduce owner dependency?
- Why should the owner stop trying to run every part of the company?
- How do I calculate whether my markup is high enough?
- How can I regain control when clients or general contractors dictate my workflow?
- What should I focus on if sales and estimating are the company’s bottleneck?
- How do I implement new systems without overwhelming the team?
- What type of accountability actually helps people follow through?
Episode Summary
Daaron Yester owns DYC Framing, a framing contractor serving the Coachella Valley and Palm Springs area of Southern California.
During approximately 30 years in business, Daaron has experienced multiple economic cycles, including the early-1990s slowdown, the technology downturn, the 2008 crash, and the disruption surrounding the pandemic.
Those experiences taught him that construction is cyclical. Strong markets do not last forever, and slow markets eventually change as well. Owners need to prepare during good times and respond quickly when conditions weaken.
Daaron also built a team with unusually long tenure. Many employees have been with him for 15 to 20 years. He attributes that retention to treating employees as people, paying them reliably, knowing their families, and recognizing that the business supports many households—not only his own.
Despite that reputation and experienced team, the business eventually entered a serious financial struggle.
Daaron had a lower-revenue year after a highly profitable one, owed a significant tax bill, and began borrowing money to support operations. He knew the situation was not sustainable and feared losing both the business and the wealth he had accumulated for retirement.
A Business Evaluation Call revealed how much money was being lost through untracked change orders, rework, productivity issues, financing costs, and weak business systems.
One of the first improvements was tracking all extras, changes, and rework. This allowed the company to begin capturing money that had previously leaked out of the business.
The next breakthrough came from clarifying roles.
Daaron realized the right people were already on the team, but he was still trying to do their jobs. He placed his lead operations person fully in charge of operations and gave his daughter greater responsibility for the company’s finances. That freed Daaron to focus on estimating and sales, where the business most needed his attention.
He also began studying the company’s numbers. By breaking down overhead, indirect costs, margins, and revenue requirements, he discovered that the company’s markup was too low and that its revenue was not sufficient to support the existing cost structure.
The final major shift was deciding who would run the business.
Daaron had allowed some general contractors and clients to dictate crew movements, scheduling, and execution. That created inefficiency and made it difficult to complete work profitably. He began setting clearer boundaries and leading his part of the project instead of letting other companies run DYC Framing.
Key Takeaways With Timestamps
00:33 – Meet Daaron Yester of DYC Framing
Daaron introduces his framing company, which serves the Coachella Valley and Palm Springs area of Southern California.
00:59 – DYC Framing works on projects of many sizes
The company completes work ranging from small remodels to large custom homes and estate properties with highly complex designs.
02:35 – Wealth does not determine whether someone is a good client
Daaron has found demanding and easygoing personalities at every economic level. The strongest relationships are built with clients who trust the professional process.
03:54 – Daaron’s introduction to framing
He describes leaving the restaurant and hotel industry, purchasing his first tool bags, and beginning as a laborer after claiming he was already a carpenter.
06:05 – Building a company with long-term employees
DYC Framing has averaged approximately 30 team members, many of whom have remained with the company for 15 to 20 years.
07:41 – Construction markets will always change
Daaron reflects on the major economic cycles he has experienced and the danger of assuming a strong market will remain strong forever.
09:16 – Respond quickly when the market slows
Delaying difficult expense and staffing decisions can cause the company to burn through cash and create greater harm for everyone.
11:08 – Why employees have stayed for so long
Daaron prioritizes reliable pay, genuine relationships, communication, and the belief that the business exists to support many families.
14:37 – Borrowing money revealed an unsustainable problem
After a lower-revenue year and a large tax obligation, Daaron began using borrowed funds to support the business.
16:46 – The Business Evaluation Call exposed hidden losses
Tracking rework, missed changes, productivity issues, and financing costs showed how much money was leaving the company unnecessarily.
18:01 – Doing nothing was not a viable option
Daaron believed the business might not survive another six months without significant changes.
19:45 – A strong reputation did not equal a strong business system
The program showed Daaron how much room remained for better structure, repeatable processes, and measurable financial management.
20:24 – Track every change order, extra, and rework item
One of the first improvements was systematically capturing revenue that had previously leaked through untracked work.
21:42 – Replace hope with accurate information
The company began using real numbers and repeatable systems instead of assumptions, feelings, or optimism.
22:13 – The right people were already on the team
Daaron realized that the organizational problem was not necessarily a lack of talent. It was that he had not placed people in clear roles and allowed them to own the work.
22:48 – Move operations and finance off the owner’s plate
His operations leader took clearer ownership of the field, while his daughter assumed greater responsibility for financial management.
23:48 – Clarity reduces stress and improves decisions
Once the organizational structure became clearer, Daaron found it easier to make decisions and stop bouncing between urgent issues.
25:05 – Decide who is running your business
Daaron recognized that general contractors’ scheduling and organizational problems were dictating how DYC Framing deployed its crews.
27:05 – Let the contractor define the result, not every move
Rather than allowing a client or GC to manage the framing team directly, Daaron asks them to clarify the goal and allows his company to determine the best execution.
28:34 – Stronger systems improved the client experience
Clients experienced a more professional, organized, and less chaotic company after DYC Framing began following clearer processes.
29:55 – Clients take control when they lose confidence
Todd explains that customers generally want the contractor to lead. Micromanagement often begins when they believe no one else is controlling the process.
31:36 – If you try to do everything, you do nothing well
Daaron identifies role clarity and delegation as the most important changes in the company.
32:27 – Owners must allow leaders to lead
It took time for employees to trust that Daaron would not step back in, second-guess them, or take their responsibilities away.
33:12 – Get deeply involved in the financial numbers
Daaron began studying overhead, indirect costs, margins, markups, revenue targets, and billing requirements.
34:00 – The company’s markup was too low
Once he examined the numbers, the reasons for weak profitability became much easier to identify.
35:01 – Rushed estimates create problems before the project begins
Daaron had been preparing complex estimates while tired and distracted after spending the day resolving field issues.
36:21 – The owner’s schedule changed significantly
Daaron now spends most of his time in the office, focusing on finances, estimating, sales, and the activities that determine the company’s future.
37:07 – Practice eager estimating
Responding quickly, communicating progress, and completing estimates professionally helps start the client relationship from a position of confidence.
38:04 – Better systems improved quality of life
Daaron now has time for exercise, family, hobbies, earlier workdays, and many Fridays away from the business.
39:42 – Stop assuming the owner must visit every project daily
A capable operations leader and experienced foremen can deliver a professional client experience without constant owner presence.
40:24 – Build the team instead of remaining the only point of contact
The owner should train leaders, define communication systems, and give clients other trusted people to rely on.
41:26 – Regular updates create security for employees and clients
Daaron communicates upcoming work, estimates, and project activity so the team understands that the company is planning ahead.
43:59 – Partial implementation is still valuable
Even implementing a portion of a good system can create meaningful improvement. Progress is better than abandoning the process because it is not perfect.
44:33 – Healthy accountability starts with the person’s commitments
Effective accountability does not impose someone else’s goals. It follows up on what the person said they intended to do.
45:28 – Patience is required when implementing change
New reports, updates, and behaviors may require repeated reminders before they become part of the company’s normal operating rhythm.
46:09 – A team-owned plan is more likely to be implemented
A good plan developed by the team is often more useful than a perfect plan designed entirely by the owner.
48:10 – Peer support helps owners stay focused
Daaron describes how the CEO Alliance provided practical advice, shared experience, accountability, and support from owners facing similar challenges.
50:19 – Staying focused is harder than getting started
The peer group helped Daaron maintain clarity, motivation, and commitment after completing the initial implementation work.
54:17 – Even partial implementation can change the owner’s life
Daaron explains that the systems reduced his stress, increased clarity, and improved his family and client relationships.
56:03 – The tools you need may already be within reach
The right employees were already inside Daaron’s company. He needed a better framework for seeing, organizing, and empowering them.
56:42 – Believing you can do everything alone creates unnecessary pressure
Daaron encourages construction business owners to seek outside help instead of carrying every operational, financial, and emotional burden alone.
Key Concepts From This Episode
Role Clarity
Role clarity defines what each person owns, which decisions they can make, and what results they are expected to produce.
It prevents the owner and other leaders from duplicating work, second-guessing each other, or leaving important responsibilities without a clear owner.
Profit-Leak Tracking
Profit-leak tracking captures change orders, extras, rework, missed billing, and productivity losses.
The goal is to identify where earned revenue or margin is leaving the company before the problem becomes a cash crisis.
Financial Visibility
Financial visibility means understanding overhead, indirect costs, gross margin, markup, revenue requirements, and billing needs.
Without those numbers, owners may work harder and increase revenue without producing sufficient profit.
Owner’s Highest-Value Role
The owner’s highest-value role includes the activities only they can perform or that create the greatest future value for the company.
For Daaron, that meant focusing more energy on estimating, sales, financial oversight, and business leadership instead of running daily field operations.
Client and GC Boundaries
Healthy boundaries clarify that the contractor is responsible for managing its own people, workflow, and execution.
Clients and general contractors can define the required result and overall schedule, but should not create chaos by directing every crew movement.
Healthy Accountability
Healthy accountability follows up on commitments people have made rather than forcing someone else’s goals onto them.
It requires clear expectations, regular review, patience, and enough pressure to keep progress moving without creating unnecessary conflict.
Resources Mentioned
Construction Leading Edge Resources
Companies and Programs Mentioned
- DYC Framing
- Systematize Your Construction Business
- CEO Alliance
Recommended Next Step
Identify the responsibility you are still holding that someone else on your team could own.
Define the result, give that person clear authority, and establish a simple weekly update so you can maintain visibility without taking the work back.
Then review the company’s financial numbers. Confirm your overhead, indirect costs, markup, gross-margin target, revenue requirement, and the unbilled changes or extras currently sitting inside active projects.
If your company has a strong reputation but still lacks financial clarity, role ownership, or reliable systems, apply for a Business Evaluation Call.
Client Success Stories
Want to see how other construction business owners are applying these ideas?
Watch client success stories from builders, remodelers, and general contractors who have worked with Construction Leading Edge to reduce chaos, improve their systems, and build companies that run with less owner dependency.
Related Episodes
Episode 440: 3 Keys to Operating from a Position of Strength in High-End Remodeling with Andy Kolp
Andy Kolp explains how strengthening pre-construction, scope development, trade partner bids, client communication, and team systems helped his high-end remodeling company reduce surprises, protect margins, and create more owner freedom.
Episode 423: Your Construction Business Is Doing Exactly What It’s Designed To Do
Todd Dawalt explains why construction businesses often repeat the same chaos, long hours, profit issues, and owner bottlenecks because the underlying business design is producing exactly what it was built to produce.
Episode 410: How to Use the Moneyball Strategy to Run Your Construction Business Like a Machine
Todd Dawalt explains how construction business owners can use a Moneyball-style approach to define the key behaviors, leading indicators, and role-specific activities that drive consistent team performance.
FAQ
How can a construction company with a strong reputation still lose money?
Reputation and technical skill do not automatically create financial control. Weak markup, missed change orders, untracked rework, excessive overhead, rushed estimating, and poor role clarity can drain profit from otherwise successful work.
What should an owner do if the business is borrowing money to operate?
Identify why cash is leaving the company. Review profitability, billing, change orders, rework, overhead, markup, financing costs, and revenue requirements before taking on additional debt.
How can clearer roles reduce owner dependency?
Clear roles give employees responsibility for defined results and decisions. The owner can then maintain visibility through reports and meetings without personally completing or approving every activity.
How do I know whether my markup is high enough?
Calculate the company’s overhead, indirect costs, target profit, expected revenue, and gross-margin requirement. The markup must produce enough gross profit to cover those costs and leave the desired net profit.
How can a subcontractor stop general contractors from running its crews?
Clarify the overall project goal and schedule, then communicate how your company will deploy its people to meet that result. Maintain flexibility without allowing constant redirection to destroy productivity.
Does the construction business owner need to visit every project every day?
Not when capable operations leaders, experienced foremen, clear systems, and reliable communication are in place. The owner can stay involved strategically without being the primary field contact.
What is healthy accountability?
Healthy accountability means helping people follow through on the commitments and goals they agreed were important. It includes clear expectations, regular follow-up, questions about obstacles, and patient reinforcement.
Todd Dawalt
Founder of Construction Leading Edge and host of The Construction Leading Edge Podcast
Todd Dawalt is the founder of Construction Leading Edge and host of The Construction Leading Edge Podcast. Since 2014, Todd and the Construction Leading Edge team have helped construction business owners systematize their companies, reduce chaos, improve profitability, and build businesses that run with less owner dependency.
Full Transcript
Todd Dawalt (00:05.347)
Darren, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?
Daaron Yester (00:09.216)
I’m doing great, man. Glad to be here.
Todd Dawalt (00:11.833)
Good to have you. Good to have you. So we get to meet in person a couple of weeks ago at our live meetup in Cancun. We may talk about that in a few minutes. But let’s talk about your business a little bit. What’s the name of your company? What kind of work do you do? And where are you located?
Daaron Yester (00:33.548)
Yeah, the name of my company is DYC Framing, Inc. We are a framing trade contractor and we work in pretty much all over the Coachella Valley, which is the Palm Springs area of Southern California.
Todd Dawalt (00:47.485)
and you have framed some pretty big houses, maybe even for some interesting folks. Can you talk about the scale of some of the projects that you do?
Daaron Yester (00:59.01)
Yeah, it’s a really great market out here. There’s a lot of wealthier people that have their winter homes out here, but there’s some really interesting projects we have built. You first of all, we’ll do anything from the smallest bathroom remodel to the largest. We don’t exclusively just do the big stuff, but we’ve been fortunate to get some really large projects. We just completed a 30,000 square foot home at the racetrack out in Thermal.
It’s like 10,000 square foot garage with a car lift on the first level of 10,000 square foot garage on the second level and a 10,000 square foot custom home at the top that overlooks the racetrack. That was kind of fun.
We’ve also done some properties that are like 40 acres with like a 20,000 square foot main house, six casitas down one side and four guest houses on the other side of the lake with a jet ski lake and islands and a Margaritaville beach bar and just some really interesting properties that people come up with and we’re happy to do. I’m glad they do come up with it because we enjoy building them.
Todd Dawalt (02:04.215)
Yeah.
Todd Dawalt (02:07.619)
Yeah. So some people, they dream about working with wealthy clients. What are some…
Todd Dawalt (02:20.471)
misconceptions about working on some of these projects for… What are some misconceptions people have about working with ultra wealthy clients? Maybe some things that they should be aware of that they may not be aware of.
Daaron Yester (02:35.467)
You know, I have found over the years that they’re the type of client, the type of person that is either wealthy or regular folk, however you want to define that. It’s the same personalities tend to run across the group. You can have really uptight people in the low end and really uptight people in the high end. You can have really wonderful salts of the earth people that are super rich. You wouldn’t know it unless you were working on their project.
and really great people on the low end as well. I find it’s all kinds of people. We will get some tough clients that are worried about every penny and think everybody’s ripping them off.
And we’ll get some other clients that are like, OK, I’ve hired you because you come highly recommended. You’re very professional. And I’m going to trust you in that process. Of course, those are the ones we love working with because we are going to approach every job, whether it’s large or small, with the same level of integrity. The pricing is what it is, regardless of how much money you have. So I have found people to be kind of the same, no matter where they are in the economic scale.
Todd Dawalt (03:41.411)
Gotcha. Well, let’s talk about your story. How did you get started in business and when did you get started? Take us back to the Genesis story of the business.
Daaron Yester (03:54.976)
Yeah, so I basically worked for a very good framing contractor who worked in my same niche for 10 years. And he put up with me in my very early years, taught me a lot, signed my license, and off I went into the wild blue yonder and ultimately ended up working in some of the same circles of him. He was just a wonderful boss to work for.
But what’s really interesting is I grew up in the restaurant business. My folks owned restaurant my whole life and I was working in the hotel industry and I just wanted to work outside. I didn’t like the schedule.
was working in this large hotel in Palm Springs called Maxime’s in the back kitchen and a guy was framing this kind of crazy guy was he was cooking on the line at night he was single guy so he’s working two jobs cooking on the line at night and framing during the day and I made friends with him and he got me my very first framing job and
took me to National Lumber, which is long before Home Depot days. And we went to National Lumber and bought what put together a set of bags for me. I went out to the job the next day out of the Quinta Hotel and told, went up to the foreman and told him I was a carpenter and I wanted a job. And he looked right at me and said, no, you’re not.
And then I spent about the next month packing lumber from one side of the job to the other. And the rest is kind of history. The really interesting thing about that is, you know, maybe 15 years after I got my license, I ended up going, becoming that guy who had moved into the GC realm. I ended up becoming his framing contractor and did a couple million dollars worth of work with him. Had a great relationship before he retired. So it’s kind of fun that way.
Daaron Yester (05:40.887)
Small world.
Todd Dawalt (05:42.041)
Yeah, it is interesting how small the world is. So how long have you been in business, Darren?
Daaron Yester (05:51.273)
right around thirty years
Todd Dawalt (05:57.006)
and talk to us a little bit about the size of your company. How many employees do you have? That kind of thing.
Daaron Yester (06:05.931)
Yeah, about, we’re really pretty much the last 10 years average around 30 team members. Many of my people have been with me pushing 15 to 20 years. I’m super grateful for that. You know, started out small like most guys with, you know, two or three guys. And at one time before the crash of 08, we were running 50 guys.
So I kind of after the crash, you know, went back down to me and another guy with my bags back on.
for a while and then as we built back up again I kind of made the decision I never really wanted to get much larger because I didn’t feel like I had the foundation for it. I probably do now if I really wanted to but we would like to do about we’re shooting for about I think we’ll do about five million this year you know six millions are usually big years for us we’ve had a couple of four million dollar years and we can talk about that that was kind of a problem that led us into finding
finding SYCB and the whole problem and getting the help that I’ve gotten. But yeah, that’s about the size of our company right now.
Todd Dawalt (07:16.249)
So you’ve been in this long enough where you’ve seen a few ups and downs. You’ve been through 2008 and probably a few bumps even before then. What are some of the lessons that you’ve learned having gone through some of the worst financial crises in the last 20 to 30 years?
Daaron Yester (07:41.484)
Yeah, you know my very first one I was working for my old boss was 1991 and I was standing on a roof in in the vintage in Indian Wells and that’s when all the SNLs went under. And Columbia went under and it just felt like I’ve never seen a tap get turned off that quick like
I we would leave our houses in the morning and go knock on doors to try to find fascia and patio covers for little old ladies to fix, because our jobs just went away. And I remember going through another one with the tech bubble, then 08, and then that was a huge and slow climb out again.
little bit before COVID it slowed down again. So I don’t know, I think the big lesson for me is what goes up will come down. There’s probably value in that. There’s things you learn in the slow times you never learn in the fast times. I don’t know about other
business owners. Sometimes when things are good for a long time I get a little complacent, take my foot off the pedal a little bit. So, but I just know that it’s going to come around again, you know. It’s sometimes it feels like when it’s good it’s never going to slow down again and that’s a bad mindset to get in because it will. It is a secular business.
So you know, got to try to plan for that, but you also got to understand for it. One of the lessons I’ve learned is that when it slows down, the worst thing you can do is be slow in reacting, you know, which you have all these families relying on you, all these team members, but if you don’t trim,
Daaron Yester (09:16.523)
your expenses, don’t trim your team down fast enough, you’re just going to blow through your money really fast and it’s going to hurt everybody in the long run. So it’s a little bit of, you got to cut a little bit of pain now to save a few other people or you can let the problem spread and it’s going to affect everybody.
Todd Dawalt (09:34.2)
Yeah, yeah, I think the approach, the mindset, this too shall pass. It’s probably appropriate. If it’s really good, this too shall pass. If it’s really bad, this too shall pass. It is going to change. And yeah, I’ve interviewed and talked to so many people who started their business in 2008, 2009.
And what was really interesting was they were very grateful that they did because the discipline that they had to have to start a business at that time is what made them successful. It was really easy for people to get started in 2021 after the housing boom, after COVID. And I think people just thought, I’ve talked to people who thought, it’s just magical. It’s easy. The work just…
It’s like a dumb and dumber, the beer is flowing like wine, you know, kind of a thing. they just like, it’s always going to be easy. I don’t know what everybody’s talking about. And this too shall pass if that’s what you’re thinking. Yeah. You have some long tenure employees. lot of people in the construction industry really struggle with retention. They think these people want to jump ship, but nobody wants to stick around. And they that’s just what they believe.
Daaron Yester (10:34.687)
Yeah.
Todd Dawalt (10:59.925)
How have you managed to keep people around for such a long time? Are there some practical tips you can share?
Daaron Yester (11:08.747)
Yeah, that’s a good question. I’ve often wondered how I’ve done it too. I think, you know, I love construction and I love the operations. I love cutting roofs. I love being in the field and I like people. So I would spend a lot of my time there and I think ultimately, you know, people will put their trust in you if they know that you know what you’re doing and you’re competent.
But I say that also to say that I also was really not very good at the business side. Really good at construction, not very good at the money side. So I have always, and I’ve gotten better by the grace of God. had to, I wouldn’t still be here. But I have always like, everything that goes on in my business, the number one thing that is gonna happen come hell or high water, no matter what is my guys are gonna get paid and they’re gonna get paid on time.
I mean, I’ve been paying people for 30 years and I think I’ve been late twice and maybe by a day or two. So I would hope and I would believe that with that and many other things, I’ve always really tried to communicate a huge priority to my guys that they really, really matter to me. And I’m kind of relational person by nature, so I know them, I know their families, I ask about their kids, you know, I know.
You what’s going on with them and I have a little bit of a ministry background too So people talk to me about their problems and I always make sure that I take the time to really care about that It’s not it’s not anything I have to fake but you know to find out what’s going on with them and you know people need things You know people need to borrow money people can’t make their rent people you know need some time off or people are going through maybe a bout of you know some
Alcoholism or something, you know, they just people need someone to just not kick them off the bus the minute things aren’t going exactly right, too So I think there’s a line a boundary line there for sure But I think I’ve just really tried to communicate that and I somehow it must have gotten through because generally speaking people Just feel well treated and they they know that I’m making them a priority that it’s not I’m not just here for me And that’s you know, just a feeling I’ve always had in my life, you know, this is this business isn’t just for me
Daaron Yester (13:31.969)
I mean, it is for me and my family, but it is for all of them. I’m not just taking care of my family, I’m taking care of all these families. And that’s a huge responsibility to bear, but I think that having that mindset is maybe really lets people know that they are cared about. They’re not just a number.
Todd Dawalt (13:50.584)
Yeah, yeah, I’m confident they can feel that. And then I’m confident people who work for owners with a different mentality can feel it. I’ve talked with owners who would say that the business is just there for them and the business exists to support them. And I would say their people can feel that. yeah. So.
We’re recording this in March 2026. We first spoke back in July of 2025. And I’m curious, what were some of the things you were dealing with, challenges, issues, frustrations that led you to reach out to us initially?
Daaron Yester (14:37.613)
Well, I mean, ultimately I had gone through a period of time where I was borrowing money to sustain the business. And I knew that that was not sustainable. I had never really had to do that before. I had had a really nice year the year before.
Daaron Yester (14:58.261)
And so I owed a bunch of taxes because I had made a bunch of money. And I like to follow that up with a really bad year. So I have no money to pay those taxes with. That’s kind of my plan. And you can tell I like to joke sarcastically about life. But, you know, I had I just had it wasn’t just that. But I was just I had a lower revenue year. I was having some real money struggles. I was having to do things I really didn’t want to do. My wife was not happy that I was doing these things.
And I was just having one of those moments where I was like, all right, I can either get curious and I can try to learn something here or I can, you know, try to get out. And I really didn’t want to do that. Wasn’t in that position. There was a lot of other factors with everybody else involved. And I had been through this before. I had gone through this and I don’t know.
14 or 15 where I had really had some bad run and I began I You know, I remember sitting in the parking lot of my lumber supplier owed him all this money and you know Just praying God helped me find
some help here and I googled and I found some business coaching back then some construction based things that were helpful for a period of time and I had turned it around a little bit so I kind of found myself in that same position so I went a light bulb comes on and I started googling around and I’m looking for specific construction business help and I found the podcast
and the podcast, I just started listening to it. And it was just speaking to a lot of things that really were totally what I was going through, problems that I was facing, situations that I was dealing with. And yeah, I just started listening to the podcast for a while.
Daaron Yester (16:46.295)
you know that led me to reach out to you and we kind of started that whole process and that was really good you know I remember the first time you talked to me we kind of did a little assessment and we started throwing some round numbers out there and I mean I pretty much was on the floor when I realized how much money was going out the door just on you know wasted change orders and rework
Production productivity issues and you and then you you throw on top of that all the money I’m paying to borrow this money that the amount of money that business funding is Charged what they’re charging you for that business funding funding is nuts. I don’t even know how it’s legal But you know there was just a lot of money being wasted and it became really obvious talking with you So this became a no-brainer for me to go through the program
Todd Dawalt (17:34.905)
So I’m curious, we talked about our Systematize Your Construction Business program and the details of that. Ultimately, you joined that program and have continued on and done a great job with that. I’m curious, before you pulled the trigger and joined, what was your biggest concern?
before you committed to them.
Daaron Yester (18:01.485)
Well, I mean, I think ultimately what would happen if I didn’t change? I think, you know, I knew that this was unsustainable. Like I was not gonna be in business another six months. Because, you know, have, even though I was not having some good years, I had accumulated some wealth. You know, I’m almost six years old. I’m planning on retiring. I’ve been saving money for the last 10 years.
And I knew if I didn’t change, I was going to lose all that money as well that I had saved up for my retirement, all the property and everything that I had accumulated. And so I was going to lose the ground I’d made and I was going to lose the business I was going in and I was going to let down. I’m a huge
You know, I take all this responsibility on and while that’s a burden, it also is a blessing and it keeps me motivated and keeps me moving and I’m like, I just can’t let all these people down. I don’t know what I would do, honestly, emotionally if I lost this business at this point, I would probably have some real failure syndrome that I would have to deal with too. So there was just, I just don’t think it was an option for me to not.
find some answers and you know again by the grace of God there you were and I was able to keep moving on this.
Todd Dawalt (19:22.393)
So you enrolled in our Systematize Your Construction Business program. You did a great job following the process, jumped right in. Take us to the moment in the program when you realize that these systems that you were implementing and the changes you were making in your business were actually working to solve some of those problems.
Daaron Yester (19:45.292)
yeah you know it’s funny i had thought myself cuz i’m i’m you sound presumptuous here but i’m one of the higher reputation guys in my area been here forever i’m very well known we’re known to do a good job
I had somewhat considered myself to be a sophisticated businessman and contractor at this point, but obviously the results were saying otherwise. Once I got into the program, I really realized how much more room for growth there was, how, you know, for lack of a better way putting it, unsophisticated I really was. There was a lot of things I could have been doing that I wasn’t doing, partially because I wasn’t looking and I didn’t know.
So I just learned so much in the program. I’m a little more of a right brain creative emotional guy. And the program really gave me a lot of, it really taught me the value of structure and systems in my business and how I can get some outcomes that I can count on if I can create some systems that we can repeat.
And you know, one of the things we immediately implemented was a very serious tracking of all change orders, extras and rework in my business. I mean, it was one of the first things we did within the first couple of weeks. And even just feeling the traction of catching all those all that money that was leaking, you know, it was a boat with some big leaks in it.
And or a vessel that was holding all this water and it was all leaking out. We were probably only getting half the bucket up the hill. So once we started capturing all that rework, that was one of the initial signs that, you know, things were this was going to be a good process for us because we just started catching up on it. And then we moved on to productivity issues within the company, which I thought was going to be a humongous issue in the company. And actually it turned out to not be, but it was really good to get a good look at it and see.
Daaron Yester (21:42.638)
you actually you know not to just base things on feelings or hope you know i love the term that i heard in the program of hope you know positive thinking will only get you so far without actually knowing what’s actually going on
So we began to really get into numbers, really get into systems that really made things. There was a way things were going to be done. It helped us capture our money and keep our money and not waste things and be more productivity. Joe was just a real eye-opener. I would say the other thing that really happened, and I don’t know if it’s like this for everybody in the program, but I came to clarity very quickly about how to organize my company.
And I don’t know that everybody is as fortunate as I am. I felt very fortunate that I actually had the people in place. They were already there to do the jobs that needed to be done. The problem was I was trying to do all the jobs instead of putting people in their place and letting them run. So I got a lot of clarity very quickly about how to organize my business. And I took my lead operations guy who had been kind of
He and I had been doing the same thing and just let him simply go into operations. I took my daughter who had been running my office and made her the CFO of the company from better, more or less, and the term would go. Put her in charge of the finances. Of course I watch over everything, but instead of trying to do it all, I put them in their roles and it really allowed me to free up and just focus on the thing that really needed the effort in my business, which was my estimating and sales.
I feel like my business is a locomotive and I’m the guy in the back shoveling the coal in. The engine is running good. The guys in the field, the leadership team, they know what they’re doing. Everybody knows how I want it done. It’s getting done. Generally speaking, the clients are happy. But it didn’t have anybody shoveling the fuel in to keep the motor running.
Daaron Yester (23:48.876)
And it was because I was trying to do everything. I didn’t have time to do that to the extent that I should have. So I got a lot of clarity, right? Very early on, and that clarity has remained. And we went through a process of…
Accountability and settling said accountability chart of setting up the company But I just was really blown away by how quickly everything kind of cleared up in my mind And you know when things are clear in your mind man. There’s a lot more peace There’s a lot less stress You know where you’re going your decisions come a lot easier because you have a framework now to make them in And when you don’t have clarity you’re you know you’re kind of bouncing around like a ping-pong ball
trying to deal with things and just kind of doing whatever the next thing is, putting out the fires as they say. So that was like one of the big things early on for me.
Todd Dawalt (24:39.961)
I on one of our group calls in the program, you said something about, I can’t remember the exact phrase, it was about who was running your business. And you made a decision, came to a conclusion about who was running your business and who you wanted to run your business. Do you recall that conversation? And can you expand on that?
Daaron Yester (25:05.131)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do recall it. I had come to the, I’m a really accommodating person and I really strove to be customer service orientated. My clients love that. But they became a point where that was crossing the line. And I deal with a lot of people that are,
You know, they’re trying to do the best they can to, but they don’t have a lot of systems in place either. And so, you know, they’re just, they will come in and say, I want this crew over here doing this and I want these guys over here doing that. You guys need to stop doing that and move over to this side of the house. And, you know, things like that of that nature, there were many other examples like that, but I realized that I was allowing my GCs in…
in their organizational ways or problems to run my business instead of me. And I’m like, this is DYC framing. This is, I’m here to serve you and to provide for you. But when you estimate a job, you estimate it with a certain path and progress and a way things are gonna get done. And when you’re bouncing around like a ping pong ball, you’re not making money.
and money and it all is because of everybody’s frantically trying to keep somebody else happy and meet some schedule which you know I understand the value of those things but yeah I was literally felt like I was letting some particular situations really run me and it was time to put my foot down and say no
we this is us and this is how we’re going to do it this is how we need to do it there’s a lot of diplomacy that needs to go on there you just don’t tell your gcs you know stick in your ear that’s not what you do but you do have to it needs to become obvious that you are running the show as far as your part is you know and you have said something to me as well you know you had given me some advice in that process of learning like you know that you had experienced somebody in your past who that wanted to run your crew and you were like why don’t you just tell me what the
Daaron Yester (27:05.687)
goal is and I’ll get us there. Don’t tell me how to do to reach the goal. You just tell me what the goal is and that made a lot of sense to me. You know I mean because I know what their schedules are and I know what they need to get done and I can be accommodating but you know let me decide what the best way is for my team to achieve the goals that we both want instead of you running me because there’s no way a GC can run every trade in that place and run and have everybody doing what they should be doing. That’s a recipe for a
job.
Todd Dawalt (27:38.126)
Yeah, I run into this a lot. There are a lot of people who feel like I’m working in a very relationship driven business, repeat clients, or maybe they’re custom home builders working with multimillion dollar clients and they feel like they can’t have systems. They feel like they have to be what I would call a Burger King builder, which is like you can have it your way and we’ll just wrap our business around how you want to do it.
And some people would say, I can’t have systems and processes because I have to do what my clients want. And that keeps them stuck in that chaos. How have you found that having these systems and processes helps you be more successful with your clients who maybe in the past you felt like you had to let them have it their way?
Daaron Yester (28:34.241)
You know, think let’s just straight to the point that I know that they’re experiencing a more professional experience now than they did last year. I’m already getting that feedback. So, you know, overall the way we are now operating, they’re feeling like we are less chaotic.
more organized and more clear on what we’re doing. And that seems to translate into less control on us. So that for sure is going on. But I also think there is a misconception that just because you’re dealing with, and this may go back to the wealthy people, just because you’re dealing with wealthy clients that you have to bow and grovel for every request. But I’m not going to buy that lie anymore.
I think you can run into those type of clients at all ends of the spectrum of affordability. I think that, you know, again, you know, that’s not a good recipe for good business, a good experience or making money. And why are we here if we can’t have any of those? You know, so I think you just got to stand your ground and have a little more boundaries. And a lot of people, most people respect it. And most people actually are enjoyed that experience more than the one where you’re trying to, you know, be a people pleaser.
Todd Dawalt (29:55.544)
Yeah, I’ve been on both sides of this. I’ve been an owner’s rep. I’ve been the general contractor. I’ve been the subcontractor. And I can tell you, as a buyer of construction services, I didn’t want to have to lead the process. I wanted to be able to…
to delegate those results to general contractors and trade contractors and suppliers. And if I had to step in and control the process, it’s because I’d lost confidence. So my advice to people, if you’re listening to this and you’re thinking, well, I have to let these GCs or wealthy homeowners dictate the process, that’s a downward spiral you don’t want to get into. And they want somebody, the right people.
right clients want their partner to lead the process because they’re not, for the most part, professional customers. They want to trust somebody and they don’t want to tell you every move to make. And if they are making, if they are telling you every move to make, it’s because very likely they don’t have confidence and they feel like they have to. take, decide who’s going to run your business. Is it going to be
you or is it going to be your clients? So I’m curious, we’ve talked about a few things you’ve done, Darren. What would you say are the top one or two most impactful systems or processes that you’ve implemented in your business as a result of what you’ve learned in our program?
Daaron Yester (31:20.257)
Yeah.
Daaron Yester (31:36.876)
Well, think I’ve, you know, honestly, I think we, the number one thing is we’ve clarified roles and put people in the places and that has freed me up to focus on the area that I need to focus on. I have a statement I say often these days and that is if you try to do everything, you don’t do anything well.
And I started in business as a guy with a pickup truck and a checkbook and a glove box. so for me, it was do everything. You did the work, you did the jobs, you met the clients, you dealt with the guys. You came home, you did the estimates, you did the bookkeeping, you did the billing. And that was one thing 30 years ago when it was me and a couple of guys.
But at this level, you just can’t do everything and I was still trying to do everything. And I’m a little bit of a control freak just like everybody is. And the more things get out of control, you’ll notice the more control you try to apply in the worst thing, spiral.
But that was probably the number one thing is that I completely put the people in the roles and I already had them. I was so fortunate and let them go and it took them a little while to get the confidence that I wasn’t going to come in and undercut them and second guess them.
And then that freed me up to focus on coaching, to focus on learning, to focus on overseeing them, and to focus on sales and estimating and feeding this locomotive that I’m pushing right now.
Daaron Yester (33:12.013)
So I would say that that was really one of the biggies. The second one that was really huge for me is I had to get into my numbers. Because I’m kind of a right brain, I love people, I love cutting roofs, I love geometry, you know, that’s all fun stuff for me. Profit and loss, not so much.
And so because I didn’t love it I avoided it and because I was so busy with everything else I told myself I never had time and so really getting deeply into my numbers What has been a huge game-changer for me, you know when I got in there and I took my overhead apart my indirect costs and I broke them down by month and I actually did my margin and I found out I was way off on my markup and it wasn’t the good way
And you know, mean, why are you not making any money there? And will you have this huge overhead and you’re not doing enough revenue to cover it and your markup’s too low? This is no wonder. mean, you if you, you can wonder why you’re not making it. but once you get in the numbers, you can find, for me, I found the problems pretty quick. So that was really good for me. And now I have really just become very focused on the numbers. You guys have a really great program that I use on a regular basis called RevMax is very,
overwhelming when you first look at it but once you get used to the program you can really start to see see where your money is going and see how things are going and begin to forecast
and even see what revenue targets you need to hit and what billing needs to get done and then take that to what work needs to get done so you can do that billing. So that was tremendously, tremendously helpful for me. And then the other thing that I’ve worked on tremendously is with my markup is my estimating process.
Daaron Yester (35:01.387)
because i was trying to do everything you know i would work work work all day to go meet all the guys and the clients and fix the problems and then come home and try to estimate it know two three o’clock in the afternoon you can imagine the quality estimates i was putting out on these
Six and seven thousand square foot one-off custom homes. No one’s ever built before, know built by these g-wiz architects or trying to draw something that no one’s ever seen before, you know, these things need to be done slowly carefully and methodically and I was doing them quickly tiredly and and not you know and not with a lot of passion and you know, that’s leading, you know, you got a bad estimate. That’s just going to kill you right off the bat. You know what I mean? That’s the start of this whole process right here and that’s something I’m still working on.
And that’s something I’m getting a lot of coaching on through the alliance, through the CEO alliance with you guys. But I am really refining my estimating process. But I can do that now because they have time. And I’m not trying to run everybody else. So, you know, that’s a big deal.
Todd Dawalt (36:01.591)
Yeah. So I’m curious, what are some of the big differences between your day-to-day schedule, how you spend your time now versus a year ago before you started in our program?
Daaron Yester (36:21.653)
Yeah, the big difference is I’m a, you know, I was safer better for worse because I would prefer to be in the field, but I spend a lot more time in the office now. I have a really great operations guy. I’ve been implementing some different ways to stay in touch with my guys, but I’m really in the field maybe one day a week now. I spend my time in the office.
you know, handling the things that matter to make sure my numbers are right, to make sure I know where this thing is going, and to make sure that my estimates are done quickly. I’ve learned with my clients that if you’re a slow to return their estimate, that also may communicate you’re slow to provide the service if you do win the job.
And if you are, know, someone gave me the term in your group that I think Monish gave to me of eager estimating, it may have been you. And I try to practice eager estimating now. So when I get a set of plans or I get an invite, I respond quickly. I get things done. I get it in the backlog. I keep people updated on what I’m doing and I try to estimate this as professionally as possible as a way to get my feet on off, to get this walk with this
client started on the best foot forward from the very get-go and I found that little momentum will carry into the whole job but to do that I have to spend my days in the office.
And that’s been the biggest change for me. But it’s also allowed me to, now I have a lot more time. I’ve gotten healthier in the last couple of years. And I can get in the gym in the morning. I have a gym in my house and a workout room.
Daaron Yester (38:04.427)
I can spend my time doing that. I’m home here in the mornings. My office is in my home. I probably will need to move out of here at some point because there’s a whole other discussion about distraction that goes on about having a home office and how good your work is when you’re constantly distracted by a million things. But it is really a blessing to be able to get up and do my stuff in the morning, have my morning, play my guitar, get in the gym, and then get in the office and be productive.
You know still be around the family my daughter sits in the chair right behind me and have the grandkids come through in the afternoons and and do all that so it’s it’s a much nicer schedule and because I’m not trying to run the field I’m not taking as many appointments. I’m also freed up in my schedule. I don’t work most Fridays anymore I will Winter is a little colder here. You know we love I like summer even though it’s hotter. I’m a big boat guy
but I have a lot more free time. I can be done earlier, obviously, because I’m not trying to come home and do all this stuff later. I also don’t have the head trash of feeling guilty for sitting on the couch at five o’clock because there’s still 20 things that need doing. I don’t have estimates hanging over me anymore. I don’t have P &Ls hanging over me anymore because I’m actually facing them.
and doing them in the office that actually when I decide to go shut the door at four o’clock or three o’clock or whatever time I decide to be done because I’m done I’m mentally a lot freer. So that’s a real good quality of life thing for me.
Todd Dawalt (39:42.618)
Yeah, absolutely. I remember one of our conversations, at one point you mentioned how you felt like you needed, at one point you felt like you needed to go to every job every day, you need to go talk, be the face, talk to your GCs, talk to your crews. It sounds like you’re not doing that as much. This is something I hear quite a bit from folks.
What would you say to that construction business owner who feels like they have to be, have to go talk to, be the face to the client, have to go talk to the field crews every day? What would you tell them?
Daaron Yester (40:24.897)
Yeah, and I really have felt that pully and as I’ve been in the office more and less in the field, I’ve actually had a good discussion with my CEO Alliance friends about, you know, am I too, have I gone too far the other way of being in the office? But I have found that if they’re getting the professional service and it’s even on the business end of it on the upfront with the estimating and the billing and all that stuff.
They seem to be pretty happy now again. I have a really great operations guy a lot of my I have you know like five jobsite foreman that are all 10 to 15 year guys everybody knows them So there’s a lot of comfort with my team so it’s been
You I guess I would tell people to really spend your time building your team because that’s the people that are, it’s not really you trying to do, and you guys teach us this. It’s not, it’s who, not how. It’s not, you don’t need to do more. You need to find the people and put the time into training them to do the thing so you don’t have to do everything. But I still stay in pretty good contact with my clients. I’ve learned, I got some good advice again from the CEO Alliance. I’ll do a weekly update.
or a bi-weekly update with my guys, where I’ll send them a text letting them know these are the jobs that are coming in, these are the estimates going out, not specific numbers, but just letting them know, hey, there’s a lot going on, Darren’s not, you know, sitting on his butt, he’s working, but also let them know, hey, there’s work out there and it’s coming our way, and we’re landing some jobs, and this is what it’s looking like in the next month or two, that really communicates a lot of security to them, that they’re going to have a job, that things are being taken care of, because I do think you still need to communicate to everybody.
even if they don’t see you that things are being taken care of things are being planned and things are being done professionally and So I’ll do that with my clients too I’ll give a Friday check in with them if they don’t see me even though they’re dealing with my operations guy and their job site Foreman and they’re happy I’ll check in with them and say hey, how you doing? How’s the experience going for you? And I’ll get some feedback. Hey, I didn’t like this or hey I thought you’re gonna do that and that’s They need to communicate but at least they know I’m here
Daaron Yester (42:38.83)
But I would rather do that than you know burn one of my got six dollar a gallon diesel right here in California Driving around and I live 30, you know, it’s a it’s an hour to some of my job sites from my office, you know To just spend all that time driving eating fast food and you know You know and
and just wasting a lot of time and then being stressed because I’m not able to do the things I can do. So, yeah, I don’t know. I’m real fortunate, but I would say work on building the people that are going to be your point of contact and then find other ways. There’s not just one way to do things. You know, our old construction thing, there’s lots of ways to skin a cat, but you still end up with an ugly cat. There’s a lot of ways to stay in contact with people. And once you start looking for different methods, they start
to you. So I’ve got some great advice from my CEO Alliance people.
Todd Dawalt (43:36.587)
Yeah, good advice. So you’ve done a great job of actually implementing these things and getting them to stick. A lot of people struggle implementing change and getting people to change. What would you say are one or two keys to implementing systems and actually getting people on your team to change?
Daaron Yester (43:59.598)
Yeah, well the first thing was an epiphany I had with you and that was like if I even get 20 if I even do 20 percent of the things you teach me I’m going to be ahead money ahead here and I have implemented a lot more than that. It’s been a dramatic change so I would just say even a little bit of implementation is better than giving up. But I would also say that I have learned some really healthy ways of accountability from the program.
I love the accountability that I experience here because it’s not accountability that comes to you and says, this is what you should be doing. This is what I think you should be doing. And why aren’t you doing what I told you to do? It’s nothing like that. It is like, what do you think you should be doing? Okay, well, I think I should be doing this, that, and the other. And then it comes back to, well, how’s it going? Did you do it? No. Okay, well, why didn’t you do it? Oh, did you change your mind or do you feel like it’s something you need to do? You’re just procrastinating. And that’s a really healthy accountability. And I’ve even heard state
It’s like, know, hey, I’m not here to tell you what to do. I’m just trying to hold you accountable to what you said you needed to do. What we all what you agreed was the best course of action. And I think that’s been a really healthy accountability mindset. And it’s really interesting because I don’t think everybody this way. But, know, when you come to a program like this and you’re investing your time and your resources in it, it’s pretty it’s a lot easier to be humble than if, you know, somebody just is randomly telling you what you need to change in your life.
So I think that’s true. I think the other thing too is that I’ve learned and I think I really learned this more talking to you early on is that you just need to be patient in your accountability. You know, I implemented a weekly update program with my operations guy and my finance girl.
And you know, it took a while to say, you know, it’s Friday afternoon. I would like to see a weekly update, you know, and I’ve explained the reason I want this weekly update. And it’s not just for me. It’s you to tell me what you’re doing is for you to think through your last week and to think through your next week before it ever gets here so that we’re planning ahead, because that’s a productivity problem if you’re not planning ahead.
Daaron Yester (46:09.957)
And I just have to reiterate that and you know, we’re pretty much on schedule now where these weekly updates come to me But you know once in a while I’ll have to go ahead and see it a lot of times I didn’t get my weekly update on Friday from my operations guy first thing Monday morning in the middle of our check-in focal is I forgot to do it, know, and so he got it got it out to me, but I Would say that you know, you just kind of got it patiently and in a non weird way
whatever that means to you. me it means don’t be a jerk. Remind and keep a healthy pressure on people to achieve goals. you gotta explain to them what the goals are for. And I probably need to get better at this, the goals are better if they’re their goals than if they’re yours. I’m a really great dreamer and I come up with all these systems and I wanna tell people what they should do. But I think one of the things I’ve learned.
you guys, their plan that is halfway good is way better than my plan that’s perfect. Because if my plan is perfect, it probably won’t get done. anything you can do to get them to buy in is good, but you just need to be patient in that process.
Todd Dawalt (47:19.373)
Yeah, that’s really good advice. Sometimes we expect people to suddenly change overnight and then get really frustrated when they don’t change over the course of seven days. It takes a while to turn that ship. Yeah, so that’s good advice. Be patient, let them set their goals, let go of…
Control about how it’s going to be done which is tough for some of us who are micromanagers and control freaks and Just be satisfied with the end results and let them let them get there the way they want to yeah, I like that So we’ve mentioned the CEO Alliance a little bit How old you joined that program a few months ago? How would you describe the CEO Alliance in your own words? And what has being in that group done for you Darren?
Daaron Yester (47:45.067)
Yeah.
Daaron Yester (48:10.945)
You know, I don’t think I’ve told you this, Todd, but I almost feel like the CEO Alliance has almost been more important to me than the SYCB. And that’s saying a lot. Just to get with the group of people that are going through the same thing I’m going through, have the same battles and concerns, and be able to get advice, and not even get advice, even just listen to them go through their process, their stuff, and get advice.
from people in a very specific business mode that not very many people understand. I mean, there’s a lot of construction business owners in there, in this world, but not really many. You know what I mean? I how many of you in your friend group outside of work can you talk to about? And even in your, I found even in my contractor group, I have offered my help to so many contractors, there is a very independent, I can do it.
autonomous mindset in construction. And so to be in a group of people that are trying to help each other understand this isn’t easy, comfortable with their bringing their problems and flaws to the the table and getting some help has been tremendously helpful. But what I would say about that is and I really love the group. I mean, I adore the people in my group. I’m so grateful that I even get to be part and get to share with them. They’re they’re super wonderful. I love finding out they’re just as kind of messy as I
with things and they have difficult some of the same and some other difficulties so you know we’re all facing these fighting these dragons together you know that’s really really encouraging but I was gonna say about this
lost it Todd sorry there was something really important there I know I just love the group a lot
Todd Dawalt (50:03.159)
Yeah, you came to your first live meetup with the CEO Alliance a couple of weeks ago in Cancun. What would you say to somebody who’s considering coming to one of these events?
Daaron Yester (50:19.619)
okay, I remembered what I said before I go there. What I was going to tell you was that the CEO Alliance has helped me stay focused. You one of my biggest concern is that I would get off track. You know, starting is easy. It’s continuing and finishing that’s hard. And the CEO Alliance has been tremendously helpful to help me stay motivated and focused on my goals and to keep them clear in my mind. So I just, that’s, that itself is humongous.
I you know it was really interesting to sit in that room with you know a couple dozen other contractors Everybody I mean there was one guy and they’re doing 40 million year. There’s one guy and they’re doing a million a year You know I mean just all over the spectrum all different places in life To realize we’re all we’re we all are
bit messy. We’re all just trying to figure this out. You know there was a lot of similarities. There’s a guy in there whose daughter is running half his business and she had a little bit of a…
you she was struggling a little bit with feeling like she belonged because she was the guy’s daughter and I know my daughter struggles with exactly the same feeling and I’m like my gosh you’re so competent you have every right to have a seat at the table just because you’re my daughter doesn’t disqualify you it’s so neat to find to see other people with the same struggles I really had a very meaningful experience this is my first one I went to it was a little tough as we did some inversion and kind of tore things down before we
built them back up again, I really have valued clarity as I spoke about earlier, but just kind of going through the 10 year plan and really visualizing what my life looks like in 10 years, not just based on emotion and bad pizza, but based on some really, some real markers and a real plan.
Daaron Yester (52:10.253)
And to do it with a bunch of other people, figuring it out at the same time, that was tremendously meaningful. To do some hot seat stuff, you know.
My background, I’m used to being in a little bit of hot seat groups in a spiritual setting, but never to have it done in a business where you bring your problem to the table and people ask questions and then they all give you input and very honest and direct input. That has a tendency to kind of blow up the blockages in the mind that won’t allow you to see things from a different perspective. And you can start to see things a little bit differently. I remember I was sitting in one hot seat probably with you and at one time and someone asked me, are you sure you’re
the right guy that should be doing your estimating. That was like stabbing a 30-year contractor in the heart who’s never allowed anybody but him to do the estimating, you know. But you know, that was the first time in my life I kind of went, maybe I am not, this isn’t my strength, you know. Not something I would let go of, but you know. So I found a lot of value in that.
And then we would go through these really heavy, I don’t know if I would call them heavy days, but very meaningful, dense days of learning and considering things. And then we would just go hang out and have the best afternoons together and process. I mean process by not talking about too much. And then have some nice dinners. And my gosh, it was so lovely.
I think you guys should probably come up with some kind of program where we could bring some key people with us too that might work for them too, you know, because I would love to bring my key people to this so that they could get the benefit that I got out of it. And imagine a company where you had a lot of synergy where a lot of people were all clicking on it with the same mindset, you know, that would really make some difference.
Todd Dawalt (53:55.832)
Yeah, I like that idea. I like it. So I’m curious if somebody called you and said, hey, Darren, I’m thinking about signing up for this systematize your construction business program. It looks like a good fit, but I’m not sure. What would you tell them?
Daaron Yester (54:17.087)
Yeah, I mean I would tell them probably right what I’ve said a little bit already that even if you even if it helped you a quarter of the way you’re gonna be so far much further ahead even if you don’t do it all the way and I that would not mean don’t do it I would just mean that This there’s there’s so much value here That even if you do a little bit of it it’s gonna change your life that it has dramatically improved my life
mean to overdramatize it, but it has really freed me up emotionally and mentally. My stress level has gone tremendously down. My clarity has gone tremendously up. And you know, when your clarity and your hope goes up, your hopefulness goes up. When your stress goes down, your irritability goes down. So you can just imagine how that translates into your marriage, how that translates into your family relationships. It also translates into way you treat your clients, the way you treat your guys.
your people whoever you’re dealing with So I mean just for that that’s worth the price of admission just right there I mean if you could ever get that I mean there’s a lot of people out there promising that but I’ve actually found this program to be very very helpful for me So yeah, I’ve already had one person call me I’m not a poster child man. I’ll evangelize some construction leading-edge stuff, dude So I’m a big believer. It’s made that big of a difference for me
Todd Dawalt (55:45.58)
I’m glad to hear that. really appreciate it. A couple more minutes here, a couple of questions. What is one thing you believe to be true about business that some people might think is a little unconventional, maybe even crazy? Anything come to mind?
Daaron Yester (56:03.425)
Well, you know what, I think that, and I don’t know this is gonna be true for everyone, I just think the tools you need are probably already within your reach, you just don’t see them. So like, I realized the people I needed were already there.
I just didn’t have them organized right. I didn’t see them right. I didn’t see it right. So I don’t know if anyone would think that’s crazy because I’ll spiritualize that and just say what I needed was already there. It had already been provided for me. I just didn’t know how to grasp it, place it, treat it yet. So that’s something I believe to be true for me. And then the other thing I think is a crazy thing to believe is that you can get where you want to go without help. I just think that’s.
That’s not a sensible thought. It wasn’t for me. I know everybody’s different. But if you think everything you need is within you as a person, you are putting a tremendous amount of pressure on yourself. You need to get help. And this program, your resources, I think, are really one of
One of the great ways that contractors can get help. It’s a lonely job man. A lonely job, you know, you’re making payroll, you’re paying bills, you know, you’re trying to do it all, you’re carrying a huge amount of responsibility with all these people relying on you. You’re dealing with crazy sometimes, you know, it’s just a lot of stress and to try to handle that all on your own, I don’t think it’s good for us mentally, physically, relationally.
Todd Dawalt (57:37.079)
Yeah, why do you think we do that? Why do you think we feel like we have to do it alone? Is it a conscious decision? Is it just we never even think about asking for help? What do you think?
Daaron Yester (57:51.502)
You know, honestly, I think it’s our Gen Xers. You know, we’re the latchkey kids. We were raised by parents whose form of parenting was if you were, oh, you’re gonna cry, let me give you something to cry about. You got a problem, go figure it out. You got in a fight with Johnny, you guys go figure it out. You So I don’t know if that translated into really a high level of independence. I don’t see that same level of independence in my kids.
But then I also think it’s a guy thing. And I know there’s a lot of ladies in the construction industry now, and that’s awesome. But I think a lot of guys, we have come to some form of belief that everything that we need for life to be successful should come from within us. And we don’t reach out for help enough. We just need help.
Todd Dawalt (58:46.393)
Yeah, the, have to do it myself. Nobody can help me. Maybe even asking for help is a sign of weakness. Yeah, yeah. Pretty sure I’m, I was guilty of those things as a young, dumb, prideful construction entrepreneur. Yeah. Last question. If somebody’s traveling through your area, what,
Daaron Yester (58:55.052)
Yep.
Daaron Yester (59:07.308)
Yep.
Todd Dawalt (59:15.885)
What town is that? And then what’s the one place they should visit? Restaurant, cocktail bar, beer joint, et cetera, that they absolutely should not miss if they’re traveling through that area.
Daaron Yester (59:25.638)
yeah.
Daaron Yester (59:29.453)
Pioneer, Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneer Town Palace. You cannot miss this place. I live in Moronga Valley, which is between Palm Springs and Joshua Tree. It’s a really lovely little town to live in. Joshua Tree is a very happening place these days.
people all over the country travel there. we get a ton of LA people. The people here like to call the hipsters are all here. But there is this kind of old bar of mudded together bottles and bricks that this guy and his wife named Pappy and Harry built in the late 70s. And it was just a hangout for every desert rat and.
Drifter that was around and it has since turned into the place of the best snake stakes the strangest people and Amazing music and I would highly recommend it’s an old experience to go to this place and it’s quite known because Like a lot of some bands will come do practice shows like large bands. I mean they’ve had a Couple stage coaches ago Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert were in there having dinner, you know, I mean Paul McCartney’s played there
A lot of really good bands will come through there and do practice shows on the DL. No one will know. And then all of a sudden somebody will get a whiff in town and the locals will find out. But they just do great stakes over Mesquite, great drinks, and man, just people watching this off the hook and great music there. So that’s where I would go.
Todd Dawalt (01:00:54.329)
I’ll definitely take you up on that if I ever pass through that area. Well, Darren, great stuff, man. It’s been a pleasure working with you through SYCB, watching you implement, doing a great job, seeing the results, seeing the change in your mindset and approach has been really good. And it was a blast hanging out with you in Cancun a couple of weeks ago.
Look forward to continuing to watch the results stack up as you keep up the good work,
Daaron Yester (01:01:30.795)
Yeah, well I appreciate you two and all you do and my hope is, prayer is that this, whatever I share here can help somebody down the road to get to a better spot, cause life’s a lot better on the other side man.
Todd Dawalt (01:01:43.513)
100%. I appreciate you taking the time to share your story.
Daaron Yester (01:01:49.005)
Okay, man. Thanks.
