0:00

I told my boss, I said, I'm done

0:02

with this. I just couldn't do it no more.

0:05

Some businesses start from a great idea, some

0:08

from a need. But for Georgia and Margarita

0:10

Rivera, their company, Dakwats Electric,

0:13

was founded in a moment of frustration.

0:16

He came home to pretty much

0:18

let me know that he had quit his job

0:21

and that he was going

0:23

to do this side thing full

0:25

time. It was super

0:27

bad timing. I'm eight months pregnant.

0:30

I was just like, what are you thinking?

0:33

The stakes are extremely hot. It's like

0:35

do a die moment. You know, either I'm going to put

0:37

food on the table or not.

0:41

Welcome to the Unshakables from

0:44

Chase for Business and Ruby Studio from

0:46

iHeartMedia. I'm Ben Walter, CEO

0:49

of Chase for Business.

0:50

And I'm Tanya Nebo, a lawyer and consultant

0:52

for business owners.

0:54

On the Unshakables, we're sharing the daring

0:56

stories of small business owners facing

0:58

their crisis points and telling

1:00

the stories of how they got through it.

1:03

Then we're back with another story.

1:05

Tell me all about it, Tanya.

1:07

Well, once upon a time, newlyweds

1:10

George and Margarita decided to leave behind

1:12

everything they knew while raising an infant.

1:14

Though the first few months were hard, they finally

1:17

got a huge break and put everything on the line.

1:20

Would this moment make or break the couple and

1:22

the business.

1:23

Was that a Hollywood movie or a small business story.

1:26

I'll let you listen and then you can decide.

1:29

On today's episode, Doc Watts

1:31

from Orlando, Florida. Growing

1:36

up, a lot of kids dream of being astronauts

1:38

or ballerinas. Not George

1:41

Rivera. He only wanted to be one

1:43

thing, an electrician.

1:45

That was born for this. And you talked to my mom, she tells,

1:48

y'all was born with a wire out of my hand.

1:50

His dad was a handyman, and he tag along

1:52

on jobs and watch him build, shape,

1:54

paint, and tear things down. But

1:56

nothing fascinated him quite like electricity.

2:00

It's a mystery. You can do a thousand

2:02

different things. You can turn the light bulb with different

2:04

ways. It's no one way to do it.

2:07

He went to an electrician training program,

2:09

completed an apprenticeship, and got a job at

2:11

the Orlando Airport. Right

2:13

away, he was put on a multi million

2:16

dollar electrical project.

2:17

I was the youngest guy there with the license

2:19

that very had any mustache, or beard,

2:22

and they tell me, George, man, what are you doing here? I've been

2:24

doing this since you're in diapers, you know, pretty much.

2:26

Although he was a lot younger than most of

2:28

his coworkers, George wasn't shy about

2:31

taking charge.

2:32

They didn't like a young guy coming in a very

2:34

aggressive, very go get her. And

2:36

there was one guy. I told him, listen, man, one

2:38

day, you're gonna be working for me.

2:40

Before long, he was right. George

2:43

quickly rose in the ranks and soon was

2:45

managing the same men that had previously

2:47

disrespected him.

2:49

We had thirty two guys. The guy show up, lady

2:51

and I said, you know, I feel like a big babysitting here.

2:53

George got more and more frustrated. One

2:56

day, after a particularly infuriating

2:58

moment, he marched straight in to his boss's

3:00

office.

3:02

I told my boss, I said, I just

3:04

couldn't do it no more. I'm done with this. I'm going

3:06

to go out my own. And that's exactly what I did. I didn't

3:08

think about I knew I was going to have a company one day, and

3:10

I said now or never.

3:14

George may have known that this was the moment,

3:16

but his wife, Margarita had no

3:19

idea. The whole ride home,

3:22

George dreaded, telling her.

3:24

I remember pulling up to the driveway and

3:27

walking around the van a thousand times, like

3:31

in circles circle.

3:32

Yeah.

3:32

I think I had to redo the driveway after that.

3:35

Margarita was eight months pregnant with their son.

3:38

They had only one thousand dollars in the bank

3:40

and lived in a house with the foundation issues

3:42

that made it slanted. With

3:44

all that was going on, the timing

3:47

wasn't great.

3:48

He came home to pretty much

3:50

let me know that he had quit his

3:52

job and that he

3:55

was going to do this side thing

3:57

full time.

3:59

That's Margarita, George's

4:01

wife and a co owner of Doc Watts.

4:04

I was just like, what are you thinking?

4:07

We're going to have a baby in a month.

4:09

Let's pretend George isn't sitting next to you. Were

4:11

you cussing him out in your mind?

4:13

You know? It was more like you really made the

4:15

decision without me. How

4:18

is this going to happen? How is this going to work? There

4:20

was no plan.

4:24

Okay, Tanya, I have to stop you for a second. Let me ask

4:26

you honestly, Okay, if you were twenty four years

4:28

old, you're just married you're one month away

4:30

from having your first kid and your spouse comes out

4:32

and says, I've had it, I quit, I'm starting a new

4:34

business. Here we go, right, I mean.

4:36

Right, that sounds like you were cussing him out in your mind.

4:39

Right.

4:39

She had to be.

4:40

She she deserves, she deserves an Olympic

4:42

medal.

4:43

I mean, come on, yeah, that's a lot to

4:45

be as calm as it sounds like she was,

4:47

even though she's pissed because he didn't

4:49

say anything to her about it. And then he

4:51

makes such a major life decision when she's about

4:53

to give birth for God's sakes, Like what, yes,

4:56

saint.

4:57

Okay, let's go back to the story. What happens next?

4:59

So then George had actually been preparing

5:01

for this moment months before he quit. He

5:03

put ads in the local paper for electrical

5:05

work on the side. He even bought a utility

5:08

van.

5:09

I ain't had the customer base darting out

5:11

nothing, just really go out with faith, no money

5:13

and no experience, no business

5:15

skills, one hundred percent of nothing. Still

5:17

nothing. It's like do a die moment.

5:19

You know, either I'm gonna put food on the table or not.

5:22

We had no room to fail.

5:25

He knew that to stand out his business

5:27

needed a catchy name. And then one

5:30

day he was talking to a friend about it.

5:32

I remember, man, what's the name gonna

5:34

be? What's the name gonna be? So he throws his phone

5:37

book on his table and landed in the doctor

5:39

pages. You know, and you know how about

5:41

Doc Wats Electric. I said, Oh,

5:43

that's corny and catchy.

5:46

Doc Watts Electric. He

5:48

even had someone sketch out what the character

5:50

Doc Wats would look like.

5:52

Yeah, he's the older guy and lives like little Einstein.

5:55

You know, I tell people that's me in twenty years holding

5:57

a light bulb.

5:58

George even started wearing I

6:01

used to.

6:01

Go with my Doc Watts like

6:03

a lack hole, like.

6:04

A doctor's coat.

6:06

Yeah, and I used to pull up in the people houses.

6:09

I said, look at this guy. You

6:12

know, I needed some advertisement. I needed to be stand

6:14

out. I was trying to catch people's eyes,

6:16

you know. I was trying to attract the man, who is this

6:18

guy walk in this house or a lack

6:20

hole?

6:23

He built his business through word of mouth and

6:25

by saying yes to any type of job

6:28

he could get.

6:29

There was one time I was even doing flooring just

6:31

to get started.

6:32

His hustle paid off. He

6:35

started with smaller household job to build

6:37

his client base and then landed contracts

6:40

with larger companies.

6:42

I worked day and night NonStop. There was

6:44

times where I needed to get something done

6:46

the very next day. He said, there's no way this guy's

6:48

gonna get it done. And I stayed there all night

6:50

and the guy was very impressed. So that's how you build

6:53

client and tell you you show them what you're made of.

6:55

George was on his new path and Margarita

6:58

was headed back to work at the County court House after

7:00

her maternity lead. She'd found

7:02

a sitter for their baby, but then.

7:05

Two weeks into me going

7:07

back to work, I pick my son

7:10

up and she says to me, Margarita,

7:12

I can't watch him anymore. Oh no, I'm

7:14

like, wait what? And so I

7:16

came home and I

7:18

tell George. I'm like, she just

7:20

says she can't watch him anymore. We can't afford

7:23

daycare. Like what are we going to do? So

7:26

the conversation came up about

7:29

me leaving my job and doing

7:31

this full time with him. George was

7:34

like, well, why don't we grow

7:36

the business, why don't we do this

7:38

together? And so of course

7:40

My thought process was like, Okay,

7:43

do I want to do that?

7:45

Margarita had earned a degree in psychology

7:48

and dreamt of actually working in the field full

7:50

time.

7:51

You know, it's very difficult to

7:54

think about leaving your

7:56

career path, your dream to

7:59

help fill your husband's.

8:02

Do you understand. Yeah, So that

8:04

was a decision that I had to make, and

8:07

we decided that that's what we're gonna do. There

8:10

could have been because of that, a

8:12

little bit of resentment, even

8:14

though that's what I thought the best decision

8:16

was.

8:17

It was a tough decision, but it really was the

8:19

only decision we had in our hands. We didn't

8:21

have no family member. We can't go back to mom and dad's

8:23

house. We had no options.

8:29

So Margarita would join Doc Wats as a co

8:31

owner. She'd start handling the administration

8:34

and operation side of the business, all

8:36

while taking care of a newborn. They'd

8:39

spend the next few years learning

8:41

on the job.

8:42

There was a lot of stress in the beginning,

8:45

just trying to figure things out. Neither

8:47

of us had any business knowledge,

8:49

any business experience.

8:51

Well, I mean a ton of mistakes. I can tell you that,

8:53

you know, I wish I was a little more educated

8:55

in all that stuff. But you know, sometimes you just got to

8:57

be naive. You don't need to have everything figured

8:59

out. You just had to have the wheel, the gut

9:01

to do it.

9:03

While the company was taking off, Margarita

9:05

had trouble letting go of some resentment.

9:08

For a little bit because George was out

9:10

front and he was meeting the customers

9:12

and things like that. There was also sort of

9:14

like a feeling of being in the shadow.

9:16

He was like the face, and then I was

9:18

like behind the scenes, you know, doing

9:21

all the background work.

9:22

Besides, this was her husband's dream,

9:25

not hers. George tried

9:27

to convince her otherwise.

9:29

Through the whole process. I told, babe,

9:31

you're a owner. This is your baby.

9:34

I was playing I see from day one.

9:36

But all their efforts were working, clients

9:39

were returning, and referrals were coming in quickly.

9:42

One of his clients ended up recommending him

9:44

for his biggest job yet.

9:47

He said, this is a big job. I'm not sure if you can

9:49

do it. I was doing multimay lot

9:51

of jobs at the airport. I could do it

9:53

for somebody else, I can do it for myself.

9:56

So even though he'd never done anything like this

9:58

before, he been on the job.

10:00

There's like three or four other companies that I know of

10:02

were bidding, and they were well known,

10:05

and I just submitted a proposal. I

10:07

wanted it so bad. I talked to the owner, so listen,

10:10

just give me a shot.

10:12

Doc Watts landed the gig and it was a

10:14

big one. But at first they felt like it

10:16

was a little out of their league.

10:18

I have no tools, I had no employees,

10:21

no credit, I had nothing.

10:23

Georgie and Margarita would be doing all the

10:25

electrical work for two buildings, near Universal

10:28

Studios or Landou. The project

10:30

budget was one million dollars.

10:32

With this job landing on our desk, it stakes

10:35

with high again. This is either going to break

10:37

us or take us to the next level.

10:41

To get the job done, George would

10:43

need some help. He even brought in some of the guys

10:45

he used to work with at the airport, the

10:48

same ones he joked would work for him.

10:50

One day. That day had come,

10:52

I.

10:52

Called everybody and their mother to come

10:55

help.

10:55

We recruited his brother, Jonah.

10:58

He was working at a restaurant at the time. George

11:01

was just like, you know, I need you to come help

11:03

me. Mind you his brotherhood no electrical

11:05

experience.

11:06

What was this like working this job? What did

11:08

you do to execute on this.

11:10

I pretty much lived there. I had no choice.

11:12

Weekend, Saturday, Sunday, sun up, some down.

11:15

A group of ten people should have done this job.

11:18

The crew wasn't the only thing that was absolutely

11:21

invaluable to pulling off this job. There

11:23

was also the copper wiring. The cost

11:25

of copper wire had gone way up and

11:28

they had spent seventy thousand dollars on

11:30

it for this project alone. Theft of

11:32

copper wire was on the rise, so

11:34

George couldn't take any chances.

11:36

At the time, gas was going up, the copper's

11:38

going up. We had this big delivery to

11:40

the job. I said, man, I had to stay here,

11:42

and my wife said, what do you mean to stay here? I said

11:44

yeah, because if I if somebody takes a foot

11:47

two foot of one of these cuts a wire,

11:49

it was done. You Miles, well pack your bags.

11:51

I spent a night at the job site. I don't think

11:53

I slept. I mean I was out there and keep

11:56

my head on a swivel, you know, I was looking around, looking

11:58

around. I don't remember sleeping.

12:00

Up until this point, Margarita had mostly

12:02

been working in the background at Dacwatts. But

12:05

this job changed everything.

12:08

I was super involved in that job, and

12:11

so I think the beginning

12:13

of this job is when I took

12:15

ownership. I purposely

12:18

tried to be out front to where like,

12:20

Okay, yeah, he's the doc, but I'm

12:23

here too. There's certain things

12:25

that all of us bring to the table,

12:28

and so I kind of had to just realize

12:30

those I may not have all

12:33

of this electrical knowledge, but

12:35

I have something to bring. I

12:37

have something that is

12:40

going to help this business grow.

12:42

That's when she became owner. And

12:45

let me tell you, Sky was a limit.

12:48

The project was grueling, but George

12:50

and Margherita small but mighty team

12:52

pulled it off. This million

12:54

dollar contract changes the game for Dock Watts.

12:56

Yes, absolutely, right

12:58

in the middle of the recession and we were thriving.

13:01

That was doing the biggest job in my life. And

13:04

I had a brother with me and my wife.

13:08

Oh man, you can't write this if you wanted to.

13:11

With a million dollar project under their belt, Doc

13:13

Wats started beating on other large jobs

13:16

and started hiring more employees. They

13:18

also decided to make another big

13:21

bet.

13:22

We end up buying a little small building.

13:24

You know.

13:24

We went from my house to a storage

13:26

unit to actually in twenty eleven, we end

13:28

up buying a little twenty one hundred square foot building

13:31

lit a tiny little thing.

13:32

For many, real estate is the

13:34

business, but for Doc Watts, real

13:37

estate was the insurance policy.

13:39

I was working for the other company. Remember that they

13:42

rented their spot for eighteen years

13:44

and they went out of business, and they had no assets

13:47

and all, nothing like that. And you know I would not be like

13:49

them. So we can rent it out to have other incomes

13:52

just in case, you know, something

13:54

God forbid, something happens to Dog Wats. We always

13:56

had something to full bag on.

13:58

While Georgia Marcurita made some strategic moves

14:01

to expand, one of the biggest

14:03

growth areas for their business came from a moment

14:05

of just being human. In

14:07

twenty seventeen, when Hurricane Maria

14:10

devastated Puerto Rico, Doc Wats

14:12

donated two generators to a charity helping

14:15

to rebuild. This turned out to be the

14:17

first step in what would be a major

14:19

pivot for the company.

14:20

We wasn't built to do generators. We were

14:22

doing commercial job service and all that stuff.

14:25

As a man, what a great opportunity to take advantage

14:27

of this and we capitalize that we do

14:29

the maintenance, we do the programming, we do

14:31

all the warranty claims. It was a whole different

14:34

department. We have a generated department now

14:36

because of the Hurricane Maria and the hurricanes

14:38

afterwards.

14:39

Today doc wats continues to grow their core

14:41

business and no one has to sleep

14:43

on the work sites anymore.

14:45

The business has grown significantly

14:47

from us doing all the

14:50

tasks and now we have an office

14:52

team, a field team, and now

14:55

just recently we finished our

14:57

office expansion and now it's twelve

14:59

thousand, so one hundred square feet. So

15:02

it's a little surreal to think

15:04

about it.

15:05

And that twelve seven hundred square feet

15:08

isn't just for their doc wats business. It's

15:10

also home to their dance studio and

15:13

an event space they rent out on the weekends. Doc

15:15

wats has been in business since two thousand and eight.

15:18

It's been a long time since Georgia and Margarita

15:20

first started learning how to run a company, but

15:23

they're still devoted to growing as entrepreneurs.

15:26

We got to get better leaders, which means

15:28

I'm looking to leadership schooling,

15:31

get mentors. I mean, we got to this level

15:33

from knowing no business skills or no

15:35

education. Now we gotta get smarter, we gotta

15:37

get educated, because we can't continue

15:40

the way we're doing now.

15:41

George wasn't the only one who had to develop as

15:43

a business owner. Margarita also

15:46

had to go through an evolution of her own as

15:50

we've grown.

15:51

There are things that

15:53

I have taken on in the business

15:56

that have helped it grow, and

15:58

so I have to stand

16:00

proud in those things to continue

16:03

to not let resentment

16:07

in. I am proud of

16:09

the fact that, oh

16:14

that for me to know

16:17

that this could

16:19

not have been built alone,

16:23

and for me to stand in that pride

16:26

to know that I was a part of it and

16:28

that I helped bring it here. I's

16:31

just seeing your value and that's

16:34

where I've come to, and I'm

16:36

not backing down today.

16:38

Doc Watts is a seven figure company and

16:41

they're moving quickly toward eight figures.

16:43

They now have twenty employees and eleven

16:45

electrical trucks on the road. George and Margarita

16:48

hoped to open another location in Fort Myers,

16:50

Florida sometime soon. They

16:52

even plan to start selling DAC Watts merch

16:54

in an online store. What

16:57

would you say was the smartest thing that

16:59

you want throughout this process.

17:02

I think that us being able to

17:05

build something together really

17:08

says a lot. And we were able

17:10

to feed off of our strengths and

17:13

persevere through a lot of challenges,

17:16

and where we are today really

17:19

shows that.

17:21

Every day I do like fifty first dates,

17:23

I like st every day. It's like, what

17:26

a joy I get to do this

17:28

venture with my wife, you know,

17:30

so I think we get that right.

17:40

What a story, right?

17:41

Yeah?

17:42

You know what I really love about it. Part of the reason

17:44

that we wanted to do this podcast was

17:47

to talk to real businesses. You know, there's

17:49

so much out there that talks about the latest

17:52

billion dollar VC backed startup

17:54

or you know, the household name that everyone

17:56

knows about, but those aren't the everyday businesses

17:58

that you know, sponsor your local little league and keep

18:00

your community going and employ local people in

18:02

the same way. And we really wanted to tell

18:04

those stories. And I just George and Margarita's story

18:07

is so rich with that. They're real

18:09

people facing real business challenges

18:11

and real family challenges every day and

18:14

making that work.

18:15

Yeah, hustle right, and then doing

18:17

things even when you don't feel like you're qualified

18:19

to do them. They didn't know what they were doing.

18:21

Yeah, it's amazing, right, and yet they still

18:24

you know, George is still not

18:26

shock himself.

18:27

But beyond that, oh yeah, he knew

18:29

the electrical.

18:30

Part technical p Yeah. But you

18:32

have Margarita who's psychology background,

18:35

and then suddenly she's running this business with her

18:37

husband and they are just freestyling

18:40

doing what has to be done in order to make it happen.

18:42

Right.

18:42

I think that's really important. We hear from from

18:44

our clients all the time. You know, the first

18:46

time I ever did something was the first time I ever had

18:49

to do something. When you have a job and you work for

18:51

a company, sort of people tell you what to do or

18:53

there's a roadmap or there's an app for that, and

18:55

in small business there really is no app. There's no playbook

18:58

to follow. And so this,

19:00

this is classic necessity. Is the mother invention

19:02

kind of stuff where you see a challenge,

19:04

you have to do something about it, and so what

19:06

do you do? You just figure it out.

19:08

You just figured it out. Yeah, And that's what both of them had

19:10

to do at the same time, with a

19:12

brand new baby, with a house that's

19:14

slanted, I mean, just it was a

19:16

number of things coming together all at one time,

19:19

yet they still made it happen.

19:21

You know, Tanya. One of the things I hear from business

19:23

owners all the time is how hard it was

19:25

just to get started, you know, to win those very

19:28

first customers. And I hear stories

19:30

about trial and error and people try advertising,

19:32

it doesn't work. People try all different kinds of methods

19:34

and it's hard. It's hard when you first get

19:36

started. So what have you heard from your clients

19:38

about that first kernel of success

19:41

when they win their first customers? How do they do

19:43

it?

19:43

A lot of it was its similar

19:45

to how Doc Wats did it, and that is that word

19:47

of mouth that referral business.

19:50

I think one thing that Doc Wats did really,

19:52

really well was being able to differentiate

19:54

themselves in a sea of

19:57

frankly non differentiated

20:00

companies, right And I think they found a way

20:02

to be unique. They found a way to be memorable.

20:04

They found a way to make an impression on

20:07

the people that they were doing their work for. That's huge.

20:09

And the fact that he was thinking about this

20:11

very early on and established this

20:14

is how we're going to become memorable to people.

20:16

I think that's really important. I think more people starting

20:19

out should be aware of that.

20:20

You know, Look, George says he's an introvert, but it's

20:22

clear that when he needs to be, he can turn it

20:24

on. And when you think about small

20:26

business and the fact that they don't have a whole marketing

20:29

machine, you know, they are the business. So

20:31

he found his own authentic way to

20:33

turn it on when he needed to.

20:35

Yeah.

20:36

Absolutely. But then I want to transition a

20:38

little bit and talk about their use of commercial

20:40

real estate as part of their growth strategy. As

20:42

you know, this is a significant part of my practice,

20:45

and I like seeing how they use

20:47

that as an opportunity to advance their business.

20:50

So what do you think about that?

20:51

So, there's lots of ways to use property as

20:53

a tool to either balance your income

20:56

out, to invest profits for the business,

20:58

or to make it more resilient. All those are perfectly

21:01

acceptable reasons to buy property, like

21:03

anything else, as long as you can get it at a reasonable

21:05

price for what you're buying.

21:06

Yeah, as long as it makes sense, right, So with them to

21:08

your point, for some small business owners, it's really

21:11

a risk management approach. And

21:13

I think that's a thing we've got on the show here, which

21:15

is what strategy makes the

21:18

most sense for your business? Right,

21:20

Like is it a risk management type of thing,

21:22

Is it a diversification kind of play. What

21:24

is it that is going to help this particular

21:26

business in the long term.

21:28

Yeah, And also I encourage people

21:30

to think about you know, when you get into anything,

21:33

doesn't matter what it is, you need to understand it

21:35

completely. So just like I would tell

21:37

people who are renting buying their first home, don't

21:39

think that it's just like renting. It's

21:41

yes you live in it. Yes you live in it, but you're now responsible

21:43

for taking care of it and paying the taxes and maintaining

21:46

it and all those things. And the same is true

21:48

for a business that buys its property. Now, that doesn't mean

21:50

it's not a good thing to do. It's often a very good

21:52

thing to do. But business owners need to appreciate

21:54

that when they're buying a property, whether they're going to

21:57

use it for their business or they're going to rent it out, it comes

21:59

with a new set of obligations that they need to be prepared

22:01

to handle.

22:02

It does. But I don't want us to discourage

22:04

people who may not understand commercial

22:07

real estate, right, So I get your point. Yes,

22:09

it's important to understand anything

22:11

that you're getting into completely. At the same

22:14

time, though, don't be afraid

22:16

because you don't know what it's about. If it's a great

22:18

play or potentially good play for your business,

22:21

it's incumbent upon you to become aware

22:23

or educate yourself. So what

22:26

do you suggest people do or think about

22:28

when they're trying to figure out that next step?

22:30

Or run the numbers, run the numbers,

22:33

really understand it's what is it going

22:35

to cost to own this piece of property? What's

22:37

it going to cost to service the debt? And when

22:39

I say service this piece of property, I

22:41

mean everything to maintain it properly. If you don't maintain

22:43

it properly, you're not going to hold the value. If

22:45

you can't pay the taxes, it's not going to hold its value.

22:48

So what is it really going to take to service

22:50

this property properly, to really do it right?

22:52

And how does that work within the numbers that your

22:55

business generates? And if you run the numbers and it

22:57

works, then it's a great investment in

22:59

many cases, And if it doesn't, then you're not ready.

23:02

Yeah. True.

23:03

The other lesson I took away from the story is

23:05

that you just never know where a great idea

23:07

will come from, and it's important to pay attention

23:10

to the world around you, and you know, sometimes

23:12

even a great business idea can come from

23:15

the way that you give back to the world. Think about what happened

23:17

in Puerto Rico, right, I mean, he donated some generators

23:19

to Puerto Rico after the storm when they were without power,

23:22

and of course that was a tragedy for the people who live

23:24

there and he was able to help. But out of that

23:26

grew a new business idea.

23:27

Yeah. I thought that was awesome. You know, came

23:30

from a great place of just wanting to help others

23:32

who were in a really, really tough situation,

23:34

and then from that his ability to see that

23:37

there was a need there that he could serve. He

23:40

found something that complimented his core business.

23:42

And I think that that's great, just being aware

23:45

of the potential opportunities to grow

23:47

without it being detrimental to the

23:49

business.

23:50

Yeah, and it helped him see around the corner, right, so he

23:52

could see that what had happened in Puerto Rico could

23:54

happen in Florida and that people were starting to

23:56

wake up to that reality, and it gave him an opportunity

23:58

for the business.

23:59

Yeah. It's just a testament to being open

24:02

and being aware that business is dynamic.

24:04

You don't continue to do the same thing over and

24:06

over again for years and years without being

24:09

willing to adjust.

24:10

Yeah. I know very few entrepreneurs who say, my business

24:13

is exactly in every way what I envisioned when

24:15

I start.

24:16

And you have to know when to kind of cut some things

24:18

loose or when to expand

24:20

and try some new things.

24:21

I want to give George real credit for one other thing.

24:23

I want to give him credit for his growth mindset.

24:26

And what I mean by that is he's not static,

24:29

he's not satisfied. He and Marguerite have been

24:31

enormously successful, but they don't

24:33

take that as a reason to sit back and enjoy the spoils.

24:36

They know that to get to the next level, they're

24:38

going to have to continue to learn and grow because

24:40

every day they run a bigger business than

24:42

they've ever run. Because it's

24:45

important that people understand that as long as

24:47

you own a business, there's never a moment at which you

24:49

spike the football into Claar victory. It doesn't

24:51

work that way. As long as you own that

24:53

business, competitors are coming for

24:55

you. Things you can't control are going to

24:57

impact it. Whatever it is. There's always

25:00

the issues. As long as you own a business, and if

25:02

you're not getting smarter and learning

25:04

and growing and developing with that business,

25:07

you're going to fall behind. As long as you own that business,

25:09

you cannot declare victory.

25:10

Yeah, I love that.

25:12

And look, one of the things he's struggling with

25:14

is growing as a leader means finding other

25:16

leaders to be part of his organization. You

25:18

know, people who work in big companies naturally

25:21

understand that. It's a big part of what they do is help

25:23

grow generations of leaders and lead leaders.

25:25

It's not something that helps you build the business from zero.

25:28

So there's always a pivot that comes for small

25:30

businesses when they get to a certain size where suddenly

25:33

the business owner can't know everything and

25:35

has to have people that they trust who can

25:37

lead others on their behalf. And that's a big leap

25:39

for a lot of people.

25:40

It is a big lead, and I want to say it's a huge

25:43

challenge for a lot of small business owners.

25:45

They've been so entrenched in their business, they

25:48

know how to do it, they're developing themselves, they've

25:50

become great leaders. But finding those

25:52

people who will kind of step into their shoes

25:54

and do what they used to do or

25:56

who will even perhaps to see them later.

25:59

Is a widespread challenge,

26:01

and I'm hearing from a lot of different small

26:04

business owners and the question is how do

26:06

you do it when you're not big business.

26:08

As a business gets bigger, one of the most important

26:10

things it can do is hire people

26:12

who have worked in bigger businesses, who

26:15

understand how leadership at scale

26:17

can look and feel. By definition,

26:19

if you started your business from zero, if you've never worked

26:22

in corporate you don't know what that looks like. So

26:24

you don't necessarily want to turn your business into a large

26:26

corporation overnight. That's not a good thing.

26:28

But you do want to bring in people who

26:30

can teach you how to do those things and show

26:33

others what good looks like when it

26:35

comes to that leadership. Now, there's a catch, which

26:37

is you have to be open to someone who wants to do things in a

26:39

different way. Yeah, and you have to find a way to do

26:41

that in a way that's authentic to you. But you

26:43

have to bring in people who've seen it done at

26:45

scale. If you want to operate at scale.

26:48

Well, Ben, I'm excited to see what doc Lots

26:50

is going to do. They've taken some big risks

26:52

and have had some big wins as a result.

26:55

So it's cool to see what they're doing and I look forward

26:57

to seeing more from them.

26:58

I expect a lot, Tanya.

27:01

I want to go back to your chat with Rivera's. They

27:03

had some words of advice that really highlight the spirit

27:05

and determination of all small business owners that

27:08

we should share.

27:08

Let's hear it.

27:10

It's real simple for me, it's just take action. You

27:12

don't have to be the smartest guy. You

27:14

don't have to have everything figured out. You can get educated

27:16

later on. The thing is how many books you're

27:18

going to read, how many seminars and all that stuff

27:20

you can read. But if you don't take no action, that's my advice.

27:23

Just take the action as a matter what positions

27:25

you are, where you are in light, start

27:27

somewhere, fail forward, just do something.

27:31

I would say, write up plan, write

27:33

your goals, write your vision, and

27:35

then kind of write down like how you're going to get

27:38

there and then remembering why

27:40

you started. For us, I had to quit

27:42

my job to do this. There

27:45

is no looking back, there is no giving

27:47

up. Keep going and make

27:50

it happen.

27:52

Thanks for listening to the unshakables. If

27:54

you like the show. Please rate and review it to help

27:56

other listeners find it. In the next

27:58

episode, after a severe allergic reaction

28:01

shakes her family, Denise Woodard

28:03

is inspired to create a line of allergen free

28:05

snacks to protect her daughter and others.

28:08

I'm Tanya Nebo and this is The Unshakables

28:11

from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio

28:13

from iHeartMedia.

28:15

The Unshakables is a production of Ruby

28:18

Studio from iHeartMedia. And We'll

28:20

have