[00:00:00.250] - Chris
Hey, man. How's it going, bro?
[00:00:01.800] - Brandon
Bruh it's going well. Speaking of something that's completely pointless and has no value, there was this I.
[00:00:08.000] - Chris
Don'T know where that came from because we weren't talking about things of pointless value beforehand.
[00:00:13.820] - Brandon
I watched this skit. I can't remember what it was. I don't know if it was, like just some kind of random video, if it was an SNL skit or whatever, but I think it was an SNL skit, and it's like the different generations sitting around the table.
[00:00:24.520] - Chris
Oh, jeez.
[00:00:25.350] - Brandon
And one of them says my pronouns are bruh.
[00:00:30.240] - Chris
I'm not kidding you. I have a bit of a problem. It is an absolute I can't stop saying it because it's all my boys say it's all Bruh. And I'll be honest, the very first time my daughter actually started with her no, it started with my daughter. The first time she referred to me as Bruh.
[00:00:48.290] - Brandon
Oh, God.
[00:00:48.900] - Chris
I was a little bit offended. Like, that dad ego thing was like, I'm not your freaking Bruh. I'm dad. I'm your father. I'm not Bruh. But I just thought, okay, well, this is futile. This is dumb. This is all ego. And so I just settled into it, and now it's like my kids are bra. Everybody's become bra. I was talking with a client and I caught myself. It's bro or bra. I don't know if it has to do with my mood of the hour, but sometimes it's bro and, like, the frat. Yeah.
[00:01:20.510] - Brandon
I don't know if you're being formal. It's bro.
[00:01:22.720] - Chris
And I'll tell you what, relax. When you have a household of teenagers right now yeah. There's a lot of bra. They're going to say that rogan yeah.
[00:01:29.390] - Brandon
Even your wife is slinging it. We were all slinging it on our collective.
[00:01:33.250] - Chris
It's amazing. That's how I'm into it.
[00:01:35.230] - Brandon
It's good.
[00:01:36.990] - Brandon
Well, bro, we have a rad show today. This is going to be, I think, pretty left field for most people that are listening unless they were at the collective, right?
[00:01:46.240] - Chris
Yeah.
[00:01:46.680] - Chris
And I got to know because right now I'm working through I'm in the middle of a loved one who has cancer. And it's actually since really, we found out and have been working through that since the collective when we saw Eric and the Rock Solid Crew do their thing. And so for me, it's like emotionally, I feel so much more connected to it because I'm like having a loved one with cancer and starting to process through that, it's so confusing.
[00:02:13.070] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:02:13.500] - Chris
You know what I mean? It's confusing. You don't know what to think. You don't know do you go into fight mode, we're going to win this, or do you go into just trying to maximize your time with that person? It's just this weird tug of war, and it's unsettling and it's sad. And it's all the things and what they're doing for children and families in the midst of that of just kind of creating an anchor that they can all like. This idea of building play sets for children with pediatric cancer. I get it now. I actually get it more now that I'm experiencing this in our own family. It's powerful dude, but I think the biggest not shocker because he was an impressive dude on stage.
[00:02:54.130] - Brandon
Oh, yeah.
[00:02:54.810] - Chris
But I think we didn't get a chance until this podcast to really see.
[00:02:57.790] - Brandon
The depth of leadership oh, my God.
[00:03:00.040] - Chris
Substance that this guy is bringing and leading with. And there's so much here for restoration owners and aspiring leaders and really leaders of any organization. This is one I mean, I have two pages of notes and I could have been doing more if we weren't kind of leading the podcast, but there are so many nuggets and takeaways.
[00:03:24.930] - Brandon
Okay, so I'm going to say something. I don't normally do this, in all honesty. I never go back and listen to our shows. We have a team that does post and all that kind of stuff. And I just don't this will be one that I will go back because I wasn't able to keep up with our own conversation. Like, he was throwing out gold so quickly that I was struggling to write it all down to even have time to reference know.
[00:03:49.210] - Chris
I know. So I have one thing that I want you to look out for because this is a powerful, powerful leadership behavior. And Brandon and I were even thinking, gosh. With Floodlight growing and more consultants and more team members coming on, this is maybe the biggest and most important work that we have in front of us, too, which he refers to them as power statements or sticky statements.
[00:04:11.330] - Brandon
Oh, yeah.
[00:04:11.920] - Chris
And he talks about I mean, just listen for this. I know this is a long intro, but listen for this as the conversation goes by, because he throws out a lot of these power statements or sticky statements and he talks about how they think of them. It's very intentional, which we didn't know at the outset of the talk, but as we asked him about it, he talks about how everything in their company is predicated on their values and their mission. Obviously, or maybe not so obviously, but then from the values and mission, they intentionally created these 25 or 30 power statements or sticky statements that are fresh on everybody's lips. And it really helps take the big picture and the big ideas and the moments they're trying to create, and it crystallizes them down into these simple messages that they can all keep in front of them and that they use when communicating the vision and values. It is so good. This episode is like an encyclopedia of those power statements. It is literally so you inevitably, if you take the time to really sit at your desk or over your coffee in the morning to listen to this, you are inevitably going to come up with ideas and power statements for your own business that will help you lead better.
[00:05:26.900] - Brandon
Oh, man. I literally I have to go back and listen to it again to get them. It's good. Let's get through so people can hear this guy. Yeah.
[00:05:34.650] - Chris
So good. Okay, so before we do that, let's thank our sponsors because truly they enable the Headheart Moods podcast. They've been faithful supporters and we want to make sure we draw attention to them. CNR magazine gosh dang it, michelle is still great. But it isn't just Michelle. Michelle has a power team around her that she's been building as she continues to build her influence in the industry. But Michelle's still great. I mean, Michelle introduced us to another industry person this past week and we had an incredibly powerful conversation with them. The type of people she surrounds herself with is a top of the heap in our industry. She's connected to everybody that's doing important things in the industry. She's first to scoop stories. She's engaged in all the important conversations. If you're not already following mean, it's a miss. Yeah, it's a miss. So go subscribe on their site. Follow them on LinkedIn. If you're somebody who's trying to connect with restoration people, you're selling something in the industry. CNR might be a really fantastic place for you to advertise because they have the ear of the industry. They have the eyes of the industry.
[00:06:38.250] - Chris
So go talk to Michelle and her.
[00:06:42.910] - Brandon
Forward slash floodlight. You guys know that these are partners in crime with us. We trust their team. We respect their team. Zach and the leadership group are just super powerful, super intentional about delivering a truth in the product. Like, either we are doing it or we are not. And they are consistently iterating to ensure that they are. But what are they doing? They're helping you and your team get more consistent and current five star Google reviews. It turns the dial, guys. This is the most inexpensive way and simplest way that we can divert some resources and some funds to ensure that SEO rankings climb, that our ability to pop up on first page searches climbs. The fact that you guys will have social proof that all the hard work that you and your team put in on a day to day basis is recognized by somebody other than you and that you are a team worth betting on when it's the first time they meet you. There's nothing more powerful than a grip ton of five star Google reviews. And one of the things that Zach has taught all of us over and over is they have to be relevant and they have to be current.
[00:07:49.590] - Brandon
If you are cycling in your reviews because we depend on our operational team to go out and chase those and we have spurts of getting lots of them, you're failing. It is not giving you the return that you could receive when those things are popping up on the daily and the weekly basis. Google will wait their stuff. So Google reviews are blood to the system. So do it.
[00:08:11.630] - Chris
I just saw a post on LinkedIn and we had a conversation with Zach Garrett, the CEO, about one of our clients. Just hit 1000 reviews.
[00:08:19.220] - Brandon
It was 101 was the screenshot and.
[00:08:22.690] - Chris
It was really cool. Zach and his team are putting together they're having these custom trophies made up with a Google logo on it's. Really sweet. And it has been one of those things. As a consulting company, we're very cautious about the people we recommend and refer, for obvious reasons. And Zach and his team have been the best referral we've ever made. You obviously know our feelings about CNR and the rest of our but we've had the longest time recommending Zach in terms of a service company and oh my gosh, it's like every time we talk to a customer, they've got rave reviews. So go check them out, get a demo, see what it's all about. Last thing is answer force. Answer Force is a relatively new partner of ours, but we're really excited because we've operated in the field, we've been in your seat. We understand the challenges of call intake, and there's a lot of them, right? And depends on what stage of company you're in. I think when we first were thinking about call agents and external call center type services, a lot of us tend to think of it as when you're the dude in a truck or you're running your business out of your home or out of a storage unit.
[00:09:25.260] - Chris
Well, that's when you need somebody to answer your phones. But the reality is that need does never go away. Right. Because what do you do when your receptionist, your normal call intake person, is on lunch? What do you do when you have a huge influx of calls for storms? Do you just randomly let your phones forward to just any random person on your team? Of course not. How much money do we spend to get our phone to ring? How important is it for us to have redundant systems in place so that people we do professional, thorough call intake? Well, Answerforce is a great partner for that. I think one of the things that you and I were really drawn to with them is the technology backbone they have allows you to easily scale up from month to month. Scale up, use them a ton for your call and take, whether it's a storm or you have somebody out on maternity leave or something like that, and then just scale it back down. There's a tremendous amount of flexibility. The technology enables that. It's really cool. You owe it to yourself to do a demo, whether you currently have some kind of external call partner in place or not, just to see how Answerforce could potentially level you up there and create a better solution.
[00:10:29.010] - Chris
So Answerforce.com Bloodlight and I want to throw in a little complimentary sponsorship thing here. I want to highlight. We just had a hour and a half long call with Joey Coleman yesterday. Joey's been a multi time guest on our show. He's been incredibly generous to Brandon and I, and I'm assuming he's just this way with everybody, but want to just highlight he had a book that came out just in the last three, four weeks called Never Lose a Customer Again. If you didn't hear that episode on Headhart and Boots, go back and find that we've had three shows with Joey. His time is incredibly valuable. He's been very generous with that. Go back to that episode, check it out, and go buy that book.
[00:11:07.250] - Brandon
Oh, employee. You mean?
[00:11:08.710] - Chris
Never lose an employee? I'm sorry.
[00:11:09.990] - Brandon
Yeah, well, go back and listen to.
[00:11:11.450] - Chris
Never Lose a Customer, Too, but his most recent book, Never Lose an Employee Again, wall Street Journal bestseller just I mean, he's killing it. So if you haven't read it, you should. It's becoming kind of part of the required reading for leaders.
[00:11:22.980] - Brandon
Well, and here's the cheat sheet for that. I don't think they've released it yet, but when you get your hands on that book, he will be releasing basically an onboarding kit summarized version of how to actually execute on what the book is telling you. It's literally a cheat. It's a roadmap to give you the foundation for creating your onboarding system. It's powerful, man. Yeah.
[00:11:44.930] - Chris
And Joey didn't pay us anything. We don't get any. Just we're grateful for, really. He's been a friend to us and all the things. So anyways, that's it. If you enjoy the show, share it. Tell people about Headhart and Boots. Share it with your team. Right. It's training and development tools. Some of the topics we hit on are really relevant to all your downline team and your partners and so forth. So share it out. That's the biggest thank you you can give us. All right, here we go. Eric Newman. Rock solid foundation. Welcome back to the Head Heart and Boots Podcast. I'm Chris.
[00:12:21.170] - Brandon
And I'm Brandon. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead.
[00:12:27.890] - Chris
Man, I love this industry.
[00:12:31.310] - Brandon
Eric, my man, thanks so much for hanging out with us. You already did a little explainer on the background, but I'm going to let you talk about where you are because it certainly adds to the story. But guys, Rock Solid Foundation, this is the founder and chief play officer. And I know that the cool thing is that when you get in and start describing what you do and what your story is about, that title is going to make a whole lot more sense besides way to say something that already exists. Right?
[00:12:59.450] - Eric
Right.
[00:12:59.840] - Brandon
You know where I'd like to start, if you're cool with this, is just go through this explanation first of what in the heck is rock solid? And then I think we're going to have a really cool opportunity to talk about the journey and how it's even come to play. But what is it? What are you doing right now?
[00:13:14.400] - Eric
Sure. Rock solid foundation. It's a nonprofit organization that builds hope for kids fighting cancer. The reason I believe that purpose has to be personal. So the reason pediatric cancers. I'm a childhood cancer survivor. When I was three years old, I was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer. Had all the cocktails of chemotherapy, radiation. The hospital doctors told my parents a slim chance for me to even survive. Lo and behold, I was able to beat the disease for I'm now 34 years cancer free. And so the reason that Rock Solid Foundation exists is because of the personal story. But I also lost two first cousins to this horrible disease of pediatric cancer. And so there was three of us. There was two of us. Then there's just this guy, right? And so Shannon, after she relapsed, I really thought, like, God made a mistake, kept me. She was so much of a better human than me. But lo and behold, rock Solid Foundation was born. I started a construction company, sold that. Started a lawn care company, sold that. Always been an entrepreneur my entire life. And in 2008, I was in the construction industry, ended up losing everything.
[00:14:16.680] - Eric
And I found myself in Costa Rica. I'd call my attorneys. I'm like, yo, do not indict me. I'm not fleeing the country. Don't revoke my passport. But I went to Costa Rica, asked what this one and only life was about, found myself there. And I wrote down a word, hope, on a piece of paper and a four letter word. That's not a bad word, right? So I wrote that down and ended up coming back to the states. And I have been chasing that word hope for the last 14 years, loving and serving the pediatric cancer community. So I think it's important. What is it? Bill Walsh once said, if your why is strong enough, you'll always figure out how to do something. And so that's why rock solid foundation. If you identify the root, you understand the fruit. And the fruit to what we've been doing the last 14 years is play sets and ready bags.
[00:15:01.140] - Brandon
Freaking love that. Okay, so I'm sure everybody that's listening so far has heard something. There is a cadence to the way that you communicate what you're excited about, your passion. Right. There is a diligence behind it, and I can hear it right now. Granted, I'm sure you've said some of this stuff a couple of times, people.
[00:15:19.670] - Eric
This is my first time. No, I'm just kidding. I'm very passionate about what I'm talking about.
[00:15:24.040] - Brandon
Yeah, you can hear it. You can see it in the cadence. The other thing, too, is there is a professionalization of this, like, you're not just being dragged around by an emotion or a mission, but it's a mission that you're giving some real thorough input and strategizing behind.
[00:15:39.920] - Eric
Yes.
[00:15:40.660] - Chris
I'm curious how the playset thing came about specifically.
[00:15:45.170] - Eric
Playsets are ranked, like, one of the worst things in the world to build. Right. The hardest thing to build.
[00:15:50.320] - Chris
Yeah. I've had that experience. For me, it was a trampoline, but I figure same dip, very similar horror.
[00:15:59.640] - Eric
Stories all over the place.
[00:16:00.980] - Chris
But could you talk about that a little bit? What's that connection, and why was that kind of the powerful platform that you guys selected?
[00:16:08.380] - Eric
Yeah, it unfolded a couple of different ways. So when I'd come back from Costa Rica, I had that word, and then I was still flat broke. Right. So as I'm starting to try to figure all this stuff out, I had to move in with my parents. I was taking OD jobs. I hated to paint. I hated to paint as a general contractor, for I would not paint. But lo and behold, guess what jobs I got, right? So I started painting. I was picking up all these ODS and end jobs. And then one of my buddies, which flipped houses before he had a play set that he left outside, and he called me, he's like, hey, listen, I know you need some money. You want to come build this play set for me? So, dude, I can pour concrete. I can frame houses. I mean, I can paint now, right? I can do anything. So I'm like, all right, $250. Let's go. So I brought my dad with me because he was free labor, right? He wanted me out of the house as much as I wanted to be out of the house. So I was there.
[00:16:55.720] - Eric
We were starting to build the play set. Well, my buddy didn't tell me he left it outside for a couple of months, and he didn't tell me he took all these bolts and put them into one giant Tupperware container. So I get there. I start laying it out. It's the middle of July. I'm like, no, I'm done. I was like, It's not worth it. I'm sweating, beads of sweat rolling off. And my dad was like, you can't quit. I'm like yes, I am. I'm a grown man, right? Like, I can do what I want. He said, look in the window. And this family was not sick. They didn't have cancer. And so he said, look in the window. So I looked back behind me, and all I saw was a little girl with a hairball on top of her head. And I just saw her from her nose and her eyes staring through my soul. Right? So then all of a sudden, my dad was like, listen, do not quit on her. I'll pay you more. Do not quit. She's been there the whole time. So we ended up staying for almost two and a half days in the middle of July in, like, farm country.
[00:17:43.960] - Eric
It was the worst experience of one of my entire life. And as I'm screw driving the anchor into the ground, the last piece of the play set, screw it in stand up. Cussing. I'm like cussing fussing. And I talked to my dad. I was like, I will never build another play set for the rest of my life. All of a sudden, this little girl busted out this back door, came running down the steps, jumped, hugged my leg, handed me a check and said, thank you for giving me play tears. Just start. Because I had the word hope, right? I didn't know how the why was hope, but I didn't have the how. And so then the how started to unfold. Tears coming down my face. I looked directly at in the same breath as my dad, and I look at him, I said, I think I'm supposed to build play sets for kids fighting cancer. And I am crying. The little girl handed me the check and my dad was like, God. He's like, why can't you get a normal job, right? He's like, no one starts nonprofits. What the heck's wrong with you? He's like, just get a normal job.
[00:18:36.600] - Eric
But I had the word hope because, see, that's the thing, people, when we have these grand ideas, you think this grand idea is going to be immediate. And in my experience, that's not how life happens. Like you hang on to something. Good ideas produce better ideas. So I had this word hope. Then my perspective was starting to shift. I was looking for different things. Then play hit me. And when she handed me the check, I said, what if people would pay me to build playsets for kids fighting cancer? Not me, but pay for the playsets. And from that, we had wrapped our heads around it, right? Wrapping your head and wrapping your heart around something is totally different. The world has the tendency because we have so much information flowing at us that we wrap our heads around a lot of stuff. But I think what would the world look like if you wrapped your head around a thing, a specific thing, and then you wrapped your entire being and your entire heart around it? And that's where play came from. It was really failures of like, swearing that I would never build another playset.
[00:19:29.890] - Eric
And now I'm sitting here talking to you and I've built thousands all over the United States.
[00:19:34.360] - Brandon
Okay. I can feel Chris connecting with what you just said and I want to get into it some more. Connecting? You said wrapping our head around versus wrapping our heart around. And I know that Chris have had a lot of conversations about this difference between knowing knowledge and experiential knowledge. It's very similar.
[00:19:52.400] - Eric
Yes.
[00:19:52.930] - Brandon
My wife is an artist and she talks about how there's this like everything can't hang in one hemisphere if you don't get it to connect to the other side. There's this part of the story we're missing like, we're either only experiencing it or we're not experiencing it. We're only mentally connecting with the theory. Dude, unpack that for us in terms of what did that look like in real life for someone to not only understand, but begin wrapping their heart around this concept?
[00:20:21.340] - Eric
Yeah. So I think for us, for me, and I say this a lot, the biggest distance between a human being is the head and the heart because you got the worldly knowledge, you got the business knowledge. But then success and significance can live in the same world. But most people choose success first and then significance later. So I'm like, what if we live for significance and success? So then that's taken me on this journey, wrapping your head around something. So, for example, when we did our first place set project, beautiful little girl named Jillian Jeske, only millionaires start nonprofits. That's what the attorneys were telling me. It's the worst economy since the great depression. I'm like, well, you haven't met me yet. And my dad told me, like, if I can beat cancer, there's nothing in this world that I can't do. So game on. Let's go. So then we started to wrap our head around it. Meaning we ordered the mulch, we ordered the play set, we ordered the material. We invited the people. We started going through the checklist of life and production and companies and construction, right? All of us live and die by the checklist.
[00:21:15.870] - Eric
So then we invite the people. We start building the play set. We're following the instructions. Then we install the playset. But what none of us were prepared for is the moment. Mastering that moment, right? Focusing on the moment, because we're so focused on movement that we miss the moment. And so we all stopped. The playset was there. The limo pulled up for this beautiful little girl. We got a limo for her, took her out, came into her backyard, built the playset, and she started to come around the corner. She had a blindfold on. And when we lifted that blindfold, she saw the playset for the first time. Guess what? She wasn't thinking about cancer. My heart, dude. Like, more liquid sunshine started coming out, and she took off for that playset. That's wrapping your heart around it, because when your perspective is completely changed and a moment is exposed to you, you can't deny or you can't run from that moment. And so that little girl played, she was not sick with cancer on that playground. Play defeats cancer now. It does not cure it for everybody listening. I hate cancer. Everything about me, I've seen way too much.
[00:22:15.390] - Eric
It has torn my family apart. I have seen families after families because of this devastation. That's not what I'm saying. It does not cure cancer. But, guys, I can't change the fact that these kids have cancer. But what if there was a world to where I'm like, you know what? I can change how they fight it. I can provide them a safe place to play, because when a child's diagnosed with cancer, play becomes off limits. Where? Why? Because public parks become off limits. They get a fever. They can't be around normal kids because of their immune system. Not both of you, either one of y'all in this world ever had to be talked to Play. That's the first thing taken from a child when they're diagnosed with cancer. But on the flip side, see, you and I, we decide to stop playing somewhere. We focus on work. We focus on family, which all that stuff's important. But a child diagnosed with cancer does not have that choice. But what if we could choose for them and provide Play? So wrapping your head around it, you can order the materials. You can do your research. But wrapping your heart is when you identify that moment.
[00:23:11.520] - Eric
That moment is the only thing that matters.
[00:23:13.830] - Brandon
Eric and your team now, obviously, you're not doing this solo, I'm assuming, at this.
[00:23:18.750] - Eric
No, no. I got a lot of good people.
[00:23:20.860] - Brandon
So you've got to teach them this, right? Like, I'm assuming in your leadership. And by the way, dude, I just got a reference you're really gifted in saying really powerful stuff in a really short period of time, which I'm horrible at, man. Like, focused on movement versus mission. Like, dude, you've got some stuff dialed in that makes listen to, but okay, so you've got a team of personnel. This is a company. There's a formal organization that has a mission to execute on. Meaning we got to go to work. We got to do business. Right? How do you bring Play or this mission into the organization on a day to day basis, man? Because one last preface, and I'll let you rip. Part of Chris and I's messaging for companies in our industry is an awareness of the human element to our businesses. Like, we get stuff done, we move the ball downfield, and human relationships, these are people. And one of the things I know that Chris is really keyed in on is this going beyond the normal carrots and sticks for motivating our people. Like, what is the mission we're inviting people to come participate in?
[00:24:28.310] - Brandon
And so I really dig this Play, this experiential piece, wrapping your heart around it. Anyways, I'll shut up. How do you bring that into the company? How do you lead with these theories?
[00:24:38.000] - Eric
So it took me a little while to figure this out. Roxal has been around for 14 years for what you stated. Roxalid is a nonprofit organization. This is my spin on it is, yes, we're a nonprofit organization. However, we run, like, a Fortune 500 company. The reason is that my shareholders are kids fighting cancer. We need to raise as much money we need to run we need to run our back end office like a Fortune 500 company. Everything's above board. The difference between. Me and a for profit is that the money does not come to me. I make and I want to create as much hope and money as possible for kids fighting cancer. So I work for my shareholders, right? That's my boss. Like, I have a brilliant board of directors, but at the end of the day, the people that I'm working to pay dividends to, because you got to focus on the people and the money will come. If you focus on the money, the people will leave, right? So it's like it's got to be about the people. So first and foremost, my shareholders are kids fighting cancer. So that's who I really report to.
[00:25:37.690] - Eric
At the end of the day, I have to be able to lay my head down at night and know that I have done everything possible for the pediatric cancer community. Second of all, who's going to help you do it? Right? What is it? If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others. I don't know exactly how the quote goes, but how we bring this mission to life is that everything, everything rises and falls on your values. Everything. So for the fact of the matter is for me, don't put a bald eagle on a wall and throw some cliche message up, right? What's your true identity as an organization? Three questions who are you, where are you going? And what do you believe? Who are you, where are you going? And what do you believe? Because you have to be able to lead the me before you lead the we, right? So if you don't know me, how are you going to lead the we? So we rise and fall. We have five values in our organization. The first one is families first, theirs and ours. So theirs are the community we call to love and serve.
[00:26:31.030] - Eric
Ours is the people that come to work for Rock Solid Foundation. Your family is more important to me than what you'll ever do for this organization. Because if you're no good at home, you'll be no good here. And so everything is rooted around family. Starting in with why? Why do we exist? Identify the root, you understand the fruit. Then the next one is focus on the people and the money will come. For us leading this organization, we have to have money, but we have to keep the people first. If I miss the people part, I can go do something else. And then the last, like, I think I've done four, you got to help me out. I don't know how many I've done, but then it's marry the mission, not the model. Marry the mission, not the model. Your mission, y'all's, mission is to deliver content, good podcasts, and I don't know exactly the DNA of your organization or the podcast, but the mission stays the same. The model will forever be changing. And so that's how we incorporate and then we master two moments in rock solid foundation. You can't be an expert at everything.
[00:27:24.840] - Eric
We master two moments. We deliver rock solid ready bags to families on the worst day of their life. Why? Why? Because no family should ever have to split up on the day they're diagnosed. So that's what hope looks like when it's not for what you would hope for at all, is when a child's diagnosed, how do you bring hope into that? And then the play set is the other moment is that when that child comes around the corner and they see the place for the first time, we win. And I will chase that. As long as I have breath in my lungs, I'm focused on two moments. Focus on the moments the movement will follow. But if you focus on that movement, you're trying to grow. You're trying to be on the SP 500, whatever that is. If you're so forward focused on the movement and you miss the moment, what do you got? Right? Moments are what are eternal for me. So I chase a lot of moments. The same way I'm talking to you is the same way I talk to my team, my finance department. I got marketing department, I got development people, I have my board of like the same way I'm talking to you all is the same way I talk to them.
[00:28:19.410] - Eric
Don't miss the moment. Don't miss the moment. So that's how we bring play in, is where simplicity breeds success. So we're going to keep being simple.
[00:28:26.960] - Chris
Eric, I want to focus in on sort of the meta thing happening here. You're very skilled at distilling big leadership ideas into simple mantras. And this is each our clients is I just want to highlight this because I think it's probably been a big factor in your success of simplifying your messaging so that everybody can quickly understand what you're trying to do and what's in the conversation. I love that. I mean, some of the things you talk about, like mastering the moments, focusing on the moments over the movement, like just these simple mantras and phrases you've come up with.
[00:29:04.940] - Brandon
I love that.
[00:29:05.760] - Chris
And I'm curious, how did you come up with that? Because you do that, it seems very intentionally. It's like the way you communicate is kind of in these mantras and axioms and so forth. Did you have a mentor or somebody along the way that helped you with that leadership behavior or is that just.
[00:29:22.950] - Eric
Something yeah, so I read a lot. I read a lot. I try to read 100 books a year. I've had mentors all throughout. But for me, being totally transparent, I had a very hard time learning in school. I didn't learn to read till like 6th grade because of the chemo. Right? And so it's chemo brain. There's a real thing. And so once I figured out that I was having trouble reading, then I would act out. I would start getting in trouble. So I had to boil it down to the most simple acts, and I was embarrassed, too. Right. So if you know how you used to sit around in class and then you would rehearse the reading that you had coming to you? Right? Well, if I didn't know a word in there, I would ask to go to the bathroom, or I would act out so that I wouldn't embarrass myself. And I found that the kids that got in trouble never got joked on. So I'm being totally transparent right now. So, for me, I had the hardest time in school, and then finally, as I grew, I ended up learning, and I swore to myself and anybody I'm like, it's got to be so simple that someone sitting on an airplane next to you has to be able to remember it.
[00:30:22.870] - Eric
And I call them power statements. So they're power statements or sticky statements that I have to like. What I'm trying to do, guys, listen, is super challenging. There's a billion nonprofits out there. What's your value proposition? This is just me. And where it came from is because I had such a hard time learning, and I just had to oversimplify it to make it make sense to me. And if it can make sense to a kid that didn't really learn to read till fifth grade and he's got chemo brain, didn't go to college, barely graduated high school, now I'm sitting in rooms with people that did, right? They went to college. They're huge success. But it's got to be simple. People don't have time to rehearse all of that. Like, you guys don't have time to get all my backstory. But, man, if I got one shot, it's that Eminem song. You got that one shot, right. Don't miss this moment. What can I say to you, A, that will invest into you, but then you'll never forget? And I call them power statements. And so our organization, we probably have about 30 power statements, and they're onboarding.
[00:31:21.810] - Eric
The power statements stem from your values, so your values lead everything. Then your power statements are the oversimplification of your organization. How do you oversimplify it? You have to oversimplify it. Why? Because there's so much noise out there. There's so much other competition. What's your value proposition, and how will people never forget you? It starts with my title chief playoffs. You've never heard that before. I mean, other people are starting to do it, but this is not a marketing gimmick, either. This is if you want to change the world, you can't do it by yourself. You want to have a successful company, you can't do it by yourself. How do you bring along people in this journey, make it so simple, and invest into them like nobody else's business, a, they'll never forget you. They'll never forget your business. And then quality. Quality.
[00:32:05.830] - Chris
I know I'm like much leadership gold there, man.
[00:32:08.300] - Brandon
I'm literally struggling to keep on track with enough notes so that we can tackle it all. I mean, I think we may realize here that we've got a person that we're going to have to get back.
[00:32:19.120] - Chris
Again, back for more.
[00:32:20.350] - Eric
Anything you need, man, I got you.
[00:32:22.600] - Chris
I come back to one of your I don't know if this is one of your power statements necessarily, but I loved it. Good ideas produce better ideas. So can you go into I imagine there's been a number of iterations in Rock Solid Foundation in terms of what you do, how you do it, and that sort of thing. What are some of the better ideas that have flown out of that original concept?
[00:32:46.230] - Eric
Sure. So test hard pivot often is the value that that stemmed from and in the pandemic. So how Rock Solid works is we travel around, we do team building exercises for organizations, right? So in eight, like nine, people had just laid off a bunch of people. I'm like, well, what are they going to be looking to do when business kicks up? Right? Business comes up, business goes down. And it's just how it works. And you have to be as comfortable up top as you are below. So we're like, all right, they're going to be hiring people. They're going to be trying to build their teams up. So we sell the Play it Forward experience as a team building exercise, right? So you bring out 25 people. We take care of all the details. You just got to pick the date. And we'll give you the location you all were to build the play set, and you present the play set to the family. Helps with employee retention, all of that stuff, right? Employee retention. Just multiple things along there. And I'm trying that's not the main point of what I'm saying. So team building exercises came to a screeching halt in 2020.
[00:33:39.480] - Eric
Couldn't do anything, but guess what? Cancer didn't stop. And so I'm like, all right, test hard pivot often. Test hard pivot often. Test hard pivot often. Like, what does that look like? Well, the iteration of Play it Forward is team building exercise. Well, if we didn't live off of our value, play it Forward is a great idea, right? So we're sitting in our office. We're sitting in our war room. I'm on my knees, praying, screaming, cussing, busting, doing whatever. I'm like, cancer doesn't care. Cancer doesn't care about the pandemic. Now I care about the pandemic. It's a real thing, right? So then I'm like, well, Play it forward is a good idea. What better idea can be birthed from that? And so then we created Rod Rock Solid on Demand, so we could still ship the playsets to the families. We know how to train people. So we recorded training videos, and then we shipped the playset to the family. And then we taught their quarantine ten on how to build the playset. And they still created the same experience. Well, guess what that did? That equals scale. So we went from about 120 where I thought the whole world was collapsing, 120 projects a year where I thought the whole world was collapsing, to where a good idea stemmed a better idea that created scale.
[00:34:42.450] - Eric
And then we went to 800 to 900 a year. That's what hope looks like. So a good idea, plan B is to reiterate plan A, right? So for us, I'm like, well I'm still called to this and it goes back to those three questions. Who am I? Where am I going? What do I believe? Well, I still believe I'm called to love and serve the cancer community. But we took a good idea, play it Forward, which now Play it forward is rocking and rolling. I just did 30 play sets with Amazon in 30 days all throughout the country on a tour bus. But guess what's? Still there, rock solid on demand. So that's where a good idea that's a personal example that I have. And that stems from our value though. Test hard, pivot often cancer didn't care. Neither did we. Let's go.
[00:35:20.180] - Brandon
Love that. I think that goes back to that piece that you said about loving the mission and not the model, right? Or we'll say too just holding on to the current iteration of process with a loose hand. This is now, but it can shift the priority that we need to understand is or we'll make reference to the commander's intent. We just need to know where we're going to land, like what is the ultimate mission and then we can be unified in creativity and come up with whatever we need to on the how to get there. You just said it better. I like your version.
[00:35:50.920] - Eric
No, that's good, man. That's still gold. Like iron, sharpens iron. So anything I can learn? I still got my journal. I write down everything anywhere and you will always see me with a journal.
[00:36:02.210] - Chris
All right, Headhart and Boots listeners wanted to stop here just a moment and thank our underwriting sponsor, Bloodlight Consulting Group, as all of you. You know, Brandon and I, this is our passion project, Headhart and Boots is, but it's also a way more and more that our consulting clients find us and in effect they interview us, right? Those of you who've been listening to show for a while, you get to know who we are, right, what we're about. So if Headhart and Boots is valuable to you, one of the best things you can do is share it with your friends. And it's been incredible to watch just the audience grow and we still get text messages from many of you about shows that you really like and impacted you. So that's number one. And please keep doing that. Many of you have been huge advocates of the show. We also just want to remind you too, if you're a restoration company owner and you're interested in a partner in your growth. You want some help building out systems, developing your leadership teams, helping set up the infrastructure for you to scale and grow into the company that you're trying to build.
[00:37:01.420] - Chris
That's what we do. That's what we do, is we come alongside restoration company leaders. We help equip them, and we help support them in that growth trajectory. So if you're looking for that, go to Floodlightgrp.com, potentially, we could be a great match for each other.
[00:37:15.580] - Brandon
Another way that we really do serve our client base and our sphere of influence is through our Premier partners. We work really hard to vet those folks that we believe bring a level of value to the industry, that it can really be leveraged in a way to have a sincere, positive impact on your business. We take that very seriously. The folks that we create, those kind of ongoing partnerships, that's not a check the box kind of scenario. We really see strategic alignment in the value that they bring. We see value in the way that their leadership teams and their partners are developed. And we've done very sincere work of ensuring that these folks that we introduce our clients and our sphere to can actually create vetted value. So go check out Floodlightgrp.com Premier Partners and see if there's some folks on there that you can connect with and begin developing some other resources to support your growth and your business. There's obviously a hint of faith that obviously plays a pretty critical role in your life, and I don't think it would be appropriate for us to not at least get some sense of what that looks like for you and what drives you from it.
[00:38:22.910] - Brandon
Again, we're neutral in terms of people's faith and perspective, but it's pretty hard to not have a human that doesn't have some element of faith as a driving force in them. What is that for you? What's been driving this stuff under the surface?
[00:38:37.210] - Eric
Yeah, so I get asked that a lot. I definitely lead by faith. When I lost everything in 2008, I came to a realization that I chased everything that the world said I should have, and I tasted it. Right? Jimmy Buffett, rest in peace. Like, I made enough money to buy Miami, but I pissed it away, so right. So, like, I chased everything, and I had it, and I tasted it and guess lost when I chased everything the world said I should have. But when I lost everything the world said I should have, the world was nowhere to be found. And so for me, that's when in Costa Rica, when I wrote down the word hope on a piece of paper, I hit my knees. I'm like, all right, God, you got my and man, like, I argued, I wrestled, I dropped the I mean, I cussed and bust, and I was like, you made a mistake. But that moment when I wrote that word hope on a piece of paper. Not only did I get hope, but I felt a sense of peace, of like, listen, Eric, like, you're my son. I'm proud of you.
[00:39:32.420] - Eric
Well done, my good and faithful servant. Like, I was up here, but really where God wanted me is I needed to be on my knees praying. And so I lead by faith. Everything that I do is led by faith. And the part for me is I think it's Francis Assisi's once said, share the gospel at all times, but when necessary, use words. And I am living it out. I speak when you want me to speak, but, man, I'm a wash feet when nobody else wants to wash feet. There's a lot of people that want a microphone, and there's nothing against you guys, I promise. I love podcasts. I listen to them all the time. There's a lot of people that got a microphone right now. But I think the world needs more people willing to wash feet. To help someone in pig crap, you got to sit in pig crap. And so I'm just washing feet. I'm chasing my faith, and I'm chasing my family, and I am chasing a ministry that God's given me uniquely designed for a moment such as this to pour out everything I have relentlessly, not recklessly, to the pediatric cancer community.
[00:40:27.900] - Eric
So I definitely I lead by faith. I am a Christian through and through, and so I'm just trying to wash feet and show the world the love of God.
[00:40:35.120] - Brandon
Man, it's interesting when I hear you say that. I'm thinking about so many of the organizations that we talk or the teams that are listening to us, and a lot of them are fairly conservative. A lot of them do have some connection to Christianity or faith in general. And I think a lot of them struggle to understand how they can pull that into the organization so that it has a real impact on the humans that work for us or that participate in this kind of bigger picture mission that we have. You made reference to the fact that you have to run your organization like a Fortune 500. It's not just also Heartsy feely that we don't compensate or that we're trying to overcompensate for tactical and technical expertise. How do you find that balance? Because I don't think it matters if we're a profit or nonprofit organization. People are people. How do you lead in a way where you feel like you're in alignment with your faith and what that means to your human relationship, but do it in a way that's realistic, that allows us to add a business?
[00:41:36.050] - Eric
It's hard. So I still boil it back down to doing good with the talents that you've been given and that's scriptural too, right? And it goes back to the fact of there's a parable in scripture that talks about too much is given. Right. So I think for me, how I balance it is. I focus on people above all else. Focus on the customer, right? My customer. Kids fighting cancer. Focus on the donor. Treat everyone like a million dollar donor, and you will have million dollar donors. The best donation I ever got was 83 cent. Kid broke his piggy bank, gave me 73 pennies and a dime. Guess what? If right now, at the end of this podcast, you're like, eric, here's a million dollars for your organization. I'm like, Hell yeah. Let's roll. High five. But guess what? The best donation I ever received was 83 cent. Hands out. He gave me everything he had, right? So focus on the people. Focus on the people. And for me, people are what eternally matter. So growing the business, I said it earlier, head and heart, right? I am an entrepreneur. I was that kid in school acting out.
[00:42:36.310] - Eric
I knew I wasn't going to go to college in fifth grade, but I had two backpacks, one with my books and one with a candy shop in the front. And I was slinging Blow Pops for like I realized you could go to Costco or Sam's Club and buy it for 25 cent, but I could sell it for 50 cent. So I have been that kid. So I have been blessed with a head and a heart. And the board of directors helps with strategy, helps with the business. And then I have my staff that is focused on loving and serving the community, and I get to bridge the gap. Now, hear me bridging the gap. Walking that fence post, right? When you walk a fence post, you can bust chops on it, too, all the time. It is very, very hard to walk the fence post, but that's what I'm called to do, is I'm supposed to bridge the gap between the head and the heart. And that's how I'm able to do it. I relentlessly love and serve my board. I relentlessly love and serve my staff. And then the better I become, less, they become more.
[00:43:26.740] - Eric
So one day, I will walk away from rock solid foundation. One day I will if anybody's listening to know, I'm not leaving tomorrow. But your world looks really big. If you're in the center of it, it looks huge. But if you get on the outskirts, it's a lot bigger world out there. So I want to create leaders that can carry this mission on. And I just speak the truth. And it's not always easy, but it is always worth it. Like, I'm very straightforward with my team. If it's good, it's good. If it's bad, it's bad. And I don't know if I answered that question. I'm just trying to provide just a glimpse into my crazy, crazy brain here.
[00:43:58.700] - Brandon
Yeah, I think what happens when they're not in alignment, right? What happens when you have a team member that they're not engaged, they're not on the same mission with you? What happens?
[00:44:07.460] - Eric
Oh, man. So you hear a lot of people like, oh, they just got it, right? They got it. So if they're not in alignment, I go back to the values first. And so I'm like, okay, is this a value problem? If it's a value problem, that's a little bit harder conversation, right? Because the value is the DNA of the organization. Is it a person problem? Is it a process problem? Right? So identifying honing in the specific. But when they're not in alignment, you got to have the hard conversations. Even if it's your biggest sales rep, right. And they are a havoc on the team. Like if you truly focus on the people and the money will come, well, that top end salesperson that is just wrecking, no fun to be around. And I think ideal team player Lynchione wrote something about that. So you just got to have the hard conversations. But I base everything on the values first. I examine the heart first. What's the intentionality like? Did they deliberately do something? And if it hits those two, then I'm having a very direct conversation with you.
[00:45:03.360] - Brandon
It's funny, I think that the sales example that you gave is kind of humorous because in our industry, I think that we have lots of companies that become hostage to people that can produce opportunities, but they literally are toxic. Like on a daily they're maneuvering around, making exceptions, dealing with this, having to hire certain people to buffer that because they're just trying to isolate the toxicity that's coming from this person because it's hard to say no to them when they're throwing six, 7 million at the bottom line.
[00:45:36.430] - Eric
Yes. Especially in the development sales world. That is a real, real thing and I approach it just the same way like it is. You got to put the values first because leader, if you're dealing with something like that in that situation, your team is going to see it. Leaders lead with a limp, right? If they're not good, if you're dealing with that and then someone else comes in, it collapses the culture. If I allow that to happen in our organization, when I do leave, right? Because I'm the chief culture, when I do leave, when I exit this organization and that person's still there, what do you think is going to happen to the organization? So you got to have the hard conversations and it's not fun. I will stand here, I will tell you I've had many, many conversations like that and guess what? I would never be like, yippee, I get to go have this hard conversation. It's not easy, but it is worth it. And once that person were to exit, in my experience, I can't speak for the people listening, but as that person were to exit, you just start to see the culture rise and it's the faith element too.
[00:46:37.280] - Eric
You got to have faith that it's going to work out. If I knew exactly how it was going to work out. That would be common sense, not faith, right? And when you're talking about money, that's a whole nother thing, especially in the development and sales world. That's hard. Hard. But do not back down to the hard conversations. You got to have it. You have to. If not you, who's going to have that conversation?
[00:46:56.890] - Chris
So this is so good, man. And like Brandon said, there's just so many things I think you're bringing. I just I didn't expect we had very limited exposure to you. We first met for those listening at The Collective by Core in Austin, what, five weeks ago or so, and we saw your presentation. We didn't even get a ton of FaceTime with you at the event. It was just us in the audience, just experiencing it with everybody else. And you guys orchestrated this really powerful reveal with one of the patients, one of your clients that you were working with. And I'll be perfectly honest, just 100% transparency. When I first saw you guys on the program, and I was thinking just conceptually about playsets for children with cancer, I really didn't know what to expect. I was half expecting kind of this, I don't know, orchestrated kind of PR stunt. I was expecting this gimmicky kind of thing. I don't know why I was feeling cynical about it. And then when you came up and started talking, my heart started melting toward it, and I was, like, hearing your story and hearing your heart behind it.
[00:48:00.160] - Chris
But then, man, when that little girl came in, I mean, bro, I don't think there was a dry eye in the whole you know, Brandon and I talk a lot in the restoration industry about what is the real know. We build stuff, we fix stuff, we dry stuff out, we clean things. Anybody can get an SBA loan and do that. And we talk a lot about how we make people feel is the magic. It's the thing we actually sell, is how we make people feel in the course of doing those things. And you guys are in the business of that as like that's. What really struck me is you aren't in the business of curing cancer. That's not your business. But it seems to me you're in the business of creating joy. The feeling was just so palpable in the room. Like, watching the parents and this little child just revel in the moment was just so cool to see. I don't know, I guess I'm curious to hear just a little bit more about how that's evolved. Like, you talked about kind of mastering the moment. Are there any key behaviors or conversations that you guys have learned to prioritize in the course of this service delivery that really help maximize the emotion of the moment?
[00:49:19.090] - Chris
You know what I mean? Does that make sense? Behaviors or processes that you guys have put in place to consistently create that kind of special moment?
[00:49:27.590] - Brandon
Good.
[00:49:28.230] - Eric
Yeah. Everything. So it's an experience, right? So you guys are in the rest. A lot of the people listening are in the restoration business. Well, so am I. So if you look at truly what I do, so the definition of restoration, to restore, to bring back, I'm restoring hope to each family, one family at a time. And so the quote or the saying that I always say that, it brings me back to that, because when a family is diagnosed with cancer, hope is completely devastated, right? And so then how do you restore hope in that moment? And so this is the statement that I say that helps us focus on all experiences across the board. Focus on the one, what you hope to do for the many. Focus on the one. One family at a time, one volunteer at a time, one donor at a time, and one staff member at a time. The other element to that is that that's your bar stool, right? That's your four bar stool of an organization. So if 1 bar stool I didn't create this idea if 1 bar stool gets shorter, what happens? It falls down. And I have the best leaders in the entire world that their whole job is to focus on the one.
[00:50:29.430] - Eric
Focus on the one. And the experience boils down to like I literally, before I speak on stage, if I have the time, I go sit in the audience and I sit in a random chair, and I'm like, you're my one. So in business, we got to have many. You have to have many. But, man, it's the experience of that, mastering the moment, being brilliant at the basics, all of that stuff is that one is the most important thing. So I've been on tour for 30 days. I have built 27 playsets. Not me personally, but with a team. And I have seen 27 families. And I get to get down on one knee, get eye level with that one child, and I get to witness play defeating cancer. Do for the one what you hope to do for the many. And you will boil down an experience. You will boil it down to the moment that you have to master.
[00:51:15.920] - Brandon
I think the interesting thing for folks that are listening to this is this is pretty high level stuff. As you said already, Eric, this is 14 years of education, experience, doing the hard work, getting the scars right? And I think for many of our companies, some of them, they're in some phase, right? They're either new, they're just starting this journey, or they're a grizzled vet. And they've been around and they've had a lot of things experiences, relationships, turnover, all these things that have broken spirit to a certain extent. And we're starting to just do business for the sake of doing business. And even worse, I think we have a lot of people that do listen that are in this place where they're just not even connected with a mission any longer. Like, they have a company they own. They have bills to pay. They have employee headaches. They have right. This list of things exist, but it's no longer a mission. I can imagine over 14 years, you probably didn't wake up every day as excited about what you were doing as the day where there's got to be some reality that hits you from time to time.
[00:52:19.710] - Brandon
What have you done to balance that? And here's what I mean. When you're driven by a mission, I do understand how that motivates somebody internally at a whole different level.
[00:52:28.420] - Eric
Right?
[00:52:28.740] - Brandon
We can burn out on a drive for cash. We can burn out for a drive, a title, all those things. The mission is important, and though life still smacks you in the face regardless if you're on a dude, how do you keep this shit together? How do you remain excited about the next thing anyways?
[00:52:44.400] - Eric
Yeah. So, for me, I'm very regimented, meaning there's healthy habits that I have put in my life to keep me me no matter what, because I want to change my circumstances all the time, but I can't. You can't change the fact the mutiny. Right. You can't change the fact that you had a mutiny six years in, and I'm talking about for me. So I worked for free for the organization for six years. I had hundreds of volunteers around me, all right, beside me, fighting, fighting with me to help me get to that next level. And when I got to that next level, guess what? They split because they were pissed off because I started getting paid for something. So the rainbows and unicorns, the way that I deal with this is I have come to realize that I can't change my circumstance, but I can change me. And so I have seven healthy habits that I do every single day. So no matter if I get roundhouse kicked in the face when I go into that office that I know for a fact that Eric Newman has won. And the seven healthy habits, I don't take them for granted.
[00:53:42.220] - Eric
I write them down every single day in my journal, and I time block, and I have to get them done. If I don't, then it's like, that's the part of what I'm in control of. I can't be in control if a salesperson walks out the door with $6 million or if a sponsor calls me back and be like, hey, you know what? We just don't have the means necessary to fund your mission. I'm like, you don't understand. This is what I'm put here to do. Well, sorry, we're pulling out 350,000. So I can't control that, but I can control me. And so I think for us as leaders, you got to lead the me before you lead the we, and then having those people in place that will help you. Everybody wants to be around you when you're on that mountaintop when everything's succeeding, your processes are finally in place, your salespeople are doing what they're doing, your ops team is killing it. You have so many friends with you right then, but there's not many people. When you hit that shitstorm, if you will, of business when you're tumbling down that mountain and you land flat on your feet or flat on your butt, there's not that many people there with you.
[00:54:40.020] - Eric
Identify who those people are and give them everything you got. Because I may have said it earlier. The water is in the valley. The water is not on the mountaintop. You know, more people die coming down Mount Everest than getting to the top. Do you know why? They stayed on the mountaintop too long. And it's the people coming down. Those are the ones that you want around you. But my seven healthy habits my wife knows them. The people closest to me know them. My mentor knows them. And I am constantly digging into those seven healthy habits.
[00:55:06.890] - Brandon
It's interesting too, because you use the term, I've already won the day. Explain to me what you mean by that.
[00:55:12.610] - Eric
So I travel a lot. Majority of my healthy habits I can do on the road, even in the hotel room. My first and foremost, right when I get out of bed, I make my bed. And that came from an admiral. I forget the name of the book, but I make my bed. Why? Because if I get the crap kicked out of me all day long, I go, the last thing I do before I get in that bed, I see that bed is made. I'm like, I won the other thing. So I'm very physically fit. I'm also consumed with fear a lot of the times that the cancer is going to come back and get me still. So. I'm very health. Conscientious. So I have to exercise 45 minutes a day. I drink athletic greens. I read for 25 minutes a day. So I have these boxes that I check off. So I can do those habits anywhere in the world at any time because that's where wherever Eric Newman is, those habits will follow.
[00:55:59.910] - Brandon
It's funny because I think that whole discipline component, it pops up every so many episodes, for Chris and I partially just because our life mirrors like yours in the sense that we have to have these stable things that ensure that we know we can do that. It's like as much as the outside world influences me, unfortunately, the only one that's lasting is when myself believes myself. And the only way myself believes me is that when I say I'm going to get up on Monday and work out, I have to do it. Otherwise, I've just with myself. If you're full of crap like you don't do what you say you're going to do. And so what I'm hearing you say in those disciplines is it's your ability to affirm in yourself. I say I'm going to do these things and I've done them. So when you say you've won the day, is it that it's the fact that you've accomplished these disciplines that you've committed to for your own sake, is that fair to say?
[00:56:51.940] - Eric
Yes. And so no matter what, if I can accomplish those things, then I can navigate anything, right? It's the takeoff and the landing, right. So the pilot, the most important job of a pilot is the takeoff. In the landing, you can deal with the turbulence, but as long as that pilot gets you off the ground and brings you on the ground, then the turbulence is your day to day. It's all the crap that you got to deal with. The ups and downs of business, the hard conversations, the loss of money, the accident where employee wasn't thinking, got in a car accident. Now you're getting sued, right? That's the turbulence. But my habits are my takeoff and my landings of each day.
[00:57:24.420] - Brandon
Give us just an insight into what does landing look like then for you? At the end of the day, there's.
[00:57:29.480] - Eric
Been nights where I sit in my driveway and I don't want to go inside because of all the crap. I'm like, all right, I know my kids. I have younger kids. I know they're going to be crazy. So landing for me is when I hit the garage door opener. I walk inside my garage and I have like a HVAC ventilation return duct right there. And I have two pieces of duct tape. I have one piece of duct tape that's facing me, and then I have another one like I'm coming out the door. And so for me on that piece of duct tape, it's husband tickle monster. And I have to tap that sticker for me to land to go inside. So I rub the sticker and then I go inside. And sometimes I forget to do that. And I'm starting to bark off orders. I'm starting to bring that trouble into my household. And my wife is like, hey, why don't you turn your butt around, go rub your little sticker a little bit more. You're not CEO in here. So I go back outside, I rub this little sticker, and then I go back inside.
[00:58:23.330] - Eric
For me, you can barely see the writing on that piece of duct tape. Why? Because sometimes I have to stand there and beat it, tap it, rub it, go back outside. But then on the other piece of duct tape that I have, the takeoff, for me, it just has hope on the piece of duct tape. So when I leave, I pick everything back up, I tap it, and I'm on my way. And you can still see hope written on there because that's easy for me. Like I'll go fight the fight, but me coming in what lands the day is if I can sit in the floor and I can tickle my kids and my wife and I can have a good conversation, and then I can lay my head down knowing that I have done everything for the pediatric cancer community that this guy can do. I can go to sleep, and then my office hours are from like, 02:00 in the morning to about 430 in the morning. Why? Because I wake up and I can't get this stuff out of my head. So I go and I'm strategizing. I'm writing, I got notepads all over the house.
[00:59:16.390] - Eric
But the landing for me is knowing that at the end of the day that my wife loves me, my kids know who I am, because guess what? My kids will not care how many play sets Daddy built if Daddy's not there to play. So that's my landing is like, what's? Your priorities? Stay healthy. And I know that we're coming to the time, but that's honestly what landing for me is. I'm aiming at two white rocking chairs at the end of this, at whatever this is, right. Big enough. The one right beside me is my wife. I don't know if it's looking at a lake or a beach, but it's big enough to have grandbabies sit on my lap, and that's my compass. And so I'm here to tell you, like, running a nonprofit for 14 years has been the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life besides fight cancer. It is the hardest thing that I've ever done. I am dealing with the same things that you listening to me right now. The difference is I just won't quit. I will not quit. And at the end of the day, that's what I'm aiming at is two white rocking chairs.
[01:00:11.370] - Brandon
I dig that. Personally, I relate to that so much. Chris and I's stories in terms of parenthood is not too far off. He's a few years behind us in terms of kids'age. But I think one of the biggest things that I'm zeroing in right now is this next opportunity. My kids are 23, 22. This grandkid scenario is not that far in the future any longer. It's legitimately the next phase I'm preparing for. And it become overwhelmingly important. Like, it's just over time, it's becoming more of a driving force with all my decisions. And I really can appreciate what you're saying about the double chairs and having that position for your partner, because for me, it's the same thing. I can't envision that happening in solo I'm looking at and I want my partner to be beside me, and I want to be prepared to be the best fucking grandpa on the planet. So there's something powerful about that. And if I'm just being transparent, what we do, we're a consulting firm. We're not a podcasting company.
[01:01:13.770] - Eric
Right?
[01:01:14.140] - Brandon
This is a passion project for us. But we build businesses and lead businesses, and it sucks ass sometimes. It's overwhelming, it's irritating. There's just things that sometimes we want stuff for our clients more than they have the ability to make it happen. All those things are very challenging, but, boy, man, if I just keep focused on I like the white chair, but just that the lake house, the whatever it is that I can be there with my grandkids, be there with my partner, and know that I did well there. The rest of it seems more doable. Like, I can get up and grit through that at a different layer. So I just really respect the fact that you're unapologetic about that because I think it's critical.
[01:01:52.950] - Eric
Thank you.
[01:01:53.810] - Brandon
Yeah.
[01:01:54.390] - Chris
We got to let you go, man. You got to go meet with the amazon brass.
[01:01:57.630] - Eric
I get to go speak at leadership right now with amazon, which is crazy.
[01:02:04.150] - Brandon
For you, brother. Okay, man, we've got to send people to you because obviously, folks heard from our intro what it is that you're doing and what an awesome mission. They've heard from you directly. My gosh, there's so much more to unpack in your brain. Brilliant leader, brilliant driver on this mission. But where do we send people? How do they engage and support you guys and what you're doing?
[01:02:24.210] - Eric
More information on rock solid. You can go to rocksollidfoundation.org. Rock is spelled roc. And then also you can follow me on any social media channels. My team does a great job keeping me. Any of the inside thoughts that I have going on. You can follow me on instagram. It's probably where I'm most active. But for the organization, you can find us on any TikTok, any platform. Rock solid foundation.
[01:02:44.490] - Brandon
I love it, dude. Thanks so much for hanging out.
[01:02:46.500] - Chris
Appreciate you joining us.
[01:02:47.410] - Brandon
Appreciate you.
[01:02:48.240] - Eric
Awesome. Cheers, guys.
[01:02:49.520] - Brandon
Brother.
[01:02:51.730] - Eric
All right, everybody.
[01:02:52.680] - Brandon
Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Headhart and Boots.
[01:02:56.240] - Chris
And if you're enjoying the show or you love this episode, please hit follow. Formerly known as subscribe. Write us a review or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.
