John Corcoran 9:15
You were active in Neo at the time you had a forum that you meet with regularly. Do you recall what role they played in this period of time and helping you through it?
DJ Rezac 9:23
Oh, huge. It was huge. And in fact, those brothers are still my brothers today. They were the ones that I was, you know, bringing kind of my brokenness to and my doubt of I don’t know if I have what it takes. And anyone that’s not familiar with the yo there’s you don’t give advice, you just share experiences. But those were the guys that kind of, you know, were willing to say, you can let go of the rope, we’ll catch you. You know, you can do whatever it takes and we believe in you and I think it was the power of six other men who believed in me even when I didn’t. That kind of gave me strength and courage. And then they’re also sharing their success and their failures. And that was big. It was big to know that I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t the only one that was, you know, having some struggles.
John Corcoran 10:21
Yeah, yeah. Now, Flash forward a little bit. 08 09. We all know what happened with the economy, global meltdown, real estate meltdown, you’re servicing, I think, a lot of commercial properties in this period of time. And you also are coming in as president of your chapter at the time when your business goes through some struggles. So take us back to that period of time. And what was that like?
DJ Rezac 10:47
Yeah, it was that, again, I think was very scary. And if we look back, that’s when we grew the most in our janitorial company. You know, during that downturn, yeah, during that downtime, and I think it was directly related to me leading that EEO, because that’s when I got really familiar with strategic planning, strategic leadership. And when you actually have an intentional outcome, and then you kind of can reverse engineer it, or build it backwards and then have accountable people at or have meeting rhythms and accountability around it, you can actually get stuff done even in a recession. And the greatest thing for me as a leader, John was when I started figuring out how to lead leaders like these other entrepreneurs at EO and I, you know, I like EO I like my chapter. But I thought, why aren’t I doing this in my business? Why aren’t? Why aren’t I, if I’m doing this at the chapter level and learning this, this will work in my business, because I like to, but I really liked my company. And then furthermore, once that led me to, oh, my gosh, this works in not only Oh, but also my company. I really love the people that I live with, in my house. How can I figure out how to do this coaching? In my house? Yeah. And that led to my Time42 Coaching?
John Corcoran 12:20
What was the secret sauce? You know, leading a bunch of entrepreneurs who all have their own separate businesses? How do you get them all marching in the same direction? What was it? Do you think? Got them?
DJ Rezac 12:33
You know, I would say there’s, there’s kind of three things one is your character, right? If you have people who believe in the same values that you do, you know, that’s, that’s number one. The second thing, I think, as the leader was, I had to share, I had to show competence. And what I tell every leader today, anywhere any coach competence, all competence means is can you help me get my job done? Can you help me? Can you tell me how to do it better, faster, smarter, easier, can you tell me where the roadblocks are. And then the final piece is connection. Not every human being is the same, right? And so connection, meeting people where they, they, they were was super important in learning that leadership style, because the way I used to do it, like in my company, you had to do it, or else you got fired. I couldn’t fire any other hours, right? So I had to really adjust accordingly, and kind of meet them where they needed to build connections.
John Corcoran 13:34
Now you also joined the global board and different volunteer capacities through this organization. There is someone who’s listening to this and thinking like I got enough, on my plate running my business. How can I also and why should I also serve in a volunteer capacity? How can I possibly make the time for something like that? And why would it benefit me? What’s your response to that?
DJ Rezac 13:58
Yeah, it made me better. It made me 100 times better the connection to experts, the thirst for learning, the sharing. The other peers, peer to peer learning was huge, like talking to someone who had been at 10 million before I had been at 10 million was, you know, life giving, you know, having them share it, this is what I learned, this is what I would have done differently. And because I spent that time investing and thirst for learning, I brought it all back and in fact, I would try and include my KB executive team in any learning event at eo locally. I could because it was one thing for me to go off to the hills and bring back the lessons but when they actually got to go and interact and mix and see, seeing this really working in the real world, it was powerful. And so I think it’s an abundance thing. I think You know, when I get scarcity and when I pull back, that’s when things get hard. But when I open myself up to what’s possible, and then I actually go after it, and learn from it, and then share. That’s what made it work for me. Yeah,
John Corcoran 15:17
you continue to own KB today, but you started to move out of it in 2013-2014. What was the secret to being able to move out of it? Imagine some of the things you already mentioned. But is there anything else that enables you to be able to continue to own the company, monitor it, monitor its performance? and have it continued to operate without you?
DJ Rezac 15:38
Yeah, let people fail. It sounds so crazy, but letting our great hiring really good people, great culture fit, and then coaching and cheerleading them up, and then letting them fail. Like, not interfering with the process. teaching the lesson, and then helping them recognize that failure wasn’t fatal, was huge, because they would then take ownership of it. And they still believe, you know, our president Channing Johnson, she’s been with me since Oh, seven, or oh eight. I say all the time, people would call me and say, Wait, you need to make this decision. This is a really big decision. This is like a $10,000 decision. And I’d say she’s fine. She can make it. And they’d say, Well, what if she screws it up? And I would say, I’m guessing if she screws it up, she’ll figure out how to make 20,000 on the next deal. And that’s exactly what happened, John was the empowerment that came from letting them fail instead of me, knocking them out of the way, you know, being the hero that says, This is how we did it in the past, look at how good I can do it. I can make this work here or here or here. It really gave us the ability to not be there.
John Corcoran 17:04
I’m curious from a metric or KPI standpoint, how do you as an owner monitor the progress of the company? Do you get weekly reports and monthly reports? Is it once a year? Are you talking to Janning on a weekly basis? What’s your involvement now?
DJ Rezac 17:23
So I mean, we’re chatting once a week, and it’s always at her discretion, whatever she wants to bounce off of me, I monthly, I get four numbers, see beyond the numbers, Greg Crabtree. You know, I can’t even remember that I’m such a poor counting guy. But you know, it’s the cost of goods sold and SGA and labor, and then net income. And I literally have those four numbers that I look at, and she blows them away all the time. And, you know, I have a, I have a great cost accountant who is on our team, and you know, that I just trust and build that trust. And, and I think they feel empowered, because that’s and they also feel though, that you know, by meeting once a week, you know, Channing will say, Hey, I do need your clout here, right? I need you to call this guy and tell them X, Y or Z. Very rarely, but she’ll just say, I’m just getting stuck, you know, you have the connection, you’re the owner, to help bridge that gap. But that’s, that’s once in a blue moon. Or she’ll say, I’m really struggling with this internal issue. And we’ll coach through it. And, you know, that’s really my involvement once a week, but my job is to cheerlead and coach and just, you know, celebrate. And that’s really the fun part. So
John Corcoran 18:51
Right, right. And that’s actually what inspired Time42 Coaching, which first of all, Time42 Coaching, why do you call it that?
DJ Rezac 18:58
Yeah, so I would, so when I would go through and meet entrepreneurs, and I would coach, a lot of times I would hear entrepreneurs be like, and they would be killing it, they’d be killing it at work, you know, making $3 million. And, then they would say, Well, this is what my family needs me to do or wants me to do, or whatever, I can’t, I don’t have time to be an estate, I don’t have time to be a great dad, I need to make the money. Or vice versa, I would run into families who would say Well, I’m not really going to go after it very much at work, because I want to be here for my kids. And what I had recognized is when you get your priorities aligned, and you get true intention, you can actually have time for two. You can kill it at work, but you can also kill it at home. And so that was the inspiration for time for two. And you know what, I fell down a lot. As I started that, those first two, right?
John Corcoran 19:57
We were very different. bismol right. I mean, you know, talk Talk a little bit about that, you know, going from pizza and bars to, you know, commercial cleaning to coaching model?
DJ Rezac 20:08
Yeah, well, and it’s, I would say each one is different, but they all involve the same thing or people, right? And you go back to that EO connection, like what I learned is really, really people just want connection. And, and so in coaching, what I found out is people want to be heard, people want to be seen, and people want to know that what they told you matters to you somehow. Right? I mean, the validation process, I think, is huge and coaching. When I started it, I did what most entrepreneurs do, I used the only scoreboard I knew how, which was money. Right? The more money I have, the better the score is. Yeah. And when I started thinking about that, and and you know, I’m providing content, I’m delivering videos, I’m building, you know, weekly stuff that has to go out, I was becoming less and less successful at home. Because I didn’t have time, I was a little bit grumpy. I was a little bit tired, you know? And I was sitting there thinking, I don’t need more money. Right? Why am I chasing after this? And so, as far as the coaching goes, I think the validation part was huge. And then, you know, everyone wants to be successful, I just had to redefine what success looks like for me.
John Corcoran 21:38
So money’s an easy barometer to measure success at work at home, it’s harder. So how do you determine what metrics you use to determine whether you are being successful as a, as a spouse? As a parent?
DJ Rezac 21:55
Yeah, I think it’s different for everybody. So mine is I use three thirst for learning. Am I learning something? Am I building relationships? And am I serving others? And so when I, when I chase after those three, John, I know that I have more happiness in my life. I just do. And when I get it screwed up, I start chasing image and status, you know, it’s the part where I try and act cool, or, or act, you know, more important than I should at the party, or at the Fourth of July, or, you know, I’m trying to impress somebody else by, oh, I worked with this guy, or I traveled here to do this, you know, I know that I’m off track there. And so, for me, my scoreboard is am I learning something? Am I serving others? And do I build relationships with them? Yeah. And so that’s really what has been my measurement.
John Corcoran 22:54
Yeah. And talk about the Dare to Dad program also. And why move on from business leaders? Why move into specifically dad?
DJ Rezac 23:04
Yeah, so I think that time for two was huge. I mean, I think, ultimately, if you’re not winning at home, I mean, you know, I don’t. I don’t know if it really matters, you know, at least for me. I, like I said, I really like the people I work with, but I love the people that I live with, you know. And so to be intentional there, and we have such a short time together, right? You have and I have authority over all my kids. But what I wanted from John was influence. I wanted them to be able to say to me, Hey, Dad, I’m 17 years old, and I’m going to a party, and it kind of feels like it would be fun to drink tonight. I wanted them to be able to say that. And then we could say well, okay, let’s talk about it. What’s the feeling behind it? I didn’t want them to go underground with those things. I wanted them to be able to bridge the gap. And I think by doing that with their dad, or helping build family playbooks, you build that you build that influence. And that’s the beauty of any journey, I think that we go on as entrepreneurs is how good do you do in your home? Because those are people that you know, didn’t ask to be here, you intentionally brought them here.
John Corcoran 24:29
Now, let’s guide them. Right, right. Let’s talk a little bit about kids and entitlement. Especially as we know, society is becoming more affluent. We’re better off today than we were, you know, that we have been for all of human history, basically. And you had a friend who said to you that, you know, your kids are basically Born on third base, and that kind of shook you a little bit. And you had to think about it talk about how that how you reacted to that and what you did about
DJ Rezac 24:59
Yeah, well First, I wanted to deflect it. I just didn’t want to own that. Right. And, you know, but the truth is they were born on third base, you know, now, their job, my job was to make sure that they didn’t think they hit a triple, you know, we needed to make sure that they knew that, that you know, they were very privileged. The number one thing I think we’ve done to end my kids is normal, they’re, they fall down, they fail. I told you this earlier. I’m a great dad, except for when I’m not. Right, the duality of that is true. And sometimes I can be entitled, and what keeps grounding me and coming back to is gratefulness. You know, I think as a dad, most people oscillate between, you know, shame, guilt, anger, fear, you know, that shame, I am bad dad guilt, I did something bad that makes me a bad dad. Anger, I’m gonna blame others and complain about my ungrateful kids, or fear. I really don’t know what to do about having ungrateful kids. And I think the gateway is courage. Do you have the courage to lead your family and talk about gratitude? Because the truth is, when I’m grateful, it’s really hard to be entitled, it’s super hard for me to be angry.
John Corcoran 26:27
And that is a perfect transition. I don’t know if you minute that way. But the perfect transition to the last question that I want to ask you, which is about gratitude. I’m a big fan of gratitude as well. Yeah. So if you look around, particularly at peers and contemporaries, how you wanted to find that mates could be other entrepreneurs, you know, however you wanted to find that? Who do you respect? Who do you admire that’s doing good things out there?
DJ Rezac 26:53
Yeah. Well, the first thing that comes to mind is my forum, right? And lots of eo leaders. And that’s already been talked about. We were fortunate enough to sponsor a baseball team, a high school baseball team. And the head coach has since retired, his name is Bob Greco. He’s in the Hall of Fame. He was a national Coach of the Year, you know, he won 700 games. But Bob is about eight years older than me. And so he had kind of been on the path of leadership and, and child raising before me. And so he’s someone I’m extremely grateful to, because he would pull me aside and share lessons with me all the time, and how it related to his team, and how it related to his marriage and how it related to his kids. And I was always listening. And in fact, Bob, still one of my best friends today, right? He’s retired. And he’s still one of my best friends. And you know, we finished third in the American Legion World Series, and we’re sitting in left field and kids are devastated. You know, I mean, you’re so close to winning the championship. And he put it all in great perspective. In one sentence, he just said, Listen, tomorrow night, they’re gonna play for a championship and it’s over for them. All we did was miss it by one day. That’s it. You just missed it by one day. That’s okay. Be grateful we had all this time together. And that’s what you’re going to remember. And that has stuck with me, you know, since it happened in 2014. And he’s one guy that, you know, he hit his balance sheet doesn’t look like mine. He was a high school teacher. But man, the impact that he’s made in my life, huge.
John Corcoran 28:37
DJ, that’s such a great story. Thank you Time42 Coaching and Dare to Dad, where can people go to check out more about those programs and learn more about you or connect with you?
DJ Rezac 28:47
Yeah, daretodad.com, and I think time42.org, I think are my two websites. You know, I’m only working with 20 dads a year now, just to kind of my schedule. And I think for 2022 I only have like 10 slots left, but it’s more one-on-one. LinkedIn is a great place to go. I’m there. But yeah, hit me up on the website. And, yeah, I have some books and some playbooks and I’m happy to share those with anybody and everyone.
John Corcoran 29:17
Awesome, DJ, thanks so much.
DJ Rezac 29:19
Right on. Thanks, John.
Outro 29:20
Thank you for listening to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast with John Corcoran. Find out more at smartbusinessrevolution.com and while you’re there, sign up for our email list and join the revolution. And be listening for the next episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast.