172 | How to Double Your Business Year Over Year: Lessons from Lance Lanier

Mar 16

[00:01:26] Chaz Wolfe: what's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe gathering the King's podcast. Today I've got, special guests, they're all special guests, but today super close friend at this point. But, mastermind client, extraordinary, business owner here in the Midwest. I'm so excited for this conversation. Lance Lanier, thank you for joining us here on the King Stage. My. Thanks for having me. You know, we, we got to know each other. we were just kinda talking about it a year and a half, maybe two years ago on social media. Didn't know each other super well. We grew up in a kind of close proximity but didn't, didn't know each other. And then the last year, really, we've like pressed hard in and done some really cool business stuff together. And, of course, gathering the kings, but all kinds of other things that we've, gotten our, our, tentacles in and, and ideas and uh, uh, strategies, intermingled. I just can't wait to be able to tell some of your story because, I actually share your story often. I don't even know if you know this, but I share your story often. I usually say something like, Three years ago, the dude was a firefighter and he's, you know, blah, blah, blah in business now. And people just go like, what, you know, kind of, kind of, you know, wipe their eyes. So I am just jacked for this conversation and to be able to tell your story because I think it's gonna transfer just so much courage to the listeners, and really anybody that you do business with. So, Lance, I want to know what kind of business that you got, brother, or in this case [00:02:47] Lance Lanier: business. So I have, I've got five companies total. some of those are holding companies, but the main one is Lanier_ _Landscaping. we now call it just Lanier. and we have three divisions within that one company, and that is Lanier Landscaping, Lanier Trucking, and Lanier Civil Construction. We do everything from patios and outdoor kitchens and the landscaping side and pools, to the civil side. We do building pads, underground utilities, and, mass grading. the trucking is pretty self-explanatory, but we have, four dump trucks now. three quads, one tandem, and we have six more quads that'll be showing up later. This. [00:03:22] Chaz Wolfe: That's awesome. Yeah. You move dirt, man. You move things around. [00:03:25] Lance Lanier: Yes. Heavy stuff. . That's right. [00:03:28] Chaz Wolfe: You got some big equipment. You got some, you got some, got, got a lot of great guys on your team. and you guys are moving and shaking fast, so I, I definitely wanna get into some of that before we do though. this is always my first question and it's a, it's. It's a special one to ask you because I got, I've, I've got to know your family a little bit and, I got to know your story a little bit. And so before we tell the listener, some of like where you come from in your background, I wanna know why you do this. Like the deep down, like, you push man, you push hard, you push harder than most guys. I know [00:04:00] Lance Lanier: why. Yeah. I'd say that's gonna be definitely my family, and my legacy, with. My family, I've got two little boys, Jack and Max. Jack's about to turn three and Max is almost two. And, then my wife, my wife, we've been together for about seven years now and, it's really for them leaving something behind. my family, I grew up on a small farm and. You know, it's just, go get a job, you know, go get a job, get that salary. And, that's what I did. but I lost, my job, my career, and I had to make a drastic change. [00:04:34] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. And so, you know, I I, you and I see legacy similarly, and, and there's, there's legacy entrepreneurs, there's, you know, industry disruptors. There's a couple of buckets that I kind of put put, folks in of like really what their deep-seated motivation is. And, and you and I are similar in that legacy play. We wanna. We wanna have something live on, and, and you've done just an incredible job, even in the marketing side of just your name, like Lanier. It's everywhere. I, I even told you, I almost wore my, my Lanier t-shirt today just so that we could, you know, hammer it home. But I thought it might be a little bit too much legacy, you know? but, but here's the truth is that, I know that that's deep seated, but why do you think that guys like you and me. Push or delay or take the brunt of the grind so that our family can have something better. Like, why, what do you, what do what's inside of us? Why, why are we like that? [00:05:22] Lance Lanier: I think it's, a big part of it is, is just, to make a change, you know, leave something behind and. I just enjoy, something new every day. There's always a challenge. There's always a failure. There's always, you know, a win. And, it's just exciting to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's [00:05:41] Chaz Wolfe: the building, right? That's it. yeah, it's the juice of building. And, I love, I love what you said there, you know, just the, the ability to, to push hard, for the right reasons. And we are made for. Guys like you kind of, you kind of hinted at it that you, that you get the juice from it. But, we're made for it. We're made, we're made to create something different from, from here down in the lineage. [00:06:02] Lance Lanier: It's gonna be different. Do you Correct. You agree with that? I agree. [00:06:05] Chaz Wolfe: It's awesome, man. Let's talk about your story a little bit. I know you know the ins and outs here, pretty good, but the listener doesn't. So give us, give us where you were. What's that? What was that career that you lost? Give us a little bit of the, the story of, of, uh, [00:06:17] Lance Lanier: how you met. [00:06:18] Chaz Wolfe: [00:06:18] Lance Lanier: Yeah, so right outta high school, I grew up in, the new London Hannibal area. I mean, when I was 17, I went through E M T school and I walked straight onto the, the ambulance at 18 years old. And, I worked for, roughly five different ambulance districts and. main one was a, in Adams County in Quincy, Illinois. I loved that ambulance district, some really good friends over there still. And, but my dream was always to be a firefighter. I applied at Chicago Fire Department in Columbia, Columbia called, a lot faster than Chicago, and, moved to Columbia and, bought a house. And I was a firefighter. I was on the. rescue specialist team. I was on the hazmat team. I loved everything about being a firefighter. I still do. And but in 2017 I was injured at a structure fire and, it ended up ripping out my shoulder and my labrum, and I've had five shoulder surgeries since. Wow. so from 2017 to 2019, I was just having surgeries and, truthfully, the city as for light duty, put me in a room and I shredded paper every single day for two years. [00:07:29] Chaz Wolfe: gee, I mean, knowing, knowing who you are. Yeah. And the mover and shaker, I mean, what [00:07:33] Lance Lanier: Torture . Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was a lot today. You know, my shoulders still hurt, can't hardly sleep, but I'm trying to get through it still. So, push through. [00:07:42] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. So, so you, you, you, have this lifelong dream of, you know, saving people and doing the extreme stuff. I mean, you've told me some pretty crazy stories and most firefighters that I know have crazy stories, but you've like, jumped at 'em, like, well, working planes, you've kind of just like done all the extreme things and then, and then you find yourself in business almost because you have to. Is that. [00:08:06] Lance Lanier: Yeah. So, 2016 I created my company because as a firefighter you work 24 hours on, 24 hours off, and you have a rotating schedule. so you always had, you always have a second job. and mine was landscaping. I just knew it from growing up on the farm and, learned it on YouTube to tell you the truth. And, but, When I was in the room shredding paper, I actually bought, four Verizon wireless cameras and I had just four employees and they would, go out to the job site. They would set these cameras on the job site and carry it around. So I was running my employees from a little office, shredding paper, , virtually over a phone in the camera. That's it. Yeah. And, so that was, a big part of, you know, Whenever I started it and I was working as a firefighter, and then all of a sudden on January 4th, 2019, the city sent an email and said I wasn't fit for duty anymore, and I had to turn in my stuff so that that point, my wife and I made a decision and take it full-time. So, yeah. [00:09:10] Chaz Wolfe: And off to the races, you've been, you know, I, I, I just. So much, inspiration from, you know, hearing that you were sitting in a room and figuring things out, right? Like that's really what it was, is you could have been moping, you could have been, you know, singing the sad song about how this, all this stuff, happened to you and, and now you're shredding paper, but you were using your circumstances to move something forward that you didn't even know would be what it is today. it was just the inklings of what you thought you had to do at that moment was. Move something [00:09:40] Lance Lanier: forward, right? Correct. Yeah. It was never expected. My, my wife, I started doing a first couple jobs. She's like, you need to create this as a company to protect yourself. , I'm in 2016 and, you know, we were thinking, she created my first business card and I had no idea how to do any of that. And really, I've created some amazing relationships along the. [00:10:03] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Okay. So, I want to get into some decisions, good and bad's kind of the, the of the show here, as you know. But, you, you've had this just incredible growth, and you've experienced, like you said, some losses and some wins, , as we all have. and a lot of the conversations that you and I have aren't necessarily practical, like Xs and o's on, on, you know, how to the innards of the business. Although we do have some conversations around that. A lot of our conversations are mindset and decision making because at your stage in the game now, it's all about. Levers, right? But early on, you, you know, were kind of, like you said, didn't know what you were doing, floundering around a little bit, just kind of making stuff happen. Little bit of a bull in a China case, approach. Just go make a big mess, see what happens. Yeah. So I want to know along the way when you can look back, what was a good decision that you made that you can clearly see and go, because I did that one thing, man. All these other dominoes have been set up and then are now starting to. Fall over for me. Yeah. [00:11:06] Lance Lanier: I'd say the number one best decision that l led into my second, you know, my main, decision is, I joined Gathering the Kings, talked to Chaz back and forth social media, and I joined and I started doing these one-on-one growth, calls with Chaz. And, that led into Chaz recommending, Doing a culture index on my wife . My wife was a financial advisor for five years and then she was a loan officer for seven years. Yeah. And Chaz highly recommended that I need to hire my wife. So, you know, four months go by and then I was like, should I do this? And I ended up recruiting my wife. it'd be June of last year. And that was the best decision I ever made. And, we're now going to work together. We're at the same goal, we're on the same page. And plus, you know, whenever it comes to finances and budgeting and dealing with banks, that's my wife. My wife knows the ins and outs of loans, finances, investing, and. Now when we go home, we have a rule that when we, when we go in the bedroom, there's no more talking about business. You know, I mean, we talk about business at the dinner table and in the kitchen and so on. But, we just have these rules and, so now, we're both on the same, same track, same goal. Yeah. [00:12:33] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. I remember. Just to give a little bit, backstory here. I remember having some of those conversations with you and, your, your wife is a high performer, high achiever. She always has been and the other things that she's done. But, like you said, you guys were kind of just not living two lives, but kind of, you know, like she was, she had goals, you had goals. And those things are okay. Not every couple needs to do to do business together. That's not the point here. . I don't want the listener to go, okay, honey. you know, like, cuz we've, we've got, we've got other members in the group who, who are like skirt. That is not gonna work. And, and Julie and I are, are intertwined, but, but for the most part she's not involved. So it's the opposite scenario in my house than it is yours. But you can still be in alignment. And for you guys being the personalities that you are and then also the growth trajectory that you were on and her skillsets, it's been incredible to watch you guys come together and, and [00:13:28] Lance Lanier: make that. Yeah, it's, it's amazing. You know, we, we actually get to go and pick up our boys from daycare that's right down the street together and get to make the next investment decision together, and we know everything about it. And usually whenever you're doing a deal, In business, you go home and you're only talking about it at home. Now we get to talk throughout the day, and when we get home, we, we get to relax. So, [00:13:52] Chaz Wolfe: yeah. One other thing I wanna say, about your bride. Oh, Kimberly is, That she has this unique ability and I and I, and I don't know if I'm talking to the listener, I don't know if I'm talking to the listener, if they're a wife or if I'm talking to the listener's wife, I don't know exactly who I'm saying this to, except for that I'm trying to honor your wife more than anything. She has this unique ability to be able to be so sharp, like we both know she's on it. You've already identified, you know, finance numbers, organizing your mess. it's just she's on it. Yet she allows you to be that bull in a China case. Like she just, it's just this unique ability for her to be able to need control. Cause that's what she does. She just, she controls the environment. She knows exactly what's, what the schedule is. What's this, what's that? Like, she's on it, but yet, somewhere in the middle or in the midst of all of. She lets you run wild, and which makes the dynamic that much more powerful. So, I, I, I also think that Julie, my wife, has that ability because I, I run wild also, , as I'm sure, some people that know me pretty well know, but I'm, I don't, again, I don't know who I'm giving this encouragement to, but it works really well when you have a really big personality, male or female. But when the other person also has a big personality and Kim just has an just incredible, outlook on, this is my lane. This is your lane, and she knows how to organize and, and support you, but yet at the same time, let you just take charge. and so, I don't know, it's just this inter dynamic. Do you wanna, do you wanna comment on that at [00:15:24] Lance Lanier: all? Yeah. you know, she always makes the, these comments, you know, whenever we're, whenever we, you know, it was $800,000 in dump trucks that we, we ended up getting, just about a month and a half ago. And, she just says, are you sure? I said, yes, I'm sure we gotta be able to move material. And, she's like, okay, sounds good. And when she presents it to people, she, uh, , you , know, I have made a lot of mistakes in business, which we'll get to here soon. Sure. But, I learn from 'em every single time. You know, it's, it's okay to make mistakes. I love failures because I learn much more than just succeeding. Yeah. so she sees it the same way. And, you know, we've made our mistakes. We both know what not to do. Yeah. But we like to put the risk out there a little bit because we've, you know, navigated around those and we, we know how to do it. So [00:16:14] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, you're right. give then that that's the space, you know, that she's given you to not only, make the mistake, but that she, you yeah. She trusts you, not so that you'll be perfect. She trusts you that where you're most likely. But if you aren't right and it is a failure, she still trusts you, that you're gonna figure it out. [00:16:32] Lance Lanier: That's correct. There's a, there's a, [00:16:34] Chaz Wolfe: there's a special thing there. and so I hope that the listener has that, or they can find it because it really is like a secret sauce, to business. I believe. if Julie didn't allow space for me in that same way or that same, I support you, or like, Hey, go get 'em, tiger. Knowing that whatever happens, whether I win or whether I lose in this specific type of a deal, I'm gonna figure it out anyway. And I've built now a history of winning like you have, even though we have this history of like some failures, you go, okay, well fine. But I've learned from those and then I, this, this long list of winning is, is just more dominant than, than the, you know, the list of failures. you know, didn't go so well that we can learn from that, you would never, ever want to do again? [00:17:18] Lance Lanier: Yeah. So, you know, there's many decisions, but the one that stands out, is, you know, 2018, I started realizing that I wouldn't go back to the fire department or, you know, I, I, started, you know, feeling that in my. so I wanted to expand and make this, you know, decision of going full-time. and I ended up finding an online, Hey, you need cash now. And there was a big project, it was like a $350,000 project. It was a good project, but it went wrong. And I ended up finding a lender online and they were outta New York. they loved our cash flow and they wired $140,000 that next morning into my account. Ding, ding, ding, . you know, a private lender is 10% interest. You, you, you almost can't find a private lender unless it's 10%, but when you're making money, it's, it's worth it. Well, we agreed at 10% interest, but you know, whenever you're at the bank doing a deal and you just sign, sign, sign away. You don't read every single little detail. Well, that was my mistake. on page 27, paragraph four, the interest jumped to 32% after one month. And, they were doing, daily draws out of our account. So it was suffocating, suffocating us to the point where drained all the money in our account. Somehow I had really good relationships with friends around me that I still never missed a payroll, but they, they suffocated us. Yeah. Taken all the money out to where I couldn't even buy diapers for our, our firstborn. Wow. At that point. But, so [00:19:03] Chaz Wolfe: the lesson inside of that obviously is not, don't take risks and, and raise capital, but it's, read the detail, read the paragraph, read it twice, give it to your wife. Like, , what are you doing now that you didn't do [00:19:15] Lance Lanier: then? I hired a lawyer. There you go. A really good one. . no, he, I've got a lawyer. My wife, you know, my wife's in the office now. She, she reviews loan agreements all the time. So my wife, she, reviews it. If it's something that's very big deal or my attorney reviews it and then I review it as well. But, you know, I have my faults and I've, I hire people around me that are really. And I delegate everything. So, but that, that's my suggestion. [00:19:45] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I mean, you think that, everything you've said it makes sense, like, it's not like rocket science. However, a lot of times in business we're just. Going and we get busy going and the going turns into hurry up quick cuz I gotta go to the next thing. And, that turns into a skim of the agreement. And, and then we find out later. So, if, if the listener hasn't made the this mistake, I don't wanna like project, a cloudy day, but they're probably going to make this mistake unfortunately, unless they like really heed your warning here and like really pay attention. It's funny too, even when, when, someone joins Gathering the Kings, like, it's, it's a, you know, two page agreement. Like, Hey, I'm gonna use your pictures when you're, when we take pictures of the group and, you know, don't use my likeness. Like, just really, really basic stuff. And, obviously the, the membership information's in there and stuff, but I always, always, always, always say, Hey, take your. Read every line if you want to, because I do . I wanna read every single line because of this exact same mistake that I've made that you've already described. So, I give even on a two page, no big deal, mastermind membership. I'm like, Hey, take the next 15 minutes. I don't really care. Two minutes. It doesn't. Just make sure that you understand. If you have any questions, just let me know. So I think that's a great, great decision there. What about a decision making process? Like you've got some pretty heavy decisions coming across your desk nowadays. Your company has grown. I don't even know what the percentages are, but I'm gonna guess above 50% year over year for like the last, every single year you've been in business probably over a hundred percent. Some of those years. [00:21:21] Lance Lanier: Yeah. Yes. We, we have doubled our revenue almost, almost every year. and we're looking to double again this year. and it's mainly, When it comes to decision making, I, I, I invest in high quality people. That is my best decision of myself. And when I hire and I have better people around me, my employees, I bring them to our conference table. We just built a brand new building, and we just moved in a few months ago. But, I now have a conference table I never, never had before. And so now I bring 'em in the conference room. I'm, I'm, I tell 'em, this is our, you know, this is what we have on the table, and it's more of a team decision. the hard decisions still come to me, but it's nice to have everybody's input and we're growing something. Yeah, it's, [00:22:05] Chaz Wolfe: it's, what would you say to the guy or gal listening who maybe they have some people on their team, but they haven't, done this team dynamic or, you know, this, this. I don't know, being a little bit more open, being, being willing to share maybe a little bit more of what's on the table, and then obviously being open and, and willing to receive feedback. But like, what if they're just like, ah, I don't know if I wanna share all that, and it's just my decision, and they're kinda like, tightened up with it. What would you say to that person? What, what, what would be the benefit of them loosening up and sharing [00:22:35] Lance Lanier: a little bit more? Yeah. The benefit is, is, you know, I have recruited people. That have been at their recruiting is my specialty now, in my opinion. I'm honest with people. When you're honest with someone, you gain their trust. You know, Mike Halliburton that just joined my team as a commercial estimator. Mike was a loan officer for 12 years and I mean, he was making a good money, a really good job, and a massive company. you know, whenever I lay everything out there, as you know, you trust me. I'm putting everything, I'm being honest with you. I see our growth and I mean, I get to recruit some amazing people just by throwing everything out on the table. So [00:23:20] Chaz Wolfe: yeah, the, the same person that's probably tightened up and, and hasn't been able to enjoy. The, freedom and or just the res the results that you have because of this is thinking, yeah, but if I share, then I get burned, right? If I share too much or if I give too much honesty, then people take advantage of me or whatever. And I would say that that's true. And I know that you've probably experienced that as well as I have, but, but you still do it though. You still keep opening up. So my question to that though, Lance, is this, if the person that's, that's was holding on tight, they haven't opened up, they, they're not getting the results that you are of getting the collaboration, they might be thinking, well, if I'm honest, if I'm too open and I share too much, then I get taken advantage of, or, you know, they. They get in there, they, they know too much. And I know that you've probably been burnt a little bit. I've been burnt, I know. Doing the same thing, but yet we still do it. Why? [00:24:16] Lance Lanier: You know, I, I have definitely shared too much at times and it's, I've, I've been burned for it. and you know, I am me, I am Lance Lanier. And if someone doesn't like it, in my opinion, then. Kick rocks, because I'm growing my business. It's my name on that business. And, you know, everybody knows when they see me out and about, they, they know that I'm honest and I am. I am who I am and it's how I do business. when I get burned, yes, I learn a lesson from it. I, I maybe adjust accordingly, but, Really, I think that being honest and trustworthy is the most important piece. [00:25:00] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I wanna make a point here for the listener, because what you're giving it, it, it comes so naturally to you because this, this is just who you are, like you just said. But some people, are maybe a little bit more cynical and that's probably the angle that I come from. I'm always, I'm always like, You know, like, what, what's the angle here? What are you, what are you doing? What's the, what's the advantage? Which is, it's okay, that's, that's advantageous sometimes to be able to slow down and maybe calculate that. But what you don't want it to come from is a place of someone's always trying to get like over on me or then, then, then that's just like a downward negative spiral. So the cool part about what Lance just gave to you as a listener here is. It's real, it's honest. There's freedom in, Hey, I'm just gonna be me. And sometimes that means I overshare. Okay? It's gonna bite me sometimes, but I would rather be honest and share and collaborate is what he's saying, versus hold all of it to myself and carry it all the weight all the time. And so when you think about a king mindset, you th of course, the decision, the weight of the crown is held by you. However, he's got advisors. There's like the, the agricultural part of the kingdom. There's the, the, all these sections and, and, and so you can't do it all by yourself. You know that you've already mentioned delegation, but I wanna make the, the point here to the listener is that it has to start from a frame of being willing to be open, even with some of those key people. Could be your wife, could be your key couple of folks on your team. It might even be the whole organization saying, Hey, here's where we're going. Here's the struggle that we're having and I need us all on. And I know you've had similar conversations with your team as well, and usually the result is collaboration, unity, we get to move forward. Would you agree with that? [00:26:39] Lance Lanier: That's correct. you know, if I have a problem in front of me, I speak with everyone. I open up with people, you know, I, I have private lending cuz I came into a situation, I'm short on cash and, you know, opening up to someone and telling them that, Hey, I messed up on this. If you're not open to anything, in business, to be able to be upfront about your mistakes, I, you, you have to do that to grow. I mean, you, you have to be honest with yourself and honest with people around you. Love that. Okay, [00:27:09] Chaz Wolfe: So Lance, let's go to the speed round here. I wanted to, ask you, a numbers question. I know you're a big numbers guy, haha. But, the reality here is I know that you track lots of different things in the business. We all do. What's the most important to you? What do you, what do you got your thumb on? The closest in the business. If you could only pick one thing to track forever and ever, what. [00:27:29] Lance Lanier: Yeah. So, of course, you know, the best thing to track in business is your net profit. You know, you can't, you don't, you don't have anything in business unless you're tracking your profits. If you're not making money, you're not in business, you won't be in business . but. A big thing for me is tracking my capital. you have to have a lot of capital in my business. you know, on the civil construction side, we won't get paid for forty five, ninety, a hundred twenty days. and then you have bonds that you have to get and it takes a lot. I mean, we're just, in the last three weeks we've bid on, we have over about 9 million in bids that are going out and, I'm tracking in my mind, okay, if all three of those hit right, I gotta come up with a lot of money. Yeah. to fund those projects. But also looking at the money that we have, there's 10% retention on every single project that we do. Well, that 10% retention I won't get for a year, year and a half from now. Right. So whenever you're calculating all of your projects all together, you may have 600,000 or a million dollars that you won't get for a year and a half depending on what your workflow is. Yeah. But, so tracking my capital is probably the one of the most important things next to our net profit. Yeah. [00:28:43] Chaz Wolfe: And the way that you describe that, that makes sense, obviously for your business. You know, guy listen right now and he's maybe on the residential side or a in a different industry and he's thinking, geez, if I. 2 million, contract with a client. I just gotta, I just gotta build their websites and do their advertising. It doesn't, it doesn't cost me anything, right? Other than maybe my team and my labor, which, you know, obviously that's a big deal for you. You've got these huge pieces of equipment. You've got these, you know, guys that are fully trained and experts in their field and, and aren't cheap. and so, and you front all of that. And so I just think. There is a, a, a mindset to that, that I wanna just maybe encourage the listener in as they're continuing to listen to you. Is that, yeah, you gotta track your money. Number one, that's what Lance just said. You gotta the, the net, the capital, the, the, how it's moving together, especially the, the bigger the numbers get, the more in tune you gotta get with that because, you know, a 2 million sideways day could like, you know, maybe potentially destroy you or maybe two million's, no big deal depending upon, you know, the size of projects coming through. But, Either way, the tracking of it makes a lot of sense because you've got to, you've gotta fuel the next thing, right? And I know that's, for a pusher and a mover shaker, like you, you're always, not necessarily trying to calculate how much money you can take home to buy the Ferrari. you're more so thinking about how can we do the next project? How can we go bigger? How can we go, you know, to the next level? So, a as a side note here, just I wanna ask you about that because you and I have talked about this a couple different times throughout. time that we've known each other, and it's kind of a little bit of a commonality between other members in, in gathering the Kings, but why do you think that that sentence that I just said is true? Why do you think that you're, you know, calculating some really big numbers, but like, I don't ever hear you say like, man, I can't wait to, you know, drive the Ferrari up and down. You know, the, the, you. Stadium Boulevard there in Columbia, Missouri. You know, but what I, what I do hear you talking about is how can we go get a half million dollar piece of equipment so we can serve the University of Missouri to be able to do a huge project that, you know, the name Lanier and all of our guys are gonna be able to do for the next six months. Like, that gets you juiced. Why ? [00:30:44] Lance Lanier: Yeah. man, I, I didn't, my first. Three years in business. I, I, we didn't pay ourselves and, you know, we're fueling our future, in my opinion, you know? Yeah. I mean, we're looking right now, I mean, there's a $480,000 D six dozer. We're looking at getting, you know, I am looking at getting that if the, you know, wants the project projects hit where our equipment's all spread out, but we have millions in equipment and. I guess I don't really, you know, I've got a nice truck, but I don't like to show off. You know, we have, all of our vehicles are all white. We're professional. We like the professional image. but it's mainly the legacy. You know, I want to work as hard as possible so that I don't need an introduction. [00:31:35] Chaz Wolfe: You just dropped a hammer on us. We can end the podcast right there. I think if anybody. Is actually like really getting it, like you and I that just hit home and you're like, okay, all right. Stop the podcast. Gotta go back to work. Just trying to create something, man. All right. So next question on the, on the speed round here, is what book or maybe resource, you mentioned YouTube earlier that you were a YouTube university student. tell us about what, what a good, resource would be for a business owner in today's world. [00:32:00] Lance Lanier: Yeah, so I, whenever I was starting, My company, I, uh, Keith Calfas. So Keith is kind of a goofy guy, but man, he is super knowledgeable. Tells you how to price things, tells you how to do everything in the landscaping. But he also started a window cleaning company at the same time. So I, I didn't mention this at all, but I had a window cleaning company. I started at the same time in 2016 as my landscaping company. It was because of Keith Calfas. and. I started going around, I had some of the biggest contracts in the area with the university, the hospitals in Columbia, doing residential and commercial. And, but all of a sudden my landscaping side took off. Yeah. But, I learned almost everything, from YouTube. It's so much information out there. Yeah. Reading books. I'm just kind of all over the place, so I don't read a lot of books. I wish I, you know, I do more, that's kind of one of my goals that I want to, but I am a visual and listener more than anything, and that's where I connect with YouTube quite a bit. Yeah. [00:33:06] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I think that, yeah, I mean, obviously, audible, YouTube, I mean, there's so podcasts, right? Like, there's just so many resources today that people can, can, chime into the, the cool part about what I heard you. , it's not so much necessarily the, the resource, but is that, that you were a student, you were listening to a guy, you did what he said, and, and, and I'm not suggesting that you blindly follow people, but you've been successful because you got around people, like you said earlier, even a guy like Keith who's, who gave you the formula and you just went and did it, You just went and did it. You He, he did landscaping and, and windows, so, okay, fine. I'll do landscaping and windows, like, [00:33:47] Lance Lanier: yeah. What did you say to that? It, you know, it's the same thing with my employees. I've hired some employees. one is, you know, Austin Castle, Austin's one of my employees and Jake. Jeff Cook. Jeff Cook has worked for, in the industry for over 30 years in the civil construction. Wow. Jake and Austin, you know, they're probably closer to 10 years each, seven to 10 years. But I've surrounded myself with amazing people and, by learning from them, and I, truthfully, I've been learning how to manage people now, as much as possible and, growth and mindset. As long as I manage people and take care of my employees, my employees will take care of me. Yeah. So that's kind of where I've transitioned from. Not only do I learn, but also my employees, I, I learn from them now, not only just YouTube, so [00:34:40] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah, there's that. we had a, we had a, an in-person event, that you were at back in November here in Kansas City. And, there's another member in the group got a pretty big, general contracting firm, and he. His one secret was to be a learn it all, not a know-it-all, but a learn it all. And that's what I heard you just say. learning from your own employees, learning from other people on YouTube and not having an ego so much to where you say, I'm gonna do it my own way. It doesn't mean that we can't be creative. I mean, you're, you're one of the most creative, let me go just forge the er trail guys that I. But I just love how you have a learn it all spirit and you, and you can come to the table and go, Hey, what do you think? And you genuinely mean it. That I think that's the big difference, in the ego. And I think if you guys like you and I, who can have that, can also pass that down even to those guys that are around us, right? Like if Jake and all those guys on your team can go, Well, if I see Lance being like this, then, then I can be like this too, which then gives the guys behind them the same energy that you give your guys. [00:35:39] Lance Lanier: Yeah, and I learn stuff from my employees every day. You know, my, my Caton comes in and he goes to, there's a local store here, Bingham's, and he dresses up almost every day. So it makes me want to level up and dress like , dress like Mike. That's right. But. You know, my employees are, they're, they've got great families and you know, it makes me wanna be more of a family, family, dad, more, and be a part of that, you know, do what they're doing as well. So it's not just a one way street. I'm learning from them every day too. [00:36:09] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, it's good stuff. on the family note, I want to ask you because, you, you and Kimberly and your boys are, are, joining us for the family Mastermind cruise here in a few months that, gathering the Kings is putting on. But my question is around obsession, right? Like, as entrepreneurs, we know that we're obsessed with the business. Like that's why it grows. And, my question for you is, is how are you as Lance also obsessed with your wife? How are you also obsessed with your kids all at the same time? Because it's like this crazy dynamic that entrepreneurs have that nobody else, I feel like has the same type of pull, like tug pull situation that we do. And so, the answer that I found is that we just go in all in on all of it all at the same time. But that's difficult. How do you. [00:36:55] Lance Lanier: well, well, it's really nice. My wife and I work together. I absolutely love it. She loves it. and our boys are, I, I think a football field away at daycare from our building. So we built a building right next to our daycare, almost , but, that's awesome. It, My boys, you know, they love seeing, they call 'em tractors, but they, you know, over the weekend, last weekend they got an excavator and I mean, it's 120,000 pound excavator and they're just having the time of their lives. But, you know, with all of this, I get to grow something from my, my boys. I know that's, that's my drive is that, you know, they want to be in the company, you know, be a part of it. And the same thing with my wife. You know, she gave up her dreams, of being a loan officer and she is now, she's a majority owner. and we did that to be strategic, 52% woman owned business. Yeah. But, she's a huge part of our success today. and. Makes me want to be a better dad at home and be home more. But you know, sometimes I gotta sacrifice. and they understand. So I gotta work hard. Yes, it's both and, right. That's it. But it allows us to take, you know, the gathering, the Kings Cruise here soon. trip to, that's kind of our getaway. We, we block it out, we go take a trip to Florida, we take a trip to, on a cruise with gathering the Kings and. We work hard and then we also, you know, get to take a break. Yeah. Yeah. [00:38:21] Chaz Wolfe: It's important. And I think a lot of people have the idea of, you know, like one day, right? One day I'll do that. . And and I think that even entrepreneurs who are super optimistic like you, and I think, we ha we get caught sometimes in one day, you know, like one day we'll take the vacation. One day we will, you know, take a Saturday and spend it doing nothing but just playing games with the boys or one day, right? Yeah. And, and there's this dynamic that we play back and forth of, yeah, you're right. Sometimes. It's not today, cuz it, it needs to be one day in the future. That's, and that's accurate. But then there's other times where it's like, no, you know what, maybe we haven't reached all of our goals yet, but today's that day and we're going on the cruise, or we're gonna just take Saturday, go to the football game and just go get ice cream afterwards. And like, I'm not, I'm in fact I'm gonna turn my phone off today. Yeah. In fact, I'm gonna leave my phone at the house today or whatever. And the, and it's those super intentional moments. along the way that I think make the difference to the ones that you were just talking about. Yeah. You wanna add anything to that? [00:39:19] Lance Lanier: yeah. And, in addition, you know, we, we like to take our time because if you don't take a break, you don't clear your head. My mind is going 24 7. but it's also for my employees, you know, Ryan Dean that sits in the same office as me, as my operations manager. Ryan is handling so much in the company too, logistics and planning, and his phone is going off, you know, a lot. And, you know, Ryan's in Cancun right now and he's, he's been there for the last week and I'm like, Hey man, you deserve it. You know, you need to go take a break. Clear your. Have a good time. Shut your phone off. Don't worry about it. We got this. Yeah. And you know, if I treat my employees the same way that I wanna be, treat. We all take care of each other. [00:40:05] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. So, good man. So simple, so profound. I appreciate you sharing that. I got one question for you here about masterminding. I'm gonna, I'm gonna tee you up here an obvious, you know, gathering the King's promotion, but I, I do it with no shame because I'm jacked about what we're doing. I'm excited about who's in the circle, you being one of those. But from your perspective, you were one of my initial members, a year, a little over a year ago. And you're still around. you, you've, you've signed up again, that type of a thing, but you've gotten several key things from the group, from the people you mentioned, even, you know, the, the times that we've been able to spend together and you hiring your wife. But what would you say about masterminding in general? Cause I know you're, you, you're part of other groups. And then specifically what would you say about gathering the kings. [00:40:48] Lance Lanier: Yeah. So whenever it comes to masterminding in general, it's usually in your local, local area, you know, other business owners, which is great. you're some really amazing business owners in the Columbia, Missouri area. businesses that are a hundred million plus, and I get to sit down in the same room with them Yeah. And learn, but you kind of get on the same track, you know, and. Whenever I met Chaz, you in, in regards to gathering the Kings and, I joined, then you get connected and create relationships from all over the, the US and, different states, different problems, right? Different regions. I mean, it's, it's everything. And, gathering the kings has opened my eyes a lot. not only. Specific to the area, but different situations that are people are dealing with that I haven't dealt with yet. And, I, I absolutely love gathering the Kings. I think it's one of the best decisions I've ever made. It's a small investment, you know, but it has paid me back tenfold because gathering the Kings has connected me to get my heavy. equipment Get me funding for my projects and has truthfully, in my opinion, doubled my revenue this last year, and my business. [00:42:06] Chaz Wolfe: Wow. Yeah. what would you say, on the relationship side, you're a big relationship guy, in fact that, that that's how you've always, it's the honesty piece that we talked about that comes so naturally to you. You're big on connection and. Even if it's you move fast. I don't want the listener to take me wrong here. You move really fast. But in, in relationships, you know how to just, Hey, let me just put a, let me, let me build this nugget by nugget over the course of time. I think you do that very, very well. What would you say about the relationships that you've been able to gain or that you've been able to even pour into? from gathering the Kings? [00:42:42] Lance Lanier: Yeah. my relationships, Are probably the most important thing to me. if I was to recommend anyone, get out there, make those relationships, because that's what's gonna grow your business. It's, in addition to your, your great employees, but the relationships are gonna make you those connections and, so that your problems get solved faster. You know, your mistake that you made, you're preventing it, or you're solving. And you can't do that alone. There's no way. yeah. I have a group of my amazing business friends that I lean on quite a bit and, they have helped me through my bad times and they've helped me get to my good times. Yeah. so that, that is very important to me. And, I think that honesty, being upfront, you know, accepting your failures is, is very important with those relationships. [00:43:32] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, it's good man. Good honest feedback. I got one last question here for you, Lance. Yeah. If you could whisper in the younger Lance's ear, [00:43:42] Lance Lanier: what would you say? Hmm. I would change nothing, in my opinion. I have learned a lot. I've got an amazing family. I've failed a lot, but every single failure has brought me to where we are today. I don't, I don't want to say, you know, going through e EMT school, seeing, you know, medic school, I went paramedicine school and fire department. Everyone's like, well, you should have started when you were younger. No, I, I absolutely love, what I did, what I experienced, the brotherhood of the fire department. Yeah. I love it all. So I wouldn't change a thing in my. [00:44:19] Chaz Wolfe: That's awesome, man. What would you say to the guy who's getting started in business today, who's maybe listening, of course there's guys listening that are probably, you know, been in business 20, 30 years and got businesses four times the size of you and I, but for the guy that's listening like you 3, 4, 5 years ago, what would you say to him? What would you wish that you would've known then that you'd, that you'd know? [00:44:45] Lance Lanier: I would say in today's generation, I'm finding more and more that people don't work as hard, you know, a 20 year old, 22 year old kid, 18. In fact, , you need to work as hard as possible. You only have so much time. and gain those relationships. And when you gain those relationships, do whatever it takes to, hang on, take care of them because it will come back around. that's what I've done. I truthfully, whenever I was working on the ambulance in the fire department, I would work seven to 10, 24 hour shifts straight. I just worked as hard as possible and, I don't see people doing that. You know, they don't, they don't work. and I think if you work hard, gain some amazing relationships and network, you know, join mastermind groups, like Gathering the Kings is a huge, huge piece of success, in my [00:45:40] Chaz Wolfe: opinion. Yeah, you're right. Because a, as a young, as a young fella, or, or, or a lady, what you have is time. And, but at the same. Time's gonna go by fast. And so I love the point that you made there is work hard because I think both you and I at a very young age realized that, well, we, we didn't come from anything, so the only thing I've got is my work ethic or my name. And so when you realize that, like that's the baseline of, okay, so like in order to build trust, in order to build relationships like that, 10 years from now, I could call on and they go, oh yeah, it's Chaz, or Oh, it's Lance. Oh yeah. It's because of the last 10, 20 years from all the way back to I was in high school and working hard, doing things I said I was gonna do, being accurate, you know, returning capital when you borrow, like all those things that we do in business that build the history that you're talking about. And so I just love the angle that you gave to us there, Lance. How can the listener connect with you? Number one, if they're in the Midwest, but probably even bigger than that and they're connected to,Site work and civil engineering and, and they need to hire you to come in and do dirt work. How can they find you there? But then number two, where can they find you just to pick your brain [00:46:51] Lance Lanier: as a business owner? Yeah. so I'm huge on Instagram. I, I, I communicate with a lot of different business owners on there, and I am, so, my Instagram, for our company is at L a n i e r.co. That's Lanier dot. And then my personal, on Instagram is at Lanier 32. So, you can reach out to me there. check me out on our website, which is lanier code.com, and, would love to talk with some of you. [00:47:19] Chaz Wolfe: Perfect, man. You've been incredible. I'm honored not only to have you on the show, but to know you, man. We've gotten to know each other well. I would say that at this point, Not just business colleagues, but friends. And, I'm excited to continue to press into that because, when I, as well as you and other people like us press into each other like we have even on the, on sh on the show like today, it makes us better man. It raises us to the potential that we both know that we have. And, I'm just excited I get to do that with you, man. So thank you for being here. Thank you for giving up your time, blessings on your family, kiddos, your wifey and your team, and of course I'll see you. [00:47:55] Lance Lanier: Thank you. Appreciate you having me.

Gathering The Kings features Lance Lanier, owner of Lanier Landscaping, Lanier Trucking, and Lanier Civil Construction. Lance discusses how he became a firefighter, was injured and had to leave his dream job, and started his own landscaping business. He also talks about how he recruited his wife to work with him and how their working relationship has been amazing. Lance also shares his tips for doubling his business year over year and how his honesty allows him to recruit A players. He emphasizes the importance of reviewing loan agreements carefully and getting a lawyer. Finally, Lance talks about the importance of taking time to spend with family. Don't miss this episode filled with insightful tips and inspiring stories from a successful entrepreneur. Don't forget to check out Lance's businesses, Lanier Landscaping, Lanier Trucking, and Lanier Civil Construction, and follow him on his social media accounts. And be sure to subscribe to Gathering The Kings podcast for more inspiring stories and insights from successful entrepreneurs.

Lance Lanier:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lanier.co/

Website: https://lanierco.com/

Chaz's favorite morning drink to fuel him for his day

10% off Code: GATHERINGKINGS10