209 | From Drug Addiction to 8+ Figure Success

Apr 22

[00:01:16] Chaz Wolfe: What's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolf, gathering the Kings. I've got, Scott Arias, probably, you know, didn't, didn't quite roll the r properly on that last name, but welcome to the stage brother. How are you doing? I'm doing well, man. I, I appreciate you glazing right over the name there and making me not feel bad

for

[00:01:32] Scott Arias: it.

that's close

[00:01:33] Chaz Wolfe: enough. Yeah. We appreciate you being here. Tell us what

[00:01:36] Scott Arias: kind of business. we're in the consulting business and kind of to walk backwards, we, we, we started out in the construction business and when times got tough in 2007, 2008, for those of you old enough to remember that time, I kind of, you know, I couldn't beat the contractors that were bidding cuz they were bidding so low.

So I started, I decided if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. So that's what I did. I started the consulting company and that's what we do. We do division one services, you know, providing schedules and plans and people like superintendents, quality control managers. we provide, training and we provide security services too.

So we really have four sections of the. Wow,

[00:02:18] Chaz Wolfe: that's incredible. I love, you know, it, you kind of didn't give yourself, a whole lot of credit there, but, what I heard you say is that certain circumstances came, you analyzed the situation and you made a pivot, which is what we do in business constantly, right?

Like, doesn't matter if it's a good or a bad upturn or a downturn. we're constant, constantly looking to, to improve, to make it better, whether it's a different business, a different offer, different people, different name, whatever we gotta do.

[00:02:45] Scott Arias: Well, and you know that it reminds me of, I'm part of a, a CEO group called Vistage.

I don't know if you're familiar with that or your lists are, but, and part of Vistage, we had a speaker come in and he, he has a parable. He talks about a guy walking down the road and he has a horse and his horse dies and everybody walks by and say, oh, that's terrible. And then the guy had insurance on the horse there, got a new horse, and everybody says, that's great.

And after every time that somebody said, that's terrible, that's great. He said, well, we'll, And see, so you never know how it's all gonna play out. So ultimately it's just you do the best of what you have. And although some things that you feel that are the most difficult things like what happened to me 2007, 2008, where everybody else was getting, you know, we couldn't win a job and times were tough.

It actually was meant for my, for our good. And, and I tracked that back too. You, you have to be able to, To the opportunities in the face of adversity, you know, so that's kind of the, that's the title of my first book that I wrote was, was, it's a, pick Up Your Matt and Walk A Story of Success to Adversity.

And that's really what. , what that book is about, and just talking about how adversity is a, a springboard for success.

[00:04:04] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, it really is. Especially if you have the mindset for that. before we dive into, you know, some of the nitty gritty, I, I mean obviously you got, you got , you've got a lot of up and down, to be able to talk about here today.

But at this stage, you're obviously running a very successful company. You've got four different divisions, if you will, of, of offerings. Why are you. You know, hand to the plow, if you will. Why are you still pushing?

[00:04:26] Scott Arias: What's the bigger picture for you? Well, the bigger picture, well our vision for our company is we always say we're in the business of building the kingdom.

And that's, which is contrary. Everyone says, well, aren't you a consulting company? And I said, yeah, but you gotta understand mission and vision. People misunder misinterpret these things. Mission is what you do. So, you know, our, our mission is really simple. We make our clients' needs easy. You. . but vision is why you do it, right?

And I don't do it to make a living. I don't do it to, to, for any other reason than to help build God's kingdom. And, and that kind of goes back to my faith, that was generated from, the loss of my leg and the struggles I went through, through, prescription drug addiction and, you know, through various.

You know, tragedies that occurred in my life, how God has kind of stepped in and, and, and, and carried me through those times. And, I always say that I'm gonna, I told God a long time ago, I'm gonna spend the rest of my life doing whatever you want me to do, rather than what I want to do. And, he kept his into the bargain and I'm trying to keep mine.

So . Yeah,

[00:05:42] Chaz Wolfe: I, I think that's a good bargain to make. let's just use that as a springboard to transition into a little bit of your story. Usually I ask kind of how people got started in business, but I would love, I'd love to know, kind of even going back to that place where you said the issue, with the leg and, and just some different things with the, with the medication addiction.

Like, give us some of that story. We'd love to know the

[00:06:00] Scott Arias: backdrop. Okay, so I grew up in, and I wanna go to go back a little further because there's a greater context, but I grew up in,New Mexico, a small town, about 40 miles outside the New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico. And my parents were own a janitorial business.

so I spent my entire childhood picking up trash and. Pushing a lawnmower, you know, not for my own house, but for other people, . And, you know, my, my dad came to this country,he was a refugee from Cuba. he left her in the Bay of Pigs. And, so my dad did his best. My dad and mom, mom did their best to, make sure they provided for five kids that they had.

And, but times were tough. We grew up. My parents did the best they could for us, but we grew up in poverty. And the funny thing is, is when you grew up in poverty, you don't know you're growing up in poverty until you get older. That's right, . That's right. So I had no context at that time that, you know, that I was in poverty.

But then, so when I was 18, my, my senior year, of high school, , I saw my brother come back home. he was in the Navy. I saw him come back home with a new car or truck every six months. So I thought there's gotta be something there, you know? And then, I had a lot of difficult situations, so I decided not because I was a bad student, I just decided that I was 18 and I knew better.

So I dropped outta high school and joined the Navy. and then the Navy taught me basical. a lot of the lessons, like keeping your word, doing the right thing, those type of things. And ultimately about eight years. I always tell people my, my life is kinda like how you see in the movies where things are going great and everything's going well, and all of a sudden tragedy happens.

And that's exactly what happened. I had been in Navy for eight years, got promoted to Chief Petty officer, and a day after I was promoted. I was driving down two lane highway and got hit by a car on a motorcycle. Oh, nice. And, it,crushed the, crushed my left, my lower left leg. And I spent the next 11 months, going through seven different surgeries cuz my leg was complete demolished.

I had a compound femur fracture. I had complete knee surgery, M C L acl and then they, they had to actually, not to be graphic, but they actually had to chop my leg off twice. Oh. and, so I spent that time, that 11 months, recovering and and that was a month from. My medical review board in the Navy, cuz there was only a few other people that had ever returned back to active duty in Navy After going through a incident, like I had a loss of a limb.

One of them happened to be Carl Beshear from the movie Man of Honor. I dunno if you've ever seen that movie. It's with Yeah. Cuban Goody Jr. And ero and, so Carl, Carl Carl was one of the first, and so he became a friend of mine, one of my friends, put me in contact with him. he, him and Senator Trenton lot, we

senate congressional inquiry to ask they, well, why don't you want to keep this guy? And, eventually about 30 days from going to my medical review board, they returned me to active duty and they sent me to Iraq. So, beware of what you wish for. So, yeah. Wow. What time? So I spent the rest of my time today,

So I spent, I spent another three years there and I fell through, Iraqi oil platform, busted my leg up pretty good, met the backpack to us, and then I retired from the service. So that led me in a civilian. Bill embassies did the construction kind of along. I had a security clearance for me and I camped David.

And, so after I did embassies, I ended up in Kentucky when it was all said and done, and I decided I wanna do my own thing. And that's, that was right around the timeframe at two, 2007 timeframe. And what it, I thought this is a great idea, and then all of a sudden I did my own thing in the economy thanking

My first year was good, but the second year wasn't so good. So, That's right. So that kinda led me to where I'm at now.

[00:09:50] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. There's so much, you know, back and forth. yeah, I mean, first off, thank you for your service. I gotta say that you're welcome. and then to have , I mean, you just, you've just experienced life in such intensity that most people never will.

Let's just be honest. But what do you think that, you know, losing the. Or persevering past that and being able to go back to active duty. What do, what's like the one takeaway from that that you've been able to apply not only in life, but but in business?

[00:10:24] Scott Arias: Well, I think for, for me, it might kind of goes back to my faith more than, more than anything is that you can't, you can't ever do anything by yourself, you know?

And, I leaned a lot on God during. My surgeries and my prescription drug addiction and all the other tragedies. My wife also came down with breast cancer. wow. And through all those different circumstances, I've been able to lean on God, and I can't tell you how much that has allowed me to persevere and, and look at this in, in, in the way that God intended.

And the, and for me, the way that God intended was, I am leaving you here for a reason. This is happening for a reason. You need to go through life and do the best with what you were given. So I used to think when people call people special, you know, that had a negative connotation. But the truth of the matter is there is something special about people that go through circumstances like I have gone through because it tests your grit.

You know, it tests who you are. Now when I go through difficult things, I always say it's, it's a matter of, of, of, of perception. You know, I, I, because I've had those experiences under my belt, I mean, you, you can't do too much to me that it hasn't been done , you know, I mean, whether it's, whether cause I relate difficult situations back to you.

Having to deal with the agonizing pain of going through physical therapy for a year, you know? Right, right. Or going through the, the mental turmoil of, of drug addiction, you know, and once you go, once you walk through the fire like that, it's tough to, I always say, it's tough to scare somebody when you walk through fire like that.

Yeah. And yeah, and losing everything I have monetarily is. A big deal to me compared to other people, and I'm willing to take those risks because I, I walked through fire. I know how it feels and I'm not scared, you know? Yeah. And, I guess that more than anything, that's what I would say that that. You know, and I, I gave you a long answer for a very short question.

[00:12:44] Chaz Wolfe: No, no, it's good. I mean, I think that it's the mindset, right? It's it, I mean, you, you, and you gave mindset in a couple different ways. It's that, that you do have what it takes, but in the same fashion, you know, leaning upon a greater power. In this case, the Lord was good in showing you all the things that he was doing.

Through the circumstances. Mm-hmm. . And so I think that there's, there's a lot of mindset there, that can be taken away. I think that guy listening today, gal listening today, who's got a little struggle in their business, maybe a little struggle in the marriage, a little struggle in whatever in life they can compare, just like you did that.

Man, I, I didn't lose a limb, or I'm not having to go through physical therapy or, and it doesn't mean that they have to play the comparison game, but when you have the perspective change, like you just said mm-hmm. , you realize that there's just so many more things that are possible or even for your good.

And so I just think it's just such a great, a great place to be mentally. Well, what's, what's amazing

[00:13:43] Scott Arias: is like the thing, the, probably the biggest tragedies you have in life are the things that ultimately define who you. You know, and, and, and it's what you do with what you were given is what is the key.

And people are like, well, this happened to me and that happening. Well, you can look at it like that or you can say, this happened, but this is what I did with it. I chose to do the, to me it was a logical thing. You know, I've always kind of been a, a kind of, a little bit of an optimist. But it really defined, I'd say.

I'd say I agree with that statement. . Yeah, . So it helped define who I was and it, you know, it's, it's tough. I, people ask me, what is the single most difficult thing you've ever gone through? you know, and I was like, really? That drug addiction, I tell you what, that right there going through, I was, I was an Oxycontin for, almost a year and it took me three weeks to detox and it was the.

most Anguishing experience I've ever had. I try to, people say, well, relate it to me. And I say, imagine having the flu, but like a thousand times worse for weeks on end you know, and not feeling normal. You know, when people say, well, I want to do drugs to feel normal. That's true because your body gets to a point where it needs the drugs to feel normal.

Mm-hmm. and. . It was a, it was a, a horrific experience going through it in hindsight. It, it gave me so much perspective on life and what's important on and, empathy for the people that have gone through the same thing. And, we're all flawed people, you know?

I mean, we're all flawed. In one way or the other. And I, I'd have less sympathy for those, for people who are flawed in the past. And it gave me much more, empathy for what people go through. because I think that some of the, some of the, the most courageous, most inspirational people are not the people who leave a pitch of perfect life.

These are the people that have gone through very difficult circumstance. Life have come out the other side better.

[00:15:49] Chaz Wolfe: A hundred percent. Yeah. I think, it's a maturity that helps us realize that too. Even looking at my own circumstances, being raised by a single mom, having all kinds of stats against me, in business or just for success, I think that I've always received that as the very reason why I should.

And so I, I, I agree with you. Let's, let's go into, some, some more practical, tactical even, things that you've. Good or bad. but I wanna know a good decision that you made along the way in building your business or businesses that, that really has enabled you to, to be in a good position.

What, what can we learn from you?

[00:16:22] Scott Arias: well, you know, that that's a, a good decision I made. I, I'd have to say more than anything, and I thought a lot about this one, you know, contemplated on this, I'd probably say the best decision I ever made was to take a risk and not look back, you know? If you, you know, they surveyed 100 year old people and they asked him if you could change anything about the life, what would it be?

And the first thing is spend more time with the family. But the second one was the thing that stands out to me and has taken more risk. And I've always, my father-in-law told me this story and I looked it up. And there's a lot of truth to that. And I, and, and I think about that every day because we have this terrible thing called comfort , you know, and I always.

You know, God's more concerned about your character, knees your comfort. And I, so I get nervous when I get my comfort zone a little bit because yeah, you know, you get to a point where you drive the car, you want, you have the money to, you don't think about money. It is in the same way as you did when you were younger, when you didn't have money, right?

And then all of a sudden that comfort, you get scared of taking risks. And,I always tell people, and I firmly believe this, is that, I had nothing to begin. If I end with nothing, at least it was a good ride.

you know, and, and, although I, I, I like car. I like, there's some things that I like. I like cars. I'm a car guy. I'm motorcycle guy. But, but in the end, that stuff really doesn't matter. And,Risking it is and, and making your life worth living. yeah. We had a, a guest pastor came in and he says that everybody lives the life.

And I remember who the author of this, this, this pastor came in, he wrote a book, but he said, everybody lives this Volvo Dream, you know, where they grew up their entire life with this dream that to own something like a Volvo, you know, . And then ultimately they realized that's gonna rust, it's gonna fall apart.

It's just gonna be. and ultimately it means really nothing, you know? Yeah. So what really counts? Is it really how much money you have in a bank? Is it how much money you have when you die? I don't think that it, I don't think it is that, I mean, for me it's about what have you done with what God has given you on the earth?

And, and that's what I try to do every day, and that's one of the reasons I'm turning my company into an employee-owned company, after, in another seven years is. I wanna make the people that are part of my work family have something more than what they walked in the door with. Yeah. And not just a paycheck.

[00:18:58] Chaz Wolfe: So, yeah, I love that perspective. And so the, the

takeaway here I'm taking from you is,

or I'm, that I'm hearing from you is take risks. don't, don't, it, it, not to say that it doesn't matter anyway, but, kind of to your, you know, hey, if I, if I. If I end with nothing or I end with it all, as long as the ride getting there was, was fun and worth it.

And I think that that can be, that can be divided up right, into different, different people's ways of what's, what fun is. can you give us, an example in one of your businesses where maybe you were teetering or maybe you knew it was a big risk, but you did it anyway and it paid off. Give us an example

[00:19:36] Scott Arias: of this.

Well, I, I'll just tell you from the beginning, from the start, so I switched over from construction company to a consulting company. So I had done business development, sending emails, making phone calls, doing marketing for nine months and didn't win anything . And I was about, I was on the verge of quitting.

I was as close to quitting as you possibly can get. Cause the, my business model doesn't, r didn't really exist because it's something a lot of companies do in-house. Sure. So, but I saw a potential. and, but I hung with it and I kept my nose to the, to the grindstone. And then I got my first contract.

My first contract was for $7,000. And I remember it took me, I worked night and day for a week, got it all completed and sent it off. And then me and my wife went to dinner, shortly after I got it all done. And I said, you know, there's something to this, you. . And ever since that moment it's just, you know, it picked up.

So having the faith that it's gonna work out was a tough one of taking that risk. And most, and most, recently. you know, one of the risks that, that we have just taken is to, you know, we're looking at acquisitions of companies, acquisitions of some property, and one of the biggest ones is, acquiring an outsourcing of some.

the sales and marketing we do. Cause there's a lot of risk there cuz people take, you know, sales and marketing is something you take near and dear and that's near and dear to me and I don't want to give that up. But I realized to grow you're gonna have to make some concessions there. And so, I parted with my profits, for half of this year.

Basically, you know, we're looking. , in order to grow, we have to have some work to, you know, you have technology to be able to help us grow.

Yeah. And we've recognized from a marketing perspective, that's where we've been weak. And, as much as it's great to talk with the individual face-to-face, artificial intelligence is changing the world we live in. And, we don't have that capacity in house. So I'm good at. Plans and schedules and providing people and doing security.

I'm not a marketing guy, you know? Yeah. So, so, so, you know, you gotta be, so I took the risk, this, not just monetarily, but looking at restructuring some of my company, be able to make that. And so that's what it is and it's easy for me just to probably just to, put me on cruise control and just write out the remaining time I have here.

anybody who knows who's done this or built the company, I mean, my company was nothing. My, the market I was in didn't exist. Anybody who's who's made something of nothing will tell you that you can't turn it off. Yeah. You know, that's not how God hardwire me. God hardwire me to do something more. So if I'm not getting up every day and building something, then I'm not doing what he intended for me to do.

So that's why I continue to. I love

[00:22:29] Chaz Wolfe: it, man. You're speaking my language. some of the very things that I say, about, about who I am, and about my, my identity, and who, who, God sees me as as well. But, okay. So you've given us, you've given us the, the taking risks as a good choice. Give us a bad decision that you made along the way, man.

Give us, give us, what stay away

from,

[00:22:48] Scott Arias: lemme give you a hundred of them, but, , the, the, you know what embracing. I have made a lot of bad decisions. some monetarily, some have been with people wise. I think people, the people wise has been the tough one for me because I consider myself a people person.

Sure. And when I make a bad hire, and I, I've made a few of those, I always tell people, you know, I, you know, I'm known to make good hires, but I've made those bad hires. I've made, you know, I've had, I've brought people in. I, I thought you. What they said was what they meant, because that's who I am. Yeah. But I, I realized that my, I projected my values on them and reality was, is that they didn't hold the same values.

Right. And that was very hurtful. You know, I, it was hurtful because I take, it's not a business to me. This is who I am. You know, right. This is what we do, and this is what I do every day. When I, every morning I wake up, this is what I think about every night when I go to sleep, this is what I think about.

And then on Saturday, when I'm out doing one of my projects, this is exactly what I think about during that time. It, it doesn't leave me. So it's tough for me not to take it personal, but, so I, I didn't say hires is probably, I've made a lot of bad hires. I shouldn't say a lot. I've made a couple bad hire.

It made a big impact. . Yeah. And, and in an organization where, you know, when you're, when you're growing, you make a bad hire, that can really affect you tremendously. but I also know that's part of the growth experience is going through and making those mistakes. Because if you don't make any mistakes, then you're not doing, you're doing something.

because what

[00:24:29] Chaz Wolfe: you're saying is that you didn't get, you didn't get nervous about continuing to hire the next person. You, you hired another person after you made the mistake.

[00:24:36] Scott Arias: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I love that. Actually, I hired two people. I'm the, I'm the kinda person that, that when something bad like that happens or when something, I shouldn't say bad cuz it's all perception of what it, when something challenging like that occurs, I double down.

Yeah. So if I have somebody leave my company, that was really good. I go find somebody who's better than they were . Yeah. And then I hire two of those people. . Yep. A hundred percent. That, that's that. That's just me. That's just my d n because I love it. I believe in what we do. I believe in who, who we are, and I believe that God is gonna gimme the tools to do what, what I need.

to get done. So That's cool. I

[00:25:17] Chaz Wolfe: appreciate the perspective. What, what discipline or maybe even process do you have around making decisions

[00:25:24] Scott Arias: nowadays? Well, you know, I, we follow the EO EOS model and if people are not familiar with that as, that's entrepreneur operating systems, which kind of simplifies a lot of things.

Yeah. But, simple disciplines. . You know, we don't, we, we have not just big goals, but we have granular goals, which means that everybody, when they walk in the door, understands what they need to do in order to be successful. everybody from, you know, the administrative assistant or our, you know, our, our, our, our intern accounting, account.

they all understand what they need to do to make, to be successful. And that became, became huge during the pandemic, right? Because people were not in the offices. Yeah. So you needed to be clear what the expectations were. And, to, so that I've had to say more than anything is, is using some of those principles that eos like, you know, having a good vision, having a good mission, and having that trickle down to granular metrics.

Because as I learned when I lost my. . And one of the good lessons I learned is that I, you can't expect to walk the first day, right? But you can expect to take a step and then tomorrow take two steps. So it's understanding the process and embracing the process. Cause everybody wants the end product, but it's the process that really matters.

And if you, and, and my son is my, both my sons ju do Jiujitsu. One. You know, my sons always say that you gotta love the process. And that is so true. You know, the end goal is just the side benefit. The process is really where it's at. And if you can love the process, chances are you're doing what you really love to do.

Yeah. And what God intending you to do.

[00:27:13] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. No, I, you're a hundred percent right. I love the, the process. obviously tactically, the US program, and then more so, You know, mindset wise, you're, whether you realize it or not, you're a huge mindset guy. You always come back to the mindset, the perception, the reality of, Hey, look, this is what I'm learning through this.

so I, I just think it's just so important, that the listener understands like, I'm ju I just see you oozing with this just like stability of, of mindset. and obviously you've been through, you know, some, some things that most of us won't. so it's a huge advantage, but, but everybody goes through moments that we can pick and choose, and I think that, you're just, you know, I just, I

[00:27:51] Scott Arias: think it comes so natural to you Now, , I, I, I equated to, like, one of the things that I have done after I lost my leg, I, I ran a series of races for the Wounded Warrior project.

I ran a couple half marathons and those type of things. And one of the things I use is a trainee tool, which I think is so valuable in, in anything you. is that, you know, I, they always tell you to, to run outside, but also run on the treadmill. And I did a lot of treadmill running for a lot of reasons. But one of the reasons is, is that when you run six miles, you have to run six miles back.

You don't have much of a choice, right? But when you're on a treadmill and you run six miles, you can push the button and stop. Now, the mental toughness it takes to not push the button. is what's key in business, is what's key in life, is that mental toughness to push through the difficult, the the physical and the mental turmoil that you're gonna go through and push beyond that.

and that has played out so many times in my life. And we talk about mentality, you know, that hardnosed mentality of, listen, I'm gonna push to those difficult times, and that's where. That's where most people don't get it. And that's where I think that separates the people who ultimately run a successful business and people who don't.

And there are people, and not that there's anything wrong with being an employee, there's a lot of good employees out there. There's a lot of people who are meant to be employees. but the people who are meant to be entrepreneurs and the people who are meant to be, business owners are those people who are not gonna be the ones that are.

Or wanting to push the button when times get tough, when things get uncomfortable. And, and I, I, and, and if you, I always tell people, if you don't believe me, go jog six miles on a treadmill. See if you wanna push the button, . Yeah. No. Well

[00:29:39] Chaz Wolfe: then that's the, that's the, that's the difference that I was just taken away from.

I was just like soaking in that as you were talking it, the, it's not, it's not, not pressing the button. It that is part of it. Yes. But it's not pressing it knowing that you.

[00:29:54] Scott Arias: Yes. And still not pressing it. and it, you wanna talk about being, you know, and I'm in the industry, that's tough cause we're construction.

I, I was also in the Navy, so, you know, I've been around a lot of tough hardnosed kind of people and it, you know, it takes that grit and that tenacity and, I worry sometimes about my kids related to that because I'm wondering do they have the grit and 10. And they have, in a lot of ways they've proved me.

They do. You know, but I, but, I, I, I worry about that with a lot of, a lot of, a lot of people who are younger than me because, you know, your dream is to, to, to help your kids be raised and give them things you didn't have. But what you, what you realize when you get there is that you don't want that for your kids.

You want your kids to want to have that desire. Right. And my kids actually have impressed me. They don't have the need based on, cuz mom and dad have helped 'em, but they don't wanna follow my path. They don't wanna follow my footsteps. And actually, it's a huge point of contention. One of my youngest daughters,fought me for years over paying for college.

She wants to pay for college. She wants to know that she did it on her own. And I'm like, well, I have the means. And she goes, well, you don't get. That's, I wanna do it on my own, like, yeah. And then I got it when she said, like, you did it on your own. Yeah. And I thought about that and I said, you know, she's right.

You know? Mm-hmm. . So what am I trying to do? I'm trying to protect them from the big, bad world, when in reality I need to let them go into the big, bad world and face it. yeah, learning the lessons I've talked about.

[00:31:36] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I think that's so, so true. And, and that same, same mentality can be taken into our teams as well.

I, I think a lot of entrepreneurs try to do a lot for their team, which, what keeps 'em small? they're perfectionists. They're, they're never gonna give over the reins because of this exact same thing. They're trying to protect even their people. So, I love all of that. Let's go to the speed round here.

My first question in the speed round. , I want to know if you could dwindle the whole business down into one trackable metric. If you could only pick one metric to choose forever and ever, what

[00:32:06] Scott Arias: would it be? Retained earnings.

[00:32:10] Chaz Wolfe: That's a great metric. I love it. Why?

[00:32:14] Scott Arias: because it really shows what value you're leaving in your company, if it's viable.

Yeah.

[00:32:19] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Tell me just real quick here, because I get a lot of, I get a lot of folks that say a lot of different things. for you, why retained earnings over cash flow or, or EBITDA net profit? Because,

[00:32:32] Scott Arias: return, return, especially related to,you know, selling the business. You, I need cash. Well, we all need cash to run our business, right?

And my business unfortunately, is a huge, it's a cash consumer. You know, it's not a cash cow, it's a cash eater, you know, . So, and so it eats a lot of cash. I mean, we have 130 some odd folks, you know, you can imagine, yeah, the kind of cash it takes to pay all those people. but in the end, how much you're keeping in the company shows a lot about who you are.

Discipline. as an owner also about what your future growth. I mean, we grew from 7,000, we're creeping up on 20 million this year. You know, I mean that's, you don't get there overnight and you don't get there by putting money away and, and retaining some money. And and cuz that plays in a lot of things like your ability to get money when you need money, you know, the ability to sell the money.

EBIDA is great. If, if you don't have any money, you don't have any retain owners in the business and you think you're gonna take everything with you, the business won't survive with that. You know? So, so that's why I say retainers is important. Love it. Okay.

[00:33:47] Chaz Wolfe: What book would you recommend, for a six figure business owner trying to, trying to get beyond their current stuck?

[00:33:54] Scott Arias: the book and, and this was a gray book. It's, it's written by an F B F, FBI author, former f fbi, head interrogator called I Never Split the Difference. I don't know if you've ever read that book, but fantastic book. It is a, it is a fantastic book and I, I always tell people just to get them to buy it and to buy the book and read it.

I tell 'em, I tell 'em the very beginning intro. The first, he was the, the head hostage negotiator. a guy walked out of his house, shot his mother and father, walked down the street, walked into a bank, and then held everybody hostage in the bank. So he came on scene as a hostage negotiator to negotiate this guy out.

And so he was focused on, well, what do I need to give this guy for him to get? . Well, he let one of the hostage go and as the hostage walked out the door, he shot the hostage and then he stood in front of the window and allowed the, the SWAT team to kill him to shoot him. Mm-hmm. he death by cop. And that was the first time suicide by cop ever occurred.

And it was kind of an unknown thing. And it, you know, he come, his, the company he owns is called Black. and it was a black swan cause it never occurred before. And as a business owner, you know, it makes you really think about what you do every day. What are the black swans out there? What are some of the issues, how people think may not be way you think.

And it's just a great, great book. Yeah.

[00:35:17] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I love, I I, from a negotiation standpoint, I had already read the book. I was in the process of trying to buy my first piece of small or, multi-family. and, and so I, I hurried up quick and listened to the book again, and then I go into the negotiations and, I bought my, bought my first multi-family deal with almost word for word negotiation skills from that book

[00:35:39] Scott Arias: It was awesome many years ago. I love the, I, I love the way he dials in all his stories because his, that's really where it's at and it's a, it's a great book. It

[00:35:47] Chaz Wolfe: is, it is. Okay. Do you intentionally network or mastermind with other entrepreneurs?

[00:35:53] Scott Arias: I'm a, I'm a lunch guy and I network. because I love lunch.

And, well, I do, I I think we all love, love food to a certain degree, but there's something about breaking bread with people. Yeah. That kind of lowers their guard a little bit. Allows you to speak openly and get to know people. one of the, one of my past, claims to faint as I was claims of fame was I was recruited the year for the Navy.

networking is really what it's all about. Understanding fill in your funnel full of people. So I have lunch at least once or twice a week with somebody and the lunch is more about learning to, cause we're, we're all, no matter what we do, we're in a people business. No matter if you sell product, sell service.

So, you know, we're in a people. . So having those personal connections is so important, is so vitally important. And I think we sometimes shortell those things because we say things like artificial intelligence, for example. is the solution to everything. Well, there's a lot to be said for having a conversation with somebody and knowing how many kids they have, what their background is, because when you're in.

That's when you need those people . Yeah. And you know what, and I can tell you, you know, that when I've been in trouble, it's been nice to lean on those people and then you can come with a value added proposition later to them. But I don't walk into those networking events with the intent of selling something there.

It's a process. It's getting to know them.

[00:37:24] Chaz Wolfe: a hundred percent. Yeah. You gotta, you gotta, well, and especially in today's market, peop buyers are just more, intelligent. Mm-hmm. . And so, whoever you're dealing with, whether it's a someone who's literally buying or, or just a relationship that could lead to business, but it, it's gotta be value first for sure.

Okay. inside the business, I got an operations question for you. If you only had one hour each week, Scott, to work in the business. What are you doing in that one hour? Or how are you using that one hour to successfully run your business?

[00:37:55] Scott Arias: My, my one hour, cause I spend 90% of my time working outside the business, about 10% time working in the business. And my 10% of the time in the business is developing and holding my senior staff, we call 'em senior Cs. Cause you know, C level, our senior CS account. For their job, you know? Yeah. And it, and, and, and it's not just about holding 'em accountable, it's also about training them and, and, and preparing them for the future.

I've had this plan on me exiting. So, for so long I always talk to them about, well, when I'm gone, this is what you need to know and how you need to grow. And, and my CFO is a great example of that. He, he came out, he came to our company straight outta college. my wife was a CFO before. my wife, left to pursue other event adventures and leave me with the business

So, made, made being married much easier too. but, but . But,he has grown from a college graduate to being, I used to tell everybody I had him as a 15 hour, $15 an hour employee. You know, and now he's the chief financial officer and he is a very, he, I, I can't even tell you how, how sharp he is, but he's one of those people that only need to be told once about something and he, he has it.

So, so I'd have to say my 10% of the time I'm working on the business really has to do with working with the people. My three reports that report directly to me and helping them do their job.

[00:39:25] Chaz Wolfe: Yep. I love, I love the, breakdown and even just the ability to mentor and coach, as you said. it's a, it's a huge reality.

last question here for you, Scott. If you lost it all, what would you do? .

[00:39:39] Scott Arias: I would wake up tomorrow and I start building something else. . That's, that's what I would've, I I, I was, I, I, I thought about that. I would, I would first, cuz there are people that do that. You know, you look at people in history that have basically, I wouldn't say Steve Job lost at all, cause he walked away with like 20 some million, you know?

Right. But he was humiliated by Apple, by firing him. Right. you can't take you. You can't take the entrepreneur out of the business and not expect him to go do something different. I mean, he's gonna do something different. And that's me. I would, I would take an inventory of all my skills and I would align it with a new ave new venture to head down that road.

And I would start, actually, I wouldn't even wake up the next day. I would start immediately.

[00:40:27] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, exactly. I, I relate to that, all the things that you've mentioned about being a builder and you know, who the Lord's designed you to be. I, I figured that would be your response, but wanted to hear it in your words.

So I love that perspective, Scott. How can, how can a listener today, reach out to you? How can they, they reach your company? How can they find you? How can they connect further?

[00:40:47] Scott Arias: Well, I, you know, I have, I have a LinkedIn account. You just look up Scott Arias, that's a r i a s, you know, or you can go my website, ACE Dash Consulting.

Little hyphen between, I'd say dash, but hyphen consulting.net. and you check it out there. I'm not really a social media guy except LinkedIn, just because, my personal opinion is, is that social media is. Is can be very negative in ways. Oh yeah. And consume lots of your time. You know, that's, so, I thought Facebook was great until I spent a lot of time on it and I couldn't , but, but, but I, I, LinkedIn is a, is a, is definitely probably one.

If you ever wanna, has all my contact information, you guys re reach out to me and if you, you know, and on another, another one, I, I've written, I've written several different books. Two of them. Wrote by myself. One of them was Pick up your mat and walk. It's on Amazon. And the second one I just released, it's called A Formula for Success.

I just released this year. good book. If you're looking to,give, some kind of plan to your team or, or, or, somebody you care about, about how to make your life worth living. Yeah. And how to tangibly make it. There's a lot of books out there that do it, but they don't tell you the steps to take it.

it's a good. . So,

[00:42:03] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, those. That's great. We'll, we'll list the links, in the show notes below, for the listeners to be able to grab those as well. I know I'm gonna grab 'em both, and I think that just what has happened today is super special. obviously, you, you run an incredible business.

You got an incredible team for you to take. The time that you did today was, pretty special, so thank you for that. We wish you, nothing, but I had

[00:42:23] Scott Arias: greatness. I have to say you had, you had the best looking beard of any person I've ever met. , , I mean,

[00:42:30] Chaz Wolfe: You know, yeah, ,

[00:42:31] Scott Arias: you, you work on that beard, don't you?

You work on, you know, it takes a lot of work. , , you know, all the time. I would love to grow. Can't, I love to grow beard, but it'd be

[00:42:42] Chaz Wolfe: white. I can't put time into social media because I'm, I'm, I'm working on the beard .

[00:42:45] Scott Arias: Hey, you know, everybody, everybody has, has their joys. Yours is, So, I mean, , you know, it,

[00:42:53] Chaz Wolfe: I was talking to a guy earlier today and, and, he was talking about it looks like a little snap on, like, if I could get to snap it off you and put it on me, that'd be, that'd be fantastic.

I'm like, well, I .

[00:43:02] Scott Arias: If you could put a, if you put a set of, of, a sunglasses on, you could literally look like the logo for no shaved. Right. Are you here to see that?

[00:43:13] Chaz Wolfe: I, I think maybe they should sponsor the show, you know? Exactly. I

[00:43:17] Scott Arias: think that there's a lot there. In fact, I think they need to, so that's hilarious.

We'll have

[00:43:21] Chaz Wolfe: to send, send them a clip of, of this part of the show and say, Hey, look, you got, you got somebody who thinks, but, and, and, and all seriousness . I appreciate that. And, yeah, man, the beard is good, but you today were better. And so we we appreciate that. And, and of course I, I, I just love, just from a.

A personal perspective. I don't, I don't do this a bunch, but, I appreciated your perspective of, of the identity that the Lord's given you as the builder and for you just to press into that and obviously, pressing other people in that direction as well. I appreciate that and, and I receive it. So thank you again for your

[00:43:54] Scott Arias: time.

Thank you.

Join host Chaz Wolfe as he sits down with Scott Arias, an industry king with over 30 years of experience in construction consulting, a Ph.D. in construction management, and a Navy background. But that's not all - Scott also battled drug addiction and lost his leg, which he overcame with the help of his faith and a relentless drive to succeed. In this episode, Scott shares his story and the lessons he learned along the way, including taking risks, making tough decisions, and embracing the process. He also talks about his decision-making process, the importance of networking, and his one-hour-per-week business strategy. Don't miss out on this inspiring conversation that provides valuable insights into personal and business growth. As Scott says, "Adversity is a springboard for success."

Scott Arias:

Website: https://ace-consulting.net/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottarias/

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