166 | How This Immigrant Built a 7-Figure Empire in the Water Construction Industry W/ Sidney Sogbor

Mar 10

[00:00:58] Chaz Wolfe: What's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolf. , gathering the King's podcast, Sidney Sogbor on the stage today. How you doing, brother? Hey,

[00:01:05] Sidney Sogbor: I'm doing awesome, brother. Thank you so much for having me on here.

[00:01:09] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, man, I, I'm excited to hear your story. you've got, you've got a little bit of a unique story, as we all do, but today's about you and, I'm, I'm anxious to give the, the listeners just a little piece of your journey here.

So, tell us, tell us what kind of business. So,

[00:01:22] Sidney Sogbor: seed MO is a construction business. we specialize in the maintenance, repair, and replacements of water and sewer assets. So example that would be your fire hydrants, your water mains, your sewer mains, waterhouse connections, sewer house connections, things of that

[00:01:38] Chaz Wolfe: sort.

Wow. And, I think all of those things to the natural ear, unless you've been in that industry, sound really complicated. Right. really big. And, and so we need, we need a specialized person like you Right. Is what I'm hearing. But, I, I appreciate, I, I guess what I, what I mean by law is I appreciate guys like you that have gone into things that, don't make sense to other people like me.

right. .

[00:01:59] Sidney Sogbor: Right.

[00:01:59] Chaz Wolfe: Thank goodness for guys like you. Sydnee, I got a question for you before we dive into your history. I want to know, at this stage of the game, you're obviously crushing. You're, you're, you're, you've done something in your business. Yeah. At less than 9% of any. Has done, and that's a million or more on revenue.

That's why you're here on the stage. Yeah. I wanna know why you're pushing now, like what's, what's left to go get, bro, you've done it all right? Right. What's, what else is there out there? What, where whatcha are you fighting for nowadays?

[00:02:26] Sidney Sogbor: So, so for me, I have, I have three points to that, right? And the first would be my family.

So, I, I want, I want that last name to mean something when I'm not, I'm not, no, no longer here. so that's the main thing. And the second one would be my past. . my path has played such a huge role in me continuing because I do not want to be back there. I do not want to be back to where,funds are low.

Stress is, at an all time high. I do not want to be there anymore, so I, I just wake up every morning as if I just started.

[00:03:01] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I, I both the forward motion and then the rear view mirror that keeps you burning. Right. , I think are, are incredible. you said you had three. Do you, do you wanna share your third one?

[00:03:12] Sidney Sogbor: The third one was my employees. So what happens is, and it's, it's, it's crazy. This just happened to me a few days ago. one of my employees was buying his house as his first house, and now it's like, I'm, it's not just me anymore, now I have to think of my employees. I have to think of their family life.

I have to think of, all of that. Because if I don't have something to give them, then in turn they wouldn't have, their opportunities as well. So that drives me really, really hard to keep going, cuz now I know that they're dependent on my

[00:03:49] Chaz Wolfe: business as. Yeah. the language that we use, inside of the gathering the King's, mastermind is Yeah.

This king or this kingship or this king mindset and everything that you just described, right? Like, I don't wanna go back to the warrior . Yeah. Right. I see the legacy of my, my son being on the throne, right. And using this king language, the, the forward thinking legacy, and then the weight. of the people that are around me, which includes my family, right?

Which includes my team, your local community, your church, whatever it. But that weight that you just described of like, wow, I got other people, ca, it's, it's real.

[00:04:27] Sidney Sogbor: Yeah, yeah. It really is. And I mean, it, it pushes me so hard. Cause as yourself, you know how it is, you know how it is. .

[00:04:35] Chaz Wolfe: A hundred percent.

And, and, and it makes us better even though it, it, there's pressure there, right? Like I think that, yeah. Guys like you and me, we've had the pressure and that's why we are where we are. . Yeah. and so we actually look for it. We welcome it. and so yeah, there's a reality there that other people are counting on me, and that my neck's on the line and I've probably got a, a way worse of a, of a risk scenario, set up for myself then, then, everybody on my team.

But, Man, it fuels me to, to make sure and to know, that, that others are taken care of. So I'm curious, just because I, I li I'm like-minded to you in this way, where do you think that that comes from for you like to be able to provide, to be the, to the heavy shoulders, like, wh where do you think that comes from for

[00:05:15] Sidney Sogbor: you?

So I think, I think part of that is from my childhood, or let me say may, maybe my teen, teen years. I was, I was responsible for a lot, as far as, as far as the small things, like maybe getting certain things done for the family and, things like that. It, it started out small, but then I, I had to worry about, Certain things being done and Right.

Youin a timely manner. And it just, it just amounted to that, I'm originally from Ghana, west Africa. Wow. So, yeah. So coming here to America, as a first generation immigrant, that's something that is tough on, the individual because you have to learn this new world, which is literally, which is, yeah.

And then once you're here, it's. People depend on you. So when people depend on you at a, at a early age, it's you have to produce. Yeah. And I think that's where mine started, and then I just built on it.

[00:06:14] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Well, I I definitely didn't move here from another country. so you, you've definitely got a , a ha a huge leg up, but, but I grew up single mom, family.

and so, oh, wow. I, I very much similar to what you're saying is that I took on responsibility, or maybe even some circumstances I was given responsibility that maybe I wasn't supposed to have at a such a young age. Right, right. But it's made me who I

[00:06:35] Sidney Sogbor: am. It just taught you, you just have to adapt.

You just have to adapt to that change.

[00:06:39] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. , I love it. I'm curious to know,how you got into business. you got a little bit of a background be between what you shared coming from, from, well, at West Africa and then, and then now, like give it a little bit of your story here and how you kinda got started in business.

[00:06:52] Sidney Sogbor: So, so at first I was actually pursuing a football career, . Mm-hmm. as we fir, first talked about and. when doing that, I realized that that was not going to work. So then I had to pivot. so I started pressing and why wasn't it gonna work? So I tried out, I tried out for a few teams, I just wasn't good enough.

Got it. it takes a lot to become a professional athlete and I just look at it as I didn't have what. Yeah, at that time I did not have what it took. So, I learned that lesson and then I had to pivot to, reinvent myself. You would say. I understand. Yeah. so I became a personal trainer.

And then while personal training, I met a gentleman who we personal trained together and we were buddies. And then one day he brings this preposition up to me. He's like, you're a strong guy, so. I have this company that I work for and this is what we do. And at that time it was turning water valves, these water valves, something

[00:07:53] Chaz Wolfe: a strong man is needed for ,

[00:07:55] Sidney Sogbor: right?

So at that time it's turning water valves. So I'm like, you know what? I could give it a try. And, I always thought about it as a workout. So we would go out there and we would hit 50 valves per day. Wow. And the other crew, it was a lot for the other crews, but for me, I just kept going. It, yeah. It was a fun workout for me.

You would say? So with time, I got promoted to a crew chief started taking my own truck out, and then at that point I wanted, At that point, I wanted more to see, to push myself, see how far I could go. So next I wanted to be, some type of project manager or project inspector or, so I started to look and then that led me to my first, government position.

So I was an inspector for a government agency here in, here in Maryland. When I got there, what happened was, as an inspector, you see all of the line items that the other contractors, send out. You are actually the one who, Vet's, everything that they say that they put in the ground and then they get paid that way.

Yeah. So each day I'm looking at, I'm punching these line items in it. I'm like, wait a minute, , there's something completely wrong here, that I'm not getting . So that right there, that

[00:09:14] Chaz Wolfe: right there was, and was it, was it the realization that they're doing what I know how to do? And they're making, and they're making, they're making

[00:09:21] Sidney Sogbor: phenomenal money.

Yes. Literally, I'm just sitting there and I'm like, so I know how to do this. I know how to do this. I've seen how he did that. I know how to do that. And, I'm a, I'm, I'm really good with visual, like I'm a visual learner. Yeah. I will learn very quickly, visual, and it will translate into actually doing so I'm like, I know how to do these things and now I have to learn how to monetize it because whatever it is that they.

It's working. Mm-hmm. . So that was, that was that realization stage for me. And that's when I started to do my research and that's, that was my light bulb moment right there, .

[00:09:58] Chaz Wolfe: I love it. I love it. And so where I think, the, the, the average person drawn to, a government position as an inspector, it's, security paycheck benefits, and you were just seeing the numbers.

There's gotta be something more total entrepreneur just sitting there in a desk, probably burning, I assume,

[00:10:17] Sidney Sogbor: literally. So after that, I ended up getting another government, opportunity in DC with the DC government. And, I went down there, spent five years there. And while there is, when I, soon as I got there is when I started Seed mark.

And then the tough part for me was, okay, now I've created this L L C. What do I do now? what is it? Yeah. . So that was, that was a challenging part because I, I didn't, I didn't have any mentors to say, oh, you do this, you do this, So it was a lot of trial and error. Yeah. But then they started working, these, these, these things started working and then I'm like, you know what?

I think I'm each, each time I was one step closer, . And then before you know it, I got my first contract. funny story. So, , so the first, the first contract that I had was with, Hara County. This is in Maryland. Yep. And, I, I actually went to a business function and got a number from networking.

Mm-hmm. I got the number of one of the deputies over there, so I emailed this gentleman. he, he, he gets back to me. I'm like, okay, the email works . So . So at first I start to email him every, every month or so. Yeah. And he eventually gave in and was like, you know what, come over. Let's talk. So I go in there, we we're meeting, we have a meeting, and they offered me a.

With their municipality. Right. But I turned it down. I was like, I've, this is what I want to do. So I left. And then from a, from a month I started, I started email him every two weeks to a week at times. And then he got, he got sick of me . So I think he got sick of me because,a few months after that, he just sent me an email saying, Hey, send us, send us a quote for some hydrants.

And that was it. That was the start, . And, and quit. Quit emailing me. Just send me the quote, .

[00:12:14] Chaz Wolfe: All right. I love it. Obviously a story of, of persistence, but,really the underneath what I heard you say, what I wanna point out for the listener is that, however many years before that, I don't think you and I, if we had been talking, would've thought that you would've been trying to bid on some sort of a hydrant government opportunity.

, you, you were playing football, you were personal training, like that wasn't even in the, the scope of what you even understood at that time. And so, yeah. I think that the, the evolution of what happened, which is you as an individual, you're looking for something more. You're learning a new skillset.

You're seeing opportunity. You took a chance, you started something you didn't know, but then you just kind of started to reach out. You met some people like that whole couple of minutes of what you just shared literally is what we all have gone through to a degree. Yeah. Yeah. But it's, it's, it's the, it's the kind of bumbling, fumbling.

until you can kind of find that place where you're like, ah, okay, I'm in the lane now. I just gotta run hard. So, run hard usually means you're making some good decisions. I want to know, once you kind of got that first deal and things started to work, what was something that you did that we can learn from you right now that has, been able to, help you get to where you are now?

[00:13:26] Sidney Sogbor: So the one thing that,was, was working backwards. Okay. . And what happened was, I found this was, this was one of the contracts that I had done. I found, myself in a tough position. I didn't make contingency plans. So one, one thing happened, which was, we struck a unmarked line, unmarked, utility line.

And with that came, oh man, we put about 140 houses.

[00:13:54] Chaz Wolfe: oh. Calls started happening

[00:13:56] Sidney Sogbor: immediately. Oh, man. I mean, when I tell you it was about, It was about four or five trucks, and this was on a weekend, so, oh no. They want their overtime. They sent all of the managers. I mean, it was, it was terrible.

[00:14:12] Chaz Wolfe: It's not good.

Yeah.

[00:14:13] Sidney Sogbor: So, they did the investigation and later on found out it was, it was a mistake on their part. But, what that did on my part was it drew my project out. Sure. So now the, I'm leaving equipment, manpower hours. Yep. All of that took away from, the profits being made. And so, so that was, that was one huge lesson that I learned that, gotta put everything into perspective.

I mean, have contingency plans every step of the way. Yeah. Because, when one thing happens, , it can throw the entire thing off if you don't have that plan B or plan C.

[00:14:51] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. And so tell us, so obviously the, the good decision that you're sharing, and you kind of, you kind of did it through a, a bad scenario here, but I, I love the perspective that you have of turning that into a lesson, right?

What, what is the contingency now? Like what would you leave the person listening with right now? There's six figures. , they're trying to figure out how to scale to where you are. What does that look like as a contingency for them to be, basically, you're talking about, think through things a little bit.

right. So what does that look like early on in business before you really got things going? what would you tell that person?

[00:15:20] Sidney Sogbor: So, so I would say, again, it goes, it goes back to that, that thinking backwards thing. so when I started, when I started out, when I realized the numbers that were being.

And I had that light bulb moment. I told myself, okay, I'm gonna go look at contracts. I'm gonna go look at contracts that have already been bided. I'm gonna look at what those requirements for those contracts are, and I'm gonna put myself in the position to be able to bid on set contract in the future.

So what that did was it, it was a long process, but after, after I found. This is what this contract, wanted. I then, I then found that multiple contracts had that same thing. So it's the same, yeah, it was the same,requirements, insurance and bonding. It was the same requirements over and over again.

So, When after I moved, after I worked backwards, moving forward, I got all of those things into place and then went, went ahead and started bidding on, on contracts. So that, that definitely helped me out on that.

[00:16:28] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. And so I guess, to kind of put this in a framework for the listener, rather than spraying and praying is kind of what, what comes to my mind, you, you just did a little bit of due diligence.

You just kind of figured out a little bit of, of what the, in this case, the contract, but the, the person that might be listening might be running a marketing company, have a client. They might be running a, a, a a deck business and they have a homeowner or, whatever. But, to, to, to spend the time.

To figure out what it is that they're actually looking for and then show them how that you can give it to 'em. Is that, is that what I'm hearing you say? Yes, yes.

[00:17:00] Sidney Sogbor: Yes, definitely. that, that's like, that book, who, who Moved My Cheese . That's one of my favorite books. . But that, that, that is it right there, because I'm telling you, it's, it's tough out there.

You know when you don't know. Yeah. You just, you just have to keep going. You have to keep looking, you have to do your research, you have to do these things, I

[00:17:23] Chaz Wolfe: appreciate that perspective as well. Yeah. I wanna flip the coin to you kind of already shared. maybe something that, that goofed it wasn't your bad choice though, so I wanna make sure I get the juice on something that you did and, and the mistake that you made, cuz we wanna learn from that as well.

Give us, give us that story.

[00:17:37] Sidney Sogbor: So, That would actually, that, that was actually one of the,the first ones that I, that I had mentioned with the, with the, out with the outage. With the outage, right. With 140 houses. But, bidding. bidding is something that, for me, I had to learn like in its entirety because I didn't, I wasn't doing that.

I was, I was more in the, in the field. Sure. So, I mean, it's, it was, it was starting out. There were times where I underbid projects. Right. And then once I got the project, Now I'd have to make cuts. Yeah. In order to make it work. And that is terrible. .

[00:18:18] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, that is terrible. and, and tell me, tell me why it's terrible, like on the back end, you're cutting, you're cutting your people, you're cutting margins, obviously, but give us, give us some of the

[00:18:26] Sidney Sogbor: detail there.

Yeah. So, so a a, a good example was, Ma material. So copper is extremely expensive versus poly, which is, like rubber pipe. so I had this, there was this instance where I had bidded for a Waterhouse connection, and then, on the, on the, on the p private side, but then the private side, I, I didn't specify what pipe I was going to use.

So after I had sent the bid in, I ended up winning the bid, but, Now when it was time to do it and I calculated how much my , my copper was going to be it, right? I mean it blew it out the out the water. Yeah. So then that was me, troubleshooting, getting the polypipe and then actually using that instead, cut down on cost and then,

[00:19:13] Chaz Wolfe: doing it that way.

Yeah. So you had to get creative. And which we all have to do. Yeah. and especially in situations like that where you're still trying to, honor your word, do the right thing, make it a good product. But, but you had to switch it up. but, but now it sounds like maybe you have a little bit more of a process to Oh man, to make sure that those things

[00:19:30] Sidney Sogbor: don't happen.

oh man, I, I double check, triple check everything. I mean, so now really I think the, the difference is I figure everything out my, all in cost. At, its at its highest peak, and then I add my multiplier on there. Yeah, yeah. That way, everything is, everything is up to par. I mean, right now we're running at a 62% profit margin, so, That's, that's, I've found that that works for

[00:20:00] Chaz Wolfe: me a lot.

Yeah. Now I wanna just, I wanna point this out cuz you're, you're saying this, like you've got a degree in it and, and I know you've had to learn it through, through the course of, experience, but the person that's listening, they probably haven't quite dialed this in yet. And that's potentially one of the reasons why they're not at seven figures yet.

Right. And and it's their pricing. It's the estimating, it's the sales process, all the stuff that we're talking about. You mentioned earlier, figuring out what the person, in this case, it could be the client, the homeowner, the government contract, whatever this person or thing is that you're trying to fulfill.

You gotta figure out exactly what they want. Yeah. And then you gotta be able to give it to 'em and not shortchange it. Right. And I've given several examples here on the show of, of how to do that and even how I've taught people, even in a, in a, in a retail scenario with edible arrangements, how to do that.

But the experience has to be what they want and what they want most, and, and they'll pay for that period. Right. And then the other thing I heard you say there at the end, the margin is that you built in. This very conservative approach, to make sure that things were covered and then your multiplier.

Now I know what that means. Please explain that though. So

[00:21:07] Sidney Sogbor: it's basically, it costs $20 to $20 to do a job. I then add a 2.5 multiplier on there, which makes it $55. So now $20 is for the job remainder comes into my pocket as my profit. If the job goes over $20 and say it's $25. I'm still good. I'm still in the green

[00:21:33] Chaz Wolfe: still still in the green.

Yeah. Yeah. And so you, you've got this figured out, the 2.5 multiplier for you works in your industry. It might be 1.5, it might be 7.5 depending upon what, what, industry the listener's in. Yeah. But you've gotta figure out that number. That's kind of the underlying thing that, haven't said yet, is that yes, you gotta know what to give.

And you gotta know how to give it, which all comes down to really the numbers. You gotta know the margin. Yeah. I heard this story once, on, on how to do this. I wanna know what you think about it. I heard that basically like if you want to take a job, and so like if you were to price it out, in essence, the $20 example that you just gave is, okay, if I come in and do this, myself, it's gonna, the labor material, it's gonna cost me $20.

Like, you need to pay me $20 to, to come do this. But then. To, to transition that person from a solopreneur or maybe a person with a, a helper or two to get them to the next level, right? This mindset of what if you were to hire it out to another agency, so that same pipe to, that you were gonna take $20 to install , you're gonna hire another company to install it.

And so yeah, they're gonna take the $20 or maybe even 25. And so now you're, you're charging the 50. And so at that point, so you gotta do that, that, that becomes normal. You, you bid it or you, you process or you price yourself, like you're going to hire it out. Right. And then you have a choice, , you can either hire it out, , or you can do it yourself.

Exactly. Exactly. And the margin is obviously there every time and but, but in order to scale and grow to get to where you gotta go, where it is, which is where you are now, you can't just do it for the 20, right. Because then it's just you basically trading time for money and, there's no, there's no way to grow a team in that.

So you've gotta be able to price it out for the team like you just did with the 20, and then there's gotta be room for wiggle as well as then the, the, the, the margin for the business.

[00:23:22] Sidney Sogbor: Yeah. So to that point, so I have, I have two contractors, the same thing. I have two contractors that actually go out and do these, these, the other jobs, the sewer, water, and sewer jobs.

So that's the same thing with them. Once I, once I have my price, I then, sub it out to them. They give me my price and then everybody's

[00:23:45] Chaz Wolfe: happy. . Yeah. Yeah. And in essence, like a sub, a sub scenario like that, it's interesting. A lot of people, can take,different thoughts about, Subbing something out, but really what you're doing, you secured the contract, right?

That guy, he doesn't have to worry about the dealings, the customer, the relationship, the securing of it. the way he just has to show up and do what he's good. He's good at, he's probably a technician. He's probably not necessarily thinking about the next five years and how they're gonna win 40 million.

Right? Which is fine. Like that's okay. That's who he. Right. Yeah. That's not who you are, . Right,

[00:24:15] Sidney Sogbor: exactly. I think, I think as long as you make a good deal if everybody is, if you agree to that deal, and that's, that's the. if you're comfortable, as long as all parties are comfortable with that deal, you have a deal.

and,

[00:24:28] Chaz Wolfe: and usually it'll keep happening, right? Because everybody kind of falls in line with their, with, what they're good at. In this case, you're securing contracts and, and, and he's, he or she who, whoever the, the agreement's with that they're doing the contract or the, the actual execution of it, so, right.

We, we've talked about good decisions, we've talked about bad decisions, we've talked about process of, of how you're deciding things. I wanna transition to the speed round. I want you to divide or, or, or dwindle your entire business down. If you can only pick one metric to track forever and ever, what would that one metric b

[00:25:00] Sidney Sogbor: I would have to say that is, that would be product. Okay. Explain that. So, so I, I, I think, so what happens is I try to be as productive as I can be for, for EV every day, every day that I wake up, I want to be as productive as as I can be. So I want to utilize those 24 hours as much. And then what happens is that day becomes a week.

And then I've been really productive for a week. And then with consist with consistency, that week becomes a month. Yeah. And then 12 months. And then now I'm looking at a full year of growth. And each time that I put my time and energy into something, it's gonna yield some type of. , whether it's, financial or physical, whatever it is, it's gonna yield some type of profit.

So that consistency and productivity throughout the days that turn into months, years, and then decades, moving forward. I think that's one thing that, that I measure all the time and try, I try to hit it every. I try to hit my hours that I'm, that I'm pouring into my business, pouring into my family myself, just being productive all day.

That, that it adds up. .

[00:26:22] Chaz Wolfe: It's so simple. It's so simple. It's the 1% rule. I wanna become one, I wanna be 1% better today than I was yesterday. but, but the reality of it is, is that it's so easy. Nobody.

[00:26:31] Sidney Sogbor: Right. It's literally . Sometimes I, I might, I might get a call here and there to come, oh, come here, come hang out to the, I'm like, I have, I have to do this in this time period.

Yep. I do this every day in this time period. So once I'm done with that, I'll be able, I'll have some wiggle room. But that, that, oh man. That's the one

[00:26:50] Chaz Wolfe: thing that I, that discipline, I love, you've built, you've built discipline around productivity. and, and I also, Probably more than everything you've just said is that productivity can be measured in profit, but in different ways in your life.

Yeah. there's so many guys and gals listening right now that, are wearing too many hats. They, they feel like they're being productive, but they're just busy. That's not, that's not production. Yeah. they're running around crazy, which you have to do for a period of time. But, if you can be disciplined in productivity with your finances, then you can start putting a team in place.

And now your product production is around hiring and, and around moving the needle and, around, pressing into some of the areas that, of the business that only you can be good at, which you've done. you had mentioned family, like all these other things that like we are concerned about. Yeah.

they just take a little bit of discipline regarding productivity. I love the way that you said it. So simple. Thank you, man. Thank you. , what, what book would you recommend Sydnee for a six figure business owner? You already, you already mentioned Who Moved My Cheese. That's a great book. We'll list that one in the show notes as well.

But what else do you got for us?

[00:27:50] Sidney Sogbor: I really enjoyed, rich Dad, poor Dad, that, that, that's an all time favorite. okay. Now tell us, tell us your takeaway for that. A book, so, so. Basically, it, it, it just taught me to, to think big at all times because I, it's, it's, it's been, it's, it's a lot of people that can't see 10 years past what they're looking at right now, And Right. What that book did was, was it opened my mind to, to more thoughts. It's like, man, you could start something so small. and it can grow , it can grow so big. Like just never, never think the sky is the limit, cuz above the sky is something else. , we just gotta go find out what it is, , Yes. So I think that might be one of the, one of the really good

[00:28:35] Chaz Wolfe: ones that I do you think most people listening right now are, are our, whether they, whether they're deciding to or whether they don't even realize it, that they're, that they're thinking small.

[00:28:45] Sidney Sogbor: No. So, so I think, I think people, people think at, at whatever level that they are Right. Or whatever level that they're around. Sure. So, and, and then what happens? Yeah. What happens is people get intimidated with going into rooms with people who are greater. , and that's one thing that I've made myself comfortable with because the only way for me to excel is to be around people that are greater than me.

Yeah. So. I, I, I strive, I strive for that. I strive to, to my, my buddies, people that I hang out with. They're all above me. I'm, 29 at this point in my life, and none of my friends are below 38. Literally , everybody's just older, wiser, Yeah. So I take, I take a lot, I take a lot in from them and pour it into myself,

it's not only financially, that's the thing too, because a lot of people think to, to,it's, it's, it's, it's only the finances, but. mentality. Just, it's, it's a lot of things that I pick from, from different individuals in my life. And then I, I use that to grow what I already have and just keep building those blocks.

[00:30:01] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I love it. I got a question for you around operations since you, you mentioned productivity, if you only had one hour each week Yes. To work on the business, how would you use that? To successfully run your business like you do now?

[00:30:17] Sidney Sogbor: I would have to find a c e o boom. I would pour so much time into finding the best c e o for my company.

[00:30:26] Chaz Wolfe: Love the mindset. . Phenomenal answer. . Thank you. An anxious. Anxious to watch you. Yeah, another, another love of growth for you. Yeah. last question for you, my brother. If you lost it all, I know you're only 20 , but if you lost it all, what would you do, man?

What would you

[00:30:42] Sidney Sogbor: do? Oh man. I would probably go the real estate way. Okay. But change change industries. Yeah. But I would want to start from the bottom. I would wanna learn the numbers on each and. I wouldn't mind going back down as a laborer. Sure. And find out everything, the ins and outs of building a structure, building a house, cement foundation, everything.

I would learn how to do that and I will open my own firm and build some houses. That's awesome,

[00:31:16] Chaz Wolfe: man. Love, love you. You, you didn't even think twice about trying something brand new that

[00:31:21] Sidney Sogbor: you've never done before. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, the thing is, I feel as though there's money to be made in everything that you can think of.

Yep. The only thing is learning that skill, learning whatever it is that you, that you desire. With me, I've always been handy. I've always been handy. I use my hands. I, I, I, I think of things a lot faster than so. . That's why I moved right back to construction. It would be a different type of construction, but yeah, it would be construction because currently I know how to start another water construction business right off the bat, So that would be easy to, that would be easier. I'm not easy, but that would be easier to get going, .

[00:32:03] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I love, I love the mindset. you don't, maybe, I don't know if the listener feels this way. I definitely do, but it's just flowed out of. , just, just your, your mindset of, oh yeah.

I just, I just go do it, which I think is obviously, unique to, to a little bit of the craziness that entrepreneurs carry. I think that even though the listeners right now, maybe they haven't gotten to our level of revenue or, or quote unquote success, I think we can all relate to the idea of man, I'd just keep going or I'd figure something else out, or I'd pivot or I'd try something different, or I'd try different industry.

In this case, you, it just came so easy to you as far as like, oh yeah, that'd be fun. I could get to, I, I could actually learn something else. Yeah. , this is such an optimistic way of looking at things. Yeah. So

[00:32:48] Sidney Sogbor: the funny thing, the funny thing about that is last, the ending of last year, I actually created a real estate company, , of course.

So I'm

[00:32:56] Chaz Wolfe: when you. Ceo, you'll have a little bit more time to build that, right. That real estate company. Right.

[00:33:00] Sidney Sogbor: So that's, that's exactly what I'm, I'm looking forward to now.

[00:33:04] Chaz Wolfe: yeah, buddy. That's awesome. Well, Sydnee, it's been incredible having you here. just so much success at such a young age.

I, I, I appreciate that. And,when I was in my twenties, I was, I was doing amazing things, but you, my friend, You, you've got it, you've got the it factor. You're gonna be incredible, everything that you put your hand to. I look forward to running with you. how can, how can the listener, today, how can they find you?

How can they connect with you, get to know you better, that type of thing?

[00:33:29] Sidney Sogbor: my Instagram, Instagram is, edmark. So just type in seed mock I'd pop up. Facebook is seed mock water construction and you can always leave a line on our website, which is seed mock water.com. so those will be the great best ways to reach out to me.

Oh, I also have, I also have a LinkedIn . Sydnee. Sobo,

[00:33:49] Chaz Wolfe: right. There you go. You gotta, gotta gotta remember that last name. You told me. I was gonna remember the last name. , right? . That's awesome, man. Well, I just, appreciate you being here. you've been incredibly valuable. We wish you nothing but success in all that you put your hand to, especially, that new real estate company when you get, when you get that, when you get that CEO in place.

[00:34:05] Sidney Sogbor: Right. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, man. Thank you, Chaz. It's been great.

Discover how this first-generation American built a multi-million dollar empire in the water construction industry! Join host Chaz Wolfe as he sits down with Sidney Sogbor to learn his secrets for success. With over 8 years in the business, Sidney knows what it takes to win big. Find out how to stay productive, multiply your bids, and be a provider for others. In this episode, you'll get invaluable tips for growing your business and achieving your dreams. Plus, hear the inspiring story of how Sidney overcame obstacles to become a true king in his field. Don't miss out on this must-listen episode! Subscribe to the podcast and give us a five-star review to support more amazing content.

Sidney Sogbor:

Website: https://seadmokwater.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seadmok/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seadmok-water-construction-l-l-c/

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