Remodeling your Career with Francisco Duron, Part 1

It's only failure if you don't learn from it.

Is it like, hell yeah, I was bad ass back then.

You're wearing dozens of hats you need to bring in the business. You need to find the customers,

So was it like a different learning experience?

I was doing pizza four years with no direction.

see the stuff on TikTok or whatever, start a business, get an LLC and it's sure.

No one is going to hold your hand

So You mentioned word of mouth, relationships, and communication. Did they teach you that at St. Phillips?

No.

I hated it. But we made some stuff happen this week.

learn how to solve their problems,

What is going on l and m family? I'm here with a family member. Super special opportunity. My cousin Francisco Duron first time we were just chatting about YouTube and podcasting and. As you were talking about that, it made me think you got into the trades and you figured it out. What was it that helped you decide to get into the trades?

I guess growing up, I was always into those TV shows house flipping, remodeling, renovating, all that kind of stuff, but always try to Do stuff for my mom, whatever family member that was willing to let me learn on site. And I even come and fix my mom's house from time to time and I look at the stuff I did back then and I'm like, Oh man, I can't believe, this is what I did. Cause I know way better now what I saw on TV like 15 years ago. Yeah.

So what's that to go back and see the work you did? Is it like, hell yeah, I was bad ass back then. Or is it like, Ooh, damn.

Yeah. It's Oh damn. But I tried and it worked and held up. Knowing what I know now, it's like like I was saying to you earlier, there's people at home trying to do this stuff without any knowledge, what's the right way. And of course there's like multiple options on how to do anything, so my hope is to eventually, like I was saying, get on YouTube and start trying to help people, who can't afford to pay the contractor, who can't afford to pay the plumber or the electrician because they're gonna do it whether someone's there to help'em or not. And I'd rather they do it safe

When you first started getting paid by people other than family, what was the primary trade that you were doing?

Yeah, it was more handyman work. It was like just fix this faucet, fix the ceiling fan. So my sister, she's been in property management for most of her life. And she introduced me to a contractor who was looking for someone work with him. And so I was just there just doing odds and ends I had just finished trade school with St. Philip's. Oh, and I was like super excited. I was like, here's my chance to jump in and learn. And someone's willing to take me on. And I was like, just excited for the opportunity because I did have my education, but everyone knows education and real world just. They're completely different words. And yeah, so I was excited, and I hit the floor running, and I just stayed focused on learning, and then eventually I got to the point where I figured I think I know enough to... Go out on my own, and I tried a couple of times and honestly, I failed like every time. Yeah, and I went back and I went back and it's just a lot of people feel like, like they're gonna try once or twice and they fail and then, they give up and you're not gonna get anywhere without failing. That's, it's just learning. It's opportunity to learn and grow. It's only failure if you don't learn from it.

Okay. You went to trade school at St. Phillips and then your sister hooked you up, got a job, and then did that for a while, and then you're like, hell with it. I'm gonna start my own thing. Back to the trade school. So you went to St. Phillips right there off of General Hudnall? Did you go to the, what was it, Southwest Campus there?

That's where the trades are at. Everything else is you can go anywhere, SAC, St. Phillips.

And why did you pick that program?

I guess because for me I was interested in everything plumbing, electrical, AC, carpentry stuff, everything. And there was like one, I guess it was a major, where it was like construction project management. And actually, you know what? Hang on, let me go even further back. I was doing pizza for four years with no direction. I was just, I had gone to UTSA for a few years, no guidance. I felt uncomfortable it just didn't feel right for me. I probably could have done it if I focused and, this is what I want to do, but... I just kept going because that's what schools do. And I believe they'll do that. They push you go to college, go to university. You want a degree and all this and that. And I went and I just, I hated it, honestly. And I would I would go just so my family knew that I was going. And then I would leave and just fill my time with something else. And then and then I would go back and work with pizza and. And I love that job, but I knew this isn't really what I want. And then I started looking into Craigslist at the time, it was like the big place to look for jobs. And I saw like apartments and stuff like that. I was like, I like that kind of stuff and maybe I can get in there, I don't have a history or whatever. So that's when I decided, like, trade school.

running your own business. Okay. Like the expectations and the message, go to school, go to university, go to college, go get a degree. You gave it a shot. You knew, discovered hell, this is not for me. This is not the thing. And then eventually that led you to trade school. And so some people might say how is going to trade school at St. Phillips different than university? So was it like a different learning experience? Was it the subjects? What was it that made it? It was,

so in my opinion, like university, it's there's so many people there, so there's not very much attention that's paid to every student. Versus St. Philip's I felt like they paid, there weren't as many students in each course, so there was a little more attention. But at the same time, after being around everything and everyone for so long, you come to learn that, it's all on you. No one is going to hold your hand wherever you go, your mom, or your dad, or whoever it is that you call family, they'll hold your hand, but they're not going to take you on your career path. They're there to help you when it comes to your career path. That's totally on you. Whether it's school, whether it's online, whether it's books, whether it's... There's plenty of things I learn now, even on YouTube, that I didn't learn in school, or Google, all the access we have now that we didn't have then. I learn a lot, and as long as you focus on what it is you want to learn, and focus on getting better at it, you'll always be okay. There will always be a job, there's not a job, You can go out on your own. It's, I tell a lot of people like it's easy to start a business. It's super easy. the most difficult part is keeping it going. that's where your commitment and making sure you do the best job that you can. You're not always going to do the best job. I've been called back to plenty of properties where Oh, we don't like the way this look, or something fell off, or whatever, and, it's just mistakes, or rushing, or distractions, and you learn from all that, and you get better attention the next time you go and you're in that situation, oh, I remember when I did this at another house, and it was all bad, so now I need to make sure I'm focused on what I'm doing and as long as you're willing to go back, and, Let the customer know hey, I'm sorry, it's my mistake, but I'll be sure to fix whatever it is that, no extra charge, because that's on you. That's your mistake. You go and fix that. You don't say oh I'm going to have to charge you again. No that's not on them. That's your mistake. And if you want repeat I'm sorry, repeat customers, that's what you got to do. To get the good word of mouth, to get the respect.

So you said, you mentioned that your business, you tried, failed a couple times. What are some of the things that, that, that caused or contributed to that, the failure of the business or those launches?

So whenever I try to go out on my own, it's usually like I had to buy everything. I need to make sure I have every tool. And I spent so much money that I didn't have money to carry myself whenever there was time off or, cause when you start on your own, like it's all on you, you need to bring in the business. You need to find the customers, you're at, you're wearing dozens of hats, sales, marketing, everything, you're doing everything. And most people don't even know that they need sales or that they need marketing, or they need HR, or they need financing, the accountant. I can go on and on. But, that's where I learned all that. I went out on my own and I tried it can seem like failure, and I'll keep saying it as long as you learn from it, Where I'm at now, it took me about six years of me going back and forth on I saved up enough money to where I I work with companies that purchase homes, they rehab them, and the big problem with that for me was it takes 30 days after completion to get paid. So if you have a two or three week project, And it's 10, 000 and you gotta pay out of pocket for all the material, all the labor, everything. You're not gonna get that 10, 000 30 days after completion. That's if you're lucky. That's if they don't make a mistake on their end and they're like, oh, we're sorry. That happened to me one time. I was waiting like 12, 000 and all my accounts were down to zero. And I was freaking out and I was calling, and emailing, and texting everybody I could Hey, 1 past 30 days, can you send me some money? But I kept going. You can't stop just because the Once you catch up to the 30 days, it turns into a rotation, and then the stream is just steadier. With that, I learned how to, like, when you spend your money, wait till you have a good amount of money to and then you can spend, whatever you want on vacation for a nice dinner, or whatever, make your family happy.

You see the stuff on TikTok or whatever, start a business, get an LLC and it's sure. But that cashflow, man it's a real thing. There's, it's not okay, I'm done. I'm going to get a check, right? Like you, and then learning or dealing with that delays, the invoice doesn't process appropriately or whatever. And you're still hanging and you still have to have cash to keep the next project going. And so what do you think for you? What is the biggest fight? Would it be worse to have too much work or worse to not have

enough work? Worse to not have enough. If you have good relationships with the people you're working with, you can let them know, look, I'm sorry. I'm busy right now. It's going to take me a while to get to your project. I understand if you want to pass it on to someone else. Right now, I need to focus on what I'm working on. As long as there's communication between you and whoever it is, everything's fine. If they don't understand and they want to be like, upset and angry no, you need to handle my stuff first. Then that's probably not someone you want to work because it's never going to go away. It's never going to change. And it's going to stress you out. If you need to work with that person, then, talk to the other people like, Hey, I have this one customer they give me like 80% of my work and it's really important for me to do whatever I have to do for them right now, but I promise I will get back on your job as soon as I take care of this little situation or project or whatever it is, it's all about communication and a lot of people don't. That's where all, a lot of the problems can be solved before they even happen.

Yes. So you mentioned word of mouth, relationships, and communication. Did they teach you that at St. Phillips?

No. How did you learn that? It's just experience. I've been doing this now close to 10 years. And it's not necessarily work experience, it's life experience. Friends, family, relationships, all that kind of stuff. And I'll be the first to admit I'm not the best communicator. Even when I get in front of a crowd with a mic I freeze, my voice cracks even more than it does. And, being a male Hispanic, we're not very good at sharing our feelings. I struggle with that one a lot still. But yeah it's just life, learning that communication helps

I love because I get to stalk you or follow you in the background on Facebook because you've over the Years, I've seen you post about your business and the work and you know the stuff that you're going through I'm like hell Yeah, man, like Fighting the fight, right? And most recently what caught my attention was you were you had a post about marketing and so how, where are you on that? Like marketing your business and letting people know the services you provide.

So when a lot of people start, like I said, they don't know very much about what they need, to focus on, and like lately. Because I have a crew of three or four guys at any given time. And I take it personally when I can't give them work and then I feel bad. That's my responsibility as an employer. I need to give my guys work. Because they got families too that they gotta feed or build or whatever it is. it's my belief that, the agreement is I'm gonna pay you this salary to do work for me, but Not just that, it's my responsibility to make sure you have that work, because that's what you signed on for. Because if you don't take care of your workers, they're not going to take care of you. And I've learned that. I've even overpaid people and, it doesn't work out. But, it's growing pains. because of that I've been YouTubing a lot about, business and scaling, getting bigger, doing more business. I'm a huge fan of me, Leila and Alex Fermosa on YouTube. Oh yeah. like, they're big time, they're big time but they're kind enough to share their words about how if you're the small guy, this is what you need to focus on. I started, I broke it all down. Like I Googled, I was like, okay, all the parts of a business. And it was like, like the marketing, sales, HR, accounting, list goes on and on. for me it's okay, I'm pretty good at, coordinating my employees. Hey, you go here, you do that. Handling the work. I'm pretty good at that. I suck at marketing. I don't even advertise or do anything with private just because of the way I am. I go to big business, so I can avoid all that but even big business slows down. Then it's oh, what do I do now? Now I look into where I can put myself in a position to lead more big business. it's networking, it's joining groups. There's a couple of big groups that I've joined on deals with. Property Managers, the others like Realtors, and my focus is the Property Managers because that's my niche the past 10 years. Like I said, I work with big business who. They buy run down houses or whatever they fix them up in. So I know what the renters are looking for the property managers are looking for, like I can spot things. Like it's almost unconscious now when I walk into a house and I'm just like, I'm like, oh, this needs to be done, that needs to be done, this is probably how long this is, that's gonna take, and this is how much this and that's gonna cost. So yeah, finding out where these people are that I want to work with, because it doesn't have to be property managers. It doesn't have to be, you can go with private and you can go with commercial, there's all different kinds of little niches you can find your way into. And if you focus on that. You get to understand how those people's minds work and what they're looking for, and you can learn how to solve their problems, and let them know this is what we do, and this is how we can help you with your problems, and, if you need assistance, let us know, and, that's where the relationship starts, and if, like I said, if you know what you're doing, let And you do your best to provide a good service, whatever it is, they're gonna keep you on and they're gonna keep working with you. Yep. They're gonna keep feeding you. A lot of times I do get frustrated with some of these people because, their expectations or their lack of knowledge and it's deadlines like, we need it done this and then, I always imagine myself as those jugglers with like pins and you know there's people like throwing you pins as well and you're just going back and forth all day like that's my job and I hate it and I love it because it feels pretty good to be able to do all that but in the middle of it's frustrating. But at the end of the day, When you realize I'm doing this and it's working, it feels pretty good.

Yeah. So when it's happening, it's this is bullshit. But yeah, at the end of the day, there's a sense of accomplishment, sense of pride. I feel you, man, because, when I came up to the, I came up in plumbing there was a point where I started, became a foreman and then, different responsibilities and a superintendent and I had all these different projects, more people. And it's I'm just trying to not let the ball drop. One of them might fall. Okay, that one, I'm gonna let that one fall. And I hated it. But in the evening or in the weekend, it's man, like we made some stuff happen this week. That's awesome. And then when it's happening I hate this. Why do I keep doing this? And it was just up and down, like in that seesaw. Thinking about all the problems that you solve, the relationships, the appreciation you have for the people that you serve. Like all the skills, because you, like you already know, working in the trades, it's not just a hands on, low thinking work. It's intense work. And then you're, interfacing with the client or the client representative. So there's all these skills like packs and packs of skill sets that you use now as a business owner. If you think back to when you were, let's say middle school, where'd you go? Lowell?

Tafoya baby,

the Toros. That's what I'm talking about. So back when you were at Tafoya what was it? What did you think you were going? to do in terms of your career. What was it you imagined you would be doing for a living?

Oh, man, just so we started talking about them. Come back for part two next week, when Francisco shares his vision for his company, for himself and for his team. And there's a chunk of inspiration. When he tells us about the footprint, he wants to leave on this world. I wonder if you notice the subtle little change that happened at the beginning of this podcast episode. It was kind of fun doing it a little bit of an experiment. I like it. I'm interested to know what you think. One thing that hasn't changed. Is, we will always do shout outs to the LnM Family members that have taken the time. To post a comment. Sharer review, And so it is time to celebrate our. LnM Family member, Mr. Henry Nutt henry nuts said his story is important for us all to hear and read. I know it will have a great impact on the men and women in our industry. We need every voice that is willing to give their part. Each part makes the whole. The story he's talking about is my story. I do. Uh, and that's in the book becoming the promise. You are intended to be. And I 100% agree with Mr. Henry. And that there's so many of us out there. Uh, that have immense experience in the men's knowledge, even though it may have been earned through pain. Um, and we start sharing it. We can mend this industry. We can heal, and give voice to the silent men and women out there that are suffering all alone. Be cool. And we'll talk at you next time.