UNCHARTED: The Courage to Succeed: How to Handle Uncertainty in Business

Starting the conversation:

What do you do when filled with fear and must move forward? It’s essential to recognize that taking the time to engage in meaningful work is vastly different from merely keeping busy with tasks that don’t yield positive results.

In this insightful episode of UNCHARTED, host Jess Dewell engages in a deep conversation with Erik Holmberg, the president of Nauvatis Coaching and Consulting.

As an internationally bestselling author and a seasoned business coach, Erik shares invaluable lessons from his own journey. He discusses the strategies and insights while launching his business during a recession filled with challenges and uncertainties. Erik emphasizes the importance of identifying and focusing on the right actions drawn from his experiences in overcoming adversity.

The conversation highlights how to foster resilience, adapt to changing circumstances, and harness the lessons learned from past difficulties. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, this episode offers practical advice for thriving in uncertain times by bringing forth the elements that can lead to success.

Host: Jess Dewell

Guest: Erik Holmberg

Resources

• Waypoints of Entrepreneurship

Transcript

Eric Holmberg 00:00
The leader doesn’t lead from the front. They lead from being inside the pack, in my mind. Sometimes they even lead from behind.

Jess Dewell 00:07
I’m so glad you’re here. Thanks for stopping by. At the Bold Business Podcast, we are normalizing important conversations. Yes. There are tips. Yes, there are ways to solve problems. More importantly are gonna be what do you need for yourself to be able to solve those problems and make the most of the education, the training, and the programs that you are already using? This is a supplement to that. It can sit on top of it, fuel your soul, fuel your mind, and most importantly, regardless of where you’re at on your journey, maybe you’re starting out. Maybe you’re ready to scale. Maybe you’re going through a reinvention. The conversations we are having will help you at each of those stages. So hang around, see what’s going on, and I look forward to seeing you engaging with our videos.

Announcer 00:58
You are listening to the Bold Business Podcast Okay. Where you will hear firsthand experiences about what it really takes to ensure market relevance and your company’s future.

Jess Dewell 01:10
Welcome to Uncharted, everybody. This is my friend and colleague, Eric Holmberg, and he and I have known each other for a few years now. And it was interesting because we were having a conversation, and I said, wait a second. You need to come talk about this on Uncharted. So here he is, everybody. And I wanna tell you that Eric has built a world-class electrical service business, not once, but twice, both training and inspiring himself and being dedicated and passionate towards building the right team. He’s also a certified life coach and Enneagram practitioner that uses his skills to help his team and those around him step into greatness and leadership. Now, this path is really interesting because some of us get the inspiration we need different ways.

Jess Dewell 01:58
His comes from his desire of connection with other people, the fact that he loves to sail, and all the elements of that, whether it’s just with his family, whether it’s with a team that he knows, whether it’s a team he doesn’t know. And so being a, a, a husband and a father and a business owner, I bring you Eric.

Eric Holmberg 02:20
Hello. Thank you, Jess.

Jess Dewell 02:24
Hi, Eric. I like starting off with a laugh like that. Yeah. And the reason, Eric, I want I was thinking about uncharted in our most recent conversations is because, you know, we always have to bring stuff with us from our past, but we also have to choose what to leave behind. And so I wanna start this in this foundation twice. You have built up a business twice. Let’s do a quick recap for our audience and talk about what that actually means. So in 2008, an economic downturn

Eric Holmberg 02:57
Sure. I started Windward Construction doing house flips and soon realized that, I would be much better off if I specialize in exclusively electrical. Dabbled from there into the solar industry, found out that was just not really my jam. It wasn’t really profitable. There’s other stories there but, yeah. And carried this tenacity with me that eventually basically led to burnout in 2014 and, stepped away. And, yeah, left, jumped on a boat with family, sailed around for 2 years, crossed the Atlantic twice, homeschooled, had a lot of really interesting, hilarious, crazy, tragic, juicy adventures. And, one thing led to another.

Eric Holmberg 03:51
I ended up coming back in 2016 and starting all over again from 0 because the sale fell through. And, Wait a second.

Jess Dewell 03:59
So I wouldn’t pause because I know your story, but our listeners don’t. So you had burnout, you exited your business, and you went and recharged for 2 years. During that time, the sale was happening, and it failed. It fell through. And then now you’re like, okay. I have a choice, and you chose to come back.

Eric Holmberg 04:24
Well, life sort of intervened. So, so we hit a reef in the middle of the night and lost the boat. And we found ourselves being rescued in Venezuela and, came back to home base. And basically fell into what can we do now? What’s next? What’s possible? What’s here? A lot of it was triage. Okay. Let’s get started. And I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to do, but I knew that the economy was jammin’. I mean, when I came back in 2016, I walked into the grocery store and my jaw hit the floor. I was like, holy cow. Things are rocking. And so lucky for me, reputation was still intact. I just had to, reclaim it because it was essentially abandoned. Turn the phone on and it started ringing. And, just incredibly blessed for that. Very, very blessed for that. And it took me about a year to decide, okay, do I really wanna do this? Am I gonna build it? What am I gonna do? I mean, you know, I was I was angry for a year. Right? You know, a loss of boat, loss of business. This wasn’t Plan A. This wasn’t even, like, on the radar for a plan.

Jess Dewell 05:46
You found yourself angry, and frustrated, and things seemed to be falling apart around you, but it was the path, and you embraced it, and even through all of that there was some, it wasn’t, it wasn’t obstacle after obstacle, Right? The other obstacles were bigger and had to be dealt with emotionally and mentally. The actual work you’re doing was easy, it sounded like. Sounds like it was like, I am all I’ve got. This is the way it ought to be. Every time I do this, everything touch it turns into my golden egg if you will.

Eric Holmberg 06:18
Sure. There was there was a fair amount of I mean there’s familiarity. Repetition is a mother of skill. Right? So if we have our way of doing things and we step back into it, you know, we have muscle memory, we have systems and processes that are in place, we have lessons that we have learned that cannot be unlearned because it’s stored up here in the old coconut. Yeah, it’s there’s a lot that that can’t be taken away even though there’s there’s a loss of a business, you know, loss of nest egg or whatever. There’s knowledge that can’t be taken away and the lessons that are learned.

Jess Dewell 06:53
So what from that time and now, now here we are. And talk about a journey, I like the way you described the whole encompassing all of the emotions, all of the opportunity, all of the threats, everything is coming true. And now here we find ourselves again, kind of like starting a business in 2008 in an economic downturn, kind of like losing everything and having to start over again, kind of like what do we do now? Because it’s so different than kind of like anything we have ever experienced before.

Eric Holmberg 07:26
Mhmm. Absolutely. So there’s there’s a couple of commonalities that that come through. We are in totally different times right now. Nobody’s got a crystal ball. There’s a lot of uncertainty. There’s a lot of fear out there. There’s a lot of anxiety out there. There’s a lot of unknowns. There’s also common threads that come through. Lessons I’ve learned from before that are still applicable now and sometimes even more applicable like

Jess Dewell 07:52
Give us 1 or 2 of those. Right? I’ll bet you those are some alright. Because you are filled with wisdom and tips. I want some right now.

Eric Holmberg 08:03
So I would say, first off, knowing your margins, job costing, that is never more relevant than in a down economy because I’ll just give the example, for example, doing a house flip. Right? It’s all about buying it right. If you don’t buy it right, you’re stuck in water from day 1. Right? So, right now, it’s very tempting for service-based companies to say, hey, I’ll expand our service territory. We’ll do anything and everything, which in 2008 I did. You want me to go on Sunday morning 6 AM to go crawl underneath your mobile home trailer in Aurora to go fix your coax cable? I’ll be at your 50 Okay.

Jess Dewell 08:43
So listening, that’s how many miles away from where you live?

Eric Holmberg 08:46
Well, it’s a solid hour’s drive.

Jess Dewell 08:48
Yeah. On a Sunday morning. So no traffic. Right. Yeah. Exactly.

Eric Holmberg 08:54
Right. Yeah. Well, it’s also when they when they ask for it. Right? So it’s really tempting to lead with that fear-based consciousness and say, okay, I’ll just I’ll take anything. Right? Do anything. But there’s issues with that. First off, if you’re not making what you need to make, you might as well just stay home. Do all those things that you’d really been meaning to get to anyway, and you just never seem to have time to work on your processes, work on your systems. Right? But that takes fortitude. That takes a lot of fortitude to just say, okay, let’s work on what we need to work on. Because it’s that whole zigzag thing. Right? When you’re when you’re busy, you’re not prospecting. When you’re prospecting, you’re not busy.

Jess Dewell 09:38
Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Eric Holmberg 09:41
So that there’s that whole zigzag thing and it, I’m kinda popcorning here, but it I mean, it comes down to self-care and boundaries. Right?

Jess Dewell 09:48
It does. Well and it does. And holding the right boundaries. So something that you said, your first step, understanding your job costing, and in and then you said a magic word that I know everybody listening, will understand, and that’s know your margins. Because our margins may be money, we must have cash to keep going. However, the second thing you said also is a type of nontangible margin, efficiency of process, quality of the way the work is done. Those, those are things that if you’re right, it’s a great time to double down on because we’ve got more time and we can spend that time to continue to build what we’re building so that as the work is coming back, when the work is, not only we can do that, but maybe we can also find a new opportunity and understand. Because I think for many of us, it took us by surprise.

Jess Dewell 10:44
If our supply chains are local, I think we were hit harder, or our delivery models are more local. I think we got hit harder as businesses than if we had national and international, supply change or delivery models or have clients that are in those areas. Because the people that I see the most prepared are the ones that have clients that were recognizing there was a problem before the United States re-recognized there was a problem. And, of course, by the time the US recognized there was a problem, now we’re starting to think about things and kinda like, well, how much is it gonna affect us? We are the United States. We already have this way of life, and we’re really solid in that. And guess what? We were on a magic carpet that landed.

Eric Holmberg 11:31
Yeah. It was the head in the sand syndrome.

Jess Dewell 11:34
Yeah. Yeah. I think and nobody and, and that’s actually, I think so talk to me about this a little bit because even in the best of times, there are things that we put in our, our head in the sand about. Would you agree with that?

Eric Holmberg 11:48
Things that, that we put in our head for what? I didn’t hear you.

Jess Dewell 11:50
Even in the best of times, there are things that we choose to avoid or ignore, so we put our head in the sand about.

Eric Holmberg 11:58
Well, you know, tuning into to job costing, thinking about our buyers, especially now, like, it’s it’s hard to just put fear on the back burner and think about your goals and your mission and where you really wanna be.

Jess Dewell 12:12
It’s so true. And in your case, I mean, it’s not just you. You have a team. Absolutely. And that, that adds weight in a lot of ways.

Eric Holmberg 12:22
Oh, a lot of weight. Yeah. I and I’ve got people who are calling me every week looking for a position but I take it very seriously. I mean I feel like it’s their feet under my dinner table if I bring them on board, you know. So I’m unwilling to bring somebody on board until I’m pulled to go work down back in the field myself or, you know, I’m certainly not willing to take away food from somebody else’s plate, you know, for another a new team member. So some of that is just the fortitude and his gut instinct us to know when to to take on the next team member. And we’re we’re in an interesting position right now. We’re refining our processes and the timing actually is perfect with it because I came to a realization we had way too much complexity going on. You know, we’ve got 3 teams out there going maybe 3 places a day potentially. And that leads to a crazy amount of jobs and invoices. So it just became so much of a mental burden that that’s that’s just one example here to, to to talk about the processes. You know, that just became such a mental burden that I knew that we couldn’t move forward with that model. So you had to change that pivot and we’re implementing it right now. It’s a little rocky, but we’re getting there. We’re getting there.

Jess Dewell 13:41
I’m your host, Jess Dewell. We’re getting down to business on the Bold Business Podcast. This is where we’re tackling the challenges that matter most to you with actionable and achievable advice to get real results that lead to your success.

Announcer 13:56
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Jess Dewell 14:14
But every, you know, okay, so if you’re doubling down on your system, and okay, so there you said some really good things in there. 1st, not only knowing your margins about the work that you’re doing, recognizing the funnel with which that work is coming in and how strong it is. I also heard you talking a little bit about that. But the third thing is the way to grow that actually fortifies a team and doesn’t accidentally erode the team. It’s what you were talking about with, their feet under your table. And where do you do that? So in your case, you’re not expanding people, but you’re double you’re doubling down in process as much as possible. And in that process, that’s, you know, is this a good time or a bad time to be doing something that is so rocky and different because we’re already in uncertainty? And now, like, the core of your business, billing and invoicing is also brand new and uncertain.

Eric Holmberg 15:14
Yeah. Well, it’s been, it’s been an interesting ride. I’ll tell you that. To give context, understand that this was in place months ago. I was researching this back in Q4 and trying to decide on which type of process that we needed to do before this whole madness hit. Right? So that was already in the pipeline, so to speak. And it’s actually turned out really great because we are a little lighter on our workflow. So the guys have a chance to noodle around and get this system implemented. It’s not totally done yet, but there’s certain things that need to be in place because what happens is we can become our own bottlenecks. Okay? In our growth of our business, you know, what got you here won’t go won’t get you there. You’ve heard this. Right? So if, you know, if you see a bottleneck, you gotta work through that. Otherwise, it’s just gonna hold you back. So and for us, the bottleneck is for me it was having a dashboard where I know exactly the status of every job so things don’t fall through the cracks. You know, and we can do our time management too on there so we could attribute our time for payroll exactly to each job. And have everything kind of in in consolidated into as as few spaces as we can, like all the programs. I came to realize when I kept onboarding people, it was hilarious. I’d say, okay. So you’ve got this thing and you got this thing and you got this program and you got that program. And before you know it, what ended up happening was people burn out before they’d even onboard, and they’d be like, this is way too much going on. And, you know, a prime example, you know, what caught you here won’t get you there. Right? Because it might work a little while, but not.

Jess Dewell 17:09
So what made you decide to keep this? Right? You this was something you decided in q 4 of last year, and you decided even though so what, what did you draw on to make that decision and say, now is the right time to stay on path this way? We might change other things, but this, we’re keeping on our path right now. What, what were you drawing from in your past?

Eric Holmberg 17:31
What’s that drawing from? Well, I like to simmer things down to the pain and pleasure principle. I mean, honestly, it was so painful for me mentally mentally to try and track everything. I, I felt like my brain was just going to explode. So, it’s not only that, but let’s rewind a couple more months, actually. Because when I came back and I decided to rebuild the company, I was also very resentful from working in the field. I was like, listen, I’m getting older. I shouldn’t be having to do this. I had this story running in my head. And I told the universe I don’t want this, I don’t want this, I don’t want this. And you know what happened. I’ll tell the listeners, I hit my hand with a saw. And, what started out as being like, okay, this is an injury and I’ll be out for a couple weeks to holy cow, this is significant and I’ll need multiple surgeries to wait a minute, now I have lost a major amount of functionality with my hand for the rest of my life potentially. So as a result of that, I was left with a question. Question is pivot and abandon the business or grow the hell out of it because I needed to sustain myself and emerge as a leader to push myself into being a leader. And that’s what essentially I’ve done.

Jess Dewell 18:53
The next level of leader, I’d say.

Eric Holmberg 18:55
Yeah. Absolutely. And a lot of that is, you know, empowering employees and team members. I don’t even like to call them employees, you know. Empowering your team and, you know, a leader doesn’t lead from the front. They lead from being inside the pack, in my mind. At least that’s my experience. Sometimes they even lead from behind. Right? To support the team and you know, encourage them on to keep going and to say hey listen maybe I don’t have all the answers. I’ve had team meetings like that with my guys. Let’s listen. Here’s what’s going on. We have a check-in. I’m getting migraines now. I’m like super anxious. I don’t know what the future’s gonna bring, but I do know that I’m here with you and we’re gonna get through it together. Right? So just having them hear that, I think was very is very powerful.

Jess Dewell 19:45
Mhmm. Well, and the way that you are building your business also, that empowerment matters because each of your people is, admin, salesperson, and craftsperson. And so I think that I I think that that’s really important because not only do they have to have that set of skills, they also get to, emerge to the next level of leader. It’s so funny, Whether it be burnout, whether it be the boat in the reef, whether it be, the saw in your hand, I feel like those are those are, like, the ends of Super Mario Brothers when you had to face the big boss to get you the big swaddle. Yeah. And your way is always right front and center, straight through.

Eric Holmberg 20:36
You make it sound easy.

Jess Dewell 20:38
It’s not. There’s no, no way, man. Most people start at the bosses at each at the end of each level, and you’re not. You’ve, you’ve now had 3 big ones in the in less than a decade. That’s pretty amazing.

Eric Holmberg 20:49
Yeah. Thanks for that. I I I appreciate that. And it’s it’s been an interesting interesting ride. I’m basically back up now to the same level that took me 7 years to build. And it so that was what? 3 and a half years? 3 and a half years? Right? So basically half the time, we’re back up, man. And I think this next year we’re gonna surpass where we’ve ever been before, which, speaking of uncharted, I’m now going into uncharted waters. I’m actually growing bigger than I have before.

Eric Holmberg 21:23
So are you facing that?

Jess Dewell 21:26
You know, one of the things you were talking about fear and the way you show up to fear, and in my notes I wrote embrace fear, and you were talking about working on systems regardless of fear, and you were talking about motivating yourself and others and creating a, a cohesive group. What else do you need to do to, to do you think you’re going to take forward into what’s next to face that fear? Maybe link arms with it.

Eric Holmberg 21:54
Well, good question. I would say make friends with being uncomfortable is one big thing, you know. And this is one of the things that I really took away, one of the big takeaways, there’s many takeaways, but from my, my life coaching training was we can be uncomfortable and have a sense of dread without it killing us. Okay? We can choose to live in being uncomfortable and just sit with it. You know? Just just just sit with it for a little bit. Right? Because life isn’t all puppy dogs and rainbows and everything all the time for anybody. And we never know the storms that are going on inside someone. We have no idea.

Jess Dewell 22:38
That’s true. We all see the world differently. If we are able to just hold that space and just breathe and you know, for me, it’s getting out spreadsheets. It’s looking at you have to consider worst-case scenarios, but don’t let that be the ball and chain on your foot and stop you from reaching for the sky. Okay? We need to have practicality. We need to have balance in order to properly move forward. And, I mean, it, it was a jump, man. This last fall, I decided to go full tilt and pay for premium healthcare coverage for my employees.

Eric Holmberg 23:16
I’d never done that. It’s freaking expensive, man. Yeah. You know? Wow. How do you gain good talent? You treat others as good or better than you would treat yourself. Right? Because what are what are what are team members really looking for? Right? What are their needs? They wanna feel heard. They wanna feel listened to. They, they wanna have safety and security so that they know if they get sick, they’re not gonna be left out in the cold. Right? You know, they they need that. It’s kinda it’s like a family. You know? Right. Gotta gotta look out for each other. So, yeah. It’s so I would say facing facing uncertainty, it it takes fortitude and, being willing to be uncomfortable because if you’re not willing to be uncomfortable, this is not your path.

Jess Dewell 24:04
Right. Well, and then there’s also this where uncomfortable is. For some of us, it’s always the same. And right? So maybe the unknown of the future is always uncomfortable for us, but maybe for some of us it’s getting real and, understanding better the sales process. And I know in times like this, the better we understand the sales process, the better we are at not only recognizing what might be coming, but we can also plan and decide when and how we ought to be looking, and if we ought to be looking for that’s so funny. I just used the word ought twice in row. I made it 3. And thinking about that, and so for you, I know, you were telling me about the 3 types of buyers and how they interface with your business. So how are you using those 3 types of buyers and how they interface your business to not necessarily find the clear path forward but to help understand where the path is to be able to move forward?

Eric Holmberg 25:09
Sure. Absolutely. Good question. So in my world, I see 3 types of buyers. You have the people, process and the value buyer. Okay? So, let’s start with the value buyer because that’s pretty quick and easy to identify. Value buyer. The questions from the value buyer is, how much is this? Am I getting my money’s worth? What do you charge per hour? How much is that? And if you wanna I I have kind of a a little spin. If you equate this to food or like staying at home, it could be, well, how much will that bag of pretzels behind the couch save me on dinner if I eat it? Right? Yeah. K. So there’s the process buyer. So that’s more on the how, who, where, when, what. How do you do what to do? Do you service this area? Do you install this type of product? Can you come at a specific time? Because that’s the only time that works for me. And if you can’t, I’ll call somebody else. Right? They’re not so worried about the price like a value buyer is. They say, hey, this is the time I need it serviced. Right? And it could be 2, 3 weeks from now or whatever. They say they’re buying a house, they’re gonna move in, they need the stuff. Right? And from a food perspective, you could say, well, how many types of Hamburger Helper are there versus ramen? And how is this meat processed? And how you know, what kind of sausage can I add to my mac and cheese and things like that? Right? I. I’m just throwing this out. Hopefully, that can real

Jess Dewell 26:39
I totally and completely. I’m enthralled. I haven’t had breakfast yet. Let me get ring. We’re recording at 8 AM. So I got my cup of tea, but I have not had breakfast yet. So I understand why food is on your brain. It’s on my

Eric Holmberg 26:53
sure. Fair enough. So I, we talked to the process buyer by saying, hey, here’s the spec sheet on the product. Here’s how long it takes to install. Here’s what the finished product will look like. Here’s how loud it is. Here’s how much power it uses, etcetera, etcetera. Right? Then we get the people buyer. A people buyer is all about trust and this is why networking groups work so well with service providers. They ask the questions like, how long have you been in business? Do you live near me? What reviews do you have and are they consistent? When you have a bad review, not if but when, how is it responded to? Is there a conflict there? Like, what type of person are you? And from a food perspective, you say, well, how healthy is this meal for me? Right? Was this meat processed in a sustainable way? Right? So you think about okay. People who go to Whole Foods or as I call it, Whole Paycheck. Right? Or most of their purchases, they are concerned about, you know, the, the process and the people aspect, not the value. Right? Because if they’re value buyers, they’d be going to Sam’s Club. Right? With me so far?

Jess Dewell 28:00
So far so good. I’m with you.

Eric Holmberg 28:02
Yeah. So people buyers in my world are the best ones to talk to because I’m all about transparency. Somebody who wanna ask for the, the license and the insurance. You know what? I work to get here. I, I show it off. In fact, I’ve got my price book. It’s on page 1. There’s the license. There’s the insurance. Boom. Trust is sorted out. Right? And it’s important to work with people buyers because they can help build your business. Right? They talk to their friends. They talk to their neighbors. Right? They, they trust you. Right? So these are the people that we show up on their doorstep, but we have about, I don’t know, 6 seconds. Bam. Can they allow us in their house? Because you know what? The attic access is in their closet and their underwear is still on the floor. Okay? So they need to be comfortable with us. Right? So they’re always the ones typically but here’s the cool thing. They’re usually the ones doing their homework before they even call you or before they call me. They’ve already looked on the online profiles and figured out what are the reviews, what are the previous projects, right, that that that that they worked on. Right? So to me, that’s the buyer. So sometimes you can get some crossover. Right? You can get some some combo some combo plates there. So, for example

Jess Dewell 29:27
So you’ve got these buckets. Right? And in these buckets, you’re you have come up with how that works in your business and what the things are so that you can meet them where they are and help move them through the process. And what I, if I were and I’m, I’m I actually am in my brain could be a Venn diagram where they all overlap because you’re right. Sometimes they’re more than 1. The first thing that came to my mind was, like, a quadrant thing or just maybe a maybe just a grab. And, value buyers are the ones that are the longest to convert, if I were to say. And then the people buyers, they’re the shortest to convert because they’ve already done all the work in one scenario. Right? But in another, it might be how how much trust do they have.

Jess Dewell 30:18
And they may they may be very they may be very trusting, but they also may be very value-based, and we don’t know the reason for that. Could be their mentality. It could be their the state of their household right now, and the fact that this just needs to be done, whatever the case may be. And so, what I’m hearing you say is, wanna this is uncertain everyday uncertainty that you’re able to because you know and you’ve thought about, that everyday uncertainty, it can be applied. It’s it’s now a skill that can be applied to other things as well.

Eric Holmberg 30:50
Absolutely. So so here’s here’s how it plays out for me is listen for these things in the conversations when I, I listen for these things when somebody calls me. Okay? So if, if I get a value buyer, usually right out of the gate, they’re saying, how much is that? They don’t even wanna tell me any specifics about the projects. I’ll try and get the bare minimum, throw a number. If it sticks, great. If not, don’t waste your time. Right? Just move on. Right? And we all have some of that in us. Right? Like we’re not gonna pay double for something just because we trust somebody. Okay? We still have a little bit of value, right? And there’s certain industries that gravitate towards, towards the value buyers, like, used cars, Right? You’re it’s full of value buyers. If somebody who’s trying to sell a used car with the process or with people, it’s gonna have a really hard time being successful. Right? As opposed to, like, new cars. New cars is a lot more like the process and the people buyers. Like, for example, Tesla, who’s now reimagined the automobile, is now really into the process. Right? People are not buying that car because it’s the cheapest. Right? Obviously, they’re not value buyers. They’re they’re out there because they feel cool driving it. Right? Because that’s how it makes them feel. So which is why I got my eye on one, but I haven’t gotten them on yet. Can you imagine?

Jess Dewell 32:11
You already you already have an electric car, so you’re already on the path. I mean, let’s be real. So you’re already on that path. You, you’re testing out this whole electric car thing, and then continuing to go, well, so I know one of the things, knowing that there’s so much unknown, knowing that you’ve got your set of fears that you’re facing, your team has their set of fears, and the way that you are integrating and working around that, you know, how how do you think you’re gonna continue to go forward without with so much unknown right now?

Eric Holmberg 32:46
Man, that’s a good question. I do have self-doubt. You know, I I think I was even thinking about it early this morning. You know, we all have our baggage and our little voices in the back of our head that are chattering to us. You know, I think a lot of us, including myself, will just be transparent, you know, battle with self-worth, a battle with, you know, viability and focus and, you know, how things are gonna work. All I can say is by at least knowing the numbers, and having job costing nailed down, I could figure out where, where the stop loss is. But at the same point, don’t live there. So fear can fear can ride in your car. Just don’t let it drive. Okay? So it, it’s not easy. I don’t have all the answers. I mean, the, the question that you used to ask me is a really great one, Jess, because I don’t necessarily have the answers. But I, I know that, I’ve been successful in the past. I have an awesome freaking team. Right? And Dave carries the but I don’t have it. If what?

Jess Dewell 34:01
I said, yes. You do. Have an awesome team.

Eric Holmberg 34:03
Yes. Thank you. They’ve honestly, they’ve carried energy when I’ve had doubt. They have helped carry me through. So, you know, what’s going on right now is really it’s heavy. It’s really hard. You know? People are dying. My wife works at a at, a with an at-risk population, so I think about my choices on a daily basis. My folks are in that age bracket where there’s risk. It’s, you know, it’s hard. But look at look at where we are. People still need the services. As, as I say, electricians never go out of style, man. They’re just service providers don’t go out of style. Things will always need to be fixed. Now, what are the margins on that? Who’s gonna survive, you know, in, in terms of a business that is yet to be seen? That is yet to be seen.

Jess Dewell 34:55
Do you see a do you feel like you have a light though that you’re going toward? Whether that’s your, your true north, right, holding you through?

Eric Holmberg 35:02
I do. And, and one of the things that I’ve chosen to do, has been to diversify a lot of the leads and the, the, the 3 customer groups. Have we talked about 9 Squares before? Are we you familiar with this?

Jess Dewell 35:16
Probably, but we don’t have time to bring our listeners up to it. Sorry, listener. It’s all good. It’s all good. It’s all good. It’s blind him someplace else talking about that. Maybe he can come back and talk about that. Who knows?

Eric Holmberg 35:27
Sure. No. That’s fine. So as, as before, we had the major focus on the percentage of customers being, I don’t know, 60, 7% residential. Now I’m working in some more general contractors and designers, networking with project managers to bring that into the mix as well. And the other third is commercial. So commercial work is great, not restaurants because we know that’s not our jam, but, food production, manufacturing, things of that sort. Marijuana grows, they all need power, lots of power.

Eric Holmberg 36:04
So, yeah, that’s one of the ways for sure.

Jess Dewell 36:06
That’s cool. That you know what’s going to be, what you check-in with as you move forward through this time. Thank you, everybody, for listening. I have to tell you, I always enjoy talking to Eric. And some of this I had heard before and some of it I hadn’t. So not only did I get to learn, I got, I, I some things to chew on for Redirection and our podcast, but also for, just myself in general. So I wanna say thank you, Eric, for being here today. Everybody, this is Uncharted.

Jess Dewell 36:33
Make sure you go to reddirection.com, check out the podcast. Check out everything else that is over there. All of the amazing at your whenever you need them, just in time, free information. Thanks so much. See you next time.

Jess Dewell 36:48
Every single time I have a conversation, I take away something that I wanna share with 25 people. I know when you’re listening to this podcast, you’re also listening for that and will have something that you want to share. In the comments, I would like for you to engage with us. What is that thing that you wanna tell 25 people from this program? Here’s why it’s important. Yes, there are gonna be steps. Yes, you’re gonna be like, oh, I wish I wrote that down. I wish I wasn’t doing this and I could actually take action on that right now. But guess what, you’re not. So engage right now because that one thing you wanna share with others will be the thing that you can figure out how to incorporate in your business,style tomorrow.

Announcer 37:39
Jess hosts the Bold Business Podcast to provide insights for building a resilient, profitable business by deeply understanding your growth strategy, ensuring market relevance and your company’s future. It is bold to deeply understand your growth strategy with your host, Jess Deuel. Get more information about how to drive solutions and reset your growth mindset at reddirection.com. Thank you for joining us and special thanks to our post-production team at The Scott Treatment.