[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Big Ticket Pros, the podcast for agencies, coaches and high end service providers who know what it takes to thrive in competitive markets. I'm your host Ana Gonzalez and you can find me on social media at Annabelle Prime. Our guests share insider tips, strategies and sometimes cautionary tales to help you close bigger deals and scale your business faster.
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[email protected] that's conversational funnels.com Today's guest is Clark Lowe. Clark is the president and CEO of o' Connor Company, a leader in commercial construction known for delivering innovative high impact projects. With a distinguished background in the Marine Corps and expertise in building high performing teams, Clark brings a unique blend of discipline and forward thinking leadership to the industry.
So, Clark, welcome to Big Ticket Pros.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Thanks for having me, Anna. Super excited to be here and let's see what you got.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Awesome. So tell me something, what is the best piece of advice you would give to someone just starting out in your industry, in your business?
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I think Nike says it best in saying just do it. And when it comes to business, I think a lot of people try to get all the blocking and tackling of all the dominoes figured out.
What does that look like? How do I solve problems 1 through 20? And realistically what you see, big business leaders are much more simplistic in that it's just about tackling that problem right in front of you. So just get started, just get moving, just do it.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: I love that approach because I've seen a lot of entrepreneurs who want to get ready and they're getting ready and they're spinning their wheels and they're burning themselves out and they're just trying to, like you said, solving, solve their problems 1 to 20. When all they have to do is solve problem number one.
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: And stop thinking about problem number six. Just like solve problem number one and it's just one step after the other.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Yeah, and that's absolutely right. And I think sometimes we get, you know, and business school, admittedly as an adjunct professor for eight years, we don't do a good job teaching this because it's all about the SWOT analysis and the business plan. And so we these, these Kind of formalities start to build all these, all these dominoes. But if you think about the Mark Cubans of the world and you know, the Elon Musk's, they're not sitting there saying like, hey, here's this elaborate plan that we had and how to do this. They just said, here's problem one. We just figure out how to tackle problem one. And sometimes the problems you think you have, you won't. You, you, they, you never encounter. And then sometimes the problems you never think you have are the ones you encounter. So it's, it's pretty, it's, you know, you're not playing chess when it comes to business. And just keeping the very simple blocking and tackling of dealing with one problem at a time is a surefire way to success.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: I find it super interesting that you're saying that people say you have to have your SWOT analysis, you have to have your business plan, but are they really necessary?
[00:03:29] Speaker B: I don't think they're necessary. I think what the business architecture tries to teach at business schools is this idea of how do you develop a framework of thinking. But there's a huge difference between thinking and acting. And the most absolute important thing of business is acting.
You like your podcast, for instance, you, you, you might not even had started yet because your podcasts now are much better than they were when you started, right? You probably look at those early podcasts, you're just like, oh my God, it was such a different product than what you have now. Imagine if you were still planning for the podcast that you have today. And that's that people get into this reiterative cycle, this reiterative cycle of plan, like, oh, I ran into a new problem, so I need to replan. And then, oh, this will be better. And then they, and, and, and honestly the best approach is just, just to start, start that process where you just guess, test and revise, guest test and revise.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: You know what he said about the podcast? Let's put that, that example. I remember I started with another podcast and it was like, all right, so I need English is not my mother language, you know, And I don't have the night the right background in. It was all of this, you know, and I got this a microphone, like a professional microphone as a present. Like here you have a microphone, you have a webcam go. And I was like, oh my gosh, yes, today. So I started in it. What happened to me was that I did not have time to think about my background or about any other problem that I should have. I Just hit record.
And I started talking. And sometimes it's really hard for me to translate on the spot because sometimes I just think in Spanish and yeah, trying to talk.
But it has helped, helped me to not, to not take so long, you know, to, to launch. I was like, oh, I can't launch because I don't have these many episodes. No, no, no, you have to launch like now. You don't have time to think. Just do it. And another thing that it reminds me is I studied martial arts for a while and when I used to go to tournaments sometimes same thing, you want to solve problems 1 to 20 with the, all right, you're sparring and you're trying to make as many points as you want as, as you can. But I remember my instructor told me once, you only need one more point to win.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: Oh, that's a very good way to look at it.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: Just focus about, just focus on that. Just like, what's the next point?
This one?
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think you said it really well when you said like, I have to get started. Because a lot of people that have a hard time getting started is usually someone who's like, I'm in a job. I really, you know, I, I kind of feel like I'm not supposed to be here. I want to do this on the side. So they spend all this time like they're, they're, they're, they, they don't have to let go because they could just stay in their current job and it pays for life. And sometimes it's just best to just go, you know, mother is the necessity is the mother of all invention and to a point, to an extension action. So when you put yourself in a position, it's like, okay, I have, like, for me it'd be like, I need three months of bills paid right now. I can go. And that's how I would think about it is like, okay, so I know I have a three month Runway. Like, I have to figure this out. So I'm into action. And I, and that's a, you know, you said it best when you said you just have to get in there and start doing it and not think so much about, you know, trying to be so sophisticated with, with what the business is.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Yes. And also I love that what you said about thinking versus acting because thinking does not pay the bills.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: No effort. And that's another one of my big sayings. So a couple years ago, 2013, I got kind of the biggest feedback I've ever gotten in my life. So, you know, quick, quick, you know, Framework here. So I work for a company, Cardinal Health. They're like a Fortune 20 company. Huge, multi billion dollar company. I come in, do I do all these wonderful things, you know, change the financing. We're like releasing equipment. And so I create this huge. This huge value for the company. And then the building itself still missed goal. Not by any of my doing. Like, I made my goal and I made other people's goals and. But the building still missed. And I'll never forget Mike Zadokow.
He sat down and I'm. I'm just waiting for this, you know, huge review, like all fives, which is the highest you can get. Like, I crushed it for the year. Everybody tells me I'm crushed it. I'm talking to this. I'm on the group that's consulting to the CEO. I'm out there, you know, in other buildings and in the region doing all kinds of stuff. And so I just get like this, like, you know, it wasn't bad, but it was more like a 3.7, maybe a 4. And I felt so betrayed. And he told me something that stuck for me with me the rest of my life. He says, effort doesn't pay the bills. And I was just like, man, I was so hurt by that for, like six months. And I was like, I put in all this effort, and you're telling me it's not worth anything? And then, like, the wisdom behind it started to kick in, and I realized, like, hey, there's a lot of football teams in the NFL that put it all in the same effort, but only the ones that win, you know, are the bills actually paid. So with my teams now, I focus so much on winning because I never want anyone to have this idea that they put in all this effort and they didn't win because it does suck. But, you know, business is a meat grinder. So, you know, in business, you have to realize, like, you can put in all the effort in the world, but it's not paying your bills. So you have to continually focus on the problem and what. What pays the bills? How do you generate revenue? How do you control expenses? And so, yeah, it was a great lesson.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Wow.
I really.
It gets to my bone, to my bones, because sometimes I have done that, you know, that I work, and it takes me a long time, and I'm like, all right, this is perfect. This is like this huge document or huge. Whatever I did is perfect because it covers everything and it ends up being too much, you know, so in I've been told, like, you, you just burned. I don't know how many hours of your life doing all of this when I just needed this little bit to move the needle.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: So yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: And it's all, and it's a hard thing to hear too, because the world, we're so rewarded. We focus so much in the world now on the effort behind things. Like, we put a lot of effort into things and it's definitely a huge change in business mindset, even like personal mindset to do that. Like there's all things, there's a lot of things that we want to be intentional to do and maybe we put a little bit of effort into doing, but we don't get the gains that we necessarily want because it's like, you know, that effort itself isn't actually part of what pays you. So it's, the effort is kind of de facto and, and you know, you can have more or less effort, but you can have all kinds of effort. And no, you know, you can tread water, so to speak. You can waste all kinds of energy standing in the same spot.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Yeah, well said. So, Clark, tell us about who you serve and how people can reach out to you.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: Yeah, so we're, we're a non residential commercial general contractor. You can find
[email protected] and then you can find me on LinkedIn and Instagram. Those are the two big things I'm on. So LinkedIn. Just if you Google Clark Low Clark C L A R K L O W E, you'll find us. You'll find me on LinkedIn and Instagram and many other places.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: Awesome. So we're going to wrap it up here. Thank you, Clark for joining us and sharing some wisdom about thriving. Thank you. In a competitive industry, you can learn more about what Clark does by visiting billowkooner.com that's me. Yay. Or go into his LinkedIn or Instagram. Clark Lowe. If you are an agency coach, professional services provider, or otherwise inexpensive stuff, we'd love to have you in a future episode. You can
[email protected] and once again, if you want to learn about the new way, we're booking dozens of qualified calls per week with no ad spend. Download our free blueprint@conversational funnels.com that's all for now. Go get that big TikTok punched. See you later.
