The Profit Builder Unscripted

Contractor Shares his Leadership Secrets

• Vicki Suiter • Episode 11

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welcome back I am super excited about today's episode where I'm interviewing Frank kovo with Diablo Valley Cabinetry as he shares his story about leadership and growth and an event that happened in his life that really changed how we thought about leading and running his business okay let's jump in I'm super glad and grateful to have my guest Frank Kenova junr here today with Diablo Valley Cabinetry and today Frank and I are talking about and Frank is sharing his story of some event that's happened in his life that really changed how he thinks and how he operates as a human being and how he functions in his business and Frank thank you thank you for being here thank you for being a guest and before we jump in would you mind just telling people a little bit about you and about um you know uh your your business what you do and then uh we'll jump in no that sounds great Vicki thank you so much for inviting me to participate as always love having the conversation with you so so yeah I'm Frank Canova my company is Diablo Valley Cabinetry uh we are celebrating our 41st year which is an amazing Milestone that we're very proud of uh family business my dad started the company in 1982 uh I joined him in 2005 and he retired uh two years ago in 2022 so right at our 40-year Mark so it's a nice Milestone to achieve and uh looking to take the business into new places moving forward yeah you built you have built a great business um yeah and your your dad and you did such a great job in your transition too so just want to throw that in there it's really it's a business that you can be very proud of you've done a great job with them thank you so um the question on the table and thank you again for being a guest is you know we all have events in our lives that shape us and sometimes they're like really big events sometimes they're like just those pivotal changing moments that really have us see our world maybe it's our business maybe it's our life differently that impacts us in a really positive way and um so I that was a question that I asked of you and so um that's and I appreciate you coming and sharing your story and your journey um so what was that event in your life what is what is that thing that happened for you like where where were you and then what was the event that happened that that caused a change sure um I think for me it was right around uh when I had been in the ownership role about 10 years so about half of my tenure with Diablo Valley Cabinetry been working with my dad for a long time uh and I really started wanting to put on the hat of doing an excellent job as a leader uh you know I think at that point in time my mindset changed from this is a job and this is a family business to uh my role and my calling in really becoming a good Steward you know of this particular business so I I started looking at things differently uh taking it I don't want to say more seriously but really intentionally wanting to improve uh you know myself and how we ran as a business uh thinking about one our employees and how important uh this company was to them and caring for their families and to certainly our clients and our customers uh so around that time period as I was uh starting to think a little bit differently around how to do that uh there is one particular event that came up and it was I'd say an employee challenge we had a an employee that we had some particular difficulties with and when it when it came up I really didn't know what to do or how to approach it and uh you know as we all know most of the time we can't come up with the solutions internal or in our own Silo um and so I I had a conversation with a good friend of the family uh about the Challen challenges and the struggles I was having and immediately he pointed me in the direction of uh an organization or a mentor group of small business owners that met on a fairly regular basis uh to talk just about these sorts of things uh and he gave me uh two very important things right away one was uh to contact this person and start going to the meetings right away and two was you know start reaching out to other people and being in dialogue so i' I've been attending that group for the last decade and it certainly has been one of the most foundational things for me uh for two reasons one uh working on the business rather than in the business it's like my way of every single month I need to commit a few hours to surrounding myself with people who are sharing the mentality and the focus on business rather than in the business and uh two both being vulnerable and open up the failures challenges struggles that I'm having uh and being available to others to come alongside when they have failures struggles and challenges as well so that that started about 10 years ago and it really has been uh a life lifechanging pivot in myself in uh you know starting to think differently around bringing others h how are you um oh I have so many questions so um all right well I'm going to start with my first question that occurred to me um I mean obviously there's a big question was how did it change you like how are you different now but it's also like I I listened to that first part of I so appreciate what you just said about like shifting from working in your business to working on your business and making the couple of hours a week first of all and then second of all being willing to be open be vulnerable um to share to be willing to be shared to and um can you just share a little bit more about that like one um like what what was the thing so you made it a choice at that moment to go I'm going to work on my business and not just in it what did you have to shift like how did you have to shift your thinking I I'm not even sure exactly what the question is I'm asking but there's something that you had to shift practices right to make that how did you how did you do that um sure and I think the first thing is and this is something I need to remind myself of all the time it's not like I shifted and now it's fixed and I'm going in that direction it requires consistent weekly and monthly commitment to holding the trajectory of that shift because it is so easy to just slump back into the old routine and you know call it the easy routine uh the shift for me was you know really thinking organizationally uh about how I need to be preparing myself and positioning our team to operate independently and have Clarity of how the company should be run and less about you know me being the person that everything pivots around um know I still struggle with that I'm I I know most other uh small business owners do it's again it's but it's an endless commitment to uh staying on that track and then you know consistently steer making little steers along the way to stay there so so really for me it was starting to think bigger about the organization in general and less about well here's what I need to do for sales here's what I need to do to keep the business going uh you know how do we make that change gosh I love that um and I so appreciate what you're talking about in terms of like it's a constant Choice yep I I find that to be true for myself as well like you know like us doers we want to get in and do as opposed to like step back and go okay what's what's really what's my role as a leader um yeah so kudos to you and can you speak a little bit to the part about um like this word vulnerability um I love that word and I I know it's a very scary word for a lot of people and a lot of people go n don't like that word but can you just like speak to that like what does that mean to you to um be willing to be vulnerable and be open in that way because as I'm as I hear you talk about sure how that was that's been an important part of what even allowed you to make that shift and we'll talk about what that shift is a little bit more in just a second but you just speak to them like what does that mean to you what did that mean for you what does it mean to you continually sure uh I mean as far as you know the vulnerability piece with regard to the business it's realizing that I don't need to try and maintain a a Persona or uh you know a vision of who I am I'm a real person I go with day-to-day struggles I have day-to-day struggles I have good days and I have bad days uh and so so it's it's just that's okay and you know if if I'm going through a particular challenge uh I don't need to hide it uh you know I don't necessarily need to divulge all of the details per se but it's okay for my team to you know see where I'm failing see where I need to do better ask them and I invite them in to hold me accountable sometimes as well rather than just be holding them accountable but it's you know it's a reciprocal piece of it so so some of that vulnerability is uh inviting them in to be in uh you know relationship with me so that way we can do better together as a group some of that is you know being willing to share my failures and you know my struggles and areas where uh you know I feel like I'm not I'm not doing what I need to do in my role and the whole the intent that obviously is vulnerability but you know it's a reciprocal invitation if if they feel comfortable and can trust me uh to know that sorry about that but uh if they can trust me uh to see that I'm modeling it then that again invites trust back the other way so when harder conversations come up and and things we we aren't meeting our requirements usually I'll start with myself and say you know here's what I need to be doing better and then here's what we need to be doing better rather than here's what you need to be doing better wow I really appreciate you defining how that is with your team because I um when I hear all of what you just shared yes it requires a certain amount of vulnerability to take responsibility in that way right um it's taking responsibility for your part and being willing to share that um i i h i um I have this thing of I I think to myself um I'm willing to take 100% responsibility 100% of the time and the word responsibility is the ability to respond and it's not what a lot of us think sometimes of Shame blame fault responsibility but simply the ability to respond so like even what you're talking about when you start a conversation with your team and you start with here's my responsibility and the here's what I think I and I see I could have done differently um I I love that and it's such a powerful way to come at a conversation with our with our teams um to create more opening which is what I'm hearing you say does with them is that they're willing to be more open with you yeah yeah and and again it's not a perfect but you know you have to start with that and and one of the one of the things that I read recently that has really resonated with me is you know every conversation is an opportunity uh you know it might not change anything but you know every conversation you jump into there's the possibility that something could change so it it's just creating the space where you know those opportunities can be captured and I find that that also uh plays in very nicely you know with my family and my teenage daughters and wife as well relationship ship connection 101 that's great I like that I like that so in terms of the group this group group that you um became a member of part of what you said is a um shifting your mindset from working in your business to working on your business and second vulnerability and I I suspect that there's an element of being vulnerable with this group that also has made beneficial so can you just speak to that uh more about that because I'm curious about what that was no um I'm trying to think of a specific example um uh but I I'd say kind of starting generally and we'll see if the specific example um comes to light uh but again it's a safe space you know it's a safe space where uh you know people will share uh you know Financial reports and you know each each month it's you know how are we doing how are we performing in real numbers and you know profitability uh you know good months bad months uh you know employees uh you know I I I've heard another person tell me that you never are in see what's the right way to put this um you're either finishing up a challenge with an employee you're in the middle of a challenge with an employee or there's one that's right around the corner coming so you know again the idea is never to be in a space where you don't have anything going on it's just embracing the fact that those are the challenges in business that we navigate and hoping that they go away or they don't exist doesn't necessarily help but I like that I really appreciate that it's true right like we're always just dealing with human beings and you know human beings we're all we're kind of messy so yeah that's nice that's nice that's a nice way to look at that yeah go ahead I'm sorry no that's okay that's okay so you know it's just all of it I I mean HR stuff I think I think the biggest piece of it is just for me the vulnerability was how many things that I don't have in place that I probably should whether it's HR programs or you know better benefits or uh policies that you know that our company needs to be uh you know uh implementing in order to stay current especially in complex States like California that have a lot of regulations um you know insurances that we do or don't have making sure that we have proper coverages and protections employee challenges you know it's really everything that you can think of when it comes to um you know business building and uh you know navigating again what I call the stewardship of you know running the organization okay how is all of that how is being part of that group which is really the learning here and this is you know the that thing that was the growing Edge for you what is it how did that change you how does it how has it changed how in one way I know you just described in terms of employees which I love um but how else has it changed you and how has it changed you as a person and in how you run your business uh I think the way that it's changed me as a person is being able to give myself some Grace and forgiveness and space to realize that Perfection is not my goal um I know all of us as business owners were constantly up at night or you know trying to make sure that we've got everything covered and we can beat ourselves up a lot and I beat myself up a lot so it's just realizing that that's normal expected and just don't stay in that space it's just not a healthy space to be so I I think that's the biggest piece I will say that has changed me is is like it's okay um you know we'll figure out a way we'll get through it the highs aren't always the highs and the lows aren't always the lows um but it's it's just face what you kind of have in front of you right now and I know I know that's kind of a little bit of a general piece but really it's just giving myself race to to be good and bad at the same time that's huge I love that Frank yeah that's really good um I'm guessing you being that way has made a difference in how you lead as well which I think you were talking about a while ago yeah yeah I think it has it it's because for me I I always tend to I'd say air on the side of giving people space uh to do their job uh I've never really been a like hammer down on people or like call it the old school mentality of uh but that that's an area that I also need to get better at of you know being more clear about what the expectations are and really uh fairly and um consistently holding people account accountable to the commitments that may you know that that they make as well and that again that's a constant practice of creating the conversations being willing to step into that space uh and not avoiding it all right yeah yeah it's a and it's like you said that like it's uh that you're always dealing with somebody who's you know had a struggle in a struggle about to have a you know challenge like that there's like that cycle um so yeah it's a constant process um yeah I appreciate that um anything else to share about that experience and about how it's changed you or um yeah just anything else that you'd like to share about all of that or uh I think the other piece that I would share is just it's it's it's really helped me realize the kind of pay it forward mentality and uh to make sure that I'm available when other people are looking for similar sort of support you know as small business owners it's it's really easy for me to get into the Trap of well hey look at this business I created or look at these amazing things that I've done um or my business is successful because of me and again it's it's just a healthy reminder that uh yeah that's one that's one side of the equation but the other side is that there are just so many other amazing people that have taken the time to pour into me and to gift me their time and wisdom uh and support uh you know to navigate through so uh so you know as as I'm transitioning in my career and moving from the front end into you know I don't want to say the back end per se but you know one thing that is really important to me is uh to be that resour source for other people um and be available and be paying attention so that you know when that need comes up or when somebody asks that I'm making time uh for that as well nice nice that's awesome that's awesome my thought as you say all of that is you know you have a servants heart for sure and um I think that's wonderful um and I know you have a lot to contribute to people and this um so thank you uh thank you for sharing your story and your journey and uh and if is there anything any final thoughts that you have before we close this up uh no just uh thank you for asking the question and inviting me in I appreciate the opportunity to share a little bit and to I always appreciate having conversation with you I always take things away that I know I can start applying and and put to use so it's it's always valuable time and thank you very very much appreciate you're absolutely welcome I so enjoyed that conversation with Frank and I hope you did too I think our stories that we share about our journeys of life and our shared Humanity of the struggles and how we learn and grow are so powerful and important in letting us know that we're not alone and um helping us to maybe get some um some ideas and wisdom and insights and I have to say that you know even just the little thing that Frank shared about uh realizing that if you're a leader that you're going to be managing people there'll always be some version of challenges with that that instead of looking at it like you want it to be one and done uh that you embrace it and look at it like it's just part of the process and it's just part of what happens and you flow with it and I just thought that was great I I thought that was such a great insight and wisdom on his part um that certainly going to take away from this conversation that I had with them and if you are interested in sharing your story and your journey if there's something in your life that happened that has very much influenced and helped you along the path I would love to talk with you about that and maybe interview you uh feel free to reach out to me at Vicky busuu.com and we can just have a conversation one other thing that I want to offer here is that if you're interested in being in a group like Frank described we have a contractors's collective group that you would be more than welcome to um look into and see if that's a right fit for you there's a link down below to provide you the page that would give you all the information that you would need and we can hop on the call and chat about that as well if you'd like to learn more thanks again for being here today and I look forward to seeing you next time on the profit Fielder unscripted

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Vicki Suiter

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