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In 2018, Ryan Schmitt thought he was having a heart attack. He was cutting every dollar he could find in the business, and he was trying to decide whether to cancel the key man life insurance policy. He kept it. Because he was not sure he was going to make it.

The company he had built over a decade had just lost $7 million on one job. They had lost their bonding. He had borrowed $2 million from a colleague. He was staring at the ceiling every night.

He never had a single employee leave.

Today, 230 people work for Petticoat-Schmitt. They hear the financials every Monday at 3:30. They share in the profits. And Ryan is in the middle of converting the company to an ESOP so his people can own it.

That is where a valley of darkness can take you, if you walk into the punch every morning and refuse to stop.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. The most impactful project is often the one that nearly kills you. When Ryan was asked at a conference what his most impactful project was, he immediately named the one that lost $7 million. Not because it was successful. Because it changed everything about how he leads.
2. Tell your spouse first. Ryan's business group told him to go home and tell his wife before anyone else. She said, "as long as we're together, that's all that matters." That sentence became fuel for everything that came after.
3. Relationship capital is real capital. Two people showed up with money and resources when Ryan needed them. They said yes because they knew his character, not because the numbers looked good. That is what you are building when you build genuine relationships.
4. Transparency did not cause a stampede. Ryan shared the full financial picture with his team during the worst of it. Nobody left. In a good market where every other company was hiring, his people stayed. That is what a people-first culture actually produces under pressure.
5. Stop hiding in your office. Pre-crisis Ryan was head-down at his desk. He thought that was where he was most valuable. He was wrong. Post-crisis Ryan has no office. He shows up on job sites at sunrise with biscuits and questions.
6. Profit sharing changes the conversation. When employees see exactly how the company is doing and share in the upside when it performs, they stop being workers and start being partners. That shift is what made the rebuild possible and is what the ESOP is formalizing.
   
   

If you are a contractor business owner and you want to make more money, work less, and win at home, we built something for you.

Go to gatheringthekings.com and apply for a GTK Growth Audit. We will show you exactly where you are leaking time, profit, and opportunity, and what it would take to fix it.

Connect with Chaz Wolfe (Host):

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Connect With Ryan Schmitt:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-schmitt-14866587/
Website: https://www.petticoatschmitt.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/petticoatschmitt
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petticoatschmitt/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPhiL7wjPWpFPH30VqMcbQ

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