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Have you ever realized you're not the
little piggy who built a house of bricks?

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A lot of business leaders and managers
find themselves in this position.

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They realize that their business might
not be built with straw and sticks, but

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it's definitely not built with bricks.

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And when the big bad Wolf of Chaos
comes along, they notice that

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things can go sideways real quick.

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Their house might not get blown down,
but there are tough challenges ahead.

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Welcome to Construction Trailblazers
Paving the Way to Excellence Your

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go-to podcast for innovation,
success, and streamlined excellence

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in the building industry.

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I'm Samantha C.

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Prestige, your host and expert
in operations and processes.

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I've seen the Transformative effects
of adopting smart, efficient processes.

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These changes not only boost company
revenue, but also restore peace of mind

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for owners overwhelmed by the daily grind.

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On this show, we bring to light leaders
who are innovating across the industry and

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creating outstanding results, inspiring
you to forge your path to excellence.

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Today we're diving in to how to
keep the big bad wolf of chaos

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from blowing down your house so
that you can build a business

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with more predictability and ease.

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If you're all about leaving behind the
daily firefighting and moving towards

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a future of freedom and predictable
success, then you're in the right place.

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Discover more about us
and catch up on past

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episodes@constructiontrailblazers.com.

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So let's get into it.

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Remember the story of
the three little pigs.

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The first built his house outta straw,
the second with sticks, and the third

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little piggy built his house with
bricks When challenges hit, a lot of

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business leaders realize that they are,
in fact, not the third little piggy.

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They realize that their business, while
maybe not built with straw and sticks,

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is definitely not built with bricks.

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These challenges, that big bad
wolf of chaos can be so many

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things like hiring the wrong team
member, setting the wrong goals, or

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just being a crappy communicator.

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Or even the customer that just won't leave
you alone for a refund, whatever it is.

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Your team, your processes, or your
profit shakes when stuff gets hard.

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So you're not built to withstand
the unpredictability that just

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comes with running a business.

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So your house might not blow down,
but sometimes it just feels way

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harder than it should to deal
with those small challenges.

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I remember talking to a client
a few weeks ago who could almost

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never enjoy a good day in business.

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He was just always worried about when
shit was gonna hit the fan, because

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anytime that something went just a
little bit wrong, it always seemed to

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get blown out of proportion and made
him feel like he could never get ahead.

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So that Wolf of Chaos was
constantly blowing down on

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any progress he was making.

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We had to find ways to clean things up
in a way that would repair the shit that

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already went down while also creating
some positive predictability so that

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he could have more of those good days
in business and actually enjoy them.

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So how can you rebuild and
get more bricks and more

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predictability in your foundation?

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There's a lot you can do here, but
it all starts with lean leadership.

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Sometimes when people hear
lean, they think lean and mean.

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So when I say I focus on lean operations,
there are some people that think I

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just walk into a company and start
finding all the positions or employees

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they can cut back on to save money or
that I'm just gonna start attacking

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what snacks people buy for meetings.

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And that's not what I do
in the slightest like.

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If you're on a tight budget, then
yeah, scale back on the snacks.

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Like that's just good business
or personal budget advice, right?

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But there's more to the picture here.

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Lean focuses on how to do things in the
most efficient way possible while bringing

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out the best in our people, because at
the end of the day, we still want people

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to enjoy showing up to work for us.

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Besides being just decent human beings,
there's too much profit to lose when

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we have bad culture and high turnover.

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So lean is a collaborative efficiency.

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It means as a culture, you're
embodying qualities like humility,

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curiosity, communication,
and a pursuit of excellence.

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This means that you have a clear vision,
you've got structure and processes

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that allow your team to thrive during
calm success and rough challenges.

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Businesses that are built with
these lean leadership principles

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are resilient and adaptable.

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So the managers and the employees can
problem solve on their own, and they're

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ready to face whatever challenges
come their way because they're

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actually equipped to deal with it.

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You would naturally have less waste, less
errors, less expenses, less frustration.

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The list goes on, you're more
likely to produce top performers.

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You're more likely to have an
amazing culture that retains those

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top performers, and you would have
more consistent profitability.

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So it's a win-win, win all around.

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Customers are happy with the
service or the product they get.

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Employees are happy to collaborate with
their teams and just show up to work.

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Owners are happy when they look
at that p and l reports, right?

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The numbers are singing to them.

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If all of this sounds like a far off
dream, let me assure you that it's not.

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I do this all the time with the clients
that I, that I work with, If all of

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this sounds like a far off dream,
let me assure you that it's not.

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I do this all the time with the
clients that our team works with.

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So if you've listened to some of our
other podcast episodes or have followed

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me on LinkedIn, then you know I'm all
about practical action forward advice.

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I'm not just gonna leave you hanging
with this far off dream idea.

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So here are a few questions that
you can ask yourself or take back

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to your team to start laying down
these strong, lean leadership bricks.

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First, are we organized?

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So this is the base layer, right?

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This is critical.

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This is essential.

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Do you know where to find I important
information when you need it?

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Do you know where to put
important information?

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A lot of this will come
down to your software.

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but you've gotta just know
are you organized baseline?

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At the next level, you're gonna look
at do you have clarity and confidence?

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Are you, and is everyone on your team
clear on what you're responsible for,

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and are you confident that what you're
doing is pushing your goals forward?

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From there.

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Then we wanna look at do we
have efficiency and ease?

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So do our processes make sense in
ways that streamline our workloads,

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make things easy for us to do, limit
the waste that we might be producing,

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whether that's limiting cost or
limiting errors, whatever it might be.

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Do we have that efficiency
and ease that makes our team

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happy and our customers happy?

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Your fourth question here, can we
achieve systematic scalability?

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This is really the overarching goal
for everything about lean leadership is

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this predictable and sustainable growth.

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So can you create and handle new phases
of growth without burning out your

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team or displeasing your customers?

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So crucial, and it's like the
peak performance of business

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is that systematic scalability.

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if you can say hell yes to all of these
things, then you're experiencing less

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firefighting and more strategic growth.

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If you can't say yes to these things,
then you're likely in a more reactive

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state when dealing with challenges.

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If you wanna find out exactly where you
are on how well you are leading with lean

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with your teams, then you can take our,
what kind of business hero are you quiz.

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If you get the Thunder Trooper
or captain of excellence result,

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then you are kicking ass.

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Like, great job.

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There's just a few things
you can do to either improve

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or to maintain that success.

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If you don't score one of those
heroes, then your quiz results will

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show you what your best next steps
would be to level up and get those

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lean leadership bricks in place.

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Alright, I'd love to hear if any of
those four questions organization

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clarity and confidence, efficiency
and ease or systematic scalability.

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Got you really excited or
maybe struck a chord for you.

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You can share your story with me at
hello@constructiontrailblazers.com

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or on LinkedIn.

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Thanks for tuning in to Construction
Trailblazers Paving the Way to Excellence.

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The quiz email and my LinkedIn will
all be in the show notes for you.

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See you next time.