Learnings and Missteps
The Learnings and Missteps Podcast is about unconventional roads to success and the life lessons learned along the way.
You will find a library of interviews packed with actionable take aways that you can apply as you progress on your career path.
Through these interviews you will learn about the buttons you can push to be a better leader, launch a business, and build your influence.
Find yourself in their stories and know that your path is still ahead of you.
Learnings and Missteps
Crafting Custom Dreams: Intentional Vision with Joshua McMahon
What happens when you create a vision so clear that every decision becomes obvious? Joshua McMahon, owner of McMahon Custom Homes, reveals how he transformed from laborer to business owner by focusing relentlessly on his three-year vision.
The entrepreneurial journey is rarely a straight path. Joshua candidly shares how he built his business foundation 18 months before leaving his secure job—posting consistently on social media, networking with key industry players, and sharing his vision repeatedly until the right people resonated with it. Despite initially being laughed at, Joshua's persistence led to critical relationships that fueled his company's explosive growth.
We explore the crucial distinction between management and leadership, with Joshua explaining, "There's managers on every single store corner. We need a leader, growing those managers into leaders." This perspective shift transformed how he approaches his business, focusing on developing people rather than just hitting numbers. His refreshing approach to growth—aiming for higher-value projects rather than higher volume—challenges conventional business wisdom while preserving what makes his company special.
The conversation takes a powerful turn when discussing failures and setbacks. Joshua reveals how his lowest career moments provided the greatest learning, though he admits feeling embarrassed to reach out during those times. His advice for weathering tough periods? Maintain focus on your vision and surround yourself with people who believe in your potential.
Joshua also shares practical strategies for vision-building, including scheduling dedicated thinking time and creating visions so detailed you can "touch" them. Whether you're considering entrepreneurship, seeking leadership insights, or simply trying to navigate career transitions, this conversation offers actionable wisdom from someone who's living proof that vision-driven success is possible.
Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn or social media to learn more about his visionary approach to business and leadership.
http://www.mcmahoncustomhomesllc.com/
https://www.instagram.com/mcmahoncustomhomes
https://www.facebook.com/mcmahoncustomhomes/
Make yourself a priority and get more done: https://www.depthbuilder.com/do-the-damn-thing
Download a PDF copy of Becoming the Promise You are Intended to Be
https://www.depthbuilder.com/books
You've got to create a vision that is so clear, three years from today, that decisions you're making will get you to that vision and things that you say no to won't get you to your vision.
Speaker 2:What is going on L&M family. Back again with another phenomenal guest who I've been slacking like we've known each other, I don't know three, maybe four years now, and I'm just now getting him on the podcast. He's a true visionary in the custom home building space, which is not for the weak at heart. He doesn't just build homes, though. He builds trust, innovation and client-centered excellence, which I'm hoping to take some cheat codes from him in terms of the client-centered excellence, because I got a little bit of room to grow there.
Speaker 2:He's my friend, whether he likes it or not. I'm calling him my friend, mr Joshua McMahon. He's a transformational leader. He is the driving force behind McMahon Custom Homes and I have a feeling he's going to talk a little bit about having a vision and the value of that. But before we get to that, if this is your first time here, this is the Learnings and Missteps podcast, where you get to see how real people, amazing people just like you, are sharing their gifts and talents to leave this world better than they found it. I'm Jesse, your selfish servant, and we about to get to know Mr Joshua McMahon.
Speaker 1:Mr Joshua, how you doing, brother man it is so good to be on here. You said three years of friendship, but I think it goes back five plus years. If we're honest. We were together when you were first kicking. Wasn't it Like you were doing gym equipment or something and you were like this isn't really for me. Oh yeah, we go way back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, it feels like a blink, like so much is transformed in my life, how I used to have a real job. Now I'm just a consultant and I wear pants once a week and as few times a week as I can help it, and I've been able to kind of see you come through. You launched your podcast, launched your business. A whole lot of things have happened, I think, for both of us. And so the first question that comes to mind, josh, because folks that are in construction get it, especially in the residential space. It's not easy, it's damn difficult, and so why custom homes? Why would you even expose yourself to that?
Speaker 1:Well, one, I think I love pain, I love the punishment, and what better environment than one home building? But then take it to the next level and go custom home building. And oh boy, man, like I looked in the mirror the other day and I was like where did all this gray come from? This was over man, it's custom home building, like it's running off the back of my head and it's turning gray in the process.
Speaker 2:Can I just get one of the other Ten four? Well, and so now owner operator of McMahon Custom H custom homes. And how long has that been running and kicking, oh man, it's.
Speaker 1:A year and a half is how long the business has legally been formed, but may 1st, so as of today. This recording 30 days ago is when I? I said that's it, I'm leaving my job. That's paying me a lot of money. I I'm comfortable, I've got everything I need and I'm going to go figure it out and I'm going to do the damn thing.
Speaker 2:That's what I'll talk. Okay, oh, this is so great. So, folks, if you didn't catch that, mr Joshua here had an amazing job, a pretty good paying job. It was heavy, he had a lot of responsibility, a lot of influence within the organization and he decided to leave the security of that job to go all in the McMahon Custom Homes business. So was it easy, was it simple, to make that decision?
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm still scared today when people are like, how's it going? I'm like I'm scared out of my mind. I've got to. Things are coming together Like things that I put in motion a year and a half ago. It's all coming together Like when people were laughing at me. I'm like I don't know where I'm going. I don't know exactly how I'm going to get there, but I knew if I stayed true to what I wanted to do, I stayed true to my vision. I was going to achieve what I wanted to achieve and I've exceeded what I thought I was going to do.
Speaker 2:I saw a post from you it was yesterday here, the last few days that you had set a revenue target, that you said oh wait a minute I got to reset that and up that bad boy half a million. Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 1:That's a crazy thing to think about. It's like I set a target of a million and my wife said how in the world are you going to go from zero to a million overnight? And I'm like I don't know. But this is what I'm going to do. And three months into the new year, without even stepping out on my own, I had enough leads and things in motion, nothing secured, but enough momentum that I'm like if I don't bump this up, I'm going to underserve my company.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you'll shoot low right, aim high, miss low. You'll have phenomenal outcomes, all right. So one thing I want to point out, because I've had the same experience year after year in my business. I've just been in business over three years now, and two things. One, what you think is going to happen is likely smaller than what's in store for you, provided you have been on the path, meaning focused on serving others, focused on delivering others, focused on sharing your gifts and talents. Doing that creates a springboard or a launchpad for amazing outcomes. So, whatever you can imagine, multiply it times 10 and you're still probably going to miss it right, like it's nuts.
Speaker 2:Now the other thing that I kind of picked up and I'd love to get your thoughts on it maybe you don't have the same problems I have. I know chasing revenue targets for me, like chasing money, is dangerous because I'm an addict, right, and there's a lot of nefarious things that I could do to get those dollar targets, and so I had to shift and say, sure, the revenue targets, I don't even think about them anymore. I think about more in terms of how many people can I impact, how many people can I serve and how do I do that faster. That's the drive. There's revenue attached to that. But if I'm focused on making the numbers, I know how to cheat real good and I don't need that in my life. So how do you balance that? Because I know you're a very intentional leader, visionary thinker. How do you balance the impact you're going to have on the world, or rather, how do you connect the impact you're going to have on the world with your revenue targets and the business KPIs that are necessary so that you can stay?
Speaker 1:operating yeah, the biggest thing for me. Okay. So from a custom home building perspective, I wanted to say, look, I want a revenue target of X dollars. I'll just tell you, three years from today I'd like to be a seven and a half million. What I don't want is seven and a half million in 20 houses. I want, want 7.5 million in four to six homes.
Speaker 1:So I don't want to increase the number of jobs. That I'm going to do. I want to increase the size of project I'm taking on. So when you talk about 10x your goals, I want to 10x the size of house I'm going to do so. I'm going to do the same number of homes because for me, leading in a way that I'm serving others and making sure that I'm delivering that client satisfaction and that wow factor to each client, I can't do that when I exceed the number of homes I'm building. So I can set a higher target goal for our revenue and still deliver what I want and stay true to McMahon Custom Home by doing the same number of homes. So I'm very intentional about that part. If I do seven and a half million, but I'm losing the touch and what makes me special and my company special, I might as well go work for somebody else, because that's what I've done my whole career.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it. When I first started, I was always I'm an expert critic. If y'all don't know that, I'm a phenomenal critic, I'm really great at judging people, and so when I had like real jobs, I would always get really critical and frustrated with the bosses, the people that were making the decisions, because they would always oversell our capacity. They would always get more work than we could like. We were equipped to handle it, and so it created this situation. We got the work. It's a big, sexy project. There's going to be a crane that's on the side of the freeway, we're going to get a lot of free marketing, like all the crap right.
Speaker 2:And then we had to hire new people, rush them in and take what we could get, and it just created a lot of pain for us anyways. So I'd always talk smack about it. And then I started my business and guess what happened in the first six months? I was running around, flying here, flying there, jumping on calls, just scatterbrained because I took on too many clients. I did the same thing that I used to critique them about, and then I had to put a system in place to manage that and I got it. I got it to where I wanted so that I could deliver the quality and depth of connection that I wanted to. That I know I can do, but I can't do it doing everybody. So when you're talking about, I'm not going to do 70 homes a year, I'm going to do seven at this value point, which will get me the seven and a half million or whatever that target is, that's it's so critical, jesse, and look, you're falling into the same trap that everybody does, because that's what we were trained to do.
Speaker 1:You went to school they taught you how to do eight to five. You go into the workforce they teach you how to drive for revenue. So we talk about customer satisfaction in our industry, but most of us, we're not really focused on it, so it's really just a talking point, right? It's like what you focus on is what you'll achieve. So what we focus on is how do we generate more revenue, how do we get it done faster and how do we get it done for less dollars? That's what we focus on, that's what we're going to get, and so I think what's so critical for me and to share with everybody is that you've got to create a vision that is so clear three years from today that decisions you're making will get you to that vision, and things that you say no to won't get you to your vision. I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to jump on this plane, because you're not helping me do what I want to do, which, for you, is serving others and building up our community.
Speaker 2:I want to give the LNM family member shout out. This one goes to Miss Sarah. Sarah took the time to send me this awesome message. She says how many times have you made the comment? There are just not enough hours in the day. If you're like me, I made it quite frequently. I recently attended the Do the Damn Thing Time Mastery Workshop with Jesse, and the nuggets that were taught and the mind shift that occurred totally changed my outlook on time management. Time is going to happen. It's how you manage yourself in that time that matters. Sarah, thank you for being one of the early victims that jumped in that first cohort of the Do the Damn Thing Time Mastery Workshop and taking the time to leave the comment.
Speaker 2:For the rest of the L&M family members out there, please feel free. I invite you and kind of beg you a little bit, to leave a comment, leave a review, do a share, and it gives me not only a little bit of confidence, because there's evidence that somebody's listening besides my family, but also gives me the opportunity to shout you out in a future episode. Yeah, yeah, you got it, man, a hundred percent. I have about a monthly cadence where I sit down and say okay, what stupid commitments did I make that I was excited, that's like they're. I get invited to like great opportunities to collaborate and do stuff and I of course I want to do it, of course I say yes and then I'm like, wait a minute, that's nope, that takes me off path. That takes me off the path. That takes me off the path. I got to go back and eat crow and most and every time people are like, okay, well, can you help me start? Hell, yeah, I can help you start, but, like carrying the ball with you, long-term, I can't do that because it takes me off the path, and so it's a constant recalibrating for me.
Speaker 2:Now you said something and I think it's going to connect directly to this vision idea, because I'm with you, I don't use the same language. I think if we can get into the how, the why, what it felt, and the how well, the LLM family member will get something they can latch onto and apply in their life, if they're not already doing it. So one thing you said was you started setting the path, laying the breadcrumbs, about a year and a half ago for what you're experiencing today, and so I think we get that metaphorically Sure, but what were the breadcrumbs. You got maybe a handful of concrete examples or steps. You started doing that. You did along the way that people were like whatever, bro, good luck, that's never going to work. Your head's in the clouds, that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it really was. I set a target date of January 1st 2025,. I'm going to leave, I'm going to step out on my own January 1st. So I said, okay, what do I need to do in 10 months or nine months to make that goal reality? And I said, okay, well, I've got to do. I've got to find land right Because I want to build houses. So I've got to find land because I'll build specs. I've got to create a customer base.
Speaker 1:So I said, okay, I'm going to attack social media. This is a free platform, it's not costing me money. So I've got an Instagram page. I've got a Facebook page and I was sharing content from my own personal build. So I built my house that I'm in now and I shared that content for a year. So I financed my own build with the bank and I used that content as kind of my jumping off point.
Speaker 1:And if you don't have that luxury, that's fine. Still, find a way to be sharing and building value. I want to inform the customers. You're trying to build that credibility of who you are as a person, but also give something to them so, even if they don't pick you as a builder, they're more knowledgeable on the people they do choose. So I started doing that religiously and I said look three times a builder. They're more knowledgeable on the people they do choose.
Speaker 1:So I started doing that religiously and I said look, three times a week I'm going to post to social media and then I would bump it up. And then it was two times a week or one time a week. I'm going to meet with a realtor or a mortgage broker and share my vision, my company, what I want to do. And that's where people would laugh at me and they're like what are you doing? Nothing is coming of this. Well, let me tell you what came of that. I did that for six months nonstop and I had a scoreboard. I'm like I'm holding myself accountable. Nothing's happening. I'm like, just stick with it, stick with it.
Speaker 1:I met with a banker that I've been with for a decade. They've known me, I trained her son and she said I need you to put you in touch with this person who does lending. I met with that person. I shared my vision. I said this is what I want to do. This is why I want to do it. I see a need in the market for customer service, putting our clients first, adding value these things that mean something to me. Two months later I've got a line of credit with the bank that now I can build one spec. I can take down one additional lot Like things started to fall into place that I didn't even realize were possible and then it was like pouring gasoline on this thing and I closed on my first lot in November. I started building on it the first of the year. I'm actually meeting a client in a couple hours to sign the first contract. Things are happening because I'm putting myself out there more than anything.
Speaker 1:I'm highly intentional. There's everybody you can imagine will tell you the reason it won't work. It will work because, just like you, jesse, I mean, I have no doubt there were people, including yourself, at times, that would say this isn't going to work. What am I doing? And you probably remind yourself do the damn thing, do the damn thing, just do it. You just kept going and learning and growing, and it's no different on this side. And here's the thing If there's things that you don't know, go network with people that are doing it, because most people will share that stuff with you, and if they won't, go find somebody else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh man, so much gold there. And I want to summarize it for the folks Like one thing you did you found a way to leverage social media and like organic, right, no paid ad, Right, no paid ad. You're just posting pictures of you doing the thing that you want to be, like telling the story that you want to do no-transcript. And so one of the things that I was talking to a friend back then and we're going back and forth and he's, he asked me to tell him what I was going to do with my business and I kind of described it and he said well, what are you worried about? And I'm like man, like I've never had a client, Like who's going to take a chance on me if I've never had a client? And he's Jesse, that's what you've been doing the past five years. And I said, oh crap, you're right, I had 50 clients. Now, we all had the time, had worked at the same company, but the value and the service that I was providing it was the same thing. So I already had the right and it's just like that. I'm like I got this. So, point being for folks out there that are in that space, I'm thinking about it. I want to.
Speaker 2:The scariest thing, like maybe the more most ambiguous thing, is how do you get the confidence You're already doing the thing right. You're doing this thing that you want to deliver to other people and spend most of your time doing that. You're already doing that. You just got to recognize that and then so you did that. I'm going to build my own house. I know how to build houses, Let me show the world. I'm going to post on social media Super simple, low friction. Now, the other thing that you did, that I didn't do, and I'm ultimate that's another data point of how blessed I am is you said I'm going to talk to realtors, bankers, et cetera, and I'm going to talk to this many on this frequency. And you just did it. And I'm sure your people, your close inner circle, are like what the hell are you doing? But I see that's just planting seeds, right, Like you, let people know which direction you're in. They may nurture and cultivate it and they may throw it away. They may nurture and cultivate it and they may throw it away, but you have proof that some of them said, oh, let me, I like that, Let me take care of it. And they've contributed to your path. And so getting very clear, these are some of the people or relationships I need to have to do the thing. Well, hell, let me start building them right now. What are you waiting for? I mean, those two things, Josh, are like so simple but ultra valuable.
Speaker 2:What I did, dummy, I quit my job and I started a business and I remember one of my bosses. He was an amazing dude. He's like all right, just he was down to help me. He says so, I want to help you, but tell me about your business development plan. And I said what's that? I don't even know what that is. Anyways, I got lucky because people recommended me referral and all that stuff. But what I should have done and I started doing, but I'm still not that great at it I should have told everybody I know 20 times that I was starting a business and what it was going to be. So the language you use was sharing your vision and you put it out into the world, and people want to see you win and they'll help you win. Am I lying?
Speaker 1:No, jesse, this is so gold and we're talking about it from a business standpoint. This isn't for business owners. If you're listening to this thing, I have no interest in running a business. That's fine. You can still create a vision for who you want to be in the future and share that with employers. This is where I want to be.
Speaker 1:If you're a foreman today, you want to be a vice president, you want to aim for the stars, share it with other people, because what's going to happen is the hiring manager says I hear where you want to go. We don't have that position in our company. We don't have that growth trajectory, because what will happen is what happened to me. I'm very ambitious, as I'm sure you can tell. I wanted to take over the world. I wanted to run the company. They said Josh, you're a laborer, I know, but I want to run the company. If I was more clear about what I wanted in the interview process, I wouldn't have taken 90% of the jobs that I took, because it would have been clear they can't help me get to where I want to be and that's us all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you said it earlier too right, if you're in a space with people that aren't going to fuel it and support it and cultivate it, find another space and Jesse, that's what makes America great You're not restricted to any one job, and this is what makes this time in our history better than ever.
Speaker 1:Ten years ago, oh my God, if you didn't stay in a company for 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 years, you're a bad person. Well, those days are gone. We finally have realized that some companies are just bad. Some companies aren't aligned with where you want to be, they're not aligned with your personal values, and it's okay to move on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, 100%, 100%. Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent, a hundred percent, even though I still I remember what was it Four years ago when I had a real job. I was looking at applicants and my first response was man, they've jumped around Like they haven't been with a company longer than five. Fast work. Today, I'm like you're ridiculous fool, like people can, I mean? I'm proof They'll let any fool start a business, and people can make money at home in their shorts doing something they love, not tolerating a jerk. And so we really got to shift our thinking to what you're, to what you're saying. Is it ain't like that? No more. If you're not going to be supporting and growing your people, they can build their own business or they can just go find a better place where they can grow and thrive as individuals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is where you got it, jesse. We need more leaders in the marketplace training and coaching leaders. Right, there's managers on every single store corner. Everywhere you go, there's a manager. We need a leader, growing those managers into leaders, because there's a difference between leadership and management. Right, like sure me management, I can get any kpi you want me to get. You just might not like the way I treat the people, you might not like the retention is bad, but I'm going to hit those damn numbers because I mean, but if you want me to lead them, it might take longer to hit the kpis, but we're going to do it for a longer period of time once we start getting there, because the team is bought in.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh, I love it. You know, for me I finally came to terms with if you want to excel and expand your influence within an organization, you've got to have leadership skills and management skills. Right, Because, if all I because I did it I was the leader for a long time when I didn't do the managing, which means I'm just a cheerleader, right. And then when I was a manager and I didn't care about developing people, I was, like you said, like the boss, Jess, you get that stuff done, you bring projects in on budget, but our clients hate you and our people quit on you and they're like well, you need better people and better clients. I don't know what to tell you, but when I figured out, oh, I know how to do the managing, that's actually easy, but there's a better way to do it. And if I focus on developing people and if I focus on developing people, the world is open to me, and so I'm with you on that 100%.
Speaker 2:Now you said that you were a laborer and you knew when you were a laborer that you wanted to own run the damn business. And I think I said it earlier. But I've been stalking you on TikTok and I love your messaging about vision and having a vision and letting that vision guide you, because you're living the results of that. What I want to peel the onion back so that people can get a real sense of it. Was it like you saw the vision and it was just a straight line directly to where you are today? Did you just have win after win?
Speaker 1:Man, what did that look like? The scariest roller coaster imaginable. That's what it looks like. The highs were really awesome and the lows sucked. I made some poor choices going to companies because I thought, oh, getting this title and this salary, this is going to get me to the next level. And then realizing, okay, I made a misstep, take three steps back. Okay, now, how do I regroup to the next level? And then realizing, okay, I made a misstep, take three steps back. Okay, now how do I regroup? And how do I? And there's a lot of that in the path. And the thing that I love about it is I'm 45. I still have an entire career in front of me.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we have lost sight of man when you turn 40, like you're done, you're over the hill, it's over. I'm like what do you mean? I haven't even hit my stride.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally so. You had wins and you had some lows, and I don't know anybody that just had a streak, 100% winning streak. Where do you think you learned the most? Did you learn the most in the wins or in the?
Speaker 1:lows. Definitely, for me, it was the lows is where I learned the most. It's not to take away that I didn't learn from the high wins too. I'm hypercritical of myself, my growth, what I was doing, and even to a really negative place back in the day. I've really worked on that. But the lows is where I really learned more about myself. What decisions am I making? Am I leading in the way that I want to? Am I growing my team? Am I serving them? So say, a customer gives you a bad survey and somebody says, man, that survey was bad. I'm like, no, that's great information, like that's what we build from that. I can't like if they give me a five-star review but no data, no information. Well, okay, I didn't learn anything from that. So for me, you can learn from the highs and the lows. It's all about the information that's in that data set to take maybe a couple of steps back.
Speaker 2:What advice do you have for people to make it through? Because when you're in the middle of that, it seems like your future is set. It's over. You wasted all your time. This is the end of the road. So what advice do you have for folks that are in that situation now or maybe facing it in the future?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Jesse, this is where that vision comes back into play. Man, if you know what your vision is, over three years.
Speaker 1:This is just a piece of the journey, because this is the thing that you really have to grasp. So you're in a bad situation, you're working for a bad boss, whatever. You're still learning. You're still growing from that experience. And if you're surrounding yourself with maybe you can't surround yourself inside the company, but outside the company with positive people. They're building you up and you're focused on where you're going, not where you are, then you understand that this is a minor setback, if you will, or opportunity.
Speaker 1:But I'm still staying positive. I'm still showing up. I'm still networking, no matter what role you're in. I'm still networking, no matter what role you're in. I'm still networking with others within the industry and networking in hey, how can I help you? What are some things that you might need? I'm not just asking, I'm not just taking. I'm giving more than I'm taking, but I'm doing that in a positive way, even though I'm miserable over here. I need to compartmentalize that, because my vision is pulling me in a much better direction. So, by staying positive, by doing all those things, the moment I say, okay, enough is enough, I'm turning off this switch. Now I don't have to go and say, okay, I need three weeks to reset. I need to get positive. I need to get my mind. No, you're already doing it. Just take a step.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what? So what I'm getting is like the thing happened and you said, well, that sucks. Let me get back on my vision. Was it that easy? Oh man, no.
Speaker 1:So, look, let me tell you that the worst mistake I made was I took a job with this company. This was when I really went from kind of the blue collar side of management to the white collar side and I'm like, I'm excited, I mean big bump in pay, like everything's a lot right, and I'm like, oh my God, this is great. Day one on the job I go out to a job site and I'm standing on top of this mountain and I'm looking down at the houses and I'm like I screwed up. I knew from that moment that I made a massive mistake, that there was not any fixing this organization. They were just doing things just to do them, just to try and make a name for themselves in the market, which was not a good name. But I said, I've got what I wanted. I'm exactly where I have wanted to be. I'm going to make the best of this. I'm going to do everything I can to learn and grow from this experience.
Speaker 1:When I made the decision to move on, I moved on without another job. I was at the lowest I've ever been, and we're only talking about three years ago. At the lowest, I regrouped, I took another position, high-level position, a big cut in pay and probably 30 days time I was back to my old self. My confidence was back, my swagger was back. I mean, we were really doing some good work at that company. So, yeah, you're going to have those setbacks. And I think, as I look back on that today, I had some good people in my corner, yourself included, that I could lean on. But I was kind of embarrassed, if you will. I was like I failed and they're going to know that I failed and I don't want them to know. And now I'm like well, I mean, my friends were there for me. I needed to lean on my friends and they would have propped me up and said gosh, you know what you're doing, get back in the game.
Speaker 2:Let's go. The world needs you. And that's what I was like yeah, yeah, shake it off, let's go. And so I heard this from somebody and I'm like, oh, I think I do that Kind of Somebody I can't remember who was.
Speaker 2:I interviewed him on the podcast and I'd look, life's going to give you some shit bags and you got to deal with it. And if it's going to make you sad, it's going to hurt, it's going to break you, and so pretending everything's OK is not healthy, it's not sustainable. So be sad, be mad, be resentful, be depressed, be angry, but give yourself a time limit, right, it's like give yourself a day, a week, a month, whatever it is. I'm going to stew in this misery and relive it and replay it and be mad and blame everybody, and I'm going to do that for this much time. And on this day, okay, you let it, I've processed it, I've chewed on it, I kicked it around. It's time to pick my head up and see what's next.
Speaker 2:Because and for me, the takeaway there was there have been the majority of my life, but I maxed it or numbed it with substance, where there was grief and sadness and all kinds of things that I hadn't dealt with, because I just went, kept going and kept going harder and diluted myself with. We'll just say I polluted my body with anything I could get my hands on and I couldn't do it forever, and so when I finally shifted that it was like oh, I got a, I got all this stuff that I need to process, and so I processed it and then it's okay, let's go. What's next? It's behind me now, and so I love that. You point that out. Now you've mentioned network networking friends, like how does somebody, let's say, I'm going to start down this vision path, right, the vision quest? Yeah, I love that. So how do I go about selecting the people? What are the qualifications or the indicators of who to reach out to, to connect with, to help me on the quest?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so really the vision quest. I mean I'm always available. So if anybody ever wants to talk about your vision quest and where you want to go, like I love vision, so feel free to reach out to me. I'm sure, jesse, you'll have the ways to reach out to me. I'm sure, jesse, you'll have the ways to reach out to me and connect, happy to help you Really. The vision is yours, right Cause I can tell you my vision and I can say hey.
Speaker 1:Jesse, this is going to be your vision now, but I need your vision to be your passion. If you're really passionate about helping dogs or animals, then great. Let's create a vision around what that looks like. How can you do more to get out there and help animals and do those things? So? And then we can build that together and I can kind of give you some tricks and tips.
Speaker 1:But really it's my favorite thing to tell people is when you go on vacation, you're out at the beach, you're doing all that stuff. Leave the phone at home, bring a notebook, stare out at the ocean and just write it down. I mean, dream as big as you. I mean like you can have anything you want in this world it doesn't matter what it is and just put it on paper. And now the key is don't say how am I going to get that, don't even spend any time thinking about that. Just write down what you want and then get it clear Is this really what I want? Does this make me excited? Does this drive me? And when it starts to do those things? And remember, make it clear. So if your dream is to have a $3 million custom build, well, what color siding do you want. What's the tile look like? What's the kitchen sink look like? I want it to be so crystal clear in your mind that, everything you see, you can start to reach out and touch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I guess what I take from that is getting that clear, then it's oh well, these are the people that are maybe best equipped to join the team or be a part of that vision.
Speaker 1:This is the next piece. So once you get your vision locked in, now, you're going to share it. Jesse, this is what I intend to do at McMahon Custom Homes. This is what I'm aiming for, this is what I want to do. And if I'm watching Jesse and Jesse's not bobbing his head, he's not leaning into me, he's not interested, and just chalk it up, jesse, anything I can do to help you, I'm good, okay, great, on to the next one. On to the next one. Like I had no less than 10 realtors, just kind of no interest, no, worried. Then the one realtor comes to my house. We want to don them. They are falling over themselves about the vision, what we're trying to do, where we we're going, and I'm like that's our realtor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And so one important thing I want to make sure people don't miss you said 10, and I know it's probably more than 10, but at least 10, we're like la, la, la. And then one right, like it wasn't the first person. You talked to the value of repetition in terms of, like you're saying, of sharing your vision. So here's the takeaway, folks if you want to start down the vision quest, get your vision, share it with people and then, based on their engagement, their connection, their depth of interest, that's going to signal who should be on your place, and it is unrealistic to expect every damn fool you talk to to be excited about your damn vision. Is that fair?
Speaker 1:That's a hundred percent right, and it's okay.
Speaker 2:Now, one thing you said and I know you made a post about this the other day, I think I saw it on the Instagram is like writing, writing it down. So this is my tool that's remarkable, which I've had, man, I've probably been using remarkable four or five years now. And to to your point, I schedule, and I'm about five for seven out of every week, but I block out an hour of time every day for thinking, and that is what I do. I sit down and I like that hour it's. Am I going to think about the future? Am I going to reflect on what has happened or what I've learned or how I feel about something? Or am I going to think about where I am today, right now, this minute, I make a decision and then I go there.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I spend a lot of time thinking about the future, what I'm going to work on, what I'm designing, what do I want to learn, blah, blah, blah. But I also know this when I skip more than two days in a row of not doing my thinking time, that is when I start getting way off the path. I start over committing, I start taking on things, spending time with people that I don't need to be spending time with, and so my point is this that going to the beach and documenting, getting your ideas out of your head, that's the start, and if you can do it, the more frequently you do it, the better things will be.
Speaker 1:What do you think? That's 100% right. I love the focus time that you've added to your schedule. Everybody thinks I don't possibly have time to do this. I'm telling you that when you start tracking your time, you've got more than an hour. You've got a lot more than an hour Having that focus time. It re-energizes us, it gets us filled up and we're like, oh man, this is why I'm doing this. It's taking your lunch break and really checking out for an hour and not scrolling Instagram, but thinking about where do I want to be, what do I want to accomplish, how am I progressing? Just have your own time. It's good.
Speaker 2:Yes, agreed. Okay. So the podcast. Where does your podcast land in all of this?
Speaker 1:Oh man, we ran that podcast for a little over three years. My wife and I were running it was a home building, construction management leadership type of podcast. I was struggling with the place of employment I was working at, I was starting my own business, my mother was passing away, so we just had kind of the perfect storm of everything happening and we dropped one episode at the beginning of January and it was like that's enough, we need to focus on us, we need to get our stuff right.
Speaker 1:And it's really you start thinking about your time and while I feel like we were adding a lot of value to our listeners and our audience, I wasn't filling my tank so my energy was depleting so I just needed a reset. So we've paused the podcast. We still pay for it every month, so it stays active. Feed Me.
Speaker 1:Your Construction content is the podcast, but as far as right now goes, mcmahon Custom Homes is really my primary focus and my second focus is getting out and doing more public speaking. So I love vision and I put together a presentation on vision and another episode on something else. But really the focus is hey, your business vision is this Well, how do I help your team members better understand their vision and how it aligns with your vision? So now we're all aligned and moving towards the goal and it's like when you can add that fuel to the fire. That's the leadership piece. Right, my visionary leadership is going to help your worker bees better align with their vision, which aligns with your vision. And some people their vision won't align with yours, and that's okay too, because they might be a subtractor from your business and they don't.
Speaker 1:They just don't understand why. They just think they're a bad employee. You think they're a bad employee, but it's really just, we're not aligned you're not aligned, oh so I ultimately love that.
Speaker 2:So, folks out there in the omniverse if you have because you've seen this and I've seen it so many times where the leader has a vision and they're frustrated because their team isn't excited and connected to it and it's because you're not connecting you have a vision, but you've been dreaming about this for years and you're expecting this young cat to jump on board and they don't have any idea what the hell it is. So, omniverse, if you know somebody that's in that situation or you have a need for a super engaging, eventful and, we'll say, experience-packed session, get with Mr Josh McMahon so he can come out and light your people up and get you going down the path you want. Put the word out, folks.
Speaker 1:We talked about revenue being a goal earlier. How many people in the business say my vision is to be $10 million? Well, okay, if I'm the employee, I'm like, okay, great, what does $10 million mean? That's why you're not reaching your vision. You're not getting clarity. So that's where what I want to do is come in and help you further develop that vision, to then drip it down so everybody gets on board, because we love to think bottom up. Bottom up can really change a company. It's not true. I've learned my lesson it's top down. The top isn't willing to change.
Speaker 1:If the top's not willing to go in a different direction, you're not going in a different direction. The top is the head.
Speaker 2:If the top's not willing to go in a different direction. You're not going in a different direction. The top is the head. Correct A hundred percent. I've lived it. I know I can affect some change with my immediate circle, but changing, shifting the whole ship, it's just not going to happen. Now what I like, like our vision, is to hit $10 million this year and in today's environment, my advice is start selling pictures of your feet online. You can make $10 million doing that. My point is that if all you're telling me is 10 million same thing you said right, that doesn't mean nothing to me. And if I come up like, hey, I got a great idea to help you get there, let's sell pictures of your feet, you're going to think I'm making fun of you. No, I'm not making fun of you, it can be done. You just didn't help me understand how you want to get to that 10 million, who you want to impact as a result of all that effort, and that's you're helping them close that gap. That's exactly right.
Speaker 1:You really get a lot of alignment around that, man. It is so powerful. When you see this whole thing come together, it sounds so like pokey or rainbows and unicorns, but I'm living proof. This stuff works, man.
Speaker 2:I'm like this is the key that most people are missing well, I'm gonna add on that you're not just living proof that it works, like you're in the midst of doing it. It's not a concept that people that you cut him across and got excited about. You've been walking this path for a long time and it feels I wouldn't say you're at the peak. I will say that you're at a peak, that's right, because there's higher peaks ahead. And then kind of back to the podcast. One thing I want I super respect you because you're like, yeah, we did it and we're not doing it right now because we're focused on this. And so one thing I want to help people discern from that.
Speaker 2:It's kind of a two-sided coin. Right, if you're going to do something, do it for real, but and at the same time, know that sometimes things happen for a season, correct, and when that season's over, it's okay to put it on the shelf and take on the next season, which doesn't mean quit because you didn't get a million downloads on the first episode. That's weak sauce, yeah, yeah, yeah, very true, because, believe me, I wanted to. I still haven't hit a million, but it's been an amazing opportunity or excuse for me to like connect with amazing people and share their stories. So I know we're going to put the links in the show notes, but I just want to be super. Maybe it's a little cloudy for people. I know you're building custom homes you got McMahon custom homes and you're tearing it up and you're raising the bar in terms of what your goals are for this year, but you're also doing coaching and public speaking. Did I get that right? Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yep, I'm doing public speaking. I'm a certified coach as of this year, so it's not just I've done this, so now I'm a coach. I'm self-proclaimed. No, I mean, I went through training and continual training, so it's been really good for me.
Speaker 2:Nice. So how do people, where do we send people to get ahold of you?
Speaker 1:The easiest place to get me is LinkedIn. You can always find me on LinkedIn, Joshua McMahon. Instagram is another spot TikTok. I'm getting more involved in TikTok, as long as it's around. I love TikTok because I don't have a big presence, so reps are critically important no matter what you're doing. So I'm getting my reps. I'm honing my craft, so TikTok is a great spot to find me as well.
Speaker 2:Excellent, we'll make sure we have all those links in the show notes. And I got the grand finale question. Are you ready for it? I don't know, man, like this could be anything right, here you go. What is the promise you are intended to be?
Speaker 1:Oh, the promise I'm intended to be? Wow, the promise I'm intended to be. Wow, the promise I'm intended to be. Wow, jesse, I don't know how to answer that question. That's deep.
Speaker 2:When I was in rehab, I had one of the counselors tell me Jesse, your problem is you haven't accepted that if you continue living life the way you're living it, you will never become the promise you are intended to be. And in that moment I knew what he meant. It was a flash of every time I saw a greater version of me and then talk myself out of it. Every time I disappointed somebody for being a dirtbag, every time I cheated and lied to somebody, all of that came back and said all of those things that you've done is what's keeping you from being this vision of what I was too scared to look at.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really good man. I love that story too. I didn't know you went through rehab. I really applaud you for all your efforts and changing and shifting your life.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've been sober for two and a half years. I know the power of sobriety and just how clear my mind is. And for me it's like I realized, probably six years ago, that the real calling for me was coaching and lifting up other people. I feel like in society, whether it be people around us, school system, whatever it may be, there's so many people pushing great people down and I believe that my real journey is lifting others up where other people might not see the value in somebody and that person not seeing the true value in themselves. I think that's really my purpose and really when I got sober is when I really started to accept that I was meant for that and that I could do it, because the imposter syndrome was always kicking in.
Speaker 1:Right, I'm like this is all common sense stuff. Nobody's going to buy into it. Well, the reality is there's no such thing as common sense. It's what we're taught, what we learn in our experiences. But it's really lifting up and giving back to other people. That's really my purpose. And building a home building business, I get the opportunity to build up people within my company, but then we get into a certain stage where I can then go focus on more coaching and building people while somebody else is running the business. So that's really my purpose. Jesse, I appreciate you being the true depth builder and asking that question. That was money.
Speaker 2:Man, I am not surprised by your response at all. Help people, serve people, develop people, build your dream. Yes, did you have fun.
Speaker 1:Man, this was a blast dude. I can't believe it's been three minutes like yeah, well, we might have to come back.
Speaker 2:You know what? Here's the deal when you raise your annual target again, you let me know and we'll get you back on the show to talk that through with people, because it's real Like I'm living it, you're living it, and what I really hope people take away from this is there's no straight path and it's possible. It's possible and it can be bigger than what you even imagine today.
Speaker 1:I'd love to come back and talk about how I raise my goal again, because the next phase is going to be raising the goal. My business partner, who's a 30% owner, is going to be leaving his place of employment and we would probably have a third employee. So the concept and I think we're talking six to 12 months from today it's like that's the stuff that's happening. So the next phase of this podcast is really we raised our goal again and here's how we're doing team building and putting our systems in place and making sure that we've got the culture everybody wants to work in. So love to come back and talk.
Speaker 2:Yes, hell yeah. And here's the link to the TED Talk where Josh was up on stage keynoting for the whole damn thing. That's what we got to do, my brother. Thank you for sticking it out all the way to the end. I know you got a whole lot of stuff going on and, in appreciation for the gift of time that you have given this episode, I want to offer you a free PDF of my book Becoming the Promise You're Intended to Be. The link for that bad boy is down in the show notes. Hit it. You don't even have to give me your email address. There's a link in there. You just click that and you can download the PDF. And if you share it with somebody that you know who might feel stuck or be caught up in self-destructive behaviors, that would be the ultimate. You sharing. That increases the likelihood that it's going to help one more person. And if it does help one more person, then you're contributing to me becoming the promise I am intended to be. Be kind to yourself, be cool, and we'll talk at you next time.