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Building a Fire Protection Empire 🔥🧯from Scratch with John Larkin | Black Bridge Mindset Podcast

• Black Bridge Mindset • Season 1 • Episode 8

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In this episode of the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast, hosts Mike, Ken, and CJ welcome John Larkin, CEO and partner of Electronic Systems Consultants (ESC). John shares his entrepreneurial journey, from his start in the Air Force to creating a successful fire protection empire. The discussion covers the importance of having a passion for your business, the challenges of entrepreneurship, strategic growth, and the value of mentorship. Tune in for insights on building a business from the ground up, maintaining a family-oriented company culture, and managing work-life balance.

00:00 Welcome to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast

01:09 Celebrating Podcast Milestones

04:13 Introducing Today's Special Guest: John Larkin

05:58 John Larkin's Journey: From Air Force to Fire Protection

10:43 Building a Business from Scratch

11:10 Navigating Financial Challenges

13:46 The Importance of Passion and Opportunity

18:23 Scaling and Evolving the Business

23:56 Overcoming Challenges and Building a Strong Team

30:56 Understanding Financial Basics

31:43 The Importance of Mentorship

32:24 Paying It Forward

33:23 Building Company Culture

38:29 Managing Employee Expectations

44:57 Balancing Payroll and Personal Time

55:22 Lightning Round and Closing Remarks

Guest's Website: http://www.esc-oh.com

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Hosts:

CJ:

Hello and welcome to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast where culture, entrepreneurship, and business intersect to fuel inspiration. This podcast celebrates the power of diverse voices shaping the future of business. So whether you're building a business, breaking barriers, or just looking for some serious inspiration, you're in the right place. The Black Bridge Mindset. Podcast is hosted by your three favorite best friends, Mike, Ken, and CJ. So now sit back, relax, and absorb the gems being dropped on you by today's special guest.

Mike:

All right. Well, hello. Hello, hello. I guess what Epi, I don't even know what episode we're on because we're ballin and making so many episodes we can't even keep track anymore. I don't, what is this? Like 7, 8, 9? Who knows? we're killing it.

CJ:

yeah. Right. Early 2000

Mike:

right. right. You're right. We killing it. I

CJ:

get with it. We lit.

Mike:

We lit. All right. You right, you right. But, so some good news, to start out the show, as I shared with you guys, we are getting a lot of traction lately. The last, week or two, the, the numbers jumped quite a bit. Our first, guest that we had Ranita, she had a thousand, over a thousand, watches on YouTube. So

Ken:

Fantastic.

Mike:

about that. the second one, David, he's, he's over, 800 and our third one was Symphony Love. She's, she's tracking over 600. and it's only been out for a week. So people know who we are. They see our beautiful brown faces. And, yeah, I'm pretty excited. So once again, my gratitude and thanks to you two for jumping on this, train with me and, making this happen.

Ken:

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for pushing us.

CJ:

curious to know what our numbers look like on the podcast apps.

Mike:

Yeah, so the numbers. So we have 50, they call'em downloads. So 50 people have listened on the apps. So between Apples, Spotify, buzz Feed, buzz Sprout, excuse me.

CJ:

I.

Mike:

And, there's a couple other random ones that I've never heard of that people are listening to on as well, but that just tells me that people want to see our faces and not just hear our voices.

CJ:

It works for me.

Mike:

So it's going good.

CJ:

just means I

Mike:

So I'll shut up now.

CJ:

my teeth more often.

Mike:

Please, please do. Please do. But yeah, so I'll shut up for now. How are you two doing? What's going on?

CJ:

Pretty good here. Little worn out tonight, but doesn't matter. I'm here to rock and roll. I know. I

Mike:

Well,

CJ:

go outside without a, a full on winter coat in the middle of April.

Ken:

It was 85 degrees here yesterday,

CJ:

Mm-hmm.

Mike:

say. You sound so sorry.

CJ:

right.

Ken:

I mean,

Mike:

I

Ken:

what?

Mike:

Satan.

Ken:

What?

CJ:

Yeah, I couldn't find any, like I said, I couldn't find any of my fire protection, gear. So was the next best thing,

Mike:

For those who are listening on the podcast, he, he has a hat on that says, not today, Satan.

Ken:

Because

CJ:

I mean,

Ken:

it's hot.

CJ:

correct. So, you know, keep, keep all of that away.

Mike:

And you. Oh wait, you can't see it. I told Ken before the show, and it looks like I'm gonna be stripping, but I'm not stripping. But I wore for fire protection, I wore, I have a tank top that's full of fire just, just for the show today. Just little things. I I already hear it. Keep it to yourself.

CJ:

and I

Mike:

Keep it

CJ:

top. Is that wishful thinking.

Mike:

it,'cause it's the only thing I had with flames on it, so I wore it. And then I just throw Ohio State Jersey on top of it because I believe he's in Columbus as well. So I'm trying

CJ:

Okay.

Mike:

I'm trying, let me do my thing.

CJ:

Listen, I'm, I'm reaching for the stars too, with this hat, so I'm not complaining at all.

Mike:

But your hat has so many meanings that we

Ken:

Right,

Mike:

two hour show.

Ken:

correct.

CJ:

I'm okay with it.

Mike:

Nice. Well, I guess we could stop babbling and we could get on to, to our guest today. and I think CJ's gonna introduce Mr. John Larkin. I don't, I don't know why I gotta say his.

CJ:

He is worthy. So we are talking to a CEO and partner who didn't just build a business, he built a fire protection empire from the ground up. One fire device at a time. ESC is a certified minority owned small business headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. specializes in the design, installation and services of fire alarm, fire suppression, and security systems for commercial businesses throughout Ohio and Kentucky. The company also provides turnkey installations and engineering support services as senior partner of Electronic Systems Consultants or ESC. John Larkin oversees the day-to-day management of both sales and client relations with a unique focus on local, state, government and federal projects nationwide. John possesses nearly three decades of industry knowledge as well as stellar reputation in the areas of fire and security throughout Ohio and surrounding states. And without further ado, ladies and gentlemen.

Mike:

John Larkin.

John Larkin:

Wow. an intro, guys. I love it.

Mike:

I am corny. I'm okay with it.

CJ:

I said we.

Mike:

Oh, you said okay.

John Larkin:

introduction.

CJ:

Hey,

Mike:

Yeah,

Ken:

Welcome to the.

John Larkin:

I'm good, man. Wrapping up a long day. Good to hang out with you fellas for, for an hour or so and talk business.

CJ:

some energy left in you.

John Larkin:

I do, I do. It's not nine o'clock yet. It's not my bedtime, so I'm still, I'm still going. Got a few hours left.

CJ:

So, I've given a, a, a brief introduction about, your company, electronic Security Consultants or ESC. you give our audience, a little bit of history of, you know, how you got into the industry and, you know, what, what part of your, entrepreneurial brain had you decide to, to open up your company?

John Larkin:

Wow. We have to go back to the stone age, Chris. It's been that long. to start with, you know, my career really got started in the Air Force. I was, in the Air Force for two tours. I. over eight years, almost nine years. And lucky for me, my choice occupation in the, in the military was firefighter. I've had this, in my blood since I was 18 years old. I'm not gonna tell you how old I am right now, but it's, it's been a few decades. I've been in fiber protection my whole adult life. So that's where the start came from was, was, in the military. While in the military I got, was able to get some free education. So I, studied under, city College of Chicago. Actually I was still overseas, but I studied under City College of Chicago for fire engineering and technology.

CJ:

Hmm.

John Larkin:

able to get that transferred at, to the, civilian life. I think my first company was a company called sco Fiber Protection, way back in the early. nineties. how longest been. I'm trying to think. It was 91 actually now, I'd be honest. And I started out just as a designer, Chris, I didn't even, I think I ever told you that story,

CJ:

I

John Larkin:

Back when CO2 systems, man, that's before even AutoCAD was out. You know, we were doing the rulers and paper and everything like that. So that's kind of where I got my start with a small fire protection company. I actually started in Dayton, Dayton, Ohio.'cause I got outright path and was kind of stuck in the office watching, you know, drawing up CO2 systems and doing the engineering work. And I was noticing all these guys were walking around and they were in and outta the office. You know, they're like, who are these guys? And I go like, those are the sales guys. Why aren't they never here? Well, because their job is to be out in the field hanging out and meeting customers and bringing in business. I'm like, yeah, I want to do that. I kind of finally started transferring my skillset to, to sales and sales management. And you know, kind of fast forward a few years, I worked for some of the bigger companies, in the world. Siemens at the time were service Biotronics. We were part of Siemens. Eventually, went to a smaller company, and then I ended up at Simplex, where I've actually met Chris, for, I don't know, I was there for eight years, nine years. I'm not sure how long you were there, but it was, it was a good run. So I was able five or six. Yeah. So, you know, you gather all those skills throughout the years from, from, from. Engineering to sales, to sales management, to branch manager, to regional managers. I had all that experience under my belt. And the, the, the thing that I had burning inside me that whole time guys, was I treated my company or the company that I worked for, like my supervisors were my board of directors. So I always treated the company like I owned it and I support and I reported to the board of directors. So I always had that entrepreneurial mindset. Whatever I did, that's how I focused on, on business. And it got to the point where I was ready to just make that jump. And I think I made the jump in 2011, yeah, started my company in 2011 and, haven't looked back since. So there's been some rough roads. The rollercoaster has not been smooth. It's been up and down since 2011. But, i'm still here in 2025, with a company under my belt, about 14 employees for on the ESC side. And we, like Chris has mentioned, we just branched out into a, engineering support division or a separate company, not a division. It's a separate company altogether that actually supports ESC, but it's still in the same industry. So, to kind of answer your question, you know, I, I, I've always had that burning desire to, to run something, to be my own boss, to take something from scratch. When I started, I started right outta my house with nothing, no money, just opportunity and, grew it from there. So, you know, there's a passion there. You gotta have that passion to get up every day to get kicked in the teeth and, and go to bed and wake up the next day and do it all over again. So, I've always told people, I've been very fortunate that I've been in the career field, that that's something that I love. I, I think it would've been harder for me to try to build a company off of something I was wanting to try. I mean, I've been, like I said, I've been in this career my whole life, so it was never a job for me with my passion. So I was able to transfer that passion into building a couple of companies. I.

CJ:

I know you, you just touched on it a little bit, but, in the beginning, you know, you're, you've got your experience, you have your confidence in the field, you know, you ready to cut your teeth at, at owning a piece of the pie. How did you look at things from a, a financial standpoint? I know you said that you didn't really have much money, but, you know, how did you get it, get the company off the ground? Did you, you know, finance it out of your pocket? Did you loan? Did you have investors? Like what, what route did you take?

John Larkin:

I finance it out of my pocket. 401k gone. I, I finance this, it myself. You know, and there's two ways to look at it. I, I think, and we, this is something we will talk about probably at, you know, what are the pitfalls of, of running a company, but didn't truly have. The financial where of thought, understand how to go to banks and approach banks for, for credit lines. Personal credit wasn't that great'cause I was a, a knucklehead growing up. So those are red flags that you don't know till, you know, right. You can't walk into a bank and say, Hey, here I am, and gimme half a million dollars. And they start pulling your credit rating, like, yeah, come back and see me two or three years from now, and it's just a little better, you know? So I was forced to, to finance in my, my own. I would love to have, been able to walk into a bank and, and get a, you know, a million dollar credit line and, and, you know, be able to just to people right off the bat and support that. But it was, it was from the ground up, man. It was, it was a job at a time, you know, building up the clientele, getting that money coming in, trying to talk, vendors into giving us credit lines for, you know, 30 days or 45 days of front of the equipment. So it, it was a struggle. I, I, I will shout out to an old Air Force buddy who, she's actually the godfather of a couple of my kids that, when I really needed something, I was down and I didn't have the money. I called on him and he, and he wrote me a check. So, without that support, without the support of my wife, who kept the lights on, when I didn't, when I wasn't cutting, cutting myself paychecks and trying to pay the bills and grow a company, she was there making sure everything was, was going strong. So, those are the two people that I had, you know, behind me that kind of kept me moving forward. But it, it was, it was a struggle. I mean, to, I, hell, to be honest with you today, it's still the struggle trying to make payroll. I always tell people, you know, never when I hear somebody say, oh, how much you make a year? What's your revenue? And I'm like, oh, you know, we do. I do 10 million or I do 2 million. The first thing I say is, how much does it cost to make that. Because I could

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

John Larkin:

money you really, actually, I don't care what your, what your p and l says. If you're making 2 million, did it cost you 1.5 to make that 2 million or did it cost you 2.5 to make that 2 million? It's all about the net profit, right? So, those struggles will always be there with where, wherever you're at in any stage of your company is trying to make sure that the revenue's coming in, there's some profit in part of that revenue and you're, you're banking money. And, that's why I wish somebody told me that years ago, but you know, you learn sometimes you have to learn the hard way.

Mike:

Right. That's awesome. There's two things that you mentioned at the beginning, of your journey. One is that you started a business that you had passion for. And then the other thing that you mentioned is that, there was an opportunity for you to start this business. So speaking to someone who's on the other side of this screen, listening or watching. when you say start a business that you have a passion for, how did you know you had a passion for this specific niche? then also how did you know there was an opportunity for you to build a business and continue in this niche of fire protection?

John Larkin:

Two, two great questions. Again, to go back to, you know, my background, you know, I've been in fire protection my whole life. So, that was, that was the catalyst that got things started. I, like I said, I, I don't think I could, you know, start a company that would, I. Selling other parts or a designer or, you know, whatever it is, you know, even in construction.'cause I didn't have that skillset. I mean, I had that burning desire to run something and be my own boss and build something from nothing. But I started out with what I was good at, to be honest with you, was my passion, to be in fiber protection. Like I said, I was a firefighter, I was a fire inspector, I was an assistant fire chief. Got into design engineering and lo and behold, you know, you get out into the civilian world and, and it opens up a little bit more. Now you can see sales guys and, and companies. I mean, when I was in the Air Force, funny thing is I never really knew what a fire protection company was because I was a firefighter. That's all I cared about, you know, and you get out into the real world, so to speak, and like, wow, you can actually do this for a living and you don't have to be a firefighter. You can be a, you know, a fire engineer or you can be in sales and you can be in construction. So all those opportunities started opening up for me. To say, man, well I can, I can actually take this and make something out of it. So that was a start. This is the passion that I hadn in myself to, to do that. The opportunity side of it, you know, I, I've been in the industry long enough that I had a lot of contacts in, in, in

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

John Larkin:

Because I was a sales rep and a sales manager and a branch manager. So I built a reputation just in Columbus that there was a lot of people who knew who I was. A lot of general contractors, a lot of electrical contractors, lot of business owners that were in the industry, and they, they gave me the motivation, said, Hey man, if you go out and on your own, we're, we're gonna work with you. We're gonna give you work. So I had that opportunity to, you know, not just jump out there and, and swim without finding, finding something to do. I, I, I jumped out there with opportunity that was, that was there waiting for me. I just had to execute it and, and, and get the jobs done and keep growing from, from there. You know, the other part of that, you know, the opportunity that, that, that when, when the company started growing was getting, obtaining the, the certifications for, for the company, the minority certifications, MBE Edge, you know, we, there's a lot of, in a lot of initials behind our company name. So that, that was a, a, a game changer for us too. You know, a few years back when, you know, I think the biggest. The biggest break came from me when we already had our certification. We really, it really was just at the time, I didn't think it was worth the paper was written on'cause nobody was really paying attention to it. it was there but it wasn't being pushed and enforced, or, or acted on at all. And I'll be honest with you, I think it, it was Governor Kasek at the time. That and the Republican governor at that, that made it kind of mandatory for MBE and Edge op, contracting companies or MBE and Edge certified companies to get a piece of the pie not just, you know, a knock on the door and let you bid. Where he was forcing that down, that they were making sure that MBE and edge companies were getting opportunities. Now, once you got that opportunity, you had to, you had to do your job and we had to do it better than anybody else, right? We had first we're MBA second, we're being forced on these people who had already had the relationship with somebody else, and they're waiting for you to trip. They're waiting for you to be late, not have the equipment on time, bad attitudes. We had to act. Our MBE contractors had to be 10 times better than an average non MBE contractor just to be equal. Just to be equal, right? So that again, was some of the opportunities that we used to our advantage. And once we got into these jobs and these customers and they could see how well we did our job, we built those relationships and it went on from there. So even if the MBE program went away, which is kind of teetering now these days anyway, but we still have that reputation of being a company that can actually do the job. those are the kind of the breaks we had along the way.

CJ:

So when you, you first got started, what was your original for the company and then. Has that vision changed since then? Or, are you still working on that original vision and, there's other, know, realities that, that have come to fruition since you started?

John Larkin:

Oh man. Another great question. much time do I got? I can preach out just for a while. The right answer is no. What I, the vision that I had for the company in 2011 to where we are in 2025 is nowhere near what I thought I was gonna be. It's, it's 10 times more. The reason we've kinda shortened the, the company name, the company true company name is Electronic Systems Consultants.'cause of my background, I'm a fire, I'm a low voltage guy. Fire alarm and alarm systems and camera systems. So when I started the company, that was my focus was, was fire alarm or low voltage electronic systems. Fast forward it, now we, we do more. Work on the sprinkler side of the house than we do on the fire alarm side of the house. that's why we're kind of shortening the name. I'm actually gonna go through a name change because I'll go to a job site and it goes, well, who's the sprinkler contractor? And I go, electronic system goes, you guys do sprinkler, you're electronic company. And I got tired of hearing it, so I'm like, I'm just sick of that. We're gonna change it to ESC. But no, when I started the company, it was really, and I don't wanna get too technical and throw out jargon names and stuff, but a lot of stuff that we did, what we call industry is when we're bidding to the bid market, we call it parts and smarts. We're selling parts to an electrical contractor and then what they do their job and they install it, then we would go out and do the programming. We walk out the door, right? That was basically how the company got started. And as we kind of over time, we started getting to not just the bid market and those small projects, now we're starting to bid a. Service contracts to customers. So once the system's in place, we'll do a service contract to maintain that customer. Because by code, we're fortunate, in our industry that what we do for a living is, is driven by code. You have to have a most, nine times outta 10, you've gotta have some type of protection in your building. 10 outta 10. That system has to be maintained and serviced by an outside vendor. So that kind of, we went from parts and smarts and we started moving into the service side of the house. Really, at that time, we were still doing fire alarm, right? Little bit of camera work, a little bit of low voltage. And then once we got into these customers and we were doing their fire alarm inspections, they said, Hey, what else can you do? Oh, we can do it all. Not knowing that, you know, I really couldn't. But you know, you're gonna, you're gonna say that, and you walk out the door, oh shit, now I gotta get a sprinkler guy because we now promising to do this and gotta get a backflow guide. We don't, we don't have to do that either. And we just, you know, you, you fake it till you make it. And I, I just use subcontractors and, and you know, told him that, Hey, put on my shirt, go in there and do that inspection and gimme my shirt back when, like you, with our company and, and we, hey, me now employee it, do it. telling. But, you know, then we, we, we, we slowly started bringing those people on board. And because we had that work now, now we're doing not only fire alarm, now we're doing suppression systems and extinguishers, and we're doing everything that comes underneath of, of, the umbrella force systems integrator, which is a company that can do ev to do it all. Now we're moving in from. Just not doing the inspections, but with the, with sprinkler systems, now we're doing repair work, so now we're repairing'em. And now so we can, we got guys good enough to do the inspections. We got guys got good enough to do the repair. Do we have guys good enough that can actually install it? Let's try that. Right? So now we're, now we're installing sprinkler systems along with our fire alarm systems and along with our alarm systems and our camera systems. And it just started to grow. So, you know, you, I look back on that now and then, and, you know, electronic systems was a fire protection company. Now ESC is a full systems integrator. So we, we can, we do it all and we do it all in house. We don't have to sub out any of our, our install work. We can, our guys can bend conduit and, and they can put in fire pumps and everything else. So we grew that over time. So, man, you had the vision. I was shortsighted. I, I didn't have that vision, you know,'cause I was so focused on what I was good at or what I thought I was good at was fire alarm and fire protection, fire alarm and fire protection that I wanted to build a fire protection, a fire alarm company. The guise of fire protection, but it started to branch out and, and, and grow. And you know, we've, you know, now, like I said, 70% of our revenue is, is on the water side and not on the electronics side. Funny.

CJ:

What's that, that term you like to use? Lovett.

Mike:

Imperfect action

Ken:

Perfect.

Mike:

making imperfect action.

CJ:

like.

Mike:

I think it, I think that's how it started was with imperfect action. But it sounds like throughout course you made a lot of pivots as well. You're like, oh, we, this is what we're gonna do, but oh wait, let's pivot over to this and, and try this as well and, and add on to, what we're able to offer. So,

John Larkin:

yeah,

Mike:

I think that's great and, and people need to hear that. a lot of times you do go in with, with blinders on and this is what I want to do. But then, you know, you get down the road and there's so many more opportunities that come knocking. You have to be ready to, you have to be ready.

Ken:

Y you had mentioned earlier about, some challenges, right? So can you talk to us about some of the challenges that you've had over the time that you've been running your business, and then also kind of tell. Our, viewers and listeners, like what your mindset was to get over those challenges and to kind of move on to, the next step.

John Larkin:

Oh, absolutely. I mean, that, that's one of the reasons I wanted to be on this podcast is to share those, those experiences because, you know, if I, I could look back and say, man, I wish somebody would help with it. And part of some of this wisdom on me that I want to impart on others that are starting, starting businesses, you know, I, I would say that the first thing. I look at now, when I talk to young people that are wanting to start companies, I ask them, the first thing I want to do is, what's your vision? Because there's two, look, there's two ways to look at an entrepreneur. There's an entrepreneur that can be a standalone entrepreneur and they want to grow their company and it's this themselves. there's nothing wrong with that, right? And they can go out and just build that company and it's almost like a job, but, but it's their company. you've got

Mike:

Okay.

John Larkin:

that wants to build a company that wants to scale it and wants to have employees and wants to branch out in different offices. And, you know, you go from Columbus to working in Louisville and working in Michigan, and that's that vision, right? So there's two ways to approach being an entrepreneur. So I always ask the person, what do you wanna do? Do you wanna scale it or do you want just to be, you know. Just run the company yourself, and, and, and that's your job, and that's your passion, and you're great at that. Once you ask that question, then you can get that focus. Now, say the first thing after that. The next question after that is to surround yourself with people who know more than you. That's the most important point. If, if nothing else comes across in this, in this podcast from me, that point I wanna get across. Surround yourself with people who know more than you. And in my example of that is. talked about that as my passion. Yeah. I've got a passion for fire protection. I really know, I really love what I do. but fire protection when you go into a business is a lot more than just fire protection. It's understanding how to read a p and l and how to read a balance sheet and how to read and how to do cash flow projections. And if that's something that you are not used to or you have no clue on how to do it, you should find somebody as quickly as possible to be a mentor or to be a guide to help you with the things that you do not know how to do. Because again, it's your passion. I can get up every day. I've been, you know, there's, there's days when I, I didn't want to get up, but I love what I do and I'll get up and face the day, right. Because it's my passion and what my job is. But at the same time, you know, I, I would turn, turn a blind eye or, or, or kind of hide behind. I. You know, man, what's this? Am I making, am I actually making money? Who can help me see if this p and l makes sense? And I've had really good mentors along the way that I've asked to come in and help me look at the books. And guys that can take a, you know, take a p and l goes, there's something wrong right here. And I'm like, right where there's something wrong with these numbers and let's start digging into it where I could never figure that out, you know? So that's the mo most important piece, I think, is to surround yourself with people who understand business. While you understand the passion that you have for your business to grow that. But you need to make sure you have somebody that knows financial strength. If you're not in marketing, you know, to understand, you know, how to market your company, grab somebody who knows how to do marketing, how to do sales, whatever the case, you know, if you're good at sales, which, you know, I'm a sales guy, Chris knows that I'm, I'm a sales guy by heart. But, but my fight, and, and it's funny because I actually ran a bit, I actually ran companies before as a branch manager, and I wasn't, I was responsible for the p and l, but I was responsible for the local p and l, I just had to make sure that I reached whatever my goal was for that month. If we had to do a half million in revenue, I. Great. That's, that was my number. I didn't have to worry about the, the cost of it or the, the employee cost. The insurance, the cost of material. All that stuff that, you know, you didn't really know. And I didn't know till, I didn't know when I got on my own, how all that was important. You, like, I ran a company before, I know how to run, I know how to read a p and l. No, you don't. You think you do, you might understand the top line, you might understand the bottom line. There's a whole bunch of other lines in there that makes, that runs your company. And if you're not focusing on those lines, you're gonna fail,

Mike:

Right,

John Larkin:

gonna lose money every month. And you don't understand

Mike:

right.

John Larkin:

You're not gonna be in business long. So, you know, I guess the, the moral of it is, is, is to surround yourself with people that's gonna help you understand how to run a company. That, that's, that's probably the key.

Mike:

Yeah. That's your, that's your team. Right? That's, you know, we've talked about this in other podcast is, a team of people to help support you and run the company. You don't need to know and understand how to do everything in order to make the company successful. So there have been people who've come on and said, yeah, I am. the CEO, I'm the founder. This is my vision, but I have these people in place who help me carry out this vision because their passion is, like you said, accounting or their passion is marketing. I know enough, but I'm not as good as they are. I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for my team.

John Larkin:

Yep. Yeah. And. When you're starting out, those type of people, you can't afford to put on your payroll. You don't have a payroll, right? So you've got to lean on people that are, that are wanting to help you, understand how to run the business. You know, I can look at it now, you know, I've, I've had this company since 2011. I, and I can be honest with you, I didn't get my team in place so I could start scaling back myself to last year. You know, I, I went, I went all these years. I didn't have an operations manager. I didn't have a project manager. I didn't have a, a true, really good office manager or, or installation manager. I have all positions now, right? So I can, I can take all those hats off my head, but went from 2011 to 2024. I didn't have all those positions, right? I had sales reps, or I had technicians, and I had people in the field that could do their job maybe an office manager. But I was still the CFO, the CEO hr. I was doing all that myself. And you can't. you start a company, you can't, unless you are just truly funded and you've got money coming out of, you know what, you can't put all those people in place right off the bat. Right. So you've gotta find mentors, you've gotta find people that, that will be able to, you know, look at your p and l over coffee or breakfast one morning. Right. You know,

Mike:

Right.

John Larkin:

I, my first office I had, so I started, I started this company outta my house and I got my first office right around 2014, and I got very fortunate that my landlord's brother some another entrepreneur that his, made so much money, he, he's retired, so he really wasn't even working. He was kinda helping his brother and he introduced me to him and this guy came in out of the goodness of his heart helped me rip my QuickBooks and helped me understand how to read red flags in, in a balance sheet. I'm like, what's a balance sheet? You know, I don't even know what a balance sheet. I know how my p and l. And he goes, no, you gotta, you gotta understand the cash flow report. T and l and your balance sheet, it all works together to build a company. And he set up everything for me. And, and I ran the books that way. I've had, had entrepreneurs and business owners that I probably only met with maybe once or twice a year. And, you know, I was able to say, Hey, here's a problem I'm having and all that stuff. Oh, lemme make a call. I'm gonna set you up with this, a book. You need a bookkeeper, and I'll set you up with this bookkeeper and, and they'll give you a discount and they'll get started so you can get your books ran right. And you don't have to worry about that. So I guess the point is, starting out, you're not gonna be able to afford those people for all those positions that you want. If you look at your scale and go, oh, from five years from now I'm gonna look at my org chart and I'm up top and I've got a COO and I've got a CFO and I've got installation, whatever, however your org chart is set up, all those pieces underneath, you are not gonna be there year one, year two, year three. It's just if you're, if you're, you're starting out. So where, where is that help gonna come from? You've gotta, you gotta have mentors and you've gotta. You gotta reach out and, and, and, and find people that are ready, willing to help you. And, you know, I'm fortunate in this community. I've, I've got a lot of people that held my hands, so to speak. And now it is, it's my turn to pay it forward. So I, I've been able to talk to young entrepreneurs coming in. I ran a few out.'cause you don't like the way I, I reality sits when, like. You can't get paid right off the bat, but, but here's how you run a business. That's all. You know, I'll set up your QuickBooks for you, but you gotta understand how to, how to bid jobs and how to, you know, float money because you're gonna, in this industry, you're not gonna get paid for 30, 45, sometimes 60 days. that gonna work? Right? So, but yeah, so I'm at that stage now where I, I'm, look, I'm looking forward to doing that and, and paying it forward and, and helping people understand, yeah, you're great at what you do. That's your passion. That's fine. I love it. But that's not, your passion's not gonna help you grow your business. You gotta that understand how to run a business. and if you can't do it on your own, help find people that can help you.

Mike:

Perfect.

John Larkin:

way of answering your question, man. But yeah.

Mike:

You're good?

Ken:

was great.

Mike:

Yeah. That's perfect.

CJ:

So curious, if I remember correctly, up until now, I think you may be the, the only guest we've had that runs a, a large company, says, getting me to thinking you basically started from the ground up, how did you go about, I guess based on your personality, how did you go about determining type of, culture that you wanted to have in your company? You know, how you wanted to treat your employees, how you want them to feel, you know, come into the office knowing that they work for you, what, what type of impression you want to give them?

John Larkin:

Man, that's a great question. I, and I just, I just kind of preached that the other day to my team, because I've been around for so long and I've, and, and I, I can truly, honestly sit here and look you and I, Chris, and tell you I've got, I can count my heroes when it come people, when I say heroes, people that I know, not people that I aspire to be that on TV or I read about people that have touched me, has been a part of my life that guided my, the way I shape, the way I run a company. I can count those heroes on one hand. been my fire chief when I was in the military. It's been, a owner of a company that I work for in Detroit, that started his own company from scratch. And he was just, he was a great man and, he taught me a lot. And I've had a couple sales managers that when I worked for Siemens that were, at the time, I thought it was tough. I thought they hated my gut, but it was tough love. And I, I can look back now and goes, man, these guys were kicking my butt. But, they were doing it for a reason, right? So I've had people that have guided me along the way without telling me they're guiding me along the way, right? So I can look back now and look at the people that I, that shaped my life a positive way with those four or five, people that have touched my, touched my life as my career had grown. And I can also look back in that timeframe and look at people that I worked with.'cause if I ever run a company, I don't wanna be like him. I don't wanna be like her because it, attitude and, and the, or it was all off and it was just poison in the office. So I've taken that balance It goes, if I have my own company, I wanna run it this way based on the people that I have experienced throughout my career, both good or bad. And I, and I, to this day, I still hang on to that. There's people I can won't mention by name.'cause you might know some of'em that have, like, if I run a company, it's not gonna be that way. Or if I run a company, I wanna run it away. This, this guy, this guy did it. And, and, and be compassionate about not just the business, but run it. And, and it's, and it is so cliche, and I hate to say it, but it is cliche, but truly do run this like it's a family. because most of my employees are a lot younger than me now, oh my, my kids' age, which just kind of freak freaks me out every, every so often. But there's a reason that I don't want my company to go pass. While I'm still in charge, pass more than 20 people because I wanna keep that same close knit family group together. I run an open door policy. My door's open all the time. So if somebody has an issue, whether it's it's work related or not work related, come on in, let's talk about it. I think that has really transpired is I've been able to get rid of people and fire people and we're still friends to this day. And it was like, you know, like, well, you're one of the greatest boss I've ever had. Yeah. It didn't work out with us pro professionally. Hey, but you're still a friend, and if I can help you out, I'll help you out. And I still have those connections. I've demoted people and because they couldn't cut it and they, but they're still a part of the team and it, it lasted. But, you know, on the other side, there's some people around here think I'm the biggest a-hole in Columbus. happens, can't please everybody. But you know, I, I, I run that, I, I run the company that way. I, I, I have meetings with my team consistently, on a weekly basis. And I, I call it the twenties. Doesn't necessarily mean it's a 20 minute meeting, but it's just, I just call it the 20. But it's a one-on-one meeting where come in and talk on a one-on-one basis, and we talk about whatever you want to talk about. It doesn't have to be work related. It can be work related. We can get to work. But if you've got an issue, help you get through this because you're part of the team. If you're carrying baggage emotionally or whatever it is, you know, I tell my guys all the time, we're not robots. Everybody's not gonna get up on the right side of the bed every day and come to work and, and be cheerful. We're not built like that. We're human beings, right? And we carry emotions and everything else that, you know, we got lives outside of work and, and think to be heavy and, and weighing on your heart, and in your mind. And, if it's something I can do to help you along the way, I will. And I do, I do that consistently. So that's the way I, I, I approach the business, but I do to this day. I mean, I can go back to the eighties and still remember people that given me a lot of guidance that at the time I'm like, ah, he don't know what he's talking about. And now it just rings true. It just rings true, you know? So that's the way I approach it.

Mike:

I have a question. So you mentioned that in your company, you've demoted people or you've had to let some people go. Do you think people still had respect for you after the demotion or being let go is because you set clear expectations for the position and you set clear KPIs for that position?

John Larkin:

absolutely. Yeah. I, I, the one story I tell is I had a guy, and I was at Siemens at the time, and I was the branch manager and one of my best guys in the field. I wanted to promote him to a project manager, which means you're coming from outside tools in your hands out in the elements. You're gonna come inside and you're gonna have a desk job and you're gonna kind of run the company with me from, from the desk. And I brought in my best guy like two months later he comes to me, he goes, I. ain't working. I, I, I, I don't like this. And I'm like, well, why not? And he goes, I, I just, I gotta have tools in my hand. I don't like paperwork. I don't like sitting here, you

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

John Larkin:

on it. This is not my thing. I said, okay, so we're, I'm gonna move you back to the field. And that guy just retired a couple years ago, and we, we were still remain friends. I had guys that, you know, we, we, we tried out positions that it just wasn't for them. And we just put'em in. We kept them going base or kept them in the company because they still were a value to the team, but they weren't a value at the position I thought they were gonna be in. Right. There's, there's that saying you can, you can, promote yourself above your pay grade, which means you can keep getting these promotions until you get to the point where you're promoted to a level that you really shouldn't be in. you can't recognize it, somebody's gonna recognize it. And you now you gotta have that conversation about, okay, we're either gonna let you go you're gonna be, go back down to where you're at. So that, that's kind of way we, I've approached it, but yeah, I've, I've rarely had op company or, or employees within the company that I just had to forcibly get out the door. Unless they were just pure poison or they were poisoning the whole company. And I'd say, yeah, it's time for you to leave. This company's not for you. It's not the culture that we, were trying to present. So did that

Mike:

I just wanted to bring that up because I know some people, you know, once they get ready to start hiring, a team, they may be afraid, you know, of, of letting someone go. But it sounds like if you set the expectations upfront that the KPIs upfront, no reason to be afraid because you could clearly say, these were the expectations. They're not being met because you're not doing A, B, and C. So this is the reason we either have to let you go or you have to be demoted. So there's no feelings I mean, it, it sucks and so does my camera. There's no feelings in there, but it's a, it's a, it's clearly laid out as to, I'm doing this because we're not hitting X, Y, Z targets.

John Larkin:

Yeah.

Mike:

feel like it makes it a little easier.

John Larkin:

It's clearly, and again, that's, that's a great point. It's clearly laid out now because the way I run the company now is a lot smarter than the way I ran the company, you know, 10 years ago, 12 years ago. Some of those promotions are like, oh, this guy's doing great. I'm just gonna come into the office and see, see if it works. The, the, the company and the way I run the company now, just like you said, everything I do is in writing. Everything we do is an SOP to it. I mean, I've got a book sitting right there that's got every SOP for every position in the company. And it's written. We've got standards. And when we promote somebody, we're gonna put you on a 30 day trial basis. Here's what we expect of you.'cause it's in writing and we'll

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

John Larkin:

and whatever you, you know, right off the bat, whatever you're weak at on this checklist, let me know. We're gonna help you. Whatever you think you're strong at, great. Just because we're gonna rock and roll with it and let it go. But that's another point. Everything we do now is in it's, it's clearly written. The expectations aren't just coming outta my mouth on a one-on-one, and there's no guidance there. I, I do everything That's a, that's, it's got a standard operating procedure on a clear checklist.

Ken:

So, you had mentioned, just a little bit ago about, not having more than 20 employees, while you were in charge. So talk to us about how, you know, from your perspective, how that helps you to scale the company, right. To not get too big right. That you need more than 20 people.

John Larkin:

Mm-hmm.

Ken:

but you know, to kind of keep it on track for the vision that you have.

John Larkin:

So that's a great question. So I, I know right now where we're at revenue wise and where I want to be in the next four to five years. And there's, there's, there's calculations and math that goes with that. As thorough, if you're a two, a$2 million company, you've gotta have at least seven or 10 guys in the field make it generating that revenue. If you want to, you know, go to 10 or take a 2 million to a or$2 million company to a$10 million company, obviously there's a math that goes along with that that says you need that many more people. Now, in looking at that, that's not to say that I have to have all those people on my payroll. So if we wanna go from a$2 million company to a$10 million company, and I don't want to go past 20 employees, then we need to look str strategic partnerships, subcontractors, who can we sub out that's gonna help us get along that way that we don't have to bring everybody in as W2, because, you know, in construction industry, it's up and down. So I didn't want to, you know, scale up and have 30, 40, 50 employees and all of a sudden you hit a downturn. You got, you gotta lay people off. I, I've, i've knocked on wood that I've never laid off anybody. We've never missed payroll. but I've, and I'm able to keep that scale, that if we want to grow and we know we have to grow, and we need, we know we need to have people to grow. Well, those people don't necessarily have to be on, on our payroll. We can do that through partnerships and subcontractors.

Ken:

I think that's an important point, right? To point out to people who are listening, right? Like what you said about strategic partnerships, right? And figuring out other ways to build a business other than growing by, you know, adding employees, right? I think that's, that's an important, way to look at, look at things, from that perspective.

John Larkin:

Yeah.

CJ:

I have a question. You, you've kind of touched on it, just now and a little previously. I know there's metrics that you follow based on your, your, you know, your p and l statements. From a payroll perspective though, you know, if, if I'm, a young entrepreneur and I'm thinking about starting this business and I've, you know, my eyes are green and I see the money side of it, you know, I'm looking to get rich, I'm not thinking about the fact that, you know, I have different buckets that, you know, when I get paid, I have to, to fill these buckets first. How do you go about your payroll? Not only, making sure that your budget is, is in line to pay your employees, but how do you pay yourself? How do you go about, you know, giving back to yourself, number one and number two. Since you wear so many hats, where and how do you find time for yourself?

John Larkin:

Oh, he started the first part. The time for myself. That's a, that's a whole different subject. I, I, again, I, I'm a very, oriented person when it comes to running the company. So everything I do is on spreadsheets. The best way to do that when you're figuring out payroll and how you're gonna pay yourself is to set your budget. I know every year going into it, I've got this much cost for insurance. I've got this much cost for, and we use a run rate based on last year. You know how much it's gonna cost to fuel our trucks, how much, you know, car ma vehicle maintenance. We got, I throw all those, I throw line items for everything that we have, including payroll, minus myself. I'll do that first. So I have, I'll have that whole spreadsheet for the budget and I can look at the bottom line. It goes. You know, our cost to run this company, to keep the doors open might be$200,000, 200 to$500,000 a year. That's just cost. That's just employees. That's insurance. That's, that's, that's just to run the company, right? So I take that number and go, okay, we need to make this much every month in sales. We need to, you know, I'll just throw a number out there, you know, you know, if you're a million dollar, million dollar and a half company, you know, our target was to do 180,000 in sales every month. I know that it covers the, it covers all our expenses, and there's money left at the bottom line for myself. The, the, the, the, the dirty secret or not so dirty secret of being the entrepreneur, of being the person in charge. Yeah. There's gonna be days you're not paying yourself or weeks, you're not paying yourself. Again, I go back to when we first started the conversation that my wife kept the lights on when things weren't good. I. I, I would probably two or three weeks sometimes without paying myself because your employees come first, you know, and, and the only thing I was focused on is making payroll. You know what? Bill's not gonna get paid this week because payroll's gotta be made. But I know I'm gonna pick up a check from a b, c contractor next week and that's gonna cover payroll and it's gonna cover some bills and maybe I can get paid. And that's just a constant, constant. And that never goes away. It doesn't matter how much money you're making. I sat in front of one of the biggest general, they were biggest engineering firms in town, with the CFO. And he goes, I still get scared. You know, our, our, our payroll could be. Now in comparison, their payroll was like a million, a million a half a week. And I'm like, holy crap. I mean, I, I couldn't even figure that. It made no sense to me. It, your payroll is that much. He goes, yeah, there's nights I'm sweating. You know, how are we gonna make this payroll? You know, luckily sometimes they, the line of credit, but their line of credit might be maxed out. He goes. It doesn't matter if you're a half million dollar company or a$10 million company, that fear never goes away because you've gotta generate it. You gotta run the business. Money's coming in and money's coming out and you've gotta control it. So that's, that's the hard part. But I, I do everything on a budget. I, I, I have a sales plan. I, I know what my costs are every month. I know what our expenses are outside of that. So, and, and I, I, I can tell, I can look mid, mid month and go, we're not gonna make our numbers, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna cover payroll, we're gonna cover expenses, but we're gonna lose money. Or we're gonna have a great month. And, and you know what's keep, what doesn't keep me up at night is I know I've got a backlog of work that once we get that backlog rolling, we're gonna get caught back up. Right. It's not like we don't have any work at all, but there's still, that work's not being pushed and that work's not being generating revenue. I gotta make payments this week, next week, the week after. I mean, my employees, if they're, they get paid weekly. So. That has to, that has to come. But I, I, I guess the moral of it, Chris, is I run everything off of, of, of spreadsheets and budgets. I know exactly where I'm at, at, at all times,

CJ:

And then how do you find time for yourself, not, not speaking in a way of, payroll, but you know, you've wearing so many hats on a daily basis. When and where do you find time to, to just, you know, woo side and, and try not to think about the business?

John Larkin:

hardly ever. I, I try to make time. It, it's funny, man, I, I, I tell you, I, last year, end of last year when it took, so all of I built my management team up. So prior to say you go back prior to 23, I was working seven days a week, just keeping everything rolling, man. We were busy, we were doing great. We were making money. I was wearing all those hats and I finally got to the point where we were, we're, we're doing well enough that like every quarter I'm gonna bring on somebody. And I, you know, started with an office manager. So I take that hat off and I promoted a guy from field to installation manager, took that hat off and then I promoted a guy. I brought in a guy that's gonna be my project manager, was the greatest hires I had to, to do because I took a big hat, took several hats off my head. And then right at the end of the year, I brought in the chief operating officer that kind of oversees and he oversees, he has my vision of the safety program and all this other stuff that I wanted to do that I never had time to do. And then I look at the end of the year and I had all my managers in here. I'm like, wow, you know, now maybe I can go to work and start scaling back and work four days a week, you know, or maybe three days a week or one one day in the office or one day at home and rest it, and in the office. And it sounded great on paper. I said, well, I got all these people in place now. I'm still doing the selling. So, but I can do that in a, in a, in a regular time. I'm still working seven days a week still. just that much work here. So the trick and the, the, I guess the world of that story is I better hire an estimator.'cause I, I, that's gonna free up my time. but I haven't pulled that trigger yet. So I, I try to, you know, you know me, I'm, I'm also a musician. I, I play music. I'm out in with a couple bands and I, that's some of my freedom. That's my, my Peace time.

Mike:

What do you play?

John Larkin:

I'm a drummer.

CJ:

instrument.

John Larkin:

Oh yeah.

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah. I used to play drums.

John Larkin:

Yeah.

Mike:

Yeah.

John Larkin:

a drum

Mike:

Yeah.

John Larkin:

is, gosh, is, let, let me, let me, let me also answer it this way, Chris.'cause I think, I think now I can kind of pinpoint I do and I've done it for the last couple years. I get up at five in the morning. I just wake up first thing I do is grab my dogs and we go for a walk and I got music on and I don't look, I don't look at my phone, I don't, you know, I've got my phone on, on me, but it's in my pocket. I don't look at any text messages, any emails. If it's vibrate, I don't care. That whole hour that I'm out walking I've got music on, that's my time, right? And I'll come back home, might work out or I might have coffee, and then I'll, I'll look at my phone and have my day and start setting my day. So that's my peace time lately, I've also added that I go to lunch and I go to lunch by myself. And I try to, try to just de just take everything off my head for 45 minutes to an hour and go eat lunch, the, on my phone, read some articles or something and business related or music related. And that's my time to kind of decompress from the morning and get ready to come back in the afternoon and work again. So two periods of my day, that, that's my me time. That's the important time that I'm like, I'm not worried about the company in the morning when I'm exercising or working out or walking or in lunchtime. Those are my two periods of the day that I, I just, I won't answer the phone. No, a voicemail. I'll call you back at one o'clock. Right. So that's, I think that's kind of one of the answers you're looking for. Outside of that man, I have to be honest with you, I, most of my time is thinking about the company. what's the next move? What's, you know, what are we gonna do and, and how are we gonna grow? And, and waking up at two in the morning and staring at the ceiling for an hour, which is usually pretty good for me.'cause that's when something I'm stressed out for the next, the day before it hits me three o'clock in the morning. Oh, that's the, that's the fix.

CJ:

Been there.

John Larkin:

I'm good. I'm good. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I don't know why that is. a blessing, I guess, but yeah, I, I kind of like, I'm not gonna worry about it.'cause the answer will come to me through three in the morning. So it would, I'll just let it, I'll let it flow and, and it does.

CJ:

that's the side of things that, you know, somebody that's maybe looking to start a business doesn't realize, you know, you are responsible for so much, but you don't really think about, you know, except for the money, the, the end game. What's going

John Larkin:

Yeah.

CJ:

what's gonna happen for you. You don't think about the fact that you're constantly thinking about what you're trying to do, you know, what you're trying to accomplish, what you need to achieve in order to get to that final payout. I think. You know, making time for yourself is very important and, and they probably don't even think about the fact that not gonna have time for yourself once you get going. Honestly,

John Larkin:

Right. No, it's very rare. You gotta pick those, those opportunities again. That's my morning time. Is, is my, that's my meantime. Everything else is, it's, it's go time. You know, it's just, you gotta do it. If you're an entrepreneur, your, your brain never cuts off. I don't care if you're on vacation and, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm going, okay. Vacation in my, with my wife in Europe and I'm staring at sprinkler systems. I'm, I'm in, I'm in, I'm in the Coliseum in Rome and I'm looking at fire extinguishers going, that's pretty cool. You know, she goes, whatcha

CJ:

listen,

John Larkin:

Look how that, that way, or, you know, stuff like that. It never cuts off.

CJ:

I find myself doing that going out and, you

John Larkin:

Yeah.

CJ:

around the city,

John Larkin:

Yeah.

CJ:

did that system. Oh yeah, I did that. I did that system. Yeah.

Mike:

All right, well, are coming up on time and we wanna keep our promise of an hour or less, so I think we're gonna go ahead and get into our. little thing that we do with all of our guests, and it is a little lightning round. CJ tell me, tell me you got the sound this time.

CJ:

I'm

Mike:

still haven't, I still

CJ:

actually, it's on my list. I will have it

Mike:

Okay. Okay. Okay. It's on my list too. So we, we both failed for this week, but, John, that

CJ:

I just couldn't figure out how to get it to you. So it's in progress.

Mike:

Okay. I mean, you could be the person who pushed the button. We both got the same, the same little system. You could have it, you could push the button. I, I give that to you. You can have it, huh?

CJ:

much responsibility.

Mike:

I, I have trust in you. But, in any case, so what we're gonna do is we're do a little lightning round and I think Ken is gonna ask you, five questions they're just. Short, simple, sweet. Don't think too much about it. And to give you some pressure, I'm gonna put up a little timer and you're gonna have one minute to answer all five questions. Does that sound good?

John Larkin:

Let's do it.

Mike:

All right. Let me Mr. Tech guy over here. There it is. There's a little timer. And then, yeah, I'm gonna hand it over to, to Ken once he finishes, asking the question. I'll start it.

Ken:

Okay. Awesome. So after hearing you, what you said about being a musician, I pulled an audible and changed one of the questions. So here we go. Favorite drummer or drum solo.

John Larkin:

John Bonham, Moby Dick

Ken:

Very good. One food you could eat every day.

John Larkin:

Sushi.

Ken:

What's a skill you wish you had?

John Larkin:

Ooh, A skill I wish I had, a singer. can't sing.

Ken:

Who would play you in a movie about your life?

John Larkin:

Denzel.

Ken:

Favorite book or movie?

John Larkin:

Oh, favorite movie, smokey. And the Bandit one.

Mike:

Nice and you get a big round of applause for answering all five questions with 15 seconds left. The first person.

CJ:

I have to say, I'm very surprised to hear you say Smokey in the Bandit.

Ken:

Right. I was not expecting that at all.

John Larkin:

I can turn that movie down and do the whole thing myself. Trust me.

Mike:

That's awesome.

CJ:

I wouldn't pin that on you. I would never have

John Larkin:

I, I, I absolutely love it.

CJ:

And something that we, we forgot to, to do was, you know, give our audience, you know, your, social media and, and your Facebook and let them know where they can find you.

John Larkin:

We just launched our new webpage and I think it's esc-oh.com. I don't have, I don't do a lot of social media. I gotta get back on it. That's another week part for me. So I don't have a Facebook and Linked, I got LinkedIn, but I don't do that. I gotta get a marketing. My, you know, story short, I had a guy that was doing all my marketing and he passed during Covid and I just kind of just shut it down.

CJ:

Hmm.

John Larkin:

I just launched my new website this, beginning of this year. So

CJ:

Okay.

Mike:

Well, it looks good. One of the things, I don't know if you've watched an episode or not, but one of the things we do at the end, is just a little tradition that, that we started right before the show, it's called the Wakanda Peace Pause. it's just us you to, to sit back, a little one of one of these things right here. You're gonna smile into the camera and just hold it for a few seconds. Yep. Look, he, he already ready. And what I'm gonna do is just later I'm gonna take a screenshot of it and then we'll just use that on social media and things like that. But that's, that's us welcoming you into the Black Bridge Mindset Club. just made that up. That's pretty good, isn't it? Nice. All right. So on the count, perfect. On the count of 3, 1, 2, 3, and done. I got balloons. I don't know why I got balloons.

CJ:

where'd that

Mike:

I, I don't know. I don't know. That was the celebration for him. I, I guess that that's the celebration for him. I don't know how they came up. We'll figure that out later. But yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming

Ken:

Thank you very much.

John Larkin:

on podcast.

Ken:

Thank you.

CJ:

I hope

Ken:

Great conversation.

CJ:

because I definitely did.

John Larkin:

Thank you.

CJ:

Thanks for tuning in to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast. If today's conversation resonated with you, don't forget to subscribe, share, drop a comment, and leave a review. We're building bridges, one story, one mindset, one move at a time. Show our guest some love by checking out their socials too. Until next time, keep pushing, keep growing and keep walking in your purpose.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Mike Lovett

Host
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Chris Johnson

Co-host
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Ken Peak

Co-host