The Leap I Never Would Have Taken Without My Wife

I was a khakis and blue blazer guy. Then in 2005, I quit my job and started a restoration business.

On paper, starting a restoration business was probably one of the dumbest things I ever did.

I had never owned a pair of work boots in my life. I had never had a job where I got dirty. I did not come from the trades. I was not a mitigation guy. I was not a reconstruction guy. I did not grow up swinging a hammer, drying buildings, or working on job sites. So when you look at it from that perspective, it was kind of crazy for me to get into the restoration business.

But I did it anyway.

And as crazy as it may have been, it ended up being one of the most important decisions of my life.

Before I moved forward, I did my homework. There were things I really liked about the industry. I liked the fact that restoration was a need-based business. I liked that people needed help when something bad happened. I liked the idea that if you built strong relationships, did good work, communicated well, and served people when they were under stress, there was real opportunity to build a strong business.

But I also knew there were going to be parts of the business that would stretch me. The nature of the work was not natural for me. The trades side of the business was not my background. The chaos, the emergency calls, the production challenges, the scheduling, the people issues, the financial pressure, all of that was going to be a lot.

And it was.

I don’t want to pretend I walked into the restoration business with everything figured out. I didn’t. I had to learn. I had to make mistakes. I had to ask questions. I had to get uncomfortable. I had to figure out sales in a different way. I had to learn the numbers. I had to learn how to recruit, lead, delegate, manage cash flow, build a team, create systems, and deal with the pressure of having employees and customers depending on me.

It was hard.

But doing something that hard and that far outside my comfort zone changed me.

One of the biggest things it did was build my confidence. I don’t mean fake confidence. I mean the kind of confidence that comes from doing something difficult, sticking with it, getting better, and eventually realizing, “Okay, I can do hard things.” That was huge for me.

Starting and building that business also forced me to develop skills I might not have developed otherwise. I already had sales experience from previous jobs, but restoration took my sales ability to another level. It taught me relationship selling. It taught me how to sell trust. It taught me how to walk into insurance agencies, plumbers’ offices, commercial buildings, homes, and difficult customer situations and communicate in a way that helped people feel confident.

It also forced me to get serious about financial understanding. Early on, I did not know nearly enough about the numbers. But that bothered me. I did not want to be the owner who was working hard, growing revenue, and still not understanding what was actually happening financially in the business. So I learned. I learned how to read a Profit & Loss statement. I learned about gross profit. I learned job costing. I learned how important it was to understand cash flow, collections, margins, and the financial story the business was telling me.

It also taught me how important recruiting and leadership are. You cannot build a good restoration business by yourself. You need people. You need to find them, train them, develop them, trust them, check their work, hold them accountable, and help them grow. That was not always easy, but it became one of the most important parts of building the business.

I also want to be really clear about something.

I worked hard, but I did not do this by myself.

My wife, Kristina, supported me with zero doubt that I would succeed. And I mean zero doubt. Even though we were putting a lot on the line, she believed in me completely. That mattered more than I can probably explain. When you are taking a big risk, trying to build something, and stepping way outside your comfort zone, having someone in your corner who believes in you like that is a gift.

I also had a few incredible mentors who helped show me the way. They helped me understand financial management, recruiting, leadership, and how to think like a real business owner. I am sure I would have learned some of those lessons eventually, but it would have taken longer, cost more, and probably hurt a lot more if I had tried to figure it all out by myself.

And then there were my teams.

Any success I had was absolutely connected to the people around me. I had people who worked hard, cared about customers, helped build the company, carried responsibility, solved problems, and made the business better. It would be dishonest for me to talk about the success of the business as if it was just me. It wasn’t. Yes, I took the risk. Yes, I worked hard. Yes, I had to grow. But a lot of the credit belongs to the people who supported me, mentored me, worked with me, and helped me build it.

That is probably one of the reasons I believe so strongly in coaching, mentorship, and building a strong team today. I know what it did for me. I know I became a better owner because other people helped me see things I could not see yet. They challenged me. They encouraged me. They taught me. They helped me become more capable.

Starting the restoration business also opened doors I never would have expected.

It eventually helped me start The Growth League. At first, I was running my own restoration business and also helping peers in the industry. Over time, that coaching work became a bigger and bigger part of my life. Now I get to help restoration business owners work through many of the same challenges I had to work through myself.

It also helped me start a related business. We were able to leverage some of the insurance relationships we had built and start an auto glass business. That never would have happened if I had not first built the restoration company and developed those relationships.

And maybe most importantly, building the business helped me create a life where I was able to be there for my kids. That was a big deal to me. I worked hard, and there were stressful seasons, but I was also able to structure the business in a way that gave me flexibility. Looking back, I am extremely grateful for that.

So yes, on paper, starting a restoration business may have been one of the dumbest things I ever did.

But in reality, it was life changing.

It changed me personally. It made me more confident. It made me tougher. It forced me to grow. It taught me that I could step into something unfamiliar, learn, adapt, and succeed.

It changed me professionally. It gave me real-world experience in sales, leadership, financial management, recruiting, systems, delegation, and building a business that could eventually be sold.

It changed me financially. Not overnight, and not without stress, but it created opportunities that would not have existed otherwise.

And it changed the work I do today. I am not coaching restoration owners from theory. I lived the business. I know what it feels like to be stretched by it. I know what it feels like to be out of your depth. I know what it feels like to look around and realize the company needs better systems, better financial visibility, better people, better leadership, and better accountability.

I also know what can happen when you stay with it, learn the numbers, build the team, develop better systems, and turn the chaos into something more valuable.

I am not saying everyone should start a restoration business. It is a hard business. It is messy. It is stressful. It will expose your weaknesses. It will test your leadership. It will test your patience. It will test your financial discipline. It will test your ability to recruit, delegate, communicate, and make decisions under pressure.

But for me, starting that business became one of the most important decisions of my life.

It gave me the experience I now use every day to help other owners. It gave me the credibility to sit across from a restoration business owner and say, “I understand what you’re dealing with.” It gave me the scars, lessons, mistakes, wins, and perspective that shaped how I coach.

So maybe it was dumb.

But I am incredibly grateful I did it.