Dana Staszkiewicz had never run a company in her life, then at 50, she flew to Utah, joined her brother's $12M plumbing business with no job description, and helped grow it to $20M before a successful exit in under three years. In this episode, she breaks down how curiosity, accountability, and the courage to be uncomfortable in a male-dominated industry turned her into one of the most sought-after business consultants in the trades.
Episode 14: Building a Business by Trusting Your Gut with Dana Staszkiewicz
Jumping into a business you know nothing about, just trusting yourself to figure it out, sounds like a formidable risk. But that’s exactly what this episode’s guest, Dana Staszkiewicz, did when she joined her brother’s plumbing business. Co-hosts Zach and Mike sit down with Dana to chat about business growth, leadership, and what it really takes to scale without losing your values along the way.
Dana shares how she joined her brother’s plumbing company right before the world changed in 2020, helped restructure the business during the pandemic, and played a major role in growing it from $12 million to $20 million in less than 36 months. It’s a great conversation about moving fast, learning on the fly, and building systems that actually support growth.
We also dig into the people side of business. Dana talks openly about accountability, culture, leadership, and why so many businesses struggle to turn a profit, even when revenue looks strong. She also shares why she created the Audara Collective to support women business owners and why stepping away from the day-to-day is just as important as knowing when to push.
“Sometimes you just have to make a leap.”
“How do you get a little corporate but still be family owned and still have a beautiful culture. That was the balance.”
“No one told me, either. Especially nowadays, there are so many avenues where you can find out information. I seek to learn. I’m a big podcast listener. And now with AI, we have so many answers at our fingertips. There’s really no excuse.”
Dana Staszkiewicz is the Co-Founder of The Opus & Golds Group, where she helps trades businesses reach their next level of success, whether that's preparing for sale, accelerating growth, or transitioning owners out of day-to-day operations. The group also partners with select companies through equity participation to ensure aligned long-term success.
As the former General Manager/COO of All Hours Plumbing, Heating, and Air, she drove the company's growth from $12M to $20M in under three years, leading to a successful sale in 2023. Her impact included leading the sale, overseeing a comprehensive rebranding, establishing leadership and management teams, and optimizing company processes.
With a diverse background spanning corporate retail management, product buying, and nearly a decade of leadership at advertising agencies, Dana brings unique expertise to the home service industry. As Director of Client Relations, she managed relationships with Fortune 50 companies before transitioning to her current roles.
While actively involved in the day-to-day operations of The Opus & Golds Group, Dana also owns and leads Audara Collective, a Fractional CEO company that mentors and empowers women to run their companies effectively.
She hosts The Trades Accelerator podcast, dedicated to helping people in trades grow and lead, whether they're already in charge or just getting started.
Beyond her professional pursuits, she is an avid traveler who enjoys exploring new places with her fiancé, cherishes time with her children and grandchildren, and remains dedicated to giving back to the community.
Find Dana Staszkiewicz on Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram
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[00:00.2] We have yet to work with a company that was profitable to where they want to be. Profit is always one of the number one issues. A lot of companies have a hard time holding their people accountable because it's uncomfortable conversations and they don't know how to have them.
[00:16.8]
Owners are visionaries. They know what they want. They just don't know how to get there. It's hard for them to put processes in place without being stuck in everyday fires. You can get to triple digits, you can get to 25 million and still not have profit.
[00:34.5]
Most people think saving money is the answer, but the truth is, saving only gets you to zero. Join Mike and Zach as they flip the script from saving to earning, from zero to unlimited potential. Welcome to Save to Zero.
[00:52.4]
Welcome, Everybody, to episode 14 of the Save to Zero podcast. I'm, Zach here with Mike, and our guest today is Dana Staskowitz of the Opus and Golds group and the Adara, consulting, group.
[01:07.6]
Dana, thanks for coming on. It's great to have you. Thanks for having me. I'm excited. So tell us a little bit about both of these consulting groups that you run, and then from there we can go into your background and see how all these things play together. Yeah. Awesome. Guys, hold on a minute. I got to cut in.
[01:23.4]
Dana, I'm so stoked to do this because I know about your background. I know I was on your podcast, and now I know more about your background. And I'm really excited to do this because I think you are a freaking dynamic. And, I am so stoked for this. This is awesome.
[01:39.3]
Thank you so much for coming on. I know exact thank you. But, you know, seriously, you're awesome, and this is going to be great. Let's go. All right, here we go. Okay, so the OG Group, the OG Group was formed. It's the Opus and Golds group. It was formed because I worked for my brother who is a tradesperson.
[01:56.9]
He was a master plumber, and I helped him build his company. He had it to 12 million. I came in and ran the day to day for him, and he was wanting to get out of. The Day to day was at 12 million, 75 employees. And I was able, with the team, of course, take it from 12 to 20 million and then lead us to a successful exit.
[02:18.8]
Like, that's like, quick form of that. He had just decided it was at a place where he just wanted to sell, and so I had to get us from. We had my first year there. We were negative 500,000, and by the Time we sold, we had a double digit profit.
[02:36.9]
And then we decided, hey, we make a pretty amazing team. Not to toot our own horn, but we do. And so, like, nothing. Like, I mean, there's so many family businesses in the trades and so we're like, let's go help other businesses and especially those that have family, because 99% of them have family working for them.
[02:57.7]
So we had that through that. Then Audera was formed. Adora Collective is, for women business owners in trades. Anyone who's part of the OG group, any women, they can come and be a part of adera. Like that's part of their thing.
[03:14.1]
And, so we meet weekly. And so I have two different groups on Adara working with women business owners in the trades and outside of the trades. And we're just there leveling up as leaders, but also as business owners. And that's the two groups. And it's awesome.
[03:31.2]
And I may be secretly working on a third one right now, but no one knows that yet because that's what we do. Right? Well, I gotta tell you, you've just let this out and we have like 4 billion listeners. So you've just let it out to the world, I'm telling you, out in the universe now. There we go.
[03:52.1]
So, man, that is a lot to unpack. So let me back up a little bit. So how long did it take you to go from 12 to 20 million? We, let's see, that was under three years that we did that. Because I had to come in, I did not come from the trades at all.
[04:10.2]
I actually have a very different background. So I had to come in for six months or so and just learn the trades. Everyone's like, what are you doing? What do you mean you're going to work for your brother? And so I started where it was natural for me, which is branding. I have strong brand and strategy experience.
[04:27.6]
And so I just went in and asked questions, became super curious and inquisitive on everything and learned the business from that standpoint. We're a big believer in mentors. We had a mentoring group that we were working with at the same time. And all those things just helped me learn quickly and it was a beautiful thing.
[04:48.8]
How did it come together that you were going to work for your brother? Because I know you were in advertising. How did you suddenly start working for him? Like, was it you sitting around at Christmas time or another holiday? I mean, how does that conversation happen? Because I love my brothers and sisters, but we couldn't work together.
[05:08.5]
That's Amazing. Exactly. So I was in Michigan. Still in Michigan. And my brother was in Utah. And so we were on the phone, Thanksgiving, and he was talking to me and he was telling me something marketing related. I'm like, what are you guys doing?
[05:24.4]
No, no, no. What is your person doing? So that's how the conversation started. And then he's like, you need to come work for me. I'm like, you can't afford me. And it was like a joke between us. Because you're siblings, right? That's what siblings do. And so, we just started talking. He's like, no, seriously, come out.
[05:40.9]
He's like, I think there's something there. So that weekend he's like, come see me. So he sent me a ticket. We did that. So literally that weekend I went out and we were both just like, what? We both just felt it intuitively.
[05:56.4]
And sometimes you just have to make this leap. I have never run a company in my life. I've always been like, higher level positions. And I knew I had boss that. A boss, that told me, you have a gift. You don't even realize it. And so when this happened, she's like, it's happening, it's happening.
[06:15.1]
And so I just, like, we had no job description. Like, it's absolutely ridiculous to talk about it. And we're like, we both just felt like it was supposed to happen. No job description. At the end of the weekend, we're just like, we're supposed to do this.
[06:31.7]
What is this gonna look like? We have no idea. Let's do it. And then that's how it happened. And it was the end of January 2020, and we know what came after that. Oh, wow. So it was Covid. And I am not like, I'm not a.
[06:47.5]
When you are running a company, you are not a revenue generating person. So for us, revenue generating meant in the field. So to suddenly bring a six figure person on staff and then to have Covid happen is very scary. I'm sure. Wow. So your skill sets are good, but your timing is absolutely awful.
[07:05.3]
Exactly. That's, exactly what that means. Holy cow. So did you see a dip after that with people not wanting plumbers in their house? No, we actually didn't. Like, we did some restructuring. It really opened us up to really evaluating. Right.
[07:23.1]
Because no one knew what was going to happen. And so we had to evaluate everything. And so we did eliminate a couple of positions, but it wasn't that we had to. We were just preparing and getting the company running really tight just to make sure we were prepared and actually we had like, it was, it was good.
[07:42.6]
Like we didn't have any problems at all. We just had like, you had to look in a different way. So my corporate experience really, came into play because it's like, how do you communicate with your people? Like we had to do some crazy thinking. Like you remember, remember what it was like, like no one knew what was happening.
[08:00.4]
So we had stuff in place. Like if, suddenly the world lost all communication. What does that mean? So we told everyone to meet at the office at this time because we knew we were essential workers and we still had to be out there. So we had to put stuff in place like that. We suddenly had to put slack in place, which now sounds so funny, but like they had never used something like that. They didn't even.
[08:23.3]
Everyone didn't even have emails. And so I had slack in place from previous jobs. So we just had to do stuff like that. So there was no coincidence that Chuck and I intuitively ended up working together? Well, sure.
[08:38.4]
I mean, that makes sense because blue collar tends to be old school. You're filling out papers, you might use spreadsheets, you know, a lot of written documentation as opposed to digital. So it makes complete sense that someone who has that digital capability and the corporate capability.
[08:56.0]
Because when you start as a plumber, you start with, you know. And I know your brother's name is Chuck, but I was in construction. You call it Chuck with a truck. Yes, you start with Chuck with a truck and then Suddenly as a $12 million company, well, that's completely different than being yourself, you know, and then even growing, it comes to a point, you know, they say, a business grows to the level of incompetence of its leader and there comes a point where they have to take on more skill sets so that they can go to the next level, so that they can grow.
[09:24.9]
So that makes complete sense that you were able to make that growth. So to go from 12 to 20, holy cow, in 36 months, that is just amazing. Crazy. Yeah, it was under. Because again, we were negative 500,000 that first year I came on, which is crazy.
[09:43.0]
Just because you're 12 million doesn't mean that you can be profitable. There were some extenuating circumstances in there, but there was things. And then to go to a double digit profit, when all was said and done, it was about a year and a half when we really, decided to sell and we had to turn it from that.
[10:01.4]
That is a huge turnaround in profit and a huge turnaround in, in sales. What is that? About an 80% increase in sales gross revenue? I'm just doing that number off the top of my head, give or take. That's, phenomenal. So tell us what that looked like as you started to grow it.
[10:17.6]
Where did you have. I know you said you took six months to get your feet wet. Did you then have a master plan so that you're saying, okay, we want to get to this point and have this many employees, and we see this new position? Did you really map it out, or did you still go by the seat of your pants and figure it out as you went along?
[10:35.0]
Well, like I'd mentioned, we had joined a coaching group. And then, so it was Chuck, myself, and his partner. There were three of us that started going to all these trainings, and we're especially Chuck and I. Like, we are fast movers. We talk fast. We have a lot of energy.
[10:50.6]
We move, move, move. So we would come back from these trainings, which, of course, during COVID they were all on zoom, and we, like, we would be on slack implementing things. Our people were so confused. They're like, wait, wait. They were just rebounding and moving, and it was a hot mess. We learned.
[11:10.3]
And so we had months of that. And then we're like, okay, we actually need to get ourselves together. And then that's really when I decided, this is where I have to come in. And so then we started budgeting. What I didn't tell you is, like, when I came on, I asked Chuck about, you know, do you have a P and L?
[11:30.1]
I was like, no, why would I look at a P and L? And so he literally would open up the app, which. This sounds crazy, but this is way more common than what you might imagine where, owners just don't. They're tradespeople.
[11:46.0]
They know their trade. They were not built for business. Like, they just. Most of them didn't do schooling like that. So Chuck would open up his app. Oh, there's enough money in the bank to make payroll. And so now looking back, like, he has learned so much through all of this. We talk about it.
[12:03.3]
Not to live in the past, but can you imagine, like, if he would have his knowledge now what he did starting that, like, the profit he could have had? And that's a lot of things that we'll talk with our clients, but it's kind of crazy. So anyway, we started doing budgets.
[12:19.0]
We just started getting, like. I still remember our employees. Like, we're getting to corporate. You have to be a little corporate. And so it was that defining moment. How do you get a little corporate but still be family owned and still have a beautiful culture?
[12:34.9]
And so that was the balance. So it just started. I became an expert on everything. I'm like, I'm just bound and determined to do everything that our mentors were teaching us. I went to every meeting. I just became the ideal student and became like, we're doing this.
[12:54.3]
And so I saw the vision, Chuck saw the vision, and we just went. So we would know every year we would start on our budget, we're going to do this amount. I can't remember the increments now. Like, we were at 12. I have a feeling we were either at. I think our next one was 15 million.
[13:11.0]
So we knew we were going to do 15 million. We're at 12 million now. What's the gap? What's the in between? And I have my big corporate experience that taught me a bunch of stuff. And so when you start doing quarterly plans and SWOT analysis and doing all of that, meshing all that together, you get all of that in between.
[13:32.5]
There were different things that we did. Like, we didn't have a maintenance program. We added a maintenance program. So all those things just start adding up. We leveled up our managers. Oh, my gosh. I would do quarterly meetings. I formed an executive leadership team.
[13:48.2]
We formed a management team during COVID I remember Q1. I don't remember what year. It must have been 2021. Maybe it was 22. I'm like, guess what, guys? We're going to all get together and you're going to present. You're going to present your department.
[14:04.7]
And they were just like, what are you talking about? And so I'm like, I don't care what it looks. It doesn't have to be a formal presentation. It's just, you're going to, like, you're going to do a SWOT analysis on your team and talk to your peers about it, and we're going to ask you questions.
[14:22.4]
And you guys, from that first year to when we sold, the managers blossomed. Like, they had, like, this amazing, kinship between each other. But just to see how their presentation skills and what they presented from the first one to the last one, it was pretty amazing.
[14:42.4]
And so the culture just started getting better and better. And when people start feeling a part of a team, that's what you get. It seems really cool. You just jumped right in. Like, most people would say, oh, I don't have a plumbing background. I have a corporate background. What am I going to Do. But then sometimes, you know, when you go somewhere and you have a fresh perspective, it's kind of obvious, like, well, guys, why don't you just do this, this and this?
[15:03.9]
Like, how did it. Like, it seemed like you, you just knew that. Okay, I don't have the experience, but you can either pick it up or the, what is it called? The. The other perspective is going to be helpful. So how. How did that transition kind of go for you? Yeah, well, one, I'm making it sound very simple.
[15:21.4]
Oh, yeah, I'm sure it was not like you. Like, it's a very male dominated field. I am, what I am. Like, I'm in a flower dress right now. And so when I told, I told Chuck, you know, when we were talking about it, I'm like, I'm gonna be who I am. And I've always been like, you may find me in fishnets, you know, like, with a skirt.
[15:43.0]
I tend to, you know, just all of that. And Chuck's like, I don't give an F what you wear. Cause I'm like, I'm not wearing a polo shirt. I'm gonna be me. He's like, you do you. As long as you run the company. And so, like, through that, like, people didn't know what to do with me, you know, and so I just had to earn their respect.
[16:02.0]
And so I would just ask them questions and I would listen to them again, be super curious. It doesn't matter. I couldn't tell you anything about changing a water heater. To this day, it doesn't matter. I can go into any company and help as a fractional CEO, discover where their problems are and where to path them to go.
[16:23.3]
Because I'm super curious. And I'm a driver. And those are two skills that you need to have for that. And it seems like you also, you came in for six months and you said you just observed, right? A lot of people, they come in on day one and they try to make all these changes, and that causes a lot of rift, with the employees.
[16:42.7]
And it gets harder to earn their respect. So it seems to me that that was a huge, very, smart thing that you did. Yeah, I definitely had to earn that respect. I had to listen to them. And that's what a lot of people want to be heard to begin with. And, you know, I just, I was there, like, right up to the day we sold.
[17:02.5]
Like, you could find Chuck and I taking out trash, sweeping, doing, you know, any of that. Like, it wasn't beneath us. And like, that's the culture we formed. And so, like, that's a part of it. And so it was. Yeah. It was such an interesting journey.
[17:19.9]
And I wish I would have journaled it, like, looking back on it. And I often tell people that, you know, you have these times in your life, or at least I do, where you just have these incredible moments. You don't realize you're in them until after the fact.
[17:37.3]
And I can think of two from a business perspective. One was with another company, and all hours was one of those. Like, it was such a magical, beautiful time. And you don't realize it when you're in the thick of it and when you're working with such incredible people that are really willing to take the risk and the jump with you.
[17:57.6]
But you have to have the vision, right? And so it was up to Chuck and I to paint that vision. I don't know, Dana. Sounds to me like as thoughts come to you, you need to write them down. I think you have a book there that would be very good for other people to read, because I know that jumping into something can sometimes be.
[18:16.2]
Well, it is scary, and people will stop themselves because they say they just don't know enough. And. And for you to just jump in to a industry that you knew nothing about, other than to flush a toilet and turn your shower on. Exactly.
[18:32.4]
Same thing for me. I hear you. I know nothing about plumbing, so I'm in the same boat. But for you to jump into a $12 million company and in 36 months with the team, turn it into a $20 million company, I think that would be very inspirational for people. And I think they would learn from it that, well, heck, if this person did it, I can do it.
[18:53.6]
Because me, as an individual, what I do to get inspiration, I'll see somebody who's successful at something that I'm interested in, and I'll say, okay, I'm at least as skilled as they are, so if they can do it, I guess I can do it and just jump in. I know we've had clients before that.
[19:12.5]
As I'm working with them, they'll say, but no one's ever told me this. I'm like, no one told me either. And especially nowadays, there's so many avenues where you can find out information. I'm definitely. I seek to learn. I listen to pod. I'm a big podcast listener.
[19:28.8]
And now, you know, with AI, we have so many answers at our fingertips. Like, there's really no excuse. When I started my first company, I did medical Alert systems. Push a button, get an ambulance. I was 23 years old. My partner was 20.
[19:44.4]
And we started with an answering machine in his mother's basement on her dryer. That was our first office. We couldn't even afford a phone. We just plugged it right into, the, outlet for the phone. Because this was when dinosaurs ruled the earth before cell phones existed.
[20:01.7]
And, yeah, you just jump into something and you totally figure it out. You can't. If you try and plan everything, it doesn't always go that way. You just jump in and figure it out as you go along. Yes.
[20:18.5]
And I think that that's. You're comfortable being uncomfortable. Yeah. Yes. And I've always been that. I can think back to my college jobs and stuff like that. I was like a Gap manager. And the Gap would need someone in a manager in a different district would be gone or something like, hey, Dana, would you be willing to go drive two hours to manage this store for a week?
[20:42.8]
I'd be like, sure, why not? And so I didn't think of that. So just now I'm like, I have always been like that. I'll figure it out, you know, and it's that being curious and being uncomfortable. And I try to do that on a regular basis. In my second company was a construction company.
[21:00.7]
And believe it or not, I knew nothing about construction when I started the company. It was focused on property damage, and I was learning the mitigation, structural drying. We also did odor elimination, et cetera. And to me, that was a scientific part. But I remember the thing that helped me was if you go in and you act like you know when you, like, you know what you're talking about, and you don't, they're looking for that, and they're looking to find a hole in that, and they're looking to call you on it.
[21:29.9]
But if you walk in, I remember going to the building department and I had a fire that we had to put back together. I'm six months into this business, and I got a house, townhouse, that has to be totally gutted. I've never written an estimate like that. I have no idea what I'm doing. So I got help writing the estimate.
[21:45.5]
But my point of this is, I went to the building department. I said, hey, I haven't pulled a permit of this size before. Little did he know, I had never pulled any permits before. But I just said, I haven't pulled a permit of this size before. Can you tell me if this documentation is correct?
[22:00.7]
Because you're the expert. This is your area of knowledge. I'm way out of my depth here. Can you help me, please? And he just. Here he's this crotchety old guy who does all the permits for the city. And he just relaxed in his seat and he said, sure, young man, let me educate you on, let's go through this stuff.
[22:19.0]
So if you go in and you take your guard down, they take theirs down, and it, makes it much easier. Absolutely. But at the same time, you have to have a confidence, too. Like, for me, I think of, like, my ad agency days. I was presenting all the time, and, you know, they would come to question.
[22:38.0]
Sometimes you don't know, so you answer to the best of your knowledge, and then you just give back. But you still have the confidence, and that goes a long way. And I also think, like you said, you just. You're humble at the same time and you're willing to learn. And I have, like.
[22:54.3]
The other part I didn't tell you is when I was working in the agency world, I had said, like, for that last 10 years, I'm just done being a manager. I don't want to manage people anymore. And then I have 130 employees, because there's so much with that.
[23:12.5]
But somewhere along the line, something clicked. And it wasn't, I shouldn't say it wasn't hard. We had all kinds of crazy stuff come up. But, like, from an HR perspective, I was just pretty point blank with people and laid it out.
[23:28.4]
And I have an HR background, too, so I know what I can say and not say. But I think because I was down to earth, that people just would come and talk to me and I could be real with them. And it doesn't bother me at all anymore. Good for you. Now, when you were.
[23:44.7]
You said that you were in Michigan, Your brother's business is in Salt Lake. Did you move to Salt Lake? Did you do things virtually? How did that all work out? Yeah, so crazy journey. I had never left Michigan all my life. So here I am. Really.
[24:00.1]
I was 50 at the time when I went to work for my brother, and it was crazy. He's like, you have never left Michigan? Traveled, yes, but never moved out. He's like, oh, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, okay. I thought you meant you've never left the state of Michigan at all.
[24:15.8]
I wanted to travel, say, wow. And he's just like, I know you, like, it's time. You need to come out. And so just based on circumstances, you know, I traveled back and forth for like a year, and A half or so. And then when things changed, I moved there and I lived with them.
[24:31.6]
They had a lower level apartment. So not only were we working together, we were living together too, which everyone's like, what? But it was so. It was so lovely. I loved it. And I look back on that time with such fondness. And, yeah, so I lived there for a couple of years.
[24:49.4]
And then my guy was in Dallas. He moved to Asheville. So once we sold the company, I was in Asheville. So here I'd never moved. And then we just moved back to Michigan in the last year. So I didn't move all those years out of Michigan. And then I did multiple moves and here I am back because of grandbabies.
[25:08.7]
So what is your next chapter? Tell us about Opus and Gold and how you see, that progressing. I know you guys are building that. Yeah, we are just over two years in now. And so we're always evolving.
[25:26.3]
Just like every business you have to be and especially nowadays with AI. So we're looking at multiple different things. We just switched up even how we do our events. And we had huge success with our event we did in January. We have another big one coming up in May and we're super excited about that.
[25:46.2]
And so we're taking more of a workshop perspective, and helping owners from that. Just coming in for an event two, three days do that. Really working in their business. So they're walking away with certain things. And in January, there was a day spent where they could go snowmobiling or they could stay behind and dig in even more with me in what was a hot seat type of scenario that we did all day.
[26:13.4]
And it was so well received. So our next one is in May and we're doing the same type of format, but also switching it up because we have people that have already signed up from January to come again in May. Fantastic. So tell everybody where is the May event?
[26:29.1]
We're just locking in the details right now. But we know we're going to be in Houston and there is going to be a hog hunt. Believe it or not, that's what the Hog hunt. Exactly. That's what I said. The people who were in January decided this.
[26:46.5]
I will not be participating in that. But yeah, so we're going to be digging into the business again from that aspect. So when we do it, we do very few of people speaking from like a stage. We keep ours pretty intimate. Like, January was only 40 people.
[27:03.7]
We're still deciding. My guess is we're going to be 75 or less, because we like that intimate feel. And we do, like, discussions with experts. And so we have different people that will come, including Chuck and I, and we'll do small groups, and we'll just sit in and have small discussions.
[27:21.2]
And people loved that format. And so we'll be doing a bit of that again, too. And so we're just mixing up and doing all kinds of stuff. We're big on mindset, so we will always talk mindset. I got to tell you, I go to a lot of events. Zach goes to a lot of events.
[27:37.9]
And when you're sitting and you just have one speaker after another on the stage, it's not nearly as productive as doing the work groups. As you've said, you break it up and you have somebody talks, and then you can have small groups break away. And that's where the magic happens.
[27:54.6]
And you also, when you do that, you make a tighter connection with the people in the room. And what do you get? Relationship capital. And that's where they start to work, where you work through a problem with somebody and people leave their ego at the door. Now you got a bunch of guys in the room that are gonna go on a hog hunt, so there's gonna be some testosterone, macho stuff going on in that room.
[28:15.5]
I get it. But when they're sitting at the table and they're relaxing and they're having this conversation where it's, a, you know, a shared experience, I think that's fantastic. What a brilliant way to run the group. I think people would go to more of these and get more out of them if they were run that way.
[28:31.0]
Because what I see happens is you go to an event, you take 50 notes, and you say, okay, I can't do all this. And then you throw it away when you get back, and it just gets overwhelming. It's happened to me. So, yeah, I think that's a brilliant idea. What a great way to do it. Thank you. Yeah.
[28:47.9]
And it works so well. So Chuck is a visionary. I am, an integrator. I'm high. I'm like, 98% integrator. But I'm also a visionary. I'm, like, 80% visionary. And so that's why he and I balance so well. Because we're like that.
[29:05.0]
And so that's what we try to bring when, we do these meetings, too. So it's super. What types of businesses, like, you guys usually work with. Is it mostly blue collar, since that's what you've, you know, background is, or. But Give a. Give us an idea of, like, the variation. Yeah.
[29:21.2]
And so this last one, we had, like, it's expanding. Like, it's definitely, like, traditional, where we'll have, like, plumbing and H vac, we have pavers, we'll have pest control. We have trucking companies. But now we're starting to expand where we have organizers, that people that will go into your house or your business and organize.
[29:42.8]
We're starting to get house cleaners. And so we have, like, we had someone from the medical realm there. And so it's starting to expand a little bit too. Like, again, like, business is business. So when people tell me, you know, oh, I've never done that, I'm like, do you think I ever did that? No.
[30:00.6]
Like, I never ran a plumbing company. You just, you know, business is business. And so we have yet to find a business we can't work with. And so in having worked with all these possible or, all these various businesses, what are, like, do you have, like, the top two or three common themes that you see in terms of, like, gaps that people have or, you know, levers they can pull? I have yet.
[30:22.2]
We have yet to work with a company that was profitable to where they want to be. Profit is always one of the number one. Sure. Second would probably be accountability. A lot of companies have a hard time holding their people accountable because it's uncomfortable conversations and they don't know how to have them.
[30:45.5]
And the other would probably be like, typically owners are visionaries. They know what they want. They just don't know how to get there. It's hard for them to put processes in place without being stuck in everyday fires.
[31:01.6]
Those are the top things, because it is. Especially when you're. You're smaller, because we work with people from under a million to triple digits. And so it's the various, but it's still. Still the same thing.
[31:16.9]
Like, it's always the same. It is crazy to me, no matter what size, that those are the same things. And we were told that because we thought it was just Chuck's business dealing with things. And. No, it doesn't matter. You can get to triple digits, you can get to 25 million and still not have profit. That's amazing.
[31:36.6]
Yeah. When I had my construction company again, focused prominently on restoration, there was a company out of, Houston, and we were part of a group, a, collective, and we exchanged information, and they were multiple times the size of my operation, and they had no profit.
[31:54.0]
They were losing a million, $2 million. A year. And they were doing everything on cash flow. Finally, the cash flow ran out. And one of the guys that they brought in is a money guy because they grew very fast. And it's equipment intensive and asset intensive at first, and it's expensive.
[32:13.2]
And they went out of business. He went bankrupt. And this was a guy in the 70s. His whole net worth disappeared within a couple of years. Oh, man. Yeah, it was very sad. That's crazy. So can you tell us about the Audera Collective? Now you said that that is focused on women, business owners. Yep.
[32:32.6]
So Audera was formed for a couple of reasons. And Audera, is not even a year old yet. So my mentor, he's like, man, if you could clone, you actually have multiple mentors. But one of them was like, if you could clone you, that's where the money's at.
[32:51.0]
Because he's like, everyone needs more integrators and drivers. And so that's kind of how Darrow was formed. But then also because when I was leading Chuck's company, I didn't have a place to go as a female, like, for my frustrations, you know, working with family.
[33:10.2]
And I'm, not. When I say working with family, it's not just Chuck. We had multiple family members in the business. Like, there's complexity working with family members. There just wasn't a place for me to be like, oh, my gosh. Like, we're like, just to be able to blow steam.
[33:27.4]
Because like you said, testosterone, it's very dominant in the trades. Yes, exactly. And I'm like, I stick out like a sore thumb. And so there just really wasn't a place. And my friends are all in different, spots in their careers.
[33:46.8]
And so it just, there wasn't anything for me. And so for me, I wanted to create a place where someone could come and ask, like, what does even, I don't know, the dumbest question. And they can feel safe and heard in that. And, there's a lot of spouses that work together and they don't have a place to talk.
[34:06.2]
And so that's what Aldera is. So I have two different groups. So there's one group where I help, whether it's owners or high level leaders, just level up as leaders. I'm really big on mindset, physical health, mental health, all of that.
[34:24.2]
And I feel that it's really part of my journey and why I've been able to be successful. And so we talk a lot about that, how to become better leaders. We do a lot of like, if they have questions, like it's such a good group of women in there where they feel safe to talk about anything, then I have another group where it's more intensive.
[34:46.2]
Like there's nothing that I will teach. I may ask a couple questions. But it's basically pretty high level women that are growing businesses that just want to cut through the chase. And like, I need to figure this out and I need to bounce ideas off. And so that's kind of what Aldara is.
[35:03.4]
Aldera's, still, still forming, still expanding, still trying to figure out what she is. And that's where I'm at. That's fantastic. So I know I've read your bio and you hadn't traveled, you haven't lived outside, hadn't lived outside of Michigan, then you decided to be a vagabond for a little while.
[35:24.8]
Now you're back in Michigan, but clearly you're not just working 100 hours a week. And that's what I think some people do and they don't understand that there has to be a break. I know you brought up your children and your grandchildren. Tell us a little bit about your travel and you know, your family life so that people understand that it isn't just work, work, work.
[35:46.2]
There's got to be some play. Yeah. Unfortunately, right now it has been work, work, work. But on my You can't see it, but I have a vision board on my phone on there. If you could see it. There is a three day work break. That is what I'm working toward right now.
[36:01.7]
Like that's my long term plan. Like my long term, short term plan. And I have set up my businesses. I can work from wherever I do on site. So there are times where I am, on like I just come off of six weeks of traveling for clients. But definitely have to take time.
[36:19.2]
Every other Monday I'm with my grandbabies. So Monday of this week I was with my grandsons all morning. My daughter goes off and does her thing and I'm with them, just chilling with the dudes. And they are 4 and 2 and they're so much fun and I love it. And they are just a handful and we just have the best time. So do that.
[36:39.0]
And then I'm trying, like I'm doing better. Like I was telling someone today, I'm super proud. I got up this morning instead of diving right into work like I always do. I got my workout in first and it was Great. And, because I love to work out, I try to do at least five times a week.
[36:57.8]
That is my time to get all my energy off. And just like, that's my me. Time travel. I haven't taken a vacation in two years, but that I know is brutal. I can feel it.
[37:13.1]
But I have two big trips this year that I'm super excited about. We leave in actually about a month. We're going to Portugal. Excellent. How long are you going to Portugal for? We're going for fun, but we're also looking. The ultimate long term vision is we will be. Our thinking is Portugal part time and Michigan part time.
[37:32.3]
Like that's the retirement phase. So we're going out to do like our initial looking there. So we're super excited about that. Very cool. Yeah. So we're gonna hit Porto and Lisbon, so we're excited about that. And then I am doing. I'm big on women's retreats.
[37:48.4]
I haven't done any, like, any type of spiritual stuff, any type of. That type of stuff. It's probably been four years and I'm going to Peru in October and that will be nice. A spiritual journey that's going to include working, like, with some locals. We're going to do some hiking, of course, Machu Picchu, so. Yep.
[38:08.7]
Great. That's fantastic. Well, let me ask. I'm going to switch gears just a little bit. You indicated that when you started working with your brother you were 50, is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. So a lot of people, and I run into this with people because I'm a little bit older than you are.
[38:26.0]
When you speak with other people. When I speak with people in my age bracket, they're talking about retirement and sitting back. That scares the heck out of me. When I sold my first business, I took five years off and swore I would never do that again.
[38:45.2]
And if you look at the research, people who continue to work not only have a, lower incidence of cognitive decline, they also tend to be happier, more satisfied with their life because they have a reason to get up, et cetera, et cetera. And I run into a lot of people that aren't that way.
[39:01.8]
So I have to, I hang out a lot with people younger than me, so it's nice to hear somebody in my same age bracket. What is it that keeps you going? What fires you up? For me, it's because I just don't want to be irrelevant until the day I die. I want to keep going. Yeah.
[39:18.3]
For me, I have learned over the years, again through that personal Work like what lights me up. What I'm doing right now lights me up. I'm a little sad that I didn't start businesses in my 20s, but clearly I wouldn't have had the journey that I've had. I wouldn't have learned what I did.
[39:34.1]
Might have been a little bit different. And so I don't regret anything. But also I'm sad that I didn't because I love this. Like, who knows how many businesses I would have if I would have started in 20s, you know, and I'm like, you. I don't. Like my guy is ready to retire now.
[39:50.7]
I'm like, I've got at least 10 years. And he's like, I already know what's coming. You're not even going to retire. I'm like, yeah, like I can work from anywhere, but I don't see myself just sitting around. And it may be like helping young business entrepreneurs, you know, like something like that, doing some volunteer work.
[40:09.7]
I've always been big in volunteer work, so. Exactly. No, like you're, I don't know, like travel will be involved, but there's still. Even when I'm traveling, I'm looking. Right. And listening and looking like, I'm big on experiences because that's my background.
[40:26.1]
I'm looking at billboards, I'm looking at ads, I'm looking at experiences in stores, in restaurants. I'm looking, if the lights are out, a light bulb. Because that's my own background. It's all about the visual. And I'm like, man, they could just be such a better business owner if they keep their burned out light bulbs changed or all in the same shade.
[40:47.8]
Sorry, that was a rabbit hole. It sounds like you're, you're building a, like your life around the, you know, what you want to do and something that you don't feel like you need to retire from. Exactly. Right. Like a lot of people, they'll do construction or whatever and then they burn themselves out and they've just done.
[41:03.2]
And I like the way you're doing it. Yeah. And that's the whole thing. Right. Because you know, everyone wants to talk about the work life balance and I don't think there is one. It's that integration of the two. And like, can I put work aside a little bit more? Yes, absolutely.
[41:18.3]
And I'm working toward that. But when you're in startup mode, which I am on two of the businesses, that's kind of what is required. Absolutely. I gotta tell you, we definitely connect on the, travel thing. Zach knows I love to travel. And we were supposed to do a river cruise last year, last September in Europe, Lois and I.
[41:38.3]
And we had a family member who had a medical situation. And I hadn't been out of the state that I live in from June when we got back from Iceland. I'm sorry. Her sister had a problem in September. So from June until, February of this year, I hadn't been out of the state.
[41:59.8]
And I was about to pull my hair out. Yes. I have to travel. We've got nine countries we're gonna hit this year. Nine new ones. We'll hit a total of 10. Nine new ones. But I gotta catch up for what I missed last year. I'm dying.
[42:15.8]
And do you find, like, for me, whenever I would travel, when I was at all hours, because I would travel for our training, there was different things. I was traveling back to Michigan. Like, that's so inspiring to me. Put me in a lounge, on an airplane. And I have so many ideas.
[42:33.1]
Yeah. Because what it is for me, what it is, is I'm not having. I'm out of my routine. And I've changed the pattern, so I have a pattern interrupt. It's like, well, wait a minute now. And I'm sitting in a lounge, you know, the American Airlines lounge in Dallas. I'm like, whoa. And my head explains and explodes.
[42:50.2]
And then I'm, whipping off stuff to my assistant. I'll whip off stuff to Zach. And I could whip off 50 things in 15 minutes. Because I get to, you know, I get a different perspective, is what it is. Like, I feel free. So. Oh, yeah.
[43:06.3]
You get out of the mundane stuff you do every day. And then. Yeah. And I love the buzz of an airport. I love energy. Like, that's inspiring to me. And, you know, you just. You get different. Like, you have to watch bad energy, too. But, like, I'm all about that, and it just gets me going. I'm excited. Absolutely.
[43:25.0]
Okay. This has been as fun as I thought it would be. We're definitely going to have to talk offline about travel a little bit. I will tell you what I remember about Porto. I, know that we enjoyed it very much. Great, city in, in Portugal.
[43:40.9]
But, how do people get a hold of you if they want to get a hold of you? Yeah. Probably the business. The best, easiest way would just be, Danaopusgolds.com I'm sorry. Yeah. Dana. Opusgolds.com and then I can all the other.
[43:57.9]
Whatever business. That's probably the easiest one to do. And to spell, so. Yeah, or just find us@opusgolds.com everybody. We'll put that in the show notes as well, just in case, you weren't able to write it down fast enough. So, any parting comments you'd like to make, give it to us. Yeah.
[44:16.5]
I think that people just need to be open and curious. It's amazing the life adventures you can go on by being. Being that and asking questions. And whether you're traveling or in business or just life in general, by being super open, it's. You can.
[44:34.5]
You can discover a lot about people and yourself. That's awesome. That's fantastic. This was cool. Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate you having me on. Appreciate your time for being here.
[44:50.5]
Sam.
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