105 | Building Stronger Businesses & Marriages: Stephanie & David Postell on Creating a Contractor-Led Conference

Welcome back to another episode of Freedom Blueprint podcast. I'm your host Justin Deese and I'm getting to hang out today with the anchor crew, which is David and Stephanie Postel out of Charleston, South Carolina. And if you remember, Stephanie was actually on the show, gosh, it's only been a month, two months, something like that ago. And so we talked a little bit about the journey of you guys, of how you got in the trades and really kind of the speed bumps that you hit.

So if you haven't listened to that episode, definitely go back and listen to that episode as well. But what we're going to talk about today is they have got a pretty badass event that they're putting on. ⁓ I wanted to, we wanted to come on here and talk about it and it's going to be amazing. So welcome to the show guys.

Thanks. Thank you for having us. We definitely appreciate it. You forgot to mention that we got to hang out in between time from our last episode till now. So we're one couple thing. That's right.

did. We got all up in the mud.

We definitely did. And you and Kristen showed us the sights of your mud park. So that was really fun. It was a fun time. That was a highlight, I think, of the weekend, riding around with y'all and seeing all the... Up to the cross. Yep. All the back roads. So that was cool.

Yeah.

So that is the busiest I have ever, and I've been going to that park for 10, 12 years. That is by far the busiest I have ever seen it. You guys definitely were here during a busy time.

Well, mean, it

seems like it the ride of the year. I mean, after that weekend, everybody's just raved about it. it was definitely a blast. I've said, I don't, I had a love hate relationship with the no cell phone service because it was nice being away from other people that could call you while you were there. But I didn't like not being able to find my friends who were there. So.

stream music.

Yes, or that. Or our way home when we left there. Yes. Because we had no GPS. We just got on a road and drove and thank goodness we... Yeah, right. We went right. We may have turned around in a church parking lot at some point, but...

⁓ yeah!

I mean, when you pull out of the park, it's left or right.

So I

wanna share some with you guys, because you'll appreciate it. And it ties into what absolutely nothing to do with what we're talking about today, but it ties into what you talked about with the cell phone. So Kristen and I were watching TV the other day and there's an ad on and it's a T-Mobile ad and it's a husband and wife in their side-by-side like driving through the water, driving through this creek. And their point is T-Mobile now has, I guess, satellite connection and

Thank

Like talk about perfect. Kristen and I both looked at each other. like, we're getting new phones.

Right? We're getting a burner. I'm going to have to get that.

Yeah,

I guess they're connecting with satellites now and ⁓ they have like 600 and something satellites. So now never out of service, which that could be good. That could be bad. ⁓ But I'm, I'm, I'm okay with turning my phone off. I turn my phone off. So it doesn't bother me.

Right.

I know. Yeah.

Mine said it had that while we were out there, but it didn't work. And I know a lot of people actually had Starlink on their buggies while they were out there. So they've been in places before where they didn't have service. So, but.

Yeah, anyway, it was kind of nice to be off the grid a little bit and come back after four days and you're like, I'm so sorry. I didn't have service for four days. So that was, that was good. But that's what you have to do sometimes as a business owner to get away from it all. So that, was a good.

Yeah.

unplug, disconnect.

I know for me, and you guys will probably agree with this too, typically when I make the biggest shifts in my business, it has to do with unplugging from the day to day of the business, right? And that's what the conference you guys are putting on has to do with is it's really disconnected. So turn off your phones when you're at the conference, right? But it's connecting with everybody. It's learning from the people in the front of the room. It's learning from the people sitting beside you. there's just, ⁓ there's a lot of...

correlations between going out riding cybicides and being in the conference.

Yeah, definitely. think that is has really, I'm going to say my vision, but I know David agrees with my vision on this conference. ⁓ You know, no, no shade on any conference that we have ever been to. And, and if anybody's been to them, we've been to all of them in the last few years. ⁓ You know, we've done the rounds and there's always something to learn. No doubt. Right.

Mm-hmm.

⁓ Lots of networking to be done. But I think you kind of get into these conferences and it is, it always feels like a sales pitch. It always feels like. ⁓

One, if it's not a contractor that's doing it, it's somebody trying to tell you how you can run your business better, but they've actually never run a trades business before. ⁓ It might be, you know, I don't, it just always feels like that, right? Like what do gotta buy at the end? I'm not really getting all the information because, you know, then the pitch comes. And I think we just.

Right.

felt like there are really, really smart contractors out there who are already doing really smart things. And it doesn't mean that they don't have great vendors that they're using. And by no means, we have amazing sponsors at this conference. ⁓ They are all vendors that we use at Anchor and have used as we've grown our company. And so that should say something.

to the people, the contractors that are coming is that if those sponsors are there, that is our testimonial that we believe in them and that they have helped us. ⁓ But what I also love about them is that they are coming to support this contractor-led conference.

⁓ And a few of them will have five minutes in fact five of them will have five minutes throughout the conference to talk about their businesses but the rest of them are showing up because they Know that we are going to interact in a way where they're really going to get to know Contractors who are looking to grow and maybe use the services that they have ⁓ and they already have a testimonial By by contracts that are there so I just

Right.

just think the authenticity is so important to us in this interaction ⁓ in that you don't have to decide which breakout to go to because we're all going to be together the whole time and it's really just going to be a couple getting up in the front of the room and saying here's how we did it or here's how we're doing it. ⁓ Here's how we did it and here's what we're doing now ⁓ or you know in Crystal and ⁓

Yeah.

and her brother, ⁓ their kid.

Yeah.

know, Trey, ⁓ it's how did they work together and then what did that look like when they separated and how does it still support a family business? ⁓ So I just, I think that's really, when we go, we get way more out of sitting down with Kristen and Justin Deese at the bar and hearing what y'all done and what you're doing than we get out of, you know, a vendor talk.

telling me what product is gonna bring me $10,000 more a month in installs. that's really. Yes, absolutely.

next latest and greatest.

Now

I'm really excited ⁓ because Kristen and I have been on this journey and we wrote a book about when your business partner is your spouse. And I can remember when we wrote that book, it kind of started as a joke. Someone's like, you guys should write a book on it. And I'm like, pass. And we started doing some research and we're like, nobody's written a book about it. And that's kind of what started that journey for us to write it. But I will say this, and at least this is for me, I don't know any conference.

Yep.

Hahaha!

Right?

that has been focused on husband wife teams in the trades. And I think that's cool because so many of us are in that, I don't wanna say situation like it's a thing. We have that dynamic of being married to your business partner. So I think it's cool. And I think that it's the forefront of what the conversation is about, or maybe not all of it about that. It's not therapy.

But there's a lot of that, how do you work together and talking to other couples about, when you have these struggles, what do you do? I think it's going to be, I'm pretty pumped. I'm pretty excited.

No.

We are too.

I think it's exciting because we also have a couple that is I think they're thinking about starting their own thing. So it's going to be awesome for folks like that that are that are considering doing this to come and learn and listen and get all the nuggets that they can. So well, mean, obviously. For sure.

And imagine the networking they're gonna get to do. Like in that room, if they go to

anybody in that room and go, hey listen, I'm thinking about starting a business. Can I reach out to you if I have any questions? Nobody in that room is gonna say no. We're like, yeah, here you go. Like, that's pretty good.

I mean they already know us and we're

cool as shit so, once they meet all you guys...

And you guys only hang

out with cool people anyway, so.

⁓ That's it. That's why you and Kristen are speaking because we're having all the cool people. Yeah, I think that's going to be the dynamic. know, I don't know that there will be ⁓ that many brand new people or people that haven't started theirs, but we are actually providing ⁓ a registration for this couple that we know is about to go into business and we've encouraged them. And so we said, listen, I mean, you pay for your hotel. We'll bring you to the conference. ⁓ But on the other hand, you know, we just invested

Yeah.

in a company in Slidell, Louisiana, all in, heating and air. And so they'll be by that time five months in. They've had a little bit of a jump start because they got the Anchor startup package. And our vendors and how we've done it and all of that. But like you said, what a great place to be where you're sitting at tables with people who are five years, 10 years, 20

years in or in and have exited and to be able to say like what does this look like for the next few years what does it look like after this is this is over if that's what they choose I just think there's so much to be gained from the people in the room and you'll be sitting at the table with all people who have done it so so I think I think that's gonna be a really big thing I think the other part but you

Mm-hmm.

said something about the therapy and I've said even in a TikTok or a Facebook thing already like this is not where you're coming to save your marriage ⁓ because if you're already down that road ⁓ it could be difficult ⁓ but I think the people that we have speaking and the couples that I do know in the industry they do have great relationships ⁓ they are they are healthy in what they're doing and how they're running businesses and the example

Right.

that they're putting out there. And so if you are struggling, ⁓ you're not gonna get top therapy, but you're gonna get example therapy, right?

Wow, that's a really good

point.

Yeah, you're just gonna see people there that have been able to make the relationship work on both sides. And so maybe it just inspires you to figure out what your crap is so that you can go to the next level. ⁓ And I think people will find mentors and I think couples will become mentors, which could be is just as cool, I think.

So we should give any couple that's struggling this advice, they should buy side by side and go in the woods.

Hell yes they

Because talk about getting mad at your spouse or when you're scared and about to go through a really deep hole. It's probably why we both have two. Yeah, that's right. His and hers. You don't like how I'm driving. ⁓ Yeah.

Problem Solve.

Yeah, a little bit of separation there.

so as far as the vision, so, so tell us a little bit, you guys are sitting down, you're like, we're going to have this conference. I know David was like, absolutely. Let's do this. Woo. Let's go. What did that look like? Like what, what was the inspiration? What was the, what was the driving force? What, started the conversation?

Right on.

It really, you know, I started ⁓ two years ago, I started a local women's conference and it's called She Means Business. ⁓ you know, really, that came from me getting the opportunity to speak on national stages and just how great that feels when, you know, you get your speaker profile put up and somebody believes that what you have to say can contribute to the national

industry, right? Like that was big for me. mean, I don't mind speaking, but you know, mean that first time you're on a national stage, that's a big deal. ⁓ And so I really, because you know, our marketing is so important for our company, I wanted to look and say like, it's great that I'm going out here and helping the industry as a whole, but what am I doing here in Charleston that is going to be the give back? And so that's where

Mm-hmm.

she means business came from. And so it's just a one day conference. It's just women here. It's been the first two years, 75 women show up and you know, we have had really awesome speakers. This year we did a really cool thing with kind of like a Ted talk and I had six women and their businesses. They got five minutes to come up and pitch their business. We had an 11 year old entrepreneur who was phenomenal, got up and brought the house down. She delivered

Thanks

cookies with her brother who delivers milk ⁓ and you know so that was that was a really cool experience yeah and you know over time obviously we've mentored some other couples I have some other contractors that I've worked with and they kept reaching out to me wanting to send their wives to She Means Business and I was like

Awesome.

Ehhm.

No, like I appreciate it. sounds, you know, it sounds good. ⁓ But it's local and not that they wouldn't get something out of it, but wasn't trades based. so, ⁓ but it got me thinking like, how are we going to get together? How can we do this same thing? But it be a more intimate situation where your husband, the husband and the wife are there, right? And then whatever that looks like, you know, our situation.

Hahaha!

Yeah.

Right.

might be a little bit different. I run the inside, David runs the outside and the sales and you know we're in very parallel roles. Some places it's a technician that got out the truck that's now the business owner but his wife is doing the accounting at home, right? And, right.

Do in the

But

at some point the babies grow up and you come into the office and then now, you know, and I'm sorry, I just can't stand when a couple comes and sits in our office and says it was his dream or I'm working in his business. And I'm like, well, who's raising his kids while he's running his business, you know? ⁓

Mm-hmm.

And I think when there becomes a better respect for what the other is doing and realizing that neither can do the job by themselves, no matter what it is, that's where you're able to take your business to the next level.

You know? So what if you, as ⁓ the wife who's doing the books at home, appreciates more what he's doing outside every day running a business, and then you're able to support in a different way, well, what if he takes the business to the next level because of that? Right? So I think so many times maybe we miss out on that. And if you're around women who say, it's okay if you support him.

Mm-hmm.

Like that's cool. Or if he says, man, it's okay if I put my wife out there to be the face of the business, because I'm going to go fix air conditioners. Who cares? We all make money and everybody's happy and we grow and whatever that looks like. ⁓ again, I think it's just wanting people to have the experience that we've had and that it's been a good thing. It's hard, but it's been a great thing. ⁓

Yeah.

⁓ separation is a little tough. Lanes is important. And I'll say this and for anybody listening, who's, who's like, no, I run the business. My wife doesn't have anything to do with it. Wrong. She does. She has a whole lot to do with it. And even if she's not in the day-to-day operation of the business, she's involved or, or we can say he too, but traditionally it's going to be him in the business and the wife. Not, I would say this would be.

amazing conference still to get your spouse, even if they're not in the day to day, and come to the event and be around other couples because they're in the business. And the problem is a lot of times in that scenario, in that situation, all the spouse gets is the bad, right? They come home and they're like offload. And then you're like, crap. So this would be a good opportunity to find out the other people in the industry and who

Right, right, right. Exactly.

who are in the industry and there are couples that do it and it does work and it's not, you know, so I would recommend anybody listening even if your spouse is not involved in the day to day. This is still an amazing conference to come and be a part of.

Yeah.

I

I agree and I think there's so many things where like I said, know, the businesses change over time. And so maybe you have little ones, but then maybe they go to school or maybe you have your kids have been home and now they're going to college. And so what is the next step look like? What maybe you're in the business for a little while and you want to go off and run your own business, you know, like there there's just so much I think that like you said, you don't have to be in the day to

Mm-hmm.

to come and get an understanding, maybe get an appreciation, maybe see where your next step might be to become part of the business. I think there's so much there and you know maybe somebody's doing marketing and they're doing it for another company right now and you come here and you're like ⁓ Crystal Williams is the you know guru of branding and marketing and all the cool stuff she knows how to do and she was working in her family's business and she started

a marketing company, like maybe you do that, you know, or maybe you step in to doing the marketing for your own company. There's just so much possibility and I think the people that I know are already coming and the people that we have asked to be presenters at this are so willing to pour back into the industry and pour back into anybody who asks for help. You're gonna walk away with so much ⁓ that I just I know every minute is gonna be worth

it.

know anybody

successful, not just in our business, but any business that didn't have somebody help them along the way. Nothing we do is a learned behavior, right? Like it's, mean, it is a learned behavior. Nothing, nothing's just, you're born with it you're like, well, I can run a business. I was talking to somebody the other day about, I don't know, it was like something like KPIs, right? And for a lot of us, second nature, of course we know what that is, but I mean, there was a time when I didn't know what that meant. And part of the problem was you hear it and you don't even know who to ask what that means or so.

Thank

Absolutely.

All right,

⁓

yeah.

Well, you just assume

Pretty good stuff.

that everybody knows everything, you know, when they start talking about that stuff, you're like, yeah, now my KPIs. And then you're like, what are KPIs? What's ours? You know? So I think you'll have people in the room that are in that same situation. And geez, if you only walked away getting that one answer, like, you know, I mean, that's big. That could be a game changer for your next year. So it's a great time of year two. Like we should be in the slow down, maybe not all the way slowed down, but November is typically

a slower month. You still have, I think, three weeks before Thanksgiving, so we're not in the rush yet. And, you know, just a little bit about how I thought about the conference to make it easy for couples to come. ⁓ Because if you are both in the business, it's difficult for both of you to be away from your business for too long. And what I believe is that most people that are coming to this conference are probably going to be around the two million.

in

an up area. Not that you can't if you're less, but still you're at that position where you're wearing hats that if you're gone it's gonna be it'll be hard. So that's why we planned it for ⁓ welcome on Sunday night ⁓ and I would...

Sometimes I think in these conferences like welcome night seems optional. I would not miss this welcome party because it's gonna be a Southern charm low country boil Sunday night ⁓ So you're not gonna want to it, right? It's gonna be so good on the beach or close to the beach depending on the weather ⁓ and then a conference all day Monday and speakeasy bourbon party ⁓ on Monday night

I cannot wait.

And we got lots of fun things because we're not going to tell you where the party is going to be. You're going to be figuring that out with clues throughout the conference ⁓ as to where the speakeasy is and where the party is on Monday night. And ⁓ then we are going to have half a day on Tuesday. So if you're flying into Charleston, very easy to fly in Sunday morning, midday, and then fly out Tuesday afternoon. And so you really only missed

a couple days out of your business, you can get back and get ready and finish the week out strong.

Right.

Absolutely, and I think that's a big thing too is that so many people don't

don't purposely plan for their next year. Like, yeah, I got my budget, I know what my revenue number is for next year. That's not a plan, that's a wish. So what's the plan that comes from that? And I think again, ⁓ you may just hear, well how do y'all put your plan together? How do y'all put your plan together? And you still have about six weeks to go home and get that together, or maybe you even find another couple that's like,

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Right.

why don't we get together the first week of December and do our plan together? ⁓ I think that connection will be really good, so.

So give us a reminder, dates, location, and how to get more information because this thing needs to sell out fast. It's gonna sell out fast. So people need to get on it.

Yeah, we're about

a third there.

Well, that's at the time

of recording.

It is, that's right. ⁓ room blocks are about halfway gone. So that's where the big thing is. But we're on the beach at the Wild Dunes Resort. So we are in Charleston, but that's about 20 minutes away from the beach on the Isle of Palms. ⁓ It's a beautiful setting, ⁓ great resort. There's ⁓ obviously close to the beach, but bars and ⁓ restaurants there at the resort. You really don't even have to leave. We're gonna have plenty of park

parties and all that kind of stuff. So it is Sunday November 9th through Tuesday November the 11th. And our welcome party is going to start at 5 o'clock on Sunday. Like I said, you do not want to miss that. So we're going to definitely show our Southern charm and then a little bit of our Charleston history as we go through with the speakeasy. Now you will want to get registered at WeMeanBusinessCHS.com

⁓ Or you can go Facebook. We're definitely doing lots ⁓ of shout outs and stuff there. Tickets are $17.99 a couple. We do have a special ⁓ that we are letting everyone ⁓ use WMB 150 to save $150 right now. As we get closer to the conference that may go away, but at the time of this recording you will definitely be able to use that. ⁓

and

keep on our Facebook because we gave away Kristen Davidson and his wife one free hotel last week for contest. And we are gonna be giving away a couple registrations ⁓ to make sure that you're following us there. But we just really think the value, the time, the parties, all that kind of stuff. And fingers crossed, we are hoping to have a very special keynote

Mm.

two very special keynote speakers. ⁓ We'll see if we can put this together. We're trying really hard. If not, we have an amazing lineup. ⁓ So of course, Kristen and Justin Deese will be presenting. ⁓ Kim and Kenny Byrne of Call the Brands. I'm sure you've seen them out there. ⁓ They are great with their branding and their operations. I've seen both of them speak before, so super excited about them.

⁓ Levi and Cassie Torres from Hi5 Plumbing, Heating and Air ⁓ in Denver. ⁓ Culture, branding, growth, man, like killing it. We actually met them at Kristen's conference, Kristen in your conference, so that was an awesome find. So I'm happy to share them with everyone. ⁓ Trey and ⁓ Crystal, well Trey McWilliams, Crystal Williams, ⁓ their brother-sister presenters.

Those guys are yeah

and Alyssa and Joey Rogers from Rogers Heating and Cooling in South Boston, Virginia. ⁓ They've done an amazing job, of course, of culture. Alyssa's got an awesome podcast, local podcast that she's killed it with. ⁓ So, man, like it's killer. ⁓ so we're super excited about all that. So, and then maybe David and Stephanie Postel. So we'll see how that goes.

Mm-hmm.

So.

Well, everybody will be disappointed if you don't. So we're gonna make sure to put all that information in the show notes, get tickets and get them fast. They're gonna sell out. I know a lot of times people are looking and they're like, it's August, it's September, I got time. It's gonna sell out, so jump on it fast. And the room block, when it's gone, it's gone. Yeah.

All right.

Yeah, only 60 couples. Yeah, only

60 couples. So this is not a huge thousand people conference. We're not just trying to fill seats. ⁓ We want 60 couples who want to be engaged, who want to contribute, who want to come and solve problems or help others solve their problems. ⁓ So it's going to be a special group. I really feel like people are going to get a whole lot out of it.

It's gonna be awesome. Thank you guys so much for coming on and we'll put all the links to this in the show note and gosh, we'll see you guys here in just a few, well, I guess there'll be a, really soon.

Couple months?

Yeah, it's really gonna be soon before we know it. But thank you so much for all y'all are doing. We can't wait to hear you and all of that. And we appreciate all the support. means a lot to us. Thank you.

Absolutely, thanks guys.