E31: How to Adapt in Tough Changing Markets | Joel Stewart
What does it take to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing industry?
This episode reveals how a drilling company evolved through major shifts, from uranium mining to water wells, while navigating market challenges and seizing opportunities.
Learn how to build strong client relationships, make data-driven decisions, and foster sustainable growth in your business.
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Kellen Ketchersid
Kellen is a co-founder of Stag Business Coaching, business strategist, and a systems thinker. He leverages his extensive experience in biotech and consulting to empower entrepreneurs to navigate complex challenges with strategic growth solutions.
Albert Gillispie
Albert is a serial entrepreneur, business efficiency expert and co-founder of Stag Business Coaching who has founded several multimillion-dollar companies. With expertise in optimizing operations and innovative systems, he mentors business leaders who want to unlock their business’s full potential.
Joel Stewart is the president and co-owner of Stewart Brothers Drilling Company, a family-owned business operating since 1945. Stewart Brothers specializes in drilling water wells for residential, commercial, and industrial purposes, as well as mining minerals and servicing wells across much of the United States.
Joel, the third-generation leader of the company, shares insights into the company's rich history, its evolution through economic and industry shifts, and the lessons learned from adapting to changing markets. With a deep commitment to innovation, resilience, and building strong customer relationships, Joel emphasizes the importance of people and adaptability in sustaining and growing a long-standing business.
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EPISODE 31 TRANSCRIPTION
Introduction
Albert And Kellen [00:01]: Welcome to the Business Growth Masterclass podcast, where business growth is made simple. Listen as we discuss best practices to streamline your operations, boost your profits, and ultimately create more stable and valuable companies. We bring you stories from industry leaders sharing their wins, their losses, and everything in between. Here we go. Today's guest is the president and co-owner of Stewart Brothers Drilling.
And they are a drilling company that has been in business since 1945. They drill water wells, both residential, commercial, and industrial. They mine minerals and service wells across most of the United States. Without further ado, welcome to the podcast, Mr. Joel Stewart.
Joel [00:43]: Thank you very much. Good to be here.
Albert And Kellen [00:45]: Yeah. Thanks for being here. Well, we wanted to get into this. We always like to do a bit of an icebreaker question. So just to get us started and off to the races, I’m curious to hear if you could go to lunch with any entrepreneur or famous business person, who would you pick?
Joel [00:59]: Man, that's a good one. The first one that comes to my mind is Steve Jobs. I’m a technology person and really always have been. When I start thinking about some of these things, it makes me feel old. But I used the internet way back when, before it was really popular. I mean, I used it with a dial-up modem, which you guys may not know what I’m talking about.
Albert And Kellen [01:22]: I remember that sound.
Joel [01:23]: Okay, yeah. It made a sound. But no, I think of him because he created and helped lead so many interesting and transformational things. Of course, the iPhone is probably the biggest by far and has changed the world in a lot of ways.
Albert And Kellen [01:37]: Yeah, it's incredible how much things have changed over that course of time. I’m sure it's affected how you do your business, which we need to get into. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about what you do and your day-to-day?
The History of the Drilling Business
Albert And Kellen [02:23]: Yeah. So Stewart Brothers Drilling Company, we are a family-owned business. I'm actually the third generation to be in charge of running the business. I have worked with Stewart Brothers since 1992, full-time. That's when I had just finished college, graduated from Lubbock Christian back at that time. Our history is interesting to me. Back in the 70s, when I was a kid, our drilling business really did one thing and one thing only. That was drilling exploration holes for the uranium mining work that was going on there in the Grants area.
Albert And Kellen [02:53]: Wow. A drilling company. I was floored when I first got to talk to Joel about this. I was thinking West Texas, Eastern New Mexico drilling company—oil and gas, right? What part of that operation for you? And he says, uranium mining. So is this for nuclear power?
Joel [03:07]: And that's exactly what it's for. At that time, Grants was literally a mining boom town. I think the population was around 20,000 people. There were several big uranium mines close by the town. And those operations inherently need a lot of drilling. The drilling we were doing, you call it exploration drilling. It's just drilling small diameter holes to identify where the mineral is, where the uranium is. And in that area, the drilling is not easy. The uranium is deep. Most of the drilling was 2,000 to 3,000 feet deep.
Albert And Kellen [03:40]: So how does that compare to oil?
Joel [03:42]: The drilling process is pretty similar. But in terms of depth, oil and gas—especially a lot of the oil and gas being done in and around Midland—is deeper than that, 5,000 to 10,000 feet. Still, 2,000 or 3,000 is a long way. It's deep. Drilling is challenging. There's just a lot of things that can go wrong. And a lot of things do go wrong.
Uranium Mining Boom and Challenges
Albert And Kellen [04:44]: And, you know, I've learned you have to have the right equipment, but more than anything, you need people who know how to do it, know how to do it properly, know what to look for, and what to do when you're encountering some of these challenges.
Albert And Kellen [04:56]: So there was a whole industry of this going on in Grants, New Mexico, and Grants is a lot smaller than 20,000 people now. So I'm sure—tell us what happened.
Joel [05:06]: Yeah, no, exactly. So in the late seventies, I think it was 1979, there was the Three Mile Island incident. I think also around that time, the United States realized—it’s some political stuff—but realized that the United States had produced more uranium than what they really needed. And so the supply-demand issue, I mean, it literally just brought it to a halt. The mines started scaling back, they started closing.
Joel [05:32]: And over just a few years, the mines were not operating—they were shut down. People started moving away, unfortunately. Our business had to start changing too. In most of the seventies, my grandfather was running the business, my grandfather and his brother. And of course, my dad was working with them as well at that time.
Joel [05:51]: With the change in the uranium mining industry, our business went from, at the height of it, over 200 people working and 22 rigs running out there drilling for uranium—
Albert And Kellen [05:59]: Geez, that's a lot.
Joel [06:01]: But when this change started happening, we started looking for work elsewhere. The company had, I think, three auctions over a period of time and liquidated some equipment, sized down. Late in the seventies, there was a transition where my dad ended up being in charge of the business. He took over at a difficult time, where it was like, "We're going to have to find something new and different to do." He started out with maybe two or three rigs only.
Transition from Uranium to Environmental Drilling
Albert And Kellen [07:04]: We went from this real big company to he was kind of running this smaller company. And then you guys pivoted from uranium to other areas of drilling.
Joel [07:14]: Exactly. Exactly. So we first did some other uranium work in different locations. We did some in Utah and Wyoming. Jeffrey City, Wyoming, was an area where we did quite a bit of work. We also got into the environmental drilling business. I can't remember the exact timing, but we ended up focusing on that, and it became very big for us through the 1980s.
Joel [07:35]: That work was more about drilling a hole to install a monitor well or investigate the soil. Usually, there’s some problem like contamination that needs to be addressed. We actually did a lot of work in Los Alamos, New Mexico, at one of the labs there, dealing with contamination issues. We did a lot of that work through the 80s.
Joel [07:52]: Jumping into the 90s, we shifted to doing a lot of gold exploration work, primarily in Nevada. It was good work and good business. But by the end of the 90s, it shifted again, and we started focusing more on water-related work than anything else.
Albert And Kellen [08:06]: When I think of minerals and raw earth materials, I think of the Congo, Africa, and South America. Does the US have a lot of those resources? I know we have oil and gas, but what about other minerals like uranium?
Joel [08:21]: There is a fair amount. Nevada, for instance, has a significant amount of mining, primarily for gold. The level of work often depends on the price of gold. You want to take it out of the ground when the price is high.
Joel [08:35]: Copper is also big in Arizona, and we've done a fair amount of work there too. Mining has been a good business for our company—good people to work with and good opportunities. However, it’s a cyclical business, just like oil and gas. It depends on the price of the mineral. When the price is up, there’s a lot of work. When the price is down, operations slow down.
Albert And Kellen [08:55]: So similar to oil and gas, you being the drilling company are essentially a vendor or contract labor for the companies that own the mineral rights. You’re providing the drilling services, correct?
Joel [09:05]: That’s exactly right. We’re a drilling contractor. We own and operate the equipment. We drill exactly where and how deep they tell us to drill.
Joel [09:15]: To elaborate on the mining work, there’s an opportunity that’s coming full circle now. We’re seeing uranium opportunities we haven’t seen since the late 70s or early 80s. Currently, we have a rig working in South Texas drilling for a uranium mining company. We’re doing exploration work similar to what we did back when I was a kid in Grants, New Mexico.
Joel [09:34]: There’s increased demand for uranium, partly driven by the energy needs of data centers. These massive facilities require a tremendous amount of energy and power.
Current Work in Uranium Exploration
Albert And Kellen [11:48]: And I think there's a lot of momentum heading toward these projects where they may ultimately be powered by nuclear energy at some point. I think there’s much more political will for that now than there was before. In the last five years, I’ve heard more conversations around nuclear power than I’ve heard in my lifetime. That’s exciting, and I think there are a lot of positive developments to come.
Albert And Kellen [12:09]: I’m fascinated by that. Even Bill Gates is trying to fire up a previously running nuclear power plant to run a data center. It’s one of the ones from Three Mile Island, which is wild. Then Bezos is building his own at several sites.
Albert And Kellen [12:25]: One thing we talked about when we went to lunch the other day was how the mining process has changed over the years. Can you describe how it went from dropping into a mine shaft to what you’re doing today?
Joel [12:35]: Great question. So yeah, the mining being done in South Texas, which we’re involved with, is quite a bit different from what was done in Grants back in the 70s. This mining now is called in-situ mining, which just means "in place." It’s done entirely by drilling and installing wells.
Joel [12:52]: First, you drill exploration holes to know exactly where the uranium is. Once they locate it—say, it exists from 670 to 680 feet—they’ll have you install a well that accounts for the depth of the uranium deposit. Then, and I don’t know the exact details of the process, they do some type of injection.
Joel [13:10]: They inject something—maybe not chemicals but something—that interacts with the uranium in the ground, liquefies it, and then they pump it up, capture it, process it, and convert it back to a usable form. They then sell it to whoever needs it.
Albert And Kellen [13:26]: That’s as opposed to the 70s, where it was like Derek Zoolander going down a mine shaft with a pickaxe. "I’ve got the black lung."
Joel [13:34]: Exactly! That’s pretty accurate. Back then, it was much more traditional mining, with people physically going underground to extract the materials. Today’s process is far more advanced and efficient.
Adapting to Industry Changes
Albert And Kellen [14:12]: What it was historically was super labor-intensive, really dangerous, dropping into a mine shaft. Now, there’s some kind of chemical process where you’re pumping it out like a pipeline.
Albert And Kellen [14:24]: With everything you’re saying, I keep hearing about all the changes that have happened in your industry and with your business. Grants, New Mexico, going from a boomtown of uranium to drying up completely. Selling off assets, changing your business model, adapting practices—it’s so different now.
Albert And Kellen [14:40]: People listening to this podcast are terrified of things like AI and what it’s going to do to their business. I’m not asking you to speak on AI specifically, but do you think the mindset you’ve had—your dad’s mindset too—has helped you adapt to changes that others maybe haven’t survived?
Joel [14:56]: Totally. That’s one thing I’ve learned. I’ve seen our business change and evolve over the years, and it’s really based on what the market is doing and the opportunities that present themselves.
Joel [15:07]: I think back to when my dad took over the business. It started very small—just two or three rigs, maybe 20 people working. But opportunities came up. We had equipment we weren’t using, and instead of letting it sit idle, we pivoted.
Joel [15:23]: We still do that today. I’ve been in charge since 2016, and even in that time, we’ve seen changes. In 2018, we partnered with a group in Midland, Texas. It was a great opportunity at the time. It lasted about a year and a half, two years.
Joel [15:39]: But we weren’t meeting the profit goals they had set for us. We agreed to part ways—it was a friendly separation—and they treated us well. But it was a big change for us.
Joel [15:50]: At that time, we had around 50 people. Suddenly, overnight, we scaled down to two rigs and about 19 people. It was scary because we hadn’t been that small since I started.
Albert And Kellen [16:12]: That sounds terrifying.
Joel [16:14]: It was. I wasn’t sure if it would work. But funny enough, by the end of 2018, it turned out to be one of our best years ever.
Joel [16:23]: When you downsize, you keep the best people. The most experienced, the ones with the best attitudes. By the next year, in 2019, more opportunities came in, and we added another rig. We slowly grew back up.
Joel [16:34]: Today, we’re at around 75 people and have been for the past few years. It’s all based on opportunities and adapting to what’s in front of us.
Albert And Kellen [16:45]: It sounds like you’re not afraid to take risks or explore new opportunities. But those opportunities don’t just come out of nowhere, right?
Joel [16:52]: Exactly. Opportunities come from keeping your eyes on the horizon and being willing to adapt.
Joel [16:58]: Taking chances has been a big part of our story. For instance, in 2022 and 2023, we tried residential water well work, something my dad always told me wasn’t worth the time.
Joel [17:08]: We focused on high-end areas like Santa Fe, New Mexico, where people were buying property and needing wells. We thought it had potential, so we jumped in with both feet—two rigs instead of one.
Joel [17:22]: But after a year, we weren’t seeing results. I told myself to stick with it, thinking patience would pay off. Another year passed, and the outcome was the same.
Joel [17:33]: In hindsight, it was a bad business decision, and I regret not recognizing it sooner. We should have stopped after the first year instead of doubling down.
Learning from Business Mistakes
Albert And Kellen [21:04]: This isn’t getting us where we need to be. The moment we made the decision to stop, we had to make some painful phone calls. We had to say, “Hey, we know we’re signed up to do this well for you in a few months, and you’ve been waiting for us for five months.” That was unpleasant. There were some angry people, and rightfully so, but we got through it.
Albert And Kellen [21:26]: We got back to doing the work we know best, using the rigs we know best and are most familiar with, and it’s given us good results.
Albert And Kellen [21:33]: What would you say is the lesson from that? What did you learn from that loss?
Joel [21:38]: The main thing I learned is the importance of having good financial information that’s current and up to date.
Joel [21:45]: If I had better financial information at the time, I probably would have made the decision to stop sooner. That’s the biggest takeaway.
Joel [21:51]: The other side is that it looked like a good opportunity. There was no way to know without trying. That’s the thing—you don’t always know until you try.
Albert And Kellen [22:02]: That’s one of those business owner things that doesn’t get enough attention. We’ve said this on a lot of episodes, but not everybody’s thriving right now.
Albert And Kellen [22:10]: In fact, a lot of people are struggling. This is a difficult season, but that happens macroeconomically in cycles. This is just another one of those.
Albert And Kellen [22:20]: It puts pressure on businesses and business owners to try new things. Sometimes what you’ve always done isn’t working anymore. And it’s okay to try something new.
Albert And Kellen [22:29]: It’s okay to fail. To your point, the lesson is to fail fast and learn fast. Realize when something’s broken, when it’s no longer capable of serving the business, and pivot.
Albert And Kellen [22:42]: Good on you for sharing that. As a business owner, you’re not going to bat a thousand. You’re going to strike out a lot.
Albert And Kellen [22:49]: Another takeaway I heard was the importance of getting the best data in front of you that you can. It’s never going to be perfect, but we work with a lot of business owners who are thinking about trying something new.
Albert And Kellen [22:59]: It’s like, “Okay, how did you put those numbers together in your pro forma? How good is that forecast?” Sometimes you’re leaping with data you think is solid, but it’s not.
Albert And Kellen [23:10]: Like you said, sometimes you just don’t know until you try.
Joel [23:14]: That’s true. And an interesting comparison is between a commercial water well project and a small residential one.
Joel [23:21]: For example, a commercial well for a city or town—like the work we do for the Navajo Nation—might be a half-million-dollar project.
Joel [23:29]: Compare that to a residential well that’s, on the high side, maybe $30,000.
Joel [23:34]: With commercial work, you have contract provisions and protections while you’re drilling. If something goes wrong that’s outside your control, those provisions help cover costs.
Joel [23:45]: But with residential work, you can’t go back to the customer and say, “Hey, we lost circulation, and it took four extra days, so it’s going to cost more.”
Joel [23:54]: They’re expecting to pay $30,000, and that’s it.
Joel [23:57]: That’s another thing I learned. We’d rather do commercial work, where we’re more experienced, and our operations are better set up for it.
Albert And Kellen [24:04]: You’ve been in business since 1945, and you’ve shared some of the licks you’ve taken along the way.
The Role of Relationships in Business Success
Albert And Kellen [25:55]: What's maybe one of the bigger wins that you've been a part of that you can share a story about?
Joel [25:59]: Well, I think what we're doing right now is encouraging. Day-to-day running a business, there are different problems and challenges that pop up—some of which you never anticipate or expect.
Joel [26:10]: But I'm really thankful and proud of what we've got going right now. We're running three rigs that operate 24/7. Those rigs require a lot of people and resources. We also have a couple of smaller rigs running during the day and a couple of pump rigs.
Joel [26:27]: The thing I'm most thankful for, and what I think is helping us succeed the most, is having the right people leading those projects. The leaders on most of those jobs are people who have been with us a long time.
Joel [26:39]: I'm proud that we're having more consistent success, which is resulting in better financial outcomes—something that's tremendously important.
Joel [26:47]: In the drilling business, everything we do uses equipment—trucks, rigs, generators, backhoes, forklifts—and that equipment wears out.
Joel [26:56]: We have to make good margins so we can reinvest in the business, buying new trucks and pickups. That ensures we have the resources we need.
Joel [27:06]: A lot of our success is connected to the relationships we have with our customers and the people who need the work.
Joel [27:12]: For commercial work, like municipal jobs, I don’t typically interact with the people running the towns or municipalities. My customer is the consultant, usually the geologist or hydrogeologist.
Joel [27:25]: They're the ones who have relationships with the towns and are designing the specifications for the projects. They also recommend which drillers to use.
Joel [27:35]: Most of the time, we’re on that list because I’ve built those relationships.
Albert And Kellen [28:17]: What’s your favorite part of what you do day-to-day?
Joel [28:20]: The interesting thing about the drilling business is that we’re always moving. While we mainly work in New Mexico and Arizona, it rarely feels boring or repetitive.
Joel [28:29]: We’re constantly moving to a new location or a new job. Some of the guys working in the business say the same thing—that it never feels boring or routine.
Joel [28:39]: Now, the guys working in South Texas might feel differently because that job is more consistent over an extended period.
Joel [28:46]: A cool thing about that job is some of our team members live down there, so they’re not traveling back and forth. For most of our other projects, our people live in the Grants area, and we transport them to the job site.
Joel [28:58]: We stay in hotels while working and then transport them back home for their days off.
Albert And Kellen [29:05]: You live in Lubbock, and a lot of the operations are in the Grants area and Arizona. How do you lead your team well from Lubbock?
Joel [29:11]: We stay connected primarily through technology. We’ve done this for years. During the week, Monday through Friday, we have a simple daily check-in call with the business leaders.
Joel [29:22]: There are about seven or eight of us on the call. It’s very brief. I start it, and each person shares what they’re working on for the day. It’s very basic but keeps us connected.
Leveraging Daily Communication for Team Success
Albert And Kellen [30:39]: But very helpful for the fact that it informs everyone on the team what's going on. There are times when someone says, "I'm sending a truck down there," and another person says, "Hey, I need something too." It connects us. That’s one thing we do. I get back to New Mexico often, and I try to see the jobs as much as I can. It's hard, though.
Joel [30:59]: It’s hard. But anyway, being in Lubbock has been a tremendous blessing for family reasons more than anything else.
Albert [31:06]: Yeah. That’s one of the tried-and-true methods of small businesses—that daily check-in meeting. It’s often called a standup meeting. It seems so benign, boring, and unimportant, but you articulated it well. It’s an opportunity to communicate what’s going on, what’s right, what’s wrong, and what people need help with.
Albert [31:28]: And people just want to be seen, heard, and understood. It’s amazing that this is such an ingrained rhythm in your business to do that every single day.
Joel [31:38]: I liked what you said—people like to be seen and heard.
Kellen [31:41]: Yeah, and I liked what you said—it’s nothing fancy. I think a lot of business owners need to hear that. Those meetings don’t have to solve all your problems at once. It’s just the rhythm of checking in regularly. That really does something for a business.
Joel [31:56]: Yeah. And I’m thankful for the people I have there in Grants, especially the leaders in the office and shop every day. They’re people I depend on and trust. They handle things I would probably look after if I were there daily, which I did when I lived there.
Kellen [32:14]: Cool. I can’t stop thinking about this, and then we can go to the future. But I want to go to the past for a second. I can’t stop thinking about 1945—uranium mining. I’m thinking, World War II, nuclear atom bomb. What’s the origin story? Was it uranium from the beginning?
Joel [32:32]: No, no, it wasn’t. It was blast holes.
Albert [32:36]: Blast holes?
Joel [32:37]: Yeah. So it was actually in Midland, Texas. My grandfather was a World War II veteran. He was a hard-charging leader, get-it-done type. My dad tells stories about how my grandfather, Hardy, had incredible knowledge of accounting but could also run a rig.
Joel [32:54]: He was doing things differently from how we do them now. But they started with other types of drilling—blast holes for something in the logging business. I can’t remember exactly.
Joel [33:04]: But they heard about opportunities in New Mexico for uranium. They started with one rig, which led to two, then three. Before long, they had 22 rigs working in the area. It was big business and a huge opportunity.
Albert [33:19]: Your grandfather, Hardy, started with blast holes—like with dynamite?
Joel [33:24]: Yeah. Think drilling holes, putting dynamite down, and blasting it to mine the ground.
Albert [33:31]: You paint quite the picture of a Marvel-like man. It’s making me think of There Will Be Blood. Hardy’s like Daniel Plainview with his son heading into the area.
Albert [33:40]: All right. What are you most excited about for the future of your business?
Joel [33:46]: I feel like the opportunities in the water well market are very bright, especially in Arizona. The Phoenix market is huge and continues growing outward.
Joel [33:57]: We do work in Tucson as well. I believe the Arizona market will keep providing great job opportunities. We’re also well-positioned for New Mexico jobs, which is fantastic.
Joel [34:09]: I like that we’re in the water business. Water is something everyone will always need. It’s not something that will be legislated away, unlike coal, for example, which we’ve done work with but is on the way out.
Joel [34:23]: I think the demand and opportunity for water well drilling will continue. My goal isn’t just to grow, grow, grow. Managing what we have now is a lot and not easy. My focus is on being a healthy business and improving our margins where we can.
Albert [34:41]: That’s a great mindset. There are so many business owners who focus on growth, but your business has been around since the 1940s. You’re still fine-tuning it, finding ways to stay healthy, be more profitable, and retain great people.
Albert [34:56]: There’s a book called Small Giants that I’ve mentioned on the podcast before. It’s about businesses like yours—tried-and-true businesses that are excellent at what they do and keep improving without an obsessive focus on endless growth.
Albert [35:12]: That simplicity allows you to spend time with your family, which is why you’re in Lubbock. That’s something more business owners need to hear—reverse engineer what you want from your business. What standard of living do you want? When is enough enough?
Albert [35:26]: And when you get there, how can you create the highest quality of life for everyone in your business?
Joel [35:31]: Absolutely.
Fire Round
Albert And Kellen [40:11]: And this coworker of Kurt Russell says, "Hey, how about your stupid brother saving a mannequin?" And that's what it was—one of his first fire calls. Billy Baldwin saves a mannequin, brings it out, and then they realize it's a mannequin. And he says, "How about your stupid brother saving the mannequin?" And Kurt Russell just looks over at him, puts his hand on the guy's head, and punches him out. The guy’s on the ground, shocked, and Kurt says, "Got anything else to say about my brother?"
Joel [40:34]: I love that scene. It shows what Kurt is willing to do for his brother despite their dysfunction. I also think about my friends—I’d do anything for them, and they’d do anything for me. That’s one of the reasons I like that movie.
Albert [40:48]: Don’t say anything bad about Joel’s brother. That’s the takeaway.
Kellen [40:51]: It’s going to get ugly. All right. So his favorite movie is Rated R. I’m going to let the LCU Board of Trustees handle that one.
Joel [40:58]: Yeah, no, we’re going to have to edit this out.
Albert [41:01]: Okay. Aside from the Bible, what’s your favorite book?
Joel [41:06]: I’m not a book guy. But music is my love and hobby on many fronts. So I’ll give you my favorite album instead.
Kellen [41:15]: Great. Go ahead.
Joel [41:17]: Pink Floyd. Their album The Wall is my favorite album of all time.
Albert [41:22]: Definitely familiar with it. I don’t know about Kellen, though. Maybe he needs to check it out.
Kellen [41:28]: I’ll get to that one.
Albert [41:30]: What’s a piece of advice that’s common in your industry that you may not necessarily agree with?
Joel [41:35]: I often hear, “I just can’t find good people.” And I get the struggle. But when I hear people say that, I feel like they’ve given up. You’ve got to figure it out.
Joel [41:50]: We struggle to find good people, but we keep trying because we need them. I don’t agree with the idea that there aren’t good people to hire. There are. You just have to look harder.
Kellen [42:05]: Absolutely. That’s the job of the business owner—to build a business with people who can run it better than you.
Albert [42:12]: We’ve talked to business owners who say they’re always recruiting. They’re always looking for great people. I think that’s a good mindset.
Kellen [42:22]: For sure.
Albert [42:24]: Before the last question, I wanted to say you’re new to the LCU Board of Trustees. I just wanted to thank you for getting involved. It’s great to have you plugged into LCU and its mission.
Joel [42:41]: LCU is tremendous. It provided so many good things for me and my wife. I met her there, and all three of our kids graduated from LCU. It’s been a blessing, and I’m happy to see it continue to bless lives.
Kellen [43:00]: That’s great.
Albert [43:02]: Last question—how can people get in touch with you if they want to do business or learn more about what you’re doing?
Joel [43:09]: Our website is stewardbrothers.com. My email is joel@stewartbrothers.com. My phone is always on, as our business runs 24/7.
Albert [43:20]: Awesome. Thank you so much for being our guest.
Joel [43:24]: I enjoyed it. Thank you.
Albert [43:27]: If you got something out of this podcast, learned something to improve your business, keep coming back for more. Click subscribe, share the podcast, and give us a five-star review.
Kellen [43:39]: Help us get the word out.
Albert [43:42]: If you’re a business owner or leader feeling stuck, visit stagcoaching.com. You can book a free consultation to diagnose what’s going on in your business and take the next steps.
Kellen [43:55]: That was a great one.
Albert [43:57]: See you on the next one.
