This podcast episode underscores the critical importance of balancing one’s professional obligations with familial commitments, particularly during the holiday season. Eric G and John Dudley engage in a thorough discussion regarding the necessity of reflection and planning as the year draws to a close. They emphasize that amidst the hustle of business, it is paramount to allocate time for family and personal well-being, thereby fostering deeper connections and nurturing relationships. The dialogue also highlights practical considerations for business owners, including the review of financials and strategic planning for the upcoming year. Ultimately, the episode serves as a poignant reminder of the value of being present and intentional, both in one’s professional endeavors and personal life.

In this insightful episode, Eric G. and John Dudley delve into the multifaceted lives of trades professionals as they approach the year’s end. The conversation navigates through the complexities of managing a successful trade business, highlighting the significance of financial evaluations and strategic planning. The hosts encourage listeners to consider their tax positions, suggesting potential financial maneuvers to maximize deductions and minimize liabilities. Furthermore, they acknowledge the often-overlooked personal aspect of being in the trades, advising listeners to embrace the holiday season as an opportunity to reconnect with family and take stock of personal aspirations. The episode culminates in a profound reflection on the interplay between professional success and personal fulfillment, urging trades professionals to cultivate a balanced approach to their careers and personal lives as they prepare for the new year ahead.

Takeaways:

• This time of year is crucial for business owners to assess their financial standing and strategize for the forthcoming year.
• It is imperative to balance work commitments with family time during the holiday season, as both are essential for overall well-being.
• Engaging in self-reflection during this period allows individuals to evaluate their achievements and set new goals for the upcoming year.
• A thorough review of business expenses and potential write-offs can yield significant tax benefits before the year's end.
• Prioritizing quality time with family over the holidays can enhance personal relationships and foster a supportive home environment.
• Implementing effective planning strategies for the new year can significantly improve business operations and personal fulfillment.

Links referenced in this episode:

• aroundthehouseonline.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• The House Pro Insider
• Eric G
• John Dudley
• El Corral
• Frisbee

Mentioned in this episode:

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Foreign.

The House Pro Insider.

This is the podcast for trades pros, carpenters, contractors, interior designers, and innovators building homes, renovating spaces, or creating the next big thing.

Let's dive in with your host, Eric G. Welcome to the around the House Pro Insider.

This is for all you people in the trades out there, whether you're swinging that hammer every day designing out a new project, whether it's a kitchen or a whole house, or you're inventing that latest project to go out to all the home improvement people in the world, this show is for you.

John Dudley.

How we doing, brother?

Doing good, man.

What's happening?

Good to see you, man.

It's our last show of the year, so I thought it's a good time to talk about some important stuff that you should be doing the middle of December to make sure you've got it all dialed in.

And if you've done it sooner, hats off to you're better than I am.

I just got a text from my mother saying that the entire Northwest is getting flooded out.

So let's add that to your list of things to do.

And that's why I wanted to get this later in the week, because here at my house, we could get 5 or 6 inches of rain this week, plus 3ft of snow that is supposed to come and melt then on top of that.

So we could be.

I could be building an ark and not doing our radio show.

So we got to be careful.

Geez.

Make it a catamaran.

Yeah, There we go.

As long as the winds are heading your way, I'm on.

So, yeah, buddy.

So, man, I wanted to talk about a couple things, and one of them is for all you guys out there in the US that are contractors, you've got.

You've had a pretty decent year.

I hope you've gone through and done your books well enough to make sure and talk to your accountant or if you're your own accountant, run your taxes and see where you are.

This is that time of year where it can be really smart that you go, what do I need to do to write some more off?

Maybe you need to go buy a new construction trailer.

Maybe you need to buy some more tools.

Maybe you need to pre buy advertising for next year.

What do you need to do?

Need a new website?

What are you doing?

There's things that.

Why let the government have the money if you can write it off and write the check right now?

So just take a look at it.

No sense giving them more money than you need to.

But.

But it's a Great time of year to take a look at those books and see where you're at so you know where you're at.

And if you need to get some more write offs, you got about two weeks to knock it out.

And it's actually a great time to do it cause you get all the holiday deals.

Oh man.

So makes sense.

Yeah, there's a ton of them out there.

Everybody's wanting to get that stuff sold and cleared out the door.

So it's good to see.

But I think that's an important one.

And then the other one you and I have talked about right now is the time to make hay with the sun shining in that following up with clients, everything else.

But dude, Christmas is next week.

And this is the time that I put the asterisk on it and say most of us in the trades, construction world, design, remodeling, inventing, we've spent the last 350 plus days busting our butts and we might have neglected our families a little bit.

So now is the time over the holidays to be present and spend some time, Dial it back, be the parent you need to be the husband or wife you need to be, be the kid you need to be.

Hanging out with the parents while they're still around.

Take some time and do some good in the world.

Volunteer, donate.

Just have a good time with the fam.

I think we don't do that enough.

I know it's been one of my biggest challenges over the years.

35 years doing this.

Looking back.

Yeah.

I definitely blew through some time that I wish I had back, let's put it that way.

And I'll tell you what, it's.

So I was married down here for five and a half years.

Yeah.

And I had her family to go hang out with, which was awesome.

So at least I had some family down here.

Yeah.

But I tell you, we don't value it like we should.

Because I miss it, man.

I miss it.

Like it doesn't occur to me that, oh, it's Thanksgiving tomorrow or oh, Christmas is in X number of days because I have none of that around me.

I have.

I don't have to buy anyone gifts.

I don't.

I'm not going to dinner anywhere.

I probably order a pizza with my dogs and hang out.

Johnny, I'll tell you this.

There's been a number of years that I wished I was just having pizza with my dogs.

Yeah, I get that.

I'm just saying appreciate it, Appreciate it while you got it.

I just don't know what you got until it's gone.

You're like, oh, man.

Every year it's this.

And this guy always does this.

And yeah, but you know what?

When it ain't there, Christmas is just another day and it's empty.

It's a bummer.

You're like, ah, man, wish I had something stupid to go do and complain about.

Like, maybe you need to go down to El Corral and get a burger or go down and get some chicken at Frisbee.

Dogs like, pizza, man.

There you go.

Your dog looks like pizza.

It's Christmas.

It's Christmas.

The dogs get pizza.

I get a burrito.

There you go.

I like it.

I like it, man.

That's the thing.

Just take some time for yourself.

It's a good time to recharge, a good time to reflect, a good time to do some planning for early January when you get the ball rolling and you're like, all right, what am I doing differently for next year?

And I think that should be the big question coming into this, right?

Yeah.

It's always my favorite part of this time.

It's just a reflection, and it happens naturally.

It's not like I sit down and go, okay, I'm going to reflect on my.

Like, it just naturally occurs in you as a human, I think.

Like, it's just.

There's a big reset button coming and you know it.

And you just instinctually start looking at what's going on.

Where have I been?

What have I done?

What do I want to do?

What am I not doing?

It just happens.

It's.

I love that process, and it happens every year, and I don't know when, but it'll just hit me for about a week.

Yep.

Mine just hit me a couple days ago and it's like, all right.

And you and I have been having some deep conversations on this and planning and all that other stuff, and we got a lot of things moving right now, which is awesome.

It's.

This is that time that I've been looking for four or five years, and it's like, all right, we're here.

And that is exciting, energetic, a lot of great stuff going on, and it's really fun to see, but it's like, all right, we're here.

Now I got to do it.

This is that storm that I was looking for that was going to shake everything up, and we're in the middle of it, which I love.

So.

And this is our two week breather where the planning is the most important thing.

We don't have to be hustling around and ripping out phone Calls we actually take the time to reflect and go, how do we put this together in the best possible way?

And that's kind of what we've been doing.

Really?

Yeah.

And guys, if you have an idea for us, we're really planning for doing this for this next year.

And it's one of those things that in reflection, it's a great time to look and go, okay, what do we got going ahead?

What do I not want to do again?

Do I need to hire another person?

Do what was my thing?

Hey, I'm stepping up some assistance on the admin side, on this side, where I'm actually making sure that I've got some professionals in to get some of the stuff done that I absolutely hate.

So I've got a whole team running on that.

And who.

That feels good.

That feels good.

And that also gives me an extra level of accountability too, which I like as a business owner.

It's nice to go, hey, oh, okay, I got to get this done.

I got people depending on me for this.

So it's a great place to be for Johnny, you and I both at this time of year.

We always do this reflection, but it's like everybody does it.

It's, look at all the gym commercials that'll start hitting as of tomorrow.

The we just hope that we, we do better than most people's New Year's resolutions.

I quit making those years ago.

Oh, yeah.

If I did the opposite, I probably would be better.

I'm gonna do this.

And then if you let it be the opposite you're trying to do, you got a higher success rate.

But that's one of those things, that little reflection of where you're at, where you're going.

And like you and I have always said that roadmap that you're creating is your plan for the future.

And you always gotta look at the roadmap for a year long trip.

So you want to make sure that you're on it and setting some goals.

And the best feeling in the world is blowing out your five year goal at year two and going, oh, wow, I got to redo this.

And that's called winning where I come from.

I'll tell you what not everybody likes.

Not everybody's a writer, but I've got about stack of 50 notebooks as composition books.

I scribble everything in those things.

Oh, dude.

But as my Christmas gift, if I'm out buying stuff for other people, I grab a new One of those every year for this particular time.

And I'll just scribble whatever idea comes up, whatever reflection I have, whatever error I realized I. I committed, just.

Just getting it out on paper and pen.

There's something ritualistic and healing about that.

And not to get all deep and profound about setting goals, but just writing feels good, man.

And it cleans you out for the next year so that crap isn't all stuck in your head and rolling around.

And you can't just think about it.

You got to get it out somewhere.

Yeah, dude.

And I tell you what, here's one thing that I do as well.

And this is my secret to turning my brain off at night.

And I know you do this because I do this.

And this might be our ADD superpowers, but my thing that I have to do at night in these planning things is I get worked up and I'm like, all right, do this, do that, but tomorrow I gotta do this and this.

My secret is to grab that same notepad or even the notes portion in your phone.

Yep.

And write down the first 10 things I need to do in the morning.

And then what am I thinking about when I'm going to bed?

That is my secret to turning the brain off.

Yeah.

So that's the big one.

That's the big one.

And that lets me have a better night's sleep so I'm not sitting there staring at the ceiling going, yeah, but what if I do this?

Yeah, I still do that.

I have to put earphones in and listen to something.

Yeah.

My girlfriend has to.

Has learned that I sometimes just need to turn the news on and focus on blather.

Yeah.

I put on WI files or there's some history stuff that puts me to.

Sleep or why files doesn't put me to sleep.

I start thinking about it.

Yeah, let's see.

But at least I'm not thinking about work.

I guess in my process, it's entertaining.

And then with time, I fall asleep for sure.

Yeah.

There we go.

There we go, brother.

I think we should call it a night here on the around the house Pro Insider.

A little bit of tricks and tips and urine planning for you guys.

We will be back the 1st of January.

If we get some wild hair or something comes up, we're like, oh, we have something crazy.

We could drop something in.

You never know with us.

And that's why you should click that, subscribe button on your favorite podcast player so you get notified when you see it.

So you have to keep going back and looking at it and that way you see it when it pops up.

So it's easy, it's free, and it takes the work off you having to go back and see what we're talking about next.

And if you've got something we want to talk about, send us a message over to aroundthehouse online.com so we can give you a hand and maybe help you out with your journey.

That's a wrap.

That's a wrap.

All right, Johnny, have a great one, brother.

I will be talking to you.

Well, every day, of course, during this thing, we don't take a break, but that's just how we operate.

But all you guys out there, have a merry Christmas, have a happy holidays, having a wonderful new year, and we'll see you on the other side.

Thanks for tuning in.

Enjoy your families, enjoy your time.

Take it easy a little bit.

Absolutely.

And reflect helps immensely for the next.

For the beginning of the next year.

Man, I can't recommend that enough.

No kidding.

Rest your body if you're out.

Thanks for listening to us clowns.

Amen, brother.

Amen.

On that note, you've been listening to the around the House Pro Insider.

Thanks for tuning in to the around the House Pro Insider.

We are happy to be back.

Make sure you subscribe so you know to catch the next episode.

We will see you next time.

In the balance and where it's at, Man, I need to focus now.

What is that?