Over the Fence: Winning Strategies to Scale Your Business with Zach Peyton

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today, we'll be breaking down, going over the fence, winning strategies to scale your business. To drop these value bombs, I brought Zach Payton into EO Fire Studios. As a president and founder of Superior Fence and Rail, Zach developed the largest fence franchise in the US, scaling the business to over 110 locations and 310 million plus in annual revenue. And today, we'll talk about people, process technology, managing explosive growth, solving issues without blame, leading from the front, and oh, so much more.

0:38And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Zach and our sponsors. Fire Nation, we believe this is your year to take your business to the next level. Start your transformation by attending the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and featuring football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software.

1:18Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Zach, say what's up to Fire Nation, and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Yeah. What's up? Thanks for having me on. There's a lot of like cute business advice out there, I feel like, you know, and, um, I think one of the things that, um, one of the, one of the pieces of advice that I've heard over the years is like, Hey, you can't be in your business. You got to be working on your business. And I don't, I don't think that's, that's an either or thing.

1:59Um, I I think especially in the early years, right, you, it's gotta be both and it's gotta be a lot of both. Um, so, you know, when I first got started, you know, with, with my fence company, um, you know, I, I could jump in and do any job and I would, you know, cause the team was small in the early days. Um, there were mornings where I got in at four o 'clock, didn't go home until eight o 'clock. You know, so I think, and while I was working in the business, I was always thinking about like, oh, how could we be doing this better? Like, why am I here? What, you know, what should I be doing instead?

2:36But so I think early, early on, especially you got to do both. You got to work in your business and work on your business and you got to be the hardest worker in the room and you got to be smart about what you're working on. Well, today, Fire Nation, we're talking about over the fence, winning strategies to scale your business. And of course, working in your business as well as on your business is one of those. So let's talk about your origin story, Zach, because you built incredible success with Superior Fence and Rail. But I want a snapshot of that journey. How did it all begin? I went to college at West Point, right?

3:11So I had a service commitment in the Army for five years. And as I finished that up and I started looking around for, you know, things that I wanted to do, Um, you know, one of the things I looked at early was getting into construction, had a buddy that was in construction in Florida and this time period where I was looking was, you know, the late two thousands. So, so I graduated college and went into the army in 2004 and then finished up my commitment in 2009. So getting out into, uh, the construction industry in 2009, if you can imagine, you know, that, that, uh, there wasn't a whole lot of opportunities.

3:51So I had actually taken a, taken on a role with a general electric and I was going to, you know, kind of work my way up that ladder. And then a buddy called me and he said, Hey, my, my brother and his partner are expanding their fence business into Jacksonville, Florida, and they need somebody to help them run it. And I did, I did what seemed like a lot of due diligence at the time and retrospect was not very much at all. And three weeks later I was, you know, had all my stuff packed up and was headed South from New York to Florida. Um, I landed and then, you know, the first couple of years because of the economic environment, um, were especially tough.

4:31Um, but we, we persevered through that tough, tough economy. And then, um, as things started to pick up, um, I really put a lot of emphasis into, you know, growing the business and growing it in ways that made sense and, you know, utilizing good systems and good processes. And so that, that, that was the basis of, um, our franchise model. So, um, that we started in 2017. Um, and from 2017 until now, we've scaled from, you know, what was five locations just in the state of Florida doing around$20 million in revenue to 110 locations across the country in 30 plus states. We just finished up our latest fiscal year in September and we capped$310 million in sales.

5:28Well, there's a reason you've had that success. I mean, and that's what I want to move into next, which is people, process, and technology. You've always emphasized the people, process, and technology framework. And I want to break that down now because how do these three pillars work together so that you can create a scalable, sustainable growth? I always started with people, right? And even in the age of AI, which I'm a little bit of a skeptic, honestly, but I think ultimately the AI is going to have a big impact. I'm just skeptical about what exactly is happening right now. But even in the age of AI, you have to have great people.

6:04And until AI can dig a post hole and set a post, we need to focus on having great people. So I think especially in construction, in-home services, people are so important because we interact with other people. We have to directly interface with our customers. We can't hide from them. We're going to be in their backyard. A lot of people like to sit there and just watch us. So we have so much interaction with people that we have to really base the business off of like having good people. Right. And good people drive the culture. They drive efficiency. They like everything you can build around great people.

6:45Right. Right. Um, those people have to have, um, good processes to follow. Right. And so I put process before technology, because I feel like a lot of times these days, people think that some software app is going to just solve all of their problems. They don't know what they're doing, but they're going to get this app and layer it in. And they think, okay, well, this is, this is going to surely, if I just have this app running my business, then I'm going to be like, everything's going to be better. And I've never found that to be the case that what I've always had as my approach is like, hey, let me figure out what the process should look like.

7:23And then let me layer in technology on top of that to to make it better, more efficient, make things move at the speed of life like that. That's that's, you know, kind of how I've I've always operated. So people first build out great processes and then use technology as more of a force multiplier, you know, to gain really all the synergy behind the people and the processes. I mean, Fire Nation, people, process, technology. How are you implementing these in your business? It's a great thought process and maybe strategy to go through to see how you can implement that. And let's talk about explosive growth, because if you do these three things right, and if you really put your nose to the grindstone and work hard, you can have explosive growth and growth is great until it's not.

8:11So I want to talk about both sides of that equation. How do you know, Zach, when your business is growing too fast and then what steps can we take to resolve the friction before it burns out our team, burns out our systems? How do we operate? You know, a long time ago, I sat down with a guy who was kind of a mentor for me early on. He's a guy locally that owned multiple pest control businesses. And he told me like, hey, your sweet spot for growth is around 15%. And like anything more than that, you know, especially as you get up to like 30, 40 % growth, you're gonna be pulling your hair out. And I'm like, man, I'm surprised I'm not bald.

8:46Cause we've had a lot of years where we've grown really dramatically. And then as we've implemented the franchise model, you know, our franchisees see that our first year average ramp is, you know, they get to 1.8 million in their first calendar year, you know, add about another million in sales after that, another million in sales the next year. And don't quote me on those numbers. That's subject to what exactly our FDD currently says. But so, okay, so how do you manage the growth, right? Well, I think it's hard to say, like, when you design a system and you're operating at, let's say, a million dollars annual revenue, right?

9:28It's hard to see around the corner that like, oh, hey, at three million, this is going to fail. So I think what I've always been totally fine with doing is admitting that my process sucked when I got bigger and that I have to totally take it apart and put it back together again. And sometimes it's just tweaking, but sometimes it's like, okay, no, hey, like take, take all of that, throw it in the trash. And we're going to start completely over and design a better, you know, better system, a better process now that we've hit this benchmark. And so I felt like I had to do that, you know, 1 million in revenue and 3 million in revenue, 5 million in revenue, 10 million in revenue.

10:08I was continually kind of taking the business apart, putting it back together again, and then monitoring to see like what we needed to tweak. Um, the nice thing for our franchisees when they sign up is they don't have to do that. You know, the, the, the system that I built that they come in and fall in on, on day one is built to scale. Now, some of them may eventually get to a scale where they're like, Hey man, we might need to take this thing apart and put it back together again. Uh, but that hasn't happened just yet. Fire nation, such wise words, but you have to understand that explosive growth can happen.

10:41and although it can be exciting, you have to understand when it's not, when it can actually cause the wheels to fall off. So I want to talk about solving issues without blame. I want to talk about leading from the front when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, is this your year to take your business to the next level? Are you looking to learn the proven processes and success systems that have been used to create thousands of millionaire success stories? See thousands of success stories and testimonials from real people just like you who Clay Clark has mentored and coached into prosperity at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire.

11:16Clay's proven business coaching program is month to month and it costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Yes, it's month to month and costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Schedule your free personal 13 point assessment with Clay Clark himself today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Because Clay only takes on 160 clients and only allows 300 attendees to each business conference, you will interact with Clay directly. See thousands of real success stories and learn about attending the Thrive Time Show two-day in-person workshop featuring football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire.

11:51Become the next success story. Schedule a free consultation and request tickets to join football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, at Clay Clark's next business conference today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Okay, let's talk about a platform that's completely changing how entrepreneurs are running their business. and they are also our featured partner, HighLevel. If you're an entrepreneur, coach, agency, or course creator looking to grow faster and smarter, HighLevel is the all-in-one platform that replaces your entire tech stack. Seriously, think ClickFunnels, Calendly, MailChimp, Kajabi, and even your CRM all rolled up into one powerful white label solution.

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13:03Seriously, every question that pops up, they will have your answer waiting. And if you visit my special partnership link, you'll get a free trial. So visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial and see why thousands of businesses are switching. That's highlevelfire.com where marketing, sales, and automation finally come together. High level. Join the revolution. Zach, we're back and I want to talk about solving issues without blame because you talk about solving problems without personal attribution. How do you build a culture where accountability is still thriving, but there's no finger pointing?

13:40This has been important to me for a long, long time. Probably 10 or 15 years I've been operating where, hey, I know things are going to go wrong, right? Things will go wrong this week because of human error, because of computer errors, because of supplier errors. So, you know, for us, there's so many points of failure in the process as we get, as we go from first meeting with a customer to, you know, finishing up their fence and wrapping it up. So many points of failure, right? So if we are not open, right, about the mistakes that happen throughout the week, then they're just going to, my philosophy is that those mistakes are just going to keep happening over and over and over and over again, right?

14:24Right. So I've always promoted a culture where, hey, listen, we're going to talk about an issue that occurred. Right. We're going to talk about why it occurred and what the business impact was. And then we're going to talk about, hey, so what what is it that we need to do better next time in order to prevent this from happening? Right. So, you know, for example, you know, we nail up, you know, our wood fences board by board. and it's very common for an installer as he's nailing, nailing, nailing, nailing to miss a row of nails, right? And so we would talk about that and say, okay, we wouldn't say, well, Joe was out there nailing and he's trying to go too fast and he, you know, didn't nail up, you know, okay, no, we're not going to do that, right?

15:06So, but what we'll say is the issue was we missed a row of nails while we were installing a wood fence. The cause of that was we were going too fast. The result of that was, hey, we had to make a trip back out. burned$150 in labor gas time to go back out there. Customer was unhappy. So, Hey, let's just, uh, as part of our post-install checklist, when we're installing wood fences, let's make sure that we add like, just look in visual, a visual inspection for all the nails, uh, for all the boards of the fence. So that way everybody understands like, okay, Hey, yeah, mistakes happen. It's not a big deal.

15:44Uh, let's just try not to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over again, right? And let's just like raise the situational awareness about what mistakes happen so that we can all move on from it, fix it, and everybody can just go on down the road. Fire Nation, it's so key that you don't have this finger pointing happening within your own company because then you're taking the situation where people are excited to come to work and they want to be there and they want to take personal accountability and personal responsibility for what they're doing. But then they're like, well, if I do this and I don't have success, are people going to start talking behind my back and finger pointing?

16:22Like, no, we need to have personal responsibility. We need to have accountability, but it has to be as a team effort where everybody wins. So I want to talk about you leading from the front. And you've been a leader, Zach, through multiple growth stages, as well as challenges, by the way. So what does leading from the front truly look like in practice? For me, I have always tried to be without question the hardest worker in the room, right? Like I don't want anybody to out hustle me. You know, especially in the early days, I'd show up on a crew and everybody was just kind of grown, right? Like, oh no, the boss is here now.

17:00We're going to be working hard today. So I think just having a strong work ethic and demonstrating that to, to, to the team around you. Right. Cause you know, if, if I just sat in my office all day and like, you know, everybody could clearly tell, like, I didn't know what the heck was going on and I'm not bothering to get up and walk, walk through the business and check on anything like, okay, well, you know, I think, I think a lot of things can happen in that situation, but that that's never been the case. I've always tried to demonstrate to everybody like, Hey, like have a strong work ethic.

17:33Like that's the, that's sort of foundational, right? Respect to me has been, I think of like the, the, one of the more important things, especially when dealing with the team, right? Like people know whether you respect them or not. And if you genuinely do not respect the people that you're working with, you are never, ever, ever going to succeed as a leader. So you have to figure out a way to understand if, if, if nothing else, if you're in a business where you can do everything all by yourself, great. You know, enjoy the simplicity of that. You know, if it scales great, but there's not a lot of those businesses that can scale right with just one person.

18:13So most people have to build a team and you have to respect the fact that you have to rely on the team that you have in order to get the job done. You know, certainly for the long haul, you know, somebody could be out today and I can cover down. That's great. But I'm relieved when I see them tomorrow, I'm grateful that they showed up. I treat them with respect. I don't play around with their paycheck. I don't play around with their benefits. Like we try to like give people the best possible package, not because it's like, Oh, you know, you know, like a practical thing. Like I want to make sure I get the best people.

18:45I do want to make sure I get the best people, but I'm also designing benefits for the team. Cause it's like, Hey, that's what I would want for myself. And so that's what I want to make sure that I give to the rest of the team. So, so working hard, treating people with respect and just, you know, truly being able to be empathetic with the folks that you're working with because they are people. They are going to have issues and, you know, you have to be able to relate to those, you know, work with people and then, you know, just give them the support that they need to succeed. I mean, a lot of value bombs there, Fire Nation.

19:20I mean, it's going to be such a better world for you and for people that work for you when there's mutual respect there. When they respect you, you respect them. Of course. I love that comment you made about, you know, realizing they're people and they're humans and things happen to humans. Like life happens. You need to have some empathy there. I mean, you're the owner of the business. You're going to be getting, you know, the incredible reward if it succeeds on the level you want it to succeed. Like they're not like they're going to get paid, of course, but you're the one that's going to be the big winner.

19:51So don't expect them to have the same passion and love for what you're doing as you do. They shouldn't. I mean, they hopefully have some, but it shouldn't be expected to be to the same level because they're not going to experience the same upside that you will if you hit it out of the park. So let's end with a closing value bomb, Zach. I want to talk to the entrepreneurs who are listening today. They want to scale. They want to scale smart though, not sloppy. What's one mindset or move that they can implement today to lead both stronger and faster? My number one mindset and value that I try to hold really close to me, and I have a heck of a time doing it, you know, is staying positive, right?

20:28And it's not like toxic positivity, like, oh man, everything's just fine. No, no, no. Today's going to be a great day. I'll overcome any challenge with powerful optimism, right? Because there's going to be challenges. Sometimes, like over the years, I've woken up and like 10 things have already gone awry. You know what I mean? Like two guys didn't show up for work, a truck's broke down, you know, like, it just seems like the, like a customer's calling in just like the world seems like it's caving in. It never is actually caving in everything that's happening. If you deal with it one by one, if you're positive and you're like, okay, Hey, any challenge we can overcome, right?

21:07There's not any single challenge that I can't overcome. I'm going to figure this out no matter what. I think just having that sort of positive mindset that you can carry with you has really helped me persevere through a lot of challenges over the years. And even as the business has matured, the problems just get more complex and much bigger. So it's even more important the bigger you get. Zach, if Fire Nation's listening right now and they want to connect with you. They want to learn more about your company. What is your call to action for our listeners today? You can email me, give me a, give me an email, shoot me an email at Zach, Z-A-C-H dot Peyton, P-E-Y-T-O-N at superiorfenceandrail.com.

21:54You can visit our, uh, our franchise website. If you're interested in that opportunity, we've got, we still have, uh, some white space left in this country and coming soon to Canada. Uh, so if, if, if anybody's interested, you can go to fencefranchise.superiorfenceandrail.com to see what we've got going on there and then reach out through that medium. Either of those ways works. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with ZP and JLD today. So keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com, type Zach, Z-A-C-H, in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up.

22:32Zach, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. And for that, we salute your brother and we'll catch you on the flip side. Awesome. Thank you. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Zach for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, freedom isn't a dream. It's a decision. Join the Freedom Circle, my community, where clarity systems and support collide. Your 90-day path to time and income freedom starts at freedom-circle.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Fire Nation, we believe this is your year to take your business to the next level.

23:08Start your transformation by attending the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and featuring football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies, build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software, say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today.