Three Full-Time Jobs In A Sooty Hat with Matthew Anstine, Spazzacamino

15:50Spazzacamino:Okay. All right. So, Matt, what would you say is the hardest leadership lesson you've learned while you're trying to grow your team?

15:58Matthew Anstine:Well, once again, a company of one, but back when I was the general manager at the last company I was at, it's culture. You have to make sure that the people on your team believe in the same thing you do, that you have a almost moral or ethical obligation to make sure people are safe. and some of the tough things are obviously the toughest things to do in a business, I believe, are to let people go. And if someone's being really toxic in your company and destroying that culture, then you have to let them know. I typically don't just go out and want to fire anyone. So I will go and actually confront the problem head on, say what's going on.

16:48Matthew Anstine:And it can be tough. Feelings can get hurt. But at the end of the day, if someone's just toxic for the for the for the culture you've you've got to you gotta let them go or you gotta and and when i let people go too i don't just like say get the hell out of here i i typically will try to ask them what else they may want to do and actually help them get get to that point so nice um i'm i want to help people i don't want to i don't want to burden them yeah yeah i mean

17:19Spazzacamino:because it's tough out here right i mean it's it's kind of a tough world i mean gas is almost It's$5 a gallon and, you know, groceries are tough, you know, you know, you spend a hundred dollars and get milk and basic, basic necessities these days. Right. And you spend a hundred dollars on a small bag of groceries. I literally did that. That's why it's in the top of my mind. I think I went on, what was it? Saturday right before Memorial day to get some stuff. And I literally just grabbed like some milk and some basic stuff. And it was like 140 bucks. I'm like 140 bucks on what?

17:45Matthew Anstine:Yeah. That was a shot. That was a shot just a few years ago in Colorado. That's one of the reasons we moved to just the cost of living because we'd fill up a grocery cart and it'd be, you know, several hundred dollars. And I was like, wow.

18:00Spazzacamino:Yeah, no, it's a it's a it's a interesting time. But have you ever had to make a tough call at, you know, like, you know, let's say, well, you kind of talked about it there a little bit, you know, letting someone go or kind of cutting something off or maybe denying a job from someone that ended up being the right move long term?

18:18Matthew Anstine:Yeah. So I had a couple different guys. One guy was tough because he just stopped caring as much. You could tell he was struggling with wanting to stay motivated to do the work. So I told him, you know, you don't have to do this for the rest of your life. You can do whatever you want. you know this is this is a this may be a job for you but you know think about what you want to do and so I actually he was a good worker too I I really liked him and but what I did is I helped him actually he wanted to do tile work so I I motivated him to continue for I think it was at least a couple months that he stayed with me while he was growing his business and at the end of the couple months i go all right well maybe if you're ready to go if you got some work it's time to go and so he he popped off the team and he went and you know we lost a good employee but but he got to do what he wanted to do so once again i i try to help people along that was kind of cool and and i did have to i did have to let someone go because of their their their toxicity to our our culture that was whenever they walked through the room you could feel the energy and it was it was odd And so once again, I confronted it, but it was it's just it's something that I learned once like once again recently about that mental health thing.

19:48Matthew Anstine:If you're if if you could you can certainly change a room by walking into it if you are triggered or in a bad state.

19:57Spazzacamino:Yeah, no, I totally agree with that. I actually had, you know, I used to be a director of operations, a small financial firm here. And, you know, I had someone like that as well, where, you know, I literally couldn't stand working with them. And it was like, man, something's got to change. Like, I didn't even want to go to them for assistance or, hey, I need this done by this time or whatever. And it was, it was just bad. It's like, man, if I can't, if you know, you spend all your day at work, you spend, we spend more time at work than we do at home with our family. Right. And if you can't stand a person that you work with, well, then, you know, probably something needs to change.

20:31Spazzacamino:You know what I mean? That's never a good environment to be in. Right. Yeah. So, I mean, I had to definitely had to, you know, nip that in the bud and take care of that, you know, take care of that person because it just wasn't a good situation where, like I said, anytime I had to go and ask them for anything, it was just it was just tough. I gritted my teeth. Oh, God, I got to go ask this person for something. Yeah. And that's just not good because they're very because they were very difficult to work with. Right. So it's just. It's tough.

20:56Matthew Anstine:Yeah. It's tough when that's the case. They're usually they're usually pretty vocal about it to everyone. So they start really, like I said, being toxic to the team. No one else. It's everyone shuts up and is cowering or gets gets the hell out of the office as that person comes in or goes, you know, goes through. So, yeah, it was something to deal with.

21:16Spazzacamino:Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, perfect. So I'm going to go ahead and head into the quick fire round. So how this works is I'm going to give you the first thing or I'm going to give you one word. and I just want you to tell me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear each word in regards to running your business or in your prior experience as well. And it kind of give me like a little small paragraph on why you chose what you chose. That makes sense.

21:36Matthew Anstine:I'll try.

21:37Spazzacamino:All right. Perfect.

21:39Matthew Anstine:First word is success. Oh, financial stability. I would love to be, I'd love to be able to just not worry about next month's bills and just, you know, grow the business and be, be secure in my in my finances failure quitting what i love like quitting having to quit quitting chimney sweeping if if i had to go and work somewhere like home depot i just wouldn't it wouldn't feel this i feel like that was quite quite a failure i like that next word is burnout Overbooking?

22:25Matthew Anstine:Burnout always followed a long stint of hard, heavy work. If you overbook yourself, you're setting yourself up for a burnout. Scaling? I'm not quite sure scaling yet, but I would say controlled growth. I'm not sure if scaling is controlled growth, but that's what comes to my mind when I hear scaling. So try to control or manage the growth as it comes in or plan. Hopefully you're planning to scale. So controlled growth is what comes to mind.

23:05Spazzacamino:Hiring.

23:07Matthew Anstine:Oh, hopes and dreams.

23:12Matthew Anstine:No, I would love to hire someone. I just need to meet the right people. I've had, I have had a couple of people ask me, but they were there, you know, they're over an hour away. And I'm like, you would be so mad at me by the time you got to me, man.

23:24Spazzacamino:And not only that, I mean, having to do that every day, that would be kind of rough. Yeah. You can only do that for so long. I feel like before it gets old. Next word is competition. Friends, cooperation.

23:38Matthew Anstine:So once again, I've never, I've always eaten this field of embraced other chimney sweeps. I want to be their friends. I want to help them. I want to be able to grow together and teach and learn from each other.

23:55Spazzacamino:And the last word is freedom.

23:58Matthew Anstine:In this sense, the ability to have a business of my choice. To be able to do what I want in my business or to have a business, really, and do what I love.

24:14Spazzacamino:Okay. Okay. All right. Perfect. I appreciate you getting through that quickfire round there. So, you know, with all this talk of AI and self-motivation, you know, where do you think your industry is going? You know, where do you see your industry 10 years from now?

24:29Matthew Anstine:Yeah, well, I do have concerns. there is i think our industry is in

24:39Matthew Anstine:direct attack under a direct attack from the electrification movement people want to get i'm not going to say everyone but i'm going to say there are there's a group where there's there's people out there would would want to get rid of wood burning appliances once again i'm i'm more than just wood i'm wood electric gas and pellet but i would i think there's there's a lot of people are getting out of the wood-burning fireplaces. And I think that's a bad move because once you give up your wood appliance, your alternative heat appliance, you are basically getting rid of your independence of energy.

25:21Matthew Anstine:So you're going to be required. You're going to have to buy energy from gas or from electric to heat your home where once you could have just used wood. Once again, coming from Colorado, high mountains of Colorado, I would spend probably$100 a year heating my house. And there's other people who are spending$1 ,200 a month on propane.

25:48Spazzacamino:Oh, yeah.

25:49Matthew Anstine:So I was able to take that money and put it to better use for my family, for food, for enjoyment. And so I think that it's really important that people maintain, learn about it. And I think that's one of the reasons it's also under attack is because people need to learn more about the appliance, the wood-burning appliance that they have. I think there's a lot of misinformation. I think there's a lot of, I hate to say it this way, but ignorance. but once you learn about it burning wood in your home can be and I'm not supposed to say it safe but we got to make sure someone has to look at it, someone professional does have to look at it and make a judgment call on that and if there's any repairs that need to be made you know, to keep that independence, I would certainly make those repairs and have my appliance Okay

26:42Spazzacamino:Now where do you think your business, your particular business will be by 2030? next four years?

26:49Matthew Anstine:Well, hopefully I'm in a nice little shop down the street. I don't need a storefront or anything, but I do would like to have a little office down the street where employees can, where I'd have, hopefully I'd have two to three trucks and an office staff to, to run a nice little company that where we were helping the community stay safe. And, you know, I'm not out here to make a million dollars. I just want to make sure that people are safe and I, and I have a, that I have a good living.

27:21Spazzacamino:All right. So, and I want you to be as candid and honest as you can on the answer to this next question. But, you know, let's say if a business owner, a small business owner, a small entrepreneur is listening to the podcast episode with you today, Matt, and let's say they're, you know, they're feeling stuck or overwhelmed. They're just not having a good go at 2026 so far. What's a piece of advice you'd want them to hear from you today? hold in there keep at it you're not dying just think about think about what where you'd rather

27:52Matthew Anstine:be think about what you need to do to fix it or or to have it the way you'd want it and just make small changes at least make small changes every day or as you know as soon as possible to get to that point.

28:11Matthew Anstine:There's, it's, it's, it's a mental, it's a mental game. You gotta, you have to pull yourself out of a funk. You have to see, see yourself in a better place or a, you know, better environment. And then you got to work until you get there. Okay.

28:32Spazzacamino:No, I appreciate that advice. Nice. So what's next for Spazza Camino? What should people be excited about coming up in the near future? Employment opportunities, education, and hopefully with more with some employees,

28:44Matthew Anstine:I can people who can people will be able to get their appointments sooner instead of waiting eight weeks. OK, OK, gotcha, gotcha.

28:56Spazzacamino:Now, you said you're are you currently hiring right now?

28:59Matthew Anstine:I would be hiring right now. I can only hire one at a time because I'm only a company of one currently. I don't have any trainers. So what I'd love to do is hire the right guy that wants to learn an awesome, really niche trade. I mean, I was a contractor my entire life, and I found this field after being a construction superintendent, punchless guy, on my own contracting company. I found this, and I just fell in love with this chimney sweeping stuff. I deal with all the dangerous stuff, I guess, in the house, which I think is great. Got to have good ethics, good problem-solving skills. But if I can find the right guy, train him up, and he can believe in the same things I do, then he'd be great for having a truck and a helper or be able to train more chimney sweeps.

29:52Matthew Anstine:So, yeah, I am currently looking for someone who is a high adventurer as well. Someone is not afraid of getting on the roofs. And I have all the safety gear. I'm OSHA trained as well. So I have safety equipment of all kinds because I'm dealing with fine particulate dust. I'm dealing with roof work. And I'm doing structural stuff too. So it's pretty cool. It's like, I don't know, I would say a very high-end contracting position. Okay.

30:25Spazzacamino:All right. Right. And finally, what's the best way for someone to connect with you and learn more about what you all do?

30:30Matthew Anstine:All right. You can go to my website. It's severe spaz.com. That's severe county spaz.com. And or they can alternatively text or call me at 720-755-0398.

30:48Spazzacamino:Perfect. Perfect. Any social media we can check you out?

30:51Matthew Anstine:I am on Facebook. I think I have a Snapchat or Twitter, but I just signed up. I don't keep them very active because I'm always out doing stuff. I'm usually hanging out at my office, which is on top of someone's house looking at the mountains.

31:07Spazzacamino:Okay. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. All right, Matt. Well, yeah, this has been fantastic. Yeah. Thank you for coming on and sharing your story and your perspective. Any last words you have for our audience before we sign out?

31:18Matthew Anstine:Well, I would say everyone get their chimney swept by a professional chimney sweep through the CSIA or the NCSG. And if you need to get a chimney installed, I would go to someone that is certified through the NFI.

31:32Spazzacamino:Nice, nice. I love it. I love it. Yeah, thanks, Matt. We appreciate everything you're doing for the community and wish you continued success in the future. We really appreciate you coming on. Thank you.

31:43Matthew Anstine:Hey, thanks for listening to the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast. here's three things that you can do. Number one, remember to subscribe to the podcast. It takes very little effort on your part. It's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs. Plus you, you guys know how it works. The more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach. it's free for you at gift from bill.com that's gift from bill.com hey and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business send me an email directly just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com that's my personal email that i read no one else reads it first there's it's not screened it's my real email Just send it to me.

32:44Matthew Anstine:I can't wait to talk to you. Hey, and until then, all the best.