Learning Life's Lessions w/ Lance Cayko

Sometimes the best way to go about building a business is to listen to the journeys of those who have been through the process and what they have learned along the way.  Being an entrepreneur is more than just building a business, but even more so about a state of mind.

Today's guest, Lance Cayko, guides us through his journey and what it means to do it all while maintaining your perspectives of life.  It was worth listening to more than once.

You can reach Lance through his business website at https://f9productions.com or listen to his podcast at https://insidethefirmpodcast.com.

Transcript

Learning Life's Lessions w/ Lance Cayko 
 

Announcer: You are listening to the Mastering Business Basics podcast, where we discuss how to build a solid foundation under your small business to improve your chances of success. And now, here is your host, Roger Pearson. 

Roger: Today I'd like to welcome a special guest for you. Name is Lance Cayko, and he's got quite a story to tell. He's had quite a career. He started out in construction, I understand, and he moved on there to architecture. I spent some of my earlier years in the construction business and the trades are definitely something we have a shortage of in this country, so that's definitely the right thing, to be in. 

And then you went on to become an architect, I understand. 

Lance Cayko: Yeah. Uh, then eventually a, real estate developer. Professor, professional fisherman, podcaster, I'm a guest on your show obviously here today, and then we also host our own show. 

Roger: That's a lot of hats. 

Lance Cayko: Lot of hats 

Roger: I understand that. I juggle a lot of things too. This is always a question I like to ask people. Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? 

Lance Cayko: Well, the first, the first contractor that would give me a shot, his name is Bruce, and he was my, he's my dad's best friend. I tried working on the farm one summer. And I lasted about a week. 

Grew up between a, uh, sugar beet farm and a cattle ranch in northwest North Dakota, and I didn't get along with my dad at the time very well. I still don't get along that well. 

Um, I but it was just, I was not into the work. I was like, "Hey, I wanna try something else." And so I heard Bruce has a big contract with, with the Indian Housing Authority and he's got to you know he's gonna do like a roof a today or something like this. I called him up and i said, "Bruce, I just quit just quit my job with my dad. 

I've always been interested in construction, building stuff, and you know, it's always just intrigued me. And, , I'll do anything. I'll pick up garbage. We'll do whatever, whatever you got around jobs." And he goes, "Perfect. You can be my gofer. I'll pay you $7.25 an hour." 

And Bruce was the first entrepreneur that I ever met, and think that was the big lasting impression that I had and why I went down this road. I read, I'm 43 and  when I, when I read about 10 years ago Rich Dad Poor Dad, I realized about midway through that book I went, oh "I had the Rich Dad Poor Dad experience." 

So subconsciously, I didn't realize it, uh um, you know, in full view again until I read that book. But subconsciously at the time as a 13-year-old boy, I saw the relationship that Bruce had with money versus the relationship that my dad had raised me, had with money. 

And my dad had raised me, his relationship with money was one of anxiety. It was fear Uh it was, there was always a quote that mom and dad would say a lot, which was having money is'nt everything which really bugged me because it was like you know, but we don't have it, it's like a problem. Kinda seems like everything actually. 

And so, Bruce did not have that kind of relationship. It wasn't even that he was rich, it was just that, "Oh, he's an entrepreneur." He makes his own time. He makes his own money. He seemed as if there wasn't this negative thought process around it. So I was-- I worked my butt off that summer. 

And you know, the idea was if I-- once I was able to pick up garbage on the ground, and cleaning up job sites, it's like Lance, then you can come up and learn how to learn how to roof, and I was the best gofer he ever had because I wanted to learn a skill. 

I was like, whatever it takes to be Bruce is essentially kind of what I want to be." And I just felt it in my soul. It just it just felt like the right where, you know, God was leading me. So what happened is the summer Bruce pulls me aside and he taught me my first business lesson, and just never forget it. 

And he says,, "Hey, I'm paying you seven twenty-five an hour, but what do you think I'm charging the owners for every hour of labor I bill?" I $7.25 an dollars." 

And he laughed, and I was embarrassed. And uh he said, "No, no no no, an then he goes, you know sometimes it's two to three, four times whatever I'm paying you is what I charging them." 

And I go, "Isn't that stealing ? That seems immoral." And he laughed again. I was embarrassed. No, no and then he explained business to me. He explained his service-based business in particular, right, because that was what he was doing. He explained profit, overhead, risk, all of it, what it would-- what it takes to run a business and why that multiplier effect matters. And then I again saw his relationship with money, and I was like, "Oh, this makes total sense to me. 100 percent." 

Finished out the summer. At the end of the summer, he pulled me aside and he says, you know one more of these sort of rich dad talks with me. And he says, uh, "What do you do you want to be when you go back to school and get big, whatever? You know when you become an adult? 

And I go, I don't want your-- I don't wanna take your company, but I wanna do what you do. Like, how do I do that? How do I become what you do?" 

And he goes, "Well," and he said one of the most mature things, like, a man has ever said to emotionally mature and he says, "Well, next summer, you go work for me." And he and I was a really good worker. I was reliable, you know? Yeah. I was enthusiastic, all the good stuff. 

And uh he says, "Yeah, next summer you go work for a different contractor and learn a different trade. And next summer you do the same thing. Just keep doing until you've learned all the trades and then you can become a general contractor." 

And I was just like completely sold. So I did that from 13 to about 20, even went to tech school. And that's what set me on the path of... I wanted to be a builder first, actually. Right.  

In my sophomore year of tech school, it was only two years, for building and construction technology, which basically formally teaches you how to, like, wrap everything together and be a general contractor. 

Uh, the our capstone project was building a house together with a team. And so we started rolling out blueprints. First time I'd ever really messed around with blueprints. and the word architect popped into my head. And it was like a lightning bolt coming in with an idea from God. 

It was like, "Oh, what if you, Lance, if you became an architect next?" Like, suddenly, like, you're actually good at school, and you get to pick what you want to do, um, in tech school. And you know, you figured out how to monetize it, because I figured out how to get all the scholarships, and all this stuff. And I was like, "Yea, what if I became an architect next, because if I became an architect, they draw the buildings first. They get the clients first. If I could roll them into being building clients too, man, i'd get i'd get paid two times." Like this would be I would have an advantage that nobody else had. This is a thought at 20 years old.  

I have three sons, 22, 21 and 18. None of them are having these kind of entrepreneurial ideas, right. So I'm not saying I'm special. I'm saying, you know, God gave me that sort of, you know, human thought process, I'm really thankful for it. 

So I applied to North Dakota State University, seventy miles north. Got there, graduated at the top of the class. And then during our capstone there, one more, one more lightning bolt came in, and the word developer was thrown around a lot in school. Because that's who hires a lot of architects, even now, right? I'm still being hired and/or with-- partner with developers on projects. and I'm like, "Oh, man. Well one day I should probably-- maybe it'd be a good idea if I was a developer too. Man I would I would get paid like three times. And once you become a developer and investor, then you understand you actually get paid you know once you own real estate it's actually like four or five, four or five different ways you can get paid and you're totally diverse. 

So that's the summation like why I wear all these hats and the trajectory that led me there. 

Roger: That's amazing. You know, because i, I think you're the rare case because most kids coming out of high school nowadays have no clue what they wanna do. 

I wanted to be a teacher, actually, when I, I went to school for education, and then I found out how the school systems work, and I says, "I'd be fired every year." Because this was back when they threw out phonics. They said, "Oh," and then they had the new math where two plus two equals five, and, uh, you could teach for this book, but you can't teach from that book. 

And I says, "This is not teaching." You know? This is not teaching. So I went to teach in the corporate world instead, and I have ever since. But I understand what you're saying, and that's an amazing road that you're on. That is amazing road. 

 Out of all the road that you've been in, what would you say if you were talking... and you were very lucky to, to have a, a mentor to start out with, which is... 

Lance Cayko: Oh, I'm so Yeah 

Roger: Yeah, and that's what I think a lot of people miss. When I, you know, in my writings and my books and everything, and one of the things I always say is, "Go find yourself a mentor. Go find yourself a mentor." 

Um, you really need that because they're not gonna teach you this stuff in school, you know? And, why make, mistakes a billion times before you learn it yourself? So you need to find a mentor, and they're out there. You have to look for them sometimes, but they're out there. 

Through your journey, what do you think, if you had to pick the three biggest mistakes that you made that you've learned from, what would they be? 

Lance Cayko: Oh man That's an on the spot one but I'll start rattling some off, for sure. The three biggest mistakes. Uh, you know, I interviewed a lot of people on my show too, and I ask them sort of a question similar to this. I'll talk about the one that I, I don't think we made a mistake on, which I'm happy about, uh that a that a lot of people do, and that is, uh... the answer I usually get when I ask this similar question, people say, "wish I would've started earlier." 

We couldn't have started any earlier, actually, uh, because when we started our first, my first company, the architecture firm, uh, we were were 25. I was 25, my business partner was 23. The average founder is actually 45 years old. So I don't feel like, um, we made a mis- we made a mistake there. 

I do think when we got into real estate development, this is maybe one of, one of the ones I'd identify is I should have been more confident throughout the process. And maybe we got a mentor, another mentor or two for it, because I think our, our incompetence, then made it made it so we got burnt out on the project at the end, and then gave up some control and the control almost hurt us pretty badly at the end. 

Uh by the by the grace of God, again, we came out of it on top, and we're all okay. But I think it, it just, it just can't-- it's like the lesson I wish I could've told my younger self is I should have read Marcus Aurelius' book, meditations a long time ago. Like if like, if I-- Like, the mistake is just not knowing what you know. Um so it, it's hard though. It's like, how do you-- You gotta-- You're, you're moving quite learning all those lessons, right? 

Uh, second big one would be hire slow, fire fast. And but do you know that though through it, right? And I had to learn that lesson too where I'm like, some times, some cases it did hire too fast, and not slow enough. 

And with that I mean it's like really you should be taking your time, not settling for the candidate that maybe comes to you or pushes their way through the door. And you gotta just really know what you're looking for and wait for it. Um even if it means you have to work a little more on weekends or something like that, and hold out for that because that can become such a problem for a small and a large amount of time. Like the problem could be small such that, okay, yeah, it's Monday, time to go in there and fire Larry, right and I'm just making up names, but... or and then after that, then there could be this giant repercussion with social media, and people angry and saying things in disparaging way, you know you know about your company and stuff like that. So you really gotta be careful about who ends up coming into your small business. So I think that's, that's maybe the second one that I would do. 

The third one is, uh, think figuring the difference between-- is it's buying into, like, I, I guess something that's been said over and over again, which is- are- We've heard it for the last decade years in the business world. Work-life balance. And I think it's kind of like my mom and dad were saying me when I was younger, "money isn't everything." And my favorite rapper Kanye West finished that sentence for me about 10, 15 years ago. "Money isn't everything, but not having it is." And I was like, "Oh yeah, that's exactly the part they were missing." Like if you don't have the money, oh my God, that's all you can worry about. 

How are you gonna eat? How are you gonna sleep? How are you gonna have water? How are you gonna have gas to, you know, put in your truck? 

That kind of stuff. Um, so the work-life balance, has always bugged me too, and I think really what it is, especially entrepreneurs is, it should be a work-life harmony I think that we're aiming for, right So for example, if you're an if you're an entrepreneur, you get to make your own time, generally. If you're a business owner, that's one of the things. It's like, okay I'm i'm taking the big risk, and maybe I have more sleepless nights than a wage worker. But the opposite side of that story is, yeah, when I get to, like today after the show, guess what I'm gonna do? 

I'm gonna go to the garden, and I'm gonna garden for the rest of the day. Like that is a work-life harmony because I've worked my butt off this morning. I'm doing a public interview here. I'm putting our name out there. But like, I carved out those four hours today to go play in the dirt, um, because I know that I need that work-life harmony. Balance I think, this work-life balance thing that gets said all over again in the business world is a mistake. I think it's one of the biggest mistakes. We I think we're gonna do a perfect trade. Cause is if you think of the word balance, I don't know what image is conjured up in your head, but for me, it's a scale. 

And if I don't like that look of that scale, it's like what am I trading to get the balance to happen and I think it needs to be more about work-life harmony. 

Roger: I think you're absolutely right. Absolutely right. Wow. One of the other things I noticed that you did, I remember, I mean, I'm a, a DIY junkie, so I watch a lot of HDTV. And I remember the series on the tiny houses, which were just so fascinated, and I read that was that, you know, something that you were involved with. 

Lance Cayko: Oh yeah, we're we're one of those uh we're like proud of one of our appearances on, HGTV but at the same time kind of a, not ashamed, but realize we're we're part of the problem. And the problem is, look-- I'll never take back going on television. Were on there three times and what we were on for was, uh season one, episode 13 of Tiny House, Big Living, this was back in I think 2014 - 2015 Um so it's almost a decade, over a decade now. 

But uh, they filmed us designing and building a tiny house, and it was a really cool project, and it's called the Atlas Tiny House, if anyone wants to Google check it out. It's on dwell. It kind of went viral. Won an international architecture award for it. Um, and then obviously we got on television all this publicity that we couldn't have paid for at that time as a startup technically, so it was sorta huge.. 

But the but the problem with the HGTV stuff is like they want to create drama that's not real. Um, and they want to show all of these problems-- but at the same time, they want us to see like, you know, you'll go-- It's a typical sequence of, let's say it's a remodel show and you go in and they show them busting up the walls. 

And then the next episode it's all fininshed. it's like oh my gosh what happened in-between all of that. Um, and since then now that we're full fledged commercial level builders who do multi-family, single family and you know, light commercial stuff. I can't get a television show to respond back to me with like, right now is when you guys should be doing reality show with us. Because like you would see that actual crazy drama and if back then it looked made up. 

But it was a really cool experience I would recommend to anybody who is, gets the opportunity to even just do their little 15 minutes of fame, becasue that really what it amounted to. Where that saying came from in the nineties, when came through different versions. 

Oh, yeah, that's your 15 minutes. Like everybody did get whether it's through social media or just like one episode on reality TV. You got your little 15 minutes um of fame. It led to a lot of work because we were on television every two weeks. That episode would air for over a year. 

Subaru saw us on television for that first tiny house, which was-- It's like foldable transformer on wheels. Pretty incredible little project, and they said, can you build us two more. And at first I said no, because I told my business partner I'm like way too hard. Like, that at first it was so hard because we were inventing architecture, we were doing the intense kind of engineering and precision to get it to fold, and then drive down the road and then not rattle apart, It was very intense. Um, but my business partner negotiated, like, a really killer contract with them, showed me the number on what we were maybe expecting at the end if we executed and we did. And I go, "Oh, yeah, sure." If they sign that, we'll sacrifice another four or five months of my life.  

So, that led to our second set of tiny houses and then ultimately enough profit to buy a third of an acre up in the city we operate in, Longmont, which is east about 20 miles, and become full-fledged real estate developers. 

So it was kind all meant to be in the end in that journey. 

Roger: It's amazing how life throws things at us when we need it. I find that true, if you have enough faith. So, the other thing I wanted to ask you, because everybody's individualistic in their approaches to things, what makes your style of architecture different than other architects? 

Lance Cayko: Well I think it's honest That's a bit, lately it of the thing I've been telling people is like look at there's an honesty about our work is um, a lot of it has a muscularity to it as a result, right? What I mean by that is like right now, for example, there's a it's a, it's really a dream project for me. 

 For many other architects it might not be and what it is is on the north end of our main street here the in town where our main headquarters is. It's a town of about 100,000 people, it's kinda the middle class town of Boulder county. It's still affordable. We have like typical, um you know families that are that are running around and just working class folks. 

And on the the north end of our main street, it desperately needed to get rid of this pawn shop. 6,000 square foot brick building, built in 1939, which originally like a Safeway grocery store, and it changed hands many, many, many times. Developer and I teamed up last year, bought the property, um so I put back on the developer hat and then obviously the architect and builder hat. And we're transforming that right now into uh, two restaurants, a coffee shop, and a vinyl record store of all things in 2026. 

And what's been really amazing about it in why there's so much honesty in this building and our architecture as a result is. You know, we gutted the building, got of all the asbestos. And once we took down all the old drop ceilings, drywall and all the partitions an everything, the building revealed itself to be this kind of beautiful structure. 

It's it's got these old, uh steel bow trusses. So they're like, imagine a, imagine an arch on the ceiling. And then it had all this awesome old world lumber that was holding up the ceiling we took down. It was not structural. But it was something that you could attach the old ceiling to. We ended up using that old lumber as the demising wall between the new units. 

And then the inside, we stripped away the plaster and opened up um the southern façade, so it had all really awesome glass, and large sliding glass door on it. And uh, it looks like it's ready for another hundred years. But we didn't try to cover anything up. That's what was really awesome about it. It's like the we just stripped down and revealed and let it be what it wanted to be, it's got this amazing honesty about it, and it just doesn't seem like you're left guessing about the architecture of the space. in a world where social media and the internet has kind scattered us all, you know politically, personally, it hasn't really brought us together actually. 

You know, like conspiracies are a million, you know, just there used to be one or million now it's like everywhere. Nobody knows if you trust or anything. There's a clarity about that building and our architecture I think. That when people see it, when they walk through it, when touch it, when they feel it, They go, Oh, I didn't even know I needed this. This is what I need in my life. was something I can understand, and that isn't confusing to me. That's how I would describe our architecture. 

Roger: Wow. I think you're right. You're absolutely right. To me, the world's become, in some ways, too homogenized, and we don't appreciate the beauty of it anymore like we used to, especially, especially in construction. 

It's just... I mean, I'm currently, like, in the Tampa, Florida area, and it's just all the farmland is going for apartment cities and, and just row houses, and rows, and rows, and rows of houses that all look the same. And it's just, it's such a shame. It's such a shame that they're, they're just, they're not doing it in a, a way that makes any sense to me. 

It's just, uh, the, the bottom line, the dollars, and that's it. That's all they care about, and that's a shame. 

Lance Cayko: Yeah 
 

Roger: Wow. I understand you like to fish 

Lance Cayko: I'm a fishing addict Roger. Yeah. 100 percent. 

Roger: I used to, I used to. I mean, I, I graduated out at Loveland High School out there in Colorado, it's been a... 

Lance Cayko: no kidding 

Roger: Yeah, I've lived in Denver for a while and Fort Collins for a while, spent a decade out there and I used to go up trout fishing and nothing better than a fresh trout. No. 

I'm one of those people, though, it takes me forever to get out there, but once I'm there for... forget it. The rest of the day is, you're not, don't bother me the rest of the day. So I can understand why you, you love it so much. Not much good fishing down here unless you wanna go out in the ocean. 

Anyway, so I noticed, I was reading some of the comments that you made and you said that you can learn business lessons from fishing. And I'm going, "What, what lessons can you learn from fishing?" 

Lance Cayko: You know what's really, Well patience number one obviously That's You gotta have some. You know it really is a good reset. But you know, there's something facinating that's been revealed to me in writing and speaking in the past couple weeks. It's sort of, yeah. A lot of times when I do a show like this or um even on our, or pontificating in any kind of way of public uh um, I have like premonition about something that I'm describing, and then, but I don't have the language for it yet. 

So that happened that occurred a sequence with law of polarity. So I've been describing that, you know, to a different host I was talking to and I was was you know the negative stuff when it happens in life, I just roll with it and try to not, get lost and lose my lose my, crap such that it ruins, like, a a relationship or a day or whatever. 'Cause I just know that, like, next day is gonna be the opposite of that. That's how the law of polarity works. It's literally a physical law. So I was explaining all this, and telling story after story like that, and then finally one gal says, "Oh, you're describing the law of polarity." I said, perfect, thank you for, like, helping give me the language." 

The one recently with fishing is, I can't remember where I saw it even, but, uh, at about 25 to 30 minutes into giving yourself some silence, your brain clears and that's when ideas are allowed to come into your brain. and I-- cause people are sometimes wondering, like, "Where do you come up with ideas?" And sometimes you're inspired by other people. the best ones, like, come from the ether. It really comes from, like, God and the universe, but - you're never gonna get there unless you find something that allows you to be in a peaceful place. 

And it should be probably in nature, and that's when, you know fishing lies. And, uh, so I heard this like three or four weeks ago, and I'm like, huh yeah "yeah, no wonder," like when I just... for so for me, fishing is not only just the fishing part of it, but it's like, in Colorado, I have to hike at at least a mile to wherever I'm going everytime, sometimes four, sometimes five, six, eight, ten, way deep in the mountains sometimes. And I'd always noticed, like, yeah, that it seemed like certain distance into the hike or the walk or the journey there on my feet, all of a sudden my brain would clear, then I would have these ideas or something, a problem that is in my subconscious or even conscious that I've been trying to solve, and, "Oh, there it was. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you for that. There's the solution." 

Instead of like sitting there and people thinking that they're gonna grind out a solution. It doesn't-- Sometimes it works like that. But like staying up all night trying to solve some kind of design problem, construction problem or business problem, whatever problems, I have I found that to be much less fruitful. 

Which sounds counterintuitive, I think, to a lot of people if they just go, "You know what? I'm stuck. I'm just gonna go for a walk. I'm just gonna just gonna go for a walk and clear my head," then it'll, it'll maybe it'll come to me.. It's and so it's, it's the idea with the shower too, right? Where people are like, "I get my best ideas in the shower." 

Yeah, because your brain is cleared. You have let, all your listening to is the water. You're like immersed it, you're not thinking about anything else. You're just washing yourself or whatever, or know or just standing there and enjoying the steam, and then it comes to you. So it's-- That's what I think it is for me is. Fishing is I'm sitting there and doing one maybe mono task, not really thinking. 

I'm just in the moment and present, and i'm just bombarded with, after my mind clears solutions to problem, ideas for different things in business. Ideas for myself, my family, all kinds of stuff like that. 

Um, so then I do, you know, pull up my phone and I have a little notepad in there, and I make sure to write that idea down and put it back in my pocket. Um luckily there's no service, you know, typically where I'm fishing, so I won't get distracted by Twitter or, like a text message or anything. it's kind of the best of both worlds. If people want to be even a little bit further, they can try and put yourself like this and, you know, leave the phone in the truck, the car, take a notepad up there. Something so you don't lose that magic that comes into your head. 

Roger: That's great. I do that. I love just closing the computer and leaving the phone off and going outside and working in the yard because, you know, there's nothing better to clear your head in the world. And sometimes I come in exhausted. Uh, the other day I was running a hose bib to the other corner of the house, so I have about all four corners of the house now, and I was exhausted. It took me two days. 

But I mean, at 75 I get a little more exhausted than I used to be. But, it felt so good to just to go out there and do that. So I understand that completely. 

So is there anything we haven't talked about today that you'd like to impart to my listeners that you think would be of value? 

Lance Cayko: Well it I did talk about it a little bit but I just wanna refresh it one more time and that's I think there's two things that are particularly speaking to the men who are listening to this show is um because a lot of 'cause a lot of us are just kind like my children. I worry about them. They're young white males. I think they're, they're the people that get drafted first. So, they're the expendable parts of society. 

We've kind of pushed them down for a while. And if you're, if you're-- if you have a son or or if you're a younger man listening to this, I think there's two big lessons I wish, I wish someone would have taught me about right away.. 

When I was-- my dad didn't teach me any of this, so I try to instill it in other people. Learn about the law of polarity and read, if there's one book you're gonna read in your life, go pick up Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. 

Because I had the misconception about of what stoicism was before I read that book. I thought stoicism was just me and Roger looking at each other. We're not saying anything, you know, That's kind of a silly definition. Stoicism is much more rich than that. 

Modern stoicism is, if I'm having a bad day and everything's going wrong on every single job site, I don't go home and drink myself to death. I don't go home-- I don't blow up at the subs who are giving me a hard time, owners, stuff like that. 

It's like I'm holding the calm day, knowing that, like, this is actually all supposed to happen. What are-- Maybe, and maybe there's some lessons I can learn from that bad day. But as but as long as I hold it together that day, I know that, like, the opposite's gonna happen. That's how, that's how the universe works. 

That's how electricity works. You can't have negative without a positive. it's impossible. You know, night and day. All of these, like, opposites happen. And that's a lot of clarity. But you have to know and learn modern stoicism, think there's no better book and person to teach that than Marcus Aurelius, and Meditations. Who's very ancient, you know, Greek philosopher and all that. 

Uh, So, that's the one thing I would love to impart with people is those two things and that you gotta keep the faith, especially in this modern world that's just so rapid. I mean, you even keep up with the news cycle anymore. It's like a 15-minute news cycle anymore. 

You know, there's a there's a lot of, like, illusions out there about what you can be in control, you know, like voting. Like, are you really, is it really solving your problems or are you solving your problems. You know, are you getting a good night's rest? Are you waking up early? Are you drinking more water? you eating whole foods? And I and I don't mean the grocery store. I mean, like, good, whole non-processed kind of stuff or getting your exercise, you going gardening? Are you going fishing? Um, what you-- How-- So you control yourself. 

Great. That's number one in the whole of stoicism part of it. What can I control? Right? What can I influence that I actually can make a difference in? Well, first, it's yourself, then it's your family, then it's your businesses. And by the time you wrap your arms around all that it's like, I'm not sure I should be worried about anything external to where I'm trying to change the externality, right? 

It's like I've already got my hands full on those three big things. 

Roger: I think it's absolutely right. And one of the things I probably learned best early on is that, uh, the only things that are important in life is the things you can control. Everything else is just, you can watch it, you can watch it go by, but don't let it affect you. 

You know? I absolutely agree with that. So should people want to get ahold of you, how do they do that? 

Lance Cayko: Well, they can go to LinkedIn and type in my very unique name, uh, Lance, L-A-N-C-E, last name Cayko, C-A-Y-K-O, I will link in with any of your listeners. Uh, they can also go to insidethefirmpodcast.com. 

Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, and all the other good stuff. They can hear me twice a week with my business partner and, uh, we where we talk about all things our entrepreneurship, business, construction, personal stuff like we just talked about stoicism. 

And then last place is https://f9productions.com where all the companies kind of coalesce together sign up for our news letter and follow us and see all the cool stuff we're designing and building. 

Roger: Great, great. Well, I wanna thank you for coming on the podcast today. It was a very interesting conversation. I really, really enjoyed it 

Lance Cayko: Thank you, Roger. It was a pleasure.  

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