DGS 306: Trusting the Process: Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Life Events

In business and in life, sometimes things don’t go as we planned. Sometimes, our plans are completely derailed.

In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth experts Jason and Sarah Hull share a recent experience where they ended up in the right place at the right time and discuss the importance of being able to trust the process.

You’ll Learn

[01:27] A Sudden Vet Visit Becomes An Unexpected Lesson

[08:20] When the Plan is Derailed

[16:30] Being in The Right Place at the Right Time

[23:21] Trusting the Process When Things Don’t Go as Planned

Quotables

“In business, things are always changing.”

“Things might derail us, but that doesn't mean that it has to be a worse outcome just because it didn't go the way that you wanted.”

“A lot of times it's not the business stuff that derails us. It's everything else outside of business.”

Resources

DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind

DoorGrow Academy

DoorGrow on YouTube

DoorGrowClub

DoorGrowLive

Transcript

Jason & Sarah Hull (00:00)

In business, things are always changing. Things might derail us, but that doesn't mean that it's going to has to be a worse outcome just because it didn't go the way that you wanted.

 

All right, we are Jason and Sarah Hull, the owners of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we have spoken to thousands of property management business owners, coached, consulted, and cleaned up hundreds of businesses.

 

helping them add doors, improve pricing, increase profit, simplify operations, and build and replace teams. We are like Bar Rescue for property managers. In fact, we have cleaned up and rebranded over 300 businesses, and we run the leading property management mastermind with more video testimonials and reviews than any other coach or consultant in the industry. At DoorGrow, we believe that good property managers can change the world.

 

and that property management is the ultimate high trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships and residual income at DoorGrow. We are on a mission to transform property management, business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. now let's get into the show. OK, so we were up way too late last night.

 

And it wasn't for any really exciting reason. It was because of dogs. So. Do you want to tell the story? Yeah, sure. So you start last night, we were about to settle down and we were going to watch something on Netflix and my dog, my biggest dog, Parker, he is he's our pit bull. Well, he's our pure red pit bull. And he's kind of scratching and pawing at the couch.

 

telling Jason he wants something. So Jason goes over, pulls it out. And we have these, they're water buffalo horns. Natural, like real water buffalo horns that they chew on. And there was a, how big was it? Like this big? Yeah, I don't know. Maybe like two by three inches kind of a thing. So little last piece of it and Parker wanted it. I got up.

 

Went to the bathroom. I come out. It's in pieces on the floor. So I did not want him to eat that. So I said, no, no, no, give me that. And he did not want to give it to me. So I took the remaining pieces off of the floor and I figured I would bribe him with a treat. I was pretty sure he swallowed. And at least some of it was kind of dark. Yeah. So pretty sure he swallowed some of it.

 

And I went, okay, I don't wanna play this game. I've played this game several times. It's not fun. I'm just gonna induce vomiting and then we'll get it out of him and we'll go on with our night. So we do this mixture of hydrogen peroxide and I some vanilla ice cream.

 

No vomit. So I did another batch of that. No vomit. I did a third batch of that. No vomit. And now I'm starting to panic because it's been about what? 15 minutes at that point. Maybe 20. Maybe 20. And I'm going, I'm panicking. I'm going, I have never given a dog hydrogen peroxide and they didn't vomit. I don't understand what to do. So he had looked up online and he said, okay, well.

 

Walking I guess will help stimulate that so I went okay. So we walked him down to the end of the block. We came back. No vomit we got into the house as soon as we got into the house, then he vomited twice And some of the pieces had come out, but I was quite large. Yeah. Yeah, I know I don't think they would have passed through a system. So it was a good thing that we did that. Yeah, I know so then I I felt like what if there's more in there because I just don't I don't know

 

And I get, I get really nervous about that. So we were thinking that most of it kind of came out. I thought maybe there was a little bit left, but wasn't quite sure. Didn't want to induce vomiting again, especially after that much time had passed. It's, it's, it's not going to be good at that point. So we were sitting on the couch. We were kind of keeping an eye on him. He was drinking some water, but then he started kind of drooling.

 

and that's not a good sign, I went, okay, we're going to the vet. So we went to the emergency room vet. We got there around 11 o'clock.

 

Okay. Thinking they would get him right in because it's an emergency. Yeah. And they just had a crazy night at this place. Such a sad night for them. So we got there. We drove my Chevy Tahoe, not my cyber truck. Yeah. Because that's the vehicle we usually drive if we're putting the dogs in it, because, know, who knows, maybe the dogs scratch stuff or puke or whatever. So we drove the Tahoe and

 

We get there and they wouldn't see us. And there's kind of a timeline in Sarah's mind. Well, no, you look it It says pretty much about two hours from when it goes to the stomach into, I think it's called the pyloric valve. You can quote me on that. But then it goes into the intestine. If it goes into the intestine, we're F'd because it's not going to pass through the intestine. I can tell you that for sure.

 

And once it's in there, you can't get it. It's not like it can regurgitate back out into the stomach. It's in there, it's done. So now your option is surgery or death. Ask me how I know. Been there, done that. Yeah, you had a dog have this issue. Two dogs. Two. Two dogs eating things they shouldn't eat. Yeah. So I'm trying to make sure we can get, if there is something in there, I just want to check and see. Don't even know. Maybe there's something in there. Maybe there's not.

 

But if there's something in there, I want to get it before it gets into the intestine Yeah, so by the time we got there it already been at least what an hour and a half Yeah Since the original incident so we don't know if there's still something in him and we get there and then we're sitting in the waiting room and there's a Lot of stuff happening. I guess there's just a lot of people ahead of us to have some serious Issues with their pets and so we're waiting

 

Eventually I go up and you were freaking out. You're like, we're nearing the deadline. I'm counting down. I'm going, okay, we have 20 minutes left. So I go up and I just say, is there any way we can rush this along or is there another place we can go? And she hands me a sheet. Here's some other hospitals in the area. This one's 20 minutes away. It's good. This one's 30 minutes away. It's good. And I was like, my gosh, it's another 20 and 30 minutes. That puts us past the two hour mark. So I...

 

Explain this to you brought you the sheet like and you said we might as well just yeah go home So I said well at that point if they cannot get us in here and then we have to go somewhere else either way We're gonna miss the two-hour deadline. So at that point now, it's a gamble Okay, so if it's moving on to his intestine now, we just go okay We keep an eye on him and he's gonna be fine or we keep an eye on him and we come right back here when we need to so

 

We talked about it, we thought about it, and then we said, okay, let's just head home because if there's nothing they can do at this point, like we missed the window. So let's just head home. Okay. So the story gets kind of interesting from here. So we go out to the car, we get Parker in and I push the button to start the Tahoe and it sort of turns over, but it doesn't start. So the battery must be low.

 

like never has happened ever with this vehicle. And so we were stuck. We were stuck. Okay. Could not. Yeah. Couldn't start the vehicle. So forced to stay there, which actually back for jumper cables. Right. I'm digging around, figuring out where I'd hide, hit my jumper cables in this vehicle. He was pissed. He like hit the steering wheel.

 

Okay, apparently I got violent with the the Tahoe. He was mad. So get it. It was like 11 45 at night. I understand. Okay, so the story gets even more interesting. Well at this point. Well wait. So at this point I had said to Jason I said wait. my god. What if This is god telling us You are supposed to be here like you are exactly where you are supposed to be I thought maybe because this is weird. This is weird All right, so we're tell you the conclusion of this because it does seem like

 

some little bit of magic happened. So maybe God really did want to stay. So, but I'm going to share our sponsor for this this this episode, Cover Pest. So Cover Pest is the easiest and seamless way to add on demand pest control to your resident benefit package. Residents love the simplicity of submitting a service request and how affordable it is compared to traditional pest control options. Investors love knowing that their property is kept pest free.

 

And property managers love getting their time back and making more revenue per door. Simply put, Cover Pest is the easiest way to handle pest control issues at all of your properties. To learn more and to get special DoorGrow pricing, visit coverpest.com slash DoorGrow. Okay. Back to the story. All right. So, so then I'm, find the jumper cables and I'm like, cool. I guess I was

 

and I was like, I don't even know if I have jumper cables, but I do. I had that planned. So from the beginning, I guess a long time ago, I had stashed them in a panel in the backside of the vehicle that had to pop off in plastic. And then I found them. All right, so I had the bag, I had the jumper cables, and then I'm like, I need to find somebody. And like, there's a bunch of cars, but only one was running and there was only one person outside, so I went up to it. I could tell they were pretty upset.

 

Like I'd seen them walking around. It's two ladies. Turns out one is the friend of the other and had driven her there in her car. And so I went up to the window and I was like, know, I'll let my jumper cables. She rolled down her window and said, hey, could you help us jump our car? Our car won't start. I could really use some help. And I'm thinking.

 

she's probably thinking I'm some weird creep or gonna do something or I don't know, like in middle of the night, like it's really, it's late and like, you know, but she was like, she said, yeah, I'd be, I'd be happy to help. My dog just died. And then this lady's coming out that works at this center and she's holding a little paper and she said, this lady is bringing me the prints that they took of my dog's paws.

 

right now. And I was like, my gosh, I am so sorry. Like this is like one of the most awful things ever. And I didn't, I didn't even know what I could say other than I'm so sorry. And she said, but she was willing to help out. So she drove her car over and next to ours and I hooked up the cables and tried getting this thing started. And it like, I think I charged it. Initially, I thought let's do it for like five minutes, then try it.

 

Then we waited, didn't work, waited another five, 10 minutes, tried again, still didn't work. Somewhere in the middle of trying all this, the same lady comes out and she's like holding her iPad and she's like, are you guys here for Parker? Are you still wanting to be seen? And I was like, well, I guess. And I said, do you want to? It's already been past that time. And Sarah was like, yeah, we might as well.

 

Yeah, so I explained to her the issue and she said well It might not hurt to have them looked at and she said it's not a hard and fast two-hour rule sometimes it's closer to two to four so you might still have some time and You know, do you want us to at least check him out and you know? Do an exam like, know, we can kind of feel around in the stomach. Maybe do an ultrasound or an x-ray I said, okay, let's get him in so I went brought Parker in and Jason stayed outside

 

Trying to jump the car. So this lady said, you know, I told her, you know, I could when I had got offered like asked for help, I had said, well, only, you know, I could give you a hug, you know, was the thing I could offer because she was so sad and I didn't know what to do. And she then told me I started talking with her. She told me that she was she just opened up.

 

I think she could tell I was probably a safe person to talk to. She just opened up and said, hey, I'm just really debating right now whether I should go see her, go see my dead dog. Like whether I should go see her, because I didn't see her. Like she went in and she passed away and I didn't see her. so I could tell, you know, if she's asking the question, there's probably, it's probably, yeah, you probably should. And I said, well,

 

I just was thinking, what does she think around and, you know, trying to be empathetic. And I was like, she's, why would she not want to? Well, I was like, are you concerned that if you go see your dog, that that's the image you'll have of her forever? And she said, yeah. And she starts crying. She said, yes. I said, you have a lifetime of experiences with this dog to remember, you know, with her to remember her by.

 

This will not be the defining thing, but I think if you don't go and get full closure on this and you know, there's going to be an emotional thing that just doesn't happen. You know, you need, you need to get that closure and that would be my, my guess, but this is for you to decide. And, I guess based on that conversation, she decided to go, to go, to go do it. So she.

 

like I'm gonna go do it and so she goes get in my car still her car still running I'm still trying to charge my car figure out well now I guess I'll just let it run for a while and I let it run for a good another 10 15 another 15 minutes at a timer still wouldn't start car just would not start it wouldn't turn over

 

So she goes in and then eventually she comes back out and she's like, they're making me wait. I think they're trying to get her presentable for me. And I said, well, it's probably a good thing. You know, but she's like, but now I am like, I'm thinking all about it and I'm stressed. And I have to wait. was hoping I'd just walk in and see her and be done with it. And I was like, yeah, I get that. And I guess you were inside with Parker and you had eventually she was.

 

came out and they were like, you can go in. She, she went in to go, go see, but I had asked her, like, do you mind me asking what happened? She said, my dog was in a car accident. A car hit my dog, not a car accident. My dog hit like I hit by the car and cause she gets out and thinks it's super fun to get out and had gotten out and she was feeling really guilty. Like it was her fault. And so she went in, I guess, to go see the dog and I was outside with the cars, but you had kind of, you were inside.

 

to share? Yeah well I was inside with Parker just kind of waiting so at this point they had already come and checked a few things preliminarily and then they were sending the doctor in and I think everybody in the building could hear that poor woman she was just absolutely crushed and heartbroken and just wailing and crying and I am not

 

one to cry and I'm sitting there I've got like tears coming down my face I'm going god this poor woman just because I've been there and I know what that feels like. So then the doctor ends up coming in and she's kind of checking him out and asking me some questions and the fact that it was a water buffalo horn was really confusing for everyone because it's not very common. So she's kind of feeling around on his stomach and she goes he has a full bladder.

 

She said, he might need a potty break. And she said, OK, and then I'm just going to check a couple things here, and then we're going to take him in the back. We'll do an ultrasound. I said, OK. So as she's doing her heart check on him, she said, hey, did anyone ever tell you that he has a heart murmur? And I said, no. And she said, OK, well, it's not anything serious right now. It's really not bad. But it is something to keep an eye on because.

 

it could be associated with something like heart disease or a heart failure. So there might be some underlying heart condition. It's you might want to talk to a cardiologist and just kind of have them check it out. I said, okay. So then she took Parker back and I was waiting for them to come back. She comes back at some point with him and she says, well, she said, okay, so here's what I think about the bone. I'm still going to stand by my original statement.

 

I would not recommend inducing vomiting again. You already did that. Some of the bones came out. She said, if there's anything else in there, I would not recommend inducing vomiting again. Sometimes if you do induce vomiting, then something might get stuck in the esophagus. It might scratch or tear the esophagus. Now you have a critical problem. So she said, I think you already did that. Don't worry about it. I would not do it again. I would not recommend us doing it again. She said, if it's a bone,

 

Their stomachs are just meant to digest that. Don't give him any sort of anti acid. Just let his stomach do its thing. And at some point it'll disintegrate and it'll pass normally. So I said, okay. And she said, I do however have some bad news. And I said, well, what is it? And she said, well, do you know when I was feeling him and I said, his bladder seems full. Well, that was not his bladder.

 

And she said, so he has a large mass located right behind his bladder. And she showed me the ultrasound image of it. And it's larger than a grapefruit right now. So it's pretty big. And she doesn't know what it is. She's not sure, you know, is it liquid? Is it some sort of cyst? Is it some sort of like tumor? We don't really know what it is.

 

She sent me a referral so that I can go and have them do an ultrasound and then have them kind of take a look at it. They of course recommended biopsy, which I'm not going to do. But she said, yeah, I would definitely have this checked out. And she said, I am so, so, so sorry to have to tell you this. But the way she was breaking it to me was almost like she was treating me like the woman who, yeah, who like, whose dog just passed away.

 

And I'm thinking, okay. So from her point of view, I understand why she was kind of reacting that way. I do understand why she thought I would react that way. But I think the way I feel about it is I don't think we're gonna go the typical normal route of let's go and have somebody poke it and rupture it and then.

 

release whatever it is out into his body to just float around and that'll kill him in like a year. And in the meantime, we're going to do all kinds of medication and cancer treatments and radiation and chemotherapy and all of the things that then will also kill you. We're not doing any of those things. But yeah, the point is she felt like it was really, really bad news and you felt like you're going to figure out a solution. Well, I felt like it was just a good thing that that was found.

 

We know because we wouldn't have known otherwise. How would I have ever known that? He's perfectly healthy. There's no it's not like, you know, there's any kind of warning signs. The one thing is he did lose some weight. So at some point that might have been a concern for me. Like, hey, I'm trying to get him to gain weight and he doesn't seem like he's gaining weight. Maybe something would have shown up on blood on a blood test at some point. But I just don't know that they would have.

 

Maybe eventually they would have found that. Yeah. But I just don't think like right off the bat, they would have found it. But it would have gone on a lot longer if there was an issue. So and we don't know what the issue is fully yet. That's still to be determined. however, yeah, that that that gal came out after viewing her dog. She was just I could tell a mess. So I I couldn't get the car to start. Didn't matter how long I was charging it. So I said.

 

Let me just unhook this and you just go, go do what you gotta do, go home and close their thing, their hood and let her leave. So there I am with this dead car. I don't know what's going on with Parker and you're in there and I'm so frustrated thinking, do I need to like get an Uber home, go get my cyber truck to come here and try and jump this car or try and get, like, am I gonna need to roadside assistance? So I'm trying to figure out how to get roadside assistance from our insurance and.

 

It's just, I'm trying to figure it out. And then eventually some other couple came out and they were like, I chatted with them a bit and they're like, yeah, we're here for another hour at least. Our dog's in surgery. It had gotten sliced open through its whole side somehow and they have no idea how it happened. And I'm like, that's crazy. They're like, yeah. And so I chatted with them for a bit and I said, well, could you help me jump my vehicle? And they had a, they had a,

 

Ford that was kind of similar in size to my Chevy and I thought maybe this one will have a little more juice somehow I don't know alternators only are adding a lecture, you know To on the on the meter there, you know to charge the battery, but I turned off all the everything I went away from it. So nothing was turning on we Charged it up. I tried starting once it didn't take but it sort of did something so I just left it charging a bit longer I said a longer timer

 

You eventually came out, but right before you came out, I tried, I was almost ready to submit the form to get roadside assistance to have them come out for the battery. And it was that or towing. Those are your two options. It's like, did you already try to jump it? If you did, they would only send towing. So I had to say no, like come out and help me jump it. And so I asked him if he could help me try one more time and.

 

He was really nice guy and they were stuck there for a while. So we just charged it for like 15, 20 minutes. And then you came out right after I had tested it and it started. And so now the car was ready. It was ready to go. And I'd already tried for like 20 minutes plus of charging before, maybe a half hour, trying to get this thing to work. Couldn't get it to start. And now it started. What's weird is that the car was having more issues than

 

like with the second thing, like things weren't turning on the second vehicle I was charging it off of than the first. So I was really surprised, but it just started. And then you came out and the car was ready. And so I really kind of feel like maybe you were right. Maybe God was like, you need to be kind of a little angel to this lady that is struggling. I gave her a hug, like I chatted with her a bit, told her she should go see her dog.

 

She was able to have some big sounds like cathartic sort of release in there. And which, you know, that would have been just stuck inside her, you know, and there always would have been this question of doubt, like what, what, you know, she wouldn't have gotten maybe that closure. And then we never would have found out if there was an issue with Parker, if we hadn't, if the car had worked, we just would have went home. We never would have known that he had a couple of health issues as one of which might be really serious. And we would have just never known and never.

 

dealt with it probably as effectively as we're able to now. So God works in mysterious ways, I guess. so moral of story is what? Our plan for the evening was we were gonna sit down and watch a show on Netflix. That was what we were gonna do. were gonna do that. Little cuddling, little Netflix and watching. had in mind for us. He's like, no, no, we need you at the Central Texas Emergency Veterinary Clinic.

 

Their name is so long. I don't know but yeah, no, no, we need you to be right here. So I'm gonna just make things happen to get you there and it's so funny because we we had decided to leave Yeah, we were done. I was like, okay. Well, there's no point in sitting here. I Don't want to sit here for two hours To find out if we have a problem where if we have a problem, we'll just come back

 

but I don't need to be here in the meantime. So let's just go. And if he has a problem, we will come back. And if he's fine, then great, we'll at least be home. And then the card ends, sorry. So I think what you plan for is not always what you get, but I think what you get is exactly what you need. And sometimes, know, plans may change. Our original plan, the thing that we want doesn't happen, but.

 

Sometimes there's a better outcome. finding out, is it worth losing a little sleep to find out that a dog that we really love and care about has maybe a potentially serious health issue that we can now nip in the bud and take care of early on? Absolutely. There's no other scenario in which we would have just gone and gotten this checked or that they would have been feeling this pit bull's body to find this out.

 

It was only because he had eaten that crazy bone that we were and Sarah was nervous enough about it that we went and got got him there and it like it was this whole cascade of magical events to make sure that this happened and so yeah, so it's really mind-blowing how everything kind of can work out and Yeah, the car drove home just fine. I probably was startup fine right now. I don't know. I probably should charge the battery a little bit more but

 

Yeah, but everything in the end worked out. We're a little tired. But and I think this is a good lesson and we wanted to share because this is real for us is what happened. And you you care about pets like family. You know, a lot of times it's not the business stuff that derails us. It's everything else outside of business. That's one lesson you can take away from it. Like, you know, making sure that your family's good, including pets are taken care of, getting those things checked out.

 

And then also just trusting that, you know, there's there's I believe and trust that there's a higher power that's watching out for you that has a plan. And if nothing else, it could just be those of you that aren't into that. It could be that you are intuitive enough and magical enough and a creator enough that based on quantum physics or whatever you're into that, you know, things get taken care of and positive outcomes come if you believe in.

 

in that sort of thing. so I think that's the thing is, you know, In business, things are always changing. Things might derail us, but that doesn't mean that it's going to has to be a worse outcome just because it didn't go the way that you wanted.

 

That's my two cents. You have anything, to add?

 

Okay, I'm tired. Can we go? We're gonna we're gonna wrap this up and go take it easy. I'm maybe gonna go take a nap. Yeah. When did we go to bed? Like take a nap. o'clock. Yeah. Take a nap right here. He's gonna nap right here. All right. So hopefully this was beneficial to see a little bit of flavor of our life. I don't know. It's not super property management oriented today, but

 

If you have ever felt stagnant or stuck in your business or you just don't feel like you're growing big enough, my guess is you don't have big enough goals. And we've seen this a lot with clients. And if you don't have big enough goals, the business is not fun. It's not exciting. So reach out to us at doorgrow.com. We'd love to help you out. Also join our free Facebook group community. It's just for property management business owners at doorgrowclub.com.

 

And if you found this even a little bit helpful, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review to really appreciate it. Helps us out, helps us be able to help more people like you. And until next time, remember the slowest path to growth is to do it alone. So let's grow together. Bye everyone.