Joe Dunaway 0:02

Welcome to the VICI Code, where we unlock real stories of small business owners who've battled chaos, crushed doubt, and conquered their challenges. Faith, family, and finances. No fluff, just raw, honest conversations that decode the path to victory. One story at a time. What is up? You know, most owners say they have a labor shortage. Dave Foster says that's actually a lie. What they actually have is a leadership shortage. Welcome to the welcome back to the VICI Code. This is the show where we sit down with builders, operators, leaders, men and women who understand that success without alignment eventually becomes expensive. And nobody's and today's conversation is going to hit home for a lot of business owners because everybody says that they have a labor problem. Nobody can find people, nobody wants to work, nobody takes ownership anymore. But today's guest says something completely different. He says it's not a short labor shortage, it's a leadership shortage. And honestly, the more businesses I see, the more I believe he's right. Today we're joining, joined by Dave Foster, fractional operation leader, founder of System Over Sweat, and someone who has spent over 15 years building, scaling, and exiting home service businesses in the real world, not just talking about them online. He's helped companies move from founder-dependent chaos into scalable execution by building systems, accountability, decision-making frameworks, and leadership structure that actually transfer thinking, not just tasks. But what I'm excited to unpack today is just isn't just operations. It's identity, it's pressure, it's the emotional cost of building something meaningful while trying not to lose yourself in the process. Because eventually every founder runs into the same wall. The business grows, but the leadership has to grow with it. And if it doesn't, the owner becomes the bottleneck. The culture suffers, the family feels it, the team feels it, and eventually the founder feels trapped inside the very thing they built. So today we're talking about leadership, discipline, standards, family, stewardship, systems, and what it actually takes to build a business that creates freedom instead of just feeding the machine. David, my brother, welcome to the VICI Code, man.

David Forster 2:35

Yeah, thanks for having me on. I'm fired up after that.

Joe Dunaway 2:37

Let's go. Gotta be fired up, right? Let's let's jump right in, man. You've built companies, exited businesses, and now help founders scale operationally. But I want to start somewhere deeper. What did young, younger David believe Hustle was eventually going to give him?

David Forster 2:56

Just like everybody at that, you know, when you're you're invincible, you can do anything, you can conquer the world. Um, everything I believed was right, right? Uh and so I just figured the more the harder I worked, the more I was gonna get. I was gonna have the lifestyle that I saw on TV or in social media. I was obviously I grew up a little before social media became as big as it is now and living through it. But um, you know, even as a kid watching TV um on the four channels that we had, um it was, you know, there was still you know, lifestyles of the rich and famous, you know, that was on at that time that still showed you this just like lavish lifestyle that was like, boy man. Um and so you work hard, you can have it, right? Yeah. Uh and I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't get anywhere, like to my friends' houses. Riding a bike was still miles away, pretty much. So I always wanted that. Like I wanted more. Um, so that's what I always envisioned. Yeah.

Joe Dunaway 3:59

Was there a point where success stopped feeling fulfilling for you?

David Forster 4:03

Yeah. Yeah, it just got it just got heavy. Um, cloudy, didn't like unrealistic, right? I just started believing I had unrealistic expectations that um it wasn't meant for me. And uh the harder I worked, like the harder it got, the heavier it got, uh, the more stressed I got, the cloudier I got. Uh it just yeah, it just kept snowballing that direction.

Joe Dunaway 4:32

And did that pressure change the way you viewed leadership?

David Forster 4:36

Yeah, absolutely. Um it kind of flipped everything for me, right? It like I was thinking thinking in a top-down kind of manner for a long time. Um, you know, build a big enough business, get enough people working for me, delegate everything out, and then go live my amazing lifestyle and um not have to do much, right? Um, and just realize that like just take that all and flip it upside down, and that's the reality of it, an upside down pyramid where the bigger your organization is, the more pressure is on that point to the one that's you know, the owner, the CEO, or whoever is in charge, whoever's the leader. Yeah.

Joe Dunaway 5:18

Good point. Now we quoted you in the intro. You say it's not a labor shortage, it's a leadership shortage. What experience made you start saying that publicly?

David Forster 5:28

Um it, you know, it started with me and the teams that I had built. I realized that the like you said, the the leader's the bottleneck, right? I knew I I started learning that I couldn't um I couldn't hire anybody that was beyond my capability of leading. Right? They could be more skilled than me. That didn't matter, but if I couldn't lead them, then they weren't gonna stick around. And so I realized that my inability to find the right labor or team building or whatever you want to call it, uh, was completely hinged on my ability to lead. And that's when I realized like most of the people that are shouting about the labor shortage, you know, wherever you point the finger, you give the power.

Joe Dunaway 6:18

Yeah.

David Forster 6:18

So until you turn that thing back around and say, I don't know how to lead that way yet, I don't know how to find the right people yet, you won't you won't start actually problem solving in the right direction, and you just cap yourself.

Joe Dunaway 6:35

You know, I think you mentioned a few, but what patterns were you repeatedly seeing?

David Forster 6:40

Um clarify that for me a little bit.

Joe Dunaway 6:44

You know, you you know, you you started noticing that um uh and we can move on from that one, but I there is yeah, yeah. So I I I think you mentioned a few, and I just can't remember off the top of my head, but you mentioned a few things that you started seeing over and over, and that you know that that's kind of what made you realize like that it was a leadership shortage and that it was more a you thing, and that what caused you to kind of really be more public facing with you know making that claim.

David Forster 7:16

Yeah, I mean, initially when it was internal and it was me, um I would try to hire for like as we were scaling and I needed more like management type positions, more team leading type positions. Um, I was casting the right vision and these guys were excited, but there was just something there that that never really stuck, right? Like the the best hires that I really wanted didn't end up taking the positions, or they would start and and then it just didn't work out. Um, and I started realizing like they are, I saw the potential, they saw the potential, something is broken here, right? And it was my ability to let go of the control, it was my ability to um create opportunity and clarity for them. I had it in my head, but I wasn't communicating it in a way that they could actually move forward with it. Uh, so it just it just kept stumbling and wouldn't ever get where I wanted it to. Um, and then as I started to network more and join, you know, masterminds and network with more people trying to help myself grow and and change my limiting beliefs, change my mindsets. I started talking to more people that were kind of in the same places and hearing the same negative complaints and mindsets around certain industries, a lot of a lot of stuff in the blue-collar industries. And um it's I want to also preface it with like, it's not untrue. Like there is a labor shortage. I'm not saying that it's easy to find people, right? Right. Like there aren't as many people who want those positions as there used to be, but I believe it's it's a symptom and a pandemic of the fact that it's been so long since good leadership has been in place that it has become that issue. And whether that's the leadership in the school systems, whether that's the leadership in the actual companies delivering it, um, whether that's leadership in community leadership. Um, you know, I was in 4-H growing up. Like that was a huge thing for me that helped. Um, and it just snowballed into this thing that's become a problem for the infrastructure-building portion of our workforce. Um, but there's still businesses out there that are just absolutely thriving and crushing it. And they don't seem to be complaining about the same stuff, and people are lining up to go work there. Um, and so that's where I it just tripped for me. I was like, okay, what's the broken piece? Where is it at?

Joe Dunaway 9:54

Exactly. Yeah, and I'm glad you clarified that because I think it's a it is a combination of both, but you know, the the solution really is the leadership piece, and you know, you can train people to become better employees. And, you know, when you start building that reputation as uh an organized and and a good leader, uh, you know, that does attract better talent. You can attract better talent, you know, and I like how Dan talks about you know, social media is not just about sales, it's also about attracting talent. So like there's various ways, you know, to attract talent and having good leadership and and and get it having good brand awareness, you know, solves that. Um a lot of founders think systems are about efficiency, but most of the time systems are really about survival. Um, when you look back now, where were you where were you the bottleneck inside the business?

David Forster 10:49

Everywhere. Um yeah, I mean, just you know, when you look at um one of my favorite personality profiling tools is predictive index. And um it categorizes four different areas, one of them being autonomy. And my my autonomy and my profile is like extremely deviated um in a strong, strong way. Like I really like freedom and to do my own thing, um, do what I envision. And so I'm I originally and early in my my building career, I was definitely like the my way or the highway kind of guy. Um I delivered it more cleanly than a lot of people. Um but it was just I couldn't let go. I couldn't let go of the details of everything that any anything that my team was doing.

Joe Dunaway 11:42

So well, and here's the thing, and I think a lot of people get stuck in this trap. You know, did you did becoming needed become part of your identity?

David Forster 11:50

Oh yeah, yeah, the hero complex, right?

Joe Dunaway 11:52

Right.

David Forster 11:53

If I'm not needed, then what am I good for, right?

Joe Dunaway 11:56

And why why do why do founders struggle with that so much, you think?

David Forster 12:01

Um I see it, I see it anyway, and a lot of the um founders who were craftsmen or creators, and they created the original product or service, and they did it and they performed it, and they were really good at it. And then they ended up on the business side of things, right? And so it just like becomes that it's like it's their baby, it's their reputation, their name is on it. Um, I think that's the the main piece of it that I've seen.

Joe Dunaway 12:36

Yeah, I would agree. I think with creators, you know, how do you replicate that? I mean, boy, do you have to have really dialed in playbooks and and um SOPs, you know, to pass on that type of, you know, just talent that comes, you know, God given. Whereas, you know, somewhere in the in my industry, you know, there's there's finesse, it can be talked, you know, but a lot of the stuff that I do, um, you either do it right or you do it wrong. You know, there is some gray area, but um, you know, how I deal with clients isn't how other people would deal with clients. And I think the way I deal with clients is exceptional. I could do better, I know I can do better, but um that I can I think it can be trained, whereas the creatives, it's a little bit harder um to get that. I think of uh Andy Warhol, I forgot what movie or what m book that was in. Uh maybe it was Dan's book, but uh it talks about how he you know found ways to replicate himself. Um, I think it was Dan who talked about that. Um, but very hard to do.

David Forster 13:43

Yeah. Yeah, and it's like you said, in when there's less gray area, it's easier to create that playbook because it was kind of created for you in a way, right? Like if there's if there's a heavy regulation type thing, it's easier to like point the right direction because you regulated and we have to do it the way they tell us to do it, or we're in trouble. Um, when there's more creative license to it and there's a signature way of doing it, um, then you really have to be specific in this is how we do it. Right? You can get a lot of feedback and say we could do this different, we could do this, we could do this, but you got to find that path that's like, yeah, that's true. I don't care. This is how we do it. And if you want to be on this team, this is how we do it. And this is where we found like this works and it's successful, and um, being able to structure that and deliver that and build a team around that with the right, you know, principles and culture. Um it's it's a skill that has to be.

Joe Dunaway 14:49

It's a it's a finesse to to get some people who are you know top performers that may want to also have their own autonomy and do it their way. But like, hey, listen, until that time comes, until you go do your own thing, like this is this is the magic sauce here in these four walls.

David Forster 15:09

Well, and and even just to not not push back on that, but like expand that, um, you know, we've heard Dan say you can't, if your dream isn't big enough for your team's dreams to fit inside of it, then they're gonna, then they're gonna go, right? And so knowing that this is how we do it, but having the flexibility and the ability to build boundaries and structures within that that can allow that autonomy to move is when real, like that's when a really powerful scaling can happen. To keep it simple, the core of it has to be right, right? The core principles and yeah.

Joe Dunaway 15:46

And I think you're hitting on like and I and I for people who are like, oh, you know, you're all about your your calendar and your your creature, a habit, but that gives me the flexibility to to expand more and be flexible more in other areas. So there's there's some there's some give there. Um so yeah, and I think that's important. Um this is this is a trap that a lot of people get into when they start their own businesses. A lot of business owners, they want their own freedom, you know, like you and I. We want to be able to make the calls, do our own thing, but then they build businesses completely dependent on them and they become employed by their business. Why do you think that happens?

David Forster 16:29

Uh similar to what we talked about earlier, it's that hero complex, that control piece. Um, you see, that it's there's a joke I see a lot, um, whether it's on social media or wherever, that um I quit my 40-hour a week job so that I could work for myself, you know, 80 hours a week. And I'm loving it, and I'm loving it. Like that personality would rather work 80 hours a week doing their own thing, building their own thing, than 40 hours with somebody else telling them what to do. And um it does, it becomes a trap because after enough time, you know, I guess if you still, if you were this like absolutely in love with the craft, you could do it for more long term. Um, but that's you start to lose in other areas of life that you start to notice over time, and you have to rebuild those areas.

Joe Dunaway 17:18

So and I don't want to say this broadly, but I just I I feel like there there is some commonality with entrepreneurs that they're just okay in the chaos, whether they're part of big families or they come from like you know rough families. I just some some founders secretly feel you know valuable inside chaos. Do you believe that?

David Forster 17:41

Yeah. I guess for me personally, not anymore. I did. I used to say that I do my best work when I'm backed into a corner. Um, and I did, but it's because I was it was like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Like I said, I was self-sabotaging. I would say that, and then I would look for ways to put myself in a corner. Like I would put us in financial trouble, I would just put too much risk out there and just go, go, go, go. And then next thing you know, I'm like, oh, we don't have the resources to get to the next level. Yeah. Well, I can figure this out. Let me go. And then, you know, stress started wearing on me, started beating up our marriage life. Um, just my health like was on the back burner. Just I was always active and healthy, yeah. But just knowing what stress can do to your body, like you might look healthy, might look fit, but it's still doing things behind the scenes and inside that um take their toll over time. And um, that was what that's what I had to rewire.

Joe Dunaway 18:44

Were there were there any leadership lessons that cost you the most emotionally?

David Forster 18:52

Um yeah. Uh I think thankfully fairly early in my entrepreneurial career. I mean, I've been um self-employed or a serial entrepreneur, whatever you want to call it, uh since I was like 17. Um I'm 42, so 25 years of building business. We've had eight businesses. We've sold four of them, um, several different industries. And uh thankfully, the first business, second business um that my wife and I had together was right when we got married. A landscape business was booming, it was thriving. Um, and I was aware but unaware that my wife was miserable because all I was doing was business, talking about business, living business, doing business at nine o'clock at night, sitting on the couch with her, talking about stuff and doing designing. And um thankfully I had a dream that God said, Hey, buddy, put it down. And I did what I was told after a lot of prayer and frustration, right? Um, and a lot of healing, a lot of understanding, a lot of leadership lessons that came from that about more than just business, but how to lead my family, how to lead my home, how to lead my life, how to submit my leadership in a way that was um empowering so that I could be the leader that I was supposed to be.

Joe Dunaway 20:15

Yeah, and I I I think a lot of entrepreneurs, I don't know, it depends on when you start and you know where you're at. Whether you're I just know vividly a business that I no longer um have up and running, just one of my many businesses, right? We all have them. I just rem I just recall vividly like my my wife just being so uninterested, so sick of tick of of talking about it. Where I I was obsessed. I couldn't, I could it kept me up. I I couldn't stop thinking about it. And for good, for good and for bad, right? I mean, I think that that obsession is is what helps us become, you know, successful. And you know, even if even if the venture is not successful, but I I I also saw you know how that was wearing uh on my family um in my marriage as well. And it's it's good to uh pick up on and observe it sooner than later because some people don't recover from that, some people don't learn that lesson and don't make uh the change. So um good on you for sharing that.

David Forster 21:20

Um that was the best decision I've ever made. We were like we were thriving at the time. We were about three or four years in, and um I was not planning on selling, I was just going for it, right? Yeah, and when I told her, I could see the visual, like the visible relief that like just felt like her shoulders dropped and she was just like like I said, I think we're supposed to sell the business. And she just was like totally relieved and said, you know, I had that I had that thought or that vision, um, and I wasn't gonna say anything because it's your baby and I want you to be happy. And I was like, Wow, okay. Like this woman loves me way more than I love her, I think. She was willing to just put up with that to see me happy and doing what I thought I was called to do. And um, that shifted my perspective of how much I value her uh as my business partner, as my life partner, as um now the mother of my children and her leading that them during the day when I'm out. Uh so yeah, it was good.

Joe Dunaway 22:26

Amen, man. You know, the older I get, the more I realize leadership eventually just spills into every area of life. You can't really separate business leadership from who you are at home spiritually, physically, emotionally. Um, what grounds you when business pressure gets heavy?

David Forster 22:46

Uh so I'm I was an uh exercise physiology, like kinesiology guy when I was in school and younger and I loved it. I just happened to go into construction because it paid way better at the time. Yeah. Um going into being like an athletic trainer or a personal uh uh physical therapist or something, when I looked at like career stuff, I was like, working for this stonemason right now is way better. I'm just gonna go that direction and like that's that's gonna be my future. Um and I loved that I could be physical in that job and understanding the body, right? Well, when I said earlier about the internal stuff, you looked, I looked healthy, I looked active, uh, but internally my body was getting beaten up. And so when I had to slow down and actually figure that out, um, was when I found a way to kind of disconnect and reset. And I was on my bike. Um, I've always loved riding bikes, um, bicycles. I raced BMX, I raced motocross as a kid for a while and did road racing, like Tour de France, road racing type bikes for a few years. And then I hung it up on the wall and was just busy with business. And my wife said, Hey, I'm gonna sell that thing if you don't go ride it. I'm like, all right, well, it's a really nice bike, don't sell it. So I'm gonna go ride. And like 20 minutes into that ride, everything changed. Yeah. And I came back and I was like, man, like I got to share this with more people. Um, I dove into the physiology of like the brain science of what why it happened and what it was doing, and just created a structured plan for myself to de-stress to get the cortisol out of my brain and um like increase the hormones that were gonna help me reduce the brain fog and get the stress reduced and and give me clarity and focus. And so that's where I go. And whether it's outside or in my basement on my indoor bike, yeah, um, just go have a hammer session and uh yeah.

Joe Dunaway 24:47

Amen. Yeah, no, I I remember reading that story on your website, and I kind of feel that way almost every time I work out. You know, that some days, you know, I'm a little bit more excited to work out than others because I'm maybe I'm just having a good day. Uh, but sometimes I, you know, I don't always want to go work out, but I I know what that feeling is. Like you said, 20 minutes in. Once you're there, once you're once you're in it, once you're done, it's just like what a game changer, what a reset. Um, you know, if it's in the evening, it helps me kind of really distill everything that went on that day and be more present with the family. If it's in the middle of the afternoon, it just gives me a massive advantage to finish the day strong. Yeah, I'm a little, I'm a little tired mid midday after a workout like that, but um all of a sudden like my battery just recharges magically um an hour after the workout. So um I'm with you there. Some something physical uh is really something special about doing something physical um to really let go of stuff.

David Forster 25:50

Yep. Yeah, it resets your brain. Um, I won't go into all the the science on it, but um there's that's the following.

Joe Dunaway 25:59

I think we gotta have you on again, dude. Like I know you've got that whole other side that I'd love to geek out on for sure.

David Forster 26:06

Yeah, it's uh it's this thing that's helped me get clarity on simplifying, honestly. Um, you know, simple scales and complex fails, right? So um when it comes to systems, when it comes to life, when it comes to anything, um, simple is always going to be a smoother growth. Uh and that's been really good. Yeah.

Joe Dunaway 26:29

What that uh what role does personal discipline play in operational leadership for you?

David Forster 26:36

Uh all of it. Like, I mean, anytime that I anytime I feel like something is not going well, um, it ends up being that I realize I dropped the ball somewhere. Right. I I set the example wrong, I set the tone wrong, I didn't bring in the right clarity to the team. Um it's all just points right back at me all the time. Um, and sometimes that's hard to accept. Sometimes it's you know makes you a little grumpy. Um, but having the the discipline of self-awareness and the discipline to accept an ownership of at the end of the day, like this is me, right? Like I'm the one that's signing off on if I hired them, if I trained them, if I put the training plan in place that they're using, like if I allowed the person to build the training plan that built it, like whatever level of leadership it disseminates to, um it all it all points back to the leadership at the end of the day.

Joe Dunaway 27:35

What habits do you I have a few, what habits quietly reveal leadership maturity?

David Forster 27:44

Patience. Um patience, humility, um, communication, right? Clear, clear communication, asking the right questions. Um I love the the statements around like the smartest person is in the room. You can find the smartest person in the room because they're usually the quietest and they're asking the most questions. And observing um when you're not trying to, you don't have anything left to prove. Um, you just you're more you value more the growth and uh uplifting of the people around you than your own self.

Joe Dunaway 28:25

I always found you know, ownership is like when I feel like you've really graduated to a different level of leadership, you know, and I I think Jocko's book, Extreme Ownership, really made that sink in. And honestly, it's it's not only makes you a better leader, but like it's it's liberating, you know, instead of blaming everyone else, it's like everything's my fault, not not a negative way, just like instead of like you know, instead of seeing things, woe is me, like, oh got it. Okay, there's a lesson to be learned here. What can I do better? What could I have done better? You know, and and it kind of goes to like how Dan says, you know, do you have a system problem? Do you have a people problem? Like it just really helps distill things. And I think you know, seeing somebody who's got that that ownership in them um as a leader.

David Forster 29:17

Yeah, that's the only thing we can control, right? Yes.

Joe Dunaway 29:20

So and I think that trickles down. I think you'll I've seen people, you know, own more. It's almost like we're arguing to own it more. Like, no, that was my mistake, you know. But like that's a good thing. Like, everyone's like, no, like there's no blaming, it's just like, how can we do better? Where do we go wrong? Right. Let's root, let's uh relentless root cause it and uh fix it going forward.

David Forster 29:41

Absolutely.

Joe Dunaway 29:42

Yeah. Um all right, so we're gonna get into uh rapid fire now. This should be fun, all right. So uh what's one standard you refuse to compromise on?

David Forster 29:58

That's a really big pool right there. Uh one standard I refuse to compromise on. Um it seems really broad, but um, do what's right, not what's easy. Yeah. It just it's it's really broad, but it works in everything, right? Like if you're walking through the parking lot at the gas station and you see something, see trash blowing by, and you could pick it up, like you know whether you're doing the right thing or you're doing the easy thing. Like if you don't pick it up, you even if you're telling yourself the excuse that it's not my trash, that's because you know that the right thing is to pick it up and throw it in the trash. Like it it can it goes down to every level of everything.

Joe Dunaway 30:42

You start seeing it in your life, and it's like, okay, all right, so do what's right now what's in the and it's so relevant when you have teenagers, because I say this to my kids all the time. I'm like, listen, I do your job all the time because I just uh if he's I I we say if you see something messed up, fix it. You know, it it's no one's job, you know, to fix something all the time. If I if I see the trash cans at the end of the driveway and I'm coming back from a walk in the morning, I'm gonna bring one or two up with me, you know. I don't mind, right? So like if you see something messed up, fix it. So I I like that standard. Um what leadership trait matters more than talent?

David Forster 31:22

I can see it in my mind, but the words on the tip of my tongue right now. Um more than talent would be um they can call it vision. Um specifically like seeing potential.

Joe Dunaway 31:41

Yeah.

David Forster 31:42

Um, seeing the potential in others more so than they can see it in themselves.

Joe Dunaway 31:46

Yeah.

David Forster 31:46

And being able to like the skill that you gotta build, the muscle you gotta get reps on is is how to get that out of them. Not just telling them that it's there and make, you know, you should you should be better. It's how do I pull that potential out of this person?

Joe Dunaway 32:02

Help them find the answer. Because if you give them the answer, if they don't come up with the answer, then it then it's not the right answer. Which is good for this next question, right? What's something younger David would disagree with today?

David Forster 32:14

Oh, everything. Um that uh man, that's good. There's so many things that have changed, you know, even just over the last few years, um, as far as like limiting beliefs that I've like just broken through and um really I mean like I can do it better. Like I can do it better than anybody, nobody can do it as good as I can, so I need to be the one to I need to be the one, right? Still back to that that hero complex.

Joe Dunaway 32:49

Yeah.

David Forster 32:50

Um, and so hearing today that um being the best leader is just getting out of the way and letting your team perform. Um, that would have been really hard to have conversation about 20 years ago.

Joe Dunaway 33:07

Yeah, and I I agree. Like, I I I look forward, not necessarily to conflict, but good conflict. I look forward to hearing how somebody else would do it differently. Like, I I'm curious, I'm genuinely curious. Like, am I doing it best? I'm pretty damn confident that we are, but like I'm wildly open to doing it even better if if someone can. It's always like if you if you want to point something out that's messed up, I hope you have a couple, you know, solutions, because there's no point in pointing something out unless you got a couple solutions to bring to the table. So yeah. Um, all right, last one. Uh, what does legacy mean to you now?

David Forster 33:45

Um I'm saying um a lot, but you're getting good questions. Uh legacy is the easy the easy answer is what you leave behind, right? But it's really it's really not what it is. Um it's the platform that you leave. Um it's not just the the things, but it's the the open doors, the cleared pathways, the tools to continue to clear more pathways and um the stories, right? Um, you know, I try to fairly regularly think about what would my eulogy sound like if I if somebody was standing up speaking at my funeral, like what do I want them to say? Uh and that's helped me reshape like what's actually valuable, right? When I lost my dad, uh that was like the moment that it was like, oh wait, all right, so now it's actually nobody's coming to save me. Like I could always lean on dad for some input or something, but like when that shifted like my picture of what the future, and then we had when we had kids, like there's another generation to care for because we didn't know we could have kids, right? So um a little bit later in life, super blessed and appreciative to be able to now. And um, we've got a three-year-old and a three-month-old right now, and um it just like it's not just about the things and the the monetary stuff, like leaving them an inheritance of money, it's leaving behind all the the lessons that I've learned, the tools that I've developed and empowering them to take it to the next level.

Joe Dunaway 35:34

The name, the name, the the family, the who who we are, the the purpose. I love it. If someone listened to this uh conversation five years from now, what do you hope they uh remember the most?

David Forster 35:53

Always be learning. Uh and don't overcomplicate it, don't overthink it. Yeah. Um, so yeah. Action brings clarity and clarity brings confidence. So there you go. Nice.

Joe Dunaway 36:08

You know, I realize systems aren't really about scaling companies, they're about protecting people, families, health, peace, and ultimately building something that can outlast your constant presence. Um, David, where can people connect with you? Follow you at work, you know. Uh there, I know you've got the systems over sweat. Is that still a thing? Or was that what you said? Yep.

David Forster 36:33

Um easiest website to go, easiest website to go to is dforster.com. Um, letter D F O R S T E R dot com. Yeah. And um follow me on Instagram at rdavidforster. Um, those are the two easiest.

Joe Dunaway 36:51

Anybody listening to this, I gotta tell you, when I do my research on guests, I spend a lot of time, you know, looking for LinkedIn profiles, business websites. David's got a personal website where he's got links to every single one of these places. So easy. Um uh what a great idea. I I definitely uh all of these links are gonna be in the show notes, anyways, but um uh you can find him uh on YouTube, you can find him on LinkedIn, you can find him on the websites, Instagram, even TikTok. David and I are both on TikTok. Check us out. Um Superstars. Listen, guys, leadership is stewardship, and the business we build eventually become reflections of the standards we live by. I appreciate you being here, brother. Thank you so much. Thanks for tuning in to the VICI Code, where the underdogs rise and the numbers finally make sense. If today's story hit home, share it. And remember, faith fuels a fight, and your comeback is already in progress.