Welcome to the Adaptive Mindset. I'm Brett Gallant, cybersecurity thought leader and founder of Adaptive Office Solutions. Here, we don't just talk tech, we unlock the strategies, stories, and mindset shifts you need to stay secure, lead boldly, and thrive in a digital world. Let's get started. Welcome back to the Adaptive Mindset. And I'm really pleased to have with me here today, Joshua French, a construction specialist from Western Canada, married to his beautiful wife and four wonderful children. Josh, it's so great to have you here. Thank you for coming.

Brett Gallant

Brett, it's a pleasure to be on your show here. I'm thrilled, so an honor. Thank you for having me.

Joshua French

Awesome. Josh, we hear we talk about mindset and everything in between, overcoming limiting beliefs and realizing your full potential. We'd love to hear you tell us a little bit about yourself.

Brett Gallant

So I'm based out here in Kelowna, BC, Canada. Like we said, I'm married to my beautiful wife, have four kids, and I am actually an immigrant from England. I was born and raised in England, and at 16 years old, my parents thought it was a wonderful idea to uproot us all and bring us to this little town called Vernon, BC. It was a journey. It was a real journey. I had finished my education in England and when I moved to Canada, had to go back for two years of schooling. Sure, we spoke the same language as such English, but the terminologies and the ways of doing things were a learning curve, to put it that way. So I did graduate here and then went straight into, I was playing a high level of tennis and sports. And then unfortunately I got in the car crash and I broke my back and my neck and had to change the way I was doing things. And I got involved in construction, started my own construction company. And here we are today doing the same thing and loving every part of it. So that's a brief overview of Josh.

Joshua French

So along the way, you've immigrated to Canada, moved to a small community, and learned the culture and the expressions that are a little bit different in Canada than what it is in Europe. So pretty exciting.

Absolutely. Very exciting.

Great. So, along the way, have you had any journeys where you can share some times where you've overcome, like, had some mindset challenges where you've overcome some?

Oh, so many, Brett. How deep are we going today? How deep do we need to go? We can go deep.

Let's go deep. Let's inspire people and share our story.

So the biggest thing for me was I was extremely young when I got into the entrepreneurial game. And with that, there was some large challenges personally, physically, mentally, you name it, man, we had it. I purchased a business at the age of 21 for multiple millions of dollars. It was not a good deal on the way it was set up. I did not have the knowledge or the understanding or the wisdom of what was happening, and it created some major, major issues in my life. marriage, friendships, family, you name it. So yeah, we've had our challenges and troubles for sure.

So in that, if you look at the old version of yourself and you made that investment in that business, what would you say to yourself Now looking back at the version of Josh today, what would you say to them? What did you learn and what could you share with our audience today of who you are today and what you learned from that experience?

So the biggest thing I learned now is I'm 38 years old. And one of my goals here is to be the person I needed back then. So now, thankfully, I'm surrounded by some phenomenal mentors. I've got mentors who challenge me weekly and daily. I'm a part of this amazing team elite group with a network of phenomenal people. I, yeah, just, just surrounding yourself with amazing people and, and, and being open with them and asking for help instead of trying to do it all yourself and think, you know, best and, and just, you just create yourselves a lot of issues. So that would be my, be my takeaways.

transformation, leadership and relying on your team to not do everything on your own, but do it, do it together, inspiring people. So you've certainly learned a lot from that experience. And now being where you're at now, do you have the opportunity to inspire and share that story with others or help others on an entrepreneurial journey?

That's funny you should say that, Brett. That's one thing I've been challenged on lately by a number of people is I need to start sharing my story and helping others. And so I'm all in on doing some coaching, mentoring myself, the younger entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs who are starting out and just being real with them. Not that I have all the answers, but I can share my mistakes. Don't do what I did because the outcome was horrible. I mean, yes, I'm sitting here today, thankfully. But, you know, there were some dark days for sure.

Well, obviously, you know, one of the things I hear coming out is perseverance. When things get rough, you keep going and absolutely fight for your goal.

Never quit. Never quit.

Never surrender.

I was listening to it. I'm an audio book nut, man. I try and listen to it when I'm driving just because I travel a lot. And it was just the quote came, was just one more. Don't quit today. Just do one more day. One more day. And I've been doing one more day for 16, 17 years now, right? So we've kept going.

It's funny you said that, because that's so true in anything. And even one more rep in the gym. One more rep. If you're up 13 reps, go 14. Absolutely. Push a little further. Or it's one of the things I've gotten into the habit of, and I made a commitment for this year, Is a non-negotiable at all that every day, no matter what I'm calling one client or one prospect. And so you say, okay, today I'm going to call this many people, but I'm going to call one more. And I had an example of that where I, I signed an agreement because I made one more call. You call that person one more time. So you're sharing that and actually living that, and you learned that from that book. So you're a living testament that if you keep feeding your mind, great things can come into your world. Absolutely. Yeah. So what book? That was the Ed Mylett book.

The power of one more and, uh, and, and max out, max out your life. I might have the titles a little bit skewed, but those are, those are two just love that guy.

Oh, a hundred percent. I've been listening to him. I like to get out for hikes and walks and, uh, what I do a lot of times, I don't know if most people know this, but he does have a podcast. But I also listen to other thought leaders, and I have a subscription to YouTube, so I can download and listen to recordings. I've listened to Ed a few times while hiking, and I listened to him talk once. He had an interview with Dan Martell, and that was so powerful. He was talking about one more And the reason why he does what he does, he had this powerful story where he was talking about this time when he failed to sell insurance to a man and a woman. Did you listen to that or watch that?

I believe so. Yes, I did. Yeah. It was powerful.

Yeah. And so oftentimes, I've heard this from another gentleman that I know. He said, who's missing out because you're not showing up? Okay. Yeah, absolutely. So you showing up, feeding your mind, uh, by investing yourself with audible books and other things is allowing you to show up and, and, and serve others and serve your, serve your business and your family and the world around you, inspiring others by what you're learning. So, so absolutely.

It's not, it's not just all about making the money, right. It's all about. you know, doing things that help others out. And, you know, I was that guy, too, right back in the day, a young lad in despair, not having anyone to turn to. So I don't want people being like that. Right. I want to be there to help others.

Making a difference. I know For me, I've had this journey of overcoming limiting beliefs, and I often like to share what I've learned. And that's part of why this podcast is here, so we can share some of these stories from other entrepreneurs and other thought leaders and mindset shifts that can help others in their journey. What, is there any other books that you have, that you've read recently or listened to that? All at times.

I mean, I love the 5 a.m. Club. That was, that one was phenomenal.

Yeah.

Yeah. Just, just, um, buy back your time. Dan Martell. Yeah. Epic.

Just epic. 80% done by someone else's a hundred percent freaking awesome.

Yeah. Just love it. Just a great book. So.

Have you done anything to buy back your time in other ways?

We're trying to do as much as we can. Take his playbooks and plug them into the daily business stuff. I know my assistant right now is burning at the fingertips right now, new playbooks and systems for everything. So it's great. So working hard on those playbooks that Dan's got to put into action to our business.

So you've had quite a bit of background in construction. So you've You've had a different business before but you shared with me before we started the call that you have a masonry business?

Masonry contracting is my main go-to right now. I have a younger guy running one of my other construction companies for me, but masonry is my main focus right now. It's a challenge, but it's exciting. We get to create some of the most phenomenal structures out of phenomenal products. It's a lot of fun.

What are you most proud of with that business so far that you've been able to do and accomplish?

So actually one of the biggest thing, I mean, we're in Cologne. Cologne is not a big town or city by any means. And one of our projects won architectural design of the year award in the whole of BC. And that was special. The owners that we worked with were great people. And there was a lot of A lot of design build involved. There was a lot of different things happening and we were able to kind of show off our talent a little bit. And then to actually get the award was just something else. So we're very proud of that. So that was a big achievement in our masonry design. And actually we're working on, I won't give too much away to it, but we're working on another project right now that is unbelievable. It's a custom home. It's a full exterior wrap masonry with archways, water table sills, fancy detailing, corbeling, and then the complete yard old school wall system. So all bricked yard fencing and stuff and screen walls with crazy artistic design in the pattern. So we'll keep that one under wraps just for now, but it'll be coming out soon.

So we're excited for that.

Absolutely.

So some of our listeners may not be familiar with masonry, but why should somebody think about using masonry when they're building a home or doing a project, a commercial project or thing?

That's a great question, Brett. So biggest thing here is if you're familiar with Kelowna, we have had diabolical fire seasons. Wood structures tend to go up like Roman candles. The masonry, I mean, ultimately it has an extremely longevity period. It's not prone to termites and rot and all that other crap. It also is fireproof, mostly. I mean, sure, if an inferno comes through. Nothing's stopping that. It's a time piece, right? It's going to last forever. In England, where I grew up, the homes are not tens of years old, they're hundreds of years old, some of them are thousands of years old. It's something different, it's something special. There's definitely something to that, for sure.

So you're doing all over Western Canada. And where's the farthest you've gone so far?

I went to this little town called Kupar, Saskatchewan. We built a water treatment plant in Kupar, Saskatchewan. And I think we did Norvin, Saskatchewan, well, a gas station and a car wash in Battleford, Saskatchewan.

I drove somebody for when I was younger.

You probably filled up with gas at the gas station.

Probably, but it's been some time. I did a big journey when I was younger with my father who traveled across Canada. I lived in Western Canada and moved back home to Miramichi. So water treatment center, there's something critical. I talk about this a lot when I'm talking about cybersecurity and when I'm talking to municipalities, say how secure is your water treatment center? So I talk about building a multi-layered approach to cyber for water treatment centers and you're building a- Multi-layered masonry, man.

Multi-layered masonry, yeah.

There we go. Awesome. So we're covering her on both ends.

That's right. I do distract you. You do this. I love it.

Well, I'll tell you something. Somebody in my network was telling this story that a gentleman was working in one of the water treatment centers and They didn't have any cyber on the water treatment, and the operator actually saw the mouse moving. Somebody was getting in, trying to change the mix in the plant. Wow. That's terrifying. That man was there. He shut the computer down. Unbelievable. The horror stories. Are your children involved in the, your children are young, I imagine.

Yeah, so my oldest daughter now is 15. My second daughter is turning 14 on Saturday. My son is 12 and our youngest daughter is 10. So, I mean, I can tell you stories of when we were in the startup stages, me and my wife, we homeschool our kids as well. She was in the business with me helping and stuff. And there'd be many nights at 11 o'clock at night. We'd have kids spread out all over the office, one on this iPad, one reading the book, one sleeping in the chair. The poor kids have been in the business since day one whether they liked it or not. I mean, Saturdays was yard and shop day and they'd be vacuuming trucks and washing equipment and sorting nuts and bolts and you name it. They've been involved quite a bit.

Are they still involved a bit?

Not as much. I mean, they're pretty busy with their own activities, but where we can, we make them roll up their sleeves and get stuff done. So some days they're kicking and screaming, other days they do it voluntarily. Right. So it's great.

Something I've learned from talking to other entrepreneurs is that there's always one or two children in a family your size that you can see the signs of an entrepreneur in making. Do you have any?

Absolutely. I think one of the most special, the specialest comments my son ever made to me, he says, so dad, listen, I was thinking about buying 10% of your business. I wouldn't. I like it. You're learning, son. This is good. This is good. And my other daughter said, I don't want to buy it, dad. You just give it to me.

My 17 year old boy came with me to a cyber

security conference in San Antonio. He came to pick up some skills. I spoke there and he picked up a lot of skills and he saw the real world of business. But he said to a few of the people, I want to work for my dad and then fire him.

I love it. I love it. It's awesome.

Yeah. So are there any tips you could say to somebody out there that's working on their goals or dreams and business and mindset? Anything you could share with them that you learned that can help somebody? Your best piece of advice.

I mean, for a young guy starting out, I always say, You know, do something. Don't just think that you have to go to school. Do this, do that, and go. If you're not doing anything, just do something. Start something. I had a young fellow ask me, so how did you become where you are? He says, well, I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do, but I'm doing something. I'm not wasting time. I'm doing something that is moving me in the direction I want to go. And also, take risk. Like, what's the harm in, you know, why wait till this whole thing about, because we're in January and a new year. And everyone's like, I've got my New Year's goals. I don't care about your New Year's goals. Start today. Do something today. You don't want to work out, go work out today. You want to change your diet, go change your diet today. You want to get to bed earlier, you know, start that. And so just making a plan and doing it, not trying to create this whole, goals, and I mean, that's an overcomplicated simplicity scales.

Like, for me, when I started my, I released 110 pounds since October 2023, Josh. Amazing. Yeah. And when I first started, I've been working on this journey for a while, but when I first started, I could walk around the block and I'd have to stop a few times to catch my breath. Yeah. But I would just stop. And go and say, OK, next time I'm going to go two laps. So and I always say, yes, just start to execute like the power of one more, like the book you were talking about with Ed Myatt. Just one more call or or just get and get off your butt. Make the phone call or get doing it. Make it make action.

And then the other thing too for me is just surround yourself with the best people you possibly can. Get in the room with the people you want to be. If you want to be a masonry contractor, Go find a mainstream contract who's done it, who's a lot bigger and has accomplished a lot more than you, and just see if you can go buy him a coffee and take your notebook and be ready to take notes, right? So that'll be my fit. Just be around those people.

Write down the notes, and it's what's caught, not taught. So if you write it down, it'll stay with you. You can review that book, what you captured. But you said something there that makes me think about what I'm a big fan of Jim Rohn. I'm not sure if you know who he was.

I've heard the name. Oh, you got to check him out.

But he said. I'll write that down. Yeah, there you go. He's he said you're the average of the five people you hang out with. So you're building your network, your mentors, and surrounding yourself with other experts.

And you can't help it.

So like you're a member of this elite group that you're surrounded by other people that are setting a standard for themselves of execution and greatness and taking action. And that's rubbing off on you. Uh, and today, uh, you're here with me and, and our audience and you're, you're inspiring people and saying, take action. I know. So like, and that, that's what gives me energy. Know that we, that we're going to help some people together. I'm a little silly and all that, but the Shrek, I use this example a lot. Ogres are like onions. I know I got it wrong, but you peel another piece of that onion back and you find another version of yourself, the best version of yourself. And meanwhile, while you're doing that, you take that action and make things happen. And if you don't like the way things are, you can change it. Absolutely. You're not a tree, so make it happen. Absolutely. Do you have big ambitions and goals that you're working on for this year?

So my biggest one is take our company to nine figures. That's my big goal. It's big. It's going to take a lot of work and energy, but you know what? Shoot high and go for it. I've had this fascination with owning a private jet for a long time, travel around the world with my family and make incredible memories with my close friends and stuff. And my other goal that is very special to me is to love my wife more each day. And in doing that, it will encourage others in their relationships and marriages. So I mean, we try very hard to do that. It's a challenge every day. It's not perfect. But yeah, that's kind of... And like I said before, I need to be the person I needed to others, these young guys. And I think it was two weeks ago in the elite call, Dan called us out and said, all right, I'm going to be checking on you guys. If you guys are doing podcasts, he says you need to give a gift. And so this is my gift. If there's people listening today and you need help, Yeah. DM me, call me, email me. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll spend time with you and just chat. If there's anything you want to want to talk about, I'll spend some time here just as my gift, as I was challenged to do in my last. Yeah.

Awesome. Yeah. You folks, you should, I highly recommend you connect with Joshua, uh, uh, for that, like message him on, on Instagram, uh, find you on LinkedIn as well.

Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn. Yeah, I'm not terribly huge on LinkedIn, more on Instagram, but yeah, for sure.

100%.

Maybe I can give you my email and you can drop it in the show notes.

Yeah, and I'll put the link to your Instagram as well. Folks, if you're looking for a person that's an expert on masonry, you've found your guy. Thank you. This has been so great to connect with you, Joshua. Is there anything else you can tell me that you'd want to impart with the world before when you're on this stage here with our audience? We have all kinds of different listeners. that you can share and the story you want to tell of where you overcame a limiting belief?

So, I mean, I share this with everyone. When I was around 28 years old, I was extremely suicidal. I attempted to commit suicide a couple of times. And it was dark. It was some dark days. And it comes back to, I had one person, well, my wife as well, but one person called me randomly and says, what are you doing? And it was just before it would have been all over. And he just said, what are you doing? And I just said, I don't know. He says, get in your truck. You need to come to my office right now. And we need to chat about this business that you've got." And so I went from most... If anyone listening knows me on this, I went from Bologna to Maple Ridge in about two hours and 45 minutes. And it's normally a four-hour drive. I just got in my truck, dropped everything, boom. And that person is very special to me and they know who we are. So yeah, that would be my, you can overcome anything. It's just perseverance, man. It's perseverance. And ask for help. That's the key, right? Just ask for help. We get so tied up and we know best, we know this, we know that. No, we don't. No, you ask for advice and help.

Yeah. And ask for help and reach out. And, and, and man, what a story, like, uh, you don't know how much, you really don't know how much you can influence somebody's day and look at that person who influenced you, saved you and you're here today. And I love that because how often do we hold back on reaching out to somebody and connecting and just say, I thought of you and just want to let you know how special you are. And I'm just thinking about you today. That could be the difference that turns somebody's life around or makes it the difference of of incredible difference in somebody's day. And in turn, everybody they're connected to. Absolutely. Like, look at you, man, like you're here, you have A beautiful wife and four children, a wonderful business, and you're here sharing this story with people and offered to connect in and help other people. I can't think of any better testament to that.

Absolutely. Roll in, man. Roll in.

Josh, it was such a pleasure to have you as a guest here today. I know I'm better for having you, getting to know you. I know we'll connect again outside of the pod.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. We'll keep in touch.

Pleasure. Take care.

Have a great day.

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