Meet Ian Davis

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ian Davis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ian, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
I believe that imposter syndrome comes from how you view the world and the leaders around you. Everyone gets a version of it, and I can say that I’ll never truly overcome it, because that would mean I’ve stopped challenging myself. Anytime you step onto a new stage in your personal development, you’re going to experience some level of imposter syndrome. But what I mean by it comes from how you view the world around you is because the only way to get over imposter syndrome is to change your perspective. The only way to change your perspective is to have your current perspective challenged. Imposter syndrome comes from not believing that you belong where your feet are. The steps you took that carried you to where you’re standing seem foreign to you and you wonder if you’re supposed to be standing there. You wonder if you’re in the right room. When you look around you, you see others that are clearly better or more experienced in that same room. But what helped me overcome a majority of imposter syndrome was understanding that if I’m the dumbest person in the room, I’m probably in the right room. And also realizing that every other person in that room had to once step through the doorway as you did, and was once standing where you are. That first step through a new doorway is when imposter syndrome hits. How I got over it was to get to know the other people in that room. As I got to know them, I started to see that they had to deal with it too. However, you never truly want to get over it because that means you’ve stopped growing. If you never feel imposter syndrome, well then you’ve probably outgrown that room and maybe even that group of people, and it’s time to find the next doorway.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I started my entrepreneur journey somewhat by accident. I had some experience managing exterior home improvement projects but wanted to gain a more in-depth knowledge about home building. I opened up an LLC only in order to be able to work on new builds, not to run a company focused on new-builds. The company I was working for wasn’t offering me a W-2 position, so for tax purposes I opened an LLC. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it other than collect a check from my employer. I knew that owning a business was always of interest to me, and I believe deep down I did ruminate on how I could turn my newfound LLC into something more meaningful, but nothing came to mind until a friend of mine approached me with an idea. The employer before closed down most of their services, and because I had an LLC, I was halfway to opening up a service company that wouldn’t be in direct competition with my previous employer. I decided to go for it, working at it part time for the first two years. I created the dba “Cairn Roofing Group” in December of 2017, and for all of 2018 and 2019 I worked on new builds under my LLC and did some part-time roofing work under Cairn Roofing Group. My new-build employer told me that if I wanted to make anything of Cairn Roofing Group, then I had to split ways with them and focus on it full time. With their blessing, I did just that and 2020 became the first full year working full-time on Cairn Roofing Group. Since then I’ve focused on personal growth, learning everything I can about financial management, leadership, customer service, sales, etc. Through the ups and downs (and there have been many), I’ve learned how to create something meaningful to me, and to my clients. 2024 is the first year where I am focusing on expanding the workforce beyond myself and expanding what we offer to include siding as well, turning Cairn Roofing Group into Cairn Roofing & Siding.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The most important skill that I needed to develop was networking. Networking has numerous benefits, not just for the business but also for the individual. I learned early on that I didn’t know anything about business, so to fix that, I needed to find people that did. I explored many different avenues to find the right group of people, and I spent a lot of money to be in those places, but I truly believe it has paid off tremendously. I’ve created long-lasting connections that are filled with wisdom-sharing, referral-passing and accountability. An area of knowledge that has had a significant impact has been financial literacy. Growing up my life was normal, as normal as could be for the most part, but money was never really a topic of conversation. As a result, my financial literacy really wasn’t where it should be when it comes to owning a business. I realized that after 2019 and 2020 when I had back to back loss years. I spent 2021 focusing primarily on improving my financial literacy and the result became a profitable business.
A quality that I possess that has helped me, and one that I continue to hone is my faith. Owning a business is not for everyone, it is scary and sometimes lonely. There are days where you feel that the immediate people around you might not understand the struggle that you’re facing. That’s where my faith steps in. I spend a lot of time in prayer about my business. I have long conversations with God about how to move forward. What helps me tremendously is that by including God in my business, my perspective on what matters changes. I don’t do this for myself, or truly for my clients. I do what I do for the glory of God, and as a result, my clients get to feel the outcome of that. As a result, I grow more than I could have alone.
My advice to anyone starting their business is get involved in groups that will help lift you up to a higher level and who will hold you accountable to being better everyday. Continue your education. I pick two to three topics every year that I want to get better at. For that year, all books, podcasts, articles, or any other type of media that I consume is related to those topics. I promise you, you’ll gain more wisdom in those areas than you could ever realize.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
As a business owner, pursuing growth and expansion, I think it is abundantly more important to understand your strengths, and go all in on them. We’ve all been given certain gifts, things we can do better than most others. You may not understand what unique opportunities will only appear because you’ve reached a certain threshold in understanding and improving those strengths. Not only that, but if you can find love in your strengths, then you will always be working in what’s called your “flame”. Your flame is that thing which you love doing, and that you do really well. As a business owner, it isn’t sustainable to do everything, you will plateau. John C. Maxwell in his book “21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, talks about the Law of the Lid. This law explores the limitations that leaders put on their company and their team by trying to do everything. John goes on to explain that if you scale your leadership from 1 to 10, your organization and team members around you will never rise above your leadership. If you lead at a level 6, your team will not rise above a 5. So if you take that concept and apply it to what you do on a daily basis and average it out, what level are you holding your organization at? If you are a 10 in your strengths but a 3 in your weaknesses, and you’re trying to accomplish tasks and duties that are in your weaknesses, you’ve essentially set your leadership at a 6 and your team at a 5. However, if you focus on your strengths and only your strengths, then delegate your weaknesses to someone else to which it is their strength, well then you’re all operating at a 10 and as a result, so is your organization. No matter how hard you work at improving your weaknesses, they will not get as good as your strengths, and you likely don’t even enjoy working in your weaknesses. In addition to that, you will naturally be able to grow your strengths faster than your weaknesses. Imagine the opportunity waiting for you when you focus on your strengths. Now having said that, there are certain things that make life easier by improving, like for example, communication. If communication is a weakness, then working at it to get it to an acceptable place is important, but at the same time, don’t spend so much time making it exceptional. Hire others that are exceptional communicators to do that for you.

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