Ep194 Barry Slaymaker - A Story of Raw Persistence

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Barry Slaymaker
hard work and persistence. When that meets opportunity, it gives you a it allows for some level of success

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Mike O'Neill
welcome to Get Unstuck and On Target, the weekly podcast that offers senior leaders insights and strategies to not only lead with competence and vision,

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Mike O'Neill
but also to achieve groundbreaking results.

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Mike O'Neill
I'm your host, Mick O'Neill. I coach top level executives on the power of ethical leadership to forge teams to be as united as they are effective

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Mike O'Neill
in each episode.

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Mike O'Neill
Join me for insightful conversations with leaders just like you, providing practical advice to help you get unstuck and propel you and your company forward.

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Mike O'Neill
Let's get started.

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Mike O'Neill
Welcome to Get Unstuck and on target. I'm Mike O'Neill, and today we're exploring a quality that's essential for every leader. Success. Persistence. My guest is Berry Slay Maker, president and CEO of ATC development. Barry's journey from working on a silk fence crew to leading a success will company. It's more than just an inspiring story. It's a masterclass in the power of sustained determination.

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Mike O'Neill
As an executive coach, I've observed that the most successful leaders share a common trait. They understand that persistence isn't just about refusing to quit. It's about staying in the game long enough for preparation to meet opportunity. But here's what many don't talk about. True persistence often comes with tough choices and occasional failures in our conversation today. Berry openly shares how he balanced advancing his career while pursuing higher education.

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Mike O'Neill
The impact of work life balance and why creating a culture that embraces both persistence and learning from failure has been crucial to his leadership success. For my fellow business leaders listening, I encourage you to pay special attention to how Berry's approach to persistence evolved from simply pushing through challenges to strategically leveraging setbacks as stepping stones to greater opportunities.

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Mike O'Neill
Are you ready to explore how persistence can transform your leadership journey? Let's dive in with Berry Salad Maker.

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Mike O'Neill
Barry has been with ATC development for over four years, and he now serves as the president and CFO. Barry is a long term friend of mine, and he's been active in real estate construction and development since 2001, and he's held numerous leadership roles, from sales and operations management to working as the CFO of a startup and everything in between.

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Mike O'Neill
As Barry and I would kind of reconnect in a catching up, and I invited him to come on the podcast. I asked Barry, of all the things you could talk about, what would you like to spend some time chatting about? And he brought up the idea of persistence, and therefore that it's going to be the theme of our podcast today, The Power of Persistence.

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Mike O'Neill
Welcome, Barry.

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Barry Slaymaker
Thanks, Mike. Good to be here.

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Mike O'Neill
I'm glad you're here. What is it about persistence that popped in your head as something that you felt it might make for a great conversation?

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Barry Slaymaker
You know, in my entire career, in my entire life, I've rarely been the smartest person in the room. I'm never the most talented, but I always had to keep working and keep after it to try to be successful. And it just is a theme there that I've had to experience through my entire life. Mostly of my own doing.

00:03:42:18 - 00:03:55:11
Barry Slaymaker
I've probably created a few setbacks for myself along the way, but, it's just what has was always been there. It's my guiding principle. So, to me, it's the easiest thing to talk about.

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Mike O'Neill
I'm glad. And you reflect on maybe a specific challenge where persistence made all the difference between success or failure.

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Barry Slaymaker
Yeah. So I go back, early career and maybe more of a story than than we need, but, coming out of high school. What? I went to college, I had this goal. I wanted to be a civil engineer. And since I was in sixth grade, I decided I wanted to be a civil engineer. Went to college, University Nevada in Reno.

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Barry Slaymaker
And three weeks after I got there, it was abundantly clear to me that I didn't want to be a civil engineer, and I needed to figure out what to do with my life. And so after the end of the freshman year, I relocated to where my parents had moved. And, I came to Georgia and I started working on a erosion control silt fence crew.

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Barry Slaymaker
And when I say that I'm working on the crew, if you've ever seen a construction site, everybody and all the guys riding around the back of the truck, that was me. With some, a bunch of folks and pickax and shovel. I'm digging silt fence in the summer in Georgia after my freshman year of college, realizing I just have to keep at this until I can figure out what it is that I really want to do.

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Barry Slaymaker
I knew that, I knew that I didn't want to do that forever, but I knew that just stopping and not doing anything was not going to be the right answer. So, I went from being at Alaska, as a senior at high school. A year later, I'm in Georgia. Yeah, it's 100 degrees. And I just knew every day I could make a little progress.

00:05:46:00 - 00:06:09:11
Barry Slaymaker
I can work hard. I can try to get better. So I'd make a little money and, you know, just give myself opportunities because it. To me, it was so important to be out there, be in the game, be doing something, and an opportunity would arise. If I was at least there, I could have been sitting on a couch, you know, my parents basement if I wanted to.

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Barry Slaymaker
But, it was just so much more of a natural thing to be out there. And I was fortunate because I was able to, after some time, move up a little bit and I had some opportunities arise. And that set me and really on the path that, led me to where I am today, you know, way back there on the back of a pickup truck digging silt fence to to where I am now.

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Mike O'Neill
You know, the perspective of, where you came in, what you're doing now and recognizing how critical that was to kind of inform you kind of going forward. And, you know, you shared kind of how that set you on a path in your career. Can you think of an example where you've got to distinguish between productive persistence and knowing when to pivot?

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Barry Slaymaker
Well, that's a that's a great question. So, you know, I think about the there was a time period little bit later in my career and, I, I had an opportunity and I was very thankful for this. And this, I guess that's another theme is hard work and persistence. When that meets opportunity, it gives you a it allows for some level of success and, I was given a choice, by the company I was working for so I could continue to work.

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Barry Slaymaker
And I was working my my tail off. I was know, making a lot of progress for that company, a company called American Dawn hardware. They bought out now, but, I had the opportunity to keep my head down and keep working or pivot, and they would actually allow me to go back and get my college degree. But that was another a level of hard work that I was going to have to, to put in a lot of work because they're paying for it.

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Barry Slaymaker
They've got to get production out of me. And I was given a choice. I can keep doing what I'm doing, or I can, you know, all of a sudden start getting to the office at 430 in the morning and working on schoolwork and trying to, to be a good student while also being productive for the organization and productive for my family.

00:08:20:14 - 00:08:42:15
Barry Slaymaker
And I chose that path because in between those two times, I had gone back and got an associates degree, but I'd never gone back to my bachelor's degree, and they gave me an opportunity to do that. And I'm very, very thankful for that. But I had to make a choice to effectively step up the level of hard work that I was going to have to do because my my day job couldn't suffer.

00:08:42:17 - 00:09:02:03
Barry Slaymaker
And I was thankful for that. And I made that choice. And, that was probably one of the next big steps in my career, was making that decision to get up and work my tail off every morning. I would I would be doing school work for 3 or 4 hours every day before people got to the office.

00:09:02:05 - 00:09:29:23
Barry Slaymaker
And then then started my work day, hard work artwork. But that was a huge, catalyst for, for me from that point. That was the beginning of me moving from the world of purely construction to doing the things that were not more interesting to me on a daily basis. You know, the did the business, the finance aspect, the, the real estate component of that.

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Mike O'Neill
I love when you were describing that it's not enough to just be persistent. Opportunity has to present itself. And what do you describe that's more we've talked about kind of early in your adult years, early in your career, and the fact that you made a decision to take more of a harder path. I'm going to keep my job while also pursuing a degree.

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Mike O'Neill
As you look back when you completed that, what did that do to your sense of self-confidence?

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Barry Slaymaker
It was tremendous because, you know, I was a very successful student in high school and before that, but I lost a tremendous amount of confidence that year that I would I effectively stepped away from college, and I didn't know if I was ever going to get back to that path. I thought I was on coming out of out of high school.

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Barry Slaymaker
And when I got to that, that point where I finished that degree and I was like, all right, I knew I, you know, I felt great. I could do it. And it actually maybe gave me a little more confidence. When near the end of that program, I decided, you know what? I'm going to keep this going, and I'm going to go get my graduate degree, and was accepted into a program to do that, to get my MBA and the level of confidence.

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Barry Slaymaker
When I got accepted there, I'd been able to achieve this goal that I had at that point, had for 14 years, finally was able to check that box. You know, it was it was a great feeling. And again, it's opportunity meeting that persistence. So I went to wits. Emery got my MBA, while working full time still.

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Barry Slaymaker
So that's a theme school is is great. Working full time every degree I have. I was working full time. Well, I did it.

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Mike O'Neill
You know, my background in H.R. And I found myself over the years, even now that I'm out of H.R. On a day to day basis, when I'm looking at two otherwise equal candidates, I automatically gravitate towards the person who did that extra that they basically put themselves through school. They were able to or found a way to juggle both a career, and a degree or a career in an advanced degree simultaneously.

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Mike O'Neill
That's not easy. That can wreak havoc with a sense of kind of work life balance. Can you speak to that while in school that might have thrown that all schools behind you? In what ways, in your opinion, can persistence get in the way of that work life balance?

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Barry Slaymaker
Right. And so that's an excellent point, Mike. And I am very thankful I've been blessed with a very understanding wife and two very understanding daughters that, allowed me the space to do this. But, I will say in hindsight, during those years, they suffered, because it was so focused on achieve being finishing the degrees, achieving at work, making progress.

00:13:00:04 - 00:13:31:23
Barry Slaymaker
And so they suffered for that they didn't get, the full Barry that they should have. They didn't get the full husband, that they get the full father. And I'm thankful that they were very understanding of that. And now they do. But, but yeah, that, that, that drive in that persistence and head down hard work. In hindsight, I wish I had applied that same level of energy to being a great husband and a great father.

00:13:32:00 - 00:13:55:01
Barry Slaymaker
But, you know, once I was able to, to finish my degrees, I was able to make that pivot. And, and I know so many people that, talk about, especially in graduate school, is a routine conversation and work life balance, because it's a lot of work and all of the people I went to school with at Emory were working full time and in school trying to finish their degrees.

00:13:55:03 - 00:14:26:10
Barry Slaymaker
And it's a challenge, and a lot of people's lives suffered because of that. And that sacrifice that you make in your family makes, is not insignificant. And it will hopefully you're rewarded for that and, achieving whatever goal you set up for yourself. But, I'm just super thankful for Sarah and Kinsey and Kelly for for what they went through and the grace they gave me.

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Mike O'Neill
Through these times and really to mine one, we're kind of progressing through your career. We'll come to that next step in a moment. But I have observed you've mentioned how thankful you are, how appreciative you are several times in this short conversation thus far. It's not lost on me for regular listeners. Our last guest, David George Brooke, spoke on the Power of Gratitude and how it can be a life changer.

00:14:59:24 - 00:15:37:20
Mike O'Neill
And it's just really nice to hear you say how persistence married with gratitude can lead to, success. Let's speak to that success. You're now in a senior leadership role as president. We're talking about the role of persistence. And you lead teams. Teams. Sometimes it's setback. There are things they kind of get in the way. In what way has this notion of persistence, influenced how you lead others in light of what we've discussed so far?

00:15:37:22 - 00:16:00:18
Barry Slaymaker
Yeah. So for me, one of the, the great, benefits of my path is that it include a it included a fair amount of failure. So I'm comfortable with that. And I try to instill in my teams it's okay to fail as long as we keep working at it. You know, we will learn so much from failure.

00:16:00:20 - 00:16:28:03
Barry Slaymaker
And we'll learn so much by coming back from failure. So I am a big proponent of experimentation because experimentation often leads to failure. You know, I try to use the scientific method in, in businesses that will have a hypothesis, will test it if it fails, we we try again. And I think my teams appreciate that, that it's, it's very much about experimentation.

00:16:28:05 - 00:16:53:16
Barry Slaymaker
We have to put in the work, but, not achieving what we set out to initially is okay, because when we continue to work and we have that level of persistence and perseverance, we'll get there eventually. And, and failing and experimentation, sometimes we discover the new direction that we really should be going in as opposed to where we started out.

00:16:53:18 - 00:17:19:23
Barry Slaymaker
And that's really some of the story of my career. I did not set out, you know, 20 years ago to, to be sitting here doing exactly this. But as opportunities arose and I got smarter from failure and smarter from some success, I was able to hone in on exactly where I wanted to be. And I think the same thing applies to how we operate within our business.

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Mike O'Neill
You were talking about leadership. Our listeners are leaders, and sometimes leaders have this idea that leaders have to always succeed. And, what you're describing is an element of leadership that doesn't get discussed enough. And that is we all fail. I, too, have made many, many mistakes. But in a leadership role, willing to be transparent, to be authentic, to acknowledged it.

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Mike O'Neill
Yes, I have failed. Sometimes we even fail our own teams and willingness to own up to it. What? That, at least in my experience does is the team that you're surrounded with. They see you much more as a real person, and they may more likely draw inspiration from you because you're acknowledging what everybody knows. We all fail. And what I'm hearing you say is that you try to instill a mindset is we don't want to fail.

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Mike O'Neill
But when we do, let's learn from it. Brush off and go do it differently.

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Barry Slaymaker
That's true. We are all imperfect people, imperfect professionals, and you know, it's part of life. We will always we will never be, perfectly successful. We'll never be perfect people. And it's just such an important thing to recognize that. Because any time that we think that we can be perfect, we are setting that expectation for ourselves many times, as for ourselves, but also for our teams and those that we lead.

00:18:57:20 - 00:19:15:17
Barry Slaymaker
That's a that's a hurdle they can't get over. And that that leads to tremendous failure if we have that level of expectation. So it's better. Let's just be real. Let's be real people and we'll all be so much better for it.

00:19:15:19 - 00:19:40:12
Mike O'Neill
Very. We agreed that we're not going to rescript this conversation. Therefore I'm I'm asking questions that I might not have thought of, and you're just responding in terms. But as you were preparing mentally for this conversation, you knew we're going to be talking about this topic. What might be something you'd want to share that I haven't asked about?

00:19:40:14 - 00:20:10:01
Barry Slaymaker
Yeah. Like, you know, as I, as I think about persistence and perseverance, you know, as I was preparing and thinking about how so many of the hurdles that I had to overcome were of my own doing, you know, I, I created almost every setback in my career, sometimes through overconfidence, sometimes through too much drive towards a singular goal.

00:20:10:03 - 00:20:33:05
Barry Slaymaker
And, you know, the I guess what I would want to communicate to people is that's okay. Right? As we think about the, the setbacks having if we are the the source of those setbacks, it sets us up to learn so much more from those, again, it speaks to I'm imperfect. I've made a lot of bad decisions in my career.

00:20:33:05 - 00:20:54:03
Barry Slaymaker
In my personal life, I've made some great ones. Thankfully, I, was, you know, I've made the call and, had that first date with my wife. And, you know, 20 years later, we're in a great spot. And, and I love that, but I've made a lot of bad decisions. And there I had to work very hard to come back from those.

00:20:54:05 - 00:21:25:13
Barry Slaymaker
And that's just what I would communicate is it's okay if you fail, if it's okay if you are the source of your failure, if you created that, that's an opportunity that you're giving yourself. You know, we have so many doors that are in front of us. And sometimes it's on us to close those doors ourselves. And to me, it's just it's such an important thing to to recognize that it took me a long time to recognize that failure was a painful thing for me for many years now.

00:21:25:16 - 00:21:40:22
Barry Slaymaker
Failure is an opportunity. And it's hard when you're. It's hard in the moment, to recognize that, but, I mean, I need to keep telling myself that for the next 20 years, but, that's that's the biggest thing I want to communicate.

00:21:40:22 - 00:22:22:24
Mike O'Neill
Like, you know, Barry, our conversation has somewhat dealt with persistence. And then we found ourselves talking a little bit about failure. But it's kind of come back to persistence for a moment. And that is it's been my experience that successful leaders typically are persistent. If you were to somewhat summarize, this idea of persistence, you know, one takeaway that you would like to make sure that our listeners have on this idea of persistence and how persistence is influence you and perhaps the team you lead, what would that be?

00:22:23:01 - 00:22:56:12
Barry Slaymaker
Well, I, I'm a sports analogy guy. And I, I think about it, I, and I mentioned this very briefly earlier, our conversation. But you know, persistence to me is akin to staying in the game. Right? You know, you're working hard. You're there. Well, when an opportunity arises. We touched on this. If you're not in the game and you're not continuing to to look for options and look for opportunity, then you'll never be able to seize those, these opportunities when they arise.

00:22:56:12 - 00:23:11:22
Barry Slaymaker
So it's so much about getting back up, keeping after it, and the right opportunity will arise. And when it's there, if you're in the game, you're ready to seize that opportunity.

00:23:11:24 - 00:23:35:22
Mike O'Neill
Barry I too love sports. That actually influence the name of business. I named it Bench Builders, and I did so in large part because I think we all understand the team that you lead is only as strong as your bench. It's not just the starters. It's the people that you're preparing to go in. And, I kind of love that analogy.

00:23:35:24 - 00:24:06:02
Mike O'Neill
And, I'm glad you brought that up, as well. Before we conclude, I've got a question for the leaders in the audience. And that is, why do people choose to follow your lead? Is it out of obligation, or do they truly believe in your vision? And perhaps more importantly, when faced with obstacles, do you demonstrate the kind of persistent leadership that inspires the team to push through those challenges?

00:24:06:04 - 00:24:38:14
Mike O'Neill
Leadership thrives on clarity, confidence, and persistence. It's not just about holding authority, it's about creating practical solutions that drive real bottom line results. I'm an executive coach. I get to help leaders achieve those bottom line impacts and become those inspiring figures that people want to follow. At Bench Builders, we help leaders develop sustainable persistence strategies that drive long term success.

00:24:38:16 - 00:24:59:06
Mike O'Neill
So if you want to lead in a way that draws people to your vision not because they have to, but because they're inspired to go to bench-builders.com and to learn more about how we can support your leadership journey. Barry, I knew I would enjoy the conversation, but your insights have been invaluable. Thank you for joining us.

00:24:59:08 - 00:25:01:01
Barry Slaymaker
Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Mike.

00:25:01:03 - 00:25:12:15
Mike O'Neill
So, yeah, Barry, I know that there's many people out there say, you know what? I kind of like to get to know this guy. I think he said something. I would like to learn a little more about how is the best way for people to reach out and engage with you?

00:25:12:17 - 00:25:28:02
Barry Slaymaker
So. Absolutely. So find me on LinkedIn. I'm easy to find. Barry Slaymaker. And I will give you my email, happy to to interact with anybody. Barry at ATC development.com. I would love to connect with anyone.

00:25:28:04 - 00:25:40:15
Mike O'Neill
We will put both your LinkedIn profile and your email since as you gave it in the show notes. So if you're driving, don't worry about it. It's in the show notes to retrieve. Thank you Barry.

00:25:40:15 - 00:25:51:01
Mike O'Neill
also want to thank our subscribers for tuning in, and I hope today's discussion provides you with some insights to help you get unstuck and on target.

00:25:52:06 - 00:25:56:06
Mike O'Neill
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Get Unstuck and on Target.

00:25:56:08 - 00:26:16:21
Mike O'Neill
I hope you gain insights to help you lead with competence and drive your organization forward. Remember it, Bench builders. We're committed to your success, your leadership excellence, and your strategic growth. If you've enjoyed our conversation today, please leave a review rate and subscribe to keep up with our latest episode.

00:26:17:05 - 00:26:21:05
Mike O'Neill
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Mike O'Neill
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00:26:25:01 - 00:26:32:06
Mike O'Neill
Until next time, I encourage you to stay. Focus on the target and continue to break new ground on your leadership path.