I sat down with Dave Pulcini on the SixPoint Financial Partners podcast to talk about how Takedown Eventures came to be. Dave wanted to know the real story – not the polished version, but the messy, honest, start-from-nothing version. So I told him.
Start with what you have, not what you wish you had
It started with a borrowed painting trailer. That was it. No investors, no business plan binder, no fancy office. I had a trailer, a willingness to work harder than anyone else on the job site, and a conviction that if you take care of people first, the business follows.
That conviction did not come from a textbook. It came from years of watching what happens when businesses treat their people like line items on a spreadsheet. They lose their best talent. They bleed customers. They wonder why the phone stops ringing. I decided early on that Takedown Eventures would be different.
Put people at the center of every decision
When Dave asked me what the “secret” was, I told him the same thing I tell everyone: people are the ultimate value proposition. Not your pricing. Not your equipment. Not your marketing funnel. Your people.
Every system we built at Takedown Eventures starts with one question – does this make our team’s life better or worse? If the answer is worse, we scrap it. Period.
Use the Three E’s to create experiences that stick
I shared my “Three E’s” framework on the show: Engage, Educate, Excite. This is the operating system behind everything we do.
Engage means showing up. Not just physically, but being present with your team and your customers. When a technician walks into someone’s home, they are not just fixing a problem – they are representing everything our company stands for.
Educate means investing in your people relentlessly. We run workshops, we do ride-alongs, we create training content. A team member who understands the “why” behind what they do will outperform someone who only knows the “what” every single time.
Excite means creating moments that people remember. Whether it is a team celebration after a big quarter or a conference keynote where I get to share these ideas with a room full of business owners – the goal is always to leave people better than I found them.
Turn passion into purpose by showing your work
Dave Pulcini asked me something toward the end of our conversation that stuck with me: “How do you keep the passion alive after all these years?”
The answer is purpose. Passion without purpose burns out. But when you tie what you love to something bigger than yourself – building a team that provides for their families, serving homeowners who trust you with their biggest investment – that fuel does not run out.
Watch the full conversation with Dave Pulcini on SixPoint Financial Partners above. If you are a business owner who wants to build something that matters, I think you will find something useful in it.
Want to bring this kind of training to your team? Learn more about my workshops and consulting on the Services page, or schedule a free strategy session.