Send us a text Join us on the Successful Life Podcast to explore the realities of running a trade business with industry experts Corey Berrier, Ellen Rohr, and Al Levi. In this episode, they share their career experiences and how they became trusted consultants. We discuss key topics such as financial literacy, collaboration, and project management. Ellen and Al offer practical advice on setting priorities, structuring teams, and using ride-alongs to build trust. They also highlight the val...

Show Notes

Send us a text

Join us on the Successful Life Podcast to explore the realities of running a trade business with industry experts Corey Berrier, Ellen Rohr, and Al Levi. In this episode, they share their career experiences and how they became trusted consultants.


We discuss key topics such as financial literacy, collaboration, and project management. Ellen and Al offer practical advice on setting priorities, structuring teams, and using ride-alongs to build trust. They also highlight the value of customer testimonials in strengthening business relationships.


The conversation covers personal challenges, leadership, and creating a productive workplace culture. Tune in for insights you can apply to your own business. Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

https://coreyberrier.gumroad.com/l/gqhapd

Al@7powercontractor.com

Ellen.rohr@zoomdrain.com

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Show Transcript

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00:00:01.181 --> 00:00:02.983
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast.

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I'm your host, corey Barrier, and I'm here with my two favorite people, ellen Rohr and Al Levy.

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What's up y'all how you doing Good?

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How about you Doing good?

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We got the country pretty well covered today the East Coast with you and then a little further north.

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When I look up, ellen's up in Utah somewhere.

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She's not traveling the whole world, which she does.

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I'm in Utah today.

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Yeah, and I'm anchoring Arizona, so we're good.

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Yeah, we're good.

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So those that may not know who the two of you are just probably not too many people just give me a quick rundown of what you do each, and then also what your combined efforts have been in the past.

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You start out, you go first.

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Yeah, so I was born in the trade, as Ellen told me one day and I was sharing a story again with Natalie, my wife, and when they were talking about nepotism and things of that nature, ellen turns to me in some meeting where we're out together and she goes.

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I was born with a silver spoon.

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And I looked at her and I go, that's true, but mine was covered with fuel oil, that's true.

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So I grew up in the trades very young my family's business plumbing, heating, cooling, electric on Long Island, new York for the little accent that I have left.

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I worked all those years.

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I gave my brothers three years notice which is the famous story to get all the systems in place and people in place.

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And then I moved out here to Arizona and then I did one-to-one consulting on my own Many times.

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We actually did a thing together called the Alan L Show, and as Alan was in the front of the room and I was sitting there with my writer, kim, she's going on about financials and knowing what you're talking about and I said, kim, come outside with me a minute and we go outside.

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And I said, kim, I just realized something.

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She goes what I could do, a successful operation and the patient will die if they don't do what Ellen does as well.

00:02:05.430 --> 00:02:09.631
And so that's how we got co-consulting together.

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And it's funny we met.

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Now we have different stories.

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We fuss all the time.

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This is my work husband, al, so we never remember the stories exactly the same way.

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But as I remember it, I sold him a membership to Contractors 2000, now Nexstar.

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So this is going back in the day.

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He's an OG and I was the salesperson.

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And we have a mutual friend, dan Hollihan.

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If you're in the Northeast or you're into hydronics, this is the guy.

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In fact he just received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

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I saw, and well-deserved.

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Dan Holland has brought a lot of people together in the industry and me and Al are two of those folks.

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And when we go out to dinner I signed him up for Service Titan, the Service Titan for Contractors 2000 for a membership.

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And he calls me we're going to the first super meeting together.

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And he calls me and he says, well, I'd like to go out to dinner and I'm like, great, that'd be nice, get to know each other a little bit.

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So I've sent you an agenda.

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There is an agenda for dinner, for coffee, for the first 15 minutes.

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Al is a very disciplined person and over the years, al, you've had a very good effect on me.

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So I appreciate so much the order, the systems, the sanity.

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We all believe we should wear bracelets that just say what would Al do and do what Al tells us to do.

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Me and all of Al's clients over the years have just decided that if he said it, it's right, so you might as well just do it.

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And we ended up with a really great partnership.

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Over the years we came in and out of each other's lives.

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We're best friends all the way, but professionally we chose to do some joint ventures together and a lot of the times it was working with the same clients.

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I would help with the financial piece and Al would do marketing operations.

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Vision strategy, the seven power concept Of the seven power concepts, I do one and Al does six, and it was a very fruitful.

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She actually does too, don't you, I do too.

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That's right, we share one.

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So I married a plumber.

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This is how I got into the trades.

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I wasn't born into it with fuel oil, but I married a plumber and that's how I got into it.

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And what happened to me happens to a lot of moms and a mom and pop shop situation.

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I got stuck with the books.

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I didn't like it, I was terrible at it, and all we did was lose money and fight.

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So, with the help of some great mentors, I figured out my asset from my elbow and started to put simple financial systems in a place like charge more than it costs, come up with a reasonable selling price, pay attention to the balance sheet and the profit loss.

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These simple procedures changed my life, made me a wealthy woman, and now I preach.

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That's really what I do, and over the years we've done it with our individual consultants and clients.

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We started Zoom Drain together.

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Al was our original investor at Zoom Drain.

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Thank you very much, al, for the lift.

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And now I'm at Service Titan with this big, broad megaphone and an opportunity to share far and wide.

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I love being able to visit on podcasts.

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Once upon a time we looked at trade magazines to get a clue and they're still relevant, but podcasts and chat, gpt and all these other ways that we can find information has really changed the game for the better, I think.

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It has.

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But, like most things, it's a double-edged sword in my opinion, and I always am so empathetic, gauri, to contractors today Because we thought we had a load of information.

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We had a garden hose.

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You guys have a fire hose of information that's just pouring at you between social media and trade groups, and there are a thousand more shows a year than what I attended and I thought I went to a lot of shows.

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So there's a great amount of information.

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And all that I share with you is if you don't have a system and obviously I advocate the seven powers for some reason it's as a building blocks, but as a filter, because otherwise you're going to hear a lot of great information.

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But it doesn't all fit together.

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And I have modernized from Frankenstein because I realized people they're out there, they don't know who Frankenstein is.

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So I go.

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It's basically a dream car.

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Would you, if I gave you the power to build a dream car?

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Would you take a four chassis, toyota engine, hyundai seats?

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Of course not, but we do that all day by pulling stuff from everywhere and it doesn't necessarily fit.

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So your charge people who are listening to this podcast is you have to know the person that I'm listening to.

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Are they a genius or an idiot?

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And that is not easy.

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The only way to know, though, is testimonials is really a big thing, and Ellen and I have always understood and Dan Hollihan, who literally took me by the side one time and goes hey Al, what you would have to say about how great you are is mildly interesting to me.

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What I really want to hear is somebody else who's like me, what they have to say about what you are and what you did and what it is, and I never forgot that lesson.

00:07:18.100 --> 00:07:41.365
Well, it's interesting that you say that, because I often see we're all in a lot of the same Facebook groups and a lot of information gets handed out and a lot of people learn from these Facebook groups, but the one question that they're not asking is they don't know well, what did this person put into the business before they started it?

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How did they start the business?

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What you know, they don't really know behind the curtain how these decisions are being.

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These suggestions are being given and without context.

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I don't know how you take the suggestions from someone that you don't know, because you don't know what they're dealing with.

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You don't know what you don't know.

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Do they start with a pile of money?

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Did they not start with a pile of money?

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Because, that's two entirely different perspectives.

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So you're telling me that one size advice doesn't fit everybody.

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I have to write that down.

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No, it's so true.

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It is so true.

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I will say one quick thing before I switch to Ellen is one way is, if you're in some really good, trusted groups and you pose a question, the volume of what you get and the people that are responding and the way that they're responding and Ellen has a great example is either making the light bulb brighter or the light bulb dimmer.

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So I'll let Ellen take it from there.

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Yeah, yeah, I think a lesson I learned Al gives me credit for this, but I got it from Jim Abrams once upon a time, another great mentor of mine.

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He said the simpler you make it, the further you can take it.

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And I feel like, especially as I've lived a long time, been in the industry now for 40 years which is just bananas.

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I fight fancy all the time.

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It isn't a lack of information for people, it's a lack of implementation.

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And so, like my and my personal journey went like this First I had to figure out the money.

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It was like Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

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Until we had enough money to survive day to day and just like get a breath, there was really nothing I could do.

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And if you're thinking about raising your prices and all those implications and you're thinking, oh, maybe I should, I should be better before I can raise my prices, you're already better, you're already good enough and you have to raise your prices now to afford the mentor, the group, the seminar, the direct, the help you're going to need.

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Raise your prices to be able to choose a path and settle in on some information and then the next step so handle the money and then the next step is get stuff done, and Alan is skinny little book.

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Seven power lines out planning power, which is essentially write down all the things you need to do that you thought of doing.

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You've got ideas for, write them all down, type them out and then pick 30.

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You could tackle 30 in a year and then pick five no more than five and work on those.

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Now Gino Wickman wrote Traction, which is a little more elaborate game plan that will get you the same place.

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So there's more than one way to do this.

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But overall you need some project management process in your company, in your life, or stuff won't get done.

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That's why Al does agendas is because stuff happens that way.

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He's a planner and as a result, he's created a great life for himself and his clients and his friends.

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So that, I think, is the piece here is that it's probably not a lack of information.

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You probably have 5 million things written somewhere and this process of just and it's exhausting right Postage yeah, all that and and so getting you and your team in fact.

00:11:12.647 --> 00:11:16.221
You have a good story about how you started that at your own company.

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You suspected Al as you were getting your arms around things.

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Again, we speak from our own experience strength and hope right, and as Al's figuring out what to do at his company, you tell a good story about asking everybody on the team to bring whatever projects they were working on.

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Yeah, and winter was our big season before we really expanded to other things, so it was a cold winter day.

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Come back in, I'm running through a company now of 70 people and I'm asking some people to help me with a project that needed to get done, and they're all too busy.

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And finally, new York absolute rage.

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I said, well, whatever you're working on, you just bring it into the conference room.

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We're all going to put it in there.

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So I put them all in the conference room and they start piling up papers all over the place and we start sifting through this mess of papers.

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Yes, people, it's 30 years ago and so we're going through it.

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Here's what we find out, corey, in this meeting, two people are working on the same project and neither one knew the other person was working on it.

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Other people thought they were working on a thing that I gave great priority to.

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The problem is, I don't even remember talking about it, let alone assigning it to anyone, and so, as we whittled this all down, from what she's talking about, this master project list, the top 30 down to the top five, we finally, for the first time, got on the same page, literally.

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Now, of course, today there's a lot of great project management and software.

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We used to use Trello Monday.

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You's a lot of great project management software.

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We used to use Trello Monday.

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You can use whatever you want.

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I will tell you that Ellen and I have coached clients together.

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One caution is yes, get the train moving, do that all out.

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But if you think Trello Monday any project management is going to make things actually happen, you're sadly mistaken.

00:13:03.940 --> 00:13:05.245
Thank you for shaking your head out.

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Yeah, because what we would insist on is get your calendar out and type it in right now, because we're going to ask about it next week and we want a progress report on it, and that is the big thing.

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So don't leave it just in there.

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It's got to be on people's calendars and there's got to be accountability.

00:13:27.639 --> 00:13:28.481
I think the implementation part is.

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You know, it's one of the things that I've found in my time working with people in the trades.

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That is the biggest chokehold.

00:13:37.446 --> 00:13:47.046
As you said, there's a million ways to skin a cat and they have all million of them and I think they just can't choose which one to focus on, and so they just don't.

00:13:47.046 --> 00:13:50.758
Maybe it was an analysis by paralysis or I think.

00:13:50.758 --> 00:13:56.032
Maybe I said that backwards, but the point is, there's so many things to focus on, you just don't do anything.

00:13:57.519 --> 00:13:58.061
It's easy.

00:13:58.061 --> 00:14:01.366
It's easy to get to a point where you just stand still.

00:14:01.366 --> 00:14:04.712
I know I have been there in my life and I just go.

00:14:04.712 --> 00:14:12.139
What?

00:14:12.139 --> 00:14:14.870
And this is going to sound more morbid than anything else, but I coach my own kids on this, when they would get overloaded.

00:14:14.870 --> 00:14:18.764
I go, there's still a moment to take out a pen and a paper, even though you can do stuff on a computer.

00:14:18.764 --> 00:14:24.563
Just list out everything you need to do today and I want you to prioritize just today.

00:14:24.563 --> 00:14:30.134
And the way I want you to prioritize is heaven forbid, the bus hits you at 10 am.

00:14:30.134 --> 00:14:34.442
What have you accomplished by 10 am?

00:14:34.442 --> 00:14:46.763
And then instantly you learn how to prioritize and this begins, this good habit begins to expand once you get these first things going and you start getting the top five to move along, top 30 to move along.

00:14:47.264 --> 00:15:06.530
Master project that Ellen and I know is the great thing is actually changes company culture, because we do reach out to the people at the company, because they're on the front lines in all these different positions to bring to us a project or a habit we need to get in place, but we put it at the top of the master project list.

00:15:06.530 --> 00:15:12.466
They don't just throw everything aside and that's part of the problems I go, I hear your podcast and I go.

00:15:12.466 --> 00:15:13.230
That's a great idea.

00:15:13.230 --> 00:15:14.434
You know what everybody.

00:15:14.434 --> 00:15:15.480
Stop what you're doing.

00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:16.461
I know what I said.

00:15:16.461 --> 00:15:22.985
Those were priorities, but today I heard Corey say this, so this is what we're doing.

00:15:23.004 --> 00:15:23.405
The next week.

00:15:23.405 --> 00:15:25.851
It's something different, it's just classic.

00:15:27.144 --> 00:15:34.734
This is what I love about you, Al, it's just true north, classic advice and systems for making your life and your business better.

00:15:34.734 --> 00:15:37.830
So a couple of things came to mind as we were visiting.

00:15:37.830 --> 00:15:42.636
So one is meetings have a bad reputation.

00:15:42.636 --> 00:15:44.884
Yeah, Because most meetings suck.

00:15:44.884 --> 00:15:52.626
The wrong people are there, they go on too long, they get derailed all of that, so nobody wants another meeting.

00:15:52.626 --> 00:15:53.971
It's almost become a joke, especially with younger people.

00:15:53.971 --> 00:15:54.833
And I get it.

00:15:54.874 --> 00:16:00.466
Paul Kelly I love him so much, who has grown the Parkinson's in Arizona.

00:16:00.466 --> 00:16:08.441
He told me you can solve any problem if you meet about it often enough with the right people.

00:16:08.441 --> 00:16:20.789
And what he means is and this works with Al's program and with EOS if someone shows up to the meeting day after day and hasn't done anything, they expose themselves.

00:16:20.789 --> 00:16:37.043
Either they need help and they're willing and don't know what to do, in which case you guys can brainstorm and figure things out, or they're unwilling or not capable of doing what's required, and that's someone who just can't stay because you can't have someone who's just going to lose on your watch.

00:16:37.043 --> 00:16:47.731
So meetings will expose whether or not there is someone who can be helped and developed at your company, or if you've got someone who's just going to be a rock in the road.

00:16:47.731 --> 00:16:48.966
So meetings are important.

00:16:48.966 --> 00:16:59.908
Another thing that you said, Corey, that I want to jump on is sometimes people don't know what to do, and there's an expression how do you eat an elephant?

00:16:59.908 --> 00:17:00.889
What's the answer?

00:17:01.110 --> 00:17:01.993
One bite at a time.

00:17:02.941 --> 00:17:07.040
The follow-up question may be well, which bite first, like?

00:17:07.040 --> 00:17:09.925
I don't want to make mistakes, I don't want to, but whatever.

00:17:09.925 --> 00:17:14.759
And the reality is it doesn't really matter which bite, just get going.

00:17:14.759 --> 00:17:20.932
So when you put your top five together, a good advice from Al was put in, an easy one.

00:17:20.932 --> 00:17:29.922
And cleaning is never bad, never bad, like if it's clean.

00:17:29.922 --> 00:17:32.910
One truck is going to be a top project and organize that one truck the way you want that truck to look.

00:17:32.910 --> 00:17:36.628
Or clean the warehouse, clean your desk I'll clean my desk.

00:17:36.628 --> 00:17:42.527
Boom, throw it all on the floor, throw it out to the parking lot, have a bonfire and then start fresh.

00:17:42.527 --> 00:17:56.134
Cleaning is always good, never bad, and when you clean, you usually discover some weird things that are going to go on your you know overall project list because you're looking, you're in it.

00:17:57.982 --> 00:17:59.267
That is a good way to identify.

00:17:59.267 --> 00:18:00.530
Why is this?

00:18:00.530 --> 00:18:02.046
What's this legacy?

00:18:02.046 --> 00:18:03.746
Who is this legacy from?

00:18:03.746 --> 00:18:05.391
Why are we continuing forward?

00:18:05.391 --> 00:18:07.501
It causes you to ask good questions.

00:18:07.781 --> 00:18:13.913
Yes, yeah, absolutely so so it seems the two of you get along quite well.

00:18:13.913 --> 00:18:14.881
So I have a question.

00:18:14.881 --> 00:18:24.152
So my guess is, as long as you've worked together and known each other, that it hasn't maybe always been this way.

00:18:24.291 --> 00:18:42.863
So I'd like to hear, maybe about a time when you just ready to kill each other I would say first of all, ellen and I, unconsciously, with my work wife and me being her work husband, we basically said that we'll always date and never get married.

00:18:42.863 --> 00:18:43.787
Wouldn't go married.

00:18:43.787 --> 00:18:46.018
Yeah, we're already married, but forget about that we'll always date and never get married.

00:18:46.018 --> 00:18:46.400
Wouldn't go well.

00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:49.028
Yeah, we're already married, but forget about that we are married.

00:18:49.088 --> 00:18:59.369
Yeah, we're not so, but Ellen shared the story about us shooting videos, and this is back when videos were low, the only thing we fight over is the stupidest stuff.

00:19:00.059 --> 00:19:02.962
Is the stupidest stuff Like never about?

00:19:02.962 --> 00:19:05.288
Like there's a river that runs through me and Al.

00:19:05.288 --> 00:19:09.426
That is the same values, trust levels, extremely high.

00:19:09.426 --> 00:19:15.310
Al and I always tell each other the truth Like we've never had a crack in that not even a crack.

00:19:15.310 --> 00:19:22.634
But for some reason, when we shoot video maybe even today, al, I'm like okay, well, let's just riff.

00:19:22.634 --> 00:19:29.946
Okay, let's just, we're going to, we're putting out a program or we're going to go to a seminar and we're going to be on stage, so we want to do a little promo video.

00:19:29.946 --> 00:19:31.787
Well, let's just like talk about it.

00:19:31.900 --> 00:19:53.984
And Al's like we need to write out the three bullets and I don't know why it would just push my buttons Like no, I don't want why I fought, but for some reason we turn into complete kindergartners fighting over a dodge, we would spend 20 minutes arguing the format to shoot a five minute video.

00:19:55.147 --> 00:20:01.065
And now, of course, it's very funny because I have reached a point in life where I don't care enough anymore.

00:20:01.065 --> 00:20:05.530
I got a camera, let's go, yeah.

00:20:06.673 --> 00:20:07.933
But the thing is too.

00:20:07.933 --> 00:20:12.488
I think you've really settled into the 10,000 hours with your stuff.

00:20:12.488 --> 00:20:21.747
When we were younger, we were also trying to figure some things out, like what was going to work, what was going to play, how do we get the message and the point across?

00:20:21.747 --> 00:20:26.808
And I think over the years I've learned we're going to throw some seeds on stony ground.

00:20:26.808 --> 00:20:41.412
There's going to be some information that lands with somebody and they just take it and they make their life better and on those occasions it gives me and I know you, al so much satisfaction that we just go out there another day.

00:20:42.961 --> 00:20:58.726
Yeah, no, we've been around long enough and had enough success with our clients, which is the only measurement in my opinion and these guys went off and were able to sell their companies or bring their family in and I'm particularly sensitive to, obviously, family, because now it's on to the fourth generation.

00:20:58.726 --> 00:21:03.885
That's very big for me and so it's rewarding, but it's rewarding because of what it is for them.

00:21:03.885 --> 00:21:14.909
That is rewarding to me, but anyway, so Ellen has us do, instead of personality profiling, which is an awful name what's the motivational mapping?

00:21:14.909 --> 00:21:23.732
So we do this program Flag Pages and we said, well, we can't ask our clients to show us theirs if we're not willing to show ours.

00:21:23.732 --> 00:21:29.205
So Ellen and I take it individually and when we put it together it's a giant X.

00:21:30.127 --> 00:21:35.965
We are such an X in the background of our personality, what motivates us.

00:21:35.965 --> 00:21:40.638
But at the core, there's such a big center.

00:21:40.638 --> 00:21:51.353
If you follow what I mean, sure, but what it taught, taught me was is I have to watch my words because, like Ellen was talking about triggering and because of that, there are better words for me to choose.

00:21:51.353 --> 00:22:02.126
And sometimes we, when we did this thing and we started to laugh because we knew how to push each other button, but now we had the words to push each other's button.

00:22:02.126 --> 00:22:06.106
So Ellen is all about games, making it a game, making it fun.

00:22:06.106 --> 00:22:15.247
So I would go to Ellen, I go to working with this client and I could be working together and I just it's like scratching your eyes out, it's just awful, it's punishment.

00:22:15.319 --> 00:22:28.784
If we could only make it into a game and Ellen goes, I could do that and I knew he was influencing me One might say manipulating, but I would say influencing me to do what he wanted me to do.

00:22:28.784 --> 00:22:48.226
And then I know that with Al, one of the things Al really likes, because he tells us that when you do these personality mapping things and you know this from WhoHire Working Genius DISC there's a lot of them and they're all interesting and very valid for this reason alone, someone tells you about themselves.

00:22:48.226 --> 00:22:51.115
So now that's a respectful thing to do.

00:22:51.115 --> 00:22:55.146
Ask someone to tell you what you like and don't like and how I can better communicate with you.

00:22:55.689 --> 00:23:01.106
Al likes to be acknowledged, like if he does something and helps somebody's life gets better.

00:23:01.106 --> 00:23:11.457
Send Al a thank you note, or I would say Al thank you for, and give him a really specific piece of feedback on how what he did improve my life or someone else's.

00:23:11.457 --> 00:23:12.780
And I just do that.

00:23:12.780 --> 00:23:16.874
It's just like a way to love on you because I know that's important to you.

00:23:16.874 --> 00:23:18.201
So that is.

00:23:18.201 --> 00:23:23.003
I think over the years we've definitely developed that Some of it is to get each other to do something that we don't want to do.

00:23:23.144 --> 00:23:24.307
And the other part of it.

00:23:24.307 --> 00:23:26.553
That is true we genuinely love each other.

00:23:27.079 --> 00:23:31.651
Ellen always tells the story is that she would delegate somebody to brush her teeth if she could.

00:23:31.651 --> 00:23:40.146
Oh yeah, but what I know about Ellen is if she looks around and there's nobody there, she will pick up the toothbrush and do the work.

00:23:40.146 --> 00:23:43.765
Yeah, so that was part of coming to understand one another.

00:23:43.765 --> 00:23:56.420
And when you're at work and you're working with your spouse or other and, by the way, if you are not married to the person you're at work if you don't think that your company sees you as brother, sister, mother, father, you are way off.

00:23:56.420 --> 00:23:58.626
And I learned that lesson at 25.

00:23:59.299 --> 00:24:17.151
I'm sitting in my office at 25 years old I'm the last brother in of the three brothers and somebody walks in an employee at five o'clock so it's his own time, and he's 50 years old and proceeds to start telling me about his life and what's going on in his life and all of this other stuff.

00:24:17.151 --> 00:24:27.404
And I finish up with him and then I find my dad and I go dad, this guy walked in twice my age starts telling me all this stuff about his life and what's going on and the rest of it.

00:24:27.404 --> 00:24:28.327
So what's up with that?

00:24:28.327 --> 00:24:32.526
He goes oh, because you sit in this little corner office.

00:24:32.526 --> 00:24:42.266
They see you as a big brother or a dad and that's why they come to companies like ours rather than going to a nameless, faceless utility company.

00:24:42.266 --> 00:24:47.465
They want to have, in most cases, the kind of family they never had at home.

00:24:48.221 --> 00:24:59.559
And the truth of us is most of us coming through the trades in particular have had dysfunctional families and that if and it was really my brothers and I, this was an eye opening moment because we talked more about this.

00:24:59.559 --> 00:25:02.788
It wasn't like we went to a course and learned how to do this.

00:25:02.788 --> 00:25:05.388
We just said that we just can't be like.

00:25:05.388 --> 00:25:14.605
They're not robots, they're people, and my father would always emphasize we went to wakes when we were young as kids and hospital beds.

00:25:14.605 --> 00:25:18.961
We treated people as you'd want to be treated, but he saw them as family.

00:25:18.961 --> 00:25:20.545
Ellen always has a funny story.

00:25:20.545 --> 00:25:23.653
I tell about my dad what he became at the end of life.

00:25:23.653 --> 00:25:27.826
Ellen, do you want?

00:25:27.865 --> 00:25:28.326
me to tell it.

00:25:28.767 --> 00:25:30.210
Oh, I love Irving.

00:25:30.210 --> 00:25:35.925
Irving was one of those guys who showed up for work with a suit and tie when no one else was wearing a suit and tie.

00:25:35.925 --> 00:25:42.344
He just liked to present and he was a great communicator, an amazing relationship builder.

00:25:42.344 --> 00:25:44.728
I loved your dad so much.

00:25:44.728 --> 00:25:52.210
His job at OSI was to stand at the lease line and thank everyone for showing up.

00:25:52.210 --> 00:26:01.021
So they would walk into the yard or the building and Irving would say thanks for coming to work today, and I thought that was so interesting.

00:26:01.021 --> 00:26:03.868
And he said well, first off, they vote with their feet every day.

00:26:03.868 --> 00:26:08.701
Every day, they're making a decision as to whether or not they're going to come work for you and they don't have to.

00:26:08.701 --> 00:26:15.386
And the second thing is, this is gold, If you're listening for the one thing that could change your life, this is it.

00:26:16.209 --> 00:26:26.182
If you looked a person in the eye on Tuesday and said thanks for coming to work, and they looked you in the eye right back and said you're welcome, You're good.

00:26:26.182 --> 00:26:34.054
If on Wednesday did I say Tuesday next day, Wednesday did I say Tuesday Next day, that person doesn't meet your eye, You've got a beef.

00:26:34.054 --> 00:26:51.589
Some happened between yesterday and today and you could fix that beef If you, maybe, if you acted on it right now, maybe a third party problem, maybe someone saying something, another coworker or a a family member.

00:26:51.589 --> 00:27:11.691
So suppose you decided to go run errands together or walk around the building and pick up trash together, to do something, not sit behind the desk and make it all adversarial, but to just spend time with that person and see if you could uncover that bee and even be as as candid as yesterday you looked me in the eye and today you did not.

00:27:11.691 --> 00:27:14.284
Do we have something to clean up here today?

00:27:14.284 --> 00:27:16.471
Wouldn't you like to be talked to like that?

00:27:18.300 --> 00:27:32.779
Yeah, it definitely opens up the dialogue where it doesn't go on for days, weeks, months, and then this employee is now not engaged at all and when you could have solved it with a simple conversation.

00:27:32.779 --> 00:27:43.010
And I wonder how many people God, I'm so glad you mentioned that, because that is really important and I just don't know how many people do that or realize how important that is.

00:27:43.010 --> 00:27:54.663
That's culture, right and Al, what you were talking about with the guy coming in and talking to you, the reason he wanted to work there is, you're right, because he had somebody he could talk to.

00:27:54.663 --> 00:27:57.128
And I see a lot of companies that just don't.

00:27:57.128 --> 00:27:58.352
They don't have that.

00:27:58.352 --> 00:28:06.923
There's a like, there's a barrier between the owner, or whoever the boss is, and the employees, and it just doesn't work.

00:28:07.203 --> 00:28:11.192
It just doesn't work, yeah, but they have a mission and vision statement that's a mile long on the wall.

00:28:11.192 --> 00:28:19.845
Isn't that good enough, right, yeah, so I know I'm tapping into my New York sarcasm, but I really mean that.

00:28:19.845 --> 00:28:28.930
Not what you say on the wall, it's what you do in real life, and I actually learned a lot of lessons along the way, and one of them came late to me.

00:28:28.930 --> 00:28:38.916
That expanded on what Ellen's talking about is I made it a point to pretty much see every one of my employees wherever they were in stand-up this wasn't a sit-down.

00:28:38.916 --> 00:28:44.102
We're passing in the hallway and I would ask them three questions what's going right?

00:28:44.102 --> 00:28:45.323
What's going wrong?

00:28:45.323 --> 00:28:46.625
What do I need to know right now?

00:28:46.625 --> 00:28:52.750
And as much as I was listening to what they were saying, I was much more interested in their eye contact.

00:28:52.750 --> 00:28:54.932
What was their facial expression?

00:28:54.932 --> 00:28:58.256
And I had a decision to make is this person leaving?

00:28:58.256 --> 00:29:06.550
This is my chance to save them, because I don't want that five o'clock knock, because they're already out the door, and so it really is what I taught people to do.

00:29:06.550 --> 00:29:07.333
It's a skill.

00:29:07.333 --> 00:29:10.045
You have to practice it really well so it becomes smooth.

00:29:10.465 --> 00:29:17.328
We're not trying to manipulate people, but we do want to be able to step in and really it came from my brother, richie, who was not a touchy-feely guy.

00:29:17.328 --> 00:29:18.131
He's a great guy.

00:29:18.131 --> 00:29:21.209
He'll do it and he literally gave you the shirt off his back.

00:29:21.209 --> 00:29:26.352
He and Richie and Ellen's husband, hot Rod, are like two peas in a pod.

00:29:26.352 --> 00:29:27.681
They are.

00:29:27.681 --> 00:29:31.990
He said to me one day in this course we had stupid conversations at 2 am.

00:29:31.990 --> 00:29:33.792
That's the last two texts.

00:29:33.792 --> 00:29:41.002
He looks at me and he goes well, people can have a bad day here Once in a while.

00:29:41.002 --> 00:29:41.964
They can have a bad week.

00:29:41.964 --> 00:29:43.326
They cannot have a bad month.

00:29:43.326 --> 00:29:56.256
It's up to us to find out what needs to be done, because if they can't be happy here and they can't be good, we've got to get them to where they need to go in life, which I thought really just blew me away.

00:29:57.660 --> 00:30:10.288
Yeah, because sometimes a guy like Hot Rod or a guy like Richie may seem like a hard egg to crack, but they are soft candy centers, those guys, and that's what Richie was tapping into.

00:30:10.288 --> 00:30:12.320
The word paradox comes to mind.

00:30:12.320 --> 00:30:22.689
I love the word paradox, which means that two things that seem to be mutually exclusive or at odds with each other are both true, and that is life.

00:30:22.689 --> 00:30:28.633
We live in this dual universe, and discipline and responsibility and holding to high standards.

00:30:28.633 --> 00:30:42.980
It is not at odds with love and compassion and empathy.

00:30:42.980 --> 00:30:48.250
These things can all exist, and sometimes I think that gets a little tricky.

00:30:48.250 --> 00:30:49.684
We're navigating our way.

00:30:49.684 --> 00:30:55.510
It is important to have it written on the wall and to talk about it and to demonstrate it.

00:30:55.510 --> 00:30:56.512
That helps you remember it.

00:30:56.512 --> 00:30:57.294
It's on the wall.

00:30:57.640 --> 00:31:05.204
And if it's short enough, and it's short and you Short and you Right.

00:31:05.204 --> 00:31:21.539
I used to walk around with a hundred dollar bill and I would tell an owner when I first show up and now remember they were paying me six figures over a couple of years and I would see this thing just go rolling right down the whole wall and I go, that's not yours, sorry.

00:31:21.539 --> 00:31:25.566
He said I have $100 in my pocket that says I can go pick any employee I want and they can't give me that by heart by not looking at it.

00:31:25.566 --> 00:31:26.227
But what would you do?

00:31:26.227 --> 00:31:26.626
I go.

00:31:26.626 --> 00:31:28.269
I would have 25 words or less.

00:31:29.171 --> 00:31:34.705
I said my father actually we never had a mission statement in the time, vision statement, none of that stuff.

00:31:34.705 --> 00:31:43.172
But my father's lecture to us and then to obviously everyone else was I don't care what you do all day, but the way you treat my customers.

00:31:43.172 --> 00:31:47.621
At the end of the day you better be able to look in that mirror and not feel like you have to turn away.

00:31:47.621 --> 00:31:50.890
And to this day I still resonate.

00:31:50.890 --> 00:31:55.242
I actually felt electricity as I was talking about it because it was channeling her.

00:31:55.242 --> 00:31:57.167
But that was really.

00:31:57.167 --> 00:31:59.232
How can you be confused?

00:31:59.232 --> 00:32:03.884
You know what you're supposed to do and you have to act accordingly.

00:32:03.884 --> 00:32:07.211
So that's a pretty good mission vision for me.

00:32:07.211 --> 00:32:08.894
That's so good yeah.

00:32:10.320 --> 00:32:11.645
Yeah, people are not confused.

00:32:11.645 --> 00:32:12.648
It's a choice.

00:32:12.648 --> 00:32:19.865
If you want to serve the customer at the highest level, that's a choice, and if you don't, that's a choice.

00:32:19.865 --> 00:32:24.050
And so both of them have consequences, good and bad.

00:32:25.680 --> 00:32:29.623
And then there's housekeeping, Like as we put manuals and systems together.

00:32:29.623 --> 00:32:40.789
Those systems are designed to handle the housekeeping so that humans can do the human stuff.

00:32:40.789 --> 00:32:42.731
This is why I embrace AI.

00:32:42.731 --> 00:32:44.532
I love baked in systems.

00:32:44.532 --> 00:32:48.234
I like putting everything in service, tight and formed.

00:32:48.355 --> 00:32:48.976
I do.

00:32:48.996 --> 00:32:51.678
That's what Bob Ferrari used to call it A no-thing zone.

00:32:51.678 --> 00:32:56.970
Howard Partridge, they wash their trucks every day, even in the rain.

00:32:56.970 --> 00:33:00.346
No, thank Like, don't ask, don't talk about it.

00:33:00.346 --> 00:33:37.486
So that's what systems and procedures are for, and when you do that, then you have the mental capacity to do the things that humans can do, like to love on a customer, to notice that somebody maybe you've got a beef with a customer you have to be present enough to be able to pick up on that stuff, and if you're trying to find a screw that should have been in that bin but it wasn't, and you're just wasting all this time, you won't have that space to be a human, and that's what's great about systems and AI and all of the cool tools that we can use to handle the housekeeping.

00:33:38.749 --> 00:33:42.886
My company was always on the cutting edge of technology back then.

00:33:42.886 --> 00:33:49.086
And technology back then when my father and my uncle were in the company, was when guys were going looking for phone booths.

00:33:49.086 --> 00:33:53.750
They put in two-way radios and by the time we showed up we put Nextels in and we put cell phone.

00:33:53.750 --> 00:33:55.195
But we were always moving ahead.

00:33:55.195 --> 00:33:57.103
We computerized way before everyone else.

00:33:57.103 --> 00:34:05.172
There are so many things that you do want to automate, but you do still have to trust and verify that these things are actually being done.

00:34:05.976 --> 00:34:13.400
And there's great software now about hearing what's going on in a customer's house and how much time they spend, and all those things.

00:34:13.400 --> 00:34:14.563
I think that's excellent.

00:34:14.563 --> 00:34:17.250
Do I think it replaces the ride along?

00:34:17.250 --> 00:34:23.248
No, I don't, Because nonverbal communication is 70% of our communication.

00:34:23.248 --> 00:34:29.434
My face, my expression, whatever the pauses, all of these things that you cannot tell just by doing it.

00:34:29.434 --> 00:34:33.208
So when they come together now, Ellen is the queen of ride-alongs.

00:34:34.202 --> 00:34:34.744
I love ride-alongs.

00:34:34.744 --> 00:34:35.788
Loves me a ride-along.

00:34:36.019 --> 00:34:39.367
She loves herself a ride-along, so why don't you share what you do when you go out?

00:34:40.019 --> 00:34:50.929
Well, the first like why I started riding along was to escape the office where I felt I would be found out as not knowing anything about what I was supposed to be doing.

00:34:50.929 --> 00:34:57.670
And this started when I was the first employee at Benjamin Franklin, the functional plumber, so the employee number one.

00:34:57.670 --> 00:34:59.827
And we're going to start this franchise.

00:34:59.827 --> 00:35:03.141
We don't have a model center, we don't have a manual, we don't have anything yet.

00:35:03.141 --> 00:35:06.251
So I just started riding along.

00:35:06.251 --> 00:35:12.304
Okay, I'm going to be with him, I'm going to be with Jose today, and Jose and I'd go on some adventure.

00:35:12.304 --> 00:35:17.710
But it gave me the opportunity to ask questions like Gal, like what would you do if you were me?

00:35:17.710 --> 00:35:19.152
What are we missing?

00:35:19.152 --> 00:35:20.233
What do we ask you to do?

00:35:20.233 --> 00:35:22.735
That's a waste of time, those kinds of things.

00:35:22.735 --> 00:35:38.952
And that's where I started to realize this inevitable distance between the ivory tower managers in the office and what's actually happening out there in the field, and that's I think that every smart thing I learned was riding along and getting in.

00:35:38.952 --> 00:35:41.367
And we have processes, there's checklists.

00:35:41.367 --> 00:35:44.809
I don't check off a million things when I go on a ride along.

00:35:44.809 --> 00:35:47.126
This is a Matt Smith-ism.

00:35:47.126 --> 00:35:50.811
Number one I try and make a friend, just make a friend.

00:35:50.811 --> 00:35:55.788
You go on a ride along for someone for three hours and you elevate your relationship forever.

00:35:55.788 --> 00:36:02.266
You have fun, dog gets out, there's an adventure, whatever there's going to be, you're going to meet their family.

00:36:02.266 --> 00:36:05.900
With the pictures on the dashboard, you're going to get a chance to understand.

00:36:06.621 --> 00:36:12.731
I met Bam in Pine State and he'd been a big brother, big sister for like 12 years.

00:36:12.731 --> 00:36:15.704
A big brother he's not a big sister, he was a big brother.

00:36:15.704 --> 00:36:19.900
But of that big brother, big sister program I had no idea about that.

00:36:19.900 --> 00:36:23.791
That just made me love him so much, finding out that little thing about him.

00:36:23.791 --> 00:36:46.887
So then you become friends, which is great, and then you have a little more affinity, a little more trust, and you can say something like if I notice something that you do during this call and I think I might be able to help make life easier for you, are you open to that feedback, ask permission, like, can I give you one thing that, if I notice, might make your life a little easier, might be worth trying?

00:36:46.887 --> 00:36:49.659
And they're going to say, yeah, I guess so.

00:36:49.659 --> 00:36:53.210
I thought you were here to fire me, so this is better than that.

00:36:53.981 --> 00:36:57.068
Most people, when we worked together, thought that I was the axe murderer.

00:36:57.068 --> 00:36:57.731
It was her.

00:37:00.039 --> 00:37:00.902
Benjamin Franklin.

00:37:00.902 --> 00:37:05.592
They did call me the meat eater because when I left there was usually one less person working there.

00:37:05.592 --> 00:37:16.634
Now, it's not that I'm not a compassionate person, but when you start using systems like this, you can find if people are not a good fit and I've been fired and let go and laid off and all of that.

00:37:16.634 --> 00:37:17.940
It is not the worst thing.

00:37:17.940 --> 00:37:18.782
It is not.

00:37:18.782 --> 00:37:20.327
It's the beginning of a new chapter.

00:37:20.327 --> 00:37:21.550
Right, that's how it goes.

00:37:21.550 --> 00:37:29.940
But in any event, those conversations can help you determine if the service tech is willing and capable of change.

00:37:29.940 --> 00:37:41.056
And if you go on a ride along or two two, and then you put in sales pro something that's going to record the call in the house, then you've got some buy-in as to why you would even do that.

00:37:41.056 --> 00:37:43.085
Otherwise it can feel pretty big brother.

00:37:43.646 --> 00:37:45.271
Yeah, I agree.

00:37:46.063 --> 00:37:47.760
Look, I cannot agree with you more.

00:37:47.760 --> 00:38:05.827
I remember specifically riding along it was probably four years ago with a guy in vegas and, uh, he, every time I've ever ridden along with a technician, I've always come out knowing something about that technician that likely nobody else knows.

00:38:05.827 --> 00:38:08.463
And this guy was struggling with kratom.

00:38:08.463 --> 00:38:14.865
I don't know if you know what kratom it's some kind of over-the-counter stuff that's not good for you and can get you hooked.

00:38:14.865 --> 00:38:20.610
And I don't really know much about it personally, but I knew enough to understand what it was he was taking.

00:38:20.610 --> 00:38:43.208
And so he just really opened up because of the story that I told him Anybody that listens to this that I'm in recovery and I was telling him a story about when I was in Vegas and I was just completely wide open and it gave him the ability to not to open up about this thing he was struggling with and I worked with that.

00:38:43.288 --> 00:38:45.052
I never told the owner because I didn't.

00:38:45.052 --> 00:38:48.306
He wasn't putting the company at risk, he wasn't.

00:38:48.306 --> 00:38:59.523
He may have been, his mind may have been altered, but it wasn't like he was doing hard drugs and he wasn't at risk for wrecking the van and so.

00:38:59.523 --> 00:39:03.480
But I worked with that guy, I don't know 30 or 45 days.

00:39:03.480 --> 00:39:05.106
I checked in on him every day.

00:39:05.106 --> 00:39:17.215
He didn't make it, but either way, it gave me an opportunity to work with him, completely not having anything to do with the job, in hopes that maybe he would get sober.

00:39:17.215 --> 00:39:25.353
He didn't get sober, but if I'd never ridden along with that guy, I would have never found that out and would never had that opportunity.

00:39:27.581 --> 00:39:29.083
Well for me and ride along.

00:39:29.083 --> 00:39:34.594
People always ask what do you and Ellen get out of your interactions with one another?

00:39:34.594 --> 00:39:38.947
And I will tell you to this day, because it's 30 years.

00:39:38.947 --> 00:39:41.594
Every time I talk to Ellen, I walk away smarter.

00:39:42.400 --> 00:39:43.846
Oh, we love each other.

00:39:43.967 --> 00:39:46.565
But it's true Beyond the love.

00:39:46.565 --> 00:39:50.007
Yeah, we talk about questions people ask us.

00:39:50.007 --> 00:39:55.742
I feel I got better by the questions that I work with really smart people when they ask me really good questions.

00:39:55.742 --> 00:40:05.436
It made my mind open up to provide the answers or find the answers or to get to who needed to know who would be in the know for these kinds of things.

00:40:05.436 --> 00:40:09.750
So one of the things is I know too much.

00:40:09.750 --> 00:40:22.635
I know too much, and so when I would go do a ride along, I would want to like imagine I really grabbed you with the tech and just says pull aside, just watch, which is the worst thing you can possibly do.

00:40:22.635 --> 00:40:23.880
That's right.

00:40:23.880 --> 00:40:30.152
The second worst thing is to jump in the middle of a job and coach them, which I also learned not to do unless it was unsafe.

00:40:30.152 --> 00:40:32.940
Right, right, come out to the truck and we talk about it.

00:40:32.940 --> 00:40:50.001
And what I basically learned from Ellen was really two questions that it became really the bedrock of my ride alongs, which was because they know and I would turn to Ellen who's driving the truck and go, ellen, what do you think you did really great on that call and they instantly knew.

00:40:50.001 --> 00:40:55.704
And then the next question I would ask the last one I'd go is what would you do better?

00:40:55.704 --> 00:40:56.505
On the next call.

00:40:56.505 --> 00:41:01.123
And again they instantly knew, and so that was helpful.

00:41:01.324 --> 00:41:08.726
There was times where I was working up in upstate New York, I'm in the basement, we're doing a job together and ride along and he goes.

00:41:08.726 --> 00:41:13.820
I know I really need to sell stuff, but I just don't know what it is that I could sell.

00:41:13.820 --> 00:41:23.686
And I go well, just so you know, my sales system is called ethical selling, so I'm not selling anybody anything that's not in their best interest.

00:41:23.686 --> 00:41:28.846
But I know a ton and I'm not going to leave this boiler room that is eight by five.

00:41:28.846 --> 00:41:38.362
And I'm going to tell you right now that air separator is not removing air from this thing, it's in the wrong place, the wrong design, the rest of it and that this is not where the pump needs to be.

00:41:38.402 --> 00:41:40.047
And I just went around because I knew.

00:41:40.047 --> 00:41:43.021
And then I knew what I needed to ask the customer.

00:41:43.021 --> 00:41:47.268
I go do you ever hear water trickling in the middle of the night from the baseboard?

00:41:47.268 --> 00:41:48.690
She goes yes, I do.

00:41:48.690 --> 00:41:49.911
Can you fix that?

00:41:49.911 --> 00:41:51.554
I go yeah, it's an air separate.

00:41:51.554 --> 00:41:52.514
You follow what I'm saying.

00:41:52.514 --> 00:42:01.726
It came from my knowledge and Ellen reinforced that, because this is the problem of us as managers and owners we're too busy to do ride-alongs.

00:42:01.726 --> 00:42:09.692
So we have this great top tech and we think he's producing these great numbers because they're really great at sales.

00:42:09.692 --> 00:42:17.016
Ellen rode with one of the techs at one of the companies and what she found out is they weren't spectacular at sales.

00:42:17.016 --> 00:42:26.862
They were super efficient as a tech and they could do more and do it quickly and leave the customer feeling really solid about what they had done.

00:42:26.862 --> 00:42:30.168
That was their way or path forward.

00:42:30.510 --> 00:42:32.012
So does that make sense.

00:42:32.012 --> 00:42:38.351
It wasn't the words, it was the confidence that he knew, like Al was saying, knew how he could make that system better.

00:42:38.351 --> 00:42:47.690
So for those of you who are tradespeople and perhaps master technicians, like Al was when he was growing up, it is hard not to jump in.

00:42:47.690 --> 00:43:01.264
But then those moments where they blow up in the field, that's what you use as your curriculum for your class when you're in your training center and you give them a safe space to play that Now it's so relevant, right?

00:43:01.264 --> 00:43:02.688
That's what started the training center.

00:43:02.688 --> 00:43:17.043
We don't want to do that in the customer's home, but what if we did it in the safe space where the team having fun with each other, breaking each other's shoes a little bit, supporting each other and then trying out each other's troubleshooting techniques or how to hold the wrench or what even to say?

00:43:17.804 --> 00:43:19.750
Here's what I learned from ride-alongs.

00:43:19.750 --> 00:43:26.652
Not knowing any of that, this is what I've learned If it looks bad, smells bad or sounds bad, it's probably bad.

00:43:26.652 --> 00:43:36.590
And that is a simple way for someone who's not a technician to ride along and then get back in the truck and say is that green stuff coming down the side of the wall?

00:43:36.590 --> 00:43:37.905
Is that supposed to be there.

00:43:37.905 --> 00:43:38.827
That's not good, right?

00:43:38.827 --> 00:43:50.873
That looks bad, All that corrosion at the bottom, like it's going to look bad, smell bad or sound bad, and that is a good enough clue for you to have a conversation at least open up to the tech.

00:43:50.873 --> 00:43:52.567
Is there a way to do that differently?

00:43:52.567 --> 00:43:54.927
Should that be also addressed?

00:43:54.927 --> 00:43:59.648
Because, again, I think to Al's point they want to do what's right for the customer.

00:43:59.648 --> 00:44:07.628
A lot of guys don't want to oversell, but they're so often ill-serving their customers by neglecting to notice those things.

00:44:08.420 --> 00:44:10.268
And, yeah, I would say I trained up my guys.

00:44:10.268 --> 00:44:13.108
We were always on the cutting edge of what was new.

00:44:13.108 --> 00:44:18.516
So thermostatic radiator valves for those people who have hydronic heat, we had it.

00:44:18.516 --> 00:44:28.858
We practiced in our own house and really the motto that we had was a huge sales and marketing advantage, not just staffing, which is we're not coming to your house, corey, to learn our job.

00:44:28.858 --> 00:44:30.963
We're already trained and certified in our own house.

00:44:30.963 --> 00:44:47.206
But all of that came from what we used to have as our dirty little secret, which we called OTJT, which means on-the-job training, which means I'm coming to your house to learn my job and charge you for it, which is the worst way you can train.

00:44:47.206 --> 00:44:57.574
So there's really a big advantage to getting into the training center and doing this stuff and marrying the sales, the operations, technical skills in a very safe way.

00:44:57.574 --> 00:45:02.731
So by the time you get out in the field it feels a lot like rinse and repeat and it's freeing.

00:45:02.731 --> 00:45:11.710
And I will tell you one thing is a side note, because Ellen mentioned a great thing about being freed up when we put the manuals in, I had existing guys, a union shop.

00:45:11.710 --> 00:45:16.771
It wasn't like I can say all right, you guys can all leave, I'll get all these new people in, basically.

00:45:16.911 --> 00:45:20.949
I guess it was probably a couple of months in and one of the guys who I had known grew up.

00:45:20.949 --> 00:45:23.601
He was a Vietnam vet and he came into my office.

00:45:23.601 --> 00:45:24.161
He goes out.

00:45:24.161 --> 00:45:25.802
You know what the other companies call us.

00:45:25.802 --> 00:45:27.143
I go, I don't know.

00:45:27.143 --> 00:45:28.362
He goes.

00:45:28.362 --> 00:45:28.503
Well.

00:45:28.503 --> 00:45:30.284
I was at a gas station and the guy called me.

00:45:30.284 --> 00:45:37.929
He said you work for that military company and the guy's name is Joe and he looks at him up and down like this he goes.

00:45:37.929 --> 00:45:41.851
Well, I wouldn't want to be a slob like you working for a company like that.

00:45:41.851 --> 00:45:43.751
I'm pretty proud of what I am.

00:45:43.751 --> 00:45:45.873
He said we are all proud of this.

00:45:45.873 --> 00:45:48.275
We are so ready for what we're ready to do.

00:45:49.556 --> 00:45:54.887
People, just like children, need boundaries and they need rules.

00:45:54.887 --> 00:45:58.905
When they're young, it's the same difference when you have employees.

00:45:58.905 --> 00:46:16.119
The people want to understand that you know what you're doing, and if there's no rules and there's no boundaries, and if there's no processes in place, it looks like you don't know what you're doing looks like you don't know what you're doing.

00:46:16.159 --> 00:46:20.927
Yeah, that's a great point, corey, because the majority of us have lied on our resume about what we can really do.

00:46:20.927 --> 00:46:25.202
So I'm talking about, if I interviewed Ellen have you ever done a brand new bathroom?

00:46:25.202 --> 00:46:30.186
What's the only answer I'll ever get in an interview Done, hundreds of them, sure, sure, whatever.

00:46:30.186 --> 00:46:33.539
I ask her, are you really good at changing out a 200-hour panel?

00:46:33.539 --> 00:46:34.583
The answer is, of course, yes.

00:46:34.583 --> 00:46:37.202
So we finally learned to do some testing and stuff.

00:46:37.202 --> 00:46:38.465
But that's not the point of this.

00:46:39.375 --> 00:46:48.643
What I realized was, once we put these manuals out, that these seasoned veterans were beginning to fill their own holes, that they were deathly afraid of.

00:46:48.643 --> 00:46:51.057
That we would find out and what?

00:46:51.057 --> 00:46:59.451
We changed the dynamic at our company, because it used to be hysterically funny to the seasoned experience guys about Ellen, you don't know that.

00:46:59.451 --> 00:47:00.456
How many years you've been doing it?

00:47:00.456 --> 00:47:01.619
You're kidding, you don't know that.

00:47:01.619 --> 00:47:04.876
And of course, ellen's never going to let us know what else she doesn't know.

00:47:04.876 --> 00:47:09.235
So we retrained ourselves as owners and managers to go whatever.

00:47:09.235 --> 00:47:11.780
You don't know, corey, is now my problem.

00:47:11.780 --> 00:47:14.106
I'm going to take you out to the training center.

00:47:14.106 --> 00:47:15.068
We're going to do it together.

00:47:15.068 --> 00:47:25.706
You're going to follow the process we're going to get you all the way through to what we call released, so that you can go off in the world and do this work and feel confident about what you do so good.

00:47:26.556 --> 00:47:28.143
Now we're just we're jumping around here.

00:47:28.143 --> 00:47:29.396
These are our favorite topics.

00:47:29.396 --> 00:47:40.626
I feel like Al and I have some topics that we come back to a lot because they've had such a powerful impact on our lives with our clients and in our own businesses.

00:47:40.626 --> 00:47:43.559
Corey, what question should you bring to the party?

00:47:43.619 --> 00:47:45.043
Yeah, let's let Corey talk.

00:47:45.063 --> 00:47:48.141
Let's let Corey ask us a question so how do you solve?

00:47:48.563 --> 00:47:54.219
how have you seen maybe it's through technology, maybe it's not how do you, how do you suggest?

00:47:54.219 --> 00:48:10.047
Or how have you seen solving that problem with the technician that gets in the house and maybe he doesn't know what the green stuff is running down the wall or he doesn't have the answer, and from my experience, they have to call the service manager if they can get them on the phone.

00:48:10.047 --> 00:48:12.342
If they can't get them on the phone, they're sitting there for an hour waiting on him.

00:48:12.342 --> 00:48:13.103
They can get them on the phone.

00:48:13.103 --> 00:48:21.722
If they can't get them on the phone, they're sitting there for an hour waiting on him, which is just one of the biggest pain points that I've found in the industry, and it's in the industry as a whole.

00:48:21.722 --> 00:48:25.193
What have you seen that in your experience?

00:48:25.233 --> 00:48:45.422
to mitigate, that or to solve that problem.

00:48:45.422 --> 00:49:15.103
I'll tell you how I solved it at our company, which was the boxwork chart, which shows all the boxes in the relationship really brought to life what my brothers and rising up through a career from apprentice, junior tech, senior tech, install field supervisor and then to service manager or on the install wing install apprentice, junior installer and up the same path on that wing that we really were offering a career, not just a job, and so that was really a big thing.

00:49:15.103 --> 00:49:21.967
Now it's easy to say that, but you have to have systems to do that, and the manuals are the bedrock of that.

00:49:21.967 --> 00:49:23.798
The org chart is the bedrock of that.

00:49:23.798 --> 00:49:34.027
And then you need to create the training center, the hands-on training center that acts like, looks like, smells, like what they're going to encounter in the field.

00:49:34.027 --> 00:49:47.594
And then the bridge between the manuals and the training center is your ability to become a better trainer Great communication skills, great technical skills and a way to present it that people are not asleep.

00:49:48.175 --> 00:49:56.978
Because for years and years when Richie and I would talk about trainers, for years and years when Richie and I would talk about trainers, we had been all over the country getting training.

00:49:56.978 --> 00:50:02.380
Yeah, and when we went out to this training, we realized pretty fast there's two types of trainers.

00:50:02.380 --> 00:50:07.742
There's people who are absolutely 100% know their stuff.

00:50:07.742 --> 00:50:17.025
The problem is they're so boring you will be asleep and so unless you can learn in your sleep, that's a problem.

00:50:17.025 --> 00:50:26.829
And then there were other trainers who were funny and charismatic and really enjoyable Until somebody asked them a question of depth and you pretty soon knew they didn't know it.

00:50:27.550 --> 00:50:32.092
So our goal became can we provide 75% to 80% of the training in-house?

00:50:32.092 --> 00:50:41.998
And then we would selectively bring in great trainers because there are great trainers out there, but we directed what training we wanted.

00:50:41.998 --> 00:50:43.382
So it wasn't just a sales class or marketing class.

00:50:43.382 --> 00:50:51.844
But once our guys touched it, once they knew it and in some cases it actually went to their home first to try it out.

00:50:51.844 --> 00:50:54.983
We had no problems with these guys selling stuff.

00:50:54.983 --> 00:50:57.804
We had problems to get them to stop selling stuff.

00:50:58.896 --> 00:51:00.543
Well, you said something really important.

00:51:00.543 --> 00:51:11.601
When they touch it, technicians are kinesthetic people, right, they need to touch it, feel it, hear it, see it, all of those things, or you're not going to pick it up.

00:51:12.324 --> 00:51:21.538
No, I can talk to you all day about, as a plumber, holding two wrenches back for tightness and what is tight, and then I could show you a video of it.

00:51:21.538 --> 00:51:31.905
But until you pick up two wrenches, it's never going to be, because there's only two ways you will ever tighten a union You'll tighten it so much you'll crack it, or you'll leave it so loose it'll leak.

00:51:31.905 --> 00:51:38.963
And that's part of the growth process that I have to get for you to be able to release you as you go along.

00:51:39.405 --> 00:51:41.675
Yeah, it's so good, and to add to that, corey.

00:51:41.675 --> 00:51:52.284
So that's like that's the work, that's the digging the hole, pouring the foundation, laying up the construct of the building, and it takes them to start now.

00:51:52.284 --> 00:51:53.365
Just start now.

00:51:53.365 --> 00:51:59.126
That's why I recommend you go to 7 Power Contractor and buy whatever else is selling over there.

00:51:59.126 --> 00:52:01.601
At least start with the 7 Power Contractor book.

00:52:01.601 --> 00:52:12.766
The other piece of it too, again, that's the hard systems, then the soft systems are to keep your ears open for the language that your team members are using.

00:52:12.766 --> 00:52:15.972
For the language that your team members are using.

00:52:15.972 --> 00:52:17.052
Is it safe to tell the truth?

00:52:17.052 --> 00:52:18.621
I was at a job.

00:52:18.621 --> 00:52:22.364
I was at a shop once and there was this young kid in the warehouse and I said hi to him and I said how long have you worked here?

00:52:22.364 --> 00:52:25.675
And he said it's my first day and I'm like well, congratulations.

00:52:25.675 --> 00:52:32.039
And the next day I show up and he's not there and I said what happened to that young man in the warehouse?

00:52:32.039 --> 00:52:35.867
And they said what happened to that young man in the warehouse?

00:52:36.206 --> 00:52:39.112
And they said oh you mean spaz, like nicknames aren't funny.

00:52:39.112 --> 00:52:43.940
No, like little things like that, like the words you use.

00:52:43.940 --> 00:52:44.963
Make it safe to tell the truth.

00:52:44.963 --> 00:52:45.846
Make it safe to say I made a mistake.

00:52:45.846 --> 00:52:52.005
Or to come back to the shop and say this is how I felt when I had to sit in my truck for an hour waiting for the field supervisor.

00:52:52.005 --> 00:52:59.681
So I need training on that or we got to figure out a better way.

00:52:59.681 --> 00:53:01.929
But, like, if you make it safe for people to tell you the truth, they won't lie to you.

00:53:01.949 --> 00:53:04.818
Sometimes we cause people to lie to us, and there are some habits that really had to go away.

00:53:04.818 --> 00:53:14.865
When I was coming up, if you handed up the wrong fitting car, it was coming back in your head as fast as you handed it up, which is how you learned your pipe sizes, which you cannot do today, obviously.

00:53:14.865 --> 00:53:22.492
And then in the electrical, the seasoned guys it was particularly funny to give you a wire that you would touch that.

00:53:22.492 --> 00:53:42.947
They knew how to ground themselves, so you'd be bouncing all over the place, and so this whole rite of passage, if you will, in the trays, it was just stupidity and, to my greater sense of it, as I was doing one-to-one work, some of that, I hope, has more than vanished, at least my experience I do want to get back to.

00:53:42.947 --> 00:53:54.126
I was always the one that was driving when Ellen and I were working together and she'd be sitting in the passenger seat and as I'm driving trying to get to the airport or trying to get to with a client or whatever, and Ellen would ask me these questions.

00:53:54.126 --> 00:54:04.041
And one day'm driving trying to get to the airport, trying to get to with a client or whatever, and Ellen would ask me these questions, and one day she says when's the best time to plant an oak tree, and I'm driving, so I don't want to turn my head and I go.

00:54:04.884 --> 00:54:10.322
Ellen, I'm from New York City, we don't encounter a lot of oak trees, so why don't you just tell me?

00:54:10.322 --> 00:54:15.304
So she goes 10 years ago and today and I go.

00:54:15.304 --> 00:54:16.327
So what does that mean?

00:54:16.327 --> 00:54:17.115
She goes?

00:54:17.115 --> 00:54:26.867
You would have wished you did it 10 years ago, and if you don't do it today, 10 years will pass and you will have wished you have, and I have used that over and over again.

00:54:26.867 --> 00:54:29.137
When people ask, when should I get the org charts?

00:54:29.137 --> 00:54:30.079
When should I get the manuals?

00:54:30.079 --> 00:54:31.380
When should I get the training in?

00:54:31.380 --> 00:54:31.882
When should I?

00:54:31.882 --> 00:54:32.623
When should I?

00:54:32.623 --> 00:54:33.143
When should I?

00:54:33.143 --> 00:54:38.010
That's a really big statement in a really small dose.

00:54:38.614 --> 00:54:41.304
And yet no more than five at a time.

00:54:41.304 --> 00:54:43.181
So all of that goes on the list.

00:54:43.181 --> 00:54:45.061
Some things are going to mold there.

00:54:45.061 --> 00:54:47.021
Tell your team that's a great idea.

00:54:47.021 --> 00:54:48.782
It's going to mold there.

00:54:48.782 --> 00:54:50.920
It's on the list, I heard you.

00:54:50.920 --> 00:54:52.617
It's written down, good idea.

00:54:52.617 --> 00:54:58.302
But it's not going to move until we get something off the top five and then we pull something from the top 30.

00:54:58.302 --> 00:55:00.800
But that's why I put an easy one in there.

00:55:00.800 --> 00:55:06.202
Uniforms, cleaning the shop these are things you could upgrade and improve right away.

00:55:06.202 --> 00:55:08.146
Looks better, feels better.

00:55:08.146 --> 00:55:11.557
Get a little endorphin buzz from getting a good job done.

00:55:12.018 --> 00:55:13.338
The items used to be too big.

00:55:13.338 --> 00:55:17.342
That was a lesson that Ellen and I learned as we did because people were great at marketing.

00:55:18.282 --> 00:55:20.585
And by the end of the project, are you ever going?

00:55:20.605 --> 00:55:21.344
to stop marketing.

00:55:21.344 --> 00:55:24.206
How about if you go a direct mail, postcard campaign?

00:55:24.206 --> 00:55:25.307
We can get that done.

00:55:25.307 --> 00:55:26.208
There's a beginning and end.

00:55:26.208 --> 00:55:28.751
How about improving SEO?

00:55:28.751 --> 00:55:30.032
How about you follow what I'm saying?

00:55:30.032 --> 00:55:32.657
Yeah, yeah, that gets things moving.

00:55:32.657 --> 00:55:38.922
And the reason I used to put it up on a big whiteboard and, believe it or not, a lot of the companies have not surrendered their whiteboard.

00:55:38.922 --> 00:55:41.034
It's out in the company's face.

00:55:41.114 --> 00:55:51.721
I would default to a whiteboard in a heartbeat if you're struggling with some groovy app or sitting on EOS implementation for two years Go back to a whiteboard.

00:55:51.721 --> 00:55:52.960
I mean we've grown.

00:55:58.914 --> 00:56:00.900
Massive companies got huge payoffs and they kept it to the very end.

00:56:00.900 --> 00:56:01.201
Which is on.

00:56:01.201 --> 00:56:04.449
That top five was in a public place because it was there to hold the accountability for the owners and managers.

00:56:04.449 --> 00:56:06.478
It was not how we did anything.

00:56:06.478 --> 00:56:07.681
What are we doing?

00:56:07.681 --> 00:56:09.264
Why are we doing it?

00:56:09.264 --> 00:56:10.668
What is the status?

00:56:10.668 --> 00:56:13.922
And if that board never changes, they already know what they know.

00:56:19.795 --> 00:56:20.476
Nothing's changing at this company.

00:56:20.476 --> 00:56:21.943
Do you want to hear something I learned recently from Keith Mercurio, yep?

00:56:21.943 --> 00:56:26.396
He says he doesn't love the word accountable and I'm like, well, that's a bug Did.

00:56:26.396 --> 00:56:28.101
I tell you this no, I saw it.

00:56:28.380 --> 00:56:29.744
I follow his posts a lot.

00:56:29.744 --> 00:56:31.688
I do have a funny story.

00:56:31.688 --> 00:56:32.777
When you finish up, go ahead.

00:56:33.157 --> 00:56:39.581
Okay, and I, like he said it just always means like you're in trouble, it's like you would never like take.

00:56:39.581 --> 00:56:42.628
I held him accountable today.

00:56:42.628 --> 00:56:44.259
What does it even mean?

00:56:44.259 --> 00:56:49.585
And like it just has a go to the principle, feel to it.

00:56:49.585 --> 00:56:52.684
So other words like are you going to take ownership of that?

00:56:52.684 --> 00:56:55.221
Are you going to be responsible for these activities?

00:56:55.221 --> 00:56:56.643
Are you going to do what you said you do?

00:56:56.643 --> 00:57:05.164
Those are good words, that kind of like you can hang on to, and this is where I'm getting more and more sensitive to the words we use and the impact that they have.

00:57:05.164 --> 00:57:07.394
So what's the follow-up story to that?

00:57:07.474 --> 00:57:12.563
And the funny story is I've admired Keith back to his next star day and the rest of it.

00:57:12.563 --> 00:57:16.130
So I see him at an event and I'm excited to go up and talk to him.

00:57:16.130 --> 00:57:22.007
And I go Keith, I just got to tell you it's amazing what you have done through Nextar and onto your own career.

00:57:22.007 --> 00:57:24.483
And he just stops and he looks at me and smiles.

00:57:24.483 --> 00:57:26.422
He goes you don't know our backstory, do you?

00:57:26.422 --> 00:57:29.041
I go we have a backstory.

00:57:29.041 --> 00:57:40.443
He goes yeah, I was a young apprentice at Tim Flynn's shop up in Boston and you were there, no kidding oh, yeah, I met him there too.

00:57:40.684 --> 00:57:45.094
I didn't, we didn't put it together until he went to work at Nexstar.

00:57:45.094 --> 00:57:47.682
We met him when he was 21.

00:57:48.103 --> 00:57:51.355
I know it is funny and delightful.

00:57:51.355 --> 00:57:53.722
I love Keith.

00:57:53.722 --> 00:57:55.389
He is a different individual.

00:57:55.409 --> 00:57:55.909
Isn't that funny?

00:57:55.909 --> 00:57:56.492
It is funny and delightful.

00:57:56.492 --> 00:57:57.275
Yes, I love Keith.

00:57:58.315 --> 00:58:03.025
He is a different individual Yep yeah this is a guy making a difference in people's lives.

00:58:03.025 --> 00:58:04.108
I really love him.

00:58:04.108 --> 00:58:08.057
And so, Corey, you're up.

00:58:08.057 --> 00:58:09.702
Man, what are you dying to ask out?

00:58:09.702 --> 00:58:10.846
Dying, that's a heavy word.

00:58:10.846 --> 00:58:13.775
What are you eager to ask us before we run out?

00:58:13.815 --> 00:58:16.563
Look at how Ellen is growing up in front of our very eyes.

00:58:17.735 --> 00:58:18.016
Yes.

00:58:19.099 --> 00:58:23.568
I know that we're getting close on time and this has been an incredible amount of information.

00:58:23.568 --> 00:58:24.737
So what?

00:58:24.737 --> 00:58:28.126
I know what's next for you, because you're in the middle of that and Al you've.

00:58:28.126 --> 00:58:31.199
I don't know if I'm supposed to say that.

00:58:31.260 --> 00:58:42.744
Well, yeah, I would say that I'm semi-retired, which really ticks off my wife and my brother who lives all the way across the street here in Arizona, because they don't believe that I'm any what retired.

00:58:42.744 --> 00:58:45.744
But yeah, I still do support for my programs.

00:58:45.744 --> 00:58:52.440
The two programs I have online signature operating manual system, and then that leads to the second program and we're building out more.

00:58:52.440 --> 00:59:00.610
Ellen is actually building out some more too, because we're going to make more and more of the seven power stuff, of those seven systems, more and more available.

00:59:01.655 --> 00:59:13.547
You and I have talked over the years, but really at my own company I was great at sales and marketing and the only reason I got good at the rest of this stuff, corey, is because my team blew up all my great efforts.

00:59:13.547 --> 00:59:24.186
I had to stop and learn how to get this stuff done so I could get back to what I really wanted to do, which was sales and marketing, which brings up another conversation.

00:59:24.186 --> 00:59:31.385
Driving down the road again, ellen turns to me and says what comes first, sales and marketing.

00:59:31.385 --> 00:59:39.626
And I go sales and she goes well, if you don't have the phone ringing and marketing's not happening, you're going out of business.

00:59:39.626 --> 00:59:54.000
I go, ellen, if you don't know how to sell to the one target audience or one target person, or the 10 market people that you have, where they live, how they tick and what's going to motivate them, then you are just wasting your marketing dollars and impact.

00:59:55.023 --> 00:59:55.784
That's right, isn't?

00:59:55.784 --> 00:59:57.721
That good that makes such a difference.

00:59:57.721 --> 01:00:03.465
Like so, if you had one lead, do you have a snowball's chance of solving a problem there?

01:00:03.465 --> 01:00:04.719
And what is it?

01:00:04.719 --> 01:00:07.518
Why did the customer say yes If you asked them?

01:00:07.518 --> 01:00:08.722
What made you say yes?

01:00:08.722 --> 01:00:10.661
Why did you decide to go with us?

01:00:10.661 --> 01:00:12.476
What do you like about working with us?

01:00:12.476 --> 01:00:14.478
What would you like us not to do anymore?

01:00:14.478 --> 01:00:18.681
Like that one customer would inform so much of your marketing?

01:00:19.181 --> 01:00:19.742
That's right.

01:00:20.402 --> 01:00:24.626
Ellen actually made them call up one of their favorite customers that they couldn't figure it out.

01:00:24.626 --> 01:00:29.670
Yeah, you say like Mrs Farnwick we love that you only think of us.

01:00:29.670 --> 01:00:31.791
What is their favorite thing that you like about it?

01:00:33.175 --> 01:00:34.000
And let them just brag on you.

01:00:34.000 --> 01:00:39.264
Yeah, or brag on them Like how many as a customer, Corey, have you ever had someone call you and just say you know what?

01:00:39.264 --> 01:00:41.793
It was a pleasure to work with you the other day.

01:00:41.793 --> 01:00:44.460
You were nice to our team members, just shared cookies.

01:00:44.460 --> 01:00:49.016
That was above and beyond, and you didn't have to choose us.

01:00:49.016 --> 01:00:52.760
So what made you pick up the phone and call us?

01:00:52.760 --> 01:00:55.362
But love on them, Thank them for their service.

01:00:55.362 --> 01:00:56.724
You're a great customer.

01:00:56.724 --> 01:00:59.186
I don't think anyone's ever told me that.

01:00:59.786 --> 01:01:00.947
Yeah, I think it's great.

01:01:00.947 --> 01:01:04.710
I think it was so great to really crystallize their sales and marketing thing.

01:01:04.710 --> 01:01:19.465
For me, what I'm always after Corey on the sales and marketing again because of the great Dan Hollahan is there are really ultimately three types of testimonials, and you want it today more in video than just photos of the old days.

01:01:19.465 --> 01:01:28.822
It's really number one a great product or service that you provided, that they're bragging on, that saved the money, made them warmer, made them cooler, whatever that it did.

01:01:28.822 --> 01:01:32.123
The second one is I called at seven o'clock at night.

01:01:32.123 --> 01:01:33.521
I thought I'd just get a dancer machine.

01:01:33.521 --> 01:01:41.266
I didn't think anybody would show up, let alone there's a person who's warm and receptive and there's a person at my door fully trained and stocked and the rest of it Love you.

01:01:41.266 --> 01:01:46.246
And then the third one is the home run, where they brag on the product and service and you.

01:01:46.246 --> 01:01:48.983
And when people ask me, can I get enough of them?

01:01:48.983 --> 01:01:55.364
And the answer is clearly no, you can never have enough of those great testimonials.

01:01:55.664 --> 01:01:57.527
Your sales and your marketing.

01:01:57.527 --> 01:01:59.369
Both of them will be greatly improved.

01:01:59.650 --> 01:02:09.211
But the chances of getting those three things by what you said, ellen, by calling that customer and telling them what a great that is.

01:02:09.211 --> 01:02:13.293
Yeah, nobody's ever done that.

01:02:13.293 --> 01:02:14.514
I don't.

01:02:14.514 --> 01:02:15.534
Nobody's ever done that to me.

01:02:15.916 --> 01:02:21.744
I saw Ellen do it, so that was really the first time I saw it, but I was yeah, it always works, it always works, it does.

01:02:23.356 --> 01:02:39.143
I was proactive because, again, I did both service tech and I was also the big ticket salesperson I call system advisor and I realized I was running into obstacles to close the sale and things of that nature, because I was leaning on my words and then showing pictures.

01:02:39.143 --> 01:02:53.079
Nothing was really closing it like testimonials were, and so then I got really good at that asking for the testimonials, and then I said I should probably put it at the front end when I walked through the door and I go, corey, if I should be selected today, I'm truly honored.

01:02:53.079 --> 01:03:12.061
I'm going to earn your business to the point where I'm going to come back two weeks later to this job myself and check that everything that I promised was delivered to you and if, in that case, that is the case and you're truly happy, I'm going to hope that I can get a video testimonial, just like the ones I'm going to show you today.

01:03:12.061 --> 01:03:14.876
Boom, bam, yeah, boom.

01:03:14.876 --> 01:03:16.242
I closed, it Locked in.

01:03:16.594 --> 01:03:17.981
Here's a little nuance to that.

01:03:17.981 --> 01:03:26.023
This happened when I was a customer and the service tech said, like I came to clean my carpet or something, and he said we build our just the same thing.

01:03:26.023 --> 01:03:28.201
I said yes to the whatever the package is.

01:03:28.201 --> 01:03:39.201
Who knows, I don't know how much I'm spending, much I'm spending, so I say yes and he says okay, Mrs Rohr, here's what's happening.

01:03:39.201 --> 01:03:44.596
We build our business through Google five-star reviews, so my intention is to give you five-star service today.

01:03:44.596 --> 01:03:51.260
And then he adds this and if at any point you don't think I earned those five stars, you let me know and we're going to get back on track.

01:03:51.260 --> 01:03:53.485
Isn't that great?

01:03:53.945 --> 01:04:10.563
it is great I have a question, ellen is that when you were coaching guys and you did your ride-alongs and they walked out to the truck and they go and I don't think that I don't think the customer's happy and I don't think they're and you would say let's turn around and go fix this now?

01:04:10.884 --> 01:04:11.764
Yeah, yeah.

01:04:11.764 --> 01:04:14.650
But that again, and that led to us at Zoom.

01:04:14.650 --> 01:04:22.802
That's literally why we quit doing a minimum service fee, the minimum service fee.

01:04:22.802 --> 01:04:32.737
If you don't do the job, it's just like they're not going to like it and they don't like it before you get there.

01:04:32.757 --> 01:04:34.581
Yeah, I'm not saying you don't use it because you get before you get there.

01:04:34.581 --> 01:04:45.503
Yeah, Just like I'm not saying you don't use it because there's evidence that service Titan, that people who charge a minimum service fee actually have higher close rates Like okay, I get it, you have choices to make here.

01:04:45.523 --> 01:04:46.224
It has to be done right.

01:04:46.224 --> 01:04:47.286
I hear both of you.

01:04:47.286 --> 01:04:49.016
I hear what both of you have to say.

01:04:49.056 --> 01:04:49.916
You might try that.

01:04:49.916 --> 01:05:04.465
But if you don't do the job and you collect the $75 minimum fee, like, but what happens is the boss has not given permission to the tech to say no, it's okay, mrs Fernwick, erase these, let's just start over.

01:05:04.465 --> 01:05:11.871
And if they did and the tech just had the option and then came back and said I blew this, they needed it.

01:05:11.871 --> 01:05:14.152
They said, no, I didn't even collect the minimum.

01:05:14.152 --> 01:05:17.701
Let's role play this, like if you could create that kind of culture.

01:05:17.701 --> 01:05:19.365
Now we're off to the races.

01:05:20.255 --> 01:05:28.273
But, Al, you know, I can hear the boss right now and go well, every service tech will just give the $75 away.

01:05:30.599 --> 01:05:37.007
That's the beauty of having an Ellen Rohr on your team, where it can be built into the budget and it should be built into the budget.

01:05:37.942 --> 01:05:39.594
Yeah, just raise your prices on the original.

01:05:39.815 --> 01:05:51.302
Raise your prices and already figure it out and stop arguing I as a boss probably was the worst person to handle customer complaints because I was too invested, but I would be the one to fall on the sword.

01:05:51.302 --> 01:05:53.420
I would do the best I could and things of that nature.

01:05:53.420 --> 01:05:56.405
But I'm just going to talk about minimum service fee for a minute.

01:05:56.405 --> 01:06:02.952
When we first the great Ellen Moore came into my life in the 90s, before that we bought a motor for 30 bucks.

01:06:03.215 --> 01:06:06.125
We paid you $30 and we sold it for 100.

01:06:06.125 --> 01:06:08.623
So we thought, well, we got $40 of pure profit.

01:06:08.623 --> 01:06:12.922
Did I say any point that I was enlightened along the way?

01:06:12.922 --> 01:06:13.643
So?

01:06:13.943 --> 01:06:14.505
we do our first budget.

01:06:14.505 --> 01:06:15.447
You figured it out.

01:06:15.855 --> 01:06:15.996
Yeah.

01:06:15.996 --> 01:06:18.184
So we got our first budget, thanks to people like Ellen.

01:06:18.184 --> 01:06:22.824
It's $150 an hour and we figure out a toilet's going to be like $400.

01:06:22.824 --> 01:06:25.181
And Richie says to me do it again.

01:06:25.181 --> 01:06:26.686
It comes out to $400.

01:06:26.686 --> 01:06:29.804
And I said, richie, not everyone's going to be our customer.

01:06:29.804 --> 01:06:36.565
That's the first thing here, and we have to do a lot more to build value than we ever did before, where you just quote prices.

01:06:36.985 --> 01:06:52.097
So, anyway, our price book comes out and we realized quickly that a minimum service fee makes sense, because if you don't like $150, as an example that we're going to give you back if you approve the work today, there's nothing in my price book that you're going to like.

01:06:52.097 --> 01:06:52.378
Better.

01:06:52.378 --> 01:07:01.027
But I said to them is that if you don't do the work or they have a question or an issue, give them the money back.

01:07:01.027 --> 01:07:05.422
We do not make budget by minimum service fees.

01:07:05.422 --> 01:07:14.405
You can always waive it, and so how I instruct companies to do that is service managers running a special this month.

01:07:14.405 --> 01:07:23.467
Yes, we normally charge $150 to come out and we give it back, but this month he's entitled us to give you no minimum service fee when we come.

01:07:23.467 --> 01:07:28.465
So if you're slowing down, that's a good way to get over it, as long as it's the truth.

01:07:28.465 --> 01:07:30.259
Oh, it's got to be the truth.

01:07:30.579 --> 01:07:31.965
It's got to be the truth, yeah.

01:07:32.114 --> 01:07:33.217
It's got to be the truth in everyone.

01:07:33.217 --> 01:07:35.121
Thank you, that's a very big plus.

01:07:35.420 --> 01:07:36.983
Yeah, because there's also again.

01:07:36.983 --> 01:07:42.900
There's that kind of like tell them I'm not here, white lie as soon as the owner isn't being square with people.

01:07:42.900 --> 01:07:46.989
Boy, is that a terrible situation.

01:07:46.989 --> 01:07:49.403
In AA it's called rigorous honesty.

01:07:49.403 --> 01:07:49.775
That's right.

01:07:49.775 --> 01:07:56.088
It's cleaning up the language, not leaving it at a maybe like that.

01:07:56.088 --> 01:08:02.014
Rigorous honesty is a high bar to maintain and it's so good for you.

01:08:02.195 --> 01:08:06.539
I was wondering when we get around to addictions and the rest of it You're outnumbered.

01:08:06.539 --> 01:08:12.025
Today, mr, I'm outnumbered, but as I told Ellen, she knows I was 50 pounds heavier than what today.

01:08:12.447 --> 01:08:13.469
We all deal with something.

01:08:15.014 --> 01:08:18.729
I was a foodaholic and I was eating my stresses, corey, because you and I have talked privately for a long time.

01:08:18.729 --> 01:08:21.561
It's socially acceptable, maybe a little bit more.

01:08:21.561 --> 01:08:25.855
Or I was a workaholic gee, is there anybody there listening who's a workaholic?

01:08:25.855 --> 01:08:36.310
I wonder, right, yeah and so yeah, there's healthy or bad, but the question you have to ask yourself sometimes is just why?

01:08:36.310 --> 01:08:41.761
I had to really ask myself why, and that was the toughest question.

01:08:42.274 --> 01:08:43.520
Yeah, and what was the answer?

01:08:43.520 --> 01:08:46.203
And I want to expand on this after you tell me.

01:08:46.203 --> 01:08:46.965
Do you remember?

01:08:47.454 --> 01:08:47.756
Yeah.

01:08:47.756 --> 01:09:04.390
So when I finally got enough counseling about the why for my weight because the guy said it's not what you eat he said we all like a slice of pizza, but you're not satisfied with a slice of pizza because you're filling yourself up, you're getting yourself bigger for the challenges.

01:09:04.390 --> 01:09:06.578
You need stuff in my head that I never was.

01:09:06.578 --> 01:09:07.460
Really I wouldn't.

01:09:07.460 --> 01:09:09.123
Frankly, I never would have figured it myself.

01:09:09.123 --> 01:09:28.988
So for those of you who need help, do yourself and everyone around you a favor, because what I found out is when I got help, not only did I get healthy, but it was better for my family and the people I work with you know, I agree with that I was talking to.

01:09:29.288 --> 01:09:29.770
I don't even know.

01:09:29.770 --> 01:09:35.878
She told me her last name yesterday j Jennifer HVAC Chick Jennifer, you all I know.

01:09:35.878 --> 01:09:38.479
You all know who I'm talking about I think I do.

01:09:38.479 --> 01:09:44.743
She she does the HVAC Chick Coalition OK, on Facebook.

01:09:44.743 --> 01:09:48.126
I'm now, trust me, you definitely know who she is.

01:09:48.126 --> 01:09:48.827
For sure I know I do.

01:09:48.926 --> 01:09:51.807
I'm just not going to use rigor and honesty until we get to check and Google, yes, but now I'm intrigued by the story.

01:09:51.807 --> 01:09:51.908
I do?

01:09:51.927 --> 01:09:52.229
I'm just not.

01:09:52.229 --> 01:09:54.130
We're going to use rigorous honesty until we get to checking Google.

01:09:54.130 --> 01:09:56.070
Yes, but now I'm intrigued by the story.

01:09:56.470 --> 01:09:56.791
I know.

01:09:56.791 --> 01:10:24.322
So we had a really long conversation and the truth is, when people have an addiction we all have an addiction of some sort, some kind of some kind, and really it's trying to fill some sort of void that's not being fulfilled otherwise, whether that's from a childhood trauma, whether that's from a relationship, whether that's from not feeling good enough the list could go on and on.

01:10:24.322 --> 01:10:29.782
But really that's what it is and that's what it is for me and I think that's what it is for everybody.

01:10:29.782 --> 01:10:42.078
And addiction usually not usually addiction starts with pain, the void, and it ends with pain, with not being able to control whatever that thing is that you're filling that void with.

01:10:44.304 --> 01:10:55.207
I know it's crazy, and perhaps the greatest gift from addiction is the willingness and capacity to live in the now.

01:10:55.207 --> 01:11:01.823
Yes, at the present moment, because that's again like with food, like you can eat again later.

01:11:02.426 --> 01:11:06.966
Yeah, and you can also make, as Corey said, about choices.

01:11:06.966 --> 01:11:12.622
I was in Weight Watchers for the third time and I was of course a funny one at this point.

01:11:12.622 --> 01:11:21.623
At one time I just said until I came this third time to Weight Watchers for the third time and I was of course a funny one at this point At one time I just said until I came this third time to Weight Watchers, I didn't realize there was anything in an airport other than a Cinnabon.

01:11:21.623 --> 01:11:25.564
People just fell off their chair laughing.

01:11:26.095 --> 01:11:27.720
The other thing I learned.

01:11:27.780 --> 01:11:32.204
I was lucky I had a great teacher and she says look right and look left, look behind you.

01:11:32.204 --> 01:11:41.948
Everyone that's sitting here is a perfectionist and I thought to myself I'm carrying like 40 pounds more than I should.

01:11:41.948 --> 01:11:45.438
People are bigger than me next to me Perfection.

01:11:45.438 --> 01:11:57.596
She goes yeah, you go on a diet and you make one bad decision and then you just cascade your way down because now you're not perfect anymore.

01:11:57.596 --> 01:12:00.104
That's right, I should be laughing.

01:12:00.104 --> 01:12:00.685
I was so busted.

01:12:00.824 --> 01:12:03.521
It's like you could eat a chip and not eat the whole bag.

01:12:03.521 --> 01:12:04.686
Now I think what's even?

01:12:04.686 --> 01:12:15.079
I know we're on now another topic, but I think addiction is really the journey of our times right now and it affects our business.

01:12:15.100 --> 01:12:15.681
How many?

01:12:15.862 --> 01:12:16.524
team members.

01:12:16.524 --> 01:12:20.793
Do we have to let go because they're high or their lives are falling apart?

01:12:20.793 --> 01:12:21.456
And it is?

01:12:21.456 --> 01:12:23.944
It's it's worth bringing up, that's for sure.

01:12:23.944 --> 01:12:31.824
But I think food is trickier, because with drinking or drugs you can just stop with food ellen actually said that to me.

01:12:31.984 --> 01:12:39.443
I want I said to him we went out to eat, I go, I'm I'm not going to order any alcohol and I would try to pick restaurants that didn't have bars.

01:12:39.443 --> 01:12:42.576
And she finally caught on to what I was doing she goes.

01:12:42.576 --> 01:12:48.387
If you think that whatever that is is going to stop if I had that urge, you are deadly wrong.

01:12:48.387 --> 01:12:52.099
She said it's really me that's in control of this.

01:12:52.099 --> 01:12:52.779
She goes.

01:12:52.779 --> 01:12:55.203
If anybody has a problem, it's you and I go.

01:12:55.203 --> 01:12:55.984
What do you mean by that?

01:12:55.984 --> 01:12:58.646
She goes where can we go to eat that we don't have food?

01:12:59.087 --> 01:12:59.547
Yeah.

01:13:00.029 --> 01:13:00.469
That's right.

01:13:00.488 --> 01:13:01.930
Well, you have to manage food.

01:13:01.930 --> 01:13:12.480
Like one of the ways to deal with you can't really control it, but to deal with being an alcoholic is to not put yourself in a place where there is booze, like that helps.

01:13:12.480 --> 01:13:16.786
But you couldn't just say I'm not going to eat, I'm not going to eat, I'm not going out there.

01:13:16.826 --> 01:13:17.926
I'm never going out, ever.

01:13:18.327 --> 01:13:22.851
Well, and the truth is, with alcoholics like you can't say I'm just not going to drink because it just doesn't.

01:13:22.851 --> 01:13:39.277
It's the same thing as if you pass by the Cinnabon store right, you're going to stop at the's.

01:13:39.296 --> 01:13:41.264
The same thing with alcoholics until they're and you can't say I'm going to stop drinking forever.

01:13:41.264 --> 01:13:42.729
You're just saying I'm not going to do it right this second, that's right.

01:13:42.748 --> 01:13:43.972
That is something that now, and that is, I was never in the now.

01:13:43.972 --> 01:13:46.458
I was always in the past and always what is coming next?

01:13:46.458 --> 01:13:47.180
That's right.

01:13:47.180 --> 01:13:47.983
So rarely.

01:13:47.983 --> 01:14:02.957
And it was funny because in yoga class it taught me to put my knees over my ankles, my hips over my knees, my shoulders over my hips and my neck and head over my shoulders and I thought, well, that was just the posture.

01:14:02.957 --> 01:14:05.944
And then she goes this isn't about posture alone.

01:14:05.944 --> 01:14:08.238
This is about bringing you back to now.

01:14:09.140 --> 01:14:12.467
Yeah, now, I just stood up straighter.

01:14:13.935 --> 01:14:16.305
Well, I'm leaning in because I want to hear what you're saying.

01:14:16.335 --> 01:14:22.148
So, Ellen, it seems like you've had some sort of bout with addiction.

01:14:22.148 --> 01:14:25.244
I don't know if I know anything about this story.

01:14:26.595 --> 01:14:35.021
Well, I took a marriage counseling session with Hot Rod once upon a time and the rule was you couldn't drink.

01:14:35.021 --> 01:14:37.216
And I'm like, oh okay.

01:14:37.216 --> 01:14:45.363
And then it started to dawn on me like like we're two or three days into it, this is the longest I've ever gone without drinking.

01:14:45.363 --> 01:14:49.597
And then I'm reflecting on all the damage alcoholism has done to my family.

01:14:49.597 --> 01:14:52.144
Everybody has alcoholic families, don't they?

01:14:52.144 --> 01:14:54.188
And I just thought you know what?

01:14:54.188 --> 01:14:56.278
This is the train I'm on.

01:14:56.278 --> 01:15:05.765
I'm on that train and those tracks are going to I'm going to be an addict, and there is no blue light that starts flashing that says, oh, you're really close.

01:15:05.765 --> 01:15:08.458
It just doesn't work that way.

01:15:08.458 --> 01:15:15.078
So it was just this wake up moment that I thought I'm not going to drink today, but I never really said I'm not going to drink today, but I never really said I'm not going to drink forever.

01:15:15.078 --> 01:15:17.623
But that was 29 years ago, wow.

01:15:17.644 --> 01:15:23.002
And it just came down to like now, at this point, like what would be so compelling?

01:15:23.002 --> 01:15:25.988
Nothing Like at this point.

01:15:25.988 --> 01:15:27.779
It's not even in my.

01:15:27.779 --> 01:15:33.922
I know that you shouldn't take it for granted and it could always be right here, but I really don't think about it.

01:15:39.654 --> 01:15:40.036
I give you credit.

01:15:40.036 --> 01:15:40.398
That's good news.

01:15:40.398 --> 01:15:43.328
Yeah, I was 40 years old, I'd lost the weight and, for the first time in my life, I kept it off for three years.

01:15:43.328 --> 01:15:44.070
And what did I do, corey?

01:15:44.070 --> 01:15:46.817
I said to myself I'm cute, I think I got this.

01:15:46.817 --> 01:15:52.904
Yeah, yeah, and it just it was like holding down a never ending flight of stairs.

01:15:52.904 --> 01:15:55.127
Yep, you got it today, my friend.

01:15:55.127 --> 01:15:56.930
That's it, that's it All right.

01:15:58.179 --> 01:15:59.404
I know your story, corey.

01:15:59.404 --> 01:16:04.006
And then like, well, can I get high and not drink, and that's fine.

01:16:04.006 --> 01:16:10.025
Like I'm also all about harm reduction anymore and I'm certainly not judging anybody about how they live their lives.

01:16:10.025 --> 01:16:22.842
That's again one of the other blessings of just like you know what girl there's a lot to do in my own hula hoop without judging where anybody else is going to go with this.

01:16:22.863 --> 01:16:23.585
So yeah, but it's a good way to.

01:16:23.585 --> 01:16:28.417
It's a good way for me to live and just to have that one moment at a time.

01:16:28.417 --> 01:16:32.927
Effect of living life as a recovering person.

01:16:33.435 --> 01:16:34.841
Yeah, it's really great about them now.

01:16:36.939 --> 01:16:41.842
So, since it is your show, yeah, it is your show, Since it's your show why don't you just take us home here?

01:16:42.314 --> 01:16:43.881
Yeah, you know this has been great.

01:16:43.881 --> 01:16:47.466
We've talked about everything that I had no expectations today.

01:16:47.466 --> 01:16:51.684
I already knew it was going to be wonderful, but it was exactly what it was supposed to be.

01:16:52.636 --> 01:17:01.261
Well, we've been all around the world on this, but I tell you, to spend time with my boys here makes me a really happy girl, so let's do it again sometime.

01:17:01.563 --> 01:17:02.435
Absolutely so.

01:17:02.435 --> 01:17:05.345
Where can people find you, ellen, and you Al?

01:17:05.715 --> 01:17:07.359
I am a seven, the number seven.

01:17:07.359 --> 01:17:10.006
Powercontractorcom is your best place to go.

01:17:10.006 --> 01:17:12.641
There's a lot of really free, good information.

01:17:12.641 --> 01:17:25.243
In my blogs I've been writing for a thousand years and there's also my programs are there.

01:17:25.264 --> 01:17:26.045
So you just toward the pages.

01:17:26.045 --> 01:17:26.947
You're going to learn something.

01:17:26.947 --> 01:17:27.768
Anyway, that's my advice.

01:17:27.768 --> 01:17:34.966
Oh, and you can find me at ellenrohrcom, e-l-l-e-n-r-o-h-rcom, and at eroar, at servicetitancom.

01:17:34.966 --> 01:17:38.841
And we're going to Australia with our world of Titans Australia event coming up.

01:17:39.555 --> 01:17:43.989
So, I'll give you the link to that it's it's designed primarily for Australian tradies.

01:17:43.989 --> 01:17:57.224
However, if you want to come to Australia, we've got a cool group of folks coming Keith Mercurio, Ishmael Valdez, Tom Howard, Catherine Elizabeth, me, the Irwins, who were the first company on Service Titan in Australia.

01:17:57.224 --> 01:18:01.222
It is going to be epic, so I'll make sure you get the link to that.

01:18:01.635 --> 01:18:03.780
I bet our friend Alan Ferguson is going to be there.

01:18:03.780 --> 01:18:05.164
Alan, Ferguson.

01:18:05.345 --> 01:18:06.960
Yes, I've reached out to him.

01:18:06.960 --> 01:18:09.882
I love Alan Ferguson, but that's a reminder, I'm going to nudge him.

01:18:09.882 --> 01:18:15.298
All right guys, You're going to nudge him.

01:18:15.298 --> 01:18:17.189
All right guys, you're going to have to look up Matt as well.

01:18:17.189 --> 01:18:17.994
Matt is like our primary supporter.

01:18:17.994 --> 01:18:22.823
All of us have been on his podcast we're promoting on the site shed.

01:18:22.823 --> 01:18:24.680
Matt is very excited about this.

01:18:24.840 --> 01:18:25.462
Matt is great.

01:18:26.364 --> 01:18:26.966
You know what?

01:18:26.966 --> 01:18:30.144
Can I ask you a question after we wrap?

01:18:30.444 --> 01:18:30.865
Yeah.

01:18:33.439 --> 01:18:34.882
Okay, because it just dawned on me.

01:18:34.882 --> 01:18:39.239
I have a one more thing to ask you, but it isn't relevant to the.

01:18:39.239 --> 01:18:41.345
Here's the registration page, cory.

01:18:41.345 --> 01:18:44.461
I'm going to put this up here, though, but it isn't relevant to the podcast.

01:18:44.461 --> 01:18:45.505
It's just a personal thing.

01:18:45.505 --> 01:18:52.855
Okay, even though we've been personal, yeah too late too, late too, late and it is needed.

01:18:53.536 --> 01:18:54.496
No, what were you gonna?

01:18:54.496 --> 01:18:55.016
What was the personal?

01:18:55.037 --> 01:18:56.296
thing yeah, too late, too late, too late, and it is needed.

01:18:56.296 --> 01:18:57.237
No, what were you going to?

01:18:57.237 --> 01:18:58.377
What was the personal thing?

01:18:58.377 --> 01:18:59.257
Did I miss that?

01:18:59.257 --> 01:19:00.797
I was looking at the link she's going to.

01:19:00.818 --> 01:19:03.899
she's waiting for you to stop recording so she can ask you the personal thing.

01:19:04.399 --> 01:19:05.139
Oh, got it.

01:19:05.139 --> 01:19:06.679
Oh yeah, thank you both.

01:19:06.738 --> 01:19:07.800
Or just edit this.

01:19:08.500 --> 01:19:11.701
No, I'll just, I'll stop the recording For old people.

01:19:11.841 --> 01:19:12.640
that's all folks.

01:19:13.140 --> 01:19:13.701
That's all folks.

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