Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / How a Former Teacher Found Success in the Elevator Industry | Sarah Trujillo

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How a Former Teacher Found Success in the Elevator Industry | Sarah Trujillo · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: So so basically you're saying you you left and really just kind of said, you know what, I'm just gonna take a different job.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was it was the software company that tracked you down and said, Hey, you've had not only an impact on your business, but with all your questions and inquiries and ideas for improvement and training, and you know, you've you've really made a big impact here.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Will you please come work?
• 0:22
  unknown: Yeah.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: In this episode, we sit down with Sarah Trujillo to talk about how she entered the elevator industry and some of the challenges she faced.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: As Sarah dug in and asked questions, she became instrumental in transforming the company's workflow through systems and innovation.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Little did she know that it would lead to even bigger opportunities down the road.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: When talent is mission critical, call the All Red Group.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: With industry expertise, top talent, and exceptional customer service.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: You need the All Red Group on your side.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Your priority is our priority.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Call now.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: 404-890-04455.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah, welcome to the show.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Matt.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've enjoyed our our past conversations.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I was kind of inspired, right?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Just just talking to you about the the journey you've you've been on and uh some of the things you've learned.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so um I think there's there's something for all of us to learn.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just wanted to, you know, start at the beginning.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how did you find the elevator industry?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, indeed.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, indeed, found the industry for me.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I previous before my career in elevators, I was decided I was gonna be a school teacher from a very young age.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I did get my master's in teaching and taught, and I decided that like many people, the what I thought I was gonna do my whole life was not what I wanted to do anymore.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I highly valued um having more separation of when I'm at work, I'm at work.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: When I'm home, I'm called.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that took me to indeed to find a position that I could essentially do that.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it was an elevator.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds like with teaching, it sounds like you just you it was just part of your your life.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you couldn't really turn it off.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: You go home and you are grading papers all night and you're planning your lessons, and um, there's no real separation from one to the other.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying I have separation now anymore, but um, at that time, um, my children were very young.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I wanted to, when I was at home, I wanted to be with them at home.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so I looked on Dean.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was looking for, you know, a typical nine to five uh that I could have that separation.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and um, at the time, I uh had a few interviews, and one of the interviews was with um an elevator company.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, mind you, uh, I've heard this actually several times in the past.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, all I knew is they elevators go up and down.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't really know anything about elevators except that they were um a device that I press a button and I magically end up somewhere else.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I went in for the interview.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and the um owner was the one who had uh projected um and and kind of asked me some different questions.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he, like most people I've met in the elevator industry, uh, come, he comes from the field and now works within the office.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, followed his dad, who came from the field, opened the company.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was a family-owned company.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: One of his questions was basically, you need a thick skin.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and if you don't have a thick skin, you're not gonna make it in this industry.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one of my biggest concerns.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: And my reply to him was, well, I taught seventh grade.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the things that come out of those kids' mouths make sure that you have a very thick skin.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: And he asked me a question on the interview, uh, basically asking me what uh what happens when a mechanic says something to you.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: How, you know, um, and I said, if I can handle seventh grade boys, I think I can handle a grown adult and their comments.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: And he loved it.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and he called me back uh, I don't know, a day or two later and said, Hey, I have an offer for you.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and are you interested?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, the position I had applied for um did not end up being the decision uh the position that I had.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: He had asked me, Are you good at computers?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: Do you type fast and have common sense?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: That was the requirements for the position that I was applying.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Those are critical.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I had those, I had those criteria.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but then soon, uh working for him, I did a lot of typing up proposals and sales and things like that.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I asked a lot of questions.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: I uh have a background in education.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of my questions were, okay, how does this work or what do you do here?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I quickly learned that the office was not as profitable as working as a mechanic.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: At this point, I was open with my career path and can I go out on the field?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: He uh did emphasize to me a lot that I was more valuable in the office, um, and that the field and the Okay, then and then pay me more, right?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Was that your answer?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, hey, if I find that valuable.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: So what where are my opportunities working within the office then?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because right now I'm just typing out papers for you, and that is not my end goal.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Much smarter than to stop at that.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: He did let me go in the field for a day.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: He was kind enough to let me assist with uh weights.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they're on wheels, uh, but this is a con uh category uh testing is a common duty of a mechanic.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so I had to move thousands of pound weights from a truck to the elevator, test it, and then move them back.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now I didn't prefer the testing.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: I was with the mechanic.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was just more I did the grunt work to help work.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I had to go to the bathroom naturally.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: And the mechanic told me, all right, there's a bucket in the van.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: I said, okay, I think that I need air conditioner and I need to work in the office.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know if I'm Did that convince you then?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you were were you satisfied with the office after that that one-day experience, or was it No, no, I would always uh that's it, I'm going out there.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Or I would you know fun banter with the mechanics.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: I've done that, I know how to do that now.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I would always tease, but yes, Matt, in the back of my mind, that was when I made I realized, yes, I am not cut out for the the field.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: So how did it develop from there?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it sounds like you were a little underchallenged, right?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's like, hey, not only do I want to make more, I want to do more, I want to contribute more, I want to give more.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: What can I do?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: How did how did it kind of grow from there?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: I learned quickly that there was a whole elevator world out there.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I uh the owner was very happy to share his information with you, right?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so um in the beginning, as I typed up his uh papers and things like that, I would ask about it.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: He was a huge fan of photos.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: He actually had a uh photo photographic memory.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: So he can tell you every single pit, every single machine room in depth.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so with that being said, uh he was growing and he had uh sought out a uh system for his growth um because it was no longer manageable on Excel spreadsheets and paper.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh naturally I was probably 20 years younger, 15 years younger than the youngest person in the office.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so he said, Are you good at computers?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because I need somebody to introduce this new system and make sure that it functions right.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I was excited.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: I have a project now.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not just answering phones and typing up um documents.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so uh I quickly had to learn a lot about the industry to understand how our system should operate and how we should input data and things along that nature.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I quickly learned more and more and more about the different contract types, the different elevator types, and um my Rolodex of elevator information sort of expanding very quickly.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: As you are implementing new software, that he's like, Oh, hey, we're gonna we're gonna roll this out.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And and by the way, you're in charge of it.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, you need to learn the the business like the industry overnight.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then and then teach it to us.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Teach us this software.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: So then I'd have to do a lot of what do you do now?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so this is how they do it in the system, and this is how we're gonna adapt as a company.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and mind you, I made mistakes.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh category test, uh, category five required two mechanics.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: There were there were things that I had to learn along the way.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and but I learned it.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, when you make a mistake, can you learn it?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: You learn it a lot.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I'm learning, right?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Land in the face a few times, and that's like, oh, that's why we tie our shoes.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I went forward and as I'm and as I'm doing all the software, now we took this bottleneck from everything's in the owner's head to data's accessible.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: I can look it up in the system, my coworker can look it in the system.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have to go to and pick my boss's brain, right?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the more tools that we take advantage of in the system, the more I pull out of my boss's brain and put into the system, um, the more accessible it is to multiple employees.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: And therefore we can grow now.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: We're not bottlenecking.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: We are extended and able to um have somebody like myself who doesn't have as much industry knowledge.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't work out in the field for 30 years.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I can take the data that he puts together for the next five cylinder replacements, and I can almost mimic and make a proposal very similar to that.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the hard part that I see is a lot of people culturally, right, it's like, well, we still want to do it the old way.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: We still want to use the yellow legal pad.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: We still want to, did you run into that and what did that look like?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, at the time, uh my boss uh types like this.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: All right, on.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: And um dragging and dropping was not the form of clicking something and pulling a file over.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so we had those hubs, right?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: We had um somebody who was working out in the field for 30 years, has come into the office and has really mastered Microsoft Word at this point.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna shove a system that has endless possibilities and use it.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there's a lot of hand holding, um, especially if uh they're not super technical or have never experienced using a software similar, right?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so yeah, tapped into my teaching and made some diagrams and made processes and uh eliminate things that were no longer necessary that we had done for years.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that was a a struggle of to adopt a new way is yeah, you probably had a lot of pushback.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do it that way.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't there was a lot of printing in the beginning, right?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Print this, print that.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: But it's saving the system.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have to print it.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, however, for years we've printed it.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: We put in a file on the um manila folder and we put it in here.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, what happens if the system goes down?
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: What happens when the power's out, you know, those types of questions, right?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so uh it took a good year to convince um and cost analysts, right?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: How much do we send on paper?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: How much do we send in a when we can access that information whenever we feel?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, there was a lot of uh back and forth and um hang-ups where, okay, well, the system's not doing exactly what I want.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And when I do a paper, I can write on the paper exactly what I want, right?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so yeah, uh there were many instances where it was, I just like it the way I've always done it.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the way you've always done it is not going to provide you growth within the company.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want to continue to hand around a clipboard and write down a uh trouble call or a showness call, then we're gonna limit it to one clipboard.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: We can't take on that many accounts at that point, right?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: There's limitation.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then he quickly uh within the next year saw all of the benefits that this new system added and adopted, uh, realized that the owner, if I don't adopt it, the rest of the employees will not, right?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: So so the the a lot of the pushback you got was from the owner himself versus, I mean, the employees are gonna give their own, but but you're right, if the if the owner it's not like he had the idea, oh hey, let's do this, but dang, this is uncomfortable.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so much more comfortable with what I've been doing, and so I'm kind of dragging my feet, what'd you say, for a year?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: At least at least a year.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not really dragging their feet, it's it's I've had this prosperous and great company um because of the ways that I've done it for whatever amount of years.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so to take that and flip it upside down, 180, it's a bit hard.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that is a time of actually as a joke.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh for Chris Minus, I've got a little plaque that says, Did you check LifKeeper?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Which is the software that we use.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and anytime somebody would ask me, Oh, do you know so-and-so's phone number?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, do you know if they pay the deposit for this job?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know how many trouble calls or service calls we've made in the last three months?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Something um data oriented, I would my reply, did you check LifKeeper?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because what am I gonna do to provide that answer to you?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna check the system that we just paid for to do that, right?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so quickly he realized rather than asking me, like he'd done for so long now, it's all there.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then he realized that those other employees, it's all there for them too.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: So he gave you that plaque and then you could just point.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, no, he was on the other side of a wall, so I still don't know how to say it, but it was a joke.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it sounds like you you had an opportunity not only to help implement it, teach it, roll it out, but but uh I mean you you talked a little bit um in previous conversations about kind of pushing back even on even on the software developers, like, hey, why doesn't it do this?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Why yeah, so uh Mark, the the owner at the company would ask me, uh tell me explain a process to me, right?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because I'm not part of the industry, I wasn't in the field, I don't understand how that works.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so he uh, for example, uh how the state works and category testing and observations and uh violations and all sorts of words I'd never heard in my life.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so he would explain these processes.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I have to take these processes that he's explaining and convert them to the system.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if I notice there's a gap in the system, I am the type of person to fill in gaps, right?
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: So um I did not know it at the time, but um one of the developers that I would speak on the phone with and and say, oh, you know, you should do this, or oh, I have this great idea on that, or um, learning material would be so helpful in this area.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was constantly in conversation with that uh company, um, wanting to improve their software for the other users as well as myself.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to I want to improve it for my company, but I also want to improve it for everybody in this industry because everybody has the same problems, right?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's recurring.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so uh later down the road, I worked for the elevator company for some years using this um software and COVID hit.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, I got the opportunity to work from home.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of people know, unfortunately, but people in the office, we do have some perks.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: And one of them was uh during COVID, we could work from home.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: And another thing that a system allows you to do rather than paper, right?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: Right, for sure.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so now that we have this system, I could essentially do my job, um, several aspects of my job from home.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, I want to work from home more often, but COVID's over now or COVID's calmed down a bit.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I also have saved tons of money in gas.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: I um had that one hour commute there and back with spent with my children rather than commuting.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so I've gotten that taste of uh freedom, I guess.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so uh also during COVID, I was from the Chicago area, which is extremely cold and snowy.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I went to college in California, and so I saw a lot of my friends and they were out taking hikes and we were bound in our houses, not able to do anything.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that huge housing boom we're all familiar with.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I got the opportunity to a house in California cost the same as a house in crazy.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I felt like it was a no-brainer and I did make the crazy decision to move across the country.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, you can't manage.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I I'd worked my way up at the elevator company, obviously, and become um like the essentially I went to dispatching, I'd done accounting when the accounting um person was out or filled in, I did uh project management.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I I'd worked my way through every position at the elevator company.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I was pretty well around in that uh in that view.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so at that point, I was essentially helping the owner run the company.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I had made the decision to move across the country.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's really hard to run a company when you live across the country.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so unfortunately, I did have to uh leave that company that I'd worked for so many years and learned so many valuable pieces of information.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I moved to California and unfortunately I couldn't find an elevator company that was hiring.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so I did the next best thing, HVAC and plumbing, because there's a lot of overlap.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I did that for for a couple months.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but in the meantime, the owner of the software company that we had used had uh gotten word that I had left.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I had mentioned that I had what several conversations with him about improvements and I knew the industry really well, and I had room for training um materials and things like that.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so he had contacted me and had um offered me a job.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: And at that point, um, like I said, I wanted to work from home.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: I I didn't want to commute.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now, um, do I travel with my current position?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yes, I do.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: I travel a lot.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: I do one-on-ones with companies and things like that.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: But essentially, uh day-to-day, I'm home three weeks out of the month, right?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's uh I can take my kids to school, pick them up, I can modify my schedule a little bit so that I can meet what I need in my personal life.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's been night and day from working for an elevator company.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: And at that point, I'd I'd uh rose in so many levels that I was, you know, getting there early and leaving there late.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: So so basically you're saying you you left and really just kind of said, you know what, I'm just gonna take a different job.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was it was the software company that tracked you down and said, Hey, you've had not only an impact on your business, but with all your questions and inquiries and ideas for improvement and training, and you know, you've you've really made a big impact here.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Will you please come work?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful, right?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it's half luck, half, you know, just uh I think one of the biggest things that I've learned in my life is, you know, in this industry, we're close knit.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: You meet people five years later, they're they're in a different position looking for different things.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: And um those relationships are what you have to really hold tight, right?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh I was offered a position um that I could essentially work from home.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was very happy about it and and took it.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I got to take my education in education, my degree, right, um, apply it, make manuals.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I train new onboarding customers.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I get to speak elevator all day, which I really miss when I went and worked for the plumbing company because I had to start one again.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so, and then when I'm teaching, I'm not only teaching, I can say I was in your shoes.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: I know exactly what you're feeling or what you are, how overwhelmed you are, or what you do on a day-to-day.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm here to tell you that there is a solution and there is help out there, right?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: I know that you're you're creating some of that help, which is is the training, right?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because you had said there there wasn't a lot of training in certain areas or certain aspects.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, especially for someone who's coming from outside the industry, you can't just assume I know the acronyms, you can't assume I know the processes, you can't assume that I know what I'm even thinking here.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so some some training, and now you're creating that right and and rolling it out.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Also beautiful um is that the software that I chose to work for, they only do elevators.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: So gotcha.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: My background working for an elevator company now at that point for five years was valuable, right?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Which it's such a close-knit and such a uh very stringent area, how I could actually apply all that knowledge that I've learned for years and years and years to a profession, still.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas when I went into plumbing and and whatnot, there was some transferable skills, yeah.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't 100%.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas now it's it's a hundred percent.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Everything you learned, you can break.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I love it.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: I love talking to a business owner, um, training an employee, and and they don't have to explain anything to me.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have to tell me what a category test is, they don't have to tell me parts that are on a hydraulic elevator versus fraction.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: I know these things, right?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it it it compared to other softwares or other training areas.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: That they would encounter now all of that back history is already told.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's only done.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: So they can just focus on okay, well, my company want to do this, this, and that support.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: What do you recommend?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: You work with, you know, hundreds of other elevator companies.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: What do they do?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I answer a lot of those questions.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: Very good.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you obviously have had a very interesting journey kind of coming from outside.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you you you said a minute ago, you know, you you attribute some of it to luck, but really what I'm seeing is, I mean, you you really poured yourself into that job, into that company.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: You learned it to the point where you really became invaluable.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and so it was kind of like, wow, where can we find a person that that does and knows what Sarah knows?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're gonna have to go find Sarah because she's she's got a lot to give through all of that experience.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm just curious, uh, you know, through this whole journey, well, let's ask it in two parts.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of the biggest lessons you've learned.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And what kind of advice would you give to somebody who, you know, maybe they're stepping out of school teaching and they're tipping their dipping their toe into elevators and wondering, you know, what to do with it.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Biggest lesson, and what advice would you give?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Biggest lesson.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, never stop learning.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: You can think you know everything, but guess what?
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: In our industry, technology changes every day, right?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you never stop learning about different processes, different tools, different um aspects.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you stay educated in your industry.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I will say um I've seen uh and experienced a lot of times when somebody's made that decision that I'm there, I'm comfortable, I'm ready.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you can't stop.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: You always have to continue learning, you always have to continue expanding.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, don't ever be satisfied with where you're at.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then how does that how does that go on to the second question?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I've learned that relationships they go full circle.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: You uh will always meet very valuable people and come back and um revisit them later in your career multiple times.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so creating those healthy relationships when you're when you're first graduating as a teacher and uh you're networking, right?
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Finding out what's out there, talk to people, um, find out what they do, find out if that's a good fit for you.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be in the elevator industry.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: I just stumbled on an amazing industry that I love.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but some people don't uh like it.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: They don't like uh working with mechanics who like to cuss a lot.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: Or you know, there's there's things about our industry that are just accepted, right?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that they don't have a thick enough skin.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: But uh the I would encourage you to always network, find out what's out there, and keep that in mind.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just because you went to school and got a uh a degree in something doesn't mean that you have to continue in that path if you are not satisfied with it.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: For sure, for sure.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's uh beautiful advice.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously you've you've lived that out and you've seen the the value of you know getting to know people, letting them get to know you and trust you to the point that hey, it it's gonna come back around and they're you know, maybe they'll offer you a job, they'll give you a call and say, hey, I want your help.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Unknowingly, right?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: You you don't know who you're doing.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Never know.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah, thank you so much.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: I've enjoyed this conversation.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a lot of fun and uh always enjoyed talking with you.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: So good luck to you as you continue to build training and roll out the training and and build your career, really.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the All Red Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Please visit our YouTube channel at Elevator Careers or check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Please like and subscribe.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And until next time, stay safe.