Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / Interviewing the President of Atlantic Elevators | Joey Austin

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Interviewing the President of Atlantic Elevators | Joey Austin · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: It is an amazing industry.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: It allows you to grow in a lot of different areas of where you want to go, whether it be being the helper, the lead tech, to the salesman, to the owner, to working directly for the manufacturer, and putting the elevators, elevators together there.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And there's so many places and opportunities that you can grow into as long as you find the interest and the willingness to learn, anybody can.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: In this podcast, we talk to the people whose lives and careers are dedicated to the vertical transportation industry, to inform and share lessons learned, building upon the foundation of those who have gone before to inspire the next generation of elevator careers.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Today our guest is Joey Austin, president of Atlantic Elevators, a residential elevator contractor in North Carolina.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Joey started as a helper in 2003 and quickly moved up to be a foreman.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: In 2009, Joey moved to the Bay Area of California, and in 2012, he moved to Virginia, where he continued to perfect his skills.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: In 2014, Joey was offered an opportunity to buy into an ownership position, which he was excited to do.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: For the past four years, Joey has had full leadership control of the company.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: He loves the work he does and continues to grow.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Joey, welcome to the show.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm excited to be able to talk to you a little more.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: It was great to meet you at the NAEC conference a couple weeks ago, have lunch together.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm intrigued by you, your your story, your company.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so I just want to get to a chance to have you tell that story a little bit more.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: So let's just start at the beginning.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: How did you get into the elevator industry?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I pretty much started as a helper.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the partner that I have now in the business was best friends with my dad.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And they pretty much were like, Hey, you want to do elevators?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, sure, why not?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so about three or four years, I was a helper, and then I got the opportunity to move up in the company as the company was growing.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: So just to clarify, this was your your dad's company um that you were talking about, or no, no, it's actually um the partner that I have now.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he had another partner at the time, it was a builder.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And because he was doing so many elevators, he was like, Hey, maybe we should get in the elevator business.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so they started the business, and it was about gosh, 18 18 years ago today.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and it's just kind of moved from there.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there was another partner in the company that retired about seven, eight years ago.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And since I started as a helper, you know, I was working for him, and then worked in Virginia, and then had worked directly for an elevator manufacturer, Fist and Crow Access in California, and then came back and they were said, Hey, you know, Kenny, Kenny Pecram, who was one of the partners in running the company, said, Hey, you know, I'm gonna retire.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: I need to have an exit strategy.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, is this something that you want to take over?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time, I was like, Yeah, sure.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I moved back, all my family's here anyway, sure, and um the rest is history, and it's been a little piece at a time.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um, it was glad, it was nice to be able to be at the you know, being a helper and working through to see every part because I feel like I'm able to help out the text more now.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Versus coming in and not knowing it all.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I'm sure in your in your leadership, in your training, I mean, you definitely have that that ability to see eye to eye with the the people that are that are doing the work now and and just help them understand the the product and and how it's supposed to go.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: So just to clarify for our um our listeners, um, you do 100% residential, is that correct?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: I or or at least mostly residential?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but pretty much 100% residential.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it if if it's any commercial, it's it's very little, it's less than five percent of our business.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you mentioned, yeah, I guess some of the lifts are are commercial, but yeah, that's right.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um Lulas are the only thing that we've done that were commercial besides uh vertical platform lifts.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: And what I've seen, um, you know, is that I don't know, there's a it seems to be a lot of growth in the industry.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and maybe we can talk that about that in a second.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just curious, you know, you actually buying the business.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: At what point did you decide that, hey, I I really like this industry?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I'm not gonna go out and I mean 18 years is a long time, right?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, pretty much right at the beginning.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I didn't grow up with uh construction background.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um my dad is actually a banker man and my mom's a doctor.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And um so I didn't even have the privilege of growing up in the industry, and then just I just dropped in it.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Yep, this is it, this is what I'm gonna do.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna work hard and see where it takes me.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And um I think it's such a unique industry that you know, even coming in early, you can take pride in it because it's just unique and the way everything works out, it's just fun.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't feel like when you come to work, you're like, oh, it doesn't feel like work.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, which is awesome.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's I there aren't very many people that can say they love what they do and they love coming to work.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so do you did you find it to be significantly different when you went from or the on the technical side, actually doing the work, to hey, now you're an owner and you're managing people.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Was that a big shift for you?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah, yeah.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm glad though that I get to be able to see what the point of view was from anybody, you know, from the worker, and to be in the position now, because I can understand the whole picture better, you know, where everyone's coming from as from management and to as a helper.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's very vital.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think it allows me to understand things better for everyone to help everyone more, um, whether it be a technical question or something going on in our life and then within work.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: How hard would it have been for you to just maybe you walk in essentially off the street, but you just you know buy a business and and manage elevator mechanics and installations and oh wow.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's uh it's you know, it's a really small industry, it's big, but it's small.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I there's so many different aspects to it, and the level of entry into this business is so unique that you really got to have a good sense of like who the manufacturers are, how do they work, how does the service part work?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then there's the technical part because there's a lot of people who are super technical and they can they can figure it out like no problem.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And but there's so many niches in the business of like how the work's done, the process, and that it kind of people once they get into it, it's kind of like even if someone hops into it and from a tech standpoint, has their go to an install, and then they're saying okay, you gotta hop on a ladder, you gotta put on a harness, you know, get up there and do the work.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, Okay, this is not for me.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then, and like I kind of always tell everybody too.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, you always have to look at the big picture, like from the technical support you get from the manufacturer, the lead time, obviously, the cost um of what you're getting it for, what can you sell it for?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the people that you're dealing with, are they good people, good friendly, good to do business with to um to the shipping part, like just the absolute whole picture, and then how they handle all the things with quality control, all that stuff matters, and knowing it and kind of figuring out is not something you just want to jump into.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, and it sounds like for you, learning from the bottom all the way up has been crucial, it's been huge to you being able to do what you do now.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it it definitely gives you a better perspective from people's point of view.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: For example, if you get something from the factory and it's wrong, and you know from being in a maybe being in that position, you're like, well, it's it's an easy mistake because you can get upset about so many things um with delays or you know, quality control or um something that was said wrong from a technical standpoint and be upset all the time.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: But when you've gotten to deal with it from so many different places, you kind of just like, you know what, yeah, it happens.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's no big deal.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: We can come to a common goal, as long as we all achieve it, we're good.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you like to bring people into your business when you're hiring?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: What's what's critical for you?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um the flexibility, I think.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um we try to offer as much as we can, um, you know, uh with I guess they're um with their benefits, obviously.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: We have paid health insurance, um, all those things.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then the quality of life, you know, if they say, hey, you know, I can't come into work, or um, you know, not a big deal, also trying to get them more involved, like where we bring the guys to the to the show, to the NEC show, so they can see the big picture of the industry and really like, wow, this you know, this is really cool, so that they can kind of feel part of it.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd like for everyone to feel like it's a team, it's not me owning the business and you working for me and you're just bringing me money and I don't care about you, right?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I want to care about you and one of us all to succeed and as a team, because if I don't have you, it's no business.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Got nothing, sure.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Do you do you end up hiring a lot of helpers yourself and bringing them in as helpers?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's pretty much where it starts.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone uh starts pretty much with if they had experience, it's very lucky.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we did get fortunate enough to have two guys that came from another company that had experience that moved down from Maryland, and um that but that's very rare.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but most people have either had no experience and you have to start training them.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Normally they're just a helper, and then as they move along, they can start doing more service work, and as they do more service work, they get to see different products and it kind of expands from there.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because one thing I know in this, at least on the residential, and I think for people I've met over the years in the commercial side, is you can come in and do uh you know one thing for a while and just do rails, and anybody can do the rails for the elevator after a while.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: I would say one of the big differences though, on the residential side, you kind of have to be more of a jack of all trades.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Commercial, you can have a guy who I've met, he's like, I've done rails for 20 years, and like you don't know how to read a schematic?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Nope.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's all I did, right?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because in the union, you're gonna have guys who only did certain things and then they weren't allowed to, maybe not because they didn't want to, they weren't allowed to.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: So on the residential, you kind of I gotta be able to do this, this, this, and this, and continue to grow so that you can, you know, allows us to service all the products the best we can.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, that's interesting.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what what would you say?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, as far as you know, bringing someone in into the industry, you you mentioned it's almost rare, very rare, that they have any experience.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: So is there uh what kind of support do you have?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: And and by that I mean, you know, I know NAEC has you know the training programs for um for the commercial mechanics.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Do they also have that for residential?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the only thing you have for residential is through the NAEC, which is um the CAT or which is Certified Accessibility Technician Program, and it's a two-year, but you can't even get into that until you've been working in the industry uh for two or three years.
• 13:26
  unknown: Wow.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got to be in the industry for two or three years, then you can start that if you stay with the company that can administer it.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then you've got, you know, you you've got two years of doing that.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So you're five years invested in an industry if you're a young guy, and this is a problem in construction on a whole, anything where you've got to be working for someone for a certain amount of time, especially five to seven years, it does get more difficult to main, you know, stay with that and then be able to do your own thing at some point in time.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you know, in North Carolina, particularly for electrical, you know, I have to do electrical uh continuing ed.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of the things North Carolina requires.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I go and sit in the continuing ed classes, and I'm only see 38.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the youngest people in the room every time.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think in the state, there was probably only 138 unlimited licensed electricians under the age of 50.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, out of like 10, 12,000.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: How does that affect your business?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, obviously, there's not as many people because of that barrier of getting that, even getting to that point, it keeps people from entry into this industry for one.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it makes it harder for techs to move up, you know.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Then they have because they have to work for you for so long.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: If they want to go do their own thing, you know, it's gonna take several years.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And in that way, that's what I had to kind of do here because when I started three or four years, you know, I couldn't go get the license until you know four years into it.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't even get it for here until I became an owner, right before becoming an owner.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: So because it was never because to maintain it on your own without being part of a company, obviously it's an expense for any company.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the union commercial side probably struggles with that as well.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you're not obviously not employed or you're not actively in the business, it would be expensive to maintain your license.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, uh that's that's definitely a challenge.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Continuing it in our industry on a whole and trying to go further is really difficult.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I actually try to hear locally talking with the community college to try to get at some sort of maybe technical program to help people get involved in the elevator industry, but that doesn't employ enough people.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: For them to be interested, in other words, right?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, a community college is a business, and any school is a business, so it has to be able to employ enough people for it to be worth it.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that creates a whole other challenge.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of still continues to be just uh can more education just within the business itself.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what would you say are some of the biggest uh challenges uh facing uh your side of the business?
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because I I do see uh kind of two different worlds when you know commercial versus residential elevator, um, they just seem like they're very different from my perspective, but I'm just curious what uh what are some of your challenges?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um obviously the biggest challenges are finding experience help labor, um, and continuing that education and growing on that.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I mean that I would say that it's got to be the biggest struggle.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it could be the same via via commercial.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, any other things for these businesses, it's really hard to take it to the next step without that.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, lots of times the businesses in the residential side would like to grow because some will start as, let's say, just a stair lift company only.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, a company like Severia, they sell all accessibility products.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: So you say you start as a stair lift guy, and you're like, okay, this is, and they're pretty much designed as do it yourself.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to grow into these, you kind of have to be able to find the people you need, uh, which is hard because it's limited to most people have to be involved in the trade to have any experience.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And normally they're kind of they tend to have a tendency to stay where they are.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so to take it to the next step, I would say, yeah, that's that's the biggest challenge is finding the people who are experienced and getting the training.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: There are some things where uh the manufacturers offer it to be trained on certain products.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I've sent texts prior to COVID uh to Canada to get trained, and so that we can have that one, have that, that our technicians are factory trained, and we're trying to get education wherever we can, sure, you know, within our industry.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and also it's good for liability and insurance purposes.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's it's specific product training versus more general, yeah, you know, just general knowledge.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: But I I I would assume that every every product is probably pretty different.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, you know, if they're proprietary, if they're um, do they have non-proprietary in the residential or not really?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: They do, but and that's something in residential you wouldn't want, um, for a lot of reasons.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: In some ways you would, but um because then you don't have an engineered stamp um okay from the manufacturer saying it meets all the standards because you can do that, like for example, the NAC shows uh conventions.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can, you know, say I'm gonna buy my controller from Virginia Controls, I'm gonna get my sling from so and so, I'm gonna get my rails from so and so, and you could build your own elevator and build your own cab, go to Home Depot as far as you want, uh, and just build it.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that takes a whole nother level of expertise in itself.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you really gotta know all that whole part there.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some people I've known who have done that, and it's that's a huge liability and insurance issue because none of it's covered.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, if you were to go out of business, and a lot of them do through over a period of time, then homeowners particularly are stuck with a make at home elevator where somebody just made it, so you got to replace it because nobody supports it.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a soul who will work on it, you know.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so one of our policies is if we didn't install it, we're not gonna work on it because of the liability, okay, especially the codes and because they might have installed where it's not code compliant, and I think that's a whole nother challenge, too, for different areas.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: North Carolina is pretty relaxed, other states are way more strict, and it's probably a bigger challenge for other residential companies to get people to help meet their elevators to their standards for that state and that area.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like Florida is definitely more strict, and California used to be um not too bad, but I think they've they've jumped to different codes.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I know New York's probably reasonably difficult, and Virginia, for example, they always had uh one-time state inspection, so you have to do a full load test and drop it.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: North Carolina, you don't have to do that.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: You just say, us as a manufacturer, we say, yes, it meets compliance with the current code, and you're good.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so which is another reason you would want a product like from Severia or Garavena or Harmar or you know, any of the manufacturers, so that you have that credibility and that backing, sure.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: They're not going to go out of business because that's something that we've even experienced in the past as well.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: We used to be a big um physic access lab dealer.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have maybe 700 here, but they went out of business in 2012, and we had to Jump and look for another manufacturer because we only dealt with one.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: We basically had all their eggs in one basket.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we at that point in time we were like, okay, we need to diversify and always have two.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we deal with Severia, we deal with Cambridge and Garavenna.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so that that way, if one of them falls apart and goes out of business, we're not like, okay, what do we do now?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's happened to a lot of companies, especially U.S.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: manufacturers on the residential side in the past 10 years.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, Thyscrumpe Access went out of business, National Wheel Evador was part of that.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then Otis had bought Simco, which was another residential company, and they closed three US manufacturers in one year.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: So in that 2012 year.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then Wapaca, which is, I think, now Fox River Valley Helmeter.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then Inclinators one of the only bigger US residential manufacturers that I can think of that I've seen.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of mom and pop ones you don't see as much.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh again, they normally make their own, and that can be that can be you could really have an elevator that nobody else has and never get service, and could be a that's a huge problem in our industry as well.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard commercial guys wish that everything would be universal for the independent so that they could work on Otis and stuff.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard that a lot.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, but in the residential side, it actually it protects the consumer because the codes aren't as strict in different states.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Has a commercial is more commercial code is going to be more universal a little bit or a little bit stricter for each state, but it's definitely more hazardous to the consumer in a residential side.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, it's interesting.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's an interesting perspective.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the fact that you as a company don't want to service equipment that you haven't installed certainly has implications for your business.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: I know on the commercial side, I mean they don't seem to care who installed it.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, hey, let's let's take down that account, you know, we'll service it until it's time to mod, do a mod on it or or whatever.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: So um that's fascinating.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: What have you seen as far as um uh we mentioned a few minutes ago, you know, growth in the residential uh uh side, and from what I'm seeing as an outsider, just kind of talking to people, it sounds like there is a good bit of growth.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: What are you seeing where you're at?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for our area, you know, it's it's it's grown a whole a whole lot, especially because of COVID and people working remotely and moving from the northeast.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: It we've definitely had another boom.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we're in our little bubble bubble, I like to call Outer Banks of America.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and it's just continued to grow, and you know, interest rates have gone up still, and we're still getting people that are still buying and still moving here.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um granted, if it continues, of course, like everything it will stop.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: But being we're kind of a vacation area and a tourist area, we still that's why we're kind of in a bubble.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: The rest of the country is starting to slow down, but we still have had a good amount of growth.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: But not only that, because of the tourism area that we're in, we have so many elevators that are here.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Replacements are becoming are really common because a lot of the elevators uh in 2006, where we had the last boom of houses being built and a lot of elevators we put in need to be replaced.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, okay.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk a little bit about replacement because uh you had said earlier that um uh but you know, not on the recording, but when we've talked, you you just talked about kind of the what is expected of a residential elevator versus versus commercial.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um so tell me a little bit about that life cycle of the residential elevator.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, uh in our area we'll have non-rental and a rental.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: The non-rentals, you know, uh homeowner, um, the typical usage is probably 3,500 trips a year.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, in the rental program that we have here, the houses are rented for three to four month period.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: They get 20 to 30,000 trips.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's an excessive amount of usage.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll get calls to say, hey, why did I have you know so many service calls this year?
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, well, your elevator got used 20,000 times.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's designed for 3,500.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, why would you not expect the guide shoe to wear out?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, 10, 10 years of usage in one year, essentially.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and that's that is one of the nice things on on the commercial.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I guess that a lot of the companies you're doing now are where you have the programming or even remote monitoring where you can monitor their usage.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: And really, and it really is incredibly helpful in our rental market because people will call and be like, Yes, we know, we know what's wrong.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's you left the door open, you need to close it, and you'll be good to go.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: And they can save some money and they save us some headache.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: But it also gives us that data where you can really see now where you know, 10 years ago we we couldn't see it.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we knew it, but we didn't couldn't really prove it.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: So you can never have enough data.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: And now that we have it, you know, I think I would say there's some residential units that are if they're 15 years old, they've made over a million trips.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, easily.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: Especially as you say, in the in the high rental district, it sounds like the the renters are are using it a lot more than just the homeowner.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and it's amazing because to a degree, some we haven't had to replace motors as much as you would think.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: So um to give you know Fist and Croup access to credit, there's some of these motors, you they obviously weren't planned to have the usage that they were, but they have and they've done a really good job, and it's it's pretty amazing.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: Cool, cool, very cool.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: What would you um what would you say, you know, just kind of looking for it?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you talked about you know hiring people, you talked about the training.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: Are you looking to continue to grow?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, do you see yourself you know moving to into other cities?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: And what would be the the critical factor to be able to do that?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really, you know, this is this is a good, I'm glad you asked because this is a difficult thing in the residential side, is to one, you you kind of always in waves in the construction industry in the booms, the ups, the downs.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: So you kind of have to try to figure out how you can expand while not bringing down your company.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh obviously, I guess like many.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I think one good way that we've started is we we have a salesman in Richmond who, Gene, I think you got to meet when we were at um at the convention, um, where he's his salary is based on commission.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he's an older gentleman, so he's not relying on the income as much, but it's so far it's worked out very well because it's not any cost for us to start an office there, because we can still send all the materials from there, send the text from here, and then he can sell it and maintain, make sure that everything's okay, and then he makes that money off you know, off the commission.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: So if he doesn't sell anything, he doesn't make any money, we don't make any money.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of a win-win situation.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: And in previous times and over the years, we used to have an office in Wilmington, North Carolina, and we used to have one in Virginia where I'd work.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the problem when they sometimes when this happens is, for example, in the past, when we were in Wilmington, we opened up an office, and that market could be more competitive because you don't know because you don't live there.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: You don't you can know a little bit, but until you really get down into it, you're like, okay, your price margins are not as good in this area as they are back home.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're back home, you're the only game in town, but here you have more competition.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to sell more elevators to make up for it.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: And by doing that, that's a little bit harder because you've got more employees, you've got more overhead.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it kind of brings the other part of the company down while you're trying to grow.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: So also the risk is sometimes in the past, some of the manufacturers buy dealers like us so they can open up in that area.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you were already promoting their product, now you're competing directly against them in your backyard, you don't stand a chance, and it basically kills your business.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: So anything you've tried to grow kind of gets crushed, and it's it's kind of sad.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's happened to around that time period between 08 and 2012, there were quite a few companies that did that, and you end up, you know, it could close you or you hang in there and grind it out.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that sounds, yeah, that's interesting.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that is, you know, between labor and trying to grow and expand and trying to do it cautiously.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because the other thing is if you're servicing too large of an area, it's hard to get there.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: So on the residential side, you know, you go to a homeowner and you say, Okay, it's gonna be$500 before I set foot in the door, then what?
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, we can't do that.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, on the commercial side, it could be that, and be like, that's the norm.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's gotta be, sure.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's gotta be what because you gotta have it, there's no choice, and so that that also limits you from trying to to grow out to another area because if you open up another office, that overhead, you know, it's gotta already have you pretty much have to have instant income.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: And in the elevator business on the residential side, you know, new construction, it's very slow.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then the renovation, it's you just have to know the area, so it can be it can get really tricky.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um so far, I think like I talked about with Gene, I think that's worked out the best um because it's a win-win situation, it's not for everyone, but it's a good start.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and it sounds like you know, like like most companies that I work with and have worked with, you know, having the right people is is critical.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: You you just can't say enough about you gotta have good people.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it sounds like you've you found that.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and it sounds like your your growth strategy may be even somewhat tied to that.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: If I got the right person, I think I can do it.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: If I don't, then yes, that's gonna be tricky.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: And there's been horror stories where people, it's a trust thing.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: You if you open up in another area and you can't actually be there to run your business, and you're just trying to grow it, then lots of times that that person may end up stealing from you.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had I've heard cases where those people have done that, and that that you're right, that's a whole nother issue of trusting.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Is this the right person?
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Can this can they take it from here to there with being trustworthy and knowledgeable of the industry?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that that's a whole nother thing.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to find people who are going to come into this with experience and be able to go to a different area and roll with it, unless you you know buy another company and you just kind of merge together, but sometimes that doesn't work well either.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, or unless maybe you bring somebody up through your ranks and then they're willing to move, or maybe they want to move, or you know, you get yeah, offer the opportunity for more growth for them personally.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah, that's very cool.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: So if you were to offer some some advice to you know, either entrepreneurs or maybe people just starting out, what would you tell them?
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: Things you've learned.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um it is um an amazing industry, it allows you to grow in a lot of different areas of where you want to go, whether it be being the helper, the lead tech, to the salesman, to the owner, to working directly for the manufacturer, um, and putting the elevators elevators together there.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: And there's so many places and opportunities that you can grow into, as long as you find the interest and the willingness to learn, anybody can.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's that's what's so critical is having that ambition and that willingness to learn and continue to grow, then you always have a spot in the elevator industry, I feel like.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and that's the case with a lot of things, so yeah.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and obviously you've you've experienced that in your own life that as you've grown, there's been new opportunities, you've taken advantage of them, and you know, there's always more to go.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: So that's beautiful.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: I I appreciate you just uh taking some time to talk with me today.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners before we uh end today?
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um gosh.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, um uh if you ever have the opportunity, I would say for anybody's text and anybody in the residential side to do try to engage your employees and other people at to the NAEC show that to at least give them the opportunity to see how big and small the industry is.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about that for just a second since you brought it up.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: What are the benefits you have seen by by bringing your you know your field guys essentially, right, into to the conference on the extra?
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: So everyone gets to so they get to see, I guess, like as you could say is where the sausage is made, I guess you could say uh uh you get to see where all these different parts and these different companies and and how they all come together to give you a product.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, you get to meet and see all the different places in the industry where you could work and where you could grow.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you're like, oh well, you know, maybe if I don't like being a tech anymore, maybe I can go be a salesman for so-and-so, or I can go, you know, work on making T rails for somebody, you know, and and and and then just see how it's connected and the camaraderie of the business is very unique.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we talked about that when we met, and uh even the randomness that we ran into each other and got the opportunity to do this, those type of things are irreplaceable, and it seems to always happen um in this industry, and you because we'll go to uh a dinner with Severia, like for all their big dealers, and you'll meet all these people from all over the country, and they'll tell you, Well, I do this, and this is how we do this, and this is how you do that, and that information you would only get there, sure, sure.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it allows you just to open your eyes and see what the potential of where you could go if you wanted to, um, and just to see how it is.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome, awesome.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: And and I love that you talked about just the the camaraderie of the industry, you know, just meeting you on the street and hey, let's go do lunch, right?
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: And let's uh let's talk some more.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's uh it's an amazing industry, and that's the big reason I want I like to do these podcast interviews is to to highlight that and help help others see it as well.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, it it's it's it's it's it's so much fun, and you know it's it's great.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: I I feel like in a lot of ways, even though we're all competitors, we want every all of us to succeed.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: You don't get that a lot, you really don't.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um in a lot of people, everyone's like, because everyone's telling you their little tricks and how to do this and how to do that, and you're like, Oh, okay, well, and then you go home and you you can make more money, and then you excel, and then you go back and see them another time, and they're like, Yeah, see, it worked.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, Yes, it was great.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for the advice, yeah, you know, and you know, even people who were uh even in your backyard.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a company that I see there at the conventions and sometimes here locally that is in Wilmington, North Carolina, and sometimes we go and we meet sometimes a couple times in the year prior to COVID, right?
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we would just talk business and tell us, hey, how are you doing this?
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing that?
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we're competitors, sure, you know, and that way we can both because there's not a lot of resources to go to, you know, where you can exchange that knowledge, and that place is just like a gold mine.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome, you know.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's what I see in the industry, is it's people are willing to help each other, and uh, and I think that's what uh builds the camaraderie, builds the the community, if you will.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and um yeah, hopefully everybody'll just keep building it, right?
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: We can each do our part.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's right, that's right, yes.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you, Joe.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate your time.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: Good to talk to you today.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the All Red Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: Please subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.