Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / Fixing America’s Broken Elevators: A Public-Private Modernization Partnership | Scott Drummond

Transcript

Fixing America’s Broken Elevators: A Public-Private Modernization Partnership | Scott Drummond · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: A little over two years ago, like many people, I was stressed out in the world.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Coronavirus was going on and things of that nature.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I was, I see all the problems in many facets, you know, like us my my family's problems.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then when you go out and you see, you know, the world and and and you work on elevators, you see the problems everywhere.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that's all I was dealing with everywhere was problems.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I just decided I started talking to, I was working going into some buildings and I started talking to some accountants, and then I started talking to some attorneys.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: But I always I had done a little research on public-private partnerships here and there because I know that the, you know, it's a fleet of elevators.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, elevators move more people every day than planes, trains, and automobiles put together.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: So right there, you think big, like any elevator.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Most people, elevator people, they always think big, big egos, big big work.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: We do something special.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I've sat down with a 501c3 attorney and I said, my good man, I'd like to, you know, I'd like to develop a public-private partnership modernizing elevators for the entire, you know, United States fleet of elevators and public spaces.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Today our guest is Scott Drummond, president and founder of Emmys Elevator, a 501 nonprofit organization and founder of Noakes Mountain Benefit Corporation.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Scott has over 20 years in the elevator trade as an elevator mechanic.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: He has seen the disparity of dilapidating elevators throughout the country and has decided to tackle this problem head on.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: By creating a public-private partnership, Scott has the vision and vehicle to bring about modernizing elevator infrastructure in public facilities throughout America.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Scott sees this effort advancing every sector of the elevator industry and creating jobs using American equipment.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Scott, welcome to the show.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing, Matt?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Doing great.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Doing great.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for for being here today.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm excited to talk to you and and partly just because uh you're creating a very unique uh uh avenue in the elevator industry that I want to get to I want to understand it a little bit better and hopefully our listeners can understand a little bit better what you're doing and and how uh in my mind you're you're kind of changing the world.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So uh let's let's dive in.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: How did you get started in the elevator industry to from the beginning?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it was 1999, and my ex-wife's cousin was in the elevator trade.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I was working for giant food at the time, uh, department manager, and I heard about the elevator business and all the great things from her cousin, and he got me, you know, an interview and everything like that.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I started with Dover Elevator, just it was ending being Dover Elevator and transferring over to Titson.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh basically that's how I got in.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: As soon as I got in, it only took me about six months, you know, working with mechanics and things like that, and being on the job in construction at Dover, Titson, where I realized, man, I love this.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: I love this world.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: This elevator world was where I was I'm born to be in, kind of.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I was a wild man back in the day, a lot, a lot of roughness, rough around the edges, complex, you know, upbringing, you know, and uh starting in New York and moving down to Virginia, which you know gives me a good perspective on people in the world when you're from Long Island and you kind of uh finish the second half in the woods in Virginia.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: I like to think I can kind of talk to everybody in a way, but it was, man, and over the next 20, over 20 years, I just fell in love with it more and more every single day of my life.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard luck, actually, not to get emotional about it because I do love it that much, man.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it is uh, you know, that is uh going through the apprenticeship program, all that stuff, you know, I realized that man, I've talked spoken to so many people over the years.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: My friends all went to school, went to college, and things of that nature.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really hard to find one or two, actually, that don't look at me and go, man, we we should, we should have, I should have done what you do.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I should have gone into the elevator business, you know, or you know, been an elevator mechanic.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, when you see only 30,000 of us, you know, 35,000 probably in total in the whole entire country being an elevator mechanic, because that's what I'm sitting here as.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sitting here as an elevator mechanic who uh I like to tell people is man, you're part engineer.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: You are a social engineer, you are an electrical engineer, you are a mechanical engineer, everything, you know, and being able to do all those things, it translate into it translates into life.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and repairing, it's about repair, modernization, and things like that for every human being, just as much as it is an elevator, you know, in neighborhoods.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I went through that, you know, as a father.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I had my I grew up in the elevator business and being father in the elevator business, you know, and having my kids be able to see, you know, two young men and a beautiful daughter, being able to see somebody who, you know, truly loves their work, no matter how hard it got, you know, whether or not.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: What is it that you love the most?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: What is it that really, you know, you said within that first six months, what what was it that kind of clicked for you?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: I could totally be me.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I could I I there's no censorship in that world, you know.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh when you're an elevator mechanic, you're so needed, you know, you can almost you there's nowhere that's not going to let you in, you know.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: You go to the White House and you know it's 2:30 in the morning and that elevator don't work.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the guy's giving you, okay, man, well, call me back when you're ready.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: And you leave, you're getting called back two seconds like, come on back, come on back, you know, because you're that important.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: But that is that is why I love it.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: It is because of the importance of that job, you know, and it is a job that it not too not enough people know about.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: And when I started working with uh, you know, one of the bigger counties around here, working with their fair the government and you know, the jail and the courthouse, they really showed me and told me how, dude, you're like the most vital person on this entire project, you know, on this entire facility.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: So if when anything breaks in there, you know, if there's a security problem, call or call the elevator dude first.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: If there, if there's this problem, those are the people, the elevator people are the ones our system gets into every single system in the building.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: And because if they don't work, ours isn't gonna work.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: But it was uh, you know, man, it was it's been a long journey and one that I don't retirement is not in my future.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: I don't ever want to retire.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and that's a part of the reason I wanted to design something like this is because I want to uh I got to a point where I wanted I wanted to lead people in this business, you know.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: I said, no, I I think I I seen so much.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's all about patterns and things of that nature.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: But finally do I think let's talk a little bit about what you what you are creating, you know, what after you know 20 however many years and and just kind of the vision that you're seeing that that really needs to be uh needs to be created in your mind.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I was living, I live in Loudoun County out here in Virginia, one of the most beautiful, you know, uh counties in the country, I like to think.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I was living on 30 acres, a beautiful 30 acres on top of a mountain, you know, a small mountain here in Loudoun County.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I was spending my evenings running calls, you know, set six, seven, eight, nine hours on the road a day, going to DC and you know, Baltimore and places like that.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: And the the company I was with at the time had a lot of public facilities.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: And when you see the things that go on, to see the things that happen to a building when an elevator is not functioning, it it the whole building's depressed.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean, you go from where a piece of machinery, it's like I you know mentioned, it's like your front door is locked and you got to wait for an elevator an overworked elevator guy or gal or whoever to uh come in and you know either get there from, like I said, you're you're traveling 100, 200 miles you know in a day in a trip sometimes to fix elevators.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's even more so out west.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: And when you talk about things like that, you're talking about old people, you're talking about people in wheelchairs, you're talking about people that you know you don't want them to have to wait, you know, that they spend their life waiting.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And but it was, you know, working on the side of the government where everything kind of works good, you know, where you're going into CI, you're going into all the special buildings that, oh no, they're taking care of all those places.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then at nighttime, you're running all the calls at these other places, which is their fleet as well.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, their fleet of elevators goes from the White House to the public houses and the, you know, the so you're seeing this huge disparity is is what I'm hearing, you know, between, oh, this building's important, so we're gonna make sure that equipment's up and running and and functioning perfectly.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas maybe over in this section, I don't know, we don't care as much, or we're it's just not a top priority, or logistics is logistics and just the way the things function in the world, you know.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you don't want the top breaking down.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: I can understand that, you know, Matt.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: And when you get to the bottom, you know, that's a place where things just settle, you know.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: There's uh there's many terms you can call it in this world, you know, certain things roll downhill, right?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it is it's a place where, you know, there's never been a fix for it.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's throw throw money at it, throw money at it, throw money at it.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, don't throw money at it, put money into it, you know, create jobs, create all the things, create small business, create all these things that benefit in many ways.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's uh you go from a tax deduction to taxes created in a way.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: So let's let's let's talk about that a little bit because I I think that uh you know, just just to identify the problem and then say, hey, create a small business.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: I you know, I I need to I need to kind of go into the the vehicle as you described it that you're using to to kind of address the problem and and being able to invest in these these areas and and kind of you know beyond that.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So you talked about um not on this yet, but you told me about a a public private partnership, I believe you called it.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is that correct?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Tell tell me what what is that?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: What and and let's talk about some, you know, we'll talk about some examples that are already in existence.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, it was it's just not a common term.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Public private partnership.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what what is that and what are we talking about?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: So give us just a little bit of info on that.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: So you know a little over two years ago, like many people, I was stressed out in the world, coronavirus was going on, and things of that nature, and I was I see all the problems in many facets, you know, like us my my family's problems, and then when you go out and you see, you know, the world and and and you work on elevators, you see the problems everywhere, and that's all I was dealing with everywhere was problems.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I just decided I started talking to, I was working going into some buildings and I started talking to some accountants, and then I started talking to some attorneys.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: But I always I had done a little research on public-private partnerships here and there because I know that the you know it's a fleet of elevators, and you know, elevators move more people every day than planes, trains, and automobiles put together.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: So right there, you think big, like any elevator.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Most people are elevator people, they always think big, big egos, big big work.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: We do something special.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I've sat down with a 501c3 attorney, and I said, My good man, I'd like to, you know, I'd like to develop a public-private partnership, modernizing elevators for the entire, you know, United States fleet of elevators in public spaces, and also bringing ADA up to code everywhere.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that was, like I said, almost two years ago now.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: And probably six months later, after a lot of, you know, all about conflicts of interest, making sure we're not, you know, nobody's being left behind.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's not about taking from anywhere, it's about creating something and sharing.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what you think when you hear the word public-private partnership in this aspect.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they do exist in many other in many other places in this country, but I don't they've never existed in something like this that I think actually gets so much done and creates so much that it it it more acts like a business system than it does a public-private partnership.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when I researched it, you know, it talked about how public-private partnerships are are used to build bridges and roads and tunnels and you know, all and it said infrastructure.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And and yet elevators, to your point, is bigger infrastructure when you're talking about the number of people that's moving uh than a lot of those other things.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Although, you know, uh, you know, a bridge is a bigger piece of uh of infrastructure, but it but it's not as big as the entire system of elevators.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're if you're talking about all elevators in all public housing, that's a lot.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Public facilities.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking military bases, we're talking everywhere, you know, and it is they're everywhere, this this public fleet, uh, and it you you touch everybody, you know, and that's where you it's a public-private part a partnership.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that when you when you start tapping into, you know, the the the government's fleet of elevators, and and really how it works with the everywhere else is also a different beautiful way because you can get into the private world where people have, you know, they're buying small buildings and they don't have you know money to fix their elevator buttons and things of that nature, because we're gonna get that, we can get that narrow.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: We can go from you know fixing a whole elevator to also, you know, hey, you need that we need some buttons over here.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: We can't afford it.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: We hear things like that all the time.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, certain customers can't afford that, and certain customers can.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's where you that's where, you know, management and the things that we haven't instilled you know installed to make sure, you know, we protect this charity to make sure it's working, you know, on a complete, you know, legal level.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it's uh it's a piece of infrastructure.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that was the word, you know, the whole world is geared towards infrastructure right now in this country.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a business opportunity.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: And to to build an infrastructure project for elevators, this is the steps that I've gone through, you know, and it is more complex than building a bridge because you're it's very it's it expands everywhere in the country.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: You're not focusing on, we're not just focusing on uh, you know, a bridge over here going into Maryland into DC.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: We're focusing on elevators in Maryland and DC.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: We're focusing on elevators in Des Moines, Iowa, we're focusing on elevators in Tennessee and not just elevators, but you know, ADA issues everywhere, bringing all that up to code.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you bring all that up to code with something like this.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: One company can't do it all.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: It has to, you know, of partnership.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: We'll look to you know the big companies and their shareholders as donors.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Here you go.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Here's a beautiful, you know, tax-deductible way for you to get elevators fixed.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: And here, then one day you'll be able to hopefully bid on a uh, you know, non-proprietary elevator.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Your company will have the opportunity to do things like that.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: So, but the partnership was all built, and it is uh, you know, the easiest examples is stadiums and things like that get done in this facet, you know, bridges, all sorts of things.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't think I'm very proud of how I put this together because I do know all the downsides to a lot of these public-private partnerships, you know.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I have absolutely no ownership of either of the of any of this, you know, elevator company and things of that nature, because the correct way to do it is the exact way I'm looking for to do it is, you know, me having beautiful leadership role in these two companies somewhere in the end, and me helping folks, you know, and get it done.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: But that, you know, I like to tell people that comes from me being in a union, believe it or not, you know, which is uh I'm here to earn for folks.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: I've always I've always been a good earner for the elevator companies, but uh now it is where I want to partner with them.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: I never wanted to be the boss, I just wanted the bosses to listen in a way, you know, because sure uh it is if you can get this type of thing from me as an elevator mechanic, you know, uh to develop a something like a public-private partnership.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine the guys that are walking around and the girls and whoever that are walking around in our business today?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: That if you just give them a little boost, you this is about fixing this country, you know, and right and public is, you know, we're the public, all of us, no matter who we are, you know?
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: True, true.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: So tell me, um, I guess just a little bit more info.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we've talked about um you know getting getting other companies involved.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: How um how would you know, let's say you you talked about Iowa, you talked about you know different parts of the country, how would somebody go about utilizing this?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say you let's say I'm an elevator contractor in Memphis and I want to fix some some elevators.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um what would kind of be the first step to to to utilizing this and what what are some of the benefits at for an for another contractor to to uh you know use this uh this vehicle?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I sat with an elevator company recently and it was cool because he was a elevator mechanic, you know, and he's been in the business for you know 30, 40 years, and he put he he just did it perfectly.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: He goes, tell me how it works, you know.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that is all that's all I need is conversations to start.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: And that is, you know, connecting with me.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: This is something where, you know, we don't have a website and all these things going yet.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because this is something as we go, it's never existed.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: So basically it's about checking the correct boxes all the time.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: But it is about conversations, you know, get a hold of Scott, and then Scott will, you know, explain more and more.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, each time we'll clear up something that you might see.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: But it's about, you know, it's donations benefit.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know how donations work.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, for a nonprofit organization like any labor organization, their donations are 100% tax deductible.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you go down the line of everybody gets a tax deduction.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: There's the first benefit.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, the whole world's looking for things like that in any business, basically.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then you get to partnerships where it is, that's where you can really get a lot of the elevators started fixed everywhere in the world.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: But then you can, you know, the investment in this in an elevator company like we started is the the opportunities are almost astronomical with what could happen with an elevator company like this.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: And with it, you know, being totally partnered with the the the charitable side of it, you know, because it's an elevator company that has it is a full-blown for-profit elevator company.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that is a game-changing thing in our industry, you know, that connection.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: But it is something that is, it's not it's not something that's built to take from anywhere, it's built to create something, like I said before, and share that.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: But it is uh it is just get a hold of me through LinkedIn or you know, Instagram is where I've been working at, you know, trying to most I have the legwork I've put in for this.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I've worked with economic development for the last two years with some of their small women and minority business stuff.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: I have also, we've also been recently asked to be on the Chamber of Commerce uh out here in Loudoun County, which are you know, just more boxes being checked.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I've I sit with I've sat with so many, you know, like I said, attorneys, accountants, uh, and we're talking specific attorneys, not just one or two.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking over a dozen attorneys have vetted through all this.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I'll say to any business owner is I've done all the legwork.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now just open that door and let's have that conversation and keep on going.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: And um uh it is it is fully ready to be donated to tomorrow.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: Our our nonprofit has full tax exempt status, and that is that was the key to you know this.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that took uh almost 11 months, 12 months for that approval to come through.
• 20:08
  unknown: Right.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it wasn't something that wasn't vetted by the you know the government and things of that nature, the IRS.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: They made sure that this would work with them, and that's because we made sure it would work with them before we even sent it in.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, but that is where you know, I I a few a lot of the people I talk to, I say, uh come sit with me and me, me and me and the attorneys we use, you know, because that's exactly how I want to explain it to you.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because I want to make sure you know all the legal, this is all legal based.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: This is all accounting, if it's all done correctly.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: There is absolutely nobody in the whole entire elevator industry that cannot benefit.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so I am curious.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what what's some of the the pushback?
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm just assuming there is, because you're you're changing, you know, just maybe changing the industry.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of the the pushback that you're getting?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: It is literally lack of information.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: I what I have like I said, I vetted this through elevator mechanics 30, 40, 50 years.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: My true, my my perfect vet, we'll call it, was with an elevator mechanic whose dad had a elevator company years ago.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: And his dad couldn't compete with low bid.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he had a small company, he couldn't bid.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: He could here, he wanted to do good work.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: That was the number one thing he wanted to do.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't want to slap, he wanted to say, here, I'm gonna give you a good contract, I'm gonna, you're gonna see this, all these things happen.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: And when I when I brought this idea to him, now I was approaching this, we're going, oh man, this is my toughest sell, you know, to this person right here, because I know his knowledge base.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: And when when we were done after five, six hours, it took, it was, and it wasn't, it didn't take five or six hours.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: The minute I started talking to him, because he's an elevator, you know, person, he immediately started catching on, okay, okay, okay, okay, because he was hearing about everything.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: And at the end of that, it was it got me emotional.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: He, you know, he kind of said, you know, when do you get some Smart, and you know, this would have saved my father's elevator company.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and his father's elevator company wasn't some big, it was just a small mom and pop shop that wanted to do the correct do work correctly the way he saw it being done.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because he's been on a lot of pieces of junk that you know are literally still pieces of junk today.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of those places that he would have been working back in the 90s and whatnot, when times were tough again, you know, in the economy.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: That was uh that so pushback is is literally just there isn't any.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's about just getting the door open and having a conversation.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'll say politics.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: You want to bring politics into what we're doing here?
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: That that would probably be some of the pushback.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm pretty proud of what I put together.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I'm a middle of the road guy.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: And when you have you know profit built into social good stuff, I think you what you mentioned, Adam Smith.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's two things like that, you know, and that is uh that's who I am.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: I am in to deal with uh you don't I don't pick and choose who I do business with, I do business with everybody, and that's my goal.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: So let me just just yeah, just to just to tease that out just a little bit more.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the the small player, you you've mentioned they don't have to compete with low bid, and is that because they're partnering with the the not-for-profit entity that the you know the the public charity um that gives them um I guess access to the to the tax breaks, to the donations, to you know, to to different uh it's a different uh economic model than just bidding a job.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so they they can then step in there, actually do good work and uh still earn, you know, earn a good re return without all of the same uh competing influences.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Is that fair to say?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is something where we have the elevator.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, the project is modernization of this fleet.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: That does not include maintenance and things of that nature, warranty service and whatnot.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: When you're looking at non-proprietary equipment, these are all the things that are gonna benefit everybody in the end because you come in, you know, you're bidding on a job where it's you know, 50, 60-year-old elevator, DC motor generator sets.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: You come in with this elevator, listen, uh, we're gonna give you a good bid.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but listen, we know we this elevator can be fixed.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're not gonna sit here and we're not gonna bid on something that's gonna be falling apart for the whole time we have it.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this qualifies, big big word there to be using.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: This qualifies for, you know, possibly working with our the nonprofit and the benefit elevator companies that we work with to get this modernized all after, you know, and with that becomes a position where we, you know, that who at the existing maintenance company, you know, basically takes care of the warranty service.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the warranty service is something that, you know, the charity will make sure uh gets done by beautiful, you know, the existing, it's it's all about keep keeping balance.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't come in and take anything from anywhere, you come in and work together.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it happens all the time in the elevator business where another company modernizes it and another company keeps the maintenance.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: This is that same exact ecosystem where you're just making sure that that that elevator that that small company is bidding on and we're gonna be working on for a few years doesn't have to worry about it falling apart.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna actually be able to worry about it.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of just throwing expensive parts at this that this thing is gonna fall apart, we've now have the the ability and and assistance to do a full-blown modernization, put new equipment in there, and so we're not just continuing to pour money down the drain.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, and and all in all in the name, the main thing about the charitable side of it is jobs, jobs, jobs.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: All it all creates more jobs, and the more work, the more jobs are created.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: And now you that's where you see you know the aspect where it's a public charity and a public-private partnership is because of the amount of jobs that this can generate.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: It is a because it spreads it out, you know, into the entire building, basically, to all sorts of stuff.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: So right, right.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you mentioned uh, you know, speaking with the union and and just you know getting uh approvals, and you know, there's it sounds like you've had a a lot of conversations with with just about every single aspect, everybody that's that's affected in any way or or has a way to influence.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um so there's the there's a lot, a lot going on.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's a there's a lot of explaining, just like we're doing here.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this is a step, you know, which I thank you for, Matt.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: Getting my voice out there, looking at people, you know.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: This is uh I'm trying to pay attention to the behind what's going on on my phone, you know, is everybody friends of mine, you know, people that you know are still on the fence with something like this.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm hoping I'm getting more of that conversation, you know, going, okay, okay, okay.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and uh it that uh it is it it works.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I can look at everybody across, you know, in the into this camera, my phone or whatever.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: This works.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: And all it I promise every human being in the elevator business that that I have made sure that we have done something that can work with everybody in the elevator business.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and you've talked a little bit about job creation and and had talked earlier about the the small uh minority and and women-owned businesses.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: And does does this play I shouldn't say that it may be tailored to them as much as it allows them to play in the space?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is that how that you know, am I saying that correctly?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: It it creates space for everybody.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, with the with the when you work with the existing maintenance companies, that can be new, that and that can be anybody.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's a whole separate, it's it's it's all it's all together.
• 27:44
  unknown: Sure.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it is it's what you know, business is geared towards everywhere is diversifying it.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't like to use that word too much.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: I like the word equal, you know, basically.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's just bringing, you know, but it's also the future.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: The future is not the past.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that's you know, the past follows us around everywhere, unfortunately, in this country these days.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a good balanced way of doing that all together and bringing everybody, you know, to it's not about taking, it's about creating and sharing.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: And when you like I said, this isn't an existing market.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is a market that never would have existed without this type of you know entity being created.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that is a key part right there.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it is a completely normal functioning elevator world, you know, with all the regular elevator stuff going on.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: And there's this just this beautiful thing that they work, they work together, you know.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: So it is uh it's not so it's not so much play, it's literally it works together, you know, it works as a machine, you know, which is what an economy is.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: You've you've talked about, you know, kind of the the two aspects.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's the Noakes Mountain Elevator, which is you know the full-blown elevator company.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you've named the nonprofit after your granddaughter, is that correct?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I did.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's Emmy's Emmy's elevator, I think you you call it.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me a little bit about Emmy.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: So uh what can get somebody prepared for doing this and and doing this uh hard task that I have of getting this you know started and out there was in the middle of the coronavirus.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: First off, it was I had my best friend die about three years, three and a half years ago.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: Right after my best friend passed away, uh I was told I was gonna be a grandfather.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that for a 44, 45-year-old guy, that's something, whoa, uh oh.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: We gotta, I gotta, I got some decisions in life here almost, it seems like, you know.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: And Emmy was born and she had a rough first year.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, she ended up in the hospital.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: I won't, you know, my son and and Emmy's mother watched her go through some things where, to put it lightly, they probably watched her almost leave this earth almost a half a dozen to a dozen times that first year of her life.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it was through fighting and great parenting and and and maturity that, you know, that I learned from them.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so basically they had they ended up spending two months, almost two months in a hospital with her during the height of the coronavirus as young people, you know, 20 years old, where they had no idea what was wrong with her.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't through some final genetic testing and a few surgeries uh that basically got her, you know, geared towards recovery.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, she uh spent two years eating with a G, spent a year or two eating with a G tube uh on the side of her uh port on the side of her stomach.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh now that is all, you know, she doesn't really, she doesn't use that at all anymore.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: But it was it's it's just it was just a problem.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: It was somebody who was broken who nobody knew what was going on.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: They couldn't fix it.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: I look at machines and people as the same exact thing.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm sitting out in the parking lot of these hospitals because I couldn't go inside because it was coronavirus and things like that.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I just watched my son and and all my children, my my other son and my other daughter, they taught me how to be tough.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what young people have gone through in this country over the last five years is unprecedented.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I don't care what adults really have to say about it.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: But when they can come through it the way they did, it it is special.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, that I couldn't do anything for my son or or you know, except support.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't tell him to ask the doctor this because they're asking doctors.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: There are no doctors for this, basically.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's very few if there is anything.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Rare condition that they didn't even know what it was.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: She's one of 600 children in the world, basically.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's congenital myasthenia syndrome with rhapson, you know, a genetic default in that.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: CMS is a larger scale, you know, problem, but hers with the rhapson is very acute, is probably the right word to use.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: And this is where I'm holding my emotions back talking about it, because it does get me a little fired up because I do my goal in the end is to troubleshoot, which is what elevator people are the most best skill that they have is troubleshooting.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: It is uh, it's what I want to do is help troubleshoot her future because her future is a little wide open.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: And along with, you know, fixing elevators throughout the country and things of that nature, that's a problem that I know how to fix.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it is working with the local hospital, hopefully Johns Hopkins Hospital and University, to start studying what's wrong with her more.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: It is uh, this is the path and avenue to do that when you have diseases and things of that nature that people don't understand.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's the nonprofit world and usually people with a lot more money than I have, you know, getting that type of stuff done.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, but it was it was all just watching my kids, my son, and whatnot go through that experience and me just trying to look at every single way I could help everybody I see having a rough time in this world because I know as an elevator guy, man, I was not living it up, but I was okay through all of this, man.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: We were needed, we never stopped working, we were essential.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: All these things were so important to the world.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: I want to now show that to basically everybody how important the elevator mechanic and the elevator business folks can be because it is a very special business.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: But her, it's it's all geared towards for me, it is to to help my granddaughter and my son.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, my son and his the mother, Victoria, they're they're champions.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: They are they're bosses in the world, but it is, you know, it's a stressful world when you're living with a child who uh you don't know what oh what's going on.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: It all had to do with her, you know, basically not being able to breathe.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: And when you go through things of that nature, it can take your breath away all the time.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: Every time there's a cough, or there's what, you know, or the baby wants to do the certain things that she wants to do, you know, to clear her throat, things like that were complex for her.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it's all related to basically it's a slow development of the electrical signals from the brain to all the muscles in the body.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it fixes itself over the years, sometimes it persists.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: Right now she looks like she's you know doing very well.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: She's your your normal, regular old little girl in a lot of facets.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: When she gets sick, it kicks her ass.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry about the you know, the language, but it is uh it kicks her ass more than most kids, you know, just the regular cold and stuff like that.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: But she's amazing.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: And and I watched, you know, like I said, I watched all my kids go through everything.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: So that really, I don't even have the word fear in my in my mind anymore.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's not an emotion that I deal with.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: So forward, forward would be a word that I replaced for fear, you know.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, it's beautiful.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: You've you've you've dedicated this work to her, and it and it sounds like through the the nonprofit that that you know there are ways to maybe get more research or get more benefit going towards her condition.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, that's exactly what it's feared toward.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and I was gonna say, let's talk a little bit about what what's your what's your vision?
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you you fast forward five, ten years.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: What what do you most want to accomplish?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, man, I I when I try and get to, you know, a lot of my elevator folks, I I just say, picture big brass plaques on front of hospitals, old folks' homes, veterans' rehabilitation centers, public housing.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: Picture big bronze plaques of everybody that donated and everybody that took place uplifting that entire facility when it comes to you know the elevator aspect of it.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: But it's also, you know, seeing elevators talked about everywhere, seeing it go, you know, people saying, no, look at what, look at what an elevator business did with America, did with you know, inner cities, did with you know, small towns and other places where you've got, you know, you've got VAs out in the middle of West Virginia that have been struggling to get elevators modernized for 50 years.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: That this the reach of this, when I get to see, you know, 10 years down the road, I want to see how far it reached.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's not meant to go anywhere specifically, it's meant to go everywhere and hit everybody.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, I'd like to see the the elevator business explode.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I want to see new companies, I want to see, you know, big companies now use smaller companies and subs everywhere.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: This is only something that, you know, adds to that system in a way.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it is for me, it's if I'm working, if I'm still dirty, you know, my I'd love to still, I want to just be still a you know, a guy turning wrenches in this, who just happens to be like the brain that everybody taps into, you know, out in the field, which you know, all elevator companies have those types of people working for them, you know.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: But a lot of the a lot of the brains in this business, especially in the past, have come from the bottom, you know, come from the field and things of that nature.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'll tell, you know, a lot of the elevator business, big companies mostly, you know, they've got a lot of young people, you know, in management and in supervisory roles and things of that nature.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: That while you don't need to know how an elevator works, it will make your job much easier if you start listening to those folks out in the field.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it's everything, man.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like to see just an ecosystem and a business system that has everybody functioning together.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, competition is not something that has at the end of a game, you do the handshake line.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you were raised that way.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, in the business game, it can be the same exact thing.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, oh man, high five, you got this contract or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, this and that.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's why, you know, in the end, uh, the nonprofit and the benefit portion portion of the company won't be something that exists forever.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's built to, you know, do a task, which is modernize this fleet.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then after that, it becomes a regular old, you know, business in America, corporation, and and and things of that nature.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: So that is it.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, man, I really like to have a doctor that my kids could talk to every day that's covered by, you know, their their insurance that my kid, my son can talk to about my grandma.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that is it for me, that's a simple thing.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: I get to create a doctor.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I want to do.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: I want to create a professional or somebody of that nature that I want to blow that person up with all the knowledge and what I can get them for, you know, CMS with and raps and with uh my granddaughter that I can do.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: So it's uh, but the easy thing is, man, those bronze plaques, you see them in hospitals and whatnot everywhere.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: You see big giant walls.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now you get to see something like that where the elevator industry leads that, you know, right?
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: And and and it and I mean it.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: It is the elevator industry can say, no, because of what's fixing this elevator and and working with these elevators in a charitable aspect with the with the government and all these partnerships, by those savings on an elevator, it gets spread to the rest of the building.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the savings on that can be put into tenant floors, can be put into, you know, uh safety systems, you know, everything like that.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: And uplifting the whole entire building, you know.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, and the people inside it, right?
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like you talked earlier, right?
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: If if I'm needing that elevator, well, this is affecting my life.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm having to wait and and you know, just yeah, the pain of your ice cream's melting in the baby carriage is what I like to tell people when elevators are broken.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: And most people at Berbian places like that have no idea, they know what that is.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's a pain in the butt getting from the grocery store back to the house.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: But imagine if you got to go from the grocery store back to the house and there's an elevator in between, you can have all sorts of problems in the world.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh, it boils down to, you know, a statement I I like to say to people, and this is, you know, geared towards a lot of folks.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you always hear the term, you know, a rising tide raises all ships.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: But an elevator person will tell you, you know, it has the possibility of drowning everybody on the shore.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: And with something like an elevator infrastructure project, elevators can lift indiscriminately.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that is uh, it's a beautiful way to cover, you know, kind of what we're doing on a large scale, because it is uh there's a social aspect and there's a business aspect of what we're doing.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: And normally those two things are separated, you know.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: If you if you bring them together, that is how you want to do it because that doesn't that comes in and adds something to an industry or things of that nature.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: So it is uh many, many different you know, branches of this tree, but it is a tree that can work anywhere and grow anywhere, you know.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's good.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: So um, as we uh we're getting close to our time here, I have a couple questions for you.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: One is what what are what are the most valuable things you've learned over your career or or maybe the last few years that you'd want to share with our listeners?
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: Working with people, you know.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um everybody's dealing in the world now, it kind of seems like, you know, dealing with change.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: There our technology has us changing as people hourly almost, you know.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: Our our leadership and our government is doing things totally different than they ever have.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a person that I like to think that I can I I love being able to talk to everybody.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: I have learned in my life that I you could sit across from me and hate my guts, it is not going to change my view of you.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: You can sit across from me and love me to death, it is not going to change my view of you.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: I will leave the table caring about and hoping, you know, I have a relationship with those folks regardless of how they feel about me.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, when you go through my life, uh Labor Day, I celebrated 10 years of sobriety and things like that.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, those are the things that I'm proud of, you know, but I'm also not so much proud of it.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's just something that I did in a way.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: But it is what I want to be be doing in this world is I'm not trying to bring everybody together.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's not the way the world kind of functions.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: But I do believe, you know, especially working in the elevator business, man.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, an elevator mechanic will sit down there, you know, in the street and go, man, how are we going to get that up there?
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: And no matter how they view the helpers or the or whoever's sitting next to them, they could use terrible words talking about each other.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: But what are they going to do in the end?
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to look at somebody and go, you know what?
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's the best idea.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm going to do.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's what the foreman's going to go with.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going with that helper, you know, or that new guy, you know, because it is just about getting the job done uh and using everybody, everybody, no matter how they view you or how you view them to get your task complete.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I think uh it is uh it's all about relationships, business and elevators, it's all about good relationships.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: I have no problem trying to rebuild relationships in my life and build new ones.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_01: It is it is not something that is uh that I've feel I shy away from at all.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and everybody's got something to give.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's that's the the beauty of what I'm I'm hearing you say is it is it doesn't matter where you're from or what you know or what you don't know.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh everybody's got a gift to bring, and so you know it will uh you know we'll benefit from each other and just uh having those relationships.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: We learn more from disagreement than we do agreement.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: I hear you.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: Understood.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: The last question I want to ask you, Scott, is what's one thing that you would share as advice, you know, maybe somebody who's new to the industry or or you know, just something that uh you would want to to leave our listeners.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_01: Feel lucky and blessed and and happy and excited about the job you got because this business is unlike any any other business in the world.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I only equate it to I was hopping out of a hoist way one time in a hospital down in DC.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: And as I'm climbing up out of the dark, you know, terrible hole, there's this lovely lady sitting right there, and she goes, Oh man, you're you're like Batman.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I just got, you know, I get up now.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: Here I am, my back hurts and all this stuff.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that was one of those moments where we're just like, man, I can be a kid my whole life.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this is the type of industry that it will keep you young.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's so like this, sure.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: Get in it, love it, and be excited about it all the time because it is, it will teach you things and help you grow as a person because of uh how vast it is and and every single you know person that you can touch, you know, fixing just when you're when you're bringing somebody up a floor, when you're you know helping somebody out get to another, you know, another level, you're keeping you're helping people keeping an equal playing field in the way.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that is uh, you know, let the world sort itself out away from the elevator business.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's the way I like to look at it.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_01: And just focus on our job and you know, enjoy it because it is it's been hard on me the last two years, but it is totally worth it because I look at the the joy that I could possibly have down the road, you know, uh sitting, you know, breakfast table with elevator folks is one of the most unique, beautiful places in the world.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I look forward to you know doing that for the rest of my life.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Scott.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate you being on with me today.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: All right, man.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate the opportunity for this very much.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: Good luck to you as you continue to build the partnership and and uh modernize the world.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: This is this is a good step, man.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: True.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the All Red Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: Please subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.