Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / From Valet to COO: Brooks Ellis on Servant Leadership and Growing Evolution Parking

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From Valet to COO: Brooks Ellis on Servant Leadership and Growing Evolution Parking · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we could learn
0:11
from their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:15
adversity. As you listen today, let one
0:17
idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:21
today's guest is Brooks Ellis, Chief Operating Officer at
0:26
Evolution Parking and Guest Services, a Tampa based
0:30
hospitality company that delivers valet, front door and
0:33
bell services for hotels across the country.
0:37
Evolution was founded in 2019 with a simple mission, elevate
0:41
the first and last impression of every property through genuine
0:46
guest care, smart technology and engage team members.
0:50
In only five years, the firm has expanded to more than 100
0:54
locations, earned glowing case studies at flagship hotels like
0:58
the Saint Regis and Ritz Carlton, and has recently earned
1:02
industry attention for its hospitality focused model,
1:06
including press coverage of its industry First partnership with
1:10
Forbes Travel Guide. Brooks brings more than 25 years
1:14
of experience in parking and hotel operations.
1:17
Before joining Evolution, he held executive leadership posts
1:21
with Zip Buy and Town Park, overseeing teens in all 50
1:25
states. He was recognized by the
1:27
National Parking Association as a 40 Under 40 honoree and holds
1:32
the Certified Parking Professional credential.
1:36
Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
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back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:32
today, the COO of Evolution Parking and Guest Services,
2:36
Brooks Ellis. Thank you for making the time to
2:38
Share your story today. Absolutely.
2:41
Thanks for having me on, Anthony.
2:42
So, Brooks the parking guy, You've been in the parking
2:45
industry for years, with a variety of companies and
2:48
responsibilities along the way. How did you first get your
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start? I mean, like most kids growing
2:55
up, you know, I dreamed about being in valet parking.
2:58
You know, I kind of fell into it.
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And I think that that's really the story you hear a lot around
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our industry. You know, we get to work side by
3:08
side with hospitality. So that was very familiar to me,
3:13
right? And being a part of working with
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hotels and all the fun environment that that brings
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about. We're very attractive.
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But I actually, you know, lost a job.
3:25
My the restaurant that I worked for closed down overnight
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because the owner and his partner had a a nasty breakup
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and a friend of mine worked at a valet company invited me to come
3:35
over and check it out and I figured I'd do that until I got
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a real job and here I am. And so how many different
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parking companies have you worked at?
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I've only worked at 4:00 and I worked with Town Park for a
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little over 20 years. That's really, you know, where
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I, I grew my career from the ground up, starting as a valet
3:58
and then two other very short stints with other parking
4:01
companies and then some parking technology groups that I worked
4:05
with as well. So Town Park, you started as a
4:09
valet Parker. You rose up through the ranks.
4:14
VP of Operations, VP of Innovation.
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Relate a story from your time there.
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Maybe a particular challenge that you ran into, difficult to
4:26
go through, but helped to shape the way that you approached work
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and life going forward. Yeah.
4:34
So obviously at Town Park that was, you know, early career all
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the way through early executive career.
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And I got to be a part of an organization that was led by a
4:45
founder that was really focused on employee development.
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Internal growth and development was paramount for us.
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And I, I benefited from it, but I got to work alongside leaders
4:56
that really thrived on how they inspired and motivated others
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to, to learn and grow in the industry.
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And as an organization, we were really focused on delivering a
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premium product, not just, you know, like in hotels, they say
5:12
heads and beds, right? Or the idea of getting more,
5:14
more properties around the country.
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Our growth aspirations were tied to however we could grow and
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still be able to deliver this exceptional product.
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So early on in my career, getting a good grounding and
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understanding, number one, growing your employees and
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developing from within is a critical piece of your culture
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that allows you to be able to, you know, create messages and
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let them, you know, proliferate throughout the organization.
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Make sure people understand why what they do is important and be
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able to spend the time with them to build relationships because
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that's what we do with our clients.
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So in order for a client to trust us enough to deliver
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services at their site, you know, we have to show that we
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can earn that trust and we can deliver on what we say.
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So that was really big, but but I would say I grew pretty
6:07
quickly. And the first job that I got
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where I was really scared was a hotel that a bunch of other
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leaders had failed at and not had success over multiple years.
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And I got a call one day from my boss saying, Hey, we want you to
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go run this mega resort and drop everything that you're doing and
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head over there and start doing it.
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You know, so great opportunity for me, right?
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But also scared the hell out of me.
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And it was a great launching point for my career, though,
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helped me to not only learn how to do what I did strategically
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versus just running out and doing it and having to
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understand that I can't do it all and that I I really multiply
6:49
my efforts through enabling other people.
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So what was it that made this so scary?
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Why were so many other people failing at this property?
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It was, it was about 70 employees, you know, and, and at
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the time I had one other account manager job and at that job I
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had 20 employees. So it was a much bigger
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responsibility. It was a 1400 room hotel.
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So we'd routinely have 300 vehicles on board and at at
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peak, sometimes we'd have 1000. And it's just the complexity
7:24
there. And it was a massive self
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parking operation too. So you know, they had just shy
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of 500,000 square feet of meeting space.
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So you can imagine the events that they would have there.
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It's kind of like running a Convention Center and but then
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also having to park the cars as well.
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So what was it that you were able to do differently to make
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this successful? Yeah, You know, it was really
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it. It all kind of came down to one
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event where I started to feel things unraveling, where it was
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getting too difficult. I was getting frazzled.
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I was a little bit more reactive than I've wanted to be for my
8:02
employees or with my employees. And our HR manager at the time,
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young lady named Amy Hynes, pulled me aside and said, you
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don't look, look at, you know, all you've accomplished up to
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this point. You can do this, but right now
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you're spending all your time trying to do it for everybody
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else instead of letting them do what they, you know, what you
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hired them to do. And she pointed out a great
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example. There was 1 cashier that I would
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pull up. It's kind of like the, the story
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of Sisyphus, you know, and they, they tell the story Chris
8:33
Machesney does and some of the 40X training about, you know, I
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would pull into work every day and I would pull up to this
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cashier booth where this cashier would work.
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And she was fantastic. But everyday I'd pull up the
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cones would be a little skewed. You know, there might be some
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paper on the ground or something.
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And it's 6 O clock in the morning.
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So she's just getting there too and starting to tidy up.
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And I'd jump out of my car, I'd fix all the cones, I'd pick up
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the garbage. I'd say good morning.
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And then I'd drive on my way. And Amy helped me to recognize
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that, you know, what I was really doing was causing that
9:07
employee to feel like they didn't understand what they were
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responsible for and they weren't trusted to do it anyways because
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I was just going to come around and and fix it.
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And so that was a pivotal moment for me to be able to step back
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and try to understand how to, you know, lead by trusting my
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people, making sure they knew what they were accountable for
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and responsible for and what good looked like, but then
9:31
stepping back and letting them actually do it.
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And when you run an operation with 70 or 170, whatever it is,
9:38
individuals, there's a break point where you're completely
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ineffective when you lead in a way that you know, you try to
9:45
micromanage and run everything. And in your mind, in the moment,
9:48
you think that you're being helpful, right?
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Here's something that needs to be done.
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I know how to do it. I see it.
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And so you step in to try to do that.
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And so great that the HR director, you know, came and
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gave you that fresh perspective of, hey, here's the signal
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that's actually being received by that other person.
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And you know, tip of the hat to you for being receptive to that.
10:09
Yeah, that was pivotal for me for and I, I think about it all
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the time to this day because there's many times that I, you
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know, the same tendencies creep up.
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And I felt it when I joined Evolution.
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You know, we are a very young company.
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When I first joined, they'd only been around for a couple years
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and really hadn't hit their stride yet.
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And then we started to scale really quickly and I felt the
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weight of all of that growth and expectation and, you know,
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maintaining relationships with all of our clients and making
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sure that we're delivering at every location, everywhere.
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And we had other people that were paid to do that.
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And so, you know, that same lesson creeped into the back of
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my head. And you know, those, those
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moments of clarity come when you're most vulnerable, right?
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When, when it feels like everything is coming down on you
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and it feels insurmountable, that's when you you're kind of
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forced to take that moment to think about how you got there
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and, and what's worked in the past and go back to what works.
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So how did the opportunity to join Evolution Parking come
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about? Yeah, so I had, I had worked at
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Town Park for a really long time.
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The organization started to kind of shift into a little bit
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different direction after some, you know, PE involvement and
11:27
change in leadership and stuff like that at the executive
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level. So I, I really wanted to branch
11:31
out and see what else was out there.
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I'd worked for one organization for 20 some years and I got a
11:36
great offer to go join another company.
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I, I lasted there two weeks. It's a, you know, I, I spent
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over 20 years with one employer doing one thing the way that I
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knew was the right way to do it. And I felt like it when I, when
11:55
I left, that I left that to go recreate the magic that I felt,
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you know, early on in my career. And, and to be able to deliver
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the superior product that I felt like was eluding me there with
12:07
just the size and, and scope of the operations with that
12:10
employer. So I joined this other company.
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It was a very different, very different approach to things.
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And I knew right away it wasn't right.
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And so I I stepped back. It just so happened to fall
12:24
right after a big announcement about some strange disease from
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overseas that was coming into America and all of a sudden
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everything shut down so unanticipated.
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But I was fortunate A gentleman that ran a company called Zip
12:40
buy out of Australia, Anthony called me and asked me to join
12:44
the organization to come on board.
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And it was really a great, a great moment for me because it
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was COVID and it was a hands free parking technology where
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you didn't have to touch anything.
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So it was great timing for their product, not great time for me
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to leave a job that I was at for a long time and really did well
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with. But it turned out to be a great
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thing and made a lot of friends there.
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And they're they're very, very successful today.
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What is their tech? It's Bluetooth, so it's
13:15
essentially you download their app on your phone and you a
13:20
connect a credit card to it. And then wherever their
13:22
technology lies, when you drive up, whether your phone's in the
13:25
trunk or in your pocket, it'll open the gate for you start a
13:28
session, which is, you know, today that's not, you know,
13:32
necessarily that unique. There's a lot of technology that
13:35
can do that, but one of their clients was Harvard University
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and the campus there, they really trusted our product and
13:46
our team to deliver solutions for them.
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So we got to expand from just the parking gates to the doors
13:52
of the building. So we did access credentialing
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essentially for them And then into the building, you would
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basically walk into the foyer and the elevator for your floor
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would trigger open up and you would just step in.
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You didn't have to touch anything and and they were able
14:07
to control access. So it was a really cool product
14:11
at the time and a great. Experience Did I have to have
14:13
the app on my phone open or my phone on?
14:16
You could have your phone in the dark screen mode like I said, in
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your trunk, in your back pocket or your bag.
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It didn't matter. It's.
14:21
Interesting. OK.
14:23
And so how did that then lead to evolution parking?
14:26
Yeah. So the one thing that I couldn't
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find at Zip Buy that I had grown up with was a large team.
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I mean we had, we're a small group.
14:36
There was a group of developers overseas and a small group here
14:40
stateside that we worked with. And I just had that itch that I
14:45
needed to, I needed to have more people to, you know, to, to work
14:49
alongside. But I'll tell you what, we had
14:51
an engineer named named Callie. Why am I not coming up with his
14:58
name correctly? Callie Cridge.
15:02
And we had Shirley. Shirley was an engineer at the
15:06
time, but I talked to you a little bit about, you know,
15:09
growth and development and how important that was to me.
15:11
So right when I got there, the first thing I said was, you
15:14
know, Shirley's going to run this company.
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She's going to, she's going to be the, the one that that does
15:19
the job I'm doing someday. I got to figure out how to get
15:21
her ready for it. And so that was my goal and my
15:25
mission. That's what I woke up every day
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thinking, how can I do better in this way?
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And today she's run the company and, and I, it just sounded like
15:32
I took credit for it. I couldn't because it's all her
15:35
doing and she does a hell of a lot better job than I did of it.
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But but you know, I I found my exit at that point when I
15:43
realized she can do it and they don't need me.
15:45
So I'm hearing a recurring theme here, Brooks.
15:48
You know, when during your time at Town Park sounds like they
15:52
were really invested in helping employees understand that there
15:57
was a path to to grow to grow within the company and they
16:02
really helped you do that. You know, you went from, you
16:05
know, ground floor all the way up to a couple of different VP
16:09
positions And then sorry, the name of the zip by is that the.
16:14
That's right. Zip by.
16:16
You took that same philosophy that had been ingrained in you
16:21
and you help somebody else, probably multiple people, but
16:24
just one that you called out do the same thing.
16:28
I'm gonna guess that that probably has carried through
16:30
into evolution today and how you approach what you do with your
16:35
employees. Let's hear more about that.
16:37
Yeah, absolutely. I mean we know it's a
16:38
competitive advantage for us because and sustainable
16:42
competitive advantage because talent is is tough to find,
16:47
right. And in our industry there's a
16:51
lot of turnover. It's it's typically positive
16:54
turnover. We get new sites, we have to
16:55
bring new people in and constantly retrain and retrain.
17:00
So if we can get the people that we bring in to stay and we can
17:05
pour into them over time, then they get more of an opportunity
17:08
not only to really understand our way of doing things, which
17:11
we do try to uniquely position ourself in the industry, but
17:14
also just to get comfortable with it.
17:17
Because you know, what I learned early on on, you know, the first
17:20
hotel that I, I had the opportunity to lead the, the
17:24
valet team at was if I really drill into the team about the
17:29
standards and I, and I force us to follow a script until it's,
17:33
until you can do it in your sleep, Then you get to, then you
17:37
get to let somebody let their personality shine because they
17:39
understand the script, they understand the patterning.
17:41
They're not going to miss a beat.
17:43
And they, they recognize that at some point there's a switch that
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flips. And that's the hospitality
17:48
people look for because our associate is confident, they
17:52
know their stuff, they know the area, they're, they present
17:56
themselves as a friend to the guest that they've never met
17:58
before, right? To help guide them on this
18:00
journey. Often times, whether it's
18:03
business or leisure, you're, it's new, you're experiencing
18:06
something you haven't before, you're in a new place, you don't
18:09
know the area. There's all these voids that we
18:11
can fill for them and I recognize that when we drill in
18:15
on the standards and structure enough that you really get it,
18:19
then you can be your genuine true self.
18:20
And that's when we really deliver this service excellence.
18:23
So when we think about growing developing leaders internally,
18:27
it's selfish because I know once they get the confidence to know
18:30
that they know it and know how to do it, then they can turn on
18:34
the charm and they can turn on their personality and they can
18:36
be their, you know, their genuine self and, and guests
18:39
feel that instantly that that's a difference in, you know, you
18:45
think about the typical hotel interaction, you pull up, it's
18:47
very transactional. You get issued a ticket, you
18:50
walk inside, they check your driver's license, they get your
18:53
credit card, you get on your way.
18:55
Those moments where somebody distracts your attention by
18:57
catching you off guard with something that you didn't
19:00
anticipate it it, you know it, it, you feel it immediately and
19:05
it, and it triggers you because it's unusual.
19:07
That's what we seek to do. And it's it's really hard to do
19:10
in a transient work environment where people come and go.
19:12
So we need people to stick around, learn and then get
19:15
comfortable and then start to love it.
19:18
What's an example of a way that you catch a a guest off guard
19:22
with something positive? Yeah, so we used to one of the
19:27
leaders that that had a strong influence on my growth and
19:32
development called it, called them chin lifters.
19:35
And so because if you think about you're walking into a
19:37
hotel, you get your head down, you're dragging your bag, you're
19:39
like, you know, I hope everybody leaves me alone so I can just
19:41
get to my room and get on with my, my visit here.
19:45
So we would aim to get them to stop and lift their chin and
19:47
look at us. So we would say things like,
19:49
Hey, that's an awesome tie. And it would be, you would have
19:52
to be genuine about it because otherwise it comes off, you
19:54
know, pretty poor. But we would find one thing
19:57
about that person that we were like, wow, you know, I do like
20:00
this and I, and I want to tell them about it.
20:02
So it was, Hey, you know, and I find myself doing it today.
20:05
I was a doctor's office and the nurse came in and I was like,
20:07
man, I love those glasses. Those, those look great.
20:10
And it's not, it's genuine. I I mean it.
20:13
But it's uncomfortable at first if you don't, you know, 'cause
20:17
we're taught a lot of times in service professions to keep it
20:21
professional, you know, stick to the script, this sort of thing.
20:24
And talking about, you know, complimenting somebody
20:27
personally can be a little uncomfortable sometimes for
20:30
people, believe it or not. So we used to train on it.
20:33
Now, you have to be careful about some of the things that
20:35
you comment on, of course, but it does.
20:38
It makes a huge difference. If you can get a guest to disarm
20:41
for just a moment and smile and recognize that you're genuinely
20:45
there to try to, you know, help them enjoy themselves, then that
20:48
creates a different experience at the hotel.
20:51
So talking about evolution parking, what is a possible path
20:56
of growth for somebody who comes in as a valet?
20:59
Yeah, we see it all the time. So we have valleys come in
21:03
within a few weeks or months, depending on, you know, what
21:07
career experience they've had coming into that moment.
21:09
They'll move into a supervisor role and that still has them
21:12
working right on the front line every day, but gives them an
21:15
opportunity to kind of lead the experience.
21:18
We've got a lot of standardization in how we do run
21:23
our shifts every day, right? There's a huddle where the team
21:25
talks about what's important for the day.
21:28
There's assignments that each individual has throughout the
21:30
shift to make sure that things get taken care of.
21:33
And that supervisor directs those activities so you get a
21:36
good chance to understand. Can they motivate and lead their
21:38
team to get things done? Or do they do like I did and try
21:41
to do it all themselves? And, you know, we can teach them
21:44
through that, too. But then they can move up from
21:47
there to an assistant manager to a manager.
21:49
We've got area managers that might lead a, you know, a
21:53
handful of locations and directors that might lead a
21:56
bigger portfolio. And with each of those roles,
21:59
you get expanding responsibility for client relationship, for
22:02
financials, for, you know, some HR responsibilities, hiring,
22:06
interviewing, all of that stuff. That's really, I tell people
22:09
this all the time when we bring them in and we start talking
22:10
about development, that my goal is to better prepare them for
22:13
their future, regardless of where that is.
22:15
If that's with us, that's great. I hope it is.
22:17
But I'm going to pour into them and I'm not going to be able to
22:20
take any of it back. So what they get from us is, you
22:23
know, career growth and development, whether it's with
22:26
us or with somebody else. And I think that disarms people
22:29
a little bit because a lot of employers say, hey, we want to,
22:32
you know, grow and develop you from within.
22:34
But there's a lack of trust that maybe that, that growth and
22:39
development is structured around trying to save some money, that
22:41
it's cheaper to grow and develop talent inside than it is to go
22:44
outside the company and buy it. Or, you know, that you, you're
22:48
growing and developing somebody because you can't hire people
22:51
from the outside because your, your reputation is poor.
22:55
But we, we seek to, you know, earn trust and then use that
22:59
trust between both parties to be able to help our our team grow
23:04
and advance our career. So going back to zip by, you
23:09
were getting your successor, you know, ready for that hand off.
23:14
How did the opportunity to actually join evolution come
23:16
about, and what did they bring you in specifically to do at
23:20
that time? Yeah, I don't think they knew.
23:24
I think, you know, I got a call from the founder of the
23:29
organization, really successful guy that I knew a lot about.
23:33
He had, he had started and sold to other businesses prior.
23:40
So one was a healthcare organization that he sold to a a
23:43
big public firm called ABM and I think they had like over 100
23:48
hospitals across the country that he had grown from the
23:51
ground up and sold off. And then the next business that
23:54
he ran, it was called Pinnacle Automotive.
23:59
He had actually sold to the founder of Town Park, Jerry
24:02
South. So Jerry and I had spoken a
24:04
little bit about it and, and then Michael called me.
24:08
I came in for the interview and I think I caught them both a
24:11
little off guard because I was there with their current COO and
24:15
Michael being interviewed. And they asked me, you know
24:19
what, what's your, you know, three-year, five year plan if
24:23
you were to join the organization.
24:26
And I said, look, no offense to the gentleman, you know that
24:30
that was the current COO. But I said, I think you'll find
24:33
in a few months that my experience, the way that I, I
24:38
lead, you'll want me to be in your, in your shoes.
24:42
So hopefully there's an opportunity for you to move up
24:45
because, you know, my goal to come here is to, to create,
24:48
recreate the magic that I felt as an employee.
24:51
And, and I, you know, when I, I was in my early growth stage
24:56
with, with town Park, took a lot of pride in the product that we
25:00
delivered. We had, you know, the best
25:01
performing market in the country in service, in claims and
25:05
financials. And I, and I told them, look,
25:06
that's what I'm going to bring here.
25:07
We're going to, you know, today it's 20 locations, but when it's
25:11
150 and we can do the same thing with the same high touch
25:15
environment with our clients and a boutique feel to this product,
25:20
you know, that's unique. So again, I don't know how it
25:24
struck the gentleman across the table, but they hired me
25:26
anyways. I'm gonna have your job very
25:30
soon. Yeah.
25:32
Well, obviously they liked what they heard.
25:34
They brought you on board. What was one of the biggest
25:36
projects that you undertook when you first joined?
25:40
Yeah. Well, it's actually a few years
25:42
into joining. We are we are pretty structured
25:47
and disciplined about doing one thing with excellence.
25:50
We work with hotels across the country to deliver those front
25:54
door services. And you know, I had worked in
25:57
parking technology and I'm watching a lot of these other
26:01
parking tech, you know, parking Valley parking companies that
26:04
are installing parking technology and continuing to
26:08
grow their their portfolio, but also creating more stability in
26:14
revenues. So we went out on a limb, tried
26:19
to figure out from the ground up how to develop a different type
26:22
of technology product out there for self parking that would
26:25
serve our clients. Not a commercial garage, not a a
26:29
healthcare facility, but a hotel that has unique needs.
26:32
And, and it's really hard to do that because one of the things
26:37
that we knew was your guest is arriving and a lot of times you
26:41
have very little information about why they're there, what
26:47
you know, what rate they might have been quoted online or any
26:49
of that, you know, personal information about that
26:51
individual. But in a hotel setting, that's
26:52
very important. If I pull up to a parking lot
26:55
and I scan the sign to pay for my parking and the rate that
26:58
shows up is different from the rate that I was quoted online,
27:01
that's a problem. It creates distrust from the
27:03
moment I walk in. So we aim to make our product,
27:08
you know, unique and differentiated.
27:10
We launched it almost a year ago last.
27:13
Last April, one of our partners took a leap of faith and trusted
27:16
us. And today we've got 80 locations
27:19
around the country that we're doing it and and partners that
27:22
are, you know, trying to give us their portfolio because of the
27:26
revenue increase and really just a product that that speaks to
27:29
their customer. Tell us more about what the
27:31
product is, how it works, why it's so attractive to these
27:34
locations. Well, it's called Revpass and
27:38
you know, again, hotel theme revenue per per available space
27:42
is what we call it in the parking industry.
27:44
But Revpass is really from the ground up, created to be able to
27:50
handle a hotel guest needs separate from, you know, a
27:55
commercial garage, but also to provide the asset owner with
27:58
data, right? Data is, is king.
28:00
If you know what people are driving, how long they stay for,
28:04
where they park, to understand the, the guest journey, right,
28:08
you can be a lot more intentional about the product
28:10
that you're delivering to those guests.
28:13
You know, I think about a parking lot, massive parking
28:16
lot, lots of different entryways, but if you know all
28:18
of your guests go on one side of it, you can really curate the
28:21
experience to follow the customer as they walk into the
28:24
hotel versus trying to have that same impact of the whole
28:27
footprint of the property. Being able to charge different
28:31
rates, different times of the day, different times of the
28:34
year. And and you know, having
28:36
variable pricing I think is something that you're seeing in
28:39
all facets of commerce today, right?
28:43
So it's another thing we can do. So walk me through the guest
28:46
experience. This is like an app experience.
28:48
I drive into the hotel and and what's taking place?
28:52
So you pull into the parking lot, they'll usually be a sign
28:55
in from the spot or a few spots away with a QR code.
28:57
You sign you, you click on that QR code with your camera and
29:01
it's a web app, so no app needed.
29:04
If you register it doesn't one of the unique things, it doesn't
29:07
charge you immediately. What it does is it create, it
29:09
opens your session and it lets you know, you know you're going
29:12
to go ahead and check in at the front desk.
29:14
Proceed to the front desk, the front desk, and then when you
29:17
check in, let you know, hey, you've actually got a discount
29:19
on your parking. Type this code in and and we'll
29:22
get you taken care of. Or they can actually do it for
29:24
you. It allows them.
29:26
You know, one of the big things that we found that was unique
29:28
with hotels is they have tax exempt groups.
29:32
A lot of times government groups are nonprofits that stay there
29:36
and parkings, a weird little challenge for them unless it's
29:40
run through their system. Our our Rev pass is outside of
29:45
their system. So they can actually still
29:47
handle their tax exempt. Yes.
29:49
They just flick a little switch on the customer session and then
29:53
they're not charged tax. So it's little things like that
29:57
that I think might not seem like such a big deal.
29:59
But to that end user who shows up, that's a frustration that
30:03
they didn't plan to deal with. And that kind of derails their
30:05
experience right from the start. And you think about, you know,
30:09
hotel, whether it's valet or that self parking experience,
30:13
that's the first opportunity they have to interact with their
30:17
product, right? So that first impression is
30:20
going to set the tone for the rest of their stay.
30:22
So if we can get that right, keep them happy, keep it
30:24
flexible, then they'll they'll focus on some of the more
30:28
exciting parts of the hotels in the parking.
30:30
So what were hotels using prior to this?
30:34
So all over the place, there's some hotels that have what we
30:38
call the honor system and essentially you walk up to the
30:40
front desk and they say, did you park a car with us?
30:42
And you tell them whether or not you did.
30:46
Our experience tells us that, you know, about 70% of people
30:50
are honest or forgetful or whatever it might be, but
30:55
there's a lot of opportunity there.
30:57
We call another option, Honor System Plus, and that's
31:01
basically you hand them A tag or something that creates this idea
31:05
that somebody's looking or somebody's paying attention.
31:08
So I should follow the rules here.
31:09
And you get a little bit better compliance there, but still
31:11
nowhere near 90% even. And so this product basically
31:18
some hotels also have parking gates, right?
31:20
Parking gates can be frustrating when it's just you pulling up
31:23
and it works like it's supposed to.
31:24
That's great, but when you leave at the end of a big event or you
31:29
know, at the end of a a busy night there at at the hotel and
31:33
you get stuck in a line that that can be really frustrating.
31:36
So these systems allow these hotels, even very, very large
31:40
hotels that would traditionally have parking gates all over the
31:43
place to do away with the gates completely.
31:46
There's automated enforcement in the event that the hotel wants
31:49
to do that. So if somebody chooses not to
31:51
pay, they can send warnings, they can send a ticket to them,
31:54
whatever, you know, whatever they want to do with that.
31:57
But in hotels, typically, they really just want to let, they
32:00
want to let the guest know what they're supposed to do and trust
32:02
that they're going to do the right thing.
32:05
It's not, you know, we're not slapping boots on cars or towing
32:07
cars away. We want to make sure customers
32:11
know how to use the system, that it's easy enough for them to use
32:14
it so that they'll do it and then encourage them that we are
32:17
paying attention and they should do it.
32:20
We also install LPR cameras in a lot of locations.
32:24
Those are license plate reading cameras and that provides so
32:29
much information to the hotel. It's not really about the
32:32
license plate. We use that kind of as a ticket
32:34
so that that's how we identify the the.
32:36
Like an ID number. Right.
32:38
Yeah, like an ID number, but it gives the hotel information
32:42
about what types of vehicles, what sizes, how many EVs,
32:46
electric vehicles pull into the lot.
32:48
So when they think about how much investment should I put
32:51
ahead for our capital expenditures in the next year to
32:54
put in charging, they they have credible data to make that
32:58
decision versus you know industry reports that might have
33:02
nothing to do with their specific market.
33:04
You were talking, Brooks, about how some of the older
33:08
technologies, older approaches maybe have like a 70% compliance
33:11
rate with your technology. What do you see that compliance
33:15
rate be? It's in the 90s, so it really
33:18
all depends on how the client chooses to enforce it.
33:21
Because you know, believe it or not, there are plenty of clients
33:25
that would tell you we're OK with not collecting 100% as long
33:29
as we don't really disrupt our guests experience.
33:34
So our goal is to provide them the guardrails to be able to
33:39
collect up to 100%. When you put the signs out there
33:44
and you have presents at the location, you know, whether
33:47
that's people walking around warning tickets that might be
33:51
placed on other vehicles, compliances over 95%.
33:55
We, we found when we install the system, it's right around 98%.
33:59
It'll trickle off if you don't pay attention to it because
34:03
guests are very savvy these days and they will research online
34:07
and people are very happy to put notes about how to save some
34:10
money when you park at a hotel. So it varies wildly, but our
34:16
goal is to make sure that the hotel has the tools and the
34:19
information. So when those LPR cameras are up
34:21
there, they know precisely how much of that revenue they're
34:24
collecting today in those honor systems.
34:27
They definitely think they're collecting over 90%.
34:30
And then we show them the data to say that it's closer to 70
34:33
and they're shocked. But you know, when you have
34:37
cameras up and they track every vehicle that comes and goes, you
34:40
can't hide from that data. And, you know, it causes them to
34:43
just get a little bit more disciplined about it.
34:46
You'd be surprised they they know every candy bar that might
34:49
show up missing from, you know, from the gift shop, but have no
34:52
clue how many cars are coming and going because it's outside
34:56
the building. So.
34:58
Yeah, I live in a busy urban area here in Columbus, OH.
35:02
So certainly, you know, see the hotels around here that have
35:05
parking services Also see them at a lot of restaurants.
35:09
Why have you guys decided to focus exclusively on hotels?
35:13
Is there just not the margin in the restaurant business?
35:16
No, there is we've, we believe strongly that that you can
35:22
perform at a much higher level when you seek to be excellent at
35:25
one thing versus diversifying your impact over multiple
35:30
verticals or whatever that might be.
35:33
You know, there's lots of companies that do a very good
35:35
job at doing all different verticals.
35:37
Our goal is to be exceptional, not just pretty good like
35:41
everybody else, right, So the product can work anywhere.
35:47
Our sales team is a very small sales team.
35:50
It's a team of two today actually.
35:52
We've just hired another sales leader, but our goal isn't to
35:56
try to sell to the whole world. Our goal is to sell to partners
35:59
that think about the business the way we do that.
36:02
It should be elegant. It should be, you know, focused
36:05
on the guest experience and things should, you know, work
36:09
the way they're supposed to, not compromise in order to make it
36:12
work everywhere. So you guys are obviously
36:14
helping out with all things related to parking, but it
36:18
doesn't stop there. What else are you guys helping
36:21
to do with these hotels? Well, you know, like I said
36:25
early on, it's that that first impression when you walk in the
36:29
door, it creates an emotion for that customer that they carry
36:32
throughout their stay. And quite frankly, even when
36:35
something goes wrong in the hotel, we can fix it before they
36:38
leave a lot of times. And that means a lot, right?
36:41
If you leave and you're still upset or you still feel like you
36:45
were unheard, you carry that with you and there's a bit of
36:48
resentment or, you know, definitely displeasure that that
36:52
hangs around for a while, right? And we know, you know, whether
36:56
it's from the research with Marriott or, or, you know, all
36:59
these different brands that you return guests are, you know, so
37:02
much more profitable than going out and seeking new guests.
37:05
So our, our hotel clients want their guests to keep coming
37:08
back. So all of the, the training and
37:13
auditing that we do is all structured around how do we
37:16
provide this environment where people arrive, it's friendly,
37:19
it's safe, and they feel like they can trust the individuals.
37:23
I always think back and we used to train with this video clip
37:26
actually from Ferris Bueller's Day Off when they they drove his
37:33
sports car. It was a little cabriolet.
37:35
I don't remember if it was a what brand it was, but it's a
37:38
very nice car that they're very nervous about.
37:40
And they pull up to this greasy looking valet that was as slimy
37:43
as can be. And they hand him the keys and
37:45
he goes off joyriding in the car, right.
37:47
And people believe that, that there's an element and they're
37:50
probably there is, I know there is.
37:51
I see it on YouTube, you know, from time to time.
37:54
There's an element of that that does exist in our, in our
37:57
industry. So we have to work really hard
37:59
to earn people's trust in a momentary interaction.
38:03
So everything from whether or not my name tag is straight and
38:06
my shirt is pressed and the, this, the, the way that I stand,
38:10
all of that sends a message to the customer that we know and
38:14
understand. And we think about forensically
38:16
how we, how we position ourselves, how when we smile,
38:19
when we talk, you know, distance matters and all of that stuff
38:24
that, you know, again, when I said we try to do one thing with
38:27
excellence, That's why we're not, you know, out there trying
38:30
to have a, a healthcare component to our business or
38:35
commercial or whatever. It's so hard to do one thing
38:39
exceptionally well that we know we can't do it.
38:42
So we're not going to try. We we want to.
38:44
Focus on you've established domain expertise in this one
38:47
vertical, you know, all of the peculiarities of the hotel
38:51
industry. Why dilute?
38:54
That is sort of the philosophy, yeah.
38:56
And we love it. That's that's another thing that
38:58
shines through, right? Like I'm sure you can hear it
39:00
from me, but I think if you talk to any of our leaders across the
39:03
country and a lot of our employees, we want to hire
39:06
people. We say it all the time.
39:08
If we can just find people that care with genuine care, it makes
39:13
all the difference in the world. It's not a hard job to teach.
39:16
There's uniqueness to it. But if you care, even if you
39:20
make a mistake, you can overcome that, you know, And my wife and
39:24
I had an experience couple days ago.
39:26
We went out to dinner and the gentleman that was working there
39:30
handed out some food to a customer and forgot to put one
39:32
item in there and we listened to him toil over it for about 10
39:36
minutes. After they left he went to go
39:38
chase after him and he couldn't catch him.
39:40
And he was remarking as we sat there eating our food about how
39:43
she was so excited because they had this vegan sandwich and she
39:46
was going to get to eat it. And now she's, she's left
39:49
without food and he had no way to get in contact with her.
39:53
And I was so impressed. I'm sitting there like listening
39:56
to every word that's coming out of his mouth.
39:57
Like, man, I wish everybody thought like that.
40:00
Because you have a job that's important.
40:02
And it, it doesn't matter if it's serving food, parking cars
40:05
or operating on somebody's heart.
40:08
Somebody's placed trust in you to do it well.
40:10
And you have the opportunity to care and deliver that way or to
40:15
just transactionally, you know, do whatever you do.
40:18
And I think that matters so much.
40:22
And hopefully inspires our employees, you know, to think
40:24
like that too. So I love everything that you're
40:27
saying about, you know, the types of people that you're
40:29
looking for, the way that you invest in them, that you want to
40:33
show them there's a path of growth there.
40:35
It strikes me that this has to be particularly challenging in
40:40
your type of business because your folks are spread out all
40:44
over the country, right? I think we talked about over 100
40:47
different locations. And so I'd be curious to
40:50
understand better, Brooks, how you approach all of this sort
40:55
of, you know, recruiting, hiring, retention, like
41:00
establishing that culture across such a, you know, diverse
41:03
geography. How do you how do you approach
41:06
this? Yeah, there's actually been a
41:09
lot of dialogue internally with our team and externally through
41:14
some recent LinkedIn chats that I've been a part of too, about
41:17
culture, right? Culture is, I think, so
41:19
misunderstood. You can't, in my opinion, you
41:25
can't frame a culture and deliver on it because that's
41:28
what you want to do. It's what you actually do.
41:31
And people feel it and they see it.
41:33
And it's how you lead and what you critique and what you manage
41:36
or what you, you know what, when you inspect what you expect.
41:44
If you don't do that and you say something's really important,
41:48
but you don't go back to look and see if anybody's doing it,
41:50
then it's clearly not important, right?
41:52
And we talk about that all the time when we talk about culture
41:54
internally is the culture of our organization is what we do as
41:57
leaders, and that's everybody. So, you know, when we go
42:05
recruiting, I think we do just what everybody else does.
42:09
We put out a compelling message about what we aim to do for our,
42:13
our, our customers where we work, because we work at some
42:16
fun places that, you know, people look to.
42:19
But the, the thing I think that's different for me with our
42:22
recruiting process is we do it all internally.
42:25
We don't trust any piece of that to a third party.
42:28
So whether it's scrubbing resumes to look for the right
42:34
type of person, that may sound tedious and AI does it, you
42:38
know, fine. And I'm sure there's there's
42:40
going to be a time that we can use AIA little bit more as as we
42:42
get better at it ourselves. But being able to look at a
42:46
piece of paper and look at somebody's experience and how
42:48
they position themselves to us tells us so much about what
42:52
they're going to be like when they show up.
42:54
And if we bring one person in that is counter to our culture,
42:59
it disrupts everything. It, it makes that manager's job
43:02
a little bit harder because now they're, they're fighting to
43:05
change somebody instead of teaching, training and
43:08
developing them to, to understand our, our ways of
43:11
doing things. It creates distrust amongst the
43:14
other employees because they can see it and they can feel it.
43:17
So we have to get that part right.
43:19
There's nothing more important to our organization than than
43:22
our people. So we have to do it all in
43:26
house. And it's, it's hard.
43:28
We have 1500 employees today and you know, with 60% turnover
43:33
we're, we're constantly interviewing all over the
43:37
country. Thankfully though, we don't hire
43:41
a lot of managers from outside the company anymore.
43:45
So we talked about our development programs and we've
43:48
had a lot of success there and people like to stick around.
43:51
So that piece, that's the, that is so much more difficult
43:55
because that the further you get along in your career, the better
44:00
you are at telling a story, not necessarily you know the the
44:03
truth, but a story of what you know the employer wants to hear.
44:07
It's hard to read between those lines.
44:09
And quite honestly, it's just so complex, the job that a manager
44:14
does for us and leading our people, delivering on a product
44:17
for the customer, communicating and being a part of that
44:20
customer's business, right? We're another department head
44:22
for the hotel. We're not a third party.
44:25
We have to be. We have to know their guest
44:27
journey inside and out. So we have to be a part of their
44:29
internal meetings, their resume meetings.
44:32
We're the face of their business when a customer comes in and
44:35
decides whether or not to book a big wedding there.
44:38
So we're so ingrained in that operation that not only are we
44:41
hiring for ourselves, we have to hire specific to the need at
44:45
that location, the decorum of that location every single time.
44:48
So it's it's a big challenge. Brooks, how would you describe
44:52
your style of leadership? I guess you servant leadership
44:59
is is a big piece of it. You know, hopefully you can hear
45:03
some of that, but it's also, I like to have fun, you know, it's
45:07
whether it's inside of work, outside of work.
45:09
I joke a lot. And I think that's important
45:11
because we spend a lot of time at work in the hospitality
45:15
business. It's 24/7, 365.
45:18
You know, we, we take phone calls on Christmas Eve and
45:23
Christmas and the families that work for us have to leave their
45:27
families a lot of times at times that they don't want to, you
45:31
know, to, to make sure that we're delivering for every one
45:33
of our guests everywhere, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,
45:37
right? So, so that's important and
45:40
that, and I try to make sure everybody understands that when
45:43
we talk about leadership, we talk about the inverted pyramid
45:45
where my role as COO is to support every individual in our
45:49
company. And so I've got a lot of work to
45:52
do because I have to be there for everybody all the time and
45:56
still be able to to do my job too.
45:58
So if I don't empower them and I don't help them to learn on
46:00
their own, then that means I'm making more work for myself.
46:03
And each leader up the chain has responsibility for everybody
46:07
under their charge. So for us, leadership is more
46:12
about relationship than it is about getting the job done.
46:15
Because we're going to make mistakes.
46:17
We, we're moving, you know, 2 1/2 ton vehicles through guest
46:21
thoroughfares with people and kids running around that are on
46:25
vacation and not, not cognizant of the fact that they're in a
46:28
driving lane, you know, on a roadway for the most part, you
46:32
know, running around like no care in the world.
46:34
And we have to protect them. We have to protect the brand of
46:37
the hotel with, with how we approach everything that we do
46:40
with customers. So there's a lot of outer
46:43
business. It's really serious.
46:44
And I try to make sure that we can still have a lot of fun
46:48
while we're doing that stuff so that it doesn't overwhelm you.
46:52
What's the future of evolution parking?
46:54
What are some growth opportunities that are coming?
46:58
Yeah. I think the thing that we've
47:00
really done a great job of is aligning ourselves with our
47:03
partners and thinking about their businesses like you know
47:08
an asset manager versus a a vendor.
47:11
You know, a lot of companies, Valley companies especially
47:14
think about what they do as selling labor to the hotel.
47:18
We we think about creating outcomes for that hotel, whether
47:21
that's, you know, increasing their guest survey index,
47:25
increasing their revenues, helping them to plan better
47:28
around things to, to create more efficiencies within the
47:31
operation, whatever that might be.
47:33
So I think our well, it's evidenced by who our clients
47:38
are. We have multiple national
47:41
relationships where hotel brands gives give us every valley
47:46
opportunity that they have or every self parking opportunity
47:49
that they have because they trust us.
47:51
And it's not that we don't make mistakes because we do.
47:54
But when we make mistakes, we make it right and we sit on it
47:58
until we figure out, you know, how it got wrong to begin with
48:01
and fix it. So I think that's the one thing
48:04
that I told you. We have two sales people now.
48:07
We had one all the way up until a a couple months ago.
48:10
Which is incredible growth with just one salesperson.
48:13
Well, he's brilliant and that helps.
48:17
Yeah, he is. And he's a, you know, he's, you
48:20
know, done very, very well to understand our customers needs
48:25
and, and to not only be able to deliver the product on day one,
48:30
but he stays by their side throughout the journey.
48:33
And that that makes it really, really hard.
48:35
Like you said, we have over 100 clients now.
48:37
So being there for everybody all the time gets harder and harder.
48:41
So we did bring on some more help.
48:43
We'll look to grow some more, but our growth is really all
48:45
about relationships. If we do what we say we're going
48:48
to do and we deliver on it, then we want you to go tell your
48:51
friends about what we did or if you have other opportunities, we
48:55
want you to give us an opportunity at it.
48:57
So we've seen a lot of success there and and we don't aspire to
49:01
be, you know, again, multi vertical 1000 property business,
49:09
we want to be, we'd love to be at 300 hotels, you know, and
49:13
we'll get there, we'll be at, we'll be at 200 before we get to
49:16
the end of this year, which is really, really exciting and
49:19
scary at the same time. But we're going to do it
49:23
through, you know, making sure that we understand we don't
49:26
leave anybody behind in that, in that path to growth.
49:29
Is there some internal tech that you guys are layering in to be
49:33
able to support that kind of rapid growth that you're talking
49:36
about this year? Oh, all kinds of it, right?
49:39
I spend a lot of time trying to learn about different software
49:44
that's out there that our competitors use.
49:46
One of the really cool things about the parking industry is
49:51
all of the senior executives if for all of the companies around
49:55
the country, they're all people that I know and that I've worked
49:57
with over the years. So I can have a, a conversation
50:02
with our competitor about what they're doing that's working and
50:05
what's not. It's really easy for them to
50:07
tell me. It's not really easy for me to
50:08
do it right. So I get to learn from my peers
50:12
and that's, that's great. It's it, it offers an awesome
50:14
sounding board. But I, I'm spending a lot of
50:17
time trying to understand how AI enables us to do more in a way
50:22
that doesn't take us away from the customer.
50:25
You know, I know there's a lot of apprehension in the world
50:27
right now about what jobs is AI going to take away, you know,
50:32
and, and there's an element of what we do that could absolutely
50:35
be done, you know, through automation.
50:38
But the reason why people hire Evolution is because we provide
50:45
this exceptional guest experience and connection with
50:48
their their guests on the way in and on the way out.
50:51
So that first impression and last impression stick.
50:54
And they align that with that brand, not with Evolution, but
50:57
with, you know, the Ritz Carlton or the Marriott or whatever that
51:00
brand is that that we're representing.
51:02
I don't think that's going to go away.
51:04
So we need to figure out how to leverage, you know, the data
51:08
that we have so that we can better understand customer
51:12
journeys and, and how people move and you know, when they're
51:16
going to be able to anticipate what they need before they need
51:19
it. That's so big for us is
51:22
anticipatory service. And I know there's there's data
51:25
there that can help us, but we also think a lot about
51:27
protection and it means a lot of different things to us.
51:31
But one of the things it means is when we operate a 2 1/2 ton
51:35
vehicle, we have to understand that we're, we have to keep the
51:39
customers safe that are out there on the front drive.
51:41
We want to keep their their valuable safe, whether that's
51:45
locking their car or scratching it on the way to the parking
51:48
lot. And so we spent a lot of time
51:50
talking about protection. When you think about, you know,
51:55
those cameras, you think about dash cams and stuff like that.
52:00
There's a lot of technology out there that we can use to enable
52:02
us to better train our our associates.
52:04
If I could see the driving path of every associate everywhere
52:08
across the country, every time they park a car and I can have
52:10
something trigger to say, hey, this looks a little unsafe,
52:13
Let's take a look at it. Imagine the experience there,
52:16
because now it's not about me being upset because somebody
52:19
caused a claim. This is me proactively coming to
52:22
somebody and saying, hey, we noticed when you were driving,
52:25
you know, when you reverse that you were throwing your arm up
52:27
over the back of the chair and looking back, that puts you in a
52:30
position where you can only see One Direction and it limits your
52:33
field of view and potentially puts the vehicle, other people,
52:36
your, your coworkers at risk. And we want to train you how to
52:39
do it differently. That experience to us is is
52:42
where we want to be able to try to leverage.
52:45
It's a training technology. Absolutely.
52:47
Yeah. Yep.
52:48
You know, growth has been a big theme of our conversation today,
52:52
right? We're talking about the rapid
52:53
growth of evolution. We're talking about the growth
52:56
that you were allowed at your, you know, first stop in the
53:00
parking industry, the mindset that you have brought to
53:04
evolution and, you know, being able to help others grow.
53:07
And now we're gonna shift the conversation towards more
53:12
personal growth for you because growth comes from overcoming big
53:17
challenges. Brooks and I would like to
53:20
explore a big challenge that you've overcome in your life and
53:23
how you got through that and and what you learned.
53:27
Yeah. I mean, I would, I would say we
53:30
talked about it a little bit, but I would say it was, you
53:32
know, that same lesson that I'd learned over and over again.
53:34
It was, you know, stepping into this role and then seeing the
53:38
growth that we've seen at the rate that we saw it and trying
53:44
to remember that it's not my job to do everything for everybody,
53:47
but to enable them and empower them to be able to do it.
53:51
So, you know, I'm, I'm a, I'm a quick learner, but, but I can
53:56
also stray from, from the lessons that I've learned pretty
53:58
quickly. I guess I've learned over the
54:00
years as well. But you know, for us that that's
54:06
really it, that that's it for me.
54:08
It's been all about, you know, trying to reframe my role every
54:14
time, you know, we hit a new benchmark of, of growth and a
54:18
new, you know, kind of a new model for, for what we're doing
54:22
when it goes from 20 hotels to 50, from 50 to 75 into 100, and
54:28
then a new product that we're delivering and trying to
54:31
perfect. It's one of the GMs that I used
54:35
to work with years ago. He's now an area leader for
54:39
Marriott. Ron Mackinac told me the
54:43
business is kind of like changing the tires on a NASCAR,
54:47
but you don't get to pull into a pit stop.
54:50
And he's right. I mean, everything just
54:52
constantly keeps moving and it doesn't slow down.
54:55
We don't get days off. So our improvement, our
54:58
continuous improvement model has to work with a live environment
55:02
at all times. So, I mean, I read all the books
55:05
I can read. I was on a webinar just before
55:09
our time learning about how to better leverage HubSpot for our
55:14
sales team to do some automations and stuff to get
55:16
them out in the field versus sitting in behind a computer.
55:21
And so that model of, you know, constantly trying to learn,
55:24
constantly trying to get better, constantly trying to reframe
55:27
where we're at today for our customers and what we provide
55:31
and what they need for us tomorrow around the corner to
55:34
make sure we're prepared for that.
55:36
That's I think always going to be a challenge for me and for us
55:41
because our, you know, like I said, our, our aspirations and
55:43
goals are to keep growing as long as we can keep providing
55:47
this service to our customers. And so what's been helpful to
55:50
you in leveling up because you you touch on something key here,
55:54
Brooks, you know, the person who is good at managing a company at
55:58
25 locations, you know, that's a different set of skills when you
56:02
get to 5075 a hundred now, you know, an additional tech product
56:06
on top of that. Not everybody can make that
56:09
transition as the company grows and the company often times
56:13
outgrows its leaders. So what has helped you kind of
56:17
keep pace? Yeah, I've had one advantage in
56:21
that I've been down this road before.
56:24
When I started at Town Park, we had 30 some locations and when I
56:28
left, we were around 750. So I got to see a lot of that
56:34
happen. And we had some really great
56:37
leaders that I learned from that they weren't perfect either,
56:39
right? They made mistakes.
56:40
So I, I feel like I have the confidence to know I'm allowed
56:44
to, to mess up every now and again.
56:46
But the important thing for me that I learned, you know, from
56:51
some of my mentors was have a plan.
56:56
You know, your plan is where you start from.
56:58
Mike Tyson says everybody's got a great plan until they get
57:01
punched in the face, right? But but that's that's a great
57:04
moment because in that moment, you reframe my plan doesn't make
57:08
sense anymore. Now I've got to change.
57:10
How can I change what's broken? And when you, when you have that
57:13
discipline of, of, you know, reframing your plan every, you
57:17
know, every month, it's is my rhythm.
57:19
So every month sitting down and framing up a plan, deciding what
57:23
I'm trying to accomplish every year, having a big plan that I
57:27
want to make sure I can break up in a bite sized chunks
57:29
throughout the year allows me to be able to measure my
57:31
performance and see my own opportunities.
57:35
So, you know, being self aware, especially in leading a people
57:40
driven organization, you know, our product is people and it's
57:44
lots of people spread out all over the country.
57:47
You have to be, you have to be able to reflect on what you're
57:51
doing well. You have to be able to
57:53
understand what you, you know, did yesterday and what you plan
57:55
to do tomorrow and whether or not that's on your strategic
57:58
path to move, move the company forward.
58:01
And you have to be able to reflect on, you know, how how
58:04
you feel about what you did honestly.
58:05
And I feel like we have great people that work with us.
58:09
They they give honest feedback because there is a trust that we
58:12
all have with each other that I can get critiqued from, you
58:16
know, somebody that that works for me and not be defensive
58:19
about it. So, and I welcome it, you know,
58:23
I, I asked for it, that look, if we walk into a room and we walk
58:28
out in agreement, but you don't actually agree, you were just
58:30
afraid to speak up, then, you know, we both are going to look
58:33
silly because we're going to fail and you know, and, and then
58:36
nobody's nobody wins. So let's hash it out while we're
58:40
in the room together, you know, and then figured out, even if it
58:43
means you have to be disruptive and disagree and, and it feels
58:47
uncomfortable, if you're doing it to make sure that we make the
58:50
best decision, then you're going to make us better.
58:53
And I need that, you know, that's what I asked for from my
58:55
senior leaders. What's your superpower, Brooks?
59:00
I think it's clarity, you know, it's being able to take the
59:05
chaos of, you know, any environment and be able to boil
59:10
it down to what are the most important things?
59:11
What do we need to focus on today?
59:13
And then, you know, once we get that down, what are we going to
59:16
focus on tomorrow? So being able to see around the
59:19
corner and what what we're seeking to achieve is a big
59:23
picture, but being able to break it down in a bite size chunks
59:25
that are measurable, repeatable and and teachable so that you
59:32
know, people understand what it is that they need to do today to
59:35
reach that big lofty goal that beehag that that's in the future
59:38
for us. What's your favorite thing to do
59:41
outside of work? I'm all over the place and you
59:44
know, I talked about, you know, being able to control chaos, but
59:47
my personal life is I love to just stay busy and stay active.
59:51
IA big Crossfitter. I love fishing, so I like to be
59:55
outdoors. It doesn't matter if it's
59:57
fishing or hiking or just, you know, whatever activities
1:00:02
outdoors. I've got three, I was about to
1:00:04
say little girls, but they're 2421 and 17 now.
1:00:11
So but they're all still local and we spend a lot of time
1:00:15
together. So my wife and and the girls is
1:00:19
everything I do. But so we, you know, we're at
1:00:22
the parks, we live in Orlando, so we spend.
1:00:25
A fair amount of time outdoors, and that's where I love to be
1:00:28
thankful to be in Florida. Yeah, just one more question for
1:00:31
you today, Brooks. But before I ask it, I want to
1:00:34
do 3 quick things for the audience.
1:00:36
First of all, to get in touch with Brooks.
1:00:38
And Evolution got a great website, itsevolutionpgs.com,
1:00:43
evolutionpgs.com. And we'll have that link in the
1:00:46
show notes. But if you're listening, you
1:00:49
want to type it in right now, you're not the video
1:00:51
evolutionpgs.com. And if you're enjoying the show
1:00:54
today, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you're
1:00:57
listening. It sends a signal that helps
1:01:00
others to discover our podcast. So thank you for taking a quick
1:01:03
moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can get
1:01:07
more hospitality and parking employees, access to therapists,
1:01:10
doctors and prescription meds that, as paradoxical as it
1:01:14
seems, actually increases your company's net profits, real
1:01:18
gains that can change how a business is valued.
1:01:20
And it works well in high turnover environments too.
1:01:22
So reach out to us at adbackbenefits.com.
1:01:26
So last question for you, Brooks.
1:01:27
A year from now, what is 1 very specific thing that you hope to
1:01:30
be celebrating? So we've got a big goal right
1:01:35
now as an organization to eliminate claims from our
1:01:38
business. I think everybody in the
1:01:41
industry, maybe not everybody, that's a broad statement.
1:01:44
A lot of people in the industry look at claims vehicle damage as
1:01:49
a cost of doing business. And I think it's kind of absurd,
1:01:52
right? Like if you thought about, hey,
1:01:54
I bought this car, at some point I'm going to crash it into
1:01:56
something, you know what I mean? That's ridiculous.
1:01:59
So we spend a lot of time trying to help our team frame that idea
1:02:04
because it is hard to imagine they've seen, if they've worked
1:02:08
in parking for a long time, they've never seen an operation
1:02:11
that they didn't have a claim. And so we're doing a lot to
1:02:16
teach and train around the theme of protection.
1:02:20
Again, we're protecting our guests stuff, right, their
1:02:24
vehicle or what they might have in their vehicle, but also the
1:02:27
people that are out there by driving safely, our client's
1:02:30
reputation by, you know, not damaging somebody's vehicle and
1:02:33
creating a bad experience and all of this stuff.
1:02:37
And it's right in line with what we do well, you know, around
1:02:39
training and developing our team.
1:02:42
But it's with a more important mission that, you know, we're
1:02:45
going to try to eliminate something from the business that
1:02:48
has traditionally been a large part of it.
1:02:52
And we're not going to accept anything less than this goal of
1:02:56
getting to 0 claims. So it's aspirational.
1:02:58
It's it's a beehag, it's a big hairy audacious goal that you
1:03:02
know, we're going to tackle and and accomplish.
1:03:04
So a year from now, that's where we'll be.
1:03:07
So you had mentioned before when we were talking about, you know,
1:03:09
some of the tech things you're like, oh, you know, if we had
1:03:11
dash cams, wouldn't that be great?
1:03:13
And obviously you can't put a dash Cam in a, you know, a car
1:03:16
that's not yours, but or, or you kind of tilt your head like, oh,
1:03:20
OK, so correct me here. Well, I don't know.
1:03:22
I mean, that's, that's you, you know, never say never, right?
1:03:26
Because if you would have told me five years ago that I'd be
1:03:29
typing into a a machine on my computer that tells me
1:03:32
everything about everything and answers every question you could
1:03:34
ever have, I would have said you were crazy.
1:03:37
But here we are, right. And so that's exactly, you know,
1:03:40
one of the products that I'm trying to figure out.
1:03:42
Is there a way to do that in a meaningful way where even if
1:03:47
it's not perfect, it gives us a little bit more insight that we
1:03:50
can learn a little bit more and be more targeted with what we
1:03:53
teach? Leave no stone unturned.
1:03:58
So we're that's one. Product body cams for you know
1:04:00
each of your ballets. Yeah, it could be.
1:04:02
There's all these weird things that you have to worry about,
1:04:04
right? Especially when you're dealing
1:04:06
with guests all the time. And look, we see famous people
1:04:09
just like we see normal people all the time.
1:04:11
And a lot of, you know, people don't like cameras.
1:04:14
So we'll have to figure it out. It's not like it's easy.
1:04:17
But that's why. That's why it's our big hairy
1:04:19
audacious goal, love. It Brooks Alice from Evolution
1:04:22
Parking and Guest Services. I want to be the first to thank
1:04:25
you for sharing both your time and your story with us today,
1:04:28
and I really appreciate you being here.
1:04:31
It's great talking with you. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:04:33
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:04:35
Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put
1:04:39
that into action today.