Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / From Military to Elevator COO: Leadership, Hiring, and Managing Chaos | Steve Phillips

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From Military to Elevator COO: Leadership, Hiring, and Managing Chaos | Steve Phillips · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: When you put it all together, it's one of the most magical things to see happen.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like in this industry, there are great people in this industry.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm very surprised about how much of a brotherhood it really was, like the fire department, like the military, like the EMS.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: When you have a team of mechanics working with a team in the office, and they're working towards the same goal, and they all understand they're working for something bigger than just I collect a paycheck or I'm gonna get mine or whatever that saying is, and you start seeing the numbers come together, and it's it's effortless.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody's getting beat up, nobody's being yelled at, they're just coming together because we're just working as a team, and we're having one-on-ones when somebody's struggling and you're lifting them up instead of beating them down.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying it's always perfect, there's some people that don't fit this model, but what I'm saying is when you have the majority of those people just coming together and not realizing what you're doing and the culture that you create, and then you hit those numbers, and they don't they can't even express to you how they got there.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's the magic.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: 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.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: Today our guest is Steve Phillips, Chief Operating Officer at Southern Elevator, based in Greensboro, North Carolina.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Steve started his career outside of the elevator industry, gaining knowledge and experience in operations, military, NASCAR, emergency services, and management for over 20 years.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: When Steve started at Southern, he found that the management skills and knowledge he had acquired elsewhere were perfectly transferable to the elevator industry.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: Steve has learned a lot since starting and plans to retire from the industry.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: He has learned to love elevators and is excited to continue to grow and innovate.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: Steve, welcome to the show.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's a pleasure.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Glad to be part of it.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm excited.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: It was uh it was good to meet you at the spring conference down in Florida and uh be able to get to to talk a little bit more.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: And um so one of the things I really wanted to focus on was the fact that you've joined the industry from from outside the industry.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: And and I'm just curious, what is it like joining the elevator industry?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Having not really been exposed to it, you didn't grow up in it, your grandpa and dad weren't weren't part of it.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: What's that like?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um it's been the most challenging part of my career to this date.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I was in the military and I went through basic training.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say, other than basic training, this was probably the second most challenging career.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, management is management, and I think if you have good management practices, you can work in any industry.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: But what I didn't realize about this industry, it's a very unique industry, and there are many, many different ways to do the same thing over and over again.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: And you're dealing with a lot of different vendors and you're dealing with a lot of different um cultures, and it it was um, I tell everybody who comes to work for us that it takes nine months uh to feel comfortable.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm usually one that gets something very quickly.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I found it um exhilarating that I could actually be challenged like that.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: I actually enjoyed the challenge.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: So um again, we've put better processes.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think the nine months is a a big learning curve like mine.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: When I got here, there was no training program.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was basically um fire from day one and then realized that I had to own everything and fix everything and kind of correct things that I saw that I think made us more efficient.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was I I found it very challenging and I wasn't scared to take the job.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um I but I miss um I misread how hard it was gonna be.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm actually grateful for that.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm glad to be here.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: When you said you were looking for a challenge and it uh or rather that it was exhilarating, were were you looking for the challenge, a challenge at the time?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I I was with AAA for 22 years, and then um my job got eliminated.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: I went down to Florida and was excelling there, but wasn't really the fit.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: I had to come back to North Carolina and I bounced around a while from job to job, trying to find my next home.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I was what I found is my talents were welcome to be um, they wanted to hire my talents, but they didn't really want me to use my talents at the jobs that I was in.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't feel in that a little bit more.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: Dig dig into that.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it wouldn't say they didn't want me to use them.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: What did that mean?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I work for a small like mom and pop door company, and they wanted me to come in and be the manager, but really what they wanted me to be was their yes man, and they didn't want me to manage anybody.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: They kind of just wanted to tell me something, and then I had to tell the people below me something, and it was the same verbiage and there was no real management, and I was actually getting worried that I was losing my skill set.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so when I was looking for this career, um I wasn't unhappy and I was making you know good money and good income that I wanted to, but I wasn't being challenged, and so I was really starting to question whether this is the right fit for me because if I can't use my skill set, my management, my leadership skill set, they could have had anybody do this, and it was just wasn't fulfilling.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was going to work every day and wasn't unhappy, but wasn't happy.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Let's put it that way.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: So how did that affect the the interview process or or you know, like you say, kind of coming to this?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it was the most honest interview I've ever done.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because I had nothing to lose.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't in a position where I was really wanting the job, I wasn't really trying to get the job, or I wasn't, I was just entertaining what would a new career look like, and I was trying to find a home.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what did I want to do?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: And not afraid to to tell the truth, right?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, actually, the funny part is is when I left the interview, um, I told my wife, I either really bomb this or I'm gonna have an offer.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: And she says, What do you mean?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: I said, I was very candid in the interview and wasn't for the first time in my life, I wasn't um afraid to talk about me.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was one that never bragged, bragged about what I did, or I never sold myself very well.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: I always just knew I could do it, but I didn't feel like I had to be my own cheerleader.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I went in the interview and I cheerleaded for myself and basically was very honest about my skill set and was weird.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: I thought I was, you know, it was kind of a scary interview, not for me, but it was a scary interview for hey, I don't even know if they're gonna call me back or ever had do a second or third or fourth interview.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: It was just like, hey, left it all on the table, as you say, if you were an athlete and then walked away and they liked what I had to say and they hired me.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and it sounds like, yeah, probably the you said the most honest is probably the best interview you ever did because yeah, I would agree.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because you were willing to lay it on the table and just hey, if you don't like me, then it's probably not a good fit, right?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't like my honesty, then don't hire me.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I say that in any interview I've ever done, and even people when I'm interviewing them, it's it's a it's you know, employers make the mistake sometimes that they think they're the ones interviewing.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think the employee and employer relationship, you're interviewing, whether this is the right, if when you get to a certain point in your career where you're not chasing money or you're not chasing, you know, just give me a job kind of mentality, when you're in that spot where you know you can take it or leave it, and you know, it's not gonna be the end of the world if you don't get this one job.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: You really are interviewing the company to see if this is gonna be a good fit for you and your personality, and is this gonna be where you need to belong?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I totally agree.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so what what were some of your concerns kind of coming in to a totally unknown industry, mid-career?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, what were you looking at?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I didn't really have concerns in the beginning.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: I would say I had more concerns when I got in the position.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, didn't realize um the career is very sink or swim mentality in this in the elevator world.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it is very um an old school career.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is just by dealing with unions and apprenticeship, it's it reminds me a lot of me being I'm a fireman and I'm I was in the military, and there's a lot of you have to prove yourself as a rookie.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that that extends to management.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: So you the mechanics that you work with on a daily basis, they're gonna test you and they're gonna test you pretty quickly, and they're gonna see if you are the right stuff.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and if you don't, they're gonna break you pretty quick.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and once I understood that pretty quickly within a week or two, I I was able to get with the program and and really get a hold of this is gonna have to be a relationship of a partnership.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they're gonna have to understand I come from one side, they come from another, and it was gonna have to be um, but I didn't need to back down, I needed to show them I knew what I was talking about.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because honestly, coming from not the elevator industry, I came in as a um I would come in with a harder test than somebody.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: I don't get the yeah, I don't get the blanket, hey, he's from the elevator business, he's been in all his life.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's hey, all right, guy, what do you think you know?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we know more than you, that kind of thing.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: So tell me tell me what is the right stuff?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: What what did you have to show up with to pass the test?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I read the I read the union agreement, okay and then I was savvy enough to um understand what you can and cannot do.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so a simple thing like um in the beginning, um, on call schedules, I had a meeting with my guys and I said, look, if you're gonna go on vacation, it's your job to cover your on-call if you're on call that week.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I got tested right away and I got told, you know, pretty much we don't have to do that, thinking I didn't read the union agreement.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the first test, right?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: They want to see if they're gonna play the union card.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: And um, because I read the agreement, I said basically it said I can be in charge of the on-call schedules anytime I want.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: And basically, I could either do this nice or I can do this letter to the law.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I just laid it out to them.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Look, we can have a great relationship where we work together as a team and we do the certain things to make this easier, or we can go to the letter of the law of the union book, which means that I will also follow the letter of the law as a manager of the union book.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope you're doing everything the right way every day you show up to work.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that was the first one of like the bravado thing where hey, I read the book, I'm challenging you, you're challenging me, and I'm just like, we can work this out as a team, sure, or we can turn it into a management versus union thing.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't, I never wanted that.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted it to have to be a partnership, and so that was really the culture that I built and tried to build with them.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: But they needed to know that I did my homework, right?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: And to to you know, stick to your guns and and you know, we're gonna work together.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean it's a gruff industry, right?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a bravado industry, it's uh it's a I mean, you're dealing with with with men and and you know, very little women, mostly in the office, but you're dealing with a men in men industry, and it's a lot of bravado.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: So you gotta have to you gotta be able to walk the walk, as I say.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, yeah.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: What was it after nine months that really started to come together?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's what I started feeling comfortable.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like I every day I would get so challenged that I would, I was one of those, I'm one of those guys that really picks up on things really quickly, and I can within four months I can figure out my plan and how I'm gonna do it, and then I go on cruise control, like put everything in place.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I didn't feel comfortable in the nine months.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: I would go home sometimes and I would just be, you know, racking my brain of how come this is not working that I'm frying, or how come this is not going?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I I don't the nine-month mark is when I actually I had one day in the nine-month mark where I was like, I can do this and it's not a problem, and I could put it on the cruise control that I'm so used to doing, and then inevitably the next day it wasn't like that.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: So um it what I like though is it's challenging.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm never bored at my job.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_04: True.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the the the one thing I will say is you're constantly managing fires every day, all day, and it's how you're handling crisis.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I really think management in the elevator industry is crisis management.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, and maybe being an emt in a firefighter.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so my like my background being an emt, a firefighter, working at NASCAR and dealing with on-track uh incidents that you have to get off the track within an within a minute and a half so they can go back to TV and you have cars going around you at you know 100 miles an hour.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: You have to you have to have thick skin and you have to be able to to to manage in chaos.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: And the elevator business world, what I've learned is constant chaos.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then trying to control the chaos or manage in the chaos is really what makes you the difference between a good manager or one that really shouldn't be in that position.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, sure.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, if you've got a gift for that, then yeah, that's a probably a good place for you.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: And and somebody else may not have that correct, you know, that skill.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: So and I'm not saying that all elevator jobs are like that, but if you're working in the operation side of elevators, you need to be able to manage chaos.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: So are you are you glad you came?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: You glad you stuck in?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I I'm excited.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: I I've been here, uh celebrated five years in April, and um I've quickly moved up in different positions, and I found my career.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: I I found my career to retire in.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: And um, when I left AAA, that was what I was really looking for.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm blessed that there was somebody in Southern Elevator that put an ad out that didn't require elevator, um you know, elevator experience and really cater to a regional manager or a a ranch manager position.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why I took the chance to apply, and that's what how they landed me.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because if it had anything in wording with elevator experience, I wouldn't be here today as the CEO of Southern Elevator.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, yeah.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: What do you think it was that that made you be chosen for the position, even though you didn't have that experience?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: I so I share this with our leadership group now.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think um I had a lot of management um training put into me.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for me to become a manager triple A, I went through a year-long core course with the executives and had to prove that I could learn different things.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: And and it wasn't just, hey, we're gonna make you a manager.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, hey, you're gonna go through this year-long course and we're gonna teach you things that you need to know, PL, how to lead people, how to manage people, HR, HR roles, uh, how to how to manage um difficult conversations, how to document.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like there's just certain things that you have to know as a manager.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: And elevator, at least the sm the smaller elevator companies, don't have that training.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I think they saw value in all of the leadership that was given to me um by other companies, and being able to take that talent and be taking that leadership and not having to be the ones to train.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's what made me a valuable candidate and why they went with me.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: And and the fact that you're just plain honest, right?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that that is I I think so.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: A friend of mine said to me, um, he goes, You and he knows me very well, and he goes, You are the right fit for this position.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: You are just enough white collar and just enough blue collar that you just put it all together.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't disagree with him.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think I'm I'm I'm enough in the in the company world, in the in the the you know, the nine to five cubicle lifestyle, and then I've also you know done all the grunt work.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so that mix, I think it really helps me to understand like the mechanics of the field and being able to deal with um management.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: But the one thing I've learned in my life, if you're honest with everybody, you really don't have to worry about what you say or what comes out of your mouth, right?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have to see, oh, what did I say to this person, what this person?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying it for everybody, but it's also how you say it and all that kind of stuff.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: But at least when I say it, it comes with truth.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and obviously there are there are positions, you know, the jobs within the elevator industry that that you really have to have, you know, elevator experience.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: You can't just go grab an adjuster, substitute taxi driver, and and hey, you're gonna adjust elevators.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um what what do you think are some of the jobs that that are ideal or or or are uh good to maybe bring somebody in from the outside and and bring in some of that skill that maybe we don't yeah?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I I would say that you know the superintendents in the mod department need to have elevator experience, but the person who's running the superintendents don't necessarily have to have elevator experience, they just have to have a good working relationship where you can trust the information going back and forth.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, branch managers to me don't really need to be elevator people.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, service coordinators don't need to be elevator people, operations managers probably with elevator experience, but I would rather have leadership in those positions.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Your management roles really are more your, I would rather have people that are trained how to deal with people, how to talk to people, how to influence people.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I do think mod superintendent level, but any branch office, any office manager, I actually don't look for elevator people now.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm quite the opposite in the industry.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of a renegade in that aspect.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm looking for do they have leadership positions, do they have the management skills, do they have the training background?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: And even the training that I've seen that came out of some of the international companies, I'm not very impressed with.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: As far as they teach them the product, but they don't teach them the the how to lead people.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: And management and leadership every day is influencing people to do what you need them to do.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because you can't make anybody do you can't make anybody do anything they don't want to do.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: So at the end of the day, it's a transaction where somebody gets up and says, I want to come to work and I want to work for this person, and then the other person's like, I want to do best for my people, and hopefully those things match, and then it becomes a beautiful experiment that turns into gold.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I don't, I don't, I think, I think if I'm looking for the ideal candidate, I'm looking for somebody that has all of those leadership courses that I'm looking for, you know, Stephen Covey, Dale Carnegie, Crucial Conversations, these things, these classes that I know have been out in practice for a long time.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: What books have they read?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Are they going to teach themselves leadership?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm looking for that because I have people that have to manage men and talk to people.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: And if you can't talk to people, you know, the we don't have a company that yells at people.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: I don't allow mechanics to yell and curse at me, and I don't curse and yell at mechanics.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: And it it's that was a different that's different than when I first got here.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: There was a lot of yelling and squaring, and and no, we're all gonna come to each other with respect, yeah.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that's kind of like the game changer, I think.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's why we're able to move the needle.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: We've moved so well and so many, because we're all teaching.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: I respect mechanics.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you want to ask me how I got this at job, the first thing I got asked was, How are you gonna deal with people that that know how to do elevators and then you're gonna come in and you don't know how to do elevators?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: And my answer was simple.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna start with respect.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: They have to respect the job that I'm doing, and I have to respect the job that they do.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna come in and tell an elevator mechanic how to fix an elevator, that's not my role, but I am gonna tell him, based on the information that I've gathered, that that should take this much time and you will support you, but you have to do everything you can to get that job done right the first time and put it together right and not take up extra time so we can move on to the next one so we can be profitable, right?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it's that simple, and we make things a lot harder in the elevator world, and it's not that hard.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and and just hearing you rattle off those books that you did, you know, I've I've read those books, you know, and and it seems like every one of them is is really about treating people like people, like you say.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: You you know, it's it's respecting them, but hey, you're a human, I'm a human, you know.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not I'm not here to accuse you of whatever, or or like say swear at you or throw you under the bus.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's like let's just have some human-to-human dialogue where I respect you, you respect me, and and we're gonna get through this.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, early on, like until people knew how to deal with me.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I would get mechanics calling me up, cursing at me, and I would just stop them and say, Hey, we're not gonna do that.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: If we want to continue the conversation, we're gonna have a conversation, but we're not gonna we're not gonna be cursing at me, and I'm not gonna curse at you.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: Which is huge because what you what you've done is is uh by not allowing that to suck you in, right?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, how many times I mean I confess I've done it, right?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: When somebody gets upset at me and I get triggered.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I'm not perfect either.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying I do this 100% of the time, but I work towards that.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, yeah, and just just knowing what that looks like that hey, I I hear you, I hear the emotion, I hear the swear words, I hear the what whatever.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: Let's not go there, right?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm not gonna take it personal enough that I need to yell back and defend my my honor.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Or you know, the one of the tactics I always like to use is so what do you want to do now?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: You've just yelled at me and you've just done whatever.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: I told you I'm gonna work on it.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, what's the next steps?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: And when you ask them that question, they kind of stop in their tracks because they're used to somebody just you're a piece of crap, and no, what's your next steps now?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: You told me, I told you I'm gonna fix.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: It, how are we going to fix it?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: No, now where are we?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: What's your solution?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: It it's it's again, those are the techniques that I've learned in crucial conversations is how to redirect or how to how to stop somebody.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that's who I'm trying to hire in management.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: I want people that can do that.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want people that has been in the field and you know that all they know is how to yell at people and curse on the job.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then see, I try to so the whole idea what we're talking about is creating culture.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, once I got the job, I tried to create culture.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: And the culture is what is the culture going to look like?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: Respect.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want our car, I don't want our customers walking by while we're doing a mod or we're doing a repair job, and all you hear is F this and F that.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's not a good look for Southern Elevator, and that's not nobody wants to hear that.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's a place of business.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so took me about three years, but to change that culture and then have them understand what professionalism is and what professionalism looks like.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it you got to take it slow.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: If you try to pull the band-aid off or you try to do it too too quick, you're gonna have people reject it.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: Which you the best thing you can do as management is that they don't even know they're coming along for that ride and they get to the end.
• 23:07
  unknown: Sure.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because they're just doing it naturally, because it's a natural progression.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it sounds like you're you're not you're not focusing on, and and you can you can describe this better to me, but like you say, if they don't really know they're coming along, you're not you're not focusing in on, hey, you said that word again, right?
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: You're not making that the big deal, you're you're really just bit by bit.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, tell me tell me that so it starts with the culture.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: So a good example, some of the things I did when I first got there is I started having Monday more.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: I listened, right?
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: I had a little, I took I figured out who were the the alphas in the group and who were not the alphas, and you can find out pretty quickly.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: You see them chit-chatting around, and so I created a little mechanic council, right?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay with my group.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then I said, All right, you get three are gonna be my guys that we're gonna talk about issues, and I'm gonna tell you what I want to try.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna tell me if it's gonna work or if you can tell me it's not gonna work.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I listened, I listened to what the problems are.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: I also sat down and said, What are the problems from this office and management that you if you had to pick your top five, what are the biggest problems?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: So then I started working on those before I did any changes because I wanted to show them I'm in it with them and I'm a team.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so I worked on those issues.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: So that bought me capital.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: That bought me, that bought me that bought me money for the next thing I needed to do.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so then when I started trying to change some cultures, um, whenever they came to me, I said, Well, didn't I just fix those things for you?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: Didn't I just help you?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: Didn't I just didn't my actions show you that I'm your teammate and I'm gonna make this happen?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, now I need you to be teammate for me, and we need to make these things happen so that we can keep everybody going along.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then I put it to him very simply: like, the more money we make, the more we can hire more mechanics.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: The more we can hire more mechanics, the more everybody stays employed.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: The less money we make, the less mechanics I can have, and the less people can stay employed.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: You need to help me get there.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: How do you help me get there?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we have to be profitable.
• 25:00
  unknown: Sure.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I told him all this, and we started having Monday morning meetings and we started sharing numbers.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that was something radical, but we didn't share numbers like we beat them up.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: We just did numbers for numbers.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: So if I wanted referrals from a mechanic and I would go down the list and I would say this one had$10,000 this week, this one had$5,000, this one had zero.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't go you suck because you had zero.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: I would just say this one had zero.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: And naturally, they would want not want to be on the list at zero.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, but they would also understand that, oh, you know what, we did take four extra hours to whatever, right?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's a it's a learning whether you know, and especially if you're not, you know, digging into it and embarrassing them in front of all the peers.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's like because it became routine and it was a matter of fact, that's the ride they don't even know they're on.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm literally just getting there by making sure that we're talking about numbers, we're talking about service completion every Monday consistently at eight o'clock.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have a meeting, we're gonna have we're gonna have a participation, we're gonna do an attendance, and we're gonna ask you how anything we can do better for you, and then we're gonna talk about things they can do better for us, and then we're gonna talk about numbers, and we did that consistently every Monday morning for four the four or five years.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and you're probably still doing it, right?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, we've decided to try something different because we also don't want to make it boring.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: So now we do one a Monday, one Monday a month because we're trying to.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: So here's another thing when you're trying to get margin, taking guys out of the field takes up a lot of time that's not billable and not not profitable.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, what we're doing now is we're we're moving to once a month doing a Monday morning meeting, but every day we're doing an email blast to every i mean a text blast to every mechanic, and we're still giving the numbers and we're still giving information.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: We're just using it in a better way so that we're not we're evolving and we're not taking people out of the field.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: So so we're still doing that, but we're just using a different way to communicate.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: So you and I talked, I don't know, weeks ago, month ago, I forget when, but but you talked about kind of helping everybody get out of firefighting mode.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: So when I first got to the office and I became a branch manager, I would I paid attention to what was going on.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I would see my service coordinator take a phone call, and uh elevator was down, customer wants somebody come out right away, and I would see my service coordinator literally take somebody off a repair job that was scheduled and send them to send them to the the elevator is down, and I started questioning why are we doing that?
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: And and I watched the way branch branches work, and you're constantly getting fielding calls with customers complaining about something or wanting something.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, hardly ever does somebody call you and go, I just want to tell you you guys did a good job.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be something's down or and then I had to create a triage tree, and I I stole kind of what we do in the track.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: And how do you determine who needs the most help for better purposes?
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: If you have if you have if you have multiple cars that crash on the track and you get up there and nobody's hurt, you move on to the next one, you let them figure out how to get to where they need to be.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I was watching our elevator people kind of stick with the people that didn't really need help.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I started putting some questions in place, and it was very simple questions.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, did anybody die?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: Did anybody get injured?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: Is it their only elevator?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, is somebody entrapped?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: Is it their only elevator?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, those four questions determine that that stops business.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: That means whether somebody gets pulled off something or not, you got to determine how how important is this because it doesn't matter.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: And oh, the building's empty for the next week.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: Correct.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: We don't need to be sending somebody over there.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: Or how about this?
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: If you have four elevators in the building, sure, that doesn't become a priority that one of them is down.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: We can get to that the next day.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that and that's where I had to teach.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we don't have to stop business just because somebody now I know it stinks, and I would love to be 24 hours a day, but just no, that's no, that's not a business model where we have just people laying in the laying around or you know, sitting in their trucks waiting for a phone call to come.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: They're busy doing something.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: So again, building that's empty.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I understand that customer wants us there today, but that can wait till tomorrow.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, the person that has their only elevator and it's a three-stop elevator and it's a it's a you know, an older age home where people are in wheelchairs or whatever, that needs attention.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Not the person, not a two-stop, not a two-stop elevator in an office building where people could take the stairs.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so yeah, it was just determining critical thinking skills.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: And really, that's what I was trying to implore.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't, you realize people, you know, I it's natural to me, but I've been doing this since I was 17 in the military, right?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: You literally go through a class that teaches you if this person is about to die, you you just kind of let them die because you go to the person that actually needs help.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: Those are tough reality conversations.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: And if you've never been involved in that, but now you apply it to the business level and you say the same thing.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: If that elevator doesn't need us, and that customer doesn't need us right away, we need to prioritize who's the more who who needs us more, right?
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: Not who yells at us more, who pays the most money, who actually needs us more.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that changed the whole business model.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I was gonna say, how's that affected the business overall?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, in Charlotte, we turned Charlotte around to be a profitable branch that wasn't a profitable branch for you know 10 years before I got there.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it made the day a lot more um manageable.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: I have a saying, manage the day, don't let the day manage you.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: And what do I mean by that?
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if you're managing your day and you're managing how you're getting to your priorities and you're focusing on things, um, simple things like I put in place, like do billing from this hour to this hour, do emails and callbacks from this hour to this hour.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: I created schedules for people that didn't know how to manage their time and say, look, you take some time out and you can let that phone call go to voicemail.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: You can let you can let the answering service get it.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: We can not everything has to be Johnny on the spot because if you're always looking at the squirrel, you never catch the squirrel.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you're always distracted.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're just chasing the squirrel.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then what we were doing is we were actually making our customers more upset.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: There were repair jobs.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: People, when they know a repair team's coming, they do things in their office, they put signs up, they they they put emails out, and then when we don't show up, you're making somebody at that building look really bad.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so we weren't helping those customers either, right?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we were making more customers mad, but trying to help the one customer that called.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it did it was a snowball effect, and we weren't being very um we weren't being very courteous or customer service, and people think customer service is all the time you do everything that the customer wants.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: Customer service is being open and honest with a customer of what you can and cannot do and setting realistic expectations.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: So let me ask you this you've got a customer who maybe they're expecting you know Johnny to show up every time I say, Hey, this is down, even though I got four elevators.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: How did that go with them when they realize what?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: You're not gonna show up?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna you're gonna prioritize that old folks' home with only one elevator and and people in wheelchairs?
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: It becomes crucial conversations.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: So you start meeting with customers and you start setting the expectations.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: If you have that customer that doesn't understand what we're trying to do, then I have a meeting with the customer and I explain to the customer that while yes, you are very important to us and you're a priority, that if something becomes more urgent, we're going to have to take that because we have a portfolio.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now, you want to pay for extra service, you want to pay for, I mean, you can always pay for more um priority if you want it, but nobody ever takes that option.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they usually the ones that are actually complaining about being there on the spot are the ones that are paying us the least as well.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: Not that that should ever come into effect, but it just seems to go hand in hand every time.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, yep.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: Expecting the most and paying the least.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's that that seems to be our industry.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: So you you told me at one point that that you feel like the industry is ripe for a change.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I went so I've gone to about three conferences so far.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've been I have the privilege, and I sit and I listen a lot, and people don't think I listen a lot, but I do.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I hear a lot of talk about change, but I don't see the willingness to change.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: I see them trying to take whatever the change is and fit it in their box.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's not really how the industry works.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_02: What kind of change would you say is is the right kind of change?
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_02: And anyway, what do you envision?
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I've seen what I envision is elevators, elevator companies become our industry has been tarnished by the getting to numbers without doing service, getting to numbers without or or doing contracts, knowing that you're going to be billing them for every little thing on the back end because you can find it in the contract.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: And you make the those contracts are some of those contracts I've seen are harder than the military contracts that I signed to become a military, become a person in the army.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: And my packet was this thick.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um so it's a lot of lawyerese and a lot of things to just try to try to, you know, undercut other industries, undercut the businesses and then basically hurt the customer in the end so they can make their money that they undercut the businesses to get the contract.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think if the industry really looked at how can we do things better and how can we innovate without taking away service, then I think the industry is ripe for change.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is I think you can still do service, you can still put a great product out, you can still be one of the best companies around and innovate with technology and be able to not technology to replace mechanics, but to enhance the mechanics so that they're more efficient and they're doing things better.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: And what I haven't seen is I have not seen companies do that yet.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: And is that I think that's something you're working on, though, right?
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's that's part of that's what I'm hearing.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: We are doing it, we've already started doing it, but I keep hearing this at the conferences, but everybody seems to be dumbfounded on how to make it work, sure.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so I don't see them embracing the technology and using it for the they're all just from what I've gathered, and I'm not trying to pick on people, but from what I gathered, I the questions I hear is how can I do this in lieu of service?
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a one-focused mindset, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's not one, it's not one or the other, right?
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: They're not mutually.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: You can do both, and it's just figuring out how to do both, and then the other thing too is we don't have to keep undercutting ourselves, and I I won't do it.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I I one of the changes that I made is I'm not gonna chase a contract just to have a contract.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: If you want a bottom bargain for contracts, you're going to pay for that, but you're also gonna get that kind of service.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: If you want people to really do service and you want to have people like you don't have your elevator go down because we're actually doing service and where you're letting you know there's upgrades, then we're gonna be the company for you, but you're gonna pay the premium for that.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you don't have to that I feel like the industry always feels like they have to cut corners or cut, you know, try to try to try to do the bait and switch with customers, or I'm trying to be very careful how I say that, but doing bait and switch with customers, or what I've seen is let's take neck technology and not do service at all.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that model is not sustainable.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, in the short term, in the short term, you're gonna make a lot of money.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: But what happens is you see those same companies go through their whole entire staff and people lose their jobs for that short-term game.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I want a long-term game where we're gonna have customers for life, and we're gonna be the ones that are going to build those relationships and partnerships and sustain good relationships to the point where people won't leave us because they've been down that road before.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: And we do what we say and we say what we mean, and I think technology will help you get to the margins you want without having to sacrifice service.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_02: Cool, cool.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this is great.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_02: This is great.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so Steve, we're we're getting close to our time, uh, but I've got a few more questions I want to want to bounce off you.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um what advice would you give to somebody who's new to the industry, kind of like yourself?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: Give it nine months.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: First thing I say is is um learn learn everything you can learn, but don't don't always think you have to do it one way.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid to try different things and see if you can get where you need to go by going against the grain sometimes.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: Very good.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_02: What what advice would you give to hiring managers that are already in the elevator industry and maybe they feel like, hey, we're just not finding the talent we need.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: Start looking for people that would be grateful for the amount of money you're going to pay, that have all of the things you want to check off, but maybe don't have elevator experience.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is if you take somebody, like I've hired two people from Big Lots who got beat up on numbers, had to know their PL, had to be people managers, had to deal with customers, all of the things you want to check off, and they're grateful for the money I'm paying them.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: Where I take the same person that's been in the elevator business who hasn't been a good manager, who doesn't know how to lead people, and are going to be very upset for what we're paying them.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know what happens?
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: I build loyalty, and those people don't hop job home, job hop, and try to go to other elevator companies.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: They like it.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, you said the the people that you were referring to didn't have leadership experience, but it sounds like you've you've found that there's some there's some people outside the industry with some really solid leadership abilities.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and if given a chance, they will show you amazing things and bring new ideas too.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like the other thing is we can teach them the elevator part, I can teach them the elevator business and how to deal with vendors.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: And sure.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: What what I can't teach is I can't teach how to talk to people in the beginning because I don't have time.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have the I don't have the schooling.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have the I don't I don't have the the ability to teach that.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and if they if it's not something that they at least bring uh a part of that, you know, maybe they maybe there's oblivious to the fact that oh people are are humans and you need to respect them.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you I mean I mean I start questioning when I start seeing job hopping.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't hire job hoppers either, like that's one thing I won't do.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I know that uh sometimes I think the industry uses it as an excuse.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's just the industry, or I hear that a lot, or it's just the way it is in the industry.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: Why well somebody has to go ask why?
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it doesn't have to be that way.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to just be a slave to the industry, you can literally change that by changing who you hire, what what you hire, and what those priorities are for your company.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yep.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, um, so la last question for you, Steve.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_02: What is the greatest thing that you have learned in the elevator industry?
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: I have that's a probably the toughest question you're gonna ask me.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: I have learned that the this is the salt of the earth people that when you put it all together, it's one of the most magical things to see happen.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like in this industry, there are great people in this industry, and I'm very surprised about how much of a brotherhood it really was, like the fire department, like the military, like the EMS.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me just a little bit more about that magic when you put it all together.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: When you have a team of mechanics working with a team in the office, and they're working towards the same goal, and they all understand they're working for something bigger than just I collect a paycheck or I'm gonna get mine or whatever that saying is, and you start seeing the numbers come together, and it's it's effortless.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody's getting beat up, nobody's being yelled at, they're just coming together because we're just working as a team, and we're having one-on-ones when somebody's struggling and you're lifting them up instead of beating them down.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying it's always perfect, there's some people that don't fit this model, but what I'm saying is when you have the majority of those people just coming together and not realizing what you're doing and the culture that you create, and then you hit those numbers, and they don't they can't even express to you how they got there.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's the magic, right?
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm very good at articulating how we got there because it was my plan, but some of these people don't even realize how we got there, they just come to work every day and they just do little things that we've asked them to do, but then you eat that whole entire elephant, and you can't believe you ate the whole entire elephant, and you're like, Wow, we really did stuff.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: There's a I'll challenge any of your people that are listening.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: If you ever want to really understand how to build a culture, listen, read the book Well Done.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a very easy read, and it's by Ken Blanchard, and I'm not getting any money for that.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but Who Moved My Cheese and Well Done.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_01: Those are two very simple books that I make everybody read.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: And when you come down to it, it's just a mindset, but it's how you talk to people, it's how you teach people, it's how you treat people, that's how you move numbers, that's how you get to where you need to be.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's how it becomes magic.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, and part of what I'm hearing you say is that there's a synergy, there's a there's a you know, something that starts to as everybody comes together and does their part, then it's like the the sum is greater than or you know the whole is greater than whatever cliche you want.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: You you can use when you watch a uh a football team put it all together, or a pit stop crew that has 12 seconds to basically dismantle a car and put a car back together, or you're talking about a baseball team that everybody's doing their part, or you ever wonder how you get young 18-year-old men to go get shot at?
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can tell you, you make it better, you make it about something bigger than it is, and so when and when when you're working for something bigger than it is and you accomplish that, you feel like you're not you're on top of the world, yeah.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because you've come together and everybody does their part, and then it's like um it again, that's why I call it magic.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: Beautiful, yeah.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_02: Steve, thank you so much.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate your time.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's always good to talk to you, and thank you for your insights today.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: No problem, appreciate it.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the All Red Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: Please subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.