Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / 41 Years of Enjoying Work the Elevator Trade: Learn from Others and Continue to Grow | Steve Ryan

Transcript

41 Years of Enjoying Work the Elevator Trade: Learn from Others and Continue to Grow | Steve Ryan · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Try to learn as much as you possibly can and know try to try to try to learn what you don't know.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then find out the folks that know what you don't know and latch on to them.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: You won't see many people in our industry that know everything.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: You just don't find you can't.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I can probably find if you give me 20 minutes and you ask me to find something, I'll find somebody who knows it.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's and again, it's not necessarily somebody who works for for my company.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: It could be somebody who works for one of the other companies out there.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, try to learn everything you can, but know what you don't know, and try to find out the people you can talk to who do know what you don't know.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 0:53
  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.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Today our guest is Steve Ryan, district manager with Mitsubishi Elevator in Florida.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: Steve started his career as a sales representative with Chandler in 1982 and spent over 28 years in sales, branch manager, and district manager roles.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Steve moved to Florida with Conan in 2013.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: And in 2018, he joined Mitsubishi and started the Tampa branch from scratch.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: Steve has been in the industry 41 years and loves it.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: He still enjoys waking up early and going to work.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: Steve, welcome to the show.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Matt.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited to have you.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm excited to be able to talk to you.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: I've obviously known you for many years, but to dig in a little bit deeper to uh to your story, your career.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm I'm just curious, how did you get started in the elevator industry?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was kind of kind of um unusual, I guess, in that respect.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I first of all, I never thought when I was going through school that of ever getting in the elevator business.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Never even entered my mind.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I didn't even for one minute think about it.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um all I wanted to do was have fun in college and get out and find a job close to home, which in that case was Northern Virginia.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, I was I worked a couple small jobs before, and I was working for Hilti right out of school, and um selling fasteners to uh a company called Schindler-Hawden Elevator.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a gentleman who was a superintendent by the name of Charlie Kunda, who was at that point in time, he was kind of legend in Derry.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize it.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, anyways, he he liked me.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was selling fasteners to him for about six months, eight months.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Hey, we've got an opening for a sales route.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: How would you like to sell elevators?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'd never even thought of it before, I didn't even know what selling an elevator meant.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I went down and I interviewed with a gentleman named Bill Partridge, and uh um long story short, he uh he liked me and he hired me.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it was probably the luckiest break of my life outside of meeting my wife.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I didn't know it at the time, but I went into an office where they had two of the best instructors in the elevator industry.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Back then they had more time to spend with us.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And uh those guys taught me everything from top to bottom.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I was in there with a group of guys who were all my age.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us we'd we'd two of us had been to the same schools all the way up.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, from grade school, high school, college, which is unusual.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a pond already there.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I I know it was competitive, but those guys were amazing.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they would take time to teach us.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's not an easy, it's not an easy trade or craft to to learn.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and despite all the mistakes I made, they stuck with me.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, I somewhere along the line there, Schindler Houghton became Schindler, Schindler became Schindler Westinghouse, and then Schindler Millar.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh all along the way, I was lucky enough to lucky enough to be doing pretty well.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: So they they promoted me.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I pretty much had every job there is to have in the in the freaking branch.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: So how how uh I mean it sounds like kind of from the get-go, there was some instant chemistry with the industry, with the people, with the you're talking about the trainers, but what what was it that captured your your heart, if you will, and said, Man, I love this.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: I want to do this forever.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the the technical aspect of it, I loved.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to to be able to look at drawings.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: I had some of that in school, uh, you know, with engineering, but uh, you know, I I really wanted to be able to understand what was going into a wiring diagram or an architectural or structural drawing.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh those guys all that's what they wanted me to learn, and it worked out.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: I took it to the extreme, though.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've always worked a lot of hours, and I would take stuff home with me and I would try to memorize what was on the drawings, which is I I couldn't do it now.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: But back then, and I would I would sit there and all night long, because I wasn't married yet, sit there and read this stuff.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And after a while, they they they understood that I was intense and that I really wanted to do well at this.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: So they kind of like those guys kind of like that.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I would always be asking questions.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: How do you do so much so that it's probably a pain in the neck?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, how do you do this?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why could why do you do this?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Why are we doing this?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Why are we, you know, why is this hydraulic elevator work this way?
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And and then I found out I could talk to the mechanics and the superintendents along the same lines, and I started doing that too.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and a lot of it I could remember because it was so fascinating to me.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I I always wanted to do something technical, and it just and I wanted to sell.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I had that combination going on, and this was just I never I fell into it.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know, I I don't know if it was destiny or what, you know, luck.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was more luck than anything else.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And to have those guys there too.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yeah, you talked about the loving the technical aspect.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: What uh what are some of the other things you absolutely love about this industry?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I always like the people.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, our our our folks are the salt of the earth.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: You you can't you can't impress somebody with with BS.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta be there's gotta be substance there, and you can see that right away when you're talking to somebody in our industry.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: You can't fake it.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the other the the industry is extremely close.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: When you're around for a while, you um you start to hear the name, same name, see the same people.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if if you if you mess up, that's one thing.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you take a hit, people still respect you.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: But if you do things you're not supposed to do, it's hard to hang out in this business very long.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're not gonna be able to develop the reputation to be successful.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: What what are um some of the lessons that you learned?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I don't know, just early on, or maybe from the your first trainers, if you will.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, when you make a mistake, fess up right away.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and most of the time when I made a mistake, it wasn't a big deal.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's you know, hey, I did this.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: I took I took responsibility for anything that I did.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a lot of times I took responsibility for things that I didn't do, but I was covering up for somebody else, you know, because I had some some positives going with me.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And of course they they didn't necessarily have those.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I I I was to be honest, uh, to to to come out and tell people exactly what you think, but say it in a way that's not offensive, um uh to work hard.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um back then we all worked hard.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was expected.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: You don't you you never found a clock in the office.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody knew what time it was.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: You look outside and it was dark, and you figure, okay, I guess it's time to go home.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: But we'd be there in the dark, in the dark, and we'd go home in the dark.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Quite honestly, it hasn't much changed, you know, it's still that way here.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: But um, so the lesson, I mean anytime there was a new product, I wanted to get totally invested in it, understand it, learn it.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, try to be positive all the time.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was as much of the time as I could be.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Never never be too busy to tell to talk to somebody about uh if they had some questions.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um always want to get in front of the customer.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: I I still still have that.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, I I I try to to make contact with our customers as as often as I can.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a job sometimes prohibits it, but you know, that's that's important to me.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I guess there's so many things that that you know, but positives that you pick up that you know along the way.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: But um I tried to be a good listener, um, especially now, because you have a tendency when you know a little more that you want to talk.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: You want but it's actually more important to listen as you get older and as you have more experience, because you not only have to pick up what they're saying, but you have to try to pick up what they're thinking.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's hard to do.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, and getting off on the tangent a bit here, but when I'm in front of a customer, I can see that a lot easier than I can on a on a screen.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: I can't, I don't know how you I don't know how you can do this business without being in front of the customer.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I I I I don't see how you can do it just from emails.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and a lot of folks think think you can't.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I I just that's one thing I I think our business has to refocus on is as much as possible get out in front of the customer and be there so that they can see and hear what you're saying.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, that's great.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: That's great.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: And obviously it's worked for you for 40 plus years now, right?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just be in front of the customer and know your product, know your stuff, and yeah, it's harder now because a lot of times, well, everyone is in the same condition.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're all stressed, we're all maxed out, and to get a customer to agree to sit down and and talk to you is tough, right?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's something you know you got to try to do.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh I learn more from their facial expressions and their body language than I ever do from what they're saying, you know, and that they sometimes will flinch when you say something, okay.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, that's a that's a that's a point you don't want to bring up again.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, that's important to me.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: I try to get out as often as possible.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's great.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: You uh who who are some of your your biggest mentors?
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: And and do you feel like they I I guess the question is what what do they do to kind of help you you know move to the next level and the next level beyond that?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there were three guys in my career that really, really, really helped me.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh Richard Keene, Bill Partridge, Dave Meir.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all of them were out of Northern Virginia, DC.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Bill, Bill was my first boss, and he's he was an incredible teacher.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, he he he had a little bit of a temper, but that was good because he would challenge me.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I really liked that.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: But he knew I would do what he asked me to do, and then I'd come back and and I'd always want to know why I had to do what I did.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And at first he didn't want to tell me.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: He basically was like, because I told you to.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: But then then eventually he he he started sharing that with me.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, he was extremely good, one of the best guys in the business at being able to do a takeoff of a job.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he understood that every part of the elevator, you know.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Dave Muir was much the same way.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Dave literally sat next to me.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Bill was about 20 feet away.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever I had a question on a job, I'd shout over to Dave, hey, and if he didn't answer, Bill would answer down the hall.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And between them, they probably had at that point 60 years of elevator experience.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: And 20 of that was probably training guys.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, I I learned so much from them.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then Richard really taught me the uh the skill of of dealing with people.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: He was incredible at that.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um even when he yelled at you, he came out feeling better, you know, because he was he was always teaching you something, he was always giving you a lesson out of it.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: And uh fortunately didn't have much to yell at me about, but uh when he did, you know, I took it to heart.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and he had a way of when he was in front of a customer, he would get their undivided attention.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's uh that's a skill I haven't often seen.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but I I tried to, there are other, there's so many guys.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: The guys I worked with in in Beltsville, there were so many good elevator guys in there that were were colleagues of mine, Dale Broadbeck, Pete Baikowski, uh Doug Crane, I mean all those guys.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, Dennis, I mean, there was just there was probably like I I think we were talking about there's probably 13 or 15 people in there.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think 10 of them ended up becoming elevator managers for various companies, and all of them were very successful.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was just a unique combination that just hit at the right time, and I was just part of it.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we'd sit there and throw things back and forth, you know, all afternoon long, and you couldn't help but learn, you know, how do you handle this?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: How do you deal with that?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and we had an opportunity in DC where we had all kinds of equipment there, so we could see everything.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I I loved it.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I it's it's not quite the same down here in Florida.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: You don't see all the stuff that you do up in DC.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: But if I was telling somebody where they should start in the industry, I'd say start in one of the larger offices where you have the ability to pick up a little bit of everything.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there was an adage in our business that everybody, everybody who's anybody put went through DC at one time.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And what you'd think it'd have been New York, but um, you know, it was DC.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: So um I don't know if it's still the same.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: I guess uh a lot of the younger guys go through those offices up there, but uh I was fortunate enough to spend time in DC, New York, Philly, Detroit, Irvine, um down here in Florida.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've been all over the place.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I still think that what I learned there, I learned more there than anything anywhere else.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: Sounds like uh almost like the refiner's fire.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: Sounds like you you burned hot, but you you got all the all the things you needed to get.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we were working ridiculous hours, but we didn't even know it because we were having fun, you know, and all of us were had young families, which that was hard.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: That was hard part of it.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um but you know, eventually we were able to figure out a way to balance it.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, it worked out for all of us.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: But to have a group together like that, where we were all just about the same age and and have so many guys that were successful, it's just amazing.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely amazing.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know that you'll ever see anything quite like that again.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: You you mentioned um uh you know, starting selling fasteners and and you know, and when you got in, did you ever think about, hey, I think I'll go try a different industry or do something else?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I did because I didn't I didn't think I wanted to do that for my entire career.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't enough.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it wasn't enough.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: I always wanted to work, I thought I meant you know, one of the majors I had in college, which was one of the five, I guess, was management.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I always, you know, wanted to work with people.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I could do a good job with that.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to do that to get to to somewhere down the line, and I couldn't really do that.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I guess I could have done it at Hilti, but it just wasn't enough for me to sell fasteners.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it just I mean, some guys I know were very successful doing that, and they've had great careers, but it just wasn't enough for me.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: And there was something about I wanted to challenge myself with the engineering aspect of it and then and the technical parts of it that I didn't I didn't get in the fastener industry.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: So once you got into elevator, did you ever think about trying something else?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, I thought about moving up, you know.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny when I when I got to Simler, I just wanted to sell.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: I never even wanted to get in management.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and and then after about eight or nine years, some of the other guys started getting promoted.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going, you know, hey, you know, and one of them, uh one of the guys, one of my good friends in the business, Dale Broadback, got promoted.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: And and we actually interviewed together out in Southern California, and we went out to interview for the same job.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he and I are good friends.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And um, but I at that time it was uh a job I knew he was gonna, I thought he was gonna get it, because quite honestly, he was the best guy in the industry for that job at the time.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: He he was he's a terrific salesman, it was a sales manager's job in Los Angeles, and it was perfect for him.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I had always wanted to be a manager, but a manager of the of the entire office uh uh of uh of a PL.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I went out and interviewed with with Dale and and uh with Mark Del Dani, and I had met Mark before.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And um when I was interviewing with Mark, I spent half the interview telling him how great Dale was.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it was funny because I I mean I love the guy, and I know he would have he was perfect for the job.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: So afterwards, Mark said, I don't think it's this job's for you, but I'll find the next branch manager job that comes up, I'll give you a call.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, okay, that was really nice of him to say that.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we all come back.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Neat thing that came out of that is we both got to go to a Dodgers game that night, right?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see a Dodgers game at Dodger Stadium.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I got what I wanted out of it anyway.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: So about now, Dale gets the job and he's out there.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: About five months later, he calls me and he says, Hey, how'd you like to work in Southern California?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Are you kidding me?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, No.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, what job is it?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Are you getting promoted?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, No, how'd you like to be the branch manager in Irvine?
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Great.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do I get to come out for another interview?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: He said, No.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I didn't have to interview for the job I had already had, I guess.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: I got hired and I was out in Irvine.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: So then I got into the position that I guess I had wanted to get into going through college to try to manage the business.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I had 15 years in the business at that point, right?
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew a little bit about it, so I wasn't intimidated by the business, and it's something I wanted to do.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the challenge is what really turned me on, and uh we did really well out there, and you know, the rest is history, you know, we kept moving around as they needed help, and but that's how I got started in management.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of I went out on an interview just to see Southern California, and the next thing you know, I was working out there, so that's great.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: So from there, was it to Detroit or or to Detroit?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Detroit was so that was when Schindler and Millar were merging.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you can imagine going from Orange County, California in February when it's 75 degrees and beautiful.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then I we we my wife and I land in Detroit, it was like 15 degrees and snowing.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: So uh it I actually worked for a guy who was another terrific guy, Brad Baker, there.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, we that was a challenge to merge the two offices together.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: We were on eight mile road, too.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, down in the heart of Detroit.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be nice when I say that too.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but there were some terrific people there.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I I got lucky and uh some other things happened and I Ended up in South Jersey.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: My I was born in Philly.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I was there for a year, I guess, in Detroit.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then in South Jersey, I walked into an office that was just ready to blow the doors off the numbers.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it just, there's a guy by the name of Bill Lippman that was there before me, and it was pretty much set up to succeed.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we just we really we had a great couple of years there.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: While I was there, then I ended up um being offered the job in North Jersey, which was the office was in the headquarters building for Schindler in in Morristown.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: So um I went up there.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: That office had had had a couple of rough years, so I had some terrific people there, and we we ended up turning that around.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: And um while I after I was there for I guess four years, um I still lived in Medford, New Jersey, which is about six miles from the Schindler Morristown office.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm six miles from the Schindler M-O-O-R-E-S-T-O-W-N office.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm running the M-O-R-R-I-S T-O-W-N office.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's a long drive, and it's got to be very confusing to I confuse Morristown and Morristown.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's 110 miles one way.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I used to get up at three, drive up there, work all day.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'd let the traffic die down, head home at seven, get home at nine.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Did that for four years.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh at the end of that time, Richard uh Bill was Bill Whitman was being promoted to modernization manager, I think, for the entire company.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And Richard said, Hey, how'd you like to work a little closer to home?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, I'd love to.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I I went to Philly after that.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Nice, spent six years there.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, it was hard to move move away from the guys in North Jersey because we had taken something that wasn't doing very well and we really made it profitable.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, terrific people.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's kind of common denominator, if I keep saying this over and over.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Almost all the offices I've been involved with have had some really terrific people.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, it's sometimes that the office not wasn't necessarily performing the way it should, but it's not because the people they maybe maybe they just didn't have the right motivation, or you know, as Richard would often say, they didn't have the right leadership.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, we we always everywhere I've been, we've always turned it in a right direction and made some money.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this this uh well, this latest office that I'm in, we started from scratch.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Which is that's a first thing I I've not done that before.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I literally walked in and we had one one account, one on the way.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: So uh uh spent basically three years by myself trying to get things going.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so now I have uh I have I think five five people working between here and Miami, and then we have uh crews in Miami and uh in Tampa.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: So uh you know there's there's a profound difference between the product that um involved with now and the product that that the rest of the industry is involved with.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: So uh Mitsubishi definitely, if you talk to anybody in our industry, they'll tell you that we have the finest elevators in the industry, and it absolutely is true.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: That does sound like a heavy lift to to start from from zero, essentially.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's something I always wanted to do.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't necessarily want to do it at that time of my career, but I I wanted to do it.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted that's not something I've done.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and and I have to admit, when somebody says, okay, this office out in in somewhere else in the country is is making two million dollars on the bottom line, that doesn't impress me as much as it used to.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: To me, here, start from scratch, right?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that is that is a little more tough, okay.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I've done the other thing before.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, I I will always take pride in this office, no matter, you know, if it's 10 years from now and I'm out fishing in the Gulf.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, um this what where this place goes, it's you know, it's gonna be on the next group, but still I've I was here at the beginning.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: So Yeah, yeah.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: And like I said, a heavy lift.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh well and you uh from from our conversations, it sounds like you still love what you do.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I do.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: I get up I get up at three in the morning and I'm ready to go to work.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, and it's it's still a 14 or 15 hour day.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it doesn't I collapse when I get home, but you know, it's I'm still ready to go the next morning.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: So and it's all weekend.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now most people wouldn't like that, but I I love it.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: I must I must have passed on something because my son's a mechanic.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's for better or for worse, and and he also has my work ethic.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, it's I I I I can't if somebody was listening to this and wanting to try to make a decision on what career to get into, I'd urge them to look at what we do and to ask as many questions as you could, because you don't think of it as being a career for anybody coming out of school.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine what degree you would have where you'd say, Man, I want to be in the elevator business unless you had somebody you knew who had been in it before.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it's um it's nepotism, but that's because nobody else thinks of it.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I probably I I'll have generations of my family be in the elevator business now, since my son's already doing it.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it does it does seem to get in your blood, so maybe maybe it passes on genetically, right?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: I must, yeah, it must be that.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: So fortunately he's much better with his hands than I am, so he can fix that.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: So that's awesome.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's uh it's it's amazing to me.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I I love hearing, you know, just your story, your experience, and and I do, you know, there's something special about the industry, and uh maybe it's multiple things, like you say, the people, the technical aspects, the camaraderie.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: There's there's so many pieces that that all come together to make it what it is.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, it it's it's cool now because you got so many different generations and uh different types of folks that have come into the industry.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when you hire somebody who comes in, like for an admin, let's say, then they start to think, man, I should get my son in this industry.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, look at this, you know, I should get my husband in, or I should get my boyfriend in, or my my sister.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and that's that's what's happening.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we are the number one blue-collar job in the United States.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's yeah, granted, a lot of it has to do with the International Union of Elevator Constructors because of, but the training that we we have and the type of people that we hire.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's there's something to be said for that.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, and and then the knowledge you gain that the training wherever you start, if you dig in and and be you become very valuable anywhere you go.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a career.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's an absolute career.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you can retire if you're in the if you're a mechanic, you're gonna retire at 58 and you're gonna be comfortable.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or in my case, you just get addicted to it and you can't retire, you know.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: So uh there's both types in our industry.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we probably have more people working later than than most industries do, especially in the offices.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: So um, no, it's it's I if anybody's looking for a job, this is uh something that they really ought to consider.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's really worthwhile.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Great career, we get paid well.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I can't say enough about it.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I love it.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: I love hearing it.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so we're about out of time, and I I guess uh, and we've probably touched on a lot of this, but I think my final question is just what what advice would you give to somebody maybe just starting out?
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: Just kind of capsule encapsulate that.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, starting out in general or starting out and looking for a career.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's two different starting out in the industry, I guess is what I would say.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: In our industry, yeah.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Try to learn as much as you possibly can and and know try to try to try to learn what you don't know, and then find out the folks that know what you don't know and latch on to them.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you won't see many people in our industry that know everything, or you just don't find you can't.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I can probably find if you give me 20 minutes and you ask me to find something, I'll find somebody who knows it.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's and again, it's not necessarily somebody who works for for my company, it could be somebody who works for one of the other companies out there.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: We all know each other.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: I said before, folks.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, try to learn everything you can, but know what you don't know, and try to find out the people you can talk to who do know what you don't know.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it sounds like if you value those relationships and you and you keep them alive, then then you can call upon them 30, 40 years later and they're still answering your questions.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: You'll see mechanics on the phone all the time, and you're wondering who they're talking to you.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: They're talking to other mechanics, probably from other companies, trying to help them out.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it works that way in the office too.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: We all talk talk to each other.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: So whether we're wearing a black shirt or a green shirt or a blue shirt, you know, we we do tend to work together.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's neat about it.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're all elevator guys, and that's that's what's probably the most important about it.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: Steve, thank you.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: This has been a real privilege.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate your your time, and it's good to talk to you again.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks a lot, man.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate you asking me.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: Take care.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: Please subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.