Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / Building Champion Elevator: Leadership in the Elevator Trade | Don Gelestino

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Building Champion Elevator: Leadership in the Elevator Trade | Don Gelestino · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Matt Allred.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: In this podcast, we talk to the people whose lives and careers are dedicated to the vertical transportation industry to inform, inspire, and share lessons learned to build upon the foundation of those who have gone before and inspire the next generation of elevator careers.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Today we are speaking with Don Gelastino.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Don started in the elevator trade as a helper in 1986.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: With the help of some great mentors, he learned quickly and started Vertec Elevator in 1993.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: In 2010, Don sold Vertec to United Technologies and stayed working with UTC for the next few years.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: In 2015, Don started Champion Elevator, where he serves as the president and CEO.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Don, welcome to the show.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Glad to be here, Matt.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: I I appreciate your time.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh something I've been looking forward to.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've enjoyed meeting you in the past, and I'm excited to talk more about uh your career and also the careers you're you're providing through Champion Elevator.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so I've I've just got to ask, how did you get started in the elevator industry?
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So my my story is a little bit strange.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um when I was a senior in high school, my family moved up to Maine, and uh I went to Maine, did high school, and was a little bit of a crazy rock and roller back then.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to be a bass player, and um being as smart as I was, I decided to leave Maine and come back to New York with$21 and a bass guitar.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought I was gonna be a rock star.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: So here I am, an elevator man.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: So what happened in between, I'll tell you a little bit.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was bouncing around, you know, really nowhere to stay.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: I ended up staying on a couple of guys' couches for about three months, rent-free, which is great when you have no money.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: And um, one morning, uh, one of the guys shook me and said, Hey, you got to come to work with us.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: We need a helper.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to the guys, what do you guys do?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Our father owns an elevator company.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I said, All right, if uh if you're telling me I got to start paying rent, I better start going to work.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So lo and behold, you know, I end up in an elevator machine room.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I remember looking at the controller, seeing all the lights and seeing the shivs, and you know, I didn't know even the name of anything back then.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I was very intrigued by it.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as a kid, I always built my own mini-bikes and go-karts and you know, uh, wired up my amplifiers myself and little stuff like that.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I found it very interesting.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I was, you know, so I I kind of asked him, I said, if you ever need me back again, uh, I'd be glad to come.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember it was four bucks an hour, and uh that that seemed like big money back then, 1986.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, they had me back, and you know, I really took a liking to the uh to the business.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And because I was very interested, the people there really tried and they actually helped me.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: They helped me learn, they weren't, you know, hiding, you know, advancement opportunities.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was all put out there, you know, be the best you could be type stuff.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I became you know a mechanic and then a troubleshooter, a foreman supervisor, finally engineering all the mod jobs for the company.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then I went out on my own.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um in 1993, I started Vertec Elevator and uh I had a great run with that.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I went from 93 to 2010.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: How did you sorry to interrupt, how did you get get that you know, to to start your own sounds to me like a a big leap to to make.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: What was it that got you over that leap to help?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, again, just like uh the craziness of leaving home with$21, the company I worked for um was kind of in trouble.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: They had some tax issues.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had no benefits.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: I had worked for the company for six months without even taking a paycheck.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I was actually trying to pay for my own wedding at the same time.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was valeting parking cars on Friday nights and Saturday nights.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing roofs and decks and whatever I can on Saturdays and Sundays to supplement the funds I didn't have uh for working for the elevator company, you know, saying a few Hail Marys in between that the company would get back on its feet.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it kind of never happened.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So two weeks before my wedding, I actually gave my two-week notice.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I went down to the county clerk and um filed a business application.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I went and got insurance.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Back then it was uh Burnaman Associates and uh Bruce Rector and Jackie Mortman.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I got insurance.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I what I did was I actually took a copy of my insurance and I typed up a letter and I faxed it to every elevator company in the phone books from A to Z.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't care if it was Otis, I didn't care if it was A elevator.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, every one of them got a fax for me saying that the day I got back from my honeymoon, I'd be available for any kind of subcontracting work.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And lo and behold, when I got back from my honeymoon, I actually had people who faxed me back telling me, you know, I need some car door operators over in Brighton Beach, or I got a shiving cables up in the Bronx.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you the truth, I went out with some of my uh, thank God there was some money left over from the wedding.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: We got, you know, the wedding gifts, and I bought a van, uh retrofitted it with some shelving, got some tools, and I just went out by myself and did tons of elevator work um and built, you know, built myself up.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And a year later, my accountant was the same accountant as that company.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when I went to do my taxes, the accountant said, Wow, you're doing all right.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, you know, a lot of work, but I'm I'm hey, listen, I'm paying the bills, you know.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I at that point I was thrilled.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, How's how's the other company doing?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, Oh, they're in trouble, you know, they the the bank account was seized, they padlocked the shop, they're working out of a mechanics house dispatching.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Oh my God.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: I said, tell them if there's anything I could ever do, you know, I could get parts.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: He was on credit hold everywhere, and you know, if he needed help.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um the old owner reached out to me, and he he actually was in the position where he was really just wanting to sell the company and pay off his debts.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that was that was in 1993.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: And funny enough, I actually ended up buying that company, the first company I ever went to work for, and that was '93.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: I started with them in '86, and it's 2022, and that gentleman still works for me here at Champion today.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's uh it was great.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he stayed with me through Vertech.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when I went to Unitech, he was over there with me.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh when I was off on my note compete, I'm not really sure what he did for that two years.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so I sold that company, I built that company, sold it in uh 2010 to United Technologies.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I went to United Technologies and worked there for a couple of years, and that was great.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: I really, you know, listen, I came out of high school, jumped in the elevator field, never really had any schooling or college or anything like that.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So going to United Technologies and looking at all their online programs and courses and classes and educational opportunities, I pretty much overindulged.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I literally took enough classes in three years that you know people go 20 years and don't even get the experience.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a very great eye-opening um educational point in my life.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And uh after selling my company and learning this new stuff and kind of seeing how the big OEMs operate versus the mom and pops, I was really compelled to go back into the business after my no compete.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, 2015, I started Champion Elevator, and we're in business now.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, six and a half years, we have just under 300 employees, and I think we're 12 elevators short of having 5,000 elevators on recurring monthly maintenance, which in six years that's uh it's a lot of work.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: This beard, when I started, was uh black.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's that's an amazing story.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: And and obviously you've you've I want to say kind of grown up in the industry, it sounds like, from ever since you left high school and the uh rock star dream.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, maybe we'll see on the stage later.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: But um I'm I'm curious, what what is it that you love so much about this industry?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll tell you the truth.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Throughout the career, from pretty much the first day till every day I have now, the people are amazing.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, you get good and you get bad, you get all types of mixes everywhere, but the the people that really dig in, they have a passion like like nothing I've seen before, which I think is amazing.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the technology, uh the codes, while a lot of people find you know all these code updates very um overwhelming and they're not happy about them, and and technology's changing, and oh, we got to learn how to use instead of you know carbons and coppers, we're going to relays, and then relays are going with the printed circuit boards, and you know, like people don't like to change.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: But what I actually find in this industry, the change happens and it happens rapidly, especially when you're dealing with 10 different elevators manufacturers, right?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be aware of what's going on.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're working in several different cities, we're in New York, Connecticut, um, Jersey, and Pennsylvania, all different codes.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Long Island has tons of jurisdictions, everybody thinks different at the same time.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I gotta tell you, learning and adapting and having to stay in that pace is it's you actually don't get one boring second of your life.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I gotta tell you, when you find a group of people to work like that with and to keep making things happen and keep keeping reinventing yourself on a monthly basis, I got it just it just makes the day go by and you really feel a sense of accomplishment every day.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: That is awesome.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: And as you talk about the people, one of the themes that I hear uh from a lot of people in the in the trade is that there are some amazing mentors.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Who who are some of your mentors that you feel like, wow, man, if that guy hadn't been there, I don't know if I could have you know learned to maybe take the next step.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the funniest thing is uh you know, it's there's there's some big names and big shoes to fill in this industry, and there are amazingly smart people, um, you know, like like like uh the Hillpot family and you know, Pat Carage, and and there's some amazing, you know, just people out there, uh smart um consultants, you know, the Vanduza guys, Rob Cousy, and you know, I had the one person that I that I think was a real big instrumental person in my career is a name that nobody would really know.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, mostly anyone that knew probably passed on already.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was a guy named Tom Coyle, and uh he was a mechanic for Deco Elevator in the 80s, um, in Brooklyn.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it was kind of crazy.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I started working in that business, and like I said, I had no money.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: And there were days that um I really didn't even have enough money to get back to Long Island from Brooklyn.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: And this mechanic Tom would always say, Hey, why don't you come with me?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I would drive me in his car, I was his helper, and he he'd invite me over, and he would do the same thing every time.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: He would put two hamburgers on the grill.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: He got himself a big tall boy, big giantweiser can.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Used to call it an oil can.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I was a Diet Coke guy back then, and uh and he would do strange things.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like he would take blueprints and he would like modify them and ask me what's wrong with this, or he would show me elevator parts and rectifiers and resistors and diodes, and like he would just make tricks with all of these parts, or tell me how to wire this up, or you know, if you wanted to reduce resistance on on this rectifier, which way would you go?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: What does this rectifier look like it does?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: All these tricks, and I'm telling you that I honestly think we did that at least a hundred times.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, and I'll tell you, number one, um getting a free meal back, that was a very big thing.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I every day my my lunch for probably three or four years was a bag of Fritos and a Diet Coke, and it was 75 cents and a quarter.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was a one-dollar lunch, I gotta tell you.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I did that.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that hamburger was a went a big way.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy's friendship and the way he did it, like he would laugh.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I made a mistake, you know, I wire something backwards.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: What he'd show me door locks, I'd wire them parallel instead of in series and stuff.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he would laugh and he would say, No, you know, and he'd tell me what would what I did wrong, and and always in a very nice, fun way.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Not, you know, demeaning, not, you know, ah, you idiot.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was straight, nice, real friend, friendly type environment.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: So he was probably a big mentor, and this guy, Ray Casey, was another uh older supervisor, always friendly, always took the time to uh to help me out.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And um those guys were really good.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then Joe Trapani from Thompson and Matt Alcamo, you know, those guys, you know, I go there to get some controller parts, and they would actually show me things instead of just say, oh, take the part.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: They would stop and say, Listen, here's how you wire this.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is what you do with this, and this is how it works.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, uh there's probably hundreds of micro mentors, I would call them, that make up the whole big picture.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: But uh it's it's those kind of people that help other people and don't really hide um you know the knowledge from them.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: That that that is is the key.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of times on jobs, uh, you know, you can't fix something.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: A supervisor shows up, supervisor says, Hey, you know what?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Go get me a coffee.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: You go get a coffee, you come back to the job, jobs fixed.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and you say, Well, what was that?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: What did I miss?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about it, kid.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you later.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, back in the day, they that was like a job security thing, but I think it's very unfair way to approach the business.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: If the business has been good to you, I think you should pass that along.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's very cool.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and along with that, I'd love to tell me, I'd love to have you tell me a little bit about what makes champion different.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: How is it that you try to develop your employees?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because it sounds like they're they're on the same learning curve that that you've walked and and you know where they got to get.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I try to, you know, I try to help everyone that I can.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, the first person that came into my company was Joe Carrado.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he's the vice president of the company right now.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And again, he was in a he was in a little bit of a tough jam.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he was with a company that was having problems kind of similar to the way I had to start my own company.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I I brought him in and he uh has a lot of hustle in his step and he sees the same vision to you know treat people with respect.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you put a hard day's work in and you and you get something out of it at the end of the day, and you're thankful to see the accomplishments.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we do the same thing here.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: We hire people who are good people.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're always we always have our radar up for who's a good person.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of those good people know nothing about elevators, they know nothing about systems, processes.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them didn't even know anything about Microsoft Word.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is, then we see how we could plug them into the elevator industry, and then we see how they can adapt into our business.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then what we do is we take a step back, we train them, we teach them, we show them our ways, and we actually listen to them when they come up with ideas that are actually better than our own.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like this cycle of helping each other achieve our own personal goals.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's we try to do that.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very hard.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, we're at almost 300 people, um, some of them through acquisitions.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: We've been doing some acquisitions um 19 uh in 2020 and 2021 and 2022 now, we have acquisitions coming in.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we closed on one today, and you get people that they are not the same culture.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to try to figure out like, hey, listen, are they good people?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: What can we do to help them?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And how do we work together?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and we're always, you know, trying to make sure that we're we're taking people and actually advancing them.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're in a better place now, champion, than they were before they got here.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're not, and or they feel they're not, we talk about it and try to see why.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it could be an adaptation issue, it could be, you know, listen, I just like to, you know, fix one elevator and go home at two o'clock in the afternoon and not check it out with anyone.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And some things we we have to learn how to live together, or it might not work out.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: But but but it all is about you know teamwork and um and helping each other achieve you know our own personal goals.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: I you know, I I'm not doing this by myself, none of them are doing that it by themselves, but together in a day we accomplish a lot of great things.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh yeah, I can't imagine how much I I guess difference once you once you acquire a company, you know, the culture is going to be different, the a lot of what they've learned is different.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um what what what are some of the uh challenges facing um obviously you're an independent, you're from my perspective, one of the probably larger independents because there's a lot of really small ones out there, but what are some of the challenges challenges you face as a as a company?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, what are some of the things that you feel like you can do to overcome them or or work through those?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, manpower is is obviously seems to be always at the forefront of, I mean, not a lot of people wake up and say, hey, I know I want to be an elevator man today.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people don't even think about it.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's always a thing that's like kind of a little bit inbred, like, hey, how'd you get in the business?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, my cousin, my father, my brother, my neighbor.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's never like you don't think about it like becoming a policeman or a fireman or you know, a dentist or a barber, like things you see every day.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so workforce is always a big issue.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh you know, the COVID thing, uh, you know, I like to see that come and go as fast as possible.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: But uh that gave us uh some challenges from a health and safety uh perspective that we're constantly honing and refining here.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, supply chain, I think that'll get back to somewhat normal once we get a good footing uh after COVID kind of is a little bit out of here because right now, but that's a little bit of a temporary problem, I'd like to believe.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then, you know, you got the big ticket items like insurance is always a challenge.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when I was a startup, it was a challenge.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, insurance is a big, big piece of every uh operator's pie.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that is um always an expense.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's a challenge.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then the reality is you have to keep up and be on the forefront of safety.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that is something that is created and learned.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't come natural.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, new people in the business don't know it.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, older people in the business kind of think they got it all.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're doing this 30 years, nothing's gonna happen, so they get complacent.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to try to, you know, we have daily safety app that we have a you know, a safety app, the guys take classes on their phone daily, answer questions, that we have quarterly safety trainings where all the men and women are pulled into the office and sit and go through a whole presentation.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: The unions have their safety classes, but the key is you have to keep it um exciting, um interesting.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you go into a room and you know you you don't Have some kind of connection, the people will go through the motion, but they it doesn't, you don't absorb it.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think one of the biggest challenges in the elevator business, because these machines are, you know, they have no conscience.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to really be safety conscious and be willing to dedicate time, resources, money, everything else towards safety, because that drives it drives your customer base, it drives your culture, it drives your insurance, it drives, it drives your your your reputation.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I think the biggest challenge for any size company is um making sure safety is at the helm of the of the ship.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: And the the employees know that.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: So and I thank you for being on here.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: I I kind of want to end with with a question that uh just kind of looking back over the your years in the industry, and what's one or maybe two things that you've learned that you would like to give to those who are are new on this journey that you feel like is has been gold for you?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if they're starting or running an independent elevator company, the key is to, you know, everyone says watch your overhead costs.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: The key is to know your overhead costs and how to implement them into your pricing structure.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: To me, I learned a very tough lesson in 2001.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my company was growing super fast.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I would add material, add labor, put 25% on it and pound my chest and say, I got another job with me, 25% profit.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Until I actually hired uh until I hired uh a business consultant firm, and thank God they were a lot smarter than me.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: And they looked at all my costs and they said to me, Don, you took the material, which was perfect to the penny, you took your labor, which was perfect to the penny, and then you marked it up 25%, and you got so many jobs, and now you're wondering why you have no money in the bank.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, isn't that crazy?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, not really.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: You needed 32% just to cover your overhead.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: So every job I did, and the faster I got the work signed, I was putting myself out of business.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: So to me, if there's one thing I could share with anyone, especially someone who's starting up, like a father and son, or two guys from the field, you know, make sure that you got that down.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is a very instrumental, tiny little piece of advice that can really create a headache.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that's one little piece of advice.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I really believe that you have to treat people better than you would treat yourself or want to be treated.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, if it's genuine and you have that in your DNA to be that type of person, I think you're gonna end up surrounding yourself with great people and you will do great things.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: That is awesome.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for sharing that.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like that consultant came at the right time or just in the nick of time, I'll tell you.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: Would have been a very painful lesson.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Don, thank you so much for being here today, being able to talk about your your company, your experience.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: And um, we will we'll talk again soon.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks again.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, glad to be here.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and and crack congratulations to you on your success.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Your company's doing great.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: I see you join the NAEC, and this is terrific stuff.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I'm looking forward to seeing you guys in the future too.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Don.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Take care.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: Please subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.