Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / From Elevator Mechanic to Company Founder: Innovation, Leadership & Entrepreneurship | Sean Madden

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From Elevator Mechanic to Company Founder: Innovation, Leadership & Entrepreneurship | Sean Madden · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid to walk up and talk to somebody that that you might think is too big to talk to you, or pick up the phone and call somebody that you're like, oh man, they would never want to talk to me.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's amazing.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: This industry is a very niche industry, but even the leaders of this business, of this industry, they all are open to helping and supporting each other.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I've not ever seen anybody say, No, I'm not going to help you, or no, I don't know how to help you.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I think just being open to asking questions and being humble and really just trying to make a difference while also supporting.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: And don't be afraid to just pick up a phone and call people.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Pick up the phone and call me.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm always available.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: I love talking to people about the industry, and and nobody has all the answers.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: So by asking questions to a variety of different people, you're going to get a variety of different answers.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then you can decide what is the best one that fits your specific situation.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: In this podcast, we talk to the people whose lives and careers are dedicated to the vertical transportation industry to inform and share the computer.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Building upon the foundation of those who have gone before, to inspire the next generation of elevator careers.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Glad to be here, man.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to be able to chat with you.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: I know uh we've met a few times at different uh conventions, conferences, but um I'm excited to to talk a little bit more and get more uh in-depth into your story and and your journey.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: You you've had a certainly an interesting ride in the elevator industry.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, funny way you put that.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting ride.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's it's definitely been uh very beneficial.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a been a great career.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: I've I told people I'm I'm kind of lucky I've had the perfect progression because I came up in the field, spent about a third of my career in the field, moved into supervision and management, spent about a third of my career in that, and then later on had the opportunity to start a business, get into executive management leadership, and uh ran a business for 13 years.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: So um really been fortunate and had a great progression in the industry.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right, you're right.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: You've kind of kind of done it all.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: How did you initially get started as a mechanic?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Was that something you aspired to, or did it just kind of come to you?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, interesting.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my dad was an elevator mechanic for Otis Elevator for 22 years.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh when I was a kid, I used to go out on calls with him when I was a teenager, and you know, didn't think I was gonna get in elevators.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: It was kind of fun.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: One little funny quick story.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: We were at this hospital, and it was a mental hospital, and I'm a kid, and he's like, I'm running the car for him.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: He's up in the machine room working on the elevator, and he's like, Whatever you do, don't go to the third floor.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: What's a kid gonna do?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I hit the third floor, and the doors opened up, and this guy in a football helmet was standing there, and he saw the doors open, and then he went in the three-point stance and started running towards the elevator door.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm hitting door closed, door closed.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: And he saw upstairs I went to that floor.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: He he set me up.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: He knew exactly what was gonna happen.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: The guy came flying across the door into the back of the cab, and then he just got up and ran back over.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Come on, go to the next floor.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I got upstairs, and and I was totally white.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Told you not to go to the third floor.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you set me up, Dad.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Meet some interesting characters on the third floor, don't you?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: It was uh we had a lot of fun going out on calls, and he taught me a lot about elevators even as a teenager, believe it or not.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: I I started getting interested in it, and then I didn't think I was gonna get in the industry.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: I thought, you know, I'll just go and uh do you know getting into engineering.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: I actually uh went to college for engineering, and but then I was like just kind of fell in love with it.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: I got lucky I I was you know, don't tell the IRS this, but I was 16 working on elevators out of a Jeep CJ5 in Daytona Beach, Florida.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I just kind of kept falling in love with it, and you know, it's it's not bad to be 16 riding up and down the beach of Daytona Beach working on elevators, so uh really just got great opportunities as I was going to college and just fell in love with it.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was uh an industry that my dad, you know, fell into, got lucky to get into, and I just got opportunities as I was growing in the industry.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So even though you didn't think you would land there as you were kind of working part-time and it sounds like like working through college, it's like, okay, this is where I want to be.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I went to college for electrical engineering.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: I actually thought I was gonna work on planes, sure, you know, then do something different.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just kept getting opportunities on the elevator side.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: I got an opportunity to install a couple elevators when I was in college um in Ponce Dillon in Daytona Beach.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: And they were like, hey, if you uh install these elevators under Tynum, then we'll give you like a$4 an hour raise.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh, I could do that.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Never installed an elevator in my life, but I've been around elevators, I knew a lot of elevator people.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I can ask enough questions to figure this out.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do I dare even ask about that?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: So so you said you hadn't installed one.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm curious, was it was like ownership that said, hey, install it?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean, uh maybe I don't want to ask too many questions, right?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm like, how does that happen?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: There's some information about that in my book, but uh yeah, so I had been around elevators a long time.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, had not enough people I knew that could come by and help me out and support me and guide me.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's prints and there's drawings, and you know, I did have some good mentors through that.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: My dad stopped by the job site every day.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I had a boss, uh Urban Charles, that stopped by now and then.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: And and so there was enough support mechanisms around me to help ensure I did a good quality job.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: But uh it was definitely uh an experience and you know, working, I was young, so I was working a lot of hours and and figuring out how to get things done.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: I got done at like 55% and 60-something percent.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was pretty wild.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: But my helper wasn't there a lot of the time because it was even back then, it was a struggle to find helpers in the 90s.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So did that kind of cement your uh your desire to to get in the industry and and make a career out of it?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, interestingly, it might have actually went the opposite way because even though the installation was fun, uh it was very challenging.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I love working hard, but I also then I got opportunity to do some drilling.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I was doing uh hydraulic drilling with uh what they call big bam bam ricks.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that was uh fun.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: I enjoyed that and I enjoyed getting dirty.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but I was like, you know, this is cool and this is fun, but I want to do something inspiring, something different, something, you know, just I I actually had a really good mind for uh electronics, I guess, because my dad taught it to me at an early age and I just caught on quick.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: So when I went to college and was going through and building PLCs, I actually thought I was gonna design and build an elevator.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: That was one of the ideas I had as I was going through college and and do a PLC and could you know do ladder logic on a PLC.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought I was gonna get into all that stuff, but it never went down that path.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess what it really changed is I got an opportunity to go to Atlanta and be an area representative.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: In um I was 21 years old, 1996, the Olympics were there.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I had no clue what I was doing, but I went there and worked hard and tried to make a difference, and uh I feel like I did make a difference, but that's when I really kind of fell in love with it.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, you know what?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: I I am making a difference, and I'm seeing that you know, the the hard work and the efforts that I'm putting towards this, and I have some background and knowledge now, and I have enough resources around me to support me that I was really heading into an area where I enjoyed.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then I had an opportunity to go back to what I call home, which is Kentucky, and I ended up getting to go back there.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: My dad knew somebody that he worked with after he got out of the uh union with Otis, and he said, just call this guy, he'll bring you up and and maybe you can find a job with him.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I was able to put together something where I came as an adjuster and he became a really good mentor of mine.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's actually the late Roger Irvin.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you all have heard of him, but he was a great mentor of mine.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he actually helped me, you know, do a really good quality job on the work I was doing on the adjusting and attention to detail.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then he helped me, you know, by giving me the tools and learning and growing the support.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then I moved into supervision and management in his company and was running operation as his business.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: So was that that he was running?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: What was that business?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, he had an elevator company called Urban Elevator, and it was a small independent service company that we grew.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and ironically, we grew it uh from the time I was there in '97 until 2002 when we sold it to uh a private equity firm.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so I I went through a transition uh and worked for a private equity firm back then too.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it was just he was a great guy and just really helped me understand business coupled with elevators, and it's really, you know, one of the best mentors I've ever had.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's um it's it's hard to say enough about people like that that really make that kind of impact.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's uh it sounds like he did.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: He did, him and my dad both.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my dad was obviously a mentor of mine, and my dad knew the you know, he knew business, he knew the service side, he knew the electronics side, and he taught me everything I knew about troubleshooting and technology.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then Roger also came from uh technology side, he did some controller engineering and stuff, uh, but then when he went into business, he learned a lot about the business side, and he coupling that with my dad's knowledge um really just helped me grow as a person.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, the people ask me sometimes who's been your mentors?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's obviously oftentimes your dad, and then somebody that made a difference and an impact on my dad's life that he connected me to, Roger Urban.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then most of the rest of them have been like booked, you know.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Roger connected me with Dale Carnegie, and I went through this uh, I think it was a 16-week course back then.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it was about how to win friends and influence people and how to start living and stop worrying.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And when I started going into that, I was like, you know what, this is just you know another class.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I'll get what I can out of it.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I always engaged in class and wanted to get as much as I could out of it.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: That class actually changed my life, uh, dramatically changed my life in a positive way.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: I looked at life totally different after going through that.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: What were some of your biggest takeaways that you say you know really shifted that for you?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: Biggest takeaways were when I first looked at the class, I was thinking it was a manipulation class.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: But what I learned as I went through the class is it's not as much of a manipulation as it is about learning to listen, listen empathically, learning to understand people instead of always trying to listen to respond.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's often what we do in this world.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: So that was one of the biggest pieces, and then the second one was probably that I had a choice, you know, how to start living and stop worrying.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um I oftentimes got frustrated with stuff, I had a short temper, I'm a redhead.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: So oftentimes uh I let the world control my um decisions about how I felt about stuff.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: But after going through that class and understanding it, it's like, no, you can choose how you want to look at that.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: You can choose whether you're gonna make a difference and say, listen, the world did that to me, or whether you're gonna look at it and go, you know what, that's just something that happened.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's a stepping stone.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad that happened.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let me learn from it, figure out how I can improve it and not let it happen again.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: And when I was able to change that mindset, I think that's really what changed my mind from field mentality to leadership and management, understanding that piece of the puzzle.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's cool.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: I and and thank you for bringing that up.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I remember reading that book years ago, and and I remember being surprised at how it said you don't need to criticize other people because they they already, you know, in their mind they're they're doing the right thing.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And and that was kind of a yeah, a huge shift for me to think, okay, I guess I can try to see things from other people's perspectives.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: And um, sounds like that really helped you be able to step into a leadership role.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought I could solve the world when after I when I came out in class, you know, I could fix anything, but you learn it's not quite that simple.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a continual battle, you know, you're continually sharpening the saw.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: That was one of Stephen Cubby's uh he was another mentor of mine, the seven habits of Tidally Effective People.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I set out to just continually learn, continually grow, continually sharpen the saw, continually get better.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I just realized in in the field and in business and in management leadership, it's a continual battle.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're you're never gonna feel like you know everything, you're always gonna get humble.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that because you're always learning.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I said out a long time ago that I'm on a lifelong learning, learning journey.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, as soon as you yeah, you aren't learning, you maybe you know it all right.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're life you can't you're kind of done, right?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's always something to learn.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you'll never know anybody that that knows it all.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So uh at some point you you then shifted, you said you'd started in the field about a third of your career and then management.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: At what point did you say, hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna start my own company?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I was about 16 years old, believe it or not.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: When you made that decision, you said you were gonna do your own thing at some point.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: So what happened is uh I was running service in Daytona.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um somebody my dad knew owned an elevator company, wasn't working with him, he just owned a small company.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I was having lunch with my dad.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's at the Mayan Inn.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: There was a little uh ocean deck restaurant bar right on the beach there.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember like being there, and this guy said, I don't I want you to buy my business.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I don't know anything about business.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: I got a lot to learn, and I need to, you know, set out to learn that.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, I really appreciate the offer.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, No, I'll teach you everything you know.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Really appreciate the offer, but you know, it's way too early.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I guess he saw something in me.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: What was I remembering?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Was this an elevator service?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: It was an independent elevator service business.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: He had about you know 500 elevators.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you were 16 at the time.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, okay.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if he's talked to my dad, saw something in me, whatever, but I was I was so young, I was like, you know what?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's pretty cool that he owns an elevator business.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: And my dad had owned an elevator business uh for a short while, TNR elevator.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know what?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think I will do that.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when I I'm gonna go to college and I'm gonna work on planes and I'm gonna do some of this other stuff, but I think I will set out to learn all the aspects of elevators and eventually own my own business.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I really didn't think it would actually pan out as as great as it did, because you know, it's kind of like it just flowed into the perfect progression um throughout my career, and opportunities kept coming in at the right times.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them I created myself, but sure, sure.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: But uh they were all it it's just uh I guess I said at that time, so I had a kid early in in life, uh who's born the day after my 21st birthday.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I I remember thinking, okay, well, I'm gonna have to put the the business on hold.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'll just keep learning and growing, but you know, I'll wait till he gets older.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I planned on then, like maybe when he was 18 years old or after he graduated high school is when I was gonna open a business and then just planned set out and planned on learning everything I could about business through that time and just kind of put that on the back burner.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: So so fast forward what 20 years, and you're you're actually starting Madden Elevator?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And how did that come about?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so um he was uh in high school, I think he was a senior in high school, and I planned on starting after he uh completed high school.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um had a progression of a variety of things that happened in my career, but I was president of Able Elevator in local Kentucky, and I was slated to work with the owner to take over that business and buy him out and take over uh Abel Elevator, and we weren't able to come to terms.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Then found myself, okay, I'm starting a business from my basement with me and my wife and no income and a kid still in high school, and we're gonna figure it out.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I come home and told my wife that she thought I was nuts, and uh, but she's like, you know what?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because she wasn't working either, because she had left her job to stay home with our son, Christopher, and her job was having a downturn, so she left to save some people's jobs and didn't really need to work.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: So she left and saved uh two or three jobs and then kind of semi-retired until I came home and said, Hey, we're gonna start an elevator business in 2010.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: And she was like, Okay, let's do it.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: She supported me and jumped on the bandwagon and you know, we just started going to work.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, I I mean, obviously you had you had contacts, you had people you knew, but but it sounds like a lot of work to to get out, knock on doors, and say, hey, you know, I'm I'm I'm starting this.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was, but you know what?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: The interesting thing about it is it was fun work because it was essentially calling people, meeting with people, answering the phones, talking to people, and helping people solve problems.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: Communication.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was all about communication.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Luckily, I had uh a good progression in my career where detail was very necessary, especially in adjusting elevators.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, I really was a little anal about so you know, if I tell somebody I'm gonna call them back, I'm gonna call them back.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I put it on my calendar.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: I never forgot.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: I always made sure I called them back.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: I kept track of people's birthdays, I kept track of people's anniversaries.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now it's a little easier with social media, it pops up.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Back then I had it all on my calendar.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: So even people that didn't work for me for many, many years, even today, I take people happy uh former anniversary at Urban Elevator, which was you know centuries ago, and they're like, wow, how do you still have that stuff?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: See, but I was just very tedious about that stuff because I thought it was important, and I guess Dale Carnegie helped me with that stuff too, thinking through how important those things were.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, when I started communicating with people and calling them or leaving them a voicemail and following up with an email and then telling them, hey, I'm gonna follow up again at this time, or if I told them I was gonna do something, I did it.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: And really, just by doing that, it just grew and started growing very quickly because what I see happening sometimes in businesses is people get so busy and they want to do a good job, but then they get so busy and things fall through the cracks and then people get frustrated.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to make sure that didn't happen.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: So we put the systems and processes in place.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Plus, my wife was in customer service her whole life, so she made it easy.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: People loved her, they called her.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: She was always the happy phone voice, you know.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, how can I help you?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: What's going on?
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, people love that.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: So she was amazing and and helped us grow just in that support mechanism, too.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I could be out working on elevators and and she could be calling me going, You need to go fix an elevator.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's huge.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's huge.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's an amazing thing about the industry is is you know, husband and wife team, you you got the tools, you know, go out and you know, create it.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it sounds like you did.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you you ran that for like you say a 30-year career.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then what what was it that uh made you think, hey, maybe it's time to sell after after pouring your heart and soul into it?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we never planned on selling the business.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, originally thought our son would get in and and you know he would eventually take it over.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: It ended up not being something he was interested in.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then we said, you know, we we had some other people we we were considering uh that were in the business of you know, bringing up and bringing mentoring through and taking over.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, it's just Mark Bohauer, who uh started American Elevator Group, he was the vice president of uh Oracle Elevator, and I worked with him back in the day when we sold Urban Elevator to Oracle Elevator and merged uh Urban and Able.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, he's a great guy.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, he called me and he had been asking me for a long time, come on, come part of this plan, come part of this plan.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I kept saying no, no, no.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's just one day we had some situations happen, and my wife's like, you know what?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we bust our butt and we, you know, do everything we have to do to make sure we hit payroll, do everything we have to do to make sure our customers are taken care of.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: Do you ever consider like just seeing what he'd say?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, you know, you know, I could do that.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I went ahead and had a conversation, and the conversation led to you know, a very aggressive offer, and you know, we were like, we could work the next 10 years and not make this kind of money.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, maybe it is time to just consider cashing out.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: And we decided very quickly, like within 30 days, it happened, it was done.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, and it was kind of a whirlwind because luckily I was very organized, so I had all my contracts in uh PDFs in in a file, and I could submit all that stuff digitally very quickly and easily.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: And they were like, wow, this is you know pretty seamless.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I was preparing to, you know, didn't know what would happen in the future, but I also kept it all for the banks and you know, just making sure that I was prepared and had everything in order.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it just worked out really well, and we were able to put it together in a quick amount of time and you know join the American Elevator Group game.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, when when that happened, did you were you still running the business?
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Did you find yourself with with nothing to do?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you you've obviously had a little bit of a a transition since then.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious how that went over.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was a huge transition because you know, when you're over everything for a long period of time, and then all of a sudden, you know, you're you have one focus, which um they made me vice president of business development, and my focus was to you know manage the uh sales team and grow the business, which was was great.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: And they merged Madden Elevator and Able Elevator and DC Elevator all into one conglomeration in Louis, Kentucky.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that was an experience just going through that again.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: I had gone through uh Urban Elevator and Able Elevator merging together uh in Louisville, Kentucky, and now it was Madden and Able and DC all merging together.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it was quite an interesting experience.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then we had an opportunity where a friend of mine down in Florida had a business that was growing and he needs some support and help, and he ended up with uh long COVID and he needed some support, and we had a place that's like 15 minutes from him.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I was able to come down and and take on that and help him uh you know organize the place and get it going in a good direction because he was having to be off a lot, and you know, I was working a lot during the week, but because we had a place in Florida, it was a simple transition.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then on the weekends, I was um I had a boat at the end of our building, so I would go out on the boat and float and just hang out and think about what my next steps are and you know what's life gonna bring next, and you know, what do I want to do and how do I want to give back to the industry?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Was that a little weird to to step away?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's one thing to to sell it, right?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: But it I assume you were still in it, but then when your friend says, Hey, I need help in Florida, to just walk out the doors and and realize, you know, that's that's all in the past.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was definitely different.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: I was there.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um we closed July 31st and I was there through December.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but in that time, I was really focused on the sales side.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't really running all the day-to-day of the business.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: So when the opportunity came up in Florida to go down and run his business, I was actually intrigued because kind of got me back to what you know, all the day-to-day and and taking care of the the overall business.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I was intrigued and and went down and worked uh worked seven months and and helped get that uh business in a good place.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: And we worked really well together.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: He he got better and was able to come back in and we were able to help support each other and and grow that business.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it's still growing today.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that was an exciting time.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but being in Florida was different, you know.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I hadn't been in Florida since I left in, you know, I guess in the early 2000s, or no, 90 97.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, it was a weird like come back around and now you're in Florida working uh on the other coast.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: So but it was fun.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: It was fun.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: So so tell me, you had told me that that a lot of I mean this I'll just mention it here.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: You you've written a book called Empowering Elevator Business Owners and Entrepreneurs Tools, Tips, and Tricks for Growing a Profitable Elevator Service Company.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is that correct?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so when I came to Florida and you know was working so hard um getting that business in good place, I was also thinking, what's my next steps?
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um, so on the weekends when I would go out and float in the bay on the boat, I would I would even do that at night sometime uh after work.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I would just go, you know, what's what's the next steps?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: What's gonna happen?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: What do I want to do?
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I was sitting there and I just started writing, you know, I didn't even know exactly what it was gonna turn into, but I just started writing my my history, you know, how I came up through the industry, the different various things I did.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um started writing some stories about those things, and then it just it was fun.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: I was enjoying it, just kind of fell in love with this writing and just kept doing it.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it took about six months, and I was just writing and writing, and then after I kind of wrote about my history, then it kind of flowed into, you know, I kind of got this, I got this experience or spirit of I want to give back to the industry, you know, I want to provide information that I've learned over the years because as I was going through this writing, I realized, man, I have done a lot.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and I didn't really think about it.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: You never step back and think about all the stuff you did.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: So then the second half of the book turned into, okay, these are things that helped Matt and Elevator be successful, tools, tips, and tricks that I learned over the years, and maybe I can help somebody from scraping their face across the concrete by taking one of the tips and and empowering it and employing it in their business.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: So it turned into kind of a two-part book.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: The first part's about my my background experience and and how I came up in the industry.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the second half is about schools, tips, and tricks and how we were able to make Madden Elevator successful, which you know kind of flowed into the next steps.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, and let's and let's talk a little bit about uh the next step.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: So um I think you you uh you're calling it the elevator strategic hub that you launched to kind of help help people do exactly that, help business owners you know, get better at their business and um and create what you essentially what you created.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it kind of I had been thinking about doing something like this um for a couple of years.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: I was even doing some coaching uh when I was at Madden Elevator with other elevator business owners, um, some people that started up and some others that was struggling or having problems.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I was just kind of doing some prono coaching and mentoring, and I enjoyed that.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like I didn't realize I would enjoy it as much as I did and supporting them.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: And even at Madden Elevator, before we sold the business, I was more hands-off.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I had a business manager that was running the day-to-day of the business, and I was a support mechanism for her, and she was um, you know, she was amazing.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: She just took care of all the day-to-day and supported the team and supported the company, and I was able to mentor her and coach her.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then I had several people that's worked with me over the years that went out and started businesses, and I helped them get started and helped give them guidance and support.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: So that kind of all molded into you know the book, and then what is the next steps?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: So then Elevator Strategic Hub was born in my mind, going, I want to help people be strategic.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because one of the things that I think people struggle with when they start business is it's all about go, go, go, get done, get done, profit, profit, sell, sell, profit, profit, which is important.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: But one of the things that I wish I had as I started Madden Elevator was a better framework about how to run the business effectively.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I was fortunate enough again to go through and find some classes and find some books and find some tools out there that helped really reshape what made Madden Elevator successful towards the end.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, entrepreneurial operating system is one of them, EOS.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's a big system in our uh in the world, but it's becoming more and more prevalent in this country.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I used a product called 90, which was an online digital version, and was able to tweak it and change it to make it make sense for me at Madden Elevator, using my own terms and changing it to make sense for me.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: And we coupled those things together uh to make Madden Elevator successful.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: And these are the things I thought, and I really wish I had these things early on in my career, early on in starting the business.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what kind of launched Elevator Strategic of like want to be able to give tools, tips, and tricks and information and knowledge to essentially empower uh owners or leaders of businesses to be able to decide if they want to use them or how they want to take them and use them.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just want to be there to support them and build a community of people that want to help and support each other.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: So you talked about wanting these these tools, these uh the strategic mindset early on.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: How big of a difference would you say it made on your business once you started to and obviously you'd been at it several years, and so you'd learned some things, you know, maybe just school hard knocks or whatever, but when you started to apply strategic thinking to your business, how big of a difference did it did it make?
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a really good point.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it made a huge difference.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you a little story.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, I would go and read a book or, you know, go to a class or talk to the mentor and get this great idea.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I would come in and go, hey guys, we're gonna do this, let's do this.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, that makes sense.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, get the team rally together.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: We'd all boom, we're gonna do this, everything's great.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then a week or two or a few weeks go by, and I'd have another idea, and I'd come in like, oh, it's really cool, we're doing that, but I'm let's do this, and then we'd come in and do this.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I had somebody, actually, it's my niece, Cassie Robinson, she says, Banshot, I I love you to death, and you know, you've really helped us a lot, but you come in with all these crazy ideas all the time, and we're not sure which one to follow because you know you're kind of all over the place.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it it made me go out and try to find a system, a solution to help me.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when I found EOS.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that EOS did for me as a business owner was help me harness all my ideas and help me put together a systemized framework of how I want to run the business.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: And by stepping back and making the team part of it, building the overall mission, vision, and values strategies, when we're gonna meet, how we're gonna meet, and then what the plan was, what the goals were every quarter, but not letting me come in and throw something over the wall, as we call it.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't come in and just change direction and change plans.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: So instead of me coming in and driving the business and my leaders nuts, uh, we had a system, we had a framework of how we ran the business, and they could call me out.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: They could say, listen, great idea.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have to put it on the long-term opportunities list because we'll have to talk about it next quarter.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I know, but I want to do it now, you know.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it really helped me as a business.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: It really did.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think what you're describing is is the difference between you know you getting so ahead of your people that they're like, where where is he?
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's we he's way out there, and we don't even know how to follow because he's so far ahead.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, if you bring the the team along, then you've got the the synergy, the cohesion that that all right, we're all on the same page, we're marking march in this direction.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and I have some familiarity with that that EOS because of a nonprofit that I work with, uh, and they've used it in in their meetings.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I've I've seen it uh in action.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's a it's a great system, and you know, it's not all things for all people, and some people don't like it because it's rigidized, but that's one reason that you can do it differently through Elevator Strategic Hub and through our 90 portal.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: We actually have the ability to tweak it and change it.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: And we tweaked it for the elevator industry for our specific business, but there's also ability to tweak and change it for anybody's business because it really needs to be theirs.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: They need to own it and and love it and tweak it to what makes sense for their business because their business is a living, breeding animal, you know, and they want to, you know, feed it with a framework that makes sense for them as a person and and their team.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's got to be in a language that you all should understand so you can yeah, embrace it and and move with it.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um so Sean, tell me what you're doing right now.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: So right now I'm working with a southern elevator company.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they're out of Carolinas, uh, Christopher Short's the president, and I'm working with them as their innovation manager.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: And essentially we're developing uh Intellivator, which is a way to service elevators differently, and we're using technology and communication of information uh to services elevators differently and better right in public.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be a lot to come with that.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I'm I'm I'm very intrigued.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is is this something you're manufacturing or using kind of existing technology to kind of create this service?
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's a it's a combination of a lot of different things, but it's we're using um lift AI.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we're using a product to understand what's going on with the elevator and how much it's running, um, and where it's running, what floors, and then we're augmenting the service that we do to have key focuses on where to spend time doing services.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're coupling that with experience of the type of equipment, the type of facility, and what we need to be servicing, where we need to be servicing.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: So the whole big picture intent is to give a really clear information to the technician on how to effectively go service that elevator for that specific type of facility based on the information we're gathering from all these different points.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's fascinating.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: No problem.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's exciting and fun.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, they've been a great uh company to work with.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the team is very excited about what we're doing with that, and I can't wait to see this unfold.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm curious, Southern Elevator, there um, where are they based out of?
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: Greensboro, North Carolina.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: And they have eight offices now.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a fast growing company, uh, a lot of opportunity.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh recently you purchased by Flexus Capital.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: So Flexus is a private equity firm that's supporting this initiative, and we're excited about uh where it's gonna go in the future.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that's very cool.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so a couple other things I wanted to ask you about.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously you've you've been around, you've you've done a lot of things, you're still doing a lot of things.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: Still still kind of that that question, all right, what's next?
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um there may be even many more what's next, you know, in your life.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm curious though, I know I know you're currently the uh serving as the president of the NAEC, and um that's got to be a totally different you know viewpoint to to be able to serve there.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious, what are what are some of the things you find mo find most rewarding about serving in that capacity?
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so NAEC, you know, I've been a part of this association for 30 plus years.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um really didn't know what it was about when I was younger.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but when I got, you know, Urban Elevator, Roger Urban brought me into those um events and helped really show me how they could be so powerful because you're building the relationships with the people and the support mechanisms and learning a lot, obviously, along the way.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I remember thinking a long time ago, God, it would be awesome to be part of that board one day.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: And having the opportunity to get on the board and having the opportunity to be voted in as the president, uh it's a little bit of a humbling experience.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, wow, I can't believe I'm the president of our national association.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: So my goal, even in that capacity, is I want to support our industry, I want to support and give back and essentially make it better.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if everybody that comes in, you know, tries to find one or two or three things they can do to improve and make it better, it'll continually, perpetually get better and better and better.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes over the years, years ago, there was some comments that had been made that, you know, NAC kind of got stagnant, but it's not stagnant at all today.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_01: There's been a lot of amazing changes, a lot of positive things happening in the last five, six, seven, eight years.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: And in the last few years, some of the huge things that's making a difference is you know, building out uh some LMS systems and you know, some of the educational things.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: And NAC is a support mechanism for the industry.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I have the opportunity to help drive that, to help support that.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna be going through a full strategic planning uh session, which I'm extremely excited about because I'm very strategic minded.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: So this is gonna be really fun for me.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, to get back to your question, probably the biggest thing is just giving back to the industry again, you know, just helping support the people that are supporting NAC and making sure that the association is doing what they want it to do and and supporting them.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for bringing that up.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I've noticed just in the I've only been a member a few years, but I've noticed a lot of improvements and changes.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like you said, it's not not stagnant at all, just in the last, you know, probably three years or so that I've been involved.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's awesome.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm curious, you know, as we kind of get near the end of this interview, having having been in a lot of different places and and done a lot of different things, what are some of the biggest lessons that you've learned throughout your career?
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: Biggest lessons.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'd say don't be afraid to ask questions.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, don't be afraid to walk up and talk to somebody that that you might think is too big to talk to you, or pick up the phone and call somebody that you're like, oh man, they would never want to talk to me.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's amazing.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: This industry is a very niche industry, but even the leaders of this business, of this industry, they all are open to helping and supporting each other.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I've not ever seen anybody say, no, I'm not gonna help you, or no, I don't know how to help you.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I think just being open to asking questions and being humble and really just trying to make a difference while also supporting and don't be afraid to just pick up a phone and call people.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: Pick up the phone and call me.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm always available.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: I love talking to people about the industry, and and nobody has all the answers.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: So by asking questions to a variety of different people, you're gonna get a variety of different.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Answers, and then you can decide what is the best one that fits your specific situation.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that's great advice.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a time in your career where you thought, man, I want to call so-and-so, but I'm I'm afraid to do so?
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: But you you leaned into it and and it made a difference for you.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, several several times.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I remember being in the field and you know, heard amazing things about a mechanic, and then just not sure like how do I get a hold of.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, back then we had pagers, so I'm kind of given my age.
• 44:36
  unknown: Right.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: But today you can you can pick up the phone or you can get on LinkedIn or or Facebook or some other social media platform and connect with them pretty easily.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, I mean, being able to connect with people that are like-minded that could mentor you and help you and support you, you know, I've always looked for those people that are in front of me and tried to connect with them and ask questions.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so I probably had four or five situations where I always looked ahead of, okay, I'm a supervisor, I want to be a manager, I want to spend some time with this person because they are doing a great job and they can help support me figuring out how I can be better at what I'm doing to be able to get to the next step.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, no.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm noticed that a lot in the in this industry that it to me it's more of a community.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's more, you know, it's not just an industry, but everybody knows everybody, yeah.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it would seem.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and it does pay pay dividend dividends to uh to get to know people, to have conversations, to you know, to build your own network.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, another quick little story.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was at an elevator convention, another really important reason why it's uh important to come to these shows and conventions.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, standing in line, talking to one of my employees, and we're dealing with the situation about an elevator cab.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I've told this story many times, but essentially somebody heard me, turn around and said, Who are you dealing with?
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: And said, No, that's that's never gonna happen.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_01: You're never gonna get that product.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_01: You need to walk away while you can and just go find another solution, or I'll see if I can help you find another solution.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm telling you right now, it's not gonna happen.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, That's really odd.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like, why is he throwing that out?
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, doing research and due diligence, and yeah, that's that's what exactly was happening, and they helped me figure out how to solve it.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_01: So just a random situation at the elevator convention, and somebody I didn't even know, and now I'm really good friends with.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's really cool.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: Just offering some help that unsolicited in this case, exactly.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: But luckily he heard the name.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to say the name of the person, but luckily he heard the name and was like, no, that's never gonna happen.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's like wow.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: Good to know if it's really never gonna happen, right?
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's been a been very fortunate about you know my career and the people I've met and the people that supported me.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, you can pick up the phone and call just about anybody in this industry, and they're gonna call you back and say, How can I help you?
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's pretty impressive in my mind.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: That really is.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: Again, back to the community that that people care, they respect each other, and and uh it's quite remarkable.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, even in even my experience, you know, I had a a client a few years ago, you know, invite me to to go to the the NAEC conference in the spring, and and I I said, well, like I kind of feel like an outsider, even though I've been recruiting for 10 plus years in the industry.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, shut up, just come.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I did, and was was just very surprised at how how welcome I was, how how willing people were to just come up and talk.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: And hey, welcome, glad to see you.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I just didn't expect that.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: Having having worked in other industries, I've never found a niche that's that's as friendly, as open, as as willing to to talk, like you say.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's good to know.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I've been in this industry my whole life and I've heard that from people before, but it's good to know that you actually experience that.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's interesting that all of our all of us that are competitors, we're also friends.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_01: And we're there's enough work out there for good people.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_01: And the people that aren't good people typically don't last in our industry, right?
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, the good thing is is we help and support each other in in every way, and there's plenty of work out there for everybody.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be nasty about it.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's one special thing about our industry.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's very special.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, or one of my first uh jobs right out of college, I was working for a you know, totally different industry, is I was you know in human resources, but but I just remember the kind of the uh the way we viewed competition is we were just kind of enculturated to just hate them, right?
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're just the bad guys and and um it never really you know I didn't uh really buy into that, but at the same time, that that was just kind of the the motto, right?
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it was it was a little odd, but um you know it's it's really freshing to to find a group that uh you know we don't need to be that way and we can all succeed together.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: So uh last question, and this this may be a little bit redundant, but I'm just curious what advice would you give to maybe somebody who's just starting out, maybe they don't even you know know much about the industry, but uh you know, as they look ahead, what would you encourage them to do?
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_01: Encourage them to do.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_01: So be curious, ask a lot of questions.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh don't be afraid to reach out to somebody that you know might think might you might think is above you, but pick up the phone and call them.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna help you, they're gonna support you.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, probably more than anything, just uh continually learn.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lifelong journey of learning this industry, any industry really.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, and the one thing I love about this industry, even when I was in the field, is it's a very humbling industry.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, just when you feel like you got a handle on something, some hiccup will come and and and remind you you don't.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I love challenges and I love learning and growing, and I love fixing and problem solving.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it's been a great industry for me for those reasons.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, if if somebody's just looking for consistency, then this probably isn't their industry.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's a it's a very uh it can be a humbling uh industry too.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: So always be curious about how you can learn and how you can support in the future.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_01: Very good, very good.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sean, thank you so much for being with me today.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate your time.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh always an honor.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I appreciate everything, Matt.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a great conversation.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_01: So appreciate everything.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_01: Have a great day.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: You too.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the All Red Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: Please subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.