Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / Jeff Hanson: Stay True To Your Values

Transcript

Jeff Hanson: Stay True To Your Values · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: 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.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: Today our guest is Jeff Hansen.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Jeff started in the industry as a mechanical engineer with Montgomery Elevator in 1988 and worked as an engineer for eight years before making a move into a sales role in Texas.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Jeff has moved several times and has worked for several different companies.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: He has held a variety of roles, including regional vice president.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Jeff is currently working as a business development manager for Smart Rise Engineering and founded an elevator consulting company, Hansen Elevator Services.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Jeff has learned a lot, has worked with a lot of people, and I'm excited to be able to share some of Jeff's rich experience with you.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Jeff, welcome to the show.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad to be able to take this time and talk.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we've met, we've been able to talk a little bit, but I think it'll be a lot of fun to dig a little deeper into your career.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: From my perspective, you've had an extraordinary career.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: You've you know a lot of people, you've done a lot of work.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: You've worked both sides of the country.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think the first time we talked, you were in California, and now you're in Atlanta, and you seem to know everybody.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Quite a few.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I would like to, again, talk with you about your career, find out some of the some of the things that you've learned and some of those things that you'd like to pass on.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: First question I want to ask you is just how did you get into the industry?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, did you go to college and say, hey, I want to get into the elevator industry?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think if if you ask anybody who's doesn't have a relative in the elevator industry, and they tell you that this is the career they were dreaming of their entire life, I would tell you point blank they're lying because this is not something.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I went to Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, and elevators were the furthest thing from my mind.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: I was dealing with mechanical engineering and industrial engineering.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was planning on working for um some company, whether it be a Winnebago up in the northern part of Iowa, or some manufacturing or a car manufacturer, something like that.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've always been into cars.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So through college, I helped pay for my college career by working as a um manager of a shell station, or it wasn't ARCO, ARCO Atlantic Richfield.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I really enjoyed it.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: My boss was a sprint car racer.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: My father and mother helped me with half of my tuition for schooling.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so I did it, worked as the manager of the shell station for two years so he could go on the sprint car circuit.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I was fixing cars.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh then my father started talking to my brother, who was part of Montgomery Elevator at that time, which is out of uh the Quad Cities, Molina, Illinois, and asked my brother to see if he could get me an interview with somebody in the elevator business so I could stop getting grease under my fingers every day and start wearing a suit and tie and see if all that money paid for my college diploma made sense.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So my brother got me an interview uh with some people at Montgomery Elevator, uh, in particular, a person by the name of Jim Kerger and Art Marsh.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they liked me, I liked them, and they offered me an opportunity in the engineering department in 1988 and October of 88, and I've been in the business ever since.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And and I have really enjoyed been some tough times, but I've really enjoyed the industry.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's interesting that you you started in engineering.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: How long were you in engineering?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: I've always known you as a more of a sales business development guy.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: So how long were you in engineering before you said, hey, there's something different I want to do?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I was in engineering from 1988 through 1996.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: So eight years.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Started out designing fixtures, uh, which are the push buttons and the car stations, uh, what common folk that's what they're used to.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: So was designing those to make them uh friendlier for the public.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Did that.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh then I became a mod person, uh, that I traveled around the country surveying hoistways, meeting the technicians, the mechanics, and back then we called them helpers.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: So still still on the engineering team, but instead of designing the the fixtures, you were like, hey, let's go out and engineer a modernization.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so I and I started doing that because I was the mechanical engineering supervisor at Montgomery Elevator.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: I did fixtures for two years, then they put me there, then they put me into escalators.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I was helping design their new escalators, and then I got the opportunity to travel around the US reviewing jobs and trying to field design what would be the best fit for them.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so for all those years, then after that, then I moved to Texas and became got into the sales side of the world.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, what was it that led you from engineering to to want to pursue sales?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's a little different.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So in engineering, we uh we have very big heads and we don't like anybody telling us that our designs are not going to work.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would hear it when I would do monitorizations uh for elevators for people, and they would say, No, it doesn't fit in the hoist way.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm and I would say it does.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I I have it on my drafting board and my CAD terminal, everything matches up.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've been doing all my modeling.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you're talking about, but you don't know how to measure a hoist way.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, got so upset, I asked my boss at Malar Elevator if I could get out into the field to meet with these people and talk to them and see what's going on.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then I found out that in the field there's a thing called shift in buildings.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Buildings shift, they settle over time.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So what may have been a perfectly square and plum hoist way at one point isn't quite so squirm.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: But your AutoCAD didn't take in the shift, huh?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: It did not.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, so where I used to put an exact size hole for a bolt, I probably needed to put a slot in there because of this shift, this movement in the building.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what prompted me to get out into the field, as opposed to behind my drafting table at corporate.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And from there, the only way to get into the field was to be sales or management because engineers in the field was not that that's just not what any of the elevator companies do.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, engineers are based out of a headquarter or you're a staff position.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I went into sales primarily just to do undercover boss type of stuff, trying to find out why these people are saying my stuff doesn't work.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Houston, Texas was my biggest market at that time that I was designing things for.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I asked if I could go to Houston.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I got a job there and um in a sales role as an undercover engineer to find out what was wrong.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I found out what was wrong.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but that that's what prompted me to get out of engineering to get into sales.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds like you learned a lot getting into the field and saying, whoa, here's where the rubber meets the road.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Here's uh like you said, the slot versus the hole, it's not going to be exact.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was eye-opening, it sounds like.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it was, and uh I owed a lot of apologies to a lot of people that I called some nasty names on my engineering ivory tower because they were absolutely right and I was absolutely wrong.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, but it it was it was I needed it, and uh honestly it's helped me to become the elevator person I am today.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it was good.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, well, and you apparently stayed with sales.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you didn't go back into the ivory tower.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: What was it that kept you in sales and kept you you know moving in that direction?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So when I went to Houston, Texas with Malara Elevator, which uh was a division of Schindler at that time, went there in sales in '96.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: In 98, unfortunately, there was a fatality in Dallas, Texas.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it was very difficult for the group up there on how to do it.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so they asked me, uh, my my mentor, my who I've followed forever, his name's Jerry Rich.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: He asked me if I would like the opportunity to be a branch manager for the Dallas, Texas office for Malar.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: But he said, you need to understand OSHA's gonna be up inside of you, it's gonna be ugly for a while, but the big thing is just to bring a new face there and help the people get through it because Jerry knew I was a people person.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, okay, so I got into management and I really enjoyed helping people from that side.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: So at that point, that's when I decided I never needed to go back into a corporate staff position in what I call the Ivory Tower.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoyed helping sales, helping operations in the field.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I've been doing um ever since 19 uh 98.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: So how long had you been in sales when you jumped into management?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Two years.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: I I only had the title of uh salesperson.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: We call them sales engineers back then, which made me feel good because I use my engineering term from school, but but we were just we were sales reps and I did it from 96 to 98.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I moved to uh Dallas, Texas, July of '98 is when I started the branch management.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the caveat to that is I'd like to say that's the only time I had the title of sales in my title.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've done sales even before I started because you're always selling yourself, you're selling your product, you're selling your company, and you have to believe in all of those items.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't, you're not going to make it.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I've always been involved with selling, but I recently I have the title of a BDM, which uh helps, but in reality, I've only been truly labeled a salesperson for two and a half, three years in my entire career.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because and I don't remember exactly which title you had when you first started talking.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: It might have been a district or regional or or something.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: But but you're right, you know, sales, you got to do it all the way through as you're managing.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're also, and if you don't have sales, you don't have anything.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And everything stems from bring the job or the opportunity into the door.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then you rely on your operations side to install it and make it profitable.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: And your operations is both your management side, but more importantly, it's your admin and your field side.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's making sure they have all the tools that they need, even if it costs you a little bit of money up front to make it happen.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: So when we had met, when I was in San Diego, I was actually a regional manager.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: I covered for Tizen Krupp what I would call the uh the vacation places.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: I had Hawaii, I had Las Vegas, I had those kind of places.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Some people made fun of me, but my team made a lot of money because uh they would be given the tools that they needed.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't cheap on the tools.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you know I went to Harbor Freight Tools and bought a$30 drill motor, but I went to Milwaukee and um bought a$300 drill motor and still a quarter horsepower.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: I bought the Milwaukee because of my confidence in that product.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe my my field techs were liked that, they respected that, and they knew that yes, I need to make money, but I need to make it the right way.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And being a regional manager was outstanding for for my career and for me as a developing into more of a uh a person that people respected.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been good.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Very cool.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and you've obviously done multiple, you know, from engineering to a true sales role to more leadership.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: What have you loved the most about working in the industry?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: And and did you ever say, hey, I want to go do something else?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: I want to go work for Winnebago.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Did you ever have those thoughts?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: What I loved in the industry is taking people under my wing.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And when they're down at the dumps and they feel that they can't make, for example, a salesperson can't make their quota, their sales plan, or a mechanic can't figure out how to adjust a particular type of elevator control.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I loved because then I would go out there and I would help them.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: They could call me a mentor, I just considered myself a helper, and I would go out there and we would bounce ideas off of each other.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: I helped people develop into really strong mechanics for the um IUEC.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've helped salespeople, I've helped managers to become very, very good at what they do.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And uh there was even times when I was told that I had to fire some people, and I would buy myself 60 days worth of time with my boss and say, give me 60 days.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: If I can't turn this around, then I will fire them.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, no questions asked.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And luckily I had decent bosses and they would give me the time.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I've only had to let a few people go on my career because they just it just wasn't their career for them.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: But the people that really wanted it to be their career, they jumped in with some of my guidance and it was good.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: What I didn't like the most in my career was when I got out of regional management and I became into more of an executive lead.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: I've held the title of vice president of sales, vice president of operations, business development, so on.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And as a vice president, I always thought that now I finally have control.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I can change this industry.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can't.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's always someone that you're reporting to.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually could do more change at a lower level on the management pole than I could as a vice president or as an executive.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's what I regret because I've been a vice president for a long, long time.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: If I had anything to say, I would say that you think you can change things, but you always have another boss and you only can do so much.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: What were some of those things you really wanted to change that you thought, wow, this will this will make it so much better?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: And you felt like maybe your hands were cuffed and you couldn't.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, in various aspects, in the sales aspects, I wanted to develop a commission plan that was better for everybody.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want boundaries, um, I wanted people in specific areas, but if they crossed over an imaginary line, I didn't want the internal struggle or the squawking going back and forth between the individuals saying, well, this should be my sale and so on.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like if somebody's in in mod and this or a repair, or you know, some of those lines get blurry.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: They do.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: They do.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And when I began, or when I was with Millar Elevator, which I had shared earlier, I was it was a division of Schindler.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: So Schindler dealt with uh Westinghouse and Schindler equipment.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: All escalators fell under Schindler.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll never forget I had a job that I was trying to sell.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it was an ATT building in Dallas, Texas, and it had a number of escalators in it.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Schindler, at that time, I was told I'm not allowed to bid it by the local head of sales in Dallas.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I turned it over to Schindler.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this comp customer, for whatever reason, wanted my price.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't want Schindler's price.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to bid it, but I had to cross that imaginary line where I'm going to be dealing with escalators.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to sub the escalators out to Schindler.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: But on paper, it was all Millar elevators.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it was Millar elevators, multi-million dollar sale.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't Schindler elevators.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like those kinds of politics that are going on.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: We lose sight in this business sometimes of who the real customer is.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the customer is the person that's paying the bill.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to do the right things by them.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't be an internal struggle between departments.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't be an internal struggle between sister companies.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: It should always be focused on the customer.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we lose sight of that.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Did you ever feel any heat for trying to go to go to bat for your customer with that issue or other issues?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, quite often.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Quite often.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And um, the best thing you can do is stick to your guns.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you feel right about something, I mean if you feel right about a technician on a job, but a particular property has an issue with that technician for whatever reason.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: It could be that they don't drink the right type of soda pop, could be whatever.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to stick to your guns.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so you have to have the meetings with these people.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, you have to tell the customer, look, this is your person.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: He or she is more than qualified to take care of this.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: I will continue to monitor it.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not going to tell them to switch what flavor of soda pop they drink.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to your elevator, if they can't keep it running and make it reliable for you, then I will switch it out.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to go with me running my business and you running your business.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, too many people let the customers run their business.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we do need a good kick in the pants saying, look, you're just not doing right by me.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: I understand that.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: But we know the elevator business, you know property management, you know property development.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let me do what I'm best at, and you do what you're best at.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I've seen in my career too many times elevator management takes it out on their field technicians.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they take it out on their salespeople for not being able to close the job.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they take all the praise away from the people that are really doing the work because they want the glory.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: They want the next step up that that totem pole so that they can get hired to the to the main chief, uh, to the CEO position.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a shame.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when I decided when I was vice president, I need to be focused on what I like doing, which is developing people.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why I do what I do today.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I hear you saying, hey, you gotta you gotta fight for your people.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't have the loyalty of those people that are that are making it happen, that are installing and selling and and servicing and and all of that, you're you're kind of in tough shape.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: It'll catch up with you.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And and you are, and the admin is probably the the biggest group of people in the work environment.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: I and I believe it's for all the companies, but I've just been in the elevator business forever, that they're overlooked.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: They take a lot of grief when customers call up screaming at them, and they don't deserve it.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And as management, you have to be willing to go to that customer, say, if you have an issue, don't take it out in my admin, talk to me about it, right me deal with the issue, but stop taking it out of my admin because they didn't have anything to do except answer the phone for you.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, but this is where, in my opinion, there's good management, good leadership, and there's poor management, poor leadership.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And just because you can produce good results as a manager doesn't mean you're a good leader of the people.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd like to be a leader um up until the time I'm buried six feet under.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my goal in life.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you for bringing that up.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: The fact that you you bring up going to bat for your people, you know, fighting for them.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure that they they have a lot more loyalty, they're willing to to give and keep giving for somebody who's willing to fight for them versus somebody who's who they just can't trust.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: I would like to believe that.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's at least what I've experienced over the years.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Even when I've left companies, you know, some people it's a teary-eyed goodbye.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: But as the person leaving the company and as a leader or a manager of them, being told that you're the best boss I've ever had, I can't see me working for anybody else, it makes you feel like you did the right thing by the people.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't mean it's it's one of my field technicians, it doesn't mean it's one of my salespeople, it doesn't mean it's one of my admins.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: It could be my person that drives my truck in the shop that feels treated like a person.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we lose that sometimes because sometimes people are just focused on themselves and how they can develop and how they can make more money, and we really don't care about who we step on.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've never been like that.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: And as long as I I can fight it, I'm going to fight it, and I'm gonna be me.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I love that.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that's honestly, honestly, that's one of the things that draws me to this industry is is just the deep relationships, the deep friendships that 30 years later, hey, we we worked together as apprentices, you know, but we're still a friendship, brotherhood, sisterhood.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: It runs deep sometimes through family lines, as you know.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that's one of the things having worked in other industries before I started working in Elevator, I didn't find any of that.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: There wasn't this network, this community is really way it kind of strikes me that I've found elsewhere.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so what I hear you saying is let's let's do the right thing, and and that will preserve a lot of the the community that we've created.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it does, and it does.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, right now in what I'm currently doing, so I travel about 15 different states, and I go to all these companies in the elevator business.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's some people like my father, my grandfather, that this is your job, this is your your employer, so you'll stay with them from day one till the day you retire.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the norm anymore.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I go to visit these elevator companies out there to talk about things, and I'm just shocked how many people I know and that they're willing to talk to me.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not a fake hello, it's truly, Jeff.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: What have you been doing all this time?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: I lost track of you.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And this is over decades, not just years, but decades.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really nice.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people in this industry, but it's still a very small industry.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you want to stay connected with the people that are have the same morals, they have the same beliefs on how to treat people, people that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh, don't you know?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: I still know them and they still know who I am, but it's not as exciting of a reunion or a um I haven't seen you for a couple decades as it is to see somebody that we were on the other side of the fence.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was working for one company, they were working for another, but they still remember me from sales bids or from management meetings or whatever it may be.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's a great industry in that respect, but developing those friendships is what it's about.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't really matter what company you're working for, you're either a friend or you're not a friend.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when I travel around now and I see people, it's just nice that they still consider me a friend.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: May just be a business friend, not a social friend, but that's okay.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's better than an acquaintance.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: I have a number of acquaintances, but I like my friends and my social and my work friends a lot better.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that's neat that you can, like you say, decades later, travel around to to multiple states and keep running into these friends and these people that because of how you've been able to manage and and treat them in the past, they continue to respect you and and value that friendship and that relationship.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it makes you feel really good, especially when you're getting up there in age, you're thinking about okay, how am I gonna make sure that all the karma that I earned over the years is gonna get me that that uh stairway to heaven type of thing.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: If if I quote Led Zeppelin here, right.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you want to do the right thing, and it's nice to know that even though I've had some tough, tough discussions with people over the years, I've had to fire people, had to lay off people, had to tell people that I couldn't hire them because the fit wasn't right, they still want to visit with me and they still like talking to me.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it makes me feel like, you know, I did the right thing, and they all understand that I did the right thing.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's good.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say is is the thing that you love most about this industry?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I love most is, and this is gonna sound really bad, but it's the majority of the people that I work with.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's not all the people, because there's some people that, you know, if I never ran into them in my life, I would be okay with that.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: But the majority of the people, and in this industry, at least for me, because of the career path I wanted to be on, that meant that I was traveling or moving often.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Moved nine times of being an elevator person, and you're always making new friends.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Met some people that I wouldn't consider a friend, but that's what I love about the industry.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a knowledge you can take with you.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: I had a mentor, I call him my mentor.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: He'd since passed.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, his name was Jerry Rich.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: He was the gentleman that got me to Houston, Texas, in a sales, quasi-sales, I guess, capacity back in '96.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he was a people person.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Here's probably one of the smartest businessmen I've ever run into.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't care that I wasn't up to that level.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: I had an engineer's degree.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have a business degree.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he was okay with that.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: He taught me PL, he taught me how to look at things a little bit differently.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just Jerry, I've run into a number of those people throughout my career.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I gets me excited when I talk about the elevator industry because there are really good people in it.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and I, as I hear you talk about Jerry, I mean, it sounds like he was one of your biggest mentors and certainly took a chance on you when you say you weren't a business person, you hadn't run a branch, and so it's like, hey, do you want to take this on?
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: He obviously believed in you.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: How big of an impact did that make on your career?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: It it was absolutely huge.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: If I elaborate on that, when I went to Dallas in '98, I was only there for three years.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then he promoted me to a regional branch manager, a regional manager working out of San Diego, California.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm overseeing Dallas, I'm overseeing San Diego, I'm overseeing Phoenix and Las Vegas for Jerry, because Jerry handled the Southwest at that point.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a guy I've only been in this position for a couple years, only done sales for a couple years.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: He really doesn't know what I can do, but he liked the results, and he must have really liked how I helped people grow into their path, whether it be the elevator industry or I helped them get out of the elevator industry and go do something else.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: But he saw this in me.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, I would not be where I am today, being as comfortable and confident about helping people, both in the industry and outside the industry, meaning property managers, owners, developers, and so on, without his guidance.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: If I never took that leap from sales at Malar, or sorry, from engineering at Malar to sales, which is something, you know, I don't want to offend anybody, but I don't ever consider myself a salesperson.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just I don't.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: I consider my engineer or I just consider myself Jeff.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: But he really helped me understand that there's more to the PL.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: The PL will come, um, more on the profit side than the L the loss side, right?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you do the right thing by your people.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: So his his guidance, his knowledge was extremely impactful to me.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: I miss him.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think about him often.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he died at at an early age.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: One thing I do see in the industry is that there's there are a lot of good mentors out there.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Just about everybody I talk to has has someone that they've that has helped them on their path, they've helped them take the next step.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: There, or they're they can reach out to them and say, hey, how do you fix this thing?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: I've never seen this.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Again, it kind of goes back to that community of hey, we we help each other, we keep those relationships going.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: And even if we don't work at the same company, I can still reach out to so and so and he can walk me through this problem.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: That that to me is kind of unheard of in in the other industries I've been exposed to.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's probably you know, maybe it exists elsewhere, but it it's it's rare in my experience.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it it's a really special industry.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: It really, really is.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: I I take offense when other trades call my elevator technicians prima donnas, but if they knew everything my elevator technicians do, you know what, they'd be in the elevator trade.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because my my my elevator technicians, they're electrical experts, they're plumbing experts, they're hydraulic experts, they're mechanics.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, they have it all all encapsulated under one union or one group of individuals called elevator technicians in a high-risk industry, too.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Extremely, extremely.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: If they're not focused on what they're doing that day, they could not come home with their lives, they may not come home with digits on their fingers.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's dangerous, you have to have your wits about you, and if your mind's not right, you don't come to work that day.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's that difficult and dangerous of a career, but it's a very worthwhile career.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I I wish my kids would get into it.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, two of my four are into it.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're salespeople in the industry, so I need my other two to get involved too.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if you could give one piece of advice to to those who are maybe there early in their career, what would you say to them?
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: What would you try to impart that, hey, I've learned this, it's ironclad in my mind, and it would serve you well to take this on.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: I would tell them that always be true to your values.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that may sound like a cliche.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: People listening may say, Oh, that's just a bunch of BS.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean it.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: If if you believe that something is right, then you do the right thing.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: If your boss is telling you to do something that you believe is wrong, speak up about it.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's your life, it's your career, it's your integrity with these people, and you need to protect that.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: It is not worth listening to a boss tell you to do something, you don't feel it's right, and then all of a sudden you ruin your integrity because your boss is gonna say, Well, wait a minute, we can fix this, because that's how it is.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be the one that does the right thing, and always, always do that.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I would tell people.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Network, but more importantly, be yourself and be honest.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Don't fall down the the trap of making up stories because honestly, I haven't met anybody yet that can remember a lie that they said two days ago when I questioned them over and over about it, then I get the truth.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: So just be honest to yourself.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that's awesome.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: And and it's neat that from what I can tell, that's the rule you've lived by, and it's served you well throughout your career.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: It it has.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's I've been in the industry, I've worked for OEMs, I've worked for independent elevator companies, I started an elevator consulting company, I've worked for product companies, I've done just about everything there there can be, and I've enjoyed it.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I keep getting opportunities because I am honest about what I'm doing.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: And people like my integrity.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: They like the fact that if you ask Jeff, we may not like what he has to say, but if you don't want the truth, don't ask him the question.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: As far as right now, I mean, you mentioned you're you're traveling 15 states, you've started a consulting company.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: Are you are you doing all of that right now?
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: What's kind of your current status?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so right now I work for Smart Rise Engineering, which is a controller manufacturer in the industry.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I work for them as a BDM.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I travel around 15 states discussing their product and helping them with technical support if they have issues there, but making sure that they understand what my product can do for them versus what other products may not be able to meet their needs.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: For the most part, a controller outside of Triss Tiss and Krupp's fancy one, they only go up and down.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, granted, Tiss and Crub's got the magnetic one, which goes sideways, which I call my wonk evader, but majority of elevators, it's up and down.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: And an elevator control just has to make it go up and down the safer.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I do there.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: I do have a consulting company that I started three years ago called Hanson Elevator Services.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: And what I do with that is I just I talk to people, I help people when they have questions about their contract, or do I really need to do this work?
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or what's the best way to do it, or does this specification cover what I need to do?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I do that for these people.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right now I've been focusing on smart rise.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, when I decide to finally retire, I will be doing the consulting business as full time as I want to.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be on a beach somewhere doing my thing.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: But but that's that's what I do.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: There's other things I've started, but they're outside of the elevator industry just because I like helping people.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: But those two are my two elevator endeavors right now.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate you being on here with me today.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh any parting words?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: Anything you'd like to say as we kind of wrap this up?
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: I would just like to tell your listeners, uh, it's a great industry, but it is a dangerous industry.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I wish more and more people would get into it, but you need to be willing to take that step and just be honest to yourself.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't like it, don't get hung up on how much money you can make as an elevator technician or in management.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's other jobs that will make you happier.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: Do something that makes you happy.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: This makes me happy.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I stick with it.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Jeff.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate all of your words.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's been great talking with you, and best of luck.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a pleasure, Matt.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the All Red Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: Please subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.