Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / From Warehouse Clerk to Global VP of Sales: 30 Years in the Elevator Industry | Cornelius Walls

Transcript

From Warehouse Clerk to Global VP of Sales: 30 Years in the Elevator Industry | Cornelius Walls · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: The one thing I would say to that new generation, don't worry about trying to impress any anybody.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Just be yourself.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you be yourself and true to yourself and true to the person that that you were raised to be, I think everything will be okay.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um and be open.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I had to learn uh to be open to listen to other people's point of view from other parts of the world.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: You may not agree with it, that's okay.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Just listen, right?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because everybody has their opinions and their thoughts based on their background, their history, and their walk of life.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're respectful of it, it all works out.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 0:43
  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.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Today our guest is Cornelius Walls, Global Vice President of Elevator Sales with Formula Systems North America.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: He has been in the industry since 1995 when he started with Adams Elevator as a receiving clerk.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Cornelius has served on the board of directors for the EEF for 14 years, including being chairman of the board for three of those years.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: He was also served on the board of the NAEC.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Cornelius loves the wonderful people of the elevator industry.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: He is passionate about educating kids on elevator safety and about helping to create amazing opportunities for the next generation.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Cornelius, welcome to the show.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm excited to have you on the show.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: It was great to meet you in September at the uh the conference in Kentucky, and uh glad to have you today.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um thank you for having me.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I I appreciate being on this uh podcast.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh first time I've done something like this, and uh as I say thank you for the privilege of actually uh asking me to be on on your podcast.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's uh it's great to be able to talk with you.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: And um I'd just like to start at the beginning.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me how you got started in the elevator industry.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's an interesting story.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like everyone else, I thought an elevator was a magic box that you walk inside, press a button, and then get on a different floor.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Never thought about any of the inner workings of it.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I was a young kid, uh, had been out of high school for a couple years.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I was thinking about, okay, now it's time to get my life together.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go to college.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, cousin and I, we both signed up to go to the Air Force.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Figure we get a freak education, get a job at the same time.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we decided, we told the recruiter that we would take the summer, look for jobs.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: If we found a job, then uh find a job, we would go to school and work a job.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: If not, we would go into the Air Force.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, one day somebody sent me to a company that was next door to Adam's Elevator that did um uh bus, uh hydraulic bus doors.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Adam's elevator was next door, and I said, Hey, we me and a group of guys decided, hey, might as well pop in and uh fill an application.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: What could have hurt?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm fresh out of high school.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Only job I've ever had was McDonald's.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Had this six-page application with engineering experience and all this.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think, man, it's all my other buddies, they took them 30, 40 minutes.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: It took me five minutes because all I had to put was my name and McDonald's on the application.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And a month or so later, they called me back.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, why they called me back, I have no clue.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: But that was the start of my career.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: I got hired at Adams Elevator uh in 1995 as a receiving dock clerk.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: So first taste of elevator is is receiving parts and going, what in the world is this?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: My first taste of elevator is just uh, you know, unloading parts uh on a on off a dock and going to school in the evening for uh business.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that that was my um my uh introduction to the elevator industry.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And at some point in my career, uh guy by the name of uh, I don't know if I'm uh I'm expanding too much on this question, but there was a guy by the name of John Koshak.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um I used to, he's gonna get mad at me for telling the story.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: I used to uh receive all the stuff, and in those early days, cell phones would come FedEx and they become already activated.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he had ordered a cell phone uh through whatever company, and my job was part of his receiving clerk is all the FedEx packages would come in a given day.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: We was a pretty sized company, sure.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe 200, 250 people.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: If anything that was overnight from FedEx or UPS, I would get it, put it on the little buggy, take it to all the people in the office and give them like delivering the mail for UPS.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh one day John came to the warehouse and said, Hey, um, did I get a package?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know John.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know who he was.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know he was this big deal.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I told him, No, no, if it's not on the table, then I've already delivered the package, right?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: So probably not.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, hours or later he comes back with a little piece of paper that says C.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Walls sign for it, came FedEx.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm C.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Walls, but FedEx drops off 50 packages.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: I count the number of packages, sign the paper, and he's off, right?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the next day, the FedEx guy comes and says, Hey, I forgot to drop this package off, right?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I had only been with the Adams, you know, a few weeks, maybe a month.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I said, Oh, I looked at it, it was John Kochak's phone, right?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I told you the FedEx guy had to sign it that he just dropped it off today.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't wait for him to unload, unload the rest of the boxes because I was young and stupid and I wanted to be right.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I took the box to John's desk and I walked in his office and I put it on his desk.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I told you I didn't steal your phone, and I walked out.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I told the guy that was in charge of the West, you know what, I'm probably going to Air Force by the end of the month.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because today it's probably my last day.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So from there, uh, you know, maybe six or seven months later, John Koshak took a job as vice president of former uh director of the Adams Elevator.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he posted on the uh Bullet Board in the cafeteria.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: They were looking for like a clerk to do customer service and open up the returns.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I took the I took the job posting off the um off the board, walked into his office and said, Hey, for accusing me of taking your phone, that's my job.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: So every morning that I got up, every morning when I went to deliver the package as a reclerk, I would stop by his office when I start my new job, right?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: I tell people my only claim of talent, my only talent is persistence.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I would go to his office every morning, hey, when I start my new job.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So finally one morning he tells me, you start next week.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my that's my kind of introduction to the industry as a whole.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: So so when did it when did it really click for you that, hey, this is this is where I want to be?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think it clicked for me after I I stayed about eight years at Adams, and I uh from I went from receiving doc uh shipping to receiving to the clerk for uh John.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then I worked for a couple guys that was ahead of me in the line.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was when I left Famous uh I'm sorry, Adam Zelovate, I was like the head of um that was customer support manager.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: And former systems opened up in North America in 2003.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And they needed someone that knew their parts, which I had knowledge of their parts because I did the receiving of returns and they were a distributor for uh Adam's elevated is one of the shirts, so I knew their parts for me with the returns, brother.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they needed somebody actually can drive the forklift and be talk on the phone with customers.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So John Koshak recommended me to John Curzon, which was the managing director of Formless Systems.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I was kind of apprehensive of going to Formless Systems, that's a whole nother story.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: But when I started working for Former Systems, sorry, when I started working former systems, um is when I started to get my exposure to the industry as a whole, you know, going out and seeing customers doing industry events.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: So some at some point during that early days at Formula Systems, I realized this is more than just a nine to five, this could be a career.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: Cool, right?
• 8:17
  unknown: Cool.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of how I realized that, you know, there's a you know, prior to that, you know, my whole world and my family, all we all went to work at nine o'clock, got off at five o'clock, and you left the job at the office.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was rare that you know, someone from my background had a job, whereas, you know, in the early days, it was just occasionally you would travel, right?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: They sent me to the uh former system was a UK-based company.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: So they sent me on my first plane ride, it was an eight-hour ride to the UK in a world I have never seen before.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: So a little bit shell shock, but realize that this is this can become a career and not just a job.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Very cool.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I'm a little long-winded.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, you're good.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're good.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: So what do you what do you love most about the elevator industry?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: What keeps you coming back?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's easy.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: The people, right?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Whether tell me more whether it's my competitors or the people I work with are just uh people, the the people in this industry are the greatest people ever, right?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're welcome.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: We we work together, we we compete against each other in some instances, but we all work together and we all at the end of the day, there's a very few, like at the NAC, right?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've been to a ton of different shows across the globe now.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Over my 20-year career.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: NSC NAEC is the one few shows, the one show that at the end of the day, the entire industry gets together at a bar, whether you be competitors, customers, or you know, co-workers.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: We all get together on our own, on our own dollar, sure, and enjoy each other's company.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that type of camaraderie is rare within the industry, right?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: That you can sit down at a restaurant or a table at a bar next to your competitor and not talk business, just be two guys or two people at a bar enjoying each other's company.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I love.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: I love the people.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's uh that's really one thing I love capturing in these interviews is uh, you know, something special about the camaraderie, something special about being able to respect and admire somebody who, you know, maybe you compete head to head all week long, but you you still have this deep respect that hey, I know what he does, he knows what I do, and and we we respect each other's business, you know.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: We have I think that's that's the one good thing about the industry, especially at a trade show whereas you have four or five different vendors that are selling the similar parts, right, with their own little spin on it.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, we all, whether it be uh me and my competitors or any other company, we all respect each other.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's no um ill will toward each other, right?
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I think within the industry, I think there's a saying within this industry, if you stay in this industry more than six months, you're probably gonna be in it for life.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: You don't really get out.
• 11:02
  unknown: Right.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that's that's pretty true.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it sounds like at least for the first few years, you were you were kind of vacillating, you know, maybe I will end up in the Air Force by the end of the year.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Did yeah you know, did uh did that all change once you kind of started the the career phase?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um I actually I thought that okay, either my cousin went to the Air Force, and by the way, he's been in Air Force as long as I've been in the industry.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So he's still in the Air Force and I'm still in the industry.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Although he gets to retire in a couple more years, I still got to work forever.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think when it clicked for me, really clicked at some point in my career.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I think my history tells you that like uh when I was working for McDonald's, I started as you know, taking out the trash to clean up in the cleaning up the lobby area.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And when I left McDonald's, I was like second assistant, which is probably third or fourth from the top.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh at Adams Elevator, I started uh, you know, loading trucks up, right?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Which is the bottom, right?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: When I left, I was a customer support manager, right?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Which is you know, middle management, right?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um for our 250 people company, which is not bad, right?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when I came to Former Systems, again, I came as the warehouse coordinator.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was the second employee.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Kathy was the first.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and now I'm the global uh vice president of sales.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I think each company I've been at, I've been able to work my way to some level of management.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And with Former Systems, as I worked my way to that process, I think once I got to the point of I think I went from warehouse coordinator to product manager to general manager.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think at the point of being a product manager, when I started to go out and really spend time with customers, right?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Get on a plane by myself and uh fly to New York, right?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's when I realized, man, it's a whole world out there, right?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah uh a world that you can explore and you can learn from.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I had really, really good uh mentors.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's tell me about some of those.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned John, who who else has really made an impact on you?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh man, so many.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: I I I I can't I if I had to say I'm a sum of many parts, right?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in the early days when I first started doing this, uh uh John uh Curzon, which was my boss at Former System Earl in the day, he was a mentor for me.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh Doug Witham and um Dickie, uh both, they were kind of doing the same thing for a different company.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I learned very early at a stage that I don't need to reinvent the wheel.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: I need to just watch Doug and Dickie and do what they do, and that's the key to success because they were doing it at a very high level.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: And they both pull me in, and every time they see me at a different event, they introduce me to people um uh without question.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: So Doug, Dickie, um Bob Jackson, uh Steve Husband, Allison Whitaker, there's a ton of I couldn't go through the list of people uh in this industry that I've learned from, but I think uh um the um GL group, um the Glaziers, um Walt and Herb were probably some of the big ones in the very beginning.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, it being being yourself.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: I can remember one of the first times I was ever out at an industry event, and uh we met up at a restaurant or bar or something, and I was by myself, Kerzon wasn't with me, which was my boss, and Walt seen me and he said, Corn, hey corn, come here, gives me a big hug.
• 14:33
  unknown: Right?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, wow, the owner of G HL is hugging me.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is a million-dollar guy.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Do he know I'm just corn?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he and he says, Corn, order a drink.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, uh, what do you?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, man, what do I order?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: This guy's gonna probably order something fancy, right?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a little kid, I'm in my 20s, I'm from the urban part of Chicago, right?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: I barely know how to order a beer at a bar, right?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he orders um a Captain Morgan and uh Coke.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he orders a Captain Morgan and Coke, right?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Captain and Coke.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking, that's a pretty average drink for a rich guy.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm just gonna order what I want, right?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it I know that's a silly little lesson, but that taught me he didn't order it because what it what he can afford or what he can try to put on a show, right?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: He would just be just order what he liked, right?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I just order what I like.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think that lesson is something, and I it was a lesson that you didn't even he didn't even know he was teaching, right?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: But that lesson is something I probably carry throughout my career.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just be you coin, don't try to be anybody else.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Did that shift things for you?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Did you did you notice that in yourself as you as you learned that lesson kind of going forward?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I try to spread that same lesson on the others, right?
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: So as I it's one of my things, uh shifting gears, one of my things is somebody helped me out during my younger days.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is my responsibility in my mind to help someone else out.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I always tell people, especially when I see them at the industry events, the NAC, I see a new guy or a new face, I always try to just be yourself.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this industry is a warm and welcoming industry.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just be yourself.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I try to make a point of uh meeting new faces and pulling them into the crowd.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're sitting somewhere at a bar and we all there, I pull them out of it by themselves and pull them in with the crowd, kind of like what Dickie and Doug did for me.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: I try to pass that lesson on to others.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's one of the things I see as being special about this industry is is again the the camaraderie, the, you know, just the a feeling that we're all in it together.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: And you you had mentioned to me at one time, just you know, kind of being able to fit in and be welcome.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, yeah, it's uh it's unique for me, right?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because um, again, I'll say that I hate to keep arguing on it, but I'm just a little kid from the inner city of Chicago, the west side of Chicago, right?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, not a whole lot of exposure.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: So when you come into an industry that's dominated by you know one group, right, you're expecting this uh negativity.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: But within this industry, I can't sell everybody's, it's always those bad apples where those are far and few between.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: And for the most part, for 95% of the partners in this industry, I've been welcomed as the industry by all different groups, all different races.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And more than welcomed, I mean, just totally greeted.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that factor that I can be in a room and and and people have made that point to me.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Corner, how do you go in a room and be all these people and you feel like you're at home?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Is the way the people make you feel, right?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I had friends with me at events and they'd be like, Wow, right, wow, right.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: And and more than one account, people with me have said, I'm amazed at that, right?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: But that's that's the love of this industry.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and it sounds like, yeah, you you kind of approached it initially with some apprehension, maybe some fear that, hey, these people aren't gonna want me, they're gonna not gonna, you know, they're gonna, you know, whatever, see my see my weakness or prejudge me, and and yeah, that has to be.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think we would be able to relate.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think we'd be able to relate because you know, just so big of background differences, but that's just so untrue.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think what I've learned uh over the 20 years is that people are all the same.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: We all true.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: The things that that are are different about us is far and fewer apart, right?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Opposed that if you get to know a person, our ones, our needs, our thoughts, the maybe it may the delivery of those thoughts may be slightly different.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: The package that is wrapped in might be slightly different.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: True.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: But all in as a whole, in general, we're all the same.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: So true.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, beautiful.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I I don't feel that.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: So now as I walk through life and go to different countries, right, and and see different types, I'm more welcomed, more less apprehensive about just joining into a group.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and and it sounds like having experienced that for yourself, you can you can even approach others who may be a little apprehensive themselves and just just welcome in, give them a hug, whatever it is to say, hey, we're in this together, right?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're human beings.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't, you know.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, and I I guess in in many ways in this industry, I look as another thing, I don't mean it being recent.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: I look at myself as the Jackie Robinson, right?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've been the first African-American person to serve as uh chairman of the uh Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation, right?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: The first African American to to sit on the board of directors, and that's voted by your peers.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: So the energy of the whole took me and voted for me to be their board, be on their board of directors.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um I was the first president of the Chicago Elevator Association.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And again, these are my peers, you know, people that don't look like me, but when we get to know each other, they're all the same.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it didn't matter what I look like or how I deliver things in my talk and walk.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: They got to know the person and I got to know them.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why they had confidence in me to vote me into these positions.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: Beautiful.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Love that.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me a little bit more about your service in the uh these organizations you just mentioned, the the II I, sorry.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: The ESF, yep.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I just recently came off there.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm still on the board, uh, but um, I was the chairman for the last three years.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And their mission is to educate kids on the proper way of riding it, riding elevator and escalators.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it was my honor.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: I had sat on that board for many years prior to becoming chairman and watched so many great guys come through there.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I could and I and as I was wrapping up my uh the uh our annual meeting, and I was passing on my gavel, the gavel.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't have my gavel with me.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think I passed it on, but I I was passing my answer to the next chairman.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: I thought to myself, I sat in that in those director seats for you know eight, nine years watching great guys come through and be the chair.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: And now someone's else is sitting there looking at me, right, as a chair.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: It really struck me at some point that, man, life has come full circle.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: I never thought, never would have thunk it, as my grandma would say, that I can be the leader of this organization.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, and just people look to me to set the direction.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh yeah, that got me a bit, you know, uh that got me a bit emotional at the end of my term.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, it was a real cool thing.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: I said I seen John Koshak sit in that chair.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: I seen Doug Willem sit in that chair.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: And for me to sit in that chair among what I consider some of the greats of our industry, I'm not saying I'm one of them, but I got to sit in that chair for once, and it felt real cool to do it.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's awesome.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for sharing that.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me just a little bit about.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: About the work you do.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned educating kids.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: What is just a little tidbit about what that looks like and and uh how you go about doing the work of the So the Foundation, we don't we don't really do any, we don't show any accidents or anything like that.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, our goal is to get inside the schools and teach second graders, right?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because we did a study a while back on, you know, who would be the best group to try to teach the proper way of doing this, right?
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: And second graders, right?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because they'll learn something and they'll they'll go home and regurgitate that to their parents.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: So what we try to do is we try to get inside the schools throughout North America and in Canada as well, because we have another foundation that's a ces area of ours that's in Canada.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we try to get inside the schools, we have a program that we put on for the kids.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now we've expanded those programs to elderly people, college kids, on the proper way.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: But that's our goal is we don't advocate products, we just advocate education, which I think is a really cool way to go.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and and what we do is we try to raise money, right, through the industry, right?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of a lot of the major companies, like my company, Former Systems, uh, the Vanish Group, uh, PB Company donate to different uh events and direct donations from individuals that give money to the foundation.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: We use that money to educate the kids.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: And over the last, I don't know, 30, 40 years, um, we've had our challenges, but people have been dedicated.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think the dedication for the foundation has come through from the love of the industry.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you got people that's been in the industry for 30 years and they give to the foundation because they love the foundation, they love the industry.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: You got covers that give because, you know, I think it was Mr.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Webham that said if you got elevated in your name, you should be donating to the safety foundation.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I've always took that to heart.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I think uh just to give you, um, we that's what our goal is to educate kids um on the proper way to run an escalating, and we do that through different uh online programs.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: Very cool.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for sharing that.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: So curious, what what are some of the the uh the issues that you see facing either the the industry as a whole or or maybe the parts that you specifically touch, but what are some of the challenges these days?
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think from the industry as a whole, one of the biggest issues that we're going to, we're we're going through a transition in as I see it in the industry now, right?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas the elevator industry has been this little niche group that nobody knew about, right?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and over the last, I think, maybe seven or eight years, Forbes did an article on the elevated interest set is the hidden gem of America, right?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have the opportunity of being, you know, there's very few initials where you have the opportunity of being just an average skilled worker or trade worker and you uh earn a very good living.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what we're doing now is we're going from that, we we're transitioning from a previous generation to a newer generation, a newer way of doing business.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas, you know, moms and pops of small elevator comes just had a catalog, picked it up, and they just called formal systems.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Send me one of those things that you always send me, right?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Where we're transitioning to a new age of digital social media way of doing business, right?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a the industry as a whole, in my opinion, is going through that digital transformation of doing business, right?
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, which is uh which is a good thing because that means the new generation is catching on to what we do and trying to be a part of our industry and bringing their talents to our old way of doing business, which I think is really cool.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like some of the camaraderie gets lost as the as the industry matures in this way?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: Or is that one of the reasons that you're so dedicated to to kind of carrying that that forward and and mentoring those that I do think in that in that social media uh where world things can get lost.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I think with the with our industry, we still do a good job of having different trade shows.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um we have the BIC one where we met the NAC, then we have the consultants uh show, we have the um Elevator U.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: So in those with those ways is where we keep our camaraderie together.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and the NAC does a good job of having this group they call the next gen.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: And they bring them together and they go together away, they go together on a trip away, right?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just the next generation of people, and they learn that camaraderie bit of it, right?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, because I think that's so important for our industry to have those type of relationships where it's I may not do business with you, but hey, I got I know this guy I can call.
• 26:29
  unknown: Sure.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: They can help me out with this issue.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's that's a I don't think we should ever get away from that type of relationship.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I mean I I think that's part of what makes the industry special, makes it what it is, is that those deep relationships that often last a lifetime.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I you know, I I and I do my best to to mentor as many uh new generation people as I possibly can.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll I always try to seek out those younger generations and give them my business card or pull them into a um a meeting or or tell them what I think of the industry, or I want to be I want to be as helpful to that next generation, um respecting the heritage of our industry as well as spanning upon it in that same direction.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: So uh uh just to go back against the safety foundation, uh some of the things that we did at this meeting, I thought about it as I was going, I said, you know what?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh with COVID going on and us not having as much meetings as we normally have.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to get back to some of the things that uh we did before COVID, uh and even in early days, such as simply just stand up and saying the pledge of allegiance before our meeting.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to just get back to some of those old school type of things that I think, you know, uh without disrespecting the new school things, I just wanted to get back to it.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I think that uh you shouldn't be uh afraid of tradition, in my opinion.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, there's a lot of a lot of strength in that.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: So um as as we're kind of getting toward the uh the end of our interview and run out of getting toward the end of our time, I just wanted to ask you, what's what's something you've learned throughout your career that you would want to pass on to our to our listeners as we finish up?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um again, again, I would go back to being yourself, right?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um the one thing I would say to that new generation, don't worry about trying to impress any anybody.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Just be yourself.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you be yourself and true to yourself and true to the person that that you were raised to be, I think everything will be okay.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um and be open.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: I had to learn uh to be open to listen to other people's point of view from other parts of the world.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: You may not agree with it, that's okay.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Just listen, right?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because everybody has their opinions and their thoughts based on their background, their history, and their walk of life.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're respectful of it, it all works out.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: Beautiful.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Cornelius.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for being on with me today.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me, and I really appreciate it.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: I thought this was a really cool thing to do.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was quite excited about doing an interview like this.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, good luck to you as you continue to build your business, and we'll we'll talk again soon.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Bye-bye.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the All Red Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: Please subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.