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Building a People-First Staffing Business: A Journey Through Challenge and Growth with Jolene Tate | Staffing Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
0:07
share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
0:10
how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
0:13
they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
0:19
the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their
0:21
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:25
by how they've overcome adversity.
0:27
My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and today's guest is Jolene Tate, a
0:31
20 year franchise owner of HQ Direct.
0:34
They are a premier nationwide staffing agency who connect
0:38
businesses with the talent they need while fostering
0:41
professional growth and opportunities for workers.
0:44
Whether you're a business looking for a superstar to get
0:46
the job done right or a worker searching for a better way to
0:50
find a job, HQ Direct is your partner in building a stronger
0:54
community of work. Jolene's franchise covers
0:57
Tennessee, Arizona, and Indiana. She received both her bachelor's
1:01
and her MBA from the University of South Florida and is a member
1:05
of several professional organizations, including the
1:08
Arizona Builders Alliance, the Greater Nashville Hospitality
1:11
Association, the Association General Contractors of
1:15
Tennessee, and Entrepreneurs Organization EO.
1:19
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
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1:49
Now back to our guest today, franchise owner of HQ Direct,
1:52
Jolene Tate. I appreciate you making the time
1:55
to Share your story today. Thank you.
1:57
I'm happy to be here and excited to talk to you.
1:59
So before we get into how you got to HQ Direct, just give me a
2:04
little bit in your own words, Jolene, of what HQ Direct is and
2:07
what you do there. OK.
2:10
We are an on demand staffing company.
2:13
We're a franchise that's the high request direct.
2:15
So I also have another brand called Tradecorp, which is our
2:18
skilled trade staffing division and I'm the CEO and franchise
2:24
owner and I got here. That's a whole other story that
2:28
we'll get into whenever you want to hear the whole story.
2:33
Yeah, let's. So did you always have a
2:35
background in the staffing world before you got involved with
2:39
this particular franchise? So I, when I was in college, I
2:44
worked for a brief time for a professional placement staffing
2:47
company and that was when I was in Florida in my last year of my
2:50
graduate program. And when I moved to Tennessee, I
2:55
came to work for a company called Ready Staffing, which was
2:58
a day labor construction staffing company.
3:00
So I really right out of college, that was my first job,
3:03
which is actually the really the same company I'm with now.
3:06
I worked for a company then had a chance to buy into the
3:10
franchise. So it's really been the same
3:12
company for about 24 years. I've just been the franchise
3:14
owner of that company for 20 years of it.
3:18
OK. So before we came live with the
3:21
interview today, you're telling me there's a little bit of a
3:23
rocky road for you before you got started with this, something
3:27
about a personal bankruptcy. Maybe take us through that and
3:31
explain how that kind of led you to all of this.
3:34
OK. That was actually within the
3:37
middle of of business. So I actually bought the
3:40
franchise. I had the opportunity to buy
3:42
into the franchise in 2004. And so I was building up the
3:47
business and doing great. Started with one location in
3:51
Nashville, TN continued to grow to 8 locations in Tennessee and
3:57
2008 happened. 90% of our business was construction and
4:01
literally overnight the lights just went out.
4:03
So within six months I shut down 5 locations.
4:07
You know, laid off half my staff.
4:09
I took on all the leadership roles.
4:10
I had to lay off all the middle management, upper management.
4:13
And you know, I went a year and a half without paying myself.
4:17
I had also just gone through a divorce.
4:19
I had to file personal bankruptcy.
4:21
I was, you know, getting the company on mortgage on my house,
4:24
credit cards. And, you know, I filed personal
4:26
bankruptcy. I did make it through that and I
4:28
was able to pull myself out of it and then continue to grow the
4:31
company where we now have, you know, 14 locations.
4:34
So it was a struggle for several years, but we made it through.
4:38
Yeah, so let's dig into this a little bit for those people
4:41
listening who don't realize or forget.
4:43
In 2008, there was a huge financial crisis and basically
4:46
the, there was, there was no cash to go around.
4:49
Banks weren't making any loans. And so construction was one of
4:51
your big industries and, and they rely on loans to, you know,
4:56
to front the the work that they're doing.
4:57
And without the banks making those kinds of loans, new
5:01
building just ground to a halt. And so.
5:03
It just literally, yeah, the lights went out overnight is how
5:05
I explained it. I've never seen anything like
5:07
it. It really was crazy.
5:08
I mean, we went from a perspective, a perspective of
5:11
like how many people were sending out a day, like on job
5:13
assignments. We went from sending out, you
5:16
know, within our locations, about 1000 people a day to like
5:19
150 people really within a couple months period.
5:21
It just everything just shut down.
5:23
And then on top of that, you know, customers didn't have the
5:25
money to pay us. So there I had to, you know, a
5:27
lot of write offs of customers not being able to pay us because
5:29
they were in financial positions and then there was no new work
5:32
going on. So we had to make quick changes.
5:36
And is this what all led to the personal bankruptcy?
5:38
Because if your clients aren't paying you and you're still
5:42
trying to pay the folks that you were placing there for work,
5:47
that cash dries up pretty fast in that kind of a model.
5:50
Yes. Well then also just to fund the
5:51
business, to pay my, you know, to pay my employees.
5:53
I was getting, you know, mortgage on my house, maxing out
5:55
credit cards, everything I could do to keep the business going.
5:58
And that was with, you know, laying out, shutting locations
6:00
down, laying people off. So just to I was funding it
6:03
myself and obviously not paying myself for about a year and a
6:05
half, close to two years. So there was no money coming in,
6:08
but there was a lot of money going out.
6:10
And in the midst of this, you said you also were going through
6:12
a divorce. So your business is is grossly
6:16
contracted. You're going through a divorce
6:19
like any one of these things and then filing personal bankruptcy.
6:21
Any one of these things are enough to bring somebody to
6:24
their knees. Like, how are you sort of taking
6:28
all of these punches at the same time and not just giving up?
6:33
It was difficult. I did go through a lot of
6:35
counseling on how to manage the stress and I learned some skills
6:40
that helped me really segregate, you know, all the different
6:44
levels of stress and the things that I needed to do and just how
6:46
to stay focused. Also, I was in my early, early
6:51
30s, so I had a lot more energy. I mean, I was, I was probably
6:54
working about 100 hours a week some weeks because, you know, I,
6:56
I had to let go of all the positions.
6:58
I, I was doing everything. I was doing the payroll, I was,
7:00
I was doing all the management positions.
7:02
So yeah, I, I just, I just made it work.
7:05
I pushed through it. And, you know, staying positive
7:07
is, is the biggest thing I can always say, like when there's
7:09
when there's adversity, just staying positive and praying
7:12
every day that you're going to get through it.
7:13
You know, that's the only thing you can do what take it one day
7:16
at a time. And the train needs to keep
7:18
pushing forward. So.
7:20
So you, you mentioned therapy that was helping.
7:24
It sounds like maybe you've got a little bit of wiring for just
7:29
perseverance and just dust yourself off and keep going.
7:32
Were there other sources of strength for you during this
7:36
difficult time? You know, that's a really good
7:41
question, question some other sources of strength.
7:43
You know, I think just keeping yourself physically well,
7:46
mentally well. So, you know, I'm, I'm really
7:49
big on, you know, people always ask how do you manage your
7:52
stress? I get up every morning at 4:30
7:54
and I work out my time from 4:30 in the morning to 6:00 in the
7:57
morning is my time to to clear my mind, work out, meditate.
8:02
I have to set myself up for success with that every day or
8:05
my day isn't successful. I have to get in that positive
8:08
mindset, you know, taking care of your health, sleep, you know,
8:12
surrounding yourself with people that are in the same mindset.
8:15
I'm in the entrepreneur organization, which I joined in
8:17
2010, thankfully, because it's the people that I've met in that
8:21
group. If you're not familiar with the
8:22
organization, it's a global organization of entrepreneurs.
8:25
I'm in the Nashville chapter and the Arizona chapter.
8:28
But I've made some some friendships, lifelong
8:31
friendships. And we have meetings every month
8:33
with eight people that are in a forum.
8:36
And it's a very confidential, safe place where you can come
8:40
and talk about the struggles that you can't talk to with your
8:42
friends that aren't entrepreneurs, such as how, you
8:45
know, going through bankruptcy, how to make payroll, these
8:47
things that other entrepreneurs understand.
8:49
So those have been, you know, being in that that forum and
8:52
that entrepreneur group has really been, I can't imagine
8:55
where I'd be if I didn't have that support system.
8:58
That's fantastic. And I think you hit on something
9:00
really important there for, you know, people who are
9:03
entrepreneurs and if you don't have a similar kind of network
9:07
where they're like minded people that you can open up to, like
9:10
you said, in a safe space and be able to vent, get advice from,
9:14
you know, be able to rely on them.
9:16
I think that's just incredibly helpful because they're, people
9:21
don't, if you're not a business owner, if you haven't been
9:24
through some of these things, you don't really understand kind
9:26
of like like being a parent, like if you're not a parent, you
9:30
can understand, you can look and say, Oh yeah, kids are
9:32
challenging, etcetera. Like I get it.
9:34
But once you become a parent, like you understand it all on a
9:37
whole different level and it's the same kind of a thing.
9:39
So having that support is helpful, yeah.
9:43
Absolutely. And so the habits that you
9:48
developed, you talked about the the working out and the
9:52
meditation in the morning, were these habits that you had in
9:54
place before things got really dicey, or was this something
9:58
that you found yourself having to structure because of the
10:02
challenges you were going through?
10:05
I've always had somewhat of that, but when I really started
10:09
to when I started going through therapy, when I was having, you
10:11
know, the world was caving it around me with, you know, the
10:13
2007 was was a divorce, 2008 was the, you know, the major
10:18
recession and the the construction industry going bad
10:21
and then, you know, filing personal bankruptcy in 2011.
10:24
All that stuff compiling together during that time is
10:27
kind of when I really started focusing on myself, how to
10:30
manage stress. And so that's what I made it
10:32
really. I'm very routine person.
10:33
So that's when I really, you made it part of my, it wasn't
10:36
just like random going here and there working out.
10:38
It was like every morning, 4:30, this is your time, this is what
10:41
you do, This is how you start your day.
10:43
And that's really, it really is amazing how that that really
10:46
helps with my stress level and also with the sleep, sleep being
10:49
important along with, you know, working out and taking care of
10:51
yourself. Well, I think we've just found
10:54
the silver lining to all of that disaster that you were working
10:57
through is now coming through the other side of it.
11:00
You've got much better routines that you know, even though
11:03
things are going much better, there's still stress everyday,
11:06
there's still challenges that come up and now you've got a
11:09
system to to to better deal with those things.
11:13
Right, right. Absolutely.
11:14
So let's get back to the business a bit and talk to me
11:18
about because we've got we've got Trade Corp and we've got HQ
11:21
Direct. Tell me about how each of those
11:24
businesses sort of complement each other.
11:26
Who are your primary targets for each of those?
11:31
OK. So with Higher Quest Direct,
11:33
which is the brand that I've had since 2004 that we just
11:37
celebrated 20 years with that line of business in August, that
11:42
line of business is construction, light industrial
11:44
and hospitality. So our target business, all
11:47
commercial construction. So if you drive into any of the
11:50
big cities and you see the cranes, that's those are our
11:53
targets. We could provide general labor
11:57
operators, carpenters, electricians, those type of
12:00
roles on those positions. And then we deal with a lot of
12:03
auto auctions. So if you see someone an auto
12:06
auction, they require a lot of drivers to drive the vehicles
12:09
through the lanes during sale day.
12:11
That would be an example of some kind of a role that we would
12:13
have. We work with a lot of the
12:14
recycling facilities with people standing on the line doing, you
12:17
know, kind of the blue collar work, sorting those type of
12:21
positions. And then on the hospitality
12:23
side, if you see any kind of big Convention Center, we can do
12:26
roles such as bartenders, cooks, people that are customer
12:30
service, those types of things. So there's a lot of blue collar
12:32
work that could be on demand labor where maybe they just need
12:35
it for a special event or they need it for a job site cleanup
12:38
on a Friday. Or it could be that they're
12:39
wanting their an employee for us to kind of screen them and then
12:43
eventually do attempt to perm placement with them.
12:46
On the trade Corp side, we just started that division in June of
12:50
this year and that is strictly MEP contractors, the mechanical,
12:54
electrical and plumbing providing the roles for those
12:57
jobs. And those positions are usually
13:00
if on a short term would be a shortest term would be around 2
13:03
months and then more of a long term attempt to perm.
13:06
A lot of times companies would want us to screen them and kind
13:09
of work them for for, you know, three to four months before they
13:11
put them on their payroll. So specifically for trade core,
13:15
I'm curious why clients come to you to fill these positions if
13:20
these are kind of longer term placements, there must be some
13:23
obviously some kind of value add that you're, you're putting in
13:26
place where you know, it's much easier than them going to do
13:29
this on their own. Yeah, just, you know, we do the,
13:33
the, we do the background test, the drug testing, the the skills
13:37
testing. We also can do some of the
13:40
training if they're required to have like an OSHA 30 training,
13:42
we can do that. So that's a headache that we can
13:44
take away from them. And also, you know, if someone
13:46
is great at an interview and maybe it's even the first day on
13:49
the job, but once you work them for two and three months, you
13:51
really get a taste for, you know, how good this employee is.
13:53
And if you want to make that investment as a long term
13:55
employee. So it gives, it gives them a
13:57
chance to really trial people and they don't have to deal with
13:59
it. If they are, if they work for a
14:01
week and they don't like that employee, we're the one that
14:03
consults with that employee and you know, lets them know that,
14:06
you know, they're no longer needed on that assignment.
14:07
So they don't have that stress of dealing with that.
14:10
That last point especially was a great one.
14:12
Yeah, I can see that being a huge value add to a company
14:16
who's they've they've made a lot of bad hires in the past and
14:20
they have to go through that pain and the rigmarole of, you
14:23
know, letting that person go and being concerned about, you know,
14:26
any legal ramifications. Whereas, you know, with you,
14:29
you're almost like a like AI don't know, like a dating
14:32
service where they can they can try before they buy kind of a
14:36
thing. So.
14:37
Swipe left or right and they can, we have a lot of candidates
14:39
so they can just keep moving through them.
14:41
And we have a, we have a database, a portal where if they
14:43
have a certain role, they could, we can send them a link, they
14:45
can look in the portal just to say, OK, here's here's we say,
14:48
here's top 10 candidates we've selected, look at that.
14:51
And we can send them, we can set up an interview or we can send
14:53
them to your job site for you to trial them out.
14:55
And it's really been a great complement with our higher quest
14:58
direct side because a lot of the same companies, we were
15:01
providing labor for some of these electrical contractors, we
15:05
provided labor for them, but we didn't have the, the system set
15:08
up to be able to do this field side.
15:10
So we hired A-Team and a separate division that really
15:14
focuses on actually calling on some of those same customers.
15:16
But now we're able on the trade Corp side, we can provide the
15:19
skilled workers and then on the high request direct side, we can
15:23
provide if they just need like the general labor cleanup, just
15:25
manual labor type type positions.
15:27
And so we actually do have some clients where they're working
15:29
with both of our brands, which is great.
15:32
So for the Trade Corp side where you're actually validating their
15:35
skills, what does that process look like?
15:39
Yeah, it depends on what their skill set is, if they're a
15:41
Carpenter or if they're an electrician or if they're, you
15:44
know, HVAC and there's a, you know, there's an actual in the
15:47
interview process. Our recruiters will walk them
15:49
through a, a test of questions and that what you'll lead them
15:53
through the next questions if they're qualified.
15:55
And, you know, through that process we find out, you know,
15:57
based on what they've told us verbally if they're qualified.
16:00
And if they pass that test, then they can go out to the job site
16:03
and then we'll see if they can do the job at hands on as well.
16:06
OK, so it's sort of like a, not a written test per SE, but like
16:09
a here's a problem and tell me how you'd solve it.
16:11
And then you get to actually put them on a job site and see how
16:14
they do hands on. There's several questions that
16:17
you can ask the different trades and if they don't know the
16:19
answer to these specific questions, then they may not be
16:21
qualified. So that's that's the first part
16:23
of it. You know, sometimes people might
16:25
test well on paper, but then when they get out in the field,
16:27
they may or may not know how to do the job.
16:29
So both sides are really important.
16:31
Yeah. So, Jolene, tell me about both
16:35
of these companies, Trade Court and HQ Direct.
16:37
What sets you apart from your competitors?
16:40
What do you guys do differently or better?
16:42
Yeah, that's definitely our culture and a lot of companies
16:46
talk about culture and they have their their mission statement on
16:49
their website. But we are really we live by our
16:52
our core values and that's why we have a good retention rate
16:56
for our internal employees and for our our field team members
16:59
that are working out in the field.
17:01
We we don't just talk about our core values, we live by them.
17:04
You know, we do, we do I can a list of all some of the things
17:06
that we do, but we we do a lot of a weekly award for our field
17:10
team members. We have a call it a boom
17:12
program. We recognize them for doing
17:14
things out in the field that exemplify our core values.
17:17
And then we're always doing like cookouts and we do a
17:20
Thanksgiving meal where we recognize people on social
17:23
media. We, we're out in the field.
17:25
We, we always giving things away to tell them thank you.
17:29
And then on our internal side with our internal employees, we
17:33
have like a kudos program where we can give if, if you wanna see
17:37
another employee that's exemplifying one of our core
17:40
values. It's an app where you can, I
17:43
call it like a, I'm old school. I call it like an internal
17:45
Myspace page where you're able to.
17:49
You just dated both of us. Yeah, Yeah.
17:52
But you're able to like our whole company has it and
17:55
everybody has like a bucket every month of how many kudos
17:57
points they can give away when they see Teleco worker.
18:00
Thank you. Or, you know, or if you or if
18:03
you see someone has helped you with something or you just see
18:05
them exemplifying one of our core values, but the points are
18:08
all linked to dollars. So then they can cash them in
18:10
and there's like Amazon cards or Uber Eats cards or all these
18:14
things. So everybody is always, you
18:15
know, wanting to get those kudos points.
18:17
But it's something that we do every day and we're linking it
18:20
to our core values. And you know, we do a lot of
18:23
outreach in the community where we'll volunteer for things
18:26
together, which, you know, our core values, we positively
18:28
affect lives. We're working with, you know, we
18:31
are a felony friendly employer and we believe in second
18:35
chances, third chances, fourth chances.
18:37
So, you know, some of our jobs don't don't allow that, but a
18:40
lot of our jobs, you know, are, are OK with with that.
18:44
And so we get we work on, we've given to the community helping
18:48
people find employment that would normally be underemployed
18:51
or sometimes employers won't give them the chance or they
18:53
wouldn't have the resources to figure out how to even reach out
18:55
to those employers. So we're, we're big and part of
18:59
just giving back to the community, doing things together
19:01
as a team to give back to the community, constantly doing
19:03
things out in the community to volunteer.
19:05
We have a lot of community partners.
19:07
We have a, in all of our branches, we have which is 14
19:11
locations. We have a community corner.
19:14
And in that community corner, we have a resource board.
19:17
And every market is different depending on what resources are
19:20
out there. But we have a whole board that
19:22
has, you know, are you going through domestic violence?
19:25
Are you going through, you know, do you need food?
19:27
Is there a food pantry? But you need somewhere to, to
19:30
sleep because you might not have a home.
19:32
So we have a whole resource board for each area that we're
19:34
in where they can find all these resources.
19:37
And then in addition, we have in every branch, we have these bins
19:42
and they will have hygiene items, work boots, clothing, you
19:47
know, if you need jeans for a job site And, and we have these
19:50
bins and they're just open to, if you needn't, we have, we
19:53
donate things there and we refill it sometimes if it's
19:55
winter, it might be socks, hats, jackets, and they can come in.
19:59
There's, there's no fee for it. Do they just take what they
20:01
need? And we have those in every one
20:03
of our branches. It's pretty uniform.
20:05
And that's called our community corner.
20:07
So those are just a list of a few things.
20:09
I mean, I, I could go on, but we, we really live by our core
20:12
values. And you can see that just come
20:13
to our office and talk to our employees and you know, we're
20:16
living by them every day, not, not just a statement on our
20:18
website. I loved all of that.
20:21
The part that I really want to hone in on is a felony friendly
20:26
employer because I think that there are some people who might
20:29
hear that and initially bristle at that.
20:31
Ooh, you know, I don't, I want to be around that, you know,
20:34
dangerous element. I was fortunate enough to have a
20:37
guest on recently who has a non profit staffing agency that
20:42
they're involved with and they do something similar.
20:45
And so she really helped to open my eyes to the importance of
20:49
this because as somebody has finished serving their time for
20:54
a mistake that they've made and they're coming back out into the
20:57
world, the average person doesn't realize how difficult it
21:02
is for them to reintegrate and why that leads to such high
21:06
recidivism rates, right? People end up back in prison so
21:10
much because by and large, majority of people, they want to
21:14
get back to life. They, they want to get a job,
21:17
they want to earn a living, they want to find their place in the
21:19
world again. And that's not easy because
21:22
they've got a felony on their record and a lot of folks won't
21:26
employ them. And so they get frustrated, they
21:28
get down, they get depressed, they get desperate and that
21:31
leads to, you know, bad outcomes.
21:34
And so to hear that HQ Direct is, is focused on this and
21:39
helping these people where possible find unemployment, I
21:42
think is great. I'm curious to hear more about
21:46
how you kind of found your way to that.
21:51
Yeah. Well, really.
21:53
So, yeah, we work with a lot of transitional housing, halfway
21:57
houses. And some of these people, it
21:59
may, they may not have a felony, but they may just need a second
22:02
chance. They may have, you know, had a
22:03
drug problem, an alcohol problem, or maybe they're in a
22:06
in a halfway house transitioning back from prison.
22:09
So there's so many different things, but how I kind of into
22:12
that is kind of a little bit of the story on how I got into
22:17
wanting to be part of this type of staffing.
22:20
So when I went, when I was in college, I got my degree in
22:23
psychology and psychology and social work.
22:27
And I realized when I graduated with my bachelor's degree, there
22:32
really wasn't a lot of money to be made in that area.
22:34
I really love helping people and that was my passion.
22:37
But the, the job that I had during college was I was making
22:41
more money than I was going to be making with my degree.
22:43
So I think I should have done a little bit more research when I
22:47
was, you know, 18 or 19. But I think the job that I got
22:50
offered with my bachelor's degree was, was $8.50 an hour.
22:55
And you know, that was several years ago.
22:57
And you know, I was making, you know, fifty $60,000 a year as in
23:01
the position that I, I had that didn't require require a degree,
23:04
a degree. So that's when I started looking
23:06
at I was, my mother is a psychologist, so I was going to
23:10
follow in her footsteps. So I started looking at the
23:12
school that was involved and I didn't really want to go to
23:15
school for six or eight more years to become a doctor and,
23:17
you know, really do that. So I started looking at what
23:19
could I do? And that's when I got my MBA and
23:21
decided I was going to go into business.
23:23
And so I kind of fell into the day labor side when I went to
23:27
work for ready staffing because when I moved to Nashville, that
23:31
was just like the first job that I found I had really, I didn't
23:34
know anything about construction and, but I just, I wanted to go
23:37
to work. I graduated and I didn't, I was
23:40
sending, I was faxing out my resumes and not getting a lot of
23:42
bites. And they were the first ones.
23:44
I, they hired me the first day that I walked in, I said, OK,
23:46
let me try this. And I actually loved it.
23:49
And so working in the construction industry, I was,
23:52
you know, I met all these people.
23:53
And that really is, you know, the office that I was working
23:55
for was downtown Nashville in a, in a rough area when I first
23:58
started. And the people that were coming
24:00
in, those are the people that we were serving.
24:03
And so I really became became fond of like hearing these
24:07
stories, you know, obviously there's some stories that aren't
24:10
great and they aren't, they don't always have a happy
24:12
ending. But even if one out of, you
24:14
know, 100 of them, you know, people that come in that maybe
24:16
they're homeless. They had gone through whatever
24:18
challenges and we had, we had taken a chance on them, put them
24:22
on an assignment. They worked their way up to a
24:24
supervisor, eventually become, you know, full time employee
24:27
with this company and then walk back into my doors and say, Hey,
24:30
thank you for giving me a chance.
24:32
I was homeless. I now have a car, my I've got my
24:35
child back. I'm in a home, I've got a full
24:37
time job with benefits. Just hearing one of those
24:39
stories for all the bad ones that we go across it, it just
24:43
from the very beginning, the first time I heard that it, it
24:45
just took my heart and I knew I wanted to help people in that
24:48
way. But it's also a very lucrative
24:49
business. So I was able to fulfill that
24:52
need where I really love helping people, but it's also lucrative.
24:55
So it, you know, it works out that way.
24:57
So it's a great business to be in, yeah.
25:00
So obviously, you know, folks who are looking for a second
25:03
chance, whether it's coming out of prison, you know, a homeless
25:05
situation, you know, a former drug or alcohol problem that
25:09
they're battling. You know, these folks aren't
25:12
going to fit into every kind of company, every kind of role.
25:17
But for those employers who it might be a good fit for, and
25:21
they're listening and they're like, I don't know.
25:23
I'm not like, what would you say to them to sort of allay the
25:27
common fears that come up? Yeah.
25:30
You know, obviously there are some positions, you know, we, we
25:34
don't, we don't send, you know, our felon people that have
25:36
felonies on every single assignment.
25:38
It doesn't always make sense for certain situations, you know,
25:40
like an airport project or like an A military base.
25:43
There's certain security requirements where, you know, we
25:46
just really can't get past that. And I understand that.
25:48
But what I will say is a lot of our employees that are living in
25:52
a halfway house, they're some of our hardest workers.
25:55
They just really want someone to give them a chance.
25:58
And I mean, I, I really, if I, if I look at all the people that
26:01
have come through our doors and the ones that have come from
26:03
halfway house and they're really just trying to get on their
26:05
feet, they're motivated. They're, you know, they're drug
26:08
free, they get tested regularly. They want to get their families
26:11
back. So they have that motivation
26:13
that just a regular someone just walking in our doors don't
26:15
always have. So they're just very motivated
26:17
and great people that just want another chance.
26:20
They just want to get back in society.
26:22
These are folks who really, in one way or another have have
26:25
lost it all and they they've hit that rock bottom.
26:29
And so when they get a new opportunity, oh boy, did they
26:33
treasure it. Boy did they value it.
26:35
And they're going to work really hard to keep it and protect it.
26:37
Right. Yes.
26:39
That's a, that's a, that's a great story.
26:43
I understand you have kind of an unusual method of stress
26:48
release. Tell us about that.
26:50
Yeah. So you asked me how I dealt with
26:54
stress. And amongst the journey of
26:59
finding ways to deal with stress, I'm also mentioned that
27:01
I'm part of the entrepreneur organization.
27:04
So we were at a retreat and one of my forum mates had on his
27:08
bucket list that he wanted to go skydiving.
27:11
And I really had no desire to do that, nor had I ever had any
27:13
desire to do it. But I'm a team player.
27:15
And so, you know, I said I'll do it with you.
27:18
And so the group, there's eight of us in our group, I think only
27:21
five of us agreed to do it with him.
27:23
And so at the end of our retreat, we all went skydiving
27:26
in Tullahoma, TN, and we had a little Cessna 182.
27:31
This was 10 years ago. And I was terrified.
27:37
I don't think I opened up my eyes.
27:38
It was a tandem jump I got. And then.
27:40
But when I got to the ground, like you'll learn in skydiving,
27:44
people either say, yeah, that was awesome, but I never want to
27:47
do it again or yeah, let me let me get back up there.
27:49
The second isn't the most common.
27:51
And so when I landed, I was like, even though I had my eyes
27:54
closed the whole time and I was terrified, I was like, I want to
27:57
do that again. That's amazing.
27:59
And so my friend was done that that had the bucket list done.
28:03
He loved it, but he was done. And so I went four weekends in a
28:06
row to the back to the same place, doing a tandem jump every
28:11
Saturday for four weekends in a row.
28:12
And the, the tandem instructor that I had said, join, you
28:15
really should take this class and, and get certified.
28:19
You could do this. And I'm like, there's no way I
28:21
could like be responsible for my own life under a parachute.
28:24
And like, there's just this, this is too much.
28:26
But by the time I did my 4th tandem jump, I was, I was
28:29
getting in to see how the training worked and learning a
28:31
little bit about it. And so I said, OK, I'm going to,
28:33
I'm going to get certified. I'm going to learn how to do
28:35
this. And it's just a challenge.
28:37
I'm always want to challenge myself.
28:38
And so I went through that. There's a classroom setting and
28:41
then you go through a series. It's AFF training where you jump
28:45
out with two instructors that are holding you because you have
28:47
to learn how to fly your body in the air.
28:50
It's a, it's a skill like you see the indoor wind tunnels.
28:52
That's those are all training mechanisms used to learn how to
28:55
control your body. Because when you're, when you're
28:57
dropping at 130 miles an hour in the air and you've got equipment
29:00
on you, every little movement of your body can put you into a
29:02
different spin. And so you have to learn how to.
29:04
Control your. It is.
29:06
Yes, yes, yes. And so through the AFF training,
29:11
you start off with two instructors.
29:13
You have a very large parachute as a training parachute because
29:17
that gets to the ground, you know, slower.
29:18
It's kind of easier to control. And so they start off with two
29:22
instructors holding you. You know, you do a few jumps
29:24
like that, then there's one instructor and then you know,
29:27
you eventually over 25 jumps, if you pass each level
29:30
successfully, then you'll get your first certification.
29:33
There's different levels of certifications and like what
29:35
kind of winds you can jump in, you know, what size parachute
29:38
you can fly in where, what kind of conditions you can fly in,
29:41
whether if you want to land on a beach or you know, there's all
29:43
these different. There's so much to it that I
29:45
never knew until I got into it. So at first I was just wanting
29:47
to challenge myself to see if I could actually do this.
29:50
And I and I did it and then I found out that there was
29:54
competition. And so I got into which I'm a
29:57
very competitive person. So I traveled all over the
29:59
country working with different coaches.
30:02
I was on different teams and just really enjoyed it.
30:05
But what I really enjoyed the most, So when I was on the
30:08
teams, it was a four day weekend.
30:11
So you would train once a month with, with, with your team.
30:14
And we traveled all over. It's just wherever the best
30:16
facility was. A lot of them were in Arizona,
30:18
which ELO Arizona is one of the best facilities, which was kind
30:22
of what brought me to taking over those locations out in
30:24
Arizona. And so Thursday morning, you
30:28
know, we'd meet early in the morning and you have, you have
30:31
two rigs and you, you really jump back-to-back.
30:35
You leave your phone, your phone is nowhere near you and you're
30:38
just 100% focused on your jump and your safety.
30:42
And so, you know, the, I also learned a lot about
30:45
visualization during this training process.
30:48
So you get on the plane with your teammate, you're
30:50
visualizing your jump because there's so many different moves
30:53
that you make. So it's about a meditation of
30:55
visualizing. And then when that door opens,
30:59
it's just like this peaceful feeling of just that air and
31:02
you're, you're just, you're at the level of focus.
31:05
I mean, you have to be safety aware.
31:06
You need to be focused. I mean, you're jumping out of an
31:08
airplane. And so just that moment of
31:11
jumping out and then doing that dive with your team, focusing on
31:15
all the moves, it's just you're, you're just really living in the
31:18
moment. And then when you, you separate
31:21
and you pull your parachute, it's just nothing but
31:23
peacefulness And looking over, you know, you're, you're above,
31:26
above the ground, looking at the scenic views.
31:29
And it's about, you know, a 7 or 8 minute parachute ride where
31:31
you're flying your parachute, parachute down to the ground,
31:33
which is just, is one of the most peaceful things.
31:35
And you know, there's no phones, you're living in the moment,
31:39
there's no stress, it's just peace.
31:41
And so it got very addicting. So I got really into the
31:45
competitive skydiving. And so when, when I was doing my
31:47
training camps, we would do that from Thursday to Sunday.
31:51
And so you, you do your jump, you fly your parachute to the
31:54
ground, you land, you throw that to someone to pack it for you,
31:58
and then you put on your second rig and you get right back on
31:59
the plane. So it's over and over and over
32:01
all day for, you know, depending on the weather, it could be 8 to
32:04
1012 hours where you're doing that all day.
32:07
And, and then they also have like an Eloy, for example, they
32:10
have a wind tunnel. So then you can go and practice
32:13
your moves in the wind tunnel with your team, which is also,
32:15
you know, there's no phones. You're focused on your moves.
32:19
You know, you're just, you're just living in that moment and
32:21
in a focused state of mind when you're not thinking about work,
32:24
you're not thinking about the stress of payroll, you're just
32:26
thinking about what you're doing at that moment.
32:29
And so I did that for several years.
32:31
And then I actually have, I'm, I'm paused right now.
32:35
I won't say that I've officially retired.
32:36
I still have all my equipment. But when I met my husband, well,
32:40
I had known him before, but when we decided to, to get engaged
32:44
and start trying to have a family, I did temporarily put it
32:48
on hold. So something about being a
32:50
mother, I just right now can't get myself to jump out of a
32:52
plane even though it is very safe.
32:54
And it's also the the time commitment now with me traveling
32:58
for work, for work so much, my weekends are dedicated to my son
33:01
100%. And so I just, if I want to get
33:04
in it again, I want to be in it more than just a random here and
33:07
there. So those are some of the reasons
33:08
why I no longer do it. But there's a there's a special
33:11
place in my heart and I hope to get back in the Sky One day when
33:14
the time is right. So competitive skydiving, I'm
33:17
imagining that there's a few of you that jump out and you're
33:21
making different formations. You're holding each other's
33:23
hands or feet. Or am I correct?
33:26
Like, you know, paint a visual for us.
33:28
So it's really like, it's really like a dance in the sky.
33:32
So there's what I competed in was four way and eight way.
33:36
So there's on a four way team, There's five members, there's
33:39
the four people that are making the, the connections and I say
33:42
doing the dance. And then there's your, your
33:44
person that's doing the video that's flying on top of you, you
33:46
know, documenting the video because that's how you you
33:49
document to be able to submit what you've done.
33:51
Cuz the judges aren't on the ground watching what you're
33:54
doing from above. They're gonna review the tape
33:56
later. Cut it.
33:57
Right. Yeah.
33:58
So on the on the four way skydives, you have 35 seconds
34:00
from when your your foot leaves the last person's foot, the
34:03
first person's foot leaves the plane and the videographer is
34:06
kind of on the outside of the plane kind of flying above you
34:09
to watch, to document everything.
34:11
But there's several different connections that you can make
34:14
swinging each other around. It's, you know, it's there,
34:17
there's a lot that you can do and you get a draw.
34:19
So in a competition, you'll get 10 draws and they'll be four to
34:22
five different formations that you need to make.
34:25
And then you get scored on that. And each jump you'll get a
34:27
score. And then you'll get a, you know,
34:28
score at the end of 10 jumps. And that that's how you that's
34:31
how you compete in the four way and the eight way competitions.
34:34
And there's so many other things.
34:35
There's wing suiting, there's there's parachute different
34:38
competitions. So I never knew until I got in
34:40
it, but there's so many different disciplines but.
34:42
There's a whole other world out there, you know?
34:44
I think about this though. Dancing with the Stars they
34:46
should have Jumping with the stars.
34:47
That might be one that would be fun to tune into.
34:49
Not. Very common.
34:52
I haven't looked at the the American Association of
34:55
Parachutes Association for a while, but at when I was in it,
35:00
I think there was about 30,000 people in the United States that
35:03
were certified to fly with their own parachute.
35:05
And of that I think 13% were women.
35:08
And all those people don't don't compete.
35:11
So the competitive world's a really close knit community.
35:15
So surprisingly, there's a lot of entrepreneurs that are
35:19
involved in that as well. Well, and I'm guessing that
35:21
they, they probably find a similar kind of release to what
35:24
you described, right? Like business owners, like
35:27
brains constantly going like even when you leave work, it's
35:30
like, oh, I've got to solve this.
35:32
I got to do that tomorrow. I got to call this person.
35:34
You're worrying about the conversation you had earlier
35:36
today that didn't go well. And like you said, when you step
35:39
out into the plane, like you've got to be really focused on what
35:41
you're doing because this could be dangerous if you're not
35:45
paying attention what's going on.
35:47
And so it turns everything else off and keeps you hyper focused
35:51
on just here, just right now, the present.
35:54
Moment. Yes, yes, it's beautiful.
35:56
And so you got into, so you got into this and because of
36:01
somebody in EO that wanted to do it and all the time that you
36:04
were spending out at one of the premier facilities out in
36:07
Arizona, that's what sort of turned you on to opening
36:12
locations there, starting a franchise operation, the state
36:15
of Arizona. What led you from Tennessee into
36:18
Indiana? How did that one happen?
36:20
So actually, so Arizona did have some established franchise, a
36:25
couple of those were other franchise owners that I
36:27
purchased those from. And because I was spending so
36:30
much time on Eloy, when I found out that that was an option for
36:33
me to, to buy those locations, I just, I thought that was great
36:36
because I'm already out here a lot for skydiving.
36:38
I love Arizona. So this is this is a good fit.
36:40
And then so a couple of those locations I purchased and a
36:43
couple of them I open. Indiana was a situation where
36:47
there was two locations, a franchise owner that had been
36:49
there for several years and he was ready to get out of the
36:51
industry. And I had actually, I've had
36:55
other locations, Florida, Kentucky over the years.
36:58
I've kind of taken some locations, opened them, you
37:01
know, sold them to other franchise owners.
37:03
And I had kind of get told myself after having my son that
37:06
I was not going to take on any other states besides Tennessee
37:10
and Arizona. I was just going to focus on
37:11
those, try to minimize my travels so I could be home more.
37:14
And then this opportunity came up with the franchise owner that
37:17
wanted to get out. And it's only a four and a half
37:19
hour drive from Nashville. So I kind of made an exception
37:21
that I I just took that one on. So I bought that one about a
37:24
year ago from another franchise owner.
37:26
And you talk about having multiple locations in different
37:29
states, I'm assuming it's helpful to have a physical
37:32
presence close to the clients that you're targeting.
37:35
You know, it's not just like a licensing thing maybe where you
37:38
need a license for the state of Indiana.
37:39
It's like, hey, we've got a lot of clients in Indiana or in
37:44
Bloomington. And so we want to make sure that
37:46
we're there so we can go and visit them and and be a physical
37:50
presence in person. Yeah.
37:52
And so there's a lot of staffing companies now that are going to
37:55
strictly just the the app base, but that's not our model.
37:58
We are our employees. We want our our branches to be a
38:02
home base for them. We also interview in person, you
38:05
know, we give them their safety equipment needed for the jobs.
38:08
We do a lot of different celebrations and things like
38:11
that. So our it's important that we
38:13
have branch, physical branch locations where our employees
38:16
are. And then as far as our
38:17
customers, we visit our customers in person.
38:20
If we have a large order, one of our one of our staff members is
38:23
on site checking the employees in.
38:25
So we're still a firm believer in the one-on-one in person.
38:29
A lot of our competitors have gone to just the app.
38:32
You know, there's not really a person, there's not that
38:34
personal touch. And so that is something that
38:36
also sets us apart. And I think having those
38:39
physical presences has got to help with your culture a great
38:43
deal, right? Hard to build a culture with,
38:46
you know, your, you know, full time internal team members as
38:49
well as the folks that you're, you know, placing at work sites.
38:52
If you don't have the, that regular physical interaction
38:55
with folks and, and all of the extra services that you're
38:58
providing to your temp workers. You know, the what the boards
39:02
that you talked about where you know, hey, there's resources if
39:04
you need some housing help, if you need some food, if there's a
39:07
domestic violence issue, like those are things that you
39:09
couldn't accomplish if it was just, you know, technology
39:12
that's connecting them through an app.
39:15
Right, right. And then in addition, how we
39:17
connect, so there's there's one port part about having that
39:21
culture with being there and like in person, but then another
39:24
part of our culture is connecting all of our locations
39:27
together. And one of the things that we do
39:29
for that is we do it a daily huddle every day at 9:11 central
39:32
time. It's just a 10 minute check in
39:34
where a member from each branch checks in on how they're doing,
39:38
you know, what their positive was from yesterday and what's
39:41
the one thing they're going to accomplish today.
39:43
And it brings everyone together. It's a 10 to 15 minute call.
39:46
And so that's another thing that we do to in our culture to
39:48
connect everyone, not just at the local level, but within our
39:51
franchise group. Did you say that the meeting is
39:53
at 9:11 central time every day? Yes, I figured when I, when I
39:58
established the time, I figured, you know, 9/11 no one's going to
40:01
like that's a very important time 911911 So I wanted it to be
40:05
a very specific time that everyone will remember every
40:07
day. Interesting, I like that.
40:11
So you, you met your husband. So you went through a divorce
40:15
earlier then you met your husband.
40:17
You guys decided to get married, start working on having a
40:20
family. You were already very busy with
40:23
a career. I'm going to assume that that
40:25
created some friction or some tension within yourself about
40:29
man, how am I going to, you know, divide up my attention
40:32
here now? Yeah, it definitely has been a
40:35
mindset change. And, you know, I was, yeah, I, I
40:40
have, I have devoted my entire life to, to this business.
40:43
This has been my, my first child is the business.
40:46
And, you know, part of the reason for my first divorce was
40:49
I was not focused on my marriage at all.
40:51
I was, you know, working 8090 hours a week and that's all I
40:53
cared about. So I learned that from my first
40:55
marriage. That's my take away.
40:57
And, you know, so it was a mindset change with first, you
41:01
know, committing myself to another marriage, that I was
41:03
going to make it a priority. And so I as much as I, as much
41:07
as I possibly can when I get, I usually get home when I'm in
41:11
town at 5:00. I, I put my phone away.
41:14
My laptop is closed and I don't open it up again until I'm, you
41:17
know, back in the office or start working the next day.
41:19
I never did that up until I met my, until my husband and I got
41:22
together. So it was definitely a mind
41:25
shift change. I was before, you know, on my
41:27
computer till 9/10, 11:00 at night, even when I got home.
41:29
And so, and then when we had our son, you know, it's even more
41:32
important that I, I do have limited time with him because I
41:35
travel. So I'd have, I'd really make it
41:38
that I'm in the moment with him not looking at my phone, not
41:40
doing, you know, lap unless there's a, that's, that there's
41:42
a building's on fire. There's something that needs my
41:44
attention. I'm really, you know, I make a
41:46
conscious effort to give him and my husband all my attention when
41:50
I am home and to cut that, to really make a hard stop that I
41:53
try to be home by 5:00 when I'm in town.
41:56
Yeah, You know, Jolene, you and I had to reschedule this
41:59
interview once because the first time slot that we had your son
42:02
was sick and you needed to to be there with him.
42:06
And, you know, obviously on my side, happy to accommodate that
42:10
kind of a thing. I'm a parent myself.
42:12
I I get it. Are are there times though where
42:15
that kind of prioritization becomes difficult for you?
42:21
It it definitely does. I can think of something
42:24
recently around that same time that I that I had to reschedule
42:28
with you though he had been he just started preschool so he's
42:31
got everyone goes through it, all the germs, all the sickness.
42:33
It was something different every week and I was actually working
42:36
in Chattanooga and I had to, I had to leave to cut.
42:41
He was already sick when I left and I, I went to work for a
42:45
couple of days in Chattanooga. I was there doing a sales blitz,
42:49
which, you know, I try to participate in those as much as
42:51
possible, but I can't always be there for the whole thing.
42:53
In the past, I would always participate for the whole time,
42:56
but I had to make the decision to, you know, he had a fever and
42:59
he was asking for me and crying. So I, I left early, I said,
43:03
sorry everyone, like I got to go home and take care of a sick, a
43:06
sick child. And I've got a, I've got need
43:08
you to handle it without me. And so that's a really hard,
43:10
hard decision to make. But sometimes, you know, it's
43:13
easier when I'm local, when I'm out in Arizona and he's he's
43:16
here in Tennessee, That's harder because I can't just, I can't
43:18
just drive home, you know, not Chattanooga's two hours away in
43:22
a car. So can't do that as easily when
43:24
I'm out in Arizona. And then also I try to as much
43:27
as I can. I used to travel every single
43:29
week. I've tried to minimize it too.
43:31
It's just one a week during the month.
43:33
I can't always do that when things come up unexpected, but I
43:36
really try my hardest to make that happen.
43:38
When I'm out in Arizona, I'm gone for five nights, which is
43:41
difficult when I'm local. I try to, you know, two to three
43:44
nights, four nights if I'm in Tennessee or Indiana.
43:47
But it is it is challenging, especially when I'm gone, you
43:51
know, back-to-back weeks. And he's on the phone.
43:53
He tries to give me a hug through the phone.
43:55
He's 3, so he doesn't understand.
43:56
And Mommy, I want you to hear it.
43:57
I'm just like, just take my heart out, throw it out, run it
44:00
over with a tractor trailer and shove it back in.
44:02
That's what it feels like. Any advice for any other
44:07
professional women listening that maybe are dealing with a
44:10
similar kind of what we might call mom guilt?
44:14
We've got these different priorities and it's, it's tough.
44:17
I mean, they're, they're only going to be the thing I keep
44:20
telling myself is it's only going to be this age for a very
44:22
short period of time. And it happened so fast.
44:24
So just to make that the priority.
44:26
And, you know, the, the, you know, we're showing them work
44:29
ethic. He even at three years old, you
44:31
know, I don't know if he thoroughly understands what work
44:33
is, but I'm trying to teach him that, you know, I'm at work and
44:36
here's what mommy's doing. You want these things we have
44:38
to, you know, make a living and this is how you do it.
44:40
So I think he's, he's being exposed to good work ethic and,
44:44
you know, hopefully that'll be instilled in him by what he
44:46
sees. And I'm an example for him.
44:48
That's those are the things that the mantra is that I tell myself
44:51
when I'm having this mom guilt and just really, I think making
44:54
that conscious effort. If I am gone for four days when
44:57
I when I'm home, I've also changed my schedule where I'm
44:59
home on Fridays. So I work a half a day at home
45:01
on Fridays. So I'm on Fridays, I'm able to
45:04
take him to school for and pick him up early.
45:06
And then we start our weekend where it's, you know, just us
45:08
and my husband. And if he's at home and we
45:11
really just making sure that that time we are together is
45:13
really into and special and not work looking at my phone and
45:17
laptop during those times. That's so cool, Jolene.
45:21
I'm curious to hear you have a great perspective on this
45:23
question that I, I like to ask a lot of my guests.
45:26
You know, a lot of people telling me it's still a pretty
45:28
tight labor market and so it's hard to find and it's hard to
45:33
hold on to good people. What are some things that you've
45:37
tried or maybe some piece of advice that you could give to
45:40
people in terms of how to locate and then once you've got them,
45:45
how to hold on to good folks? Yeah, I think there's, you know,
45:50
there's two different perspectives.
45:51
We have our internal employees and then we have our our field
45:54
team members that are more white collar versus the blue collar.
45:56
So there's a little bit different perspectives, but on
46:00
both, both sides, the biggest and the most, the best is
46:05
referrals. So what we have found is that
46:09
when someone refers someone that they know that they're usually
46:12
going to be a better hire than someone that we've hired through
46:15
like a zip recruiter or something, something like that.
46:17
We also offer a pretty, pretty nice bonus for someone that
46:21
refers someone that actually works with us on both sides for
46:24
the field, team members and the internal employees.
46:27
And then I think having our culture that we have is really
46:32
big and we take it very seriously.
46:33
So there's if we get cancer in our in our internal team, we get
46:37
rid of it quickly. So if someone doesn't have a
46:39
good attitude, they're not treating others well, they're
46:41
not positive, they're, you know, they're negative.
46:43
Those things we don't tolerate. And so it's really important
46:46
that someone told me when I was, you know, much younger that be
46:49
slow to hire, quick to fire. And we really live by that.
46:54
So if there's someone in our, that's within our team that is
46:56
not living by our core values, you know, we, we don't let that
47:00
hang around because that's how you lose your good people.
47:03
And so, you know, that's one thing where, you know, we do
47:06
have a lot of long term tenured employees because they know if
47:08
there's challenges like that, you know, we're going to either
47:11
going to fix them or it'll be changed.
47:14
And then just, you know, we, we take care of each other And, you
47:17
know, I think people that work for me know that I genuinely
47:20
care and I'm always going above and beyond to do things for them
47:24
as a, as a team. And like some of the things I
47:26
mentioned that we do in our culture, like with our kudos and
47:28
our boom boom awards. And, you know, we, we all the
47:31
different. When I travel to all of our
47:32
markets, I work one-on-one with our employees.
47:35
I take them out to dinner, we go bowling.
47:37
But I'm out there like I'm not just sitting in the ivory tower.
47:40
I'm out there working in, you know, on the streets, in the
47:43
field, like getting my hands dirty.
47:45
So I think that is a company that people want to work for
47:48
when they see that kind of leadership as well.
47:50
And then with our field team members, the people that are
47:53
coming in our doors in our culture, I don't if, if you've
47:55
walked in our door and you're homeless or you're, you know,
47:58
you're, you're just, you're living in a halfway house, We
48:00
treat you the same as if I walked in the door.
48:03
So we, you know, we welcome, we welcome these people in, we
48:06
treat them well. You know, we show them our
48:08
community corner if they need it.
48:09
We ask them, we really take time to ask them what, you know, what
48:12
can we do to help you? What kind of job are you looking
48:14
for? You know, what are your goals?
48:16
Like we really sit down and talk to them, not just treat them
48:18
like a number, Like we really care about them.
48:20
And then we recognize them. We have pictures on the wall, we
48:24
recognize them on our social media and we talk to our
48:26
customers about them. So we really care about our
48:29
employees and I feel like they see that by the way we treat
48:31
them. Well, that's good.
48:36
You know, we've talked about this a little bit.
48:39
You, you went through the bankruptcy, right?
48:41
And, and so you came through that and now the business is
48:45
even stronger. You're in a better place.
48:48
And you know, going through all those challenges you, you kind
48:51
of recognize or you knew before for sure, but it really
48:53
highlights the importance of keeping an eye on that profit
48:56
and loss, right? You know, what's the bottom line
48:58
for the company? So I'm always curious to hear
49:00
from successful business owners, you know, things, maybe creative
49:04
things that you've tried to to kind of move the needle.
49:07
Like, you know, I think of two levers that we can pull and one
49:09
is, you know, how do we boost up sales?
49:12
And the other one is how do we, you know, decrease expenses?
49:14
That's how we can get that, you know, that profit line to move.
49:17
I'm curious to hear in all of your years of experiences, the
49:20
ups and downs that you've had, some maybe creative things that
49:23
you've tried on one or both of those levers that you found this
49:26
worked. Yeah.
49:28
Well, one of the things that I tell my team is when we're down
49:31
and you know that that bottom line number isn't looking good
49:34
is sales cures all. So really the biggest, but
49:38
there's not a in our business. There's a few things that we can
49:40
control with as far as our operational expenses, but sales
49:44
cures all. So you know, we just need to get
49:46
the sales up. I'm a sales oriented person and
49:49
so we have very structured sales blitzes that we we do and we, we
49:53
organize like how we're going to get out there and how we're
49:56
going to push sales. And so I'm constantly, you know,
49:59
involved in that process And you know, we are restructuring it
50:03
based on every market, things that we know we do for our
50:06
customers. But when they, when numbers are
50:08
down, we we, we step back and how are we going to push sales?
50:10
What are we going to do to push sales?
50:12
And so, you know, that's one piece on the piece of operations
50:17
with, with our business. We really don't have a ton of
50:20
expenses that we can really we can control like our safety
50:23
equipment. Those are things that we can't,
50:25
you know, we need them on the jobs.
50:26
The only thing we can really control is like payroll and like
50:29
our leases. So you know, what we try to do
50:32
is we, we try to do short term like we own a couple buildings,
50:35
but in some markets we do short term leases so we can be
50:38
flexible to move if we need to to a different facility pretty
50:40
easily. And then in some of our markets
50:43
such as our Middle Tennessee market, we've been able to cut
50:47
expenses on payroll by when times kind of shifted where
50:51
they're not as busy. We have Nashville.
50:53
So Nashville is our hub in Middle Tennessee and then we
50:56
have Clarksville an hour away, Murfreesboro an hour away and
50:59
Columbia an hour away. One thing that we did to cut
51:02
expenses is we, we before we had hours of 5:00 AM to 6:00 PM in
51:07
all locations. We made Nashville our hub.
51:10
So we have someone that works in our office from 5:00 AM to 6:00
51:13
PM in our national market. But in our other outer line
51:17
offices, we cut those to shorten hours and then we roll the
51:20
phones so we're able to have one person in each of these offices
51:24
instead of two to three people kind of using Nashville as the
51:27
hub to manage the other locations so we can cut payroll
51:30
on those other locations. That's one thing that we did a
51:33
couple years ago. Clever.
51:35
I like that. Jolene, any particular mentors
51:40
or books, other types of experiences that you would call
51:43
out as being particularly helpful to you?
51:49
There's so many books I should have, I should have thought of
51:52
what the dysfunctional teams. What is the name of that?
51:57
I'm, I'm, I'm losing them. I think that guy's name right
52:00
now You know which book I'm talking about.
52:04
I'll look it up while you're thinking about other ones.
52:06
Yeah. And well, we won't use that one.
52:08
Let's just say really, I, I know I've said this already, but the
52:12
entrepreneur group and having that forum in that safe place
52:16
has really helped me in the relationship that I've made over
52:19
the past 15 years. Within that group, there's, you
52:23
know, we have the group that we meet 4 hours in a, in a very
52:26
safe setting every month. But in addition, when we need a
52:29
resource or we're going through several different things, if
52:33
it's a legal issue or you know, a payroll issue or a software
52:36
issue, we have a network in our Nashville group of 380
52:40
entrepreneurs that are in our group that you can shoot out an
52:43
e-mail to like our group server and you can get those referrals.
52:47
Or even if you need an experience share, hey, I'm
52:49
having this problem that has anyone in the group of 380
52:52
entrepreneurs ever dealt with this?
52:53
Can you give me a call? So having that resource of that
52:56
group of the entrepreneurs locally has really just been
53:00
saving grace for so many different things that I've been
53:01
through. Was the book that you were
53:04
thinking of, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by
53:06
Patrick and. Tony yes, yes, yes, yes.
53:10
I highly recommend reading that. And actually when I was in
53:13
skydiving, I was, I was actually reading that for my team because
53:17
there's so many. It's interesting the team
53:19
dynamics that are in your skydiving team.
53:21
So that's what drew me to read that book.
53:23
But then I was like, oh, this applies to, you know,
53:25
everything. Everything was just teams as
53:27
well in in your business. What's something you wish you
53:31
could teach a younger version of yourself, Jolene?
53:35
Wow, I really wish that the perspective that I have now on
53:44
the work life balance and shutting it off.
53:47
I had that when I was younger because I did not have that,
53:50
which led me to working really, really hard and too much and not
53:54
thinking about myself and taking care of myself until I was a
53:57
little bit older. So I wish I could have that
53:59
perspective of, you know, taking care of myself and and, yeah,
54:04
self-care and, you know, kind of shutting it down at a certain
54:07
time. Yeah, so important.
54:11
Jolene, what kind of growth plans do you have for the
54:13
companies or are you kind of comfortable where you are and
54:16
you got enough going on with the family and the size of the
54:19
business as it is? How do you do things?
54:22
Yes. So right now, we are really
54:26
growing our new Trade Corp brand, which we just started in
54:29
June, which that is in all of our locations.
54:32
Building that team up, getting the technology in place that can
54:35
make us successful for that is something that I'm really
54:38
focused on right now. And then just continuing, I
54:41
don't have any plans right now and opening any other new
54:44
locations, but just continuing to build the team that we have
54:47
and continue to get stronger in the markets that we're already
54:50
in. So no, no, and I'm really
54:53
focused on, like I said, shutting it down if I can at
54:57
5:00 and focus on my family. So I'm not looking at going out
55:01
and doing anything crazier right now because I'm really focused
55:03
on my family. How does AI fit into the
55:06
picture? For your business?
55:09
Great question. There's there's so much and what
55:12
Ave. we're learning. It's like drinking out of a fire
55:15
hose right now. I've been trying to go to as
55:17
many workshops and you know, learning from as many people,
55:21
but you know, we can use the tools such as just ChatGPT for
55:25
some of our marketing. We don't, we don't rely on any
55:28
AI. We still have the personal
55:30
element, but if you need a brainstorm or you need to kind
55:32
of get something started, we do use, you know, AI for that.
55:35
A little bit on our marketing side.
55:37
I'm learning more about that. It's just crazy, like what you
55:40
can do with AI. There's a lot of AI applicant
55:44
tracking tools that I'm learning about.
55:46
We're not using any of those yet.
55:48
There's AI for scheduling. I haven't haven't tapped into
55:51
that yet. There.
55:52
There's a lot we're we're still learning.
55:54
We're not using a a ton of it yet, but we I really know that
55:57
we need to learn more and and get on the bandwagon because
56:00
that's the wave of future. Yeah.
56:02
So you're not using yet. To comb through the massive
56:06
volume of resumes that you get in applicants now, our software
56:11
has some. You know, some, some tools in
56:13
there that helps us, but it we're not using AI for that, OK.
56:17
Jolene, I've got one more question for you, but before I
56:19
ask it, I want to do 2 things for those listening today.
56:22
If you like today's content, please hit the like share
56:25
subscribe button on your favorite podcast app.
56:27
Jolene, I also want to let people know the best way to get
56:30
in touch with you. What would that be?
56:33
You could my e-mail Jolene at. Hqdirect.com.
56:37
You can find me on LinkedIn as well.
56:39
Jolene Tate. So last question for you,
56:42
Jolene, I'm curious, you've got great perspective having been in
56:45
the industry for 20 years. What do you think are the big
56:48
changes that are coming in the next few years?
56:53
Yeah, a couple of different things there.
56:56
It is challenging that the, as far as the trades, it's a dying
57:01
area. There's a lot of people that are
57:03
in, you know, retirement age that are in the trades and not
57:06
enough people going to trade school, which is a great career.
57:09
So I, you know, I'm always a strong, strongly encourage the
57:12
young to think about getting in a trade school.
57:16
And then as far as you, you know, talked about AI, there's a
57:18
lot of staffing companies that are, you know, they're getting
57:21
rid of their brick and mortars, they're getting rid of a lot of
57:24
positions, they're using AI and apps.
57:26
And so I do think, you know, that is definitely a big
57:30
something to look for in the future.
57:31
That's not what our plan is right now.
57:33
We're, you know, we're still old school.
57:34
We like to be in person and make those relationships and, you
57:38
know, talk to people on the phone and face to face.
57:40
So, you know, but that is the wave of the future.
57:42
We are seeing that say a little bit more about the issue.
57:45
With the trades people retiring, why do you think young people
57:50
aren't getting into these fields?
57:53
You know, I just don't think it's, you know it, it's.
57:55
It's been sought after as like a sexy career, you know, but there
57:58
it it it there is, you know, you can get in two years, you can
58:01
get a great you can learn a trade, even sometimes as as
58:04
little as a year and make, you know, a career with the company
58:07
and have great benefits. But I just don't think that
58:09
that's pushed enough in high school or in our society.
58:13
It's looked at as, you know, blue collar and, you know, not a
58:15
not a great career, but there's so much opportunity in those
58:18
fields. Yeah, I have a good friend who's
58:22
a. Plumber for a number of years
58:23
and he went to college, graduated college and there was
58:27
sort of that same stigma for him before somebody finally said,
58:31
hey, learn a trade. You will.
58:34
You will never go hungry. Yeah, he's like, man, is that
58:37
true? He's like, I got people.
58:38
Wanting to give me money all the time because I know how to do
58:42
something that they don't. This is valuable.
58:45
It will continue to be valuable. You know, if you're worried
58:48
about, you know, how AI might impact a number of white collar
58:52
jobs. I think we're a long ways away
58:54
from a robot being able to, you know, fix a pipe and unclog a
58:58
toilet and, you know, and start doing it right and then those
59:01
things. Yes, absolutely.
59:03
So, OK. Well, Jolene.
59:05
I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time
59:08
and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.
59:11
Thank you for having me. It was been nice talking to you.
59:14
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode.
59:15
Of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us
59:18
today.