Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / Hard Work, Accountability, and Passion for the Elevator Trade | Eric Burket

Transcript

Hard Work, Accountability, and Passion for the Elevator Trade | Eric Burket · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Work hard, right?
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Life is not that difficult if you're willing to work, if you're willing to do what others won't do.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, be honest to yourself, be honest to your team.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: If, you know, be willing to call yourself out, hold yourself accountable, and then when the opportunity presents itself, hold hold your team accountable.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: 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.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: Today our guest is Eric Burquette.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: Eric started in the elevator industry in 1997 with General Elevator, working in Hagerstown, Maryland.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: Eric quickly found his passion for the industry and has spent 25 years in various sales roles and locations, including regional vice president with TK in New York City.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Today, Eric is the president of Elevate Elevator Consulting.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: Eric loves what he does and believes that hard work is the key to success.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: Eric, welcome to the show.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for having me.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a long time and I'm I'm happy that we were able to connect.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, no, I'm excited.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh I was trying to remember how many years, I don't know, nine or ten years ago that we we first started talking to each other.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: And and so it's uh it's great to be able to to record this.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: And it was awesome to meet you at the NA NAC conference recently.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the elevator industry is funny.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's it's a big country, but it's a really small industry, and it's kind of cool how it works.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of uh lot of relationships, uh, you know, the camaraderie, you know, just the connections um is pretty amazing.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, awesome.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: So um, Eric, I just wanted to start at the beginning, and I would love to hear how you got into the elevator industry from the beginning.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so went to a small school in Maryland college and uh got out, um, started my own company, uh, did that for a couple of years, and then uh got out from doing that.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And my college roommate's father was the president of the elevator local in Baltimore.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Hey, come at the time he was working for General Elevator, which was uh a Dover uh supplier.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I put my my hat in the ring and and uh I got picked up by Dover.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the rest is history, it's um, you know, owning your own business, you know, I was working a lot of hours, six, seven days a week.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: What industry were you in in your own business?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: Just curious.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually had a a corporate recognition um and awards company.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we we grew it really, really fast, and it was a it was a good company.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I got out and and I I at first I thought I'd just do something to bide my time until I figured out the next entrepreneurial endeavor.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I got in with the team there in Baltimore and uh hit my stride, and um it was a lot of fun.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Let's talk a little bit about that.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: You say picked up.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: Do you do you mean you were actually a mechanic in the in the trade or what what were you doing?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: No, so when I started, this was back in '97.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um I lived in Annapolis, Maryland.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I got the low man on the totem pole assignment out in Hagerstown, Maryland.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I had an 88-mile commute to work to and from 88 miles each way every day.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I did it and I enjoyed it and met a lot of great people there and um worked there for a couple years, uh, went from service sales to construction sales and uh and then kind of worked my way up.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: A few years later, I became branch manager in York, Pennsylvania.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: So still, still the same company, General Elevator?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, at that point, we Tyson Krupp had had bought Dover.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we went from being general elevator to Tyson Krupp.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, I guess at the time I was 30-year-old um kid and uh started in in the uh York branch, and and there was a an office manager there.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: She since passed, but her name was Susan Daniels, and she was from Danville, Virginia.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember I think the first time that I tried to be the boss, and she pulled me aside and she's like, Boss man, she says, that may work where you came from, but it won't work here.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it she was just the greatest.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And her daughter, Jessica, who's also since past worked there, and she came up to me and she said, I'm going to cosmetology school.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is just a part-time gig for me.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as I get my cosmetology license, I'm out of here.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Jess, you're doing a great job doing collections for us.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Here's here's what I ask.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: I will let you cut people's hair on Friday afternoons.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: As long as you work hard for me Monday through Thursday, Friday, you can cut as many heads of hair as you like.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And Jessica went on to be one of the best collectors in the region.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then ultimately she ended up in construction sales up in Westchester, New York.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So she had a long career, and uh, I learned a lot from that mother and daughter duo and thoroughly enjoyed my time there.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh I was fortunate enough.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: We we had some very good results in that, what was the smallest office in the region.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was fortunate and I became um regional vice president and moved up.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: My office moved up to New York City.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't move to New York City, but I'm my office moved up to New York City and I ran the Northeast region.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it was a great opportunity.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, our our team sold the elevators in the in the I keep calling it the new Freedom Tower, but right in one world trade.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a very exciting project to be part of and um, you know, thoroughly enjoyed my time at at Tisson.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and then uh yeah, that's that's how I got my start.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was uh a great 15 years I spent with with Tisson.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's cool.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: You you said you know quickly got your stride.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Talk to me a little bit about what what that looked like then and um how did you kind of when did it click that you're like, man, I I like this.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: I this is what I'm gonna do.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I I had um two really cool bosses at the time, Alan Romfell and Tom Waller.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And they used to do these uh sales competitions.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and I again I I came from being self-employed.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, when you're self-employed, if you don't hustle, you you don't eat.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I had this sort of um aggressive sort of go-for-it mentality.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I I was very fortunate.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I did very well in all the sales competitions and and um made a name for myself.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I think for me, I'm really competitive.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's kind of what set the hook, I think.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Just look, I I remember the first opportunity at General Elevator.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: They again, when I first started, and again, it I make it sound like it was a long time ago, but it wasn't really.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I had a secretary that typed up my proposals on a typewriter, you know.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, Microsoft Office had just come out and they had offered a prize if anybody could do a PowerPoint on a Dover product.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, game on.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: I I put the my first PowerPoint together, didn't even know how to use PowerPoint, but figured it out, made a whole Monty Python inspired presentation with the big hand coming in, pushing the elevator button.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I won a polo shirt, but to me it didn't matter, right?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to win.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the the hook was set at that point, and and it was just it was it didn't really matter what the prize was.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was just, and again, that might be one of my shortcomings.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a little bit competitive, but it was uh it was just fun.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: I I had a great time, enjoyed myself, um, and and was very, very fortunate that I had some really good people that I worked with.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, success is one of those funny things.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's not one person.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I I've been very fortunate in my entire, you know, 24, 25 years in the industry that I that I've had the chance to work with some really great people and and just uh probably more luck being paired up with the right people that led to such a good career.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, sure.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it sounds like you you got in, you quickly said, wow, if I work hard, if I you know compete with what I've got, I'm I'm gonna have opportunities to to grow, to be recognized, to make some great money.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was, you know, again, my business was a real job, right?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: But this was the first time that people were paying me, and it didn't matter whether I showed up or not, I got paid.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so I remember um and look, my my company did well.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but just the whole concept of having vacation time where I really, you know, when you own your own business, there is no such thing as vacation.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're on the hook all the time, right?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I I remember taking my first vacation and I just couldn't believe that I was getting paid uh and and not, you know, having to answer the phone.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it again, uh, you know, I I had some really good people.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Steve Rigatusso was uh Steve and I worked together in Hagerstown.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's still in Baltimore, um, has held many, many different uh levels of management within the Tisson structure.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but he's still there.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And and we both, you know, started out in Hagerstown.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I just at every step of the way, just had great people around me and great people to work with and and just thoroughly enjoyed myself.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really hard.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: I I've been very fortunate and have loved every minute that I've been in the elevator industry.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: And and you've given, you know, obviously some of your your mentors.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: Who are some of the other big mentors that really helped kind of define you and your career and and really put a stamp on it?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that there are three main mentors in my life, right?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: My dad, um I had a lacrosse coach that's since passed, uh, named Greg Murphy.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then my last boss, Ray Falbuty.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, my dad uh worked for the government.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually born in England.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then he got a change of station.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: We came back to the states.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he was gone a lot.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, one of those jobs where I wasn't, you know, didn't know what he did.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: But whenever he was home, he was always at my sporting events.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: I played lacrosse pretty much year-round.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he was always there.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and just really instilled a solid work ethic.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Coach Murphy was just a hardcore um former special forces uh army guy from Vietnam.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, after he retired, he was the president of the hospital in Annapolis.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just a hardcore dude that expected excellence.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: And and I remember just that quintessential moment at halftime in a lacrosse game, he'd had enough.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I was a shortest on the team.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I was always standing in the front and he grabbed my helmet and he was just shaking it, yelling, and he had such passion.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I know he's yelling at everybody, but I just I don't know what happened.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: He he threw a switch and it took my competitiveness to just another level and uh really just woke a fire within me.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then my last boss, uh Ray Foul Duty, uh, was with Schindler Elevator's whole entire career.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Just an industry giant, and uh just had this just easy way about him.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: He had experience, he was unflappable.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and Ray just let me be me.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I remember when I first started in Charlotte.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Ray took me and we went to an architect's office and we were working through some issues.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was with the company a week and um the architect had presented a problem, and you know, I was the new guy, sat back, kept my mouth shut.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And when we got done, they looked at me and said, Do you have any ideas?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of grabbed a piece of paper and sketched something out and ended up being uh the solution they were looking for.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the architect said, Hey, uh, I need you to sign this non-disclosure agreement.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to take a look at these drawings.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we looked at this uh mid-sized tower that that's now in Charlotte.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I want you to be part of this project.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I was all excited.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was giddy.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Ray and I went back to the office, and Ray's like, Eric, that that's not work that we're normally competitive in, and it's not it's not work that we normally do.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I I I want to say that I threw a total fit.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh probably it was worse in my mind than it was, but I told Ray, you hired the wrong guy.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: If we're not gonna go after this kind of work, you hire the wrong guy.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, All right, all right, go after it.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: But if we don't get it, I don't I don't I don't want to hear your belly aching.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, uh if we go after it, we're gonna get it.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we got it.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And um and it was uh a really exciting project.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: It it's the Bank of America Tower that's in Charlotte, right next to the football stadium.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it had some new technology in it that had not been used before in the country.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just an awesome opportunity to be part of something really special, you know, to the city of Charlotte.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and that project led to many more exciting projects in Charlotte.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And um Ray was cool the whole way through.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: He just let me be me.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and um, you know, when I got in trouble, Ray always had my back.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I can be a little bit of a hard charger.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Ray was always, always very cool.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: He, you know, he's like, Eric, I pay you for your results, not for your methods.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we we did some very exciting things and and you know, just like my time at Tisson, I'm very, very proud for what we accomplished uh at Schindler and and very grateful for the time that I was there.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: Very cool, very cool.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: So it sounds like uh maybe you did get in trouble a few times, yeah, just from what you were saying, but yeah, so yeah, I I don't have a filter, and sometimes uh look, Coach Murphy kind of instilled that, and and again, I don't know if it was his military background, but he had high expectations, right?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you had to perform, and there was no excuse for not performing, and there was no excuse for those around you not performing to the top of their ability.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't get to be the best lacrosse team if if everybody's not performing.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and Coach Murphy had his oldest son, Brendan, went to the United States Naval Academy and had a great career in the Navy.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Ryan was an all-American lacrosse player, went to we went to Salisbury.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh at the time it was Salisbury State.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's now Salisbury University, 12-time national champions in lacrosse.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: But Ryan helped lead Salisbury to national championship in lacrosse.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: So Coach Murphy had high expectations, and and I kind of adopted that, right?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I tried to hold people accountable, but I tried, I tried to lead from the front, and and sometimes being honest rubs people the wrong way.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it is what it is.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's yeah.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for being honest.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's uh it's cool to just hear you, you know, just be authentic about, yeah, this is this is me.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: And and it sounds like you were able to accomplish some great things.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, so my career at Tisson was cut short because I I I went through a divorce, right?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: As a young man, the cultural norm is that you work hard.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: And and I thought the harder I work, I'll climb up the corporate ladder and maybe I lost focus, right?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the divorce was sort of my first taste of losing, right?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it really scrambled my eggs.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, sure.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, it it but it taught me some great lessons, right?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And coming out of the divorce, I became a single dad raising four kids, you know, at the time my youngest had just turned two.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to come from full-time corporate guy to full-time single dad with a two-year-old, a three-year-old, a five-year-old, or six-year-old, and a 15-year-old.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it it was uh it was a great um opportunity to mature a little bit.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: I had been running pretty wild open, pretty wide open.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I I I think on the back side of that, there's a lot that I learned.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it helped me to be a better human being.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I I still upset people from time to time with being a hard-charging person, but I think I'm a I'm a lot more even keel now than I was when I was just a young pop coming up.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: So, did you you spent some time out of the industry at that time then?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I spent a year or two in between uh just trying to uh to get my feet under me, right?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: It it was uh, you know, the a lot of things in life that happen that you're maybe not prepared for.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's not really a manual for how to get through it.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I had moved, you know, three or four times, you know, done the corporate move thing.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't have any family close.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, look, I couldn't meet the travel requirements.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't think mentally going through that, that I was fully there.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: So when when Tyson's like, hey, you know, you're not capable.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was going to Germany quite a bit, and I wasn't capable of doing the job at that level.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, they let me go, and and I in in hindsight, fully understand why.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um I get it, and it was a very challenging time, but again, sometimes um iron sharpens iron, right?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it was sure it was good in retrospect.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: You could have never convinced me at the time, but it was good to go through that.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that my kids learned a lot, you know, again, they were young, but witnessing just putting one foot in front of the other and pushing forward, and you know, it took me a few years.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but but I made it back.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: I I got this opportunity to come down to Charlotte and uh we love you know the the the Southeast.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: And um I don't know, it took maybe a year to get up into the elite status at Schindler.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: And every time that I got recognized as being an elite performer, I brought my kids to the uh to the event because I wanted them to see that, you know, this is the benefit of hard work, right?
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is the good that comes with, you know, if you're willing to put in the time and practice, if you're willing to work hard at game time, these are the accolades and the cool things that come with it.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it we we've gotten to do some really cool things.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, like I said, I I've been blessed beyond measure in this industry.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: And it almost sounds like yeah, kind of chapter one at a break, and then chapter two.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: And it sounds like you came back having learned some some hard lessons, but uh certainly more mature, more seasoned, more ready to take on new challenges.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I like to think.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I like to think one of the coolest things is that I I still have former work peers, employees that work for me that to this day, 25 years on, still from time to time will call me if they have a question, if they have a situation that they're in, they need help.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's kind of a cool testament to the relationships that I built.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so the the present here and now, you know, I left uh Schindler.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and you know, I all all while I was selling new equipment, got out of management, selling new equipment, I had people calling, customers calling, architects calling with questions, and I loved helping.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And after I left Schindler, the phone calls never stopped.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I just kind of said, hey, if I kind of hang a shingle out there and become a consultant, would you keep calling me?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the answer has been yes, and uh it's been very, very encouraging.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's you know, it's uh it's a scary thing at 50 to go out and start your own thing without any safety net, but uh it's been an awesome opportunity so far.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm just thrilled with um the the client base we're building.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: You said no safety net, but but it strikes me talking to you and talking to a lot of others in the industry that the the safety net really is what you know and who you know, it's it's a combination um that that you can you can apply that so many different ways.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I I would agree, right?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's elevators kind of funny thing.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people that that try to get away when when you have some of those hard resets in life, people are like, I'm taking a time out, I'm gonna go do something else, and you can almost put a clock on it.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's six months, they're like, I'm coming back.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, it you you learn it it's such a niche industry.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And um, having been, you know, predominantly on the construction side of the business, you know, I I heard a saying once when I was just a pup coming up in the industry.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: There are those that build the house, and then there are those who maintain the yard.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I always hated mowing the yard, so I'm I'm gonna be one of the guys that builds a house.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I just kind of set my path and stayed on the construction side and um just have learned a lot over the years and and now it's paying off.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, sure.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I mean the fact that you've got architects and and and others calling you for your expertise says so much.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's great.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Built some some great relationships over the years, and and again, it it's really such a small industry, right?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: And um just have had you know great opportunity.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, my old boss Ray, he's he's now retired, but we still get out.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if I have questions, uh I can lean on his experience, and and he's just been a phenomenal sort of um you know person to go to and and help when I have sort of business questions.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it it it's it's been good.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: What would you say you love the most about the industry?
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I I love construction, right?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: I love the beginning and the end, you know, going from the conceptual, you know, here's what we think this building's gonna look look like, and especially the uh some of the towers that I've been involved in.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's really interesting to see over the course, because you can be working on design three years before the project even starts moving dirt and see how this seedling, if you will, you you you water it with knowledge and and and hard work and you see how it takes root and it grows and um and then and then to just get the job completed, have the topping off ceremony to to get to the final inspection.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um again, I I'm one of those, and I'm sure a lot of elevator people are like this, but every time I drive by the skyline of Charlotte, I'm pointing to my kids.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: If that's my building, that's my building, and they're like, Yeah, we know dad, we know.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, but I'm super proud of it.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I love um just like I love my children, I I love those buildings.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's just something that I put a lot of work into and and uh am super proud of what you know what we accomplish.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I can I can see that, you know, just driving through and hey, you know, I know that elevator and I helped create it, help, you know, design it, whatever role you played.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, what are some of the biggest issues that you see facing the elevator industry today?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh I think there's two.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I wasn't gonna talk about one of them, but the the the first being supply chain issues, right?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, everything's gone to printed circuit boards and technology's getting, you know, sort of more condensed.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of a lot of issues getting printed circuit boards, drives, certain components.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we've seen lead times.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um we've seen lead times go from being able to get an elevator in four weeks to sometimes now it takes six months or more to get elevators.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it really creates a strong need for good project management, both from the elevator manufacturer and from the general contractors in the field.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a more nuanced dance, if you will.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think the other issue, um, you know, the elevator companies, uh, the bigs, right?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: The the main big OEMs, um you know, the costs continue to go up.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: So in order to make profit, uh, it seems that maybe the service model gets a little bit more diluted every year.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: So uh it seems that um, you know, costs just keep going up and up and up.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh there seems to be a little bit more distance between the bigs and and the customers, which, you know, if you look at the industry, there's been such a wild uh proliferation of the the small elevator companies, right?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um people, uh good, good elevator people leaving the bigs and then going and starting their own companies.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and what's interesting there is that we saw this giant proliferation, and now you're starting to see the AEGs, the three phases now consolidating all of the littles.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just a really interesting time in the elevator industry.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there's a lot of exciting things going on.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we saw some of that at the uh at the NAEC uh show up in Louisville.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the technology, what what's what's going on in the industry right now?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's some really, really cool products and and uh manufacturers.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's an exciting time, but I think supply chain is probably the biggest issue right now.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: Gotcha.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_02: What what would you say is one of the biggest lessons you've learned in your career?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I I I should probably take one step back for answer that.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: I should probably say that my grandfather was also a big influence, right?
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: My grandfather was a very, very successful businessman, owned a bunch of restaurants and advertising company.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um and when I went to college, I I started out to pursue a business degree.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember I failed my first test.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I called my grandfather, I'm like, Pap, how did I how did I fail this test?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we went over it question by question.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Eric, there's there's two answers to every question.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's a way it works in the real world, and there's a way that the book says it should work.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, you know, sometimes you have to answer it the way the book says it would work, even if you know that there's a better way in the real world.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, well, that's not gonna work.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Eric, my suggestion, if you know people, you don't have to uh you don't have to worry about business, it'll take care of itself if you know people.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I walked right into the registrar's office and I dropped my business classes and got a degree in psychology.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I've always, and again, I know that there's people over my career that I've I've rubbed the wrong way, but I think I've got an even larger list of people that I would go to the ends of the earth to protect and do things for.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got a very, very loyal group of friends that I've you know met.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's my most important takeaway from my career is that I've made some really, really good relationships.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I was at Schindler, um we were top office in the customer experience.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: We we we really, really, uh my project manager Ann Gable and I really made it a priority to uh take care of our customers.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's sort of the biggest takeaway that if you if you take care of people, the business will take care of itself.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: Beautiful, beautiful.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: So and and I admit this may be a little bit redundant.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: What's what's one thing you would want to share with listeners, with maybe people who are starting out?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's the same thing, but I thought I'd ask it that way.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so if I were going to give advice, uh okay, so great example.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I had a a young guy named Tyler Kathara who came out of Texas Tech.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I had been doing fairly well.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: And Schindler's like, hey, we want you to hire this kid out of college.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: And man, I was I was hard.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: I I said, I took a page out of Coach Murphy's playbook, and I'm like, if if you're gonna come out of my program, you're gonna work hard and and you're gonna do everything I tell you.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: And um and and and I'll tell you what I told him: work hard, right?
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: It life is not that difficult if you're willing to work, if you're willing to do what others won't do.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, be honest to yourself, be honest to your team.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: If, you know, be willing to call yourself out, hold yourself accountable.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then when the opportunity presents itself, hold hold your team accountable.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, very excited to say that uh people kept telling me, take it easy, take it easy.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: And and I was fair, but I was I was hard on Tyler, and he has responded.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's done very, very well.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's now on the Nashville market and making a great name for himself.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: So um that that would be my advice.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you're young, getting into the industry, just work hard, take that six-inch step further than the next person.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Work hard, be honest, take care of your customers, and everything else will take care of itself.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Eric.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: I I appreciate your time.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: We're we're pretty much out of time now, but um, thank you so much for being with me today.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Matt, I appreciate it.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was good seeing you in Louisville and uh look forward to uh seeing you again.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: Bye bye.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the All Red Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: Please subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.