Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / Customer Service & Leadership in the Elevator Industry | Michael Caputa, Part 1

Transcript

Customer Service & Leadership in the Elevator Industry | Michael Caputa, Part 1 · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: But the the most important thing for me in my success and in my career has been that personal customer service.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I I hear you.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm here for you.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: I pick up my phone.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to hide from you.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think this generation also struggles with conflict management.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: So when something's going wrong, you tend to want to hide.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to really address it.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_03: And well, that's an advanced skill, right?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's one thing to say, hey, I'm here for you and I have your part and it'll be in there in the morning, right?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: But when you when you don't have the part, no, it's yeah, it's six months out or whatever.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, how do you how do you offer empathy or how do you how do you have that conversation?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, I I got this advice from an actual divorce attorney.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you talk about guys that have to give bad, you know, bad news.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, ultimately bad bad news is still news, right?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: No news is bad.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: Is the worst.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Is the worst.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: And he said essentially, if if I found out that there was something that was contrary or negative for my client, I told them immediately.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_03: Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: 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.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_03: Today our guest is Michael Caputa, regional vice president with Blackstone Elevator Consulting in Florida.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: Michael started his career with Fiscruft Elevator as an account manager in Atlanta and has grown in several different roles and companies.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: Michael is an endurance athlete and has proven over and over the power of the mind over there.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: Michael believes the best bet you can make is on yourself.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: He likes to say hard work beats talent.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: Stay humble, hustle, and never give up.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_03: This is part one.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: And Michael, welcome to the show.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, thanks for having me.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Glad to be here.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: I'm excited.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's always a pleasure to talk to you and to be able to, you know, to get to know you at a little deeper level today is uh is exciting.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: So thanks again.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um so I do want to find out, tell me how you got started in the elevator industry.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, just like everybody else, total accident, right?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I had um gone back to college as a non-traditional student and was finishing up at the University of Georgia um late in my 20s and needed a job.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so I went to the UGA career fair and was walking around and just kind of overwhelmed with all of the different opportunities.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, just at that stage of my life, I really was starting to understand that it's time to get serious.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I had big boy bills and it was uh getting ready to start a family.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I saw a booth for a company that my aunt actually worked for.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I couldn't even pronounce the name of it.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I called her on the phone and I said, Hey, this company that you work for, uh Thyssen Croup.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's Tissin, like, listen, don't go over there and embarrass me.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: I said, No, I just want to know more about the company.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, Well, here's the deal.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in human resources, so I don't know exactly what they do, but I I know that they make really good money.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was like, okay, that's what I want to do.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I walked over to the booth and uh put, you know, filled out an application, whoever gave them my resume.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and that's that's how I got into the elevator industry.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: So she at least told you how to say the word, right?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's yeah.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I didn't I didn't embarrass myself for her.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: So you started, where did you start then?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_03: You were at UGA finishing up and yeah, I did.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: I finished up at UGA.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh started in March of 08 with Tissin Krug in Atlanta.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, started out as an account manager and uh went through the crash course of learning the elevator industry.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: At that time, they had a training program where essentially you were in the field as a helper with the mechanic.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so you spent time in service, you spent time in modern state modernization, and you spent time in new installation.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: So Monday through Thursday in the field, Friday in the office, and uh did that for about two and a half, three months, and um got my first territory as an account manager and had a blast, you know, learning the business.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, essentially when did things really start to click?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I just imagine, you know, day one, maybe even week one, it's like, what is this?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what it's a lot of uh a lot of drinking out of a fire hydrant, right?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's just so much new stuff.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, before you get in the industry, for me, it was you push a button, you get on the elevator, you get to your floor, and you get off.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, and you had no idea that there was a multi-billion dollar business behind all of this.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's you know, it didn't really start to click until almost a year, maybe 18 months into the industry.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: And actually, now all of a sudden you start to see that okay, all the fruit of the labor from before starting to come to fruition.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it starts to slow down a little bit, right?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think about a high school athlete transitioning into college athletics, right?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's the same thing.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: It everything's moving a million miles an hour, and then as you get to the end of that journey, everything slows down and you are able to execute.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that's essentially what happened about 12 months after being in the industry.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, thank you.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: Who are some of your mentors that really you feel like helped you navigate through that and and you know succeed?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we we were very fortunate in Atlanta to have some great leadership.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Jay Rogers at the time was the regional general manager or vice president for the Southeast or pretty much Georgia, not all of Florida, but Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and he was such a great mentor.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, having come up through the industry, done all of the lines of business, and he was such a he was a very good instructor and teacher, where he'd pull you off to the side and actually come alongside you.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, at the time, Ryan Bunn was our sales manager, and he was super successful.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and he's had a great career uh in the elevator industry as well.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: And he was extremely helpful in showing me the differences in elevator contracts and you know, understanding the nuts and bolts of how we structure the deal or the contract and you know how to add value to the client.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um those two guys were were very helpful as mentors.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then I also had some mentors outside of the business that were extremely helpful that you know were running major organizations and were able to show me from the consumer side, you know, what they were looking at or looking for in an elevator contractor.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that was also very helpful.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_03: What do you think is the the biggest, you know, the single biggest thing you you've learned that has really had an impact on how you've been able to succeed?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think it's not something that I had hadn't learned previously, it's something that I think we all know inherently is that people ultimately don't want to be sold.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, people are are looking to buy, and if you can come alongside and add value and empathy and understanding, um, then then you are going to be successful because people are going to be attracted to that.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: And as much as I knew it prior to coming into the industry, I didn't really have the opportunity to practice it like I did when I came into the industry.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so being able to see that, you know, nine times out of 10, just getting out of the way and letting the customer tell you what they actually need and then giving them value propositions to those needs instead of just trying to sell them things.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think that that is, and you learn that in management too, when you're dealing with people, right?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, and and like you said, maybe you hadn't had a chance to practice it as consistently, but when you're in that role and it's like every single day you you see it over and over and over.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: Very cool.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_03: What what have you learned to love most about the industry?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think what I learned loved uh most about the industry is it's still a service-based industry for the most part, and it's relationship driven.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what gets me fired up.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's people, right?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's the people, your clients, and it's also the the your employees.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um the it just it it touches everybody from the passengers to the owners to the you know, the the contractors, and it's all about relationship.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm not sitting behind a computer uh doing spreadsheets all day.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm actually getting out there and and rubbing elbows with the people.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: What um what would you say are some of the the biggest changes you've seen in the time that you've been in the industry?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know, when you look at I think the world has changed, which is now causing the industry to change, correct?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: So you you look at some of the things that have happened just from a global standpoint or from a uh even just here in America, uh, you know, we had the recession in the mid-2000s, and that that changed the industry.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: We we had to figure out ways to continue to supply services while our costs were starting, you know, were increasing.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then you had another great period of time between you know 2012 up until 2019 with the pandemic.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think what you're starting to see the biggest changes are the way that we deliver service.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: How do we deliver service uh by managing cost?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then also technology, how do we leverage technology?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, because the elevator, the elevator industry as a whole has never been technological, even though there are there is technology in it.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the elevator system can be complex, but now we're starting to go into different areas.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the internet of things to do predictive maintenance.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we're looking at AI now to get algorithms and to you know try to figure out how a better way to service or to see how elevators can function better.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's what I think we've seen the most changes is you know, how do you manage cost in a world in a world where prices are pretty much staying the same?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then how is in it how is the technology gonna also uh help us be successful moving forward?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and and you know, talking about costs, and I know certainly there have been some issues with you know supply chain over the last few years or whatever, but um and I don't know that they're threats to the industry per se.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: I I think that you know I that's part of my question though, is is uh and and maybe it's for certain business models or certain businesses, you know, it could be a threat.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: How are you seeing those things affecting this?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: I actually I read a a quote from the CEO of Chat GPT because there were a bunch of people that are concerned that AI is going to take over the world and we're gonna be you know working for robots.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I see this with the industry, and the reason why I bring it up is that you know, you you get concerned that the industry is going to suffer or or have some negative consequences, but you can never underestimate the power of humanity and the ability for people to pivot and to make changes.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so I do see an opportunity to where, you know, as the industry changes, there will be a market for other players to come in, whether that's the small, non-union independent companies or even the mid-level uh union independent companies to come in and to uh not influence the market, but capture a portion of the market that the majors may or may not be able to capture.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so I see the industry continuing to grow and and and continuing to evolve and accommodate the needs because elevators aren't going anywhere.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, even if we didn't build another elevator, you know, in for the rest of history, there'd still be enough to modernize, right?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's here to stay, but I really think that the companies on the contracting side that are going to be the most successful are the ones that are going to be the most fluid, the ones that are going to be the most to spot the changes and then to put resources where the resources need to be put in order to service the customer.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, and to your point, that's that is humanity.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: There's always somebody that notices, oh my gosh, if I just you know put my service or my my talent here, then boom, I'm gonna create a whole new industry, company, opportunity, whatever.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I, you know, one of the things that is another great uh asset or attribute of of our industry is that it's not cookie cutter.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Every opportunity is not the right opportunity for every client or customer or contractor.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: And you can have niche boutique elevator companies, you can have the big, you know, the I mean who's gonna build the big airports and so it's great that it's well rounded and that there is so much opportunity for all different companies to be successful.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: What what advice would you give, I don't know, maybe to to the industry overall or to you know certain uh I'm just curious what you're seeing, or or maybe if you you know were to m wave a magic wand to you know change something.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: What would what would you say?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I think that just remember what your strength is.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then remember that when you overplay a strength, it can become a weakness.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so stay, you know, it's hard when you have so much pressure to perform.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that the industry needs to remember its roots and it needs to remember, you know, why we're here, and that's to provide quality service uh and safety to the client and to the riding passenger.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and when we stay in our lane and we figure out you know the best ways to maximize those things, then I think that you provide a service that is valuable and is needed.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but the pressure, I see a lot of pressure and it, you know, it's inherent.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: People you you got to grow.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not growing, you're dying.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so you you may become ambitious or you may you know lose sight of of what that strength is, and then you or you you overplay that strength and and then all of a sudden you've got a whole nother set of challenges and issues on your hands.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_03: And maybe you've you've spoken to this, but um, you know, just by talking about you know, knowing your strengths, playing your strengths.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: What would you say is absolutely critical to success as an individual in the elevator industry?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: Customer service.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, communication, overcommunication, never assuming.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's so easy now in the in the smartphone era and in emails, um, just to to get lost in that, you know, I'm just gonna send it a text.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Or I mean, quite frankly, we're treating email as as instant messaging anyway.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, in this in this era, and and you can get wrapped up, or you get so many phone calls you can't return voicemails.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: But that the most important thing for me in my success and in my career has been that personal customer service.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I I hear you, I'm here for you.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: I pick up my phone, I'm not gonna hide from you.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think this generation also struggles with conflict management.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: So when something's going wrong, you tend to want to hide, you don't want to really address it.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's an advanced skill, right?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's one thing to say, hey, I'm here for you and I have your part and it'll be in there in the morning, right?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: But when you when you don't have the part, and oh, it's yeah, it's six months out or whatever.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, how do you how do you offer empathy or how do you how do you have that conversation?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, I I got this advice from an actual divorce attorney.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you talk about guys that have to give bad you know bad news.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, ultimately bad news is still news, right?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no news is bad.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Is the worst is the worst.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: And he said essentially, if if I found out that there was something that was contrary or negative for my client, I told them immediately.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted them to know immediately.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't want them to have to be, I think in our human nature, we're cynical.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: And if we're not getting any information, we're already thinking the worst.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: So you deliver the news, right?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: You you you go ahead and deliver the news, uh, and then and then you but you reassure them and let them know that you're not going anywhere.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: And even if you don't have the solution yet, you will.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you remind them that you will, and uh that's how you empathize with them.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then he said, you know, with good news, that can wait.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: That has a shelf.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_03: Wow, that that is that is a little bit backwards from what I mean.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: I'm tempted, right?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: When when it's bad, it's like, oh my gosh, I don't want to deliver.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_03: I saw I'll wait for a week and then yeah, yeah.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I what I've learned in all of that is that as much as I would like to think that I am this great um uh fragment, you know, tackle box mentality that can compartmentalize and put put these bad things in their place and focus on the good.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm really not because it always weighs on me anyway.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to get that off my chest as an individual so that I can move on um and and really start focusing on solutions.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think if you're if you're if you're stuck in the fear of it, or it's maybe maybe it's not fear, it's just uncomfortable.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody wants to deliver bad news, but it really prohibits you from moving forward at your full capacity.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you get it out on the table and and look, we've all had our fair share of being being reprimanded, I'll say, you know, or spoken to in a in a way we didn't like, but quite frankly, the more and more you do it, the more and more you see that people appreciate it.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: They really do appreciate it.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: And to your to your point, I mean, I know that uh you know, helping people find a job, right?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: If they don't hear something quickly, they've already assumed the worst.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: They've already assumed it.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so the the sooner you whatever it is, right, that you can just give them give them something, at least they'll know they're because they're they've already walked that path.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: They've already said, you know, and it's it's unfortunate because you know when you're around the people that are constant optimists, that just kind of rubs off on you.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like these people are the ones that nothing's gonna phase them, you know, and that's that's kind of what I'm striving to be is you know what, hey, I've got some bad news for you, but that's not the end of the story.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's not the end of the world, right?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Not the end of your life, it's not the I mean it's not, it's not, and you gain so much more credibility doing it that way than than ducking and hiding.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, no, it's great.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: And and I mean it kind of feeds in, and this again, maybe this is a little redundant, but what would what advice would you give to somebody who's brand new?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_03: They're just finishing up at UGA, they're starting next week with TK in Atlanta.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_03: What would you say to them?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, listen, um show up every day with a great attitude, right?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Show up every day with a great attitude and be willing.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think that that is the number one thing that keeps people from achieving the maximum success as they become concerned about not knowing what they don't know.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we whatever we magnify becomes the biggest thing in our life, right?
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's why it's called magnifying.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: You take out a magnifying glass, you're gonna make it bigger.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: So focus on the fact that you know what, you got the job.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: That was half the battle, you got through school, that was a pretty good accomplishment.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: So you can do some things, and now just go out there and and and really start betting on yourself.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: Are you gonna make mistakes?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: But I told all my employees as a manager, if you're not making mistakes, I don't think you're trying.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: You're not doing anything, just don't make the same mistake twice, right?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, come on, can we get real here?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: So, so go out, you know, and and I think our culture kind of works against us.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we do have a cancel culture, but you know what?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I still put your faith out there, bet on yourself, and go out there.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I remember my first day when they gave me my routes, they handed me a route book.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: This is back in the old days.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I had a binder, it had every one of my jobs in there, all my routes, and I'm like, man, I don't know what to do here.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: So it was just it was kind of overwhelming.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I went and met with my mechanics, and they made total fun of me because I was, you know, not an elevator guy.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's kind of the the fraternity of elevators, you know, oh, you're not gonna make it, blah, blah, blah, whatever.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: It was this.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: But then I just sat down and I said, Hey guys, yeah, I said, hey guys, I want to do stuff that's gonna make your job easier.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: So show me on in every one of these jobs what I can do to make it easier for you.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna make your job easier.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: And they did.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh I went, and uh, that was back when we were going from the mechanical door edges to the new high-tech infrared door edges.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so I made these proposals, I think I had like 10 of them, and I didn't know what I was doing, but I just went out.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: And sure enough, the first one I go to, I put the proposal down on the customer's desk and he starts asking me questions, and I had no answers.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, those are all great questions, and I'll have to get you, you know, I'll I'll get the answers for you and come back.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: But Matt, by the time that I had delivered all of those proposals, I had already answered those questions that that first customer had just by going through the process.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's my advice.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, just get out there and do it.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you you've come this far, you can do it.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: Well said.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_03: So thank you, Michael.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_03: I appreciate you being on the show today.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_03: It's been a lot of fun, and uh wish you the best in your new adventure.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the All Red Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: Please subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.