Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / The Power of Mentorship and Relationships in the Elevator Business | Kris Garcia

Transcript

The Power of Mentorship and Relationships in the Elevator Business | Kris Garcia · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: So when we talk about making mistakes, I made just about every mistake you can make.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm and I'm still here.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so you know, it's it's like Chuck Sharp said, as long as you don't make the same mistake twice.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: And the biggest thing is just showing up for work every day.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, as a as a young helper, you know, you you put so much stress on the team when you don't come to work.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: I I hear this all the time about young people.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, they have no work ethic.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know what?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: They said that about our generation, too.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sharp.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: There is there's there's there's people out there who are, I think you're born with it.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: You either come to this industry with uh you know with with a great work ethic or you don't.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't, you can still learn it, you can still get it, you can still make that happen.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the LGCareers podcast.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Matt Allred.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: With talent that Mr.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Critical, call the AllRed Group.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: With industry expertise, top talent, and exceptional customer service.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: You need the all-red group on your side.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Your priority is our priority.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Call now at 404-890-0445.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: In this episode, I interviewed Chris Garcia about his journey from the automotive industry to the elevator business.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: We discussed his passion for sales, mentorship in the trade, and important lessons he learned throughout his career.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Chris emphasized the importance of relationships and shared that he and many others are happy to help newcomers to the elevator trade.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Chris, welcome to the show.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much for having me, man.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate it.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I I appreciate it.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've enjoyed getting to know you over the years.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it was great to see you in California at the NAC show.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was a lot of fun.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it sure was.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: What a great place.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: So uh you and I got talking a little bit about just your path through the elevator industry and and tell me tell me that story.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: How did you how did you come to find elevators?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: So my first career was in the automotive business.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm from Detroit, so that was, you know, a lot of people in in in uh in that area went to work in the automotive business.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I started in the automotive business, and uh, I had an uncle who had an elevator cab interior company, and he asked me if I would come and help him because he was getting to the point where it was more than he could handle on his own.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh I thought, you know, what the heck?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: How can someone make a living doing cat elevator cab interiors?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: I I didn't even know that that was a thing, you know.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, when I get in the elevator, I just push the button and it goes up and down.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you never think about you never think about stainless steel box.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: How can you possibly make a living at that?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Some crazy niche business, and he he figured out a way to make money at it.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought it was basically just a temporary thing, but I did it anyway.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he seemed to love it.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: So how did he convince you?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, automotive, you know, there there's yeah, some prestige there, you know?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it was, and it was a it was a pretty good job I had, and actually I had to take a pay cut to take this job, but he said, you know, we'll get to work together.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: And of course I looked up to my uncle, so we'll get to work together, you know, you'll have all this autonomy, you know, you'll be able to uh help me run this company, and then maybe, hey, and who knows, maybe someday this will be yours, you know.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, great.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: I like I really want that.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'll come and help you anyway, and uh we'll see if we can make something happen there.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we sure did.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: We grew that company, you know, it was the largest elevator cab interior company in Detroit, which was you know, there's a lot of elevators in Detroit, if you don't know that.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh we did really well.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but as I as I got to know people in the elevator business from working with them, I eventually got recruited out of that company, out of my family business.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you've ever worked for family before, Matt, but it's not all what it's cracked up to be.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it wasn't.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's just it.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when when he started making those promises to you, oh, you'll get to have this and run this, and it sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you you never work harder than you do for your family, that's for sure.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because they don't they always know everything that's going on in your life, they don't give you any breaks.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I ended up work going to work for a cone A elevator, and that was my first stop.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: So when did you when did you decide that, hey, I actually like this thing that to me seems so improbable?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: What what was it that clicked for you?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I think that the first thing I thought of was these guys all really make a lot of money for doing this.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this is that shocked you though, right?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean Yeah, it certainly did.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, from coming from the automotive industry, I had no idea uh about the elevator industry.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh, you know, just getting to know all these folks and and listen, when I started, they didn't make near the kind of money that they make now.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this was back in 1998.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think they had just signed a new contract to go from$17.50 an hour to like$30 an hour.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: So and I thought that was that's a heck of a leap there.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Crazy amount of money, you know, for uh for an elevator technician.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but my my my passion was always sales, so I gravitated toward that side of the business.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And at that time they put you in the field first.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Did you know that?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there was a time they put you in the field first.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you stay in the field for a couple of months, and then right before you know, union wants to bring you on board, then they bring you back in the office.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I had an opportunity to stay in the field, but um, I chose to go into the office.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: That was always my passion, is in sales.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that worked, that worked out great for me.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So so yeah, at some point you realize, hey, this is a place for me.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And by then had you decided, hey, I think I'm gonna stay here for a while.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, oh yeah.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: I thought, man, this is great.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and but I looked around the people that I was working with at the time, and some of them are a lot of those people are still in the industry and had become uh you know, like captains of the industry.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: My first job, I worked for a guy named Jeremy Metzger, who's you know Wow, okay.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and right.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Who doesn't know Jeremy, right?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and he, you know, I just thought, man, this guy, he's uh he just has everything, you know.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: He has this beautiful home, it's beautiful family, and he's just making a great living.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, man, that's what I want.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I want to do that.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, so it was a no-brainer for me.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Really, the elevator business, once I got in it, there was there was no leaving.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: It got in your blood, in other words, is what I like to say.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that happens to a lot of people, too, you know, in this business.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So absolutely.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So in addition to Jeremy, who were some of the big mentors, people that you you felt like really made an impact, made made you want to stay, right?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think more than anything, from what I understand, right, people stay because they of of the people, right?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: If they're gonna or if they're gonna leave a job or a company, and and they people will say that, right?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: The that they don't leave a company, they leave a boss.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: They're they you know that that relationships do have a big impact on your happiness, your success, your longevity, all of that.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I've worked for some really great bosses in my career.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, of course, Jeremy Mesker is one, and that guy, he you know, he really helped me a lot, you know, to understand the business and to be really good at it at sales, and and not just at sales, but all aspects of of being a salesperson and what that took.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, I'll tell you, the the best boss I ever had, you know, he may watch this podcast, he may not, but if anybody ever gets a chance to meet a guy named Chuck Sharp from DC Elevator, that guy was by far the best manager that I ever had.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: He was uh he was tough and he was fair, but he was a great coach at the same time.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he uh gave me an opportunity to be the president of Right Way Elevator.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: I did that for a little while while I was there.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: He really mentored me in that in that role and uh really helped me be successful.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: If you ever run into Chuck Sharp, you make sure you tell him that I mentioned him on this podcast.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: He was willing to be tough, but but but coach you and uh you you knew that he cared more than you were worried that he was gonna treat you arbitrarily.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you know, I was a guy that came into a role that I had never done before, and I made a few mistakes, and uh he would always say, Listen, you know, you're gonna make mistakes, that's that's part of the job, but just don't make them twice.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's when we have a problem, you know.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Don't don't make that again.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I tried never to do that, never to do it twice, and that was good advice.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's when it gets super expensive, right?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's like yeah, time to time to cut losses.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you mentioned being in sales.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um that sounds like your your true passion, right?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it certainly is.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: What's what's your um what's your favorite thing to I mean, is it mod?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Is it is it service?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Is it new construction or so?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: I I think that you know service was always the uh where I I I leaned mostly towards, but I loved selling modernization as well.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: I was never a new construction guy, you know.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's that takes a special kind of person to sit and and read prints and do takeoffs all day, you know.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's a really very hard job to do because you're you're just focused on that job.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: You never leave your desk, you know.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: I was always the guy I just wanted to be out, you know.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be out seeing customers, be out in the field, hanging hanging out with the mechanics and uh you know, looking at equipment.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: I I I loved that part of the job.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and I wasn't always great at it.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, when it came to mod, that was something I had really had to learn.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: I had to make myself learnt.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a lot to to learn, right?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a very complex, it's very dependent upon what are you what are you pulling it out of, and right, you know, can this brick building even hold it up, or do we need to do some kind of remediation to even put the new the new one in?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that's something, and I, you know, of course, again, you know, I made a few mistakes, and uh, you know, some of them were costly, some of them not so costly, but you know, I I just loved that part of the business.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: I really loved the mechanical aspect of it.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I and like anybody, I just love to win.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I like the competitive aspect of it as well.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I like to I loved it when I won a job from someone else and it was a close, you know, and we were battling it out in the end, and then finally I, you know, I came out the winner.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I hated it when I didn't come out the winner.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it makes a good salesperson, right?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: That that that killer instinct, right?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: What what would you say has become your favorite part of working in the elevator industry?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think that it's the people in this industry.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's a lot of people like me who have the same passions, who have that.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's a complex system, it's a complex job.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: And and any part of it, if you're the in operations or you're in sales, or you're the boss, you know, or you're the president, or you're the vice president, whatever it is, it's a complicated job because first of all, you're dealing with customers that cannot always be agreeable, right?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then you're also dealing with uh the mechanical aspect of the job.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: That it seems like it's just a box that goes up and down.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, when I first got introduced to the industry, I thought you get in, you push a button, it takes you where you need to go.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Never thought about it at all, what goes on inside the shaft or inside the uh elevator machine room.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, it's a very complex industry, and so it's the people that get involved in this industry that I love the most about it.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when we you get a couple elevator guys in a room, the conversation is always about elevators.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it's very interesting how it always turns to elevators and it turns to some, it's either something about some incident that happened or how how it could have been prevented, or about some technology or something that's going on, but uh, the conversation always turns to elevators.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I just love the people.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: So you've mentioned a couple times, you know, made some mistakes, learned from them.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say is the most one of the most valuable lessons you've learned through this all this?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, man, listen, there's been so many valuable lessons that I've learned.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've been in this business a long time, Matt.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think that um the biggest lesson I ever learned was that this industry, although it's very large, is also very small.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: And you need to make sure that um you you don't leave any enemies.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, but listen, it's hard to get through an entire career and not make an enemy or two.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you're doing your job, then you're bound to piss someone off at some point in your career.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: But as a whole, you just want to make sure that you know you just leave every every door open when you leave.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you treat everyone with respect.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I can't ever remember losing my temper, or I've always been like really easy to work with, as far as I know.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there may be some people out there that might disagree with that, but I always felt like I was very easy to get along with, very easy to work with.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna ask you if you learned if you learn those any of those the hard way, right?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, sometimes, you know, I know that a lot of times I do something wrong, and then it's like, yeah, okay.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's different.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, there may be a time or two that I did learn that lesson, man, but we're not gonna talk about that on today's show.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I just I thought I'd ask the question.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, sometimes people aren't afraid to share those, but no, it's all it's all good to let that that water go into the bridge, too.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think that if there's a you know, if I had any regrets at all, there was a time or two when uh maybe I should have kept my mouth shut and just did what I was told, you know.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's a valuable lesson for anyone.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you let your emotions get the best of you.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that um overall, I built some great relationships in this industry.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um people I worked with 25 years ago.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: I matter of fact, I just called somebody the other day, and and we had a long conversation about a job.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: I worked for Tyson Krupp back in Detroit for many, many years.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: I was a sales manager there, and I called up one of the guys that worked there.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: He works now for uh a fire company.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: He works for Johnson Controls, and uh and his elevator experience was able to help him get that job.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that's another thing about this industry.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's has a lot of uh things that you can use in other industries as well.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: But uh I just called him up out of the blue and he took my call right away, and immediately it was like we were still in the same cubicle, you know, talking about sales back in the elevator business.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I built some really strong relationships in this industry, a lot more than I made mistakes, that's for sure.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, well, and I you know, just I was having a conversation uh talking about the value of relationships and that they they do make a big impact both in the near you know, short term and long term.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And um it's uh it's it's very important.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you, uh, and there's a lot of young people now too that are trying to get into this industry and ask for my help, whether it's trying to get in to be a mechanic or trying to get into this, you know, the sales side of the business or whatever it is.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I always tell them the same thing.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, just you know, you have to you have to make yourself easy to work with.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, like and just like I told you, this industry can be very small.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: So as you progress through the industry, don't don't just try your best not to make any enemies because it, you know, it'll it'll come back to haunt you at some point.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh like I say you you may make a few, but don't make a habit of it, right?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because it'll cost you.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's probably true in every aspect of life.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Don't make a habit out of making enemies, Matt.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Good point, yeah.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, and and and some of it may happen just it might be a competitor, right?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't I don't like that guy because he keeps beating me to the sale, right?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um that that's gonna happen.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: But uh but yeah, who knows?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's just you know good-hearted competition usually won't make enemies.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, as long as you don't take it to the too don't don't take it too far.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: So if you could if you could look back, what'd you say, 25 years in the industry?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is that a little bit more?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: 27, I think.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: 27 is the magic number.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you could look back at at young Chris back then starting out, what what advice would you give yourself?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: The advice I would give myself is that you know, anytime you you think the grass is greener, see whether it be some promotion or whether it be you know working for another company, I think one of my biggest regrets is that I left Tiss and Krupp Elevator.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I when I look back on that, I had a great career path and I hit a few bumps in the road and I got upset and I quit.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's something that if I if I had it to do over again, I would have never left.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: I would have stuck it out and made my way into some other area of the company or moved on to a different position there.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: But uh I got to make a long story short, I got promoted to be the director of sales for the East Region, and uh somehow they combined five regions to three.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: This was back in 2013 or 14, somewhere around there.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so I got caught up in that, and um so they offered me a couple different jobs.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: They said, hey, you could have your choice of these different jobs.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: So one of them was branch manager of Sarasota, and so I took that job and I didn't like it.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't like it at all.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to get out of it.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: The minute I took it, I wanted to get out of it.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: But I ended up staying there for a year, and uh, you know, I did my best.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't do great, but I didn't do terribly either.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't ruin the company, but I didn't I didn't love it.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: So but they kept promising they were gonna move me on, kept promising, and then they, you know, after I was there a year, I'm like, listen, I'm I'm done waiting, and I left.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that was the biggest mistake that I ever made.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because after that, I just bounced around at different companies.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: I could just never really find a home.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: And and I think that if I had stayed there, I probably would be running some other branch right now or doing something, you know, similar to like those guys that have been in that tenured at Tisson Krupp now.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it made it might have been the the timing, right?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe if you'd have hung on for five more years, maybe maybe you'd have found the the right next step or whatever.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's hard to say, but but obviously you you had enough experience that you were able to find something, right?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: To find some work and yeah.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: And what's you know, and listen, you know, the nice part about it is that moving on, and you know, I got a I got a pay increase every time I left.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, the different jobs I did bouncing around, I ended up making an extremely good living.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: So that that wasn't uh that was never a problem.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was just a problem of uh, you know, I just never found a home.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's really what it came down to.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so weren't weren't maybe as as settled as you wanted to be, but correct.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Still had a lot of value to bring and and hence a lot of opportunities.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I I do see that a lot with the people I know that you know, once once you're kind of established in the industry, that as long as you're not not making too many enemies, right?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's uh there's a lot of people that that can benefit from your knowledge, your experience, you know, everything you bring.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's difficult enough to get in and get ramped up so that to the point that a lot of people who get there are are highly valued because of the skills and everything you've learned.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's correct.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: I've got one more question I wanted to bounce off you.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything you want to say before I kind of give you my last one?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think that uh, you know, other than I did I did maybe just want to elaborate a little bit on you know giving advice to young people.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I did want to say that I've never said no to anyone that's asked me how can you help me get into this industry?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: I've gone out of my way to help many young people get started in this industry.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I like I said, I always tell them the same thing.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: What I told you already is that you know, try and just try and show up for work every day, do what your boss tells you, be easy to work with, and then um, you know, and just try and learn the business as best you can because and a lot of that's on you.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: You have to do that yourself, you know, just like I did, just like everyone else did.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about those uh great guys in the industry, they learned how to do that by putting their hands on things and and doing it themselves.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Got to show up curious, right?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta ask a lot of questions and and you're gonna wanna know.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: And and what I do see a lot is that if you have that desire to know, people will bend over backwards to to make sure you get that information.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's amazing.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking to a gentleman earlier today that really said that I want to share my knowledge because I know I'm not gonna be around forever.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so I wanna teach everything I know.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right, exactly.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly how I feel too.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: I just I'd love to help young people who are enthusiastic about getting into this business.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, listen, not everyone makes it because it's not it's not an easy business.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's very, you know, safe.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: You have to be safety conscious, you know.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of things that uh deter people from being in this business, but it's a great, great business.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, obviously it's it's worked as your second career for these many years.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and actually, I was I was gonna ask you about advice for the next generation, you kind of beat me to it.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, good.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, listen, I could talk about that all day, you know.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because I I've listened, when we talk about making mistakes, I made just about every mistake you can make, and I'm and I'm still here.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like Chuck Sharp said, as long as you don't make the same mistake twice, and the biggest thing is just showing up for work every day.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, as a as a young helper, you know, you you put so much stress on the team when you don't come to work.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I I hear this all the time about young people.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, they have no work ethic.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know what?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: They said that about our generation, too.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there there's there's there's there's people out there who are I think you're born with it.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you either come to this industry with uh, you know, with with a great work ethic, or you don't.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't, you can still learn it.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: You can still get it, you can still make that happen.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it's a choice, right?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: You you gotta choose.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think for those who choose to show up and and choose to ask questions and want to learn and and choose to not make recurring mistakes over and over and over, right?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's all kinds of opportunities, there's all kinds of benefits to uh to really uh I guess engaging in the process, right?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Just being being a part of it, showing up, like you're saying.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, also this business can be extremely rewarding.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if you if you learn it and become really good at it, you can do anything that you want to do in this business.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's one that is one point that uh I'm glad you brought that up.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Just having worked in other industries prior to getting to elevators and you know being a part of HR, it's almost like certain industries, certain companies would block people if you know if you don't have a bachelor's degree, you're never gonna promote kind of thing.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw that a lot.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: But this is much more based on what you know, right?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you get in and you you know uh and have the the expertise, then yeah, you're not really limited in the same way from what I've observed.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, that's very true.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Chris, I appreciate you being here today.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a lot of fun.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, man.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate it.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: I really do.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much for having me.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: You bet.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, good luck to you.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Stay safe out there, and we'll chat again.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds good.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: See you soon.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Please visit our YouTube channel at Elevator Careers or check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Please like and subscribe.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And until next time, stay safe.