Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Do the Right Thing Every Day: Jay Prock's Family Business Revolution

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Do the Right Thing Every Day: Jay Prock's Family Business Revolution · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Cotespotti,
0:17
and today's guest is Mr. J Proc. He is the President and owner of
0:22
Tidewater Staffing, a company founded in 1992 and based in
0:27
Chesapeake, VA. They specialize in providing
0:30
workforce solutions for ship repair, manufacturing,
0:33
warehouse, and logistics employers in the Port of
0:36
Virginia. Their mission is to connect job
0:39
seekers with the right employers while ensuring transparent
0:43
hiring processes, background checks, and drug screenings.
0:47
Now, Jay has been with Tidewater Staffing since January of 2011,
0:52
first as a temp associate, then a recruiter, office manager, and
0:57
for the last nine years as president.
0:59
He holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from
1:03
Florida Southern College and under his leadership, the
1:06
organization has provided flexible staffing services
1:09
without hiring fees, helping countless individuals find
1:13
meaningful work. Jay has also been recognized
1:16
with honors like the Top 40 Under 40 and the Francis R Sharp
1:22
Executive Leadership Award for promoting employee safety.
1:26
His focus on health, safety and organic growth shows his
1:30
commitment to team development and long term success.
1:34
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
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AD back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:17
today, President of Tidewater Staffing, J Proc Thanks for
2:20
making the time to Share your story today.
2:23
No, Anthony, it's great. Happy to be here.
2:24
I appreciate the invite. So, Jay, you've spent what
2:28
appears to be almost your entire working career with Tidewater
2:31
Staffing. How did the opportunity first
2:33
come about? I used the term thoroughbred,
2:36
maybe even unknown thoroughbred. Tidewater is a family company
2:42
currently. My sister and I operate it, but
2:44
it was founded in 92 by my dad. He put me through all kinds of
2:49
fun challenges and looking back on it, a lot of things that were
2:52
grooming for, you know, for this position.
2:56
Probably one of my favorite stories is really about his
3:03
beginnings and how he got into temp labor.
3:05
He was a janitor for a company called Abacus around here when
3:11
he graduated from University of Georgia.
3:14
And he went to his boss at the time and said, hey, I think I
3:18
understand what you're doing, and I like it, and I'd like to
3:21
be a part of it. Of course, at the time, he'd had
3:23
all four of his bottom teeth and two of his top teeth knocked out
3:26
from rugby. He had long hair and a beard.
3:29
And Thelma said, that's OK, I'll give you a chance.
3:34
But you got to do these things. You got to fix your teeth, cut
3:36
your beard, make me a promise that you're going to stop
3:39
chewing tobacco. And, you know, we'll give you a
3:42
go. So that's what that did.
3:44
Showed up the next day with a clean haircut, a dentist slip, a
3:48
solid oath that he wouldn't chew anymore.
3:50
And the opportunity came his way.
3:55
Flash forward, he built the business on the waterfront,
3:58
doing a lot of firewatch and stuff for a company around here
4:02
called Metro Machine. Metro Machine Firewatch.
4:05
Firewatch is a position for hot work on board vessels.
4:10
So when somebody's welding or fitting or doing any kind of
4:15
work that generates spark or uses an arc Nazi standard items
4:20
requires that a person overseas that work on standby with a fire
4:24
bottle. And that's where dad built the
4:28
business from was that entry level position and then kind of
4:32
worked his way up from there until Thummel came in and said,
4:36
hey, I got good news and I got bad news.
4:38
And he said, well, what's going on?
4:40
He says good news is we're going public.
4:42
Well, great, happy day, you know, payday for for Mark Frock.
4:46
He says bad news is he ain't coming with us.
4:49
Yeah, I said, well, what what do you mean, what's going on?
4:53
Thermo said. The ACT acquisition team or the
4:59
equity investor, but whatever it was, they weren't interested in
5:02
stomaching the risk of waterfront business.
5:08
And that's a big part and a big concern of what we do.
5:11
And when you mentioned health and safety in my leadership
5:14
style and that Francis R Sharp award actually comes from our
5:18
workers comp provider, that's a big deal keeping people safe on
5:23
the job for us and happily expand on that and then you know
5:27
later in in the conversation, but is something that's always
5:30
forefront in mind. So the risk wasn't appealing to
5:34
the acquirers of Abacus. And so Thummel funded Dad's
5:40
payroll and thought for sure he'd never get out from
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underneath of them because the terms were so strict.
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But we, you know, as a family are capable of operating a
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really thrifty and fiscally conservative operation.
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And so he organically got to a point where he didn't need
6:00
Thummel. So we got traditional financing
6:03
and continue to grow the business.
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He started with about two or 300 in.
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So he split off at this point. Yeah.
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So he split off and, and Hummel, he, he, he funded the payroll
6:14
initially and then you guys kind of find a way to, to break off
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from that. That's right.
6:19
Flash forward about 2010, Dad called me up and said, hey, you
6:24
know, we've got this family business.
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And everything that I understand about family business
6:28
transitions is that it's going to take about 5 years to make
6:31
this happen. I was doing real estate in
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Central Florida at the time and got to looking at numbers and
6:37
thinking about stuff and, you know, family legacy and
6:40
everything else. And he said if you think there
6:46
is a possibility, now is the time.
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So I packed up all my stuff, grabbed my girlfriend at the
6:53
time who's now wife and mother of my 4 kids.
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You know, just a few short months later I was throwing
7:00
boxes in a container and checking in crews on the yards
7:04
and, you know, working in the business.
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Had you prior to that phone call ever thought that you were going
7:10
to get involved in the business? I mean you were off kind of
7:13
doing your own thing. Did had the seed already been
7:15
planted before that, or did this kind of call come out of left
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field? He knew it was coming.
7:22
I had my head down and I was grinding.
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I didn't have any real just serious job prospects out of
7:29
college because I graduated in O8 and Central Florida was one
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of the hardest hits, one of the hardest hit markets for, you
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know, for the fiscal crisis at that time.
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So what I was able to do was scoop up a bunch of, you know,
7:48
very affordable properties. I mean, I was scooping up
7:53
properties for 203040K at a time.
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And I found a finance partner that, you know, helped, helped
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me do that. Started with three doors, but it
8:01
was me laying the tile, running the insulation, doing the
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plumbing. Man, I've been shocked more
8:06
times than I have count. Let's try to do electrical
8:09
stuff. But I learned a lot.
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And actually part of those series of conversations with Dad
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was he was like, look, you know, I'm happy with what you've done
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down there. And, you know, even if
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everything goes to, you know, heck, in a handbasket, you're
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always going to be employable. You'll always be able to have a
8:28
job. You'll always be able to put
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food on the table. Now, look at our tradesmen now.
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And I think about that too. You know, they go through a lot
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with the ups and downs and the challenges of their work.
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But man, they are never really out of a job.
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It's just a matter of whether or not you can pay them enough to
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do it. OK.
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So yeah, what does, what does the landscape of your industry
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look like now? Landscape of the industry,
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there's a lot of M&A, there is a lot of acquisitions happening.
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I'm I'm finding there's money that I didn't realize that was
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out there. You know, The Carlyle Group and
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Stelle X and some of these big major equity investors are
9:09
coming into the market that we hadn't seen, you know, really
9:12
prior, prior to maybe 5-6, seven years ago.
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That's been one of the things that's been changing the market
9:17
here in a way that is a little bit different or unusual.
9:22
Packaging 2345 companies at a time and taking that package and
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re flipping it. Specific to staffing, it's all
9:32
about the people, it's all about the relationships.
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It's all about making sure that we can.
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And big part of Tidewater's role is stitching together each of
9:39
these contracts as one vessel comes in.
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They're going to need a ton of employees.
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The contractors that get to work on say the Oscar Austin might
9:49
not have all the work on the baton, but they're both going to
9:52
be in port. And what we try to do is we try
9:54
to keep the town here in the port by keeping that town busy
9:57
and working. So whether it's on the Oscar
9:59
Austin with a particular flooring contractor or the baton
10:03
on a different flooring contractor, when one contract
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ends, it's our job to stitch the employees jobs together such
10:10
that they can continue to provide for themselves for for
10:13
themselves and their families and.
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That has to be a huge logistical challenge because you're not
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really in control of when those jobs sort of become available,
10:21
right? A million percent, yeah.
10:24
You know, there is some transparency with
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thingslikesand.gov and like, you know, public announcement of
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particular contracts and that sort of stuff.
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So we tried to do a lot of watching of that.
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But really, you know, again, it comes down to even our personal
10:36
relationships to our customers. Yeah, even just yesterday
10:40
morning, I spent an hour, hour and a half on the phone with a
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customer who had a competitor poaching people off of his deck
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plate, trying to get them to go on other jobs and whatnot.
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And, you know, so we work through that problem, we come up
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with a couple of strategies and solutions and, you know, keep it
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marching forward. But that's a prime example of
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how Tidewater's quality and connection to its customers and
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its associates serves us not only in the short term of
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solving this particular problem, but the likability and trust
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that is built from those exchanges continues to serve.
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When you know, the new flashy people on the street come in and
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think that they can get in the ship repair market because they
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see they they see what we do and they think that it's easy.
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And these people trying to come in are the people that have
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experience in staffing, but not specifically in shipbuilding
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staffing. And, and there there are some
11:41
nuances in in this particular industry that they're just not
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aware of before they get into it.
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Big time, and it's for as big of a industry as it is, is a very
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tight knit community. Everybody has a tendency to know
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everybody else, especially the big players that have been
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around a long time and you know, for better, for worse, this
12:01
thoroughbred has been around stuff about about 14 years old,
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so. So I want to go back to when the
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thoroughbred came in and this, you know, it was Dad's show and
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and you're kind of learning the ropes, kind of working your way
12:12
up, you know, learning the business from the bottom up.
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What was that transition like for you?
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You know, I understand at McDonald's they make even the
12:21
managers flip burgers. So I was willing to take that
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kind of on the chin and I learned a ton about logistics
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and the way that the freight movement industry works at the
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time. That was a newer sector of
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business for us. And I to this day remember the
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names and faces of the people and the customers that really
12:48
chewed me out and gave it to the good.
12:52
What were you messing up, Jay? Oh man, if you had a misdivert,
12:56
if you put the wrong item number on the wrong card and it went to
12:59
the wrong truck, you ended up costing the customer and our and
13:04
our customers and their customers money.
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Because, you know, if Robert Ducky is supposed to go to
13:09
Norfolk and it ends up in Baltimore, you know that's a
13:11
problem for logistics company. They actually would ask that if
13:20
you knew that you had a misdivert to go get it.
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And there was more than once where if you pack a container
13:28
left to right, high and tight, you still end up having just a
13:31
little bit of room at the top of the container.
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And because I was thinner and a little bit more athletic than
13:37
most of my counterparts, it was my job to go into sometimes all
13:41
the way to the back of the container if it happened early
13:43
in the day and find the mist of hurts, pull them out.
13:46
And if I could save it that container from having to be
13:49
completely unloaded. I got a couple of good kudos
13:52
doing that a couple of times. That was pretty fun.
13:54
Hot and dirty, Good job, but it sounds like.
13:57
Oh man, the dirtiest sorry in the shipyards though.
13:59
One of my favorites was with a mentor of mine in the industry
14:02
who doesn't who has since retired.
14:06
Guy with the tank cleaning company with big white beard who
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walked me through the processes behind what it means to clean
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tanks for ballast tanks or bilge areas in the ships as well as
14:21
fuel tanks and what they call CHT tanks for like their you
14:26
know human waste tanks that kind of stuff.
14:29
The first tank he ever put me in was an oil 6 tank.
14:34
I was a barge and they up and down were like, so they, they
14:39
suit you up with rubber suits and duct tape your wrists for
14:43
the gloves so that you can't get any, so the oil doesn't get in
14:46
on you and whatever. And being new and trying to
14:50
learn the ropes and whatever they offer me rubber boots.
14:53
And I said, oh, no thanks. Well, turns out when you get
14:55
down on the bottom of the the barge, there's 6 or 8 inches of
14:59
oil 6 sitting on the bottom. And it's our job to push that
15:02
stuff across the floor. Well, that was the last time I
15:05
wore that nice pair of boots. You learned, you learned a lot
15:09
of stuff the hard way. And I have to imagine, you know,
15:12
being able to have those hands on experiences and mistakes has
15:16
served you well. Now when you're more in a
15:19
management role and helping to place a lot of these workers and
15:24
secure a lot of these contracts because you understand the work
15:28
that needs to be done and the kind of folks that you need to
15:31
be able to put into those roles. Yeah, very much so.
15:34
And it's one of the things that we impress upon our current
15:36
staff as well as if you get the opportunity, even if you're
15:39
specifically assigned to be a recruiter in the office, we give
15:43
opportunities to each of them to go out to the yards and
15:45
experience some of the jobs. And we have a dedicated safety
15:49
team of four individuals that do nothing but go on board the
15:52
vessels and work with our customers safety programs to
15:55
make sure that we're walking the boats, that people are doing the
15:57
job safely, that they had the right PPE, that they are in fact
16:00
doing the job they were sent to do.
16:02
If I send a fire watch out to a customer and I go out and I find
16:06
out he's power tooling or running a jackhammer or doing
16:09
something different, we've got a conversation with a customer
16:11
that we need to address and we need to make sure that they're
16:13
outfit appropriately to do that job.
16:16
How can I know what job or what PPE to give that person if I've
16:19
never at least laid eyes on or had some kind of personal
16:23
experience with what they're doing out there?
16:26
So very much so. The personal experiences matter
16:28
a lot. And you've talked a lot about
16:31
safety already. And we mentioned the Francis
16:34
Sharp Executive Leadership Award you said came from your workers
16:37
comp group. Say more about why safety is
16:41
such an important part of what you guys do there at Tidewater.
16:46
First and foremost, it's the right thing to do.
16:49
It's taking care of people, making sure, you know, it's a
16:51
benefits provider. You're trying to take care of
16:53
people as well, and which I think is super admirable and a
16:56
really important part of taking people.
16:59
Taking care of people includes making sure they have access to
17:01
the benefits and stuff that they, in my opinion, have earned
17:05
and deserve from a fiscal and a, you know, kind of a business
17:09
perspective. Our largest cost to doing
17:12
business is payroll. Our second largest cost to doing
17:15
business is our workers comp insurance.
17:19
So keeping people safe is not only the right thing to do, but
17:21
it also makes us competitively, gives us a competitive advantage
17:26
when we keep people safe. And I tell you, you need
17:30
harkening back a little bit to kind of the difference between
17:33
Dad's business and our business. Temp labor used to be,
17:36
especially in ship repair, very much the redheaded stepchild of
17:39
the industry. You gave your riskiest, most
17:42
lowest paid, most high turnover. And that's why Firewatch was a
17:45
thing for Dad. That's what you gave to the temp
17:49
labor company. There's a high-powered exec in
17:52
the industry that Dad only got 5 minutes of time with when he was
17:55
over at Metro Machine. But the gentleman leaned across
17:59
the table with, you know, after a couple of pleasantries and
18:02
said, you know what, all you temp agencies are the same.
18:07
Every so often. You just got to shed your skin.
18:09
What's that mean? What you And he had to think
18:11
about that for a little bit and you know, kind of just said,
18:13
well, all right, thank you. And kind of left was really just
18:17
there to kind of thank him for the business and whatever else.
18:19
But what that gentleman was expressing was that every so
18:23
often workers comp expenses got so extravagant for temp labor on
18:29
the waterfront that they just closed the business, restart it
18:31
with a new modification rate and start their business all over
18:34
again. Every so often you got to shed
18:36
your skin. That's how business used to be
18:39
on the waterfront because. It's kind of scary so many,
18:44
there's so many claims that get filed, your rates keep going up.
18:48
And so at some point you've got to close down, open up under a
18:50
new corporation name, a new EIN so you can kind of start fresh.
18:55
So that's how it used to be, but today?
18:58
What's it like? Time Water Staffing sets the
19:01
standard for being a safe, respected, transparent, honest
19:13
company. You know, dad always ran it like
19:16
that. And that when dad heard that,
19:18
you know, that only reinforced his willpower to make sure that
19:22
he never had to shed his skin. We still operate under the same
19:26
employee ID number. We still, we have, we merged
19:31
with another company. So we went from tidewater temps
19:34
to tidewater staffing, but it's the same people, you know, Dad
19:40
set a standard and. And So what does that look like,
19:46
this focus on safety? Is it just making sure that
19:50
folks have the right equipment? Is it a different level of
19:52
training before they're on the job?
19:54
Kind of walk us through like what it is that you're doing
19:57
differently than what a lot of those companies that have to
20:00
shed their skin do. Yeah.
20:01
Well, so the highest propensity for injury happens for your
20:06
entry and low or semi skilled employees and that is our
20:12
bailiwick. We do that really, really well.
20:13
We do high volume and we do a ton of them and we have figured
20:20
out a couple of things that help keep people safe on the job.
20:23
One is appropriate exposure to as much as we can get them to
20:28
before they get out there. So it started with a guy named
20:33
Steve Owens who put a tank hole cut out out of plywood in front
20:41
of a door to get into orientation.
20:44
And I just love that idea. Meaning that if you can't get
20:47
through this tank hole, it is a safety concern for you to be out
20:51
on the job. Because if you can't get in and
20:53
out of the tanks or if you can't get in and out of a confined
20:55
space, you're going to cause problems for yourself and
20:59
anybody else behind you. OK, so kind of step one is
21:02
experiential learning and screening, right?
21:06
So that concept has expanded to a full blown training facility
21:11
that we have now. So I have a mock shipboard
21:13
environment where I have a ladder, a gangway with overhead
21:17
hazards and a Navsi standard tank hole that goes down into a
21:21
confined space. And we learn a lot about of our
21:24
learn a lot about our associates before we ever put them on the
21:27
job. We learn whether or not they're
21:29
afraid of heights. Can they maneuver around
21:31
overhead hazards? Can they wear the PPE?
21:33
Can they carry the fire bottle? Do they freak out in the
21:36
confined space when they get down there and, and, you know,
21:42
have an opportunity to see what a dark hole really feels like.
21:45
Our biggest complaint from customers used to be that the
21:49
employees would walk through the gate, look around for a little
21:52
bit, or even start the job and then turn around and walk out.
21:54
Well, now we've spent tons of time, effort and money on the
21:57
recruiting process, the equipment to get them out there,
22:00
the time and the effort to make that happen, and it's all gone
22:04
and the customer's short on people and we look like we don't
22:07
know what we're doing. The other piece of this is that
22:12
once we find the right person and put them out on the job, we
22:16
continue to interact with them, not just like via phone calls
22:19
and check insurance and whatnot, but also with our recruiters
22:23
that are in the office. We'll also go out and do on site
22:26
check insurance. So the ones that do the training
22:28
for the individuals, they run through the fire watch class or
22:31
they go to the Ocean Maritime 10 hour course with us.
22:34
All that training by the way, for our associates is no cost to
22:37
them. So that brings people in the
22:40
door to us that are interested in to get a foot in the door
22:42
opportunity and ship repair. No cost to the the associate.
22:48
No cost. They can come in, they can get
22:49
trained and when they're finished with the training then
22:53
you've got jobs lined up for them.
22:54
Yep. And the idea is while they're
22:56
going through that training, we've already done the other
22:58
things that are unique to our industry, like things like
23:00
access lists. We've got to make sure that the
23:02
boat knows the, the, the captains and the ships force
23:06
know who's coming on their vessel.
23:07
So we have to submit these access requests ahead of time.
23:10
Those access requests go from us to our customers, from our
23:13
customers to Marmac, from Marmac to the vessel.
23:17
And that whole chain of events takes sometimes a week to two
23:19
weeks to get people in on the list.
23:23
While they're waiting for access, they're going through
23:25
the training. And so the ideal world is they
23:27
finish all of their training right as their access clears and
23:30
we get to send them right out to work.
23:32
When we send them out to work, that's where our coordinators
23:34
who are getting them through the training and the ones that are
23:37
interacting with them go out to the job site and sometimes they
23:41
start five, 5:36 AM and we're taking one hand hold.
23:45
You know, we're taking a hand from the associate and we're
23:48
taking a hand from the customer saying, OK, guys, here is each
23:51
other. You found it, you did it great.
23:54
You know, task #1 task #2 now go do a good job on site.
23:58
Once they get working and they they get the kind of that
23:59
routine going, they're in great shape.
24:01
A lot of our contracts typically last for months at a time
24:04
because there's so much work that needs to happen on a
24:06
vessel. So that's pretty cool as well.
24:10
And then like I mentioned, when one contract ends, we shift them
24:12
to another. While they're out there working,
24:15
our safety team at random intervals will do our own job
24:18
hazard assessments and we do that in coordination with, with
24:24
our customers and with Marmac. They, they all have their own
24:27
representatives and safety programs.
24:29
And Tidewater is one of the few staffing firms that I know of
24:36
that has the dedicated safety team of professionals that we
24:39
do. Sometimes if somebody, if a
24:43
customer or if a competitor is doing it pretty well, they'll
24:46
have like an OSHA trainer or something on staff.
24:50
But to have four of them like we do and to have the level of
24:53
interaction out on site like we do is something that is specific
24:57
and unique to us. And I'll tell you the flip to
25:02
that is it's not as profitable I was.
25:05
Just going to say you're cutting into your margins by having
25:07
extra, you know, safety staff there by offering that free
25:12
training to all the associates who want to come in, you know
25:16
that it's free to them. It's not free to you.
25:18
You're you're paying for a lot more labor on your team.
25:20
But this seems to kind of tie in really well with Tidewater's
25:24
mission statement. Put people to work, Do the right
25:27
thing every. Day, the right thing every day
25:30
is about making sure that people come home with all their fingers
25:32
and toes. Now, you know, there are an
25:38
enormous number of learning experiences I have had with
25:43
regards to safety and with regards to some, you know,
25:46
policy stuff and whatnot. But there were, there were two
25:50
years in particular that were just so brutal for us right as
25:56
we were making the transition from traditional workers comp to
25:59
Signal Mutual to get into Signal Mutual, which is our workers
26:02
comp provider who we absolutely adore and have a tremendous
26:05
relationship with. You have to be vetted.
26:08
You have to be vetted financially and you have to be
26:10
vetted through your safety programs.
26:11
You have to be somebody to be there and to be in the club, if
26:15
you will. All of my biggest customers were
26:18
there. We wanted to be there, you know,
26:20
for years, but they didn't do staffing agencies for a long,
26:23
long time. We were one of the 1st and we
26:27
screwed it up. We got in and we had two really
26:35
nasty incidences where people were in JLG lifts, the kind of
26:41
boom lifts that extend out and have the basket in them.
26:45
One of the JLG lifts failed and the arm came back into the
26:49
machine so violently that it caused a lot of injury to the
26:53
individual that he was wearing a safety equipment and stuff.
26:57
But there's just no way around it.
27:00
You know, we had that incident and another incident where the
27:03
lift, the boom lift fell down. It was really wild that they
27:07
happened so closely together. I mean, a matter of maybe a
27:10
month or two apart and I do that fell down, fell down and hit his
27:15
face and had a whole bunch of dental reconstruction and like
27:18
it's just really nasty incident that drove our moderate high and
27:26
garnered attention we didn't want.
27:31
But as things go, you kind of you learn from your mistakes and
27:36
you know, what was a real challenge became a real
27:39
opportunity that helped transition my leadership style
27:46
personally from the traditional method of thinking of just
27:51
sending them out and kind of forgetting to building what is
27:55
now what I've just described to you, a full blown safety team, a
27:58
training facility. So it was those horrible
28:01
incidents that led to you saying, hey, we need a new
28:05
approach here. Exactly.
28:06
We need to, we need to cut our margins and invest more in
28:11
safety in the people. Right, a million percent.
28:14
There was a shift from the old way of doing things to we can no
28:20
longer continue to do work in this manner.
28:23
What do we need to do to to improve?
28:26
How can we, how can we be better at what we do?
28:29
And the challenge came to me from a gentleman by the name of
28:31
James Sammons. James has since retired, but
28:34
everybody in industry knows him and he's famous for telling you
28:38
like it is. And boy, I got a talking to you
28:43
from Mr. Sammons and he gave us the first, he handed us the
28:48
first iterations of our job hazard assessments.
28:53
He helped us build out the framework and build conceptually
28:57
the safety team. He met with us monthly and we
29:01
still meet monthly with the new, with the signal representative
29:04
that we have now. The legacy that James Sammons
29:07
help us build from a safety perspective is one that I'll
29:09
never forget. And man, when you talk about
29:13
people that are willing to go out on site and, you know, spend
29:15
the time, Sam and I spent many times in our coveralls walking
29:19
the job sites, being present, talking to associates, figuring
29:23
out what was going on and making sure that our customers knew
29:26
that this was this was a new day.
29:29
Well, hats off to you because I mean it, it would have been just
29:32
as easy to kind of like turtle up in your shell and you know,
29:36
hey, it's terrible thing, but this is, you know, risk is the
29:39
industry. But you had somebody give you a
29:42
good talking to you. You did some self reflection.
29:46
You said we're we're going to do things differently.
29:48
It's going to cut into our margins.
29:49
It's going to make us less profitable, but it's the right
29:53
thing to do. And you know, what's funny about
29:56
doing the right thing is that, you know, when you, when you
30:02
operate with a good breastplate, the universe has a funny way of
30:07
delivering good things back to you.
30:11
You know, it's increased our relationships and strength of
30:13
relationships with our customers.
30:15
We can become the GOG 2 provider.
30:17
And So what ends up originally being a, oh man, this is really
30:22
gonna suck. We're not gonna make as much
30:24
money. We're gonna be, you know,
30:25
pinching pennies and whatever else ends up being the, the
30:28
volume makes up for it. And the trust that our customers
30:32
now have in US versus our competition has more than
30:38
made-up for the sacrifices that we made initially and then
30:43
followed up five years later because it's a five year look
30:46
back period for the insurance rates followed up five years
30:49
later, my my insurance rates start dropping.
30:52
Now my margins are increasing every every year.
30:55
And now you know, that Francis R Sharp thing was 3-4 years ago at
31:01
this point, but you know, I'm giving talks at Signal events
31:05
where we just initiated Jeanetta, one of my safety
31:08
managers into the safety committee officially.
31:12
You know, Signal is pointing its customers, which are also my
31:18
customers or you know, potential customers.
31:20
They are pointing the business in our direction because they
31:23
know, like and trust us to do it the right way.
31:26
So my latest one, I'm pretty excited about this one.
31:32
It's something simple, something that everybody control and
31:34
that's the hard hats. There's a real stigma in the
31:37
yards right now that everybody uses traditional hard hats which
31:40
are cheap and they had the brim and whatever, but but what they
31:44
miss is the the buckle, right? So.
31:49
You can easily fall off. Right.
31:52
So we made the decision to be one of the first companies to
31:59
mandate that our associates go out and they call them helmets
32:05
and helmets are the ones that buckle, but a traditional hard
32:08
hat is a four point suspension system, kind of relatively cheap
32:11
polymer for the plastic and whatever else.
32:14
The new stuff, the new helmets that we use are thicker, better
32:20
materials. They're six point suspensions as
32:22
opposed to four point. They're adjustable and they clip
32:25
on now. Doesn't sound like a monumental
32:31
thing on the surface of it, but the pushback that a lot of
32:34
people in the industry had because of their old style hard
32:36
hats and like they don't want to give them up and that kind of
32:38
thing. We were in a unique position
32:41
because when we issue PPE to our employees, we're usually their
32:45
first issue or we're, you know, kind of we're, you know,
32:51
reissuing or whatever. So when we hand them their
32:55
equipment, they don't get a choice to use their old stuff or
32:58
whatever. So we have the choice.
33:01
Do you want to be the company that hands them the old cheap,
33:07
you know, gonna fall off likely to only do very little in a time
33:10
of serious incident? Do you want to be that person?
33:12
Or in our case, we forexed the amount of money that we were
33:16
spending on helmets and we give them the high quality stuff.
33:21
But boy, they look sharp and they're out there and they wear
33:25
them with pride, you know? And that's awful neat to see. 4
33:29
XI mean that's a big increase. It's not like we're talking 10
33:32
or 20%. And you know, you guys are
33:34
hiring lots of folks each year and so that that really adds up.
33:38
But yeah, I just, I see this common thread here of doing the
33:42
right thing, doing the right thing.
33:44
You got it. And you know, you're talking
33:46
about how you know, it's kind of come back to you in positive
33:49
ways, right? You, your insurance rates start
33:51
to drop your customers now they can see the difference in the
33:56
associates that you're sending them.
33:58
They appreciate that you become the go to.
34:01
It's got to reduce any kind of, you know, marketing and sales
34:03
expenses that you're normally spending to go out and kind of,
34:06
you know, drum up the next contract because you're top of
34:09
mind for folks now. You got it.
34:12
Yeah, We have a really unique marketing and sales kind of
34:17
perspective. I've tried a lot of things
34:20
online, you know, all the job board ads and LinkedIn stuff,
34:29
but none of them, none of those methods and things that I have
34:33
tried has ever compared to are on site are safety people.
34:39
And really just when I get to go do tours or walk with customers
34:43
or whatever else, those are the things that seal deals.
34:45
You know, again, it's just such a relationship and personal
34:48
relationship business that it's, it's hard to overstate how
34:53
important involvement is from an executive level and from from
35:00
myself, from my safety managers to, you know, be able to
35:05
communicate directly with our customers face to face is just
35:08
huge. So.
35:10
So we're talking about the customer relationship part of
35:13
the equation there. And then there's the associate
35:16
relationship. You know, you guys are, you
35:18
know, you're bringing in lots of folks.
35:20
You're, you know, putting lots of folks to work.
35:22
I'm curious at the scale that you're operating, what are some
35:25
things that you've tried and found success with from both a
35:28
recruiting and a retention standpoint?
35:31
Hire from the talent pool that you want to put out in the
35:34
field. So we take people who have that
35:38
deck plate experience and we turn them into recruiters.
35:43
I don't hire can't, you know, try not to speak in absolutes.
35:46
I can't say never, but rarely do we find success with people that
35:50
come from other staffing agencies because they already
35:52
know all the they already know all the answers.
35:54
They they know how to operate. OK, prime example, I had a a
36:00
conversation with a customer yesterday.
36:02
He said, yeah, you know, I, I know these things can get really
36:05
heated and, and, you know, people are paid on Commission
36:08
and they and they and they, you know, these placements matter
36:12
and, and, you know, emotions run high.
36:14
I said, you know, that's an interesting point and one that
36:17
is worth making now is our comp structure for our recruiters and
36:21
our coordinators is not Commission based.
36:25
We do training in teams of teams.
36:28
There are so many moving pieces to what we do that it doesn't
36:30
make sense to have a training coordinator paid a Commission
36:33
for a placement or somebody who made the OR took the phone call
36:36
from somebody calling in. Like who do you attribute the
36:39
Commission to? And no, one of the no, one of
36:43
the steps is you can't skip them.
36:46
You can't put them out on the job if they hadn't had fire
36:50
prevention training. You can't get them in the office
36:53
if the recruiter's not making the calls.
36:55
You can't keep them working if they don't have the right PPE
36:59
and the safety team and checking on it.
37:01
Takes a village. Exactly.
37:03
And so that team on teams mentality or that team of teams
37:06
mentality I think has set us apart from a recruitment and
37:10
placement perspective. The other thing advantage you
37:15
know that we have over some of our, you know, national or
37:19
multinational competitors is that our payrolls done in house.
37:22
I don't use ADPI, don't do any of that stuff.
37:25
I have a very cost effective and robust applicant tracking system
37:29
that's both front end and back end.
37:32
And so if we are missing ours or we are, you know, trying to make
37:37
adjustments for a customer or for an associate, we do it right
37:41
then and there. I don't have to wait on
37:43
California or a week down the road or this.
37:46
You know, our people live paycheck to paycheck.
37:49
And if something, if somebody is messing with their money or they
37:52
have that perception that somebody is messing with their
37:54
money, well, that's a quick way to lose them.
37:56
And so doing the right thing means taking care of them, you
38:01
know, from a health and Wellness perspective out on site, as well
38:05
as a fiscal perspective to make sure that we get their time and
38:08
their pay correct. So I'm going to talk a little
38:12
bit about your focus on environmental stewardship.
38:16
You know, you guys have supported the Vessel Disposal
38:20
Reuse Foundation. I'm kind of curious, Jay, how do
38:24
these conservation efforts tie into your broader business model
38:29
and mission? Oh man, we take care of the
38:32
waterways that take care of us. So Lynn Haven River now is a
38:36
local waterway protection and environmental stewardship
38:40
organization. So is the Elizabeth River
38:43
program and then the Vessel Reuse and Disposal Foundation,
38:47
which by the way, that Mike Provost guy, he has taken off,
38:49
he's getting, he's gotten hundreds of vessels out of the
38:53
water, derelict vessels out of the water.
38:55
And, and all three of those are specific to Tidewater and
38:59
important to us because they're here in the Port of Virginia.
39:02
You know, when I say take care of the waterways that take care
39:05
of us, if it weren't for the waterways, if we didn't have the
39:10
Elizabeth River, the Lynnhaven River, the Chesapeake Bay, we
39:13
didn't have these tributaries and deep water access, we
39:17
wouldn't have a business, we wouldn't have a port.
39:19
We wouldn't have the vessels coming in to drop off the
39:21
containers. We wouldn't have the ability to
39:23
service the fleet as it needs its repairs and modernization.
39:31
So that's how and why we chose the foundation, chose to support
39:35
the foundations that we do. Jay, setting aside any humility,
39:38
how would you describe your superpower?
39:42
Oh, shoot, Oh man. Think probably the and, and this
39:50
is something that dad taught me a long time ago, he said.
39:53
You know, what's most important isn't always, you know, he was
39:55
talking about school isn't necessarily what specific
39:59
subject matter that you're learning, You know, whether it's
40:02
algebra or chemistry or whatever, it's the meta of
40:08
knowing how to learn. I can pick up a subject matter
40:13
pretty quickly and get a good grasp of most of what's going
40:19
on, at least enough to not look like a total idiot.
40:26
Pretty quickly and I think that has really helped me because of
40:32
how many different things we end up interacting with in a day,
40:37
whether it be the specifics of tank cleaning, you know, you got
40:40
to get real micro there. If you're not talking, they take
40:44
tank cleaners language, they're not going to trust you, right?
40:49
But I've also got to turn around and be able to talk total
40:51
recordable instant rates on the workers comp side or be able to
40:56
go and talk to the banks about our credit line and what sort of
41:01
covenants they have associated with that.
41:02
And then making sure that we're staying, you know, in accordance
41:06
with what their expectations are.
41:09
I think one of the most challenging parts of an
41:11
entrepreneur is to be able to switch those hats and to be able
41:15
to wear them and, and, and, and switch those gears quickly.
41:19
So if I had to take a stab at it, I'd say I'm pretty quick at
41:24
learning just enough about something not to look foolish to
41:27
be able to talk about it. You know, it's interesting you
41:30
say that. I've got two young boys, they're
41:32
9 and 10. And one of the things I really
41:36
want to impress upon them isn't, you know, did you get them all
41:39
the questions right on the test to the quiz?
41:42
It's sort of understanding and developing this process of
41:47
learning how to learn. Yes.
41:50
And it's a tough message to teach to a 10 or 11 year old.
41:53
It's a tough message to, you know, explain to myself or, you
41:58
know, try to wrap my own head around like, you know, sort of
42:01
like going through school, there was this trajectory of you learn
42:05
something just long enough to take the test, right?
42:07
And then after you took the test, you know, unless it was
42:11
like a continuous subject, like some math or some science course
42:14
that you were on, like you were OK, sort of like dropping that
42:17
retention. But as you kind of get to be,
42:20
you know, a big kid in the real world and you've got to, you've
42:23
got to be able to not only learn new things, but then retain the
42:26
knowledge and be able to put them into use.
42:29
And you're kind of nodding your head and you're, you know, sort
42:31
of in agreement. I'm curious if you've sort of
42:35
discovered an unlock or a key that has been helpful to you in
42:39
sort of learning how to learn. YouTube, YouTube and being smart
42:47
enough to know where your limits lie.
42:50
My tank cleaning mentor that I mentioned earlier that ruined my
42:55
good, my good pair of boots. I was humble enough to go to him
43:02
and tell him, You know, Doug, you've been around this industry
43:06
a long time. I don't know what I'm doing.
43:08
Can you help me understand what's going on here?
43:10
Oh, hell yeah, son. I'm gonna go put you in the
43:13
tank. But what I noticed was that when
43:17
you're willing to be humble and, you know, be willing to learn,
43:23
others will help you. The YouTube comment is a little
43:29
tongue in cheek, but is sincere in the sense that you've also
43:32
got to be willing to do some of the lift yourself.
43:36
And when you do some of the lift yourself and you bring kind of
43:39
that homework to any mentor, they appreciate that when you
43:43
can show that you're a self starter, when you can show that
43:47
you've gotten down the path a little ways.
43:48
But I'm stuck here. Then all of a sudden, you know,
43:52
doors start opening before you didn't you didn't even know
43:54
existed. So.
43:58
I, I like a couple of things that you hit on there, you know,
44:00
with YouTube, with things like ChatGPT and other large language
44:04
models, there are places that we can go and get a good base of
44:08
education, you know, without having to sort of tap somebody
44:12
on the shoulder and, and ask for help.
44:14
But having said that, perhaps the even more powerful thing is
44:19
to kind of raise your hand and ask the experts for help.
44:22
I, I'm looking to level up here. I don't know what I don't know.
44:25
Can you give me a hand? And I think a lot of people
44:28
would be, I, I think most people are afraid to ask that question,
44:31
you know, for a couple of reasons.
44:32
They don't want to bother somebody and they don't want to
44:35
look stupid. They don't want to, you know,
44:38
admit that this is something that, you know, they're sort of
44:40
lacking in. But I think most people would be
44:43
surprised the number of times you raise your hand and you ask
44:46
somebody for help, how willing and and excited they are to
44:51
actually give you that help and and share that knowledge that
44:54
they have. 100%, I totally back up that mentality in the
44:57
statements. And I tell you, the other ones
44:59
that get really impressed and really excited about you asking
45:03
silly or basic questions are, are the associates, my employees
45:07
that are out there, You know, man, God, Shannon, I can't
45:12
remember Shannon's last name. Shannon's a was the son of a
45:18
supervisor for a decking and coding company and went to
45:22
Shannon one time, kind of said that just, hey, you know, walk
45:25
me through kind of what you're doing here.
45:26
What, what are you looking for? What's going on?
45:28
He says, well, look, when I'm painting this particular portion
45:30
of the engine room, I got to make sure I get under this lip
45:33
right here because they're going to pull out.
45:35
The QA guys are going to pull out this mirror and they're
45:36
going to look under the mirror and they're going to use that
45:38
mirror and they're going to see whether or not I hit under the
45:40
lip, right? So he walked me through and he
45:43
was so excited to show me all the tips and tricks and things
45:46
that he was doing and whatever else.
45:48
To this day, Anthony, I carry a mirror in my coveralls.
45:54
Thank you, Shannon. That's right.
45:56
That's right. Let's shift gears, maybe kind of
45:59
look at the other side of the, you know, superpower coin, which
46:02
is, you know, a lot of times our teachers are, are like hard
46:06
experiences, like big challenges.
46:08
What's a what's a serious challenge, Jay, that you've
46:12
overcome in your life, whether it's personal or professional,
46:15
and what did you learn going through that?
46:18
So I'll tie a couple of kind of subjects that we talked to
46:21
together pretty quick. I, I have a passion for learning
46:27
new things. One of the things that I got
46:28
into and learned pretty quickly and, and did pretty well at was
46:31
with skydiving. I'm, I have about 1100 skydives.
46:35
I'm AD licensed skydiver. I have two state records in the
46:39
state of Virginia for large formation skydiving.
46:43
And as good as I was, I made a mistake one day piloting a
46:49
perfectly operational canopy in ideal conditions.
46:54
I misjudged my turn and I slammed in the water.
46:58
I tore my colon, my spleen, my superior mesoteric artery.
47:02
I spent about 5 days in the hospital, three of which were in
47:08
the ICU. They transferred about a liter
47:12
and a half of blood in in to me when I was on the table 'cause I
47:16
went grey. It was a super traumatic
47:21
experience. The chariot on the top of that
47:24
experience was a week prior to the accident.
47:29
We found out that we were pregnant with our first kid.
47:31
I had to tell my parents and tell his relative because I was
47:38
intubated. I had to write on a, on a pad of
47:41
paper to them that they were going to be grandparents because
47:46
I didn't think I was. I'm gonna get another chance.
47:49
What what did I learn? Why is that relevant?
47:52
Well, couple of things. One, it's part of my
47:56
presentation that I give when I describe the importance of
47:59
appropriate head protection. And so that ties directly into
48:03
why I feel like I, I am obligated to do the right thing
48:06
to take care of our employees heads, farts and brains, right?
48:11
That's one tie in. The other tie in is no matter
48:15
how good you think you are, you're only a mistake or two
48:18
away from total disaster. So it keeps you on your toes, it
48:24
keeps you humble. And you know, if I could pick up
48:29
the camera and show you have a couple of skydiving photos over
48:34
there. But really the most important
48:35
thing that's sitting on that wall over there is my ER report,
48:39
Doctor Marsha Nelson. And they called me Saturn Blue
48:42
'cause they didn't know my name. And it still sits on the wall
48:46
right there in my office. And I see it almost daily.
48:50
And it's a constant reminder that you need to listen, you
48:56
need to be humble, you need to know that there are things out
48:59
there that might bite you that you don't know exists yet.
49:02
The unknown unknowns are the real dangers more often than
49:06
not. And so that accident was seven
49:12
or eight years ago now. And I'd like to think that the
49:15
person I was prior to the accident is a whole lot
49:18
different than the person that I was post accident.
49:21
I think I do a better job of listening, a better job of
49:24
asking questions, and a better job of pacing myself through
49:28
decisions and decision making processes.
49:32
Kind of slows you down a little bit, huh?
49:34
That's right. Even more thoughtful You.
49:36
Know when going to be here. When into that process did you
49:43
realize that you were going to make it?
49:46
Like keep it pretty drugged up, but I woke up on a on a table
49:52
with about 30 staples from the top of my sternum to just above
49:57
my pubic area. And I realized I was going to
50:02
make it when I woke up and saw the staples and could look
50:05
around and realize where I was. By that time, my wife had gotten
50:10
there. She had just boarded a plane,
50:13
landed in Florida, got the news, turned around and flew back up
50:15
to North Carolina where I was to be with me.
50:18
My parents got there shortly thereafter.
50:20
But yeah, I was kind of waking up in in a hospital room,
50:23
looking around and being like, oh man, that's that was that was
50:27
kind of the wake up prior to. I remember everything after the
50:32
accident and the ambulance ride and everything else.
50:35
And that's a ten set of kind of funny, well, some, some gross
50:39
stories, but I have memory of the entire event, the ambulance
50:45
ride. I blacked out when I was being
50:50
transported from the ambulance into the hospital room or into
50:54
the hospital where they're starting the CT scans and stuff,
50:58
and then woke up in the, you know, in the hospital room
51:01
afterwards. Wow, what a like you said,
51:06
traumatic and also powerful experience that you went
51:09
through. And what was where did this fit
51:13
into the chronology of implementing the safety programs
51:18
at Tidewater? Is this after?
51:21
No, it was so we were. We were.
51:26
That was about the time that we were working deeply with James
51:29
Hammonds and building the foundations.
51:33
So it was three or four years after I'd taken over, but not
51:39
quite where we had stabilized, not quite to where I would say
51:44
we had stabilized our safety culture to where it is now and
51:47
it wasn't until June of 24 is that, is that right?
51:54
So we've been doing almost exactly a year that we have been
51:57
giving out all of the helmets. So even though I had that
52:02
experience, it wasn't until years later where I look back
52:04
and think about like, man, it was part of the reason I'm here
52:07
today is because I was wearing appropriate headgear at the
52:10
time. Had I not been wearing
52:11
appropriate headgear, that could have been traumatic brain injury
52:14
and or death. The catalyst of all of that,
52:18
since we're talking about catalysts, was a guy named
52:22
Rashad. Rashad had a piece of metal fall
52:25
off of a vessel that he was working.
52:27
He was walking underneath. He was in a dry dock, vessel is
52:30
above him. There was work going on overhead
52:32
and a piece of metal fell from the work that was happening
52:34
overhead. It hit him in his in his hard
52:37
hat and knocked him to the ground.
52:40
But the problem was when the metal hit him and knocked his
52:42
hard hat off and when he hit the ground, he essentially hit his
52:46
head a second time and that was it.
52:49
That was another turning point, another moment in my career
52:55
where it was like, all right, I'm we are through screwing
52:58
around with this cut rate, cheap head protection.
53:02
I've had my experience, I've seen Rashad's experience, I've
53:06
had other experiences through the years.
53:08
We are changing this and we are changing it today.
53:11
You kept getting the tap on the shoulder.
53:12
Pay attention, pay attention, pay.
53:15
And then you did. And and you put yeah.
53:18
And you put a lot of systems in place now that I mean it's, it's
53:21
hard to say the number of accidents that you guys have
53:24
prevented with with all the focus on safety that you put in
53:28
place. You know what's really funny
53:30
about that? I'm reading these two books
53:31
right now by a guy named Dan Heath.
53:34
I just, I finished one a little bit ago and I'm into a second
53:36
book called Upstream or something about solving problems
53:40
upstream, upstream thinking something along those lines.
53:44
But that's essentially what we've been doing is we've been
53:46
working to solve problems before they happen.
53:49
And what's frustrating about that in a big way is that you
53:52
don't get rewarded for the things that don't happen or you
53:55
don't get recognition for the injuries that didn't occur.
53:59
You know, how do you measure all of the accidents that didn't
54:05
happen? It's hard to do, and it's the
54:09
difference between leading indicators and lagging
54:11
indicators. If you're going to use safety
54:12
language, right, leading indicators are a lot harder to
54:17
get buy in into, and that's really one of James's initial
54:22
lessons and one that we still work on all the time.
54:24
That's why the first thing he put forth him to us was job
54:27
hazard assessments. Look at the hazards before
54:29
there's something wrong. Let's not be reactive.
54:32
Let's be proactive. So a lot of those ideas are
54:35
crystallized really well. And Dan Heath's books, and I
54:37
thought, I just thought that was a really neat plug.
54:39
You don't get credit a lot of times for the things that don't
54:41
happen. Yeah, which is good that you
54:44
guys have such a strong guiding principle and mission statement
54:47
of do the right thing every day. I mean, it's great when you can
54:51
sort of, you know, have those metrics to back up in the extra
54:54
investment that you're making. But in instances like this where
54:58
that's not possible, you still use that guiding light to do the
55:01
right thing every day. It's it's going to come out good
55:04
in the end. Well, and and the big thing too
55:07
is getting buy in from all parties, right.
55:09
So one of the things that we did to draw emphasis on and
55:14
attention to these metrics were we put basically scoreboards,
55:23
television screens in every bullpen, you know, every
55:26
recruiters area that we have, we have 4 offices and a training
55:30
facility. And so in every recruiters area
55:34
we put this these screens and these screens rotate the three
55:38
metrics that drive our business. I can measure only these three
55:43
things and only these three things and nothing else.
55:45
Not nothing else, but for the most part, these are the things
55:48
that matter. If you focus on these things as
55:50
a recruiter, as an employee of time order, life is good.
55:53
That's the number of people that we have working, the number of
55:56
injuries and types of injuries that we've had, and the number
56:00
of unemployment claims that we have.
56:04
And what does that translate to from like a business theory or
56:07
like what we're trying to accomplish as an organization?
56:11
But everybody to work that we can.
56:13
Every time we have an open order, that's an opportunity to
56:16
change somebody's life because we're going to give them
56:18
employment, focus on that, put people to work while they're out
56:21
on work. We want them to stay safe.
56:23
I want you to know when an injury has happened and I want
56:26
you to know what kind of injury has happened so that while you
56:29
are talking to your associates that are getting ready to go out
56:32
on site, they are aware that, hey man, we had an eye injury
56:35
this this this past month. So I'm going to talk to you
56:38
about eye safety and why it's important.
56:40
I want you to be old and Gray and still be able to see your
56:44
grandkids. That's the second metrics that
56:47
we put out in front of them. The third metric that we put out
56:49
in front of them is we keep people working by keeping them
56:52
off unemployment. And to me, that's so cool on two
56:57
or three different fronts. We're doing a service to society
57:00
and to the community by keeping people working and, you know,
57:03
off of the public dole, if you will.
57:05
You know, it stitches the contracts together that we're
57:07
talking about with our customers, which keeps the
57:10
talent, the employees here in the Port of Virginia as opposed
57:13
to taking per diem contracts off California or up to Bath
57:16
Ironworks or wherever else the work might be.
57:18
If we can keep them working and keep them here and keep them off
57:21
of unemployment, it means they are staying working and they're
57:23
staying in the Port of Virginia and they're contributing members
57:26
of society and of their communities. 3 things my staff
57:30
can accomplish. Those three things.
57:33
We got jobs forever, guys. I love it.
57:36
Jay, where do you see Tidewater staffing going?
57:39
What's the future look like for you guys?
57:41
Is it kind of more of the same, like just want to continue doing
57:44
a great job and the niches that you're playing in now?
57:48
You know, so I'm a member of the Entrepreneurs organization as
57:51
well and that's been a really instrumental group of people and
57:56
framework for me to explore the ideas and concepts of
58:00
entrepreneurialism. And a lot of entrepreneurs are
58:06
focused on that kind of exponential and just grow, grow,
58:11
grow, grow, grow, grow, grow. What I realized pretty quickly
58:14
was that we have a really strong business here relative to some
58:19
of the others that struggle to make it.
58:22
We have a really good thing going.
58:23
It is very difficult to manage businesses at a distance.
58:27
We have had offices up and down the East Coast at different
58:31
times. And strategically we've made the
58:35
decision to focus on our profitability line and our
58:38
ability to influence our local port and make the companies
58:45
operate out of the Port of Virginia.
58:50
You know, the heroes of of their stories because they too are
58:54
satisfying the ultimate customer, which is the Navy.
58:57
And if the Navy's not happy and they're not putting boats here,
58:59
nobody's got work. So I say that to say what?
59:02
So what's the future of Tidewater?
59:03
The future of Tidewater is not one of like coast to coast
59:06
growth. I'm not interested in taking
59:08
private equity or trying to balloon up into some, you know,
59:12
multi $100 million firm. I get asked frequently in
59:21
different ways and forms whether or not I'm interested in selling
59:24
or if I want to recapitalize or do all this other stuff.
59:27
We're in a great debt free position and we're in a position
59:31
where, you know, I can control pretty well what happens here
59:37
locally. There are there.
59:41
There's a book I read years ago called Small Giants.
59:43
I wish I could remember the name of the author, but that was
59:48
really influential for me from a mindset perspective because what
59:51
it talked about was small companies that made the
59:54
strategic decision to stay small, small but mighty.
59:57
Like the guys that do it well, incredibly well, but don't have
1:00:01
false aspirations of world dominance.
1:00:05
And when you talk about the kind of humility and the things that
1:00:09
I learned from my accident and from from other life
1:00:12
experiences, it's that growth for growth's sake is not a
1:00:17
reason to grow. And that growth can happen in a
1:00:22
lot of different ways for the future of Tidewater.
1:00:26
I hope to continue to be the leading provider in Hampton
1:00:34
Roads and to expand opportunity for the communities and the
1:00:37
people that we serve here. But I really don't envision at
1:00:42
this time that we're going to grow geographically.
1:00:45
You know, we can grow in processes, we can grow by
1:00:48
incorporating new technologies. We can grow by potentially
1:00:53
garnering additional service lines.
1:00:56
We should be in the last few months of obtaining a facility
1:01:02
clearance, which will allow us to service people with
1:01:04
clearances and customers that require that stuff.
1:01:09
We are growing by adopting and working with new technologies.
1:01:14
I've got a training platform, an onboarding platform, where we've
1:01:19
incorporated 360 videos. I don't know anybody else in the
1:01:23
industry who's doing immersive video technology for their
1:01:26
onboarding process. We can grow in that direction.
1:01:30
I'm working on unlocking potential technologies to
1:01:36
augment our fire preventers with robotic devices that can sense
1:01:41
fires before they get out of control and will help our fire
1:01:47
watch do the simple things like stay awake, pay attention, you
1:01:51
know, augment their ability to, to, to do all that.
1:01:54
But those are kind of side projects and things that we're
1:01:57
working on and things that, you know, I'm excited about
1:02:01
personally because it stays within our niche, but it also
1:02:04
and, and, and it, and it enhances everything that we have
1:02:06
going on here in the Port of Virginia.
1:02:07
I hope to be influential as an organization in the Port of
1:02:11
Virginia so that we as the port and as an industry here in
1:02:15
Southeast Virginia become the go to place for the Navy for large
1:02:19
commercial vessels and, and and and for the logistics and
1:02:22
manufacturing sectors to look to the Port of Virginia and BIAC.
1:02:26
They have a workforce called Tidewater Staffing.
1:02:29
I love it. There's, there's a thread here
1:02:31
of just this process of continuous improvement, which
1:02:34
obviously has served you very well up to this point, and I
1:02:37
think we'll continue to do so going into the future.
1:02:40
Jay, I've just got one more question for you, but before I
1:02:42
ask, I want to have you tell everybody the best way to either
1:02:47
get in touch with you or follow your story or, or that of
1:02:49
Tidewater staffing. What?
1:02:51
What is that? Sure, you can find us on
1:02:53
LinkedIn. I'm also probably easy to get a
1:02:58
hold of to a fault. You can e-mail me at
1:03:01
jjy@tidewaterstaffing.com and our LinkedIn profile does a good
1:03:08
job of celebrating the things that we're doing
1:03:10
organizationally. We market to our associates via
1:03:13
Facebook, Instagram, and we do have a YouTube channel as well.
1:03:17
That's where I house the 360 videos and some of the other
1:03:20
things that we have going on. But LinkedIn, And if you're
1:03:23
looking for me directly, an e-mail will land right in front
1:03:28
of my face. So those 360 videos are
1:03:30
available for the public to watch.
1:03:32
It's not just an internal thing, you know, for your safety
1:03:35
protocols. It's like, hey, if anybody in
1:03:37
the industry wants to look at these and up your game.
1:03:41
Big, big time. And I tell you, I've got my case
1:03:43
and my cameras right over there and what what I do is I Ioffer
1:03:47
that service to my customers and I say, hey, look, I'll give you
1:03:50
all the videos and everything else finished product.
1:03:52
We do the editing and everything like it, it's yours.
1:03:55
It's it's like it's ours. It's you know, it's really, it's
1:04:00
really fun to see who participates, who jumps on it
1:04:03
and who's like, Nah, I don't want to play that game.
1:04:06
You know, it kind of gives you a little bit of a litmus test, but
1:04:10
my favorite one, so all for all the listeners out there, my
1:04:16
favorite one is the scaffolding video.
1:04:18
There's a hanging scaffolding 360 video that we did where the
1:04:27
scaffolding is hanging off of the side of a bright orange big
1:04:32
Crowley vessel. So the video opens up and you
1:04:35
look left and you look right and you're just kind of standing on
1:04:37
some staging. Yeah, no big deal, right?
1:04:39
You look off in the distance, you can see the rest of the
1:04:42
port, You look up and you see the bright blue sky.
1:04:45
You look down and below you all you see is water and it is just
1:04:49
the wildest feeling. We use that one as a litmus test
1:04:51
to figure out whether people are scared of heights.
1:04:55
I'll I'll raise my hand right now and and admit that I would
1:04:58
fail that test in an instant. That's my Achilles heel.
1:05:02
The last question I have for you, Jay, great conversation
1:05:06
today. Love to stay in touch.
1:05:08
You're from now, you and I reconnect and you are excited
1:05:12
because you're celebrating something.
1:05:14
There's one thing you're you're super jazzed about.
1:05:16
What is that one thing you're celebrating a year from now?
1:05:19
Oh man, that we're setting records and putting the most
1:05:22
people to work that we ever have.
1:05:24
That's the dream, man. Every day we come to work to
1:05:27
connect people with opportunities.
1:05:29
My all time favorite thing is when our associates get the full
1:05:34
time job right when they end up supervising a crew of Tidewater
1:05:40
guys. You know when the supervisor got
1:05:43
there because Tidewater put him there to begin with or her.
1:05:47
We have so many of those in the Port of Virginia and it's so
1:05:50
much fun seeing them. My hope and my dream is that a a
1:05:54
year from now I've got supervisors all over the place
1:05:58
and that all of the associates that are going to work in record
1:06:02
numbers are coming home every day with 0 injuries.
1:06:06
The one of the most exciting things that we do, Speaking of
1:06:10
landing supervisors in good places is that we don't charge
1:06:13
any hiring fees. The do the right thing every day
1:06:19
aspect lands in that mentality. Also because we've always
1:06:23
believed that if an employer finds an employee that they feel
1:06:28
is a good fit, that the reason they're not getting the job
1:06:34
should never be because they don't want to pay the hiring
1:06:37
fees to the staffing agency guys.
1:06:40
That's that's not what we're here for.
1:06:43
My employee. If my employee is your fit and
1:06:46
that's what you want, you hire that person.
1:06:48
Wow. Just call me.
1:06:51
That's not. How staffing works, Jay, did
1:06:52
anybody ever explain that to you?
1:06:55
But I'm doing that and the commissions and whatever needs,
1:06:57
you know, sometimes you got to dig.
1:06:58
When it fails, sags, man. Like I, I'm gonna tell you like
1:07:01
it's, it's, it's so fun to be that person.
1:07:08
And man, we get this all the time, whether it's dealing with
1:07:10
software companies or like, like, like say right there.
1:07:13
Like, man, that's weird. We've never heard that before,
1:07:16
but we've never encountered that.
1:07:17
We don't. We've never had.
1:07:18
You're not afraid to break rules.
1:07:20
That that would have a lot of things to say about that.
1:07:24
Maybe in maybe in a different context, but we'll leave that
1:07:27
there. And Jay Prock from Tidewater
1:07:31
Staffing, I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both
1:07:33
your time and your story with us today.
1:07:35
I really appreciate it. There's a ton of funny anything.
1:07:37
I appreciate you having me. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:07:40
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:07:42
Thanks for learning with us today.