Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / A Career in the Elevator Industry | Amy DiPaolo

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A Career in the Elevator Industry | Amy DiPaolo · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: And um my advice to younger people is to work hard and never give up because the sky's the limit in this industry.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: You can literally go anywhere, and I'm living proof.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: In this podcast, we talk to the people whose lives and careers are dedicated to the vertical transportation industry to inform and share lessons learned, building upon the foundation of those who have gone before to inspire the next generation of elevator careers.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Today our guest is Amy DePaulo.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Amy is currently the Chief Sales Officer and an equity partner with Champion Elevator headquartered in New York City.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Amy started her career at Dover Elevator at age 18, working a temp job in the office, and she has never looked back.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Amy is an ambitious learner and has performed every job possible and learned all aspects of running an elevator company.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: In 2014, Amy and her husband started Independence Elevator in New Jersey and operated it for seven years.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: In 2021, they sold to Champion Elevator, and Amy joined as a partner.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Amy is passionate about the elevator industry.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: She believes it is incumbent upon those who have benefited from it to volunteer and groom the next generation.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Amy is proud to have accomplished so much in her career and looks forward to continuing on her journey.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Amy, welcome to the show.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: What good is that?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to have you uh here with me and get a chance to talk again.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: I know we uh we tried this once before and there was a a jackhammer on the screen.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little noisy in Times Square.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's a little pop there.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, downtown Manhattan, you don't know what you're gonna get, right?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: So um let's just start.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I I want to find out a little bit more about your journey into the elevator industry.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's not not every day that that you find a you know woman-owned company and and someone who spent, as I understand it, your entire career in the elevator elevator industry.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is that correct?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I had a stint for about a year at a uh fluid technology company prior to elevators when I was 17.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um I graduated high school at 17, and then um I found my way into elevators at 18.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I've been here ever since.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And um it was just dumb luck.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: It was um actually a temp job that I got as an expediter to the Department of Buildings at Dover Elevator in Manhattan.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: And um I had come on for a special project, and I guess I did well and they liked me, they wanted to keep me, so they offered that job.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, I was at Dover until they sold Tityson, doing every job imaginable.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, kind of wanted to be well-rounded and learned everything that I could as young as I was.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: I just soaked everything in.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I wound up loving it and learning a lot and um, you know, fitting in with this industry really well.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Which is an interesting statement alone just because, especially as an 18, 19-year-old girl, did you ever feel a little outnumbered?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, a lot.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there were other women in in the office, of course, but you know, it was all administrative positions or receptionist, dispatcher, biller.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, not many of them, you know, they were good workers and and did their jobs great, but um they didn't have my ambition, you know.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: I just soaked everything in.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: I want to learn every part that came across my desk, and um, I wanted to learn, you know, how to troubleshoot elevators.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: I thought I wanted to learn that.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I took classes with the guys in the field and I went out into the field with the guys, and you know, they taught me a lot about elevators.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: So um I don't know, I just I really fell in love with the industry and it it was all I knew, you know, I grew up in it.
• 4:06
  unknown: Yeah.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: How how long from the time you kind of started your first temp thing until the light bulb went off and you were like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, I was only a temp for I was temp for probably about two months, and um I took the position of the expediter, and uh it was probably I was excited, you know, because I was 18 years old making what I thought was incredible money at the time, which was um it was probably a really bad salary, actually.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, it's a full a paycheck when you're 18 and you just think you're rich.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I really enjoyed it very early on, and I gravitated towards operations and learning a lot about elevators more than learning about billing and payroll, and which I did learn that stuff a little later on.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I had a mentor, his name was John Kennetti, and um he taught me a lot about elevators and about real life too.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and um he really gave me the passion and love for the industry, and and I wanted to learn more because of mostly because of him.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, he he was a great guy.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: How long did you get a chance to work with John?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Was that?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, John I worked with for about six years, and then he retired.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: And um, unfortunately, he passed away two years later.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: But he was an elevator guy who became, you know, a service manager.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And um he had a lot of passion and he was very brash and outspoken and and treated me hard, um, but in a good way because he wanted me to learn.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: And um he would test me daily and throw parts on my desk and say, what's that?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: And um, if I didn't come up with the right answer, I didn't get a good reaction from him.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I really tried my best to learn all the Dover parts and and um and soak in everything that he was teaching me.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it sounds like he he believed in you.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: He knew you could do it, and he was challenging you to take that next step all along the way.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like to think that.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: I do.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, he I think he did think of me as his his little protege and uh and he did want me to learn.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it it showed.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: It showed in in what I did learn and and what I could do for him, and I was his right-hand man, so to speak, right hand girl.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we worked together great.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that was the beginning of my career, was was a huge learning experience, but it was a lot of fun.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So did you did you ever think, hey, I want to go do something else?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: I want to go, you know, back to school and and study something different.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: So when I was in my mid-20s, um, Dover Elevator was an amazing company, and they treated their employees very, very well.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and they had a tuition reimbursement program.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I did go to a county college in the evening to try and get um a business degree.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, never got that degree.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: I wound up getting promoted and promoted and promoted, and uh thought to myself, well, I really don't need that.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I kind of kicked myself.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: I wish I would have stayed with it.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I I'm I'm doing okay right now, so I can't really can't complain.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but that was really the only time that I wanted to do something different, and it wasn't doing a different um career.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was just kind of bettering myself uh with my education.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but otherwise, no, I just I stayed the path and um I just kind of kept working as hard as I could and getting recognized and promoted and um just climbed the ladder.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what what would you say was?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously it sounds like you were you were learning a lot, you were willing to learn.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: What was the biggest key to your success, to all the the promotions and the growth?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think being willing to learn and you know they weren't always promotions, they might have been a lateral move, and I did it just to learn because I wanted to be well-rounded and I wanted to know every possible facet of running an elevator company.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and I did.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: There's not a job that I haven't done except be a mechanic in the field.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and even so, I do have a very good general knowledge of elevators um because I did learn a lot of things through parts and speaking with the guys and going out in the field and taking educational courses in the industry.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I'm probably a lot more technical than a normal, say, salesperson, um, but I don't claim to be able to go out in the field and fix elevators.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but besides that, I've pretty much done every job and I'd be willing to take a step sideways or even backwards, um, which I did once in my career.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: I took a step back when I left uh a company so that I could uh get further in my career.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, so you got to be willing to to do things like that.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, for me in the end, it it's it's so far, it's it's paying off.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: When did you kind of get the vision that, hey, I'm gonna run my own company?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Was that was that something you would work towards, or was it kind of like, okay, now I'm ready?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, at the time that that happened, it was just all the stars aligned in my life at that point, personally and professionally, that I felt that I had run my course making money for a lot of other people.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I knew that I could do it myself.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: There was no reason I couldn't run a company because I had done basically that in a lot of positions for other people and helped grow their companies.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I knew operations, I knew sales, I knew finance.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it was kind of just again an also personal at that time.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I was in New York and had a real bad commuting day coming home.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I was kind of fed up with the travel aspect at the time, and um came home and told my husband we were going to start a company.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, to his credit, he followed his crazy wife, and uh that's what we did.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't that you had been planning on it for the previous 10 years, but when it came time, you were like, you know what, I have all the tools, I have all the knowledge, I know, I know what I need.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go make it happen.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And did you start from scratch or did you purchase another company or or how did that work?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, at the time I was working for Hudson Elevator, and I had uh brought over a good amount of New Jersey business.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Hudson was a New Jersey, a New York company, and most of the business was mine.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: So um I worked out a deal to purchase the maintenance contracts in New Jersey from Hudson, and it was a small base.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I started out with that base, and uh my husband was the route mechanic for that base.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: So uh we made a good team.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I ran the office, I sold, I did everything in finance, and he fixed all the elevators, and that quickly escalated to getting employees and adding people and growing.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Cool, cool.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you how long did you run your company before you you sold, merged with with Champion and into your new um position?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we um had independence elevator for seven years and um we grew it to a nice size business that was a very good quality company, um, very much known for the quality that we gave in service.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: And um the interaction with suppliers was excellent.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, I didn't owe anybody a dime when I sold, I'm kind of proud of that.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't happen that often.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we were a very healthy company.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And um at the time we sold to Champion, uh there I wanted to do more, and I knew that.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: And although we were healthy and we were doing well in order to get to the next level, I needed more resources, and that's something that you know champion provided for us.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, and tell me, I know you were recently promoted within Champion.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: So you you came on as an equity partner, as I understand it.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then what what's your new role?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about that.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, in um late June, I took on the role of chief sales officer for Champion.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I do kind of still oversee the New Jersey operations as well because it's nice and convenient.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it is my customers and a lot of my employees.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: So that's still under my wing, but we have a branch manager that there now.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm in charge of sales for New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Long Island, Hudson Valley, all of our branches um in charge of the revenue and um building the department and building Champion Elevator.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really exciting.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's um very, very fast-paced, and I'm doing a lot of traveling again, but um, it's traveling that I don't mind.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I'm excited about the opportunities that lay ahead for us.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's exciting.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I I don't know how big your team is, but yeah, it sounds like you're on the road quite a bit, and um it's it's uh certainly, you know, like you say, one step beyond.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you've got a much bigger base, I assume, now to be responsible for.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we're we're quite a large company, and um, we have a a very um large staff in the sales department.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: I have salespeople, surveyors, you know, we have estimators, coordinators.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of people that I'm responsible for uh for giving direction and uh for holding accountable.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we have goals that we set, and I'm gonna make sure that we get there and uh bring it to the next level.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I have a high level of confidence in that.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, that's exciting.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's exciting.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So as you as you look to um, let's talk for a minute just about the the industry overall, and what would you say some are are some of the challenges facing the elevator industry?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, right now there's a lot, right?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, I think that coincides with with most um service industries and manufacturing industries, the supply chain woes and issues uh is a very, very real thing.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um parts lead times the expense of parts.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um that that's just huge.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's really driving uh new pricing structures in the industry and to our customers.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, it all flows downhill.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, whatever costs we get go to the customers.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really, you know, the country as a whole right now and the and the economic um problems that the country is having is definitely not escaping our industry.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it's something that we need to deal with every day when estimating and and planning.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then of course, you know, we talked earlier also the um personnel staffing.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: It it's a big deal right now.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: So the there's probably in the next five years, and it has already started, it's been a while, but we will have a pretty big mass exodus um of people retiring.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I see it for a lot of field guys and um certainly people in the office as well, but um, it's something that we all really have to think about because I feel as you know a an experienced executive in the industry and even just a manager, that it's incumbent upon all of us to teach and mentor the next generation uh that's going to take over this industry.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I feel very strongly about that.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: So um I work on being a mentor in and outside of my company, and I think it's something that we all need to do.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: We have to think of out-of-the-box ways to hire people into the industry and then to mentor and teach them um proper work ethic and um all about the industry.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: So uh, you know, I I feel a very personal responsibility for that.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and it seems from my perspective that not only are you losing a lot of people, but you're losing so much experience, so much you know, just knowledge that, you know, over a 30, 40 year career, you know, to to walk that out the door is it's hard.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine how hard to replace uh to replace that knowledge and and you know, bring somebody in that doesn't have 30, 40 years to to learn that and the maybe the history and you know, here's how you service this older equipment or things like that.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I mean the elevator equipment is always going to need people to work on them with all the remote monitoring options and everything else.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody's always gonna have to go out and fix it.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's just never gonna go away.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I feel very strongly.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: I know a lot of um companies, maybe some of the bigger companies, um, use mechanics together a lot.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: They hook two mechanics up to do something.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: I really feel strongly that we need to use those apprentices, the helpers, get them taught, you know, bring in the young guys that didn't want to go to college and are going to or going to technical school.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um personally, my son is in the industry and um he came almost out of high school.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: He went to college for a year and COVID hit, and um, he decided he wanted to work with his hands.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: So we hired him as a helper and he's doing fabulous.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: This is, you know, uh probably better than most of his college friends, not probably, definitely.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: He just bought a house and he's doing well.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: This is an industry that you can succeed in no matter how you come into it.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: If you start out as a teenager like I did, fresh out of high school, if you start out with a year of college or technical school or um fully uh with a bachelor's degree, anybody can be successful in this industry, absolutely anybody.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, as long as you work hard and you're dedicated and and you have the passion and the fire, um, anybody can be successful.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and and and I think one of the things that um that I see is just the you know, kind of the tradition of, you know, you talked about mentoring the next generation.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like there are a lot of people in the industry they that really want to teach, they want to mentor.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you're the new person coming in and you have that fire to learn, to grow, to you know, they will pour all kinds of knowledge into you, but you've got to be a willing, willing to receive it, is the way I see it.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, my radar is always out for that.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we hire a lot of people, and and if I see that, if I see the willingness to learn and the drive, and um, it may be a simple task, but that's where it all starts, right?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: So um it takes time and you've got to be willing as a mentor to have the patience and the energy to teach the people and make sure that they learn the proper way so we can continue to have a great industry long after we're gone.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say are some of the solutions?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you kind of talked about, you know, we're we're hiring creatively.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: How do you, I guess, see that coming together in a way to replace all the talent that's going to be leaving?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, there's there's a bunch of ways that you can recruit people.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's hard right now because uh, especially in the office within the field, you know, of course, you're either union or non-union.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: I happen to work for a union company, um, and there's certain ways they recruit.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: They have recruiting sessions, I don't know, once a year or so.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: They may hire from the military.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, anybody that I've gotten from the military usually has incredible work ethic, and I love them.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: And they wind up, you know, really doing a great job in the company.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, as far as office staff, you know, I look outside of the industry sometimes, you know.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, anybody with an engineering degree may be a great uh candidate for a project manager or um HVAC is a is an industry that's very closely related to elevators where we may look for salespeople.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but but because you know these people are aging out and retiring, um we we need to think out of the box, otherwise um, you know, we'll fail.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: We we have to get replacements.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to be willing to teach and and show people what to do.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a friend who, you know, her son is is taking uh like ag um ag mechanic type classes.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I was telling her a little bit about the elevator industry's like, oh my gosh, I had no idea, right?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't uh you know, so she went home to tell her son that he needs to look into the to the elevator industry, but it it does seem like just so many people don't know about it.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so we teach inside, but we also kind of have to teach the public that hey, here's here's this industry, and here are these amazing opportunities that you might not know about.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we do have uh industry associations, you know, the ECMY, the NEC, the there's a bunch of associations that um, you know, can reach out to various recruiting places to let them know about the elevator industry.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, even as a company, you could do uh go to local college fairs and and let those kids even community colleges or state colleges and just let them know about your company.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: So you really need to be willing to make that effort to recruit people, even if you're a small company.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: um versus a large company may have less resources, but um to reach out to those various um different ways of looking outside of the industry is it's to me I've found it to uh work.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: What what are the I'm just curious your your uh advice or thoughts on let's let's say you do bring some people in um how do you how do you keep them um just because you know they have a lot of options what are the best ways to keep people in your company and and engaged versus oh hey I think I'm gonna go do something else yeah so I mean you really have to have a good culture within your company that uh cares about the employees and um keeps them engaged, does things like we you know we have fishing boat where they go out we have summer picnics we have Christmas parties this is not just um it it it's a morale boost to do stuff like that and it shows the employees that you really care about them.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Of course you know most people you know money talks right so it it does cost a lot of money to hire people with experience now and you've got to be willing to put the money out there if you want that.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: And and a lot of people do and you can certainly pick and choose the where you want the experienced people versus the new people and have them even mentor.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: But I would say keep the employees engaged and you know we put out a newsletter as well and and you give people recognition when they do good things.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: But that's part of your day-to-day management as well.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean that's my style you know it you're certainly there to make people accountable but you really should be there to give them accolades when they do good things as well.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely yeah just I mean them knowing they're cared about and that that is definitely one thing I see in the elevator industry versus other industries I've been associated with or worked in is is that it is a big family or can be a big family at times.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: That just the level of caring is is certainly deeper than some of the other companies I've I've worked for or the industries I've worked in.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a lot of what has caught my attention.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: I I started you know recruiting in the elevator industry about 12 years ago with one of the majors and and I was instantly kind of shocked that there was just kind of this this friendship and and you know a lot of you know people know each other and and care about each other deeply and it it um it was kind of the opposite of what I had seen before because one particular company I worked for that I they will remain nameless but but the the culture there was we kind of hated the opponent you know we we hated the competition um and that's just so opposite of what I see in the elevator industry industry.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: I see a lot more respect.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and there's a lot of friendly competition in the elevator industry you know there's so many of us that go to so many different um events together where we meet up with each other and rather than you know it's always a a happy welcome to see them and and that you have maybe you haven't seen them in a while.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: So no we share um a lot of times we'll share best practices certainly I don't think anybody in this industry has ever been stingy when it comes to sharing information on safety because that's a really big thing in this industry and even major companies will will share stuff with independent companies.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: I have seen it so that uh a collective effort in the industry to really um focus on that is pretty amazing but besides that there's a tremendous amount of camaraderie you know a lot of people in the New York area you know we kind of all know each other the the different um leaders of the companies in this area and owners um so yeah it's it's unlike many many industries and that's part of the reason why I love it so much.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah and I and I think the the way that can apply to bringing people in is is helping them see that that it's not just a job but it you know that there's more to it there is a community and uh and the more you get into it and get to know people the more you more you realize that so um no this has been great and we're we're kind of running out of time but I'm just curious if you know if you could give one piece of advice or or send one message to our listeners or other in the in others in the industry what would you like to share?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean um a message to everybody in the industry is just that it's it's a privilege and an honor I think to be in this industry um with all the people that I work with and I'm happy when I go to work every day.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: I love feeling a sense of accomplishment and um my advice to younger people is to work hard and never give up because the sky's the limit in this industry.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: You can literally go anywhere and I'm living proof.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely Amy thank you so much I appreciate your time it's been great talking to you.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you Matt you too.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast sponsored by the Allred Group a leader in elevator industry recruiting you can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net please subscribe and until next time stay safe