Hey, welcome back to another HVAC Success Secrets Revealed. This week we had none other than Stephanie Gorton, formerly known as Stephanie Smith from Energuy. So many great conversations this week around women in the trades and all kinds of amazing, amazing things. Thad, what was your favorite nugget this week?
The Macallan's 15 year old that Stephanie decided to gift us that was delicious. Sorry, Evan But in reality, I think the biggest thing was tooting our own horn a little bit on the podcast. And the fact that Energuy and Stephanie Smith uses our show to be able to help train their team is really humbling. And she talked about a specific few episodes within there that really helps.
But the larger picture of just taking the time to adequately train your team, I mean, they go through a rigorous onboarding and probationary period of ongoing training. The hours in the probationary period will stagger you. So be sure to tune into that part. I know Stephanie, you were pretty passionate about one topic and that was
Don't underestimate as a woman the power that you can have in joining like the trades, specifically HVAC cuz I'm biased. But I will throw it out there that if any woman in the entire country is interested in getting involved in the trades, they can email me directly and I'll interview them on the spot for a position in the HVAC industry because a lot of change is necessary and our perspective is so valuable that it's definitely a stepping stone to fulfilling all of my dreams.
And it's something I never imagined possible in the HVAC industry, but, It is what it is. So here's my email. You guys will get it. Like, just jump in.
I love that part of the conversation. And there was one nugget that you said around the female consumer as well that, having a female within your leadership team allows that peak behind the curtains into how you can better connect as a company with that female consumer. So definitely listen to that part. The unique thing that Energuy has as a company is the ability to connect the dots behind all of the top performing companies.
And they are masterful at this, and they've been able to pinpoint some of those key attributes that all of these top performing companies have. I'm not gonna name the companies, but they're doing nine figures and North. Yep. They're incredible, incredible companies and she pinpointed nine key attributes that we talked about in this episode.
You're gonna want to take notes on that part because if you're not doing them in your company, if you want to get what they've got, you gotta do what they've done. Yeah, it's really that simple. So I know you're gonna enjoy this episode, but we definitely wanna hear from you. Make sure you leave a comment down below in what your favorite nugget from this episode was. Hit us up info on purpose media.ca as well, and let us know what your favorite nuggets from this episode was.
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5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Welcome to HVAC Success Secrets reveal a show where we interview industry leaders and disruptors revealing the success secrets to create and unleash the ultimate HVAC business. Now your hosts Thaddeus and Evan.
Welcome back to another H V A C Success Secrets Revealed with Thaddeus and Evan. We have great conversations with great people and any great conversation worth having is worth having drunk. Stephanie, thank you so much for joining us this week. Appreciate cheer you. Cheers. There it is, whiskey too. What are you today?
I am drinking Iran. It is black, cherry and oak, and it's nice, warm, slow burn. So I, appreciate you guys for having us at one o'clock in the afternoon,
Ah, no worries. Our Wednesday productivity goes way down, but our dreaming and scheming goes way up. There you go.
Absolutely. All the crazy ideas come out of Wednesday afternoons. It's wonderful.
This is true.
So for those of you that do not know Stephanie Gorton or formerly Stephanie Smith those that don't know, she is the VP at the Energuy. She's been in the industry for five years. Of course if you don't know Energuy, they partner with HVAC Plumbing, Electrical, Solar Home Improvement Contractors provide high quality energy ratings, permit services, rebate administration, the works. They are fantastic to work with. We've heard from many, many people that they enjoy working with you.
They love working with. But how you came into the job was a little bit unique and that you were a customer at first and then randomly applied to working with them and applied to one of their job postings. And of course you got the job cuz you're pretty incredible. I've heard, and so far from what I've gotten to know about you from Thaddeus and from some of your customers. They've had nothing but raving things to say.
So I'm really excited to dive into this conversation today and definitely sip on a lot of whiskeys. So thank you for joining that
Thanks for having me.
No worries. So how did you get started into the trades in general before you, like when you were a customer with Energuy
Well I wasn't just any customer. I was like a nightmare customer. like the perfect customer to train on. If you go into our software system and pull up my address, there's like 25 notes. like, ugh. She sent the hers reader away. She has questions about the permit, canceled the appointment, homeowner house to go to work. Like it's the works. It's terrible. So I was a customer, one of our contractors did my install. Somebody who's my really good friend now, sales manager over at that contractor.
Before I knew him I called him up and reamed him. A good one for not telling me all about the permit process and then later applied for this job just kind of spreading my wings from a nonprofit industry and then, cruise through our software system one day and thought, Wait a minute, my address is in here. Oh my gosh, I was the worst ever. And now I get it. Now I get it.
well, a couple of our programs were built later to like help confused, pissed off customers like myself, so there's a lot more clarity there. I love it. Well, and is that, But it, one of the best ways though, as a, a company to build your customer experience process right, is to find your most difficult customer, be able to solve their issues, and if you can solve their issues, you can solve pretty much anyone's issues.
Yeah, it gave me a lot of empathy for our contractors clients that like, they need to know what's going on. They need somebody to explain it to 'em. There's like six or seven people in their house and calling them. You need to walk them through the process and help them understand that there could be fines or on their home if they don't close their permit. And so we do that. We hand hold everybody now and it's great.
But also while interviewing for the job, they had a couple different interviews and on the second interview, the manager actually recommended that I didn't get the job. Like he was like, I don't think it's gonna be Yeah. So that was interesting. And then more conversations. And I actually told our president, Eric Bario I don't think you guys should hire me. Like, I have zero experience. You want me to come in and manage all these men than the job I've never done. Like, oh, I don't know.
and he said, No, we need someone who can manage people and processes. The rest we can teach you. So then I got thrown into the fire day one, and here I am.
That's amazing. Thad I cut you off there. What were you gonna say?
Oh, I forgot. But I did write down my next part because you had mentioned something that you know, management, and it's no secret that females have it shouldn't be this way. Let me clarify that, but there is this notion that there is sometimes an uphill battle for female in a man dominated trade.
So looking at the female aspect of things, and I know this wasn't one of the preferences that we even talked about that I wanted to get into and cover on the show but it is and so, how, as a female going into this particular role, managing men as you mentioned, what are some things that you did to be able to establish yourself as a leader within that industry for yourself. But then also how do you help other females to be able to level themselves up within the trade?
that was a lot of questions in one. Yeah.
I tend to do that. I mean, you watch the show, you should know that by now. Yeah.
So how do you, come in to manage a group of men who know you've never done their job before? So you immediately are lacking credibility. You come in and you have really raw, authentic conversations with them, and you just, the elephant in the room is, Hey, I don't know what I'm doing here. And some humility goes a long way, so I don't know what I'm doing. I'm here to learn from you first.
So I'm gonna ride along with you on your jobs and I'm gonna figure out, I'm gonna take tips from you and I'm gonna listen to you and I'm gonna hear you out. And then later I'm gonna manage this team and it's gonna be my way and my style. But along the way, we're gonna have some very candid conversations about how that works. So that's about how I entered that and other women.
Go ahead. No, I say that that's perfect in anybody that needs to rewind and replay that and re-listen to that because that not just for females, by the way, anybody moving into a managerial role that you nailed that, right? Like I've even went through that myself when I was 25 years old, managing condo buildings and sitting in a board of directors with people that are 55, 60 And they're like, well, some young punk.
But that exact same conversation happened and it allows you to be able to, then it removes the friction or removes the barrier because like, oh, this person's actually gonna listen to me, right? They're not gonna come in and just my way or the highway right off the bat. Now you work on collaboration together, which is key for that. So the next part of my question, obviously was female, so can enter into the trade.
Oh that's like part of my heart for this industry is that females not being in leadership positions is a disservice to the industry. Like, I have worked with some incredible women so far. It, and you know what? Finding someone who can relate to me is very hard right now. Like, it's really difficult to make those connections. So anytime I see an opportunity to connect with another woman, I make very apparent that my, my mission is to lift her up, even if she's competition.
We hire, we have women in the field and I talk about it all day long, right? So there's a conversation between like, what do I do for my career? And after these last five years, I can say, don't as underestimate the HVAC industry for sure. So you like the difference that can be made. And so every time I talk to a woman, I tell her like, jump in head first. you won't regret it. And we do everything we can to promote women in Intergy.
And we actually have a secret logo that one of the partners designed and it's Energal yeah. So that's kind of exciting.
No, I love that. And you look at something like Lady Titans and what they have on the go and creating this community specifically for women is a huge thing to be able to do that and help each other out and really level up. And, I agree with you that not having enough women in leadership is a disservice because of the different viewpoints that one can bring to it. And one of the things I noticed that you had. a tips for contractors.
It was you're listening to discuss how powerful women consumers need. And it was a couple of tips. Don't tell a female consumer you'd like to wait until our husband gets home. Don't underestimate the decision power we have at home. Listen to your female consumers, right? There's such a different voice when you can have a female in a leadership role along with a male in a few, in a leadership role.
And if there's unison in working together, the power that organization can have because of the different viewpoints is gonna move the needle so much greater than if it was one or the other.
Agreed. And there has to be that balance, right? So I don't like to get too far into like women only because there is that balance between, that we need to have between men and women and our perspectives in the world. But like together, like you said, it's very, very powerful and we have the ability to multitask and run circles around some of the men that I know so higher.
Multitasking is a farce for men. Oh, I cannot multitask. There's one thing and one thing only.
Then you shut down that thing and you do the other thing instead. Right. It's just switching. It's task switching not multitasking. You mentioned competition and obviously with within your space there's a lot of competition and there's some bigger guys, some smaller guys that you're competing with. Guys use loosely there coming off of female conversation there and very literally both into it. But how is it that you deal with competition energuy?
And what advice do you have for contractors when they are dealing with competition within their markets?
I try to create alliances. Like I have some pretty amazing competition that I respect for different things, for different reasons. We all do something really well and one, I try and learn from my competition. Two, we don't really focus on a lot of what the competition is doing, and it's the same as being a human being, right? You can't like compare yourself to others and figure out what everybody else is doing and then try to copy them. You just have to be you.
We have to be Energuy and we have to live up to our culture and we have to do what we do well. And all of my competitors are all allowed to do the same thing for the industry. We're all allowed to support contractors and we all have different talents and talents and focuses, and so I create alliances and I don't really pay attention to their prices or what they're doing. We just kind of do the Energuy thing.
Hmm. I like that. Focus on yourself and stay in your lane, but at the same time, get an access where you need it. And it's the idea of an abundance mindset.
And I, you see this quite a bit in terms of the different, I guess, posts that people put in Facebook groups or worrying about what their competition, and I'm speaking specifically to HVAC contractors at this point or trying to get pay people to get their competitions, quote so they can see the pricing so they can match the price into their competitors. Like, no, get fucked. Don't do that shit. That's stupid. Focus on yourself.
But when you can have an abundance mindset and help each other out, man, you got a lot of power in that. I'll use our, company On Purpose Media. We have the digital marketing company. We are part of a group the Seven Figure Agency, a guy named Josh Nelson. Also, by the way, plumbing an HVAC SEO, right? Wow. The guy literally has the digital marketing company serving the exact same niche. And you know, he does. For anybody that's in the business, even hvac, come on in.
here's some things that I do that I've gotten great results with. Take it and run with it because you're gonna actually end up helping the contractors out more than if you were to just try to do it alone. So an abundance mindset can go a long, long, long ways. No matter what industry you're in, digital marketing Energuy sort sorts of things, HVAC contractor, it doesn't matter. Your business take an abundance mindset, not a scarcity mindset.
Yeah. One of my favorite moments from we went to Victor Rancour's event last year in Vegas. And during one of the nights, one of the evening parties that was happening there was a guy that I had met from the Portland area and he was just getting started and he was really struggling, and so we introduced him to Travis Smith Sky, Plumbing, Heating, and Air and electrical right in the market.
His competitor and the two of them sat down for two hours and just chatted, talk shop, how to build a team, how to grow the market, how to grow together. It was amazing to see. And he came out of it and like that was the highlight of the event for him, and it was fantastic. Yeah, it's, it's incredible to see what happens in the trades when you can elevate each other and bring everyone up, so thank you for that.
Also love the focus of putting the blinders on and be so busy and consumed with what it is that you are doing. It doesn't matter what competition is doing. I love that.
Yeah.
One of the things we wanted to get into was around culture. Did you wanna get into that now Thad? Because you had some great questions for that.
Sure. So I mean, this is like, there's a lot that goes into this and I know I'm gonna tutor our own horn here a little bit. I think because I know in our original conversations, this goes back a month or two ago before we even had a conversation about you coming on the show, or maybe it was when you're looking at coming onto the show that you actually use our podcast for some of your trainings.
And we are first off, very humbled and grateful that our show has given that much value to you and your organization, that you now make it a required listening for some of your employees, which is, again, extremely grateful and humbling on ours. And it no, and we know that the work that we are doing and the value that we put forward is helping businesses out. But when it comes to, I guess, that in your business, in creating this culture of ongoing training Let's talk about our show first.
Oh let's talk about your show.
I was gonna stop you and say, let me toot your horn for you.
Right? I was gonna get down the road. I was gonna ignore it for a second, but I'm like, Nah, nah, You know what? I will take off my humility hat and, let's talk about our show and what you do within Energuy with our podcast.
Okay. So there's a couple of things that podcasts don't do very well, and what I don't like to listen to is host centric podcast. You only know so much. Like, there's only so much you guys could bring to a podcast. What I love about the podcast and what I think brings the most value to our team members specifically is that you open it up to so many different perspectives of the industry. Like I literally don't even have time to train on all of that.
And part of our training and big picture training, we call. Is painting a picture of a contractor's office. And so our team can get confused and think like, Oh, they're not answering our emails. We're trying to get their permits for them. They're not answering our emails. So what I do is I say, Okay, there's an install coordinator, there's a sales manager, there's a gm, there's an executive, there's an owner.
And that install coordinator's answering somebody that's going crazy and this is the owner's dream and this is the GM's dream and the GM's trying to buy its first million dollar house. And like all the stuff is happening and you're like worried about getting model numbers for from on an email. Like we're not the top priority.
But what you do is you bring to life those personalities and the dreams behind those personalities so that our team can hear how passionate our contractors are about what they do, and talk about real issues in the industry. So while we're worried about getting a model number, you're hearing your contractors come on. Our contractors come on and say, Look, I'm worried about staffing right now. I'm worried about developing talent right now.
And so then we get to hear like, Oh, so our model number email is not that important. and it's just eye opening. It's just to hear it and to hear how casual it is. It doesn't feel like we're sending our team members to like a module learning experience. They get it. Just like I get it when I'm in the contractor's offices every day and they get a drink while they're watching our show too. Go for it. we encourage it. Don't walk over any chords or like trip on any ladders or anything. No.
And if it's 1:00 PM there, maybe watch it on team replay like an hour or two later, so it's not quite like during your work day. But towards the end of work day. Right. But you know, it's funny because I think to our show in what we've been able to accomplish with it and how it started was just, us opening up the curtain. Ice cream counts. Yes. Ice cream counts if it's whiskey flavored actually, if it's cookies and cream, you have my blessing Josh eat it all day long.
That's my, one of my favorite ice creams. But when you think about like, how, and I got started on the show was literally just us pulling back the curtains of our business and where we were at, and we're like, Okay, let's start, have some guests on and started asking them questions. And you're right, podcasts that are host centric don't really fit the bill. Like I, when I listen to my podcast, if it's a host talking the whole time, well, if they're a super smart, educated person, great.
But I would just rather listen to an audio book and be done with all of their teaching and then move on to another audio book of somebody else, or, but those guests are, really what make it there. So I appreciate you sharing that. Now you said that you had, since we're still talking about us, Yep. Which we don't do very often on our show. You said that you guys, your office has a question. We don't actually don't know this question by the way, just so anybody's watching.
You mentioned it earlier and we're like, Don't ask us until we're on the show. But you guys have a question for us.
Yeah. How did you, cuz some Canadians, like obviously we have a Canadian division and we started like, but when I found out you guys, Whoa, whoa, wait, you're in Calgary and you have all these connections with these US California based contractors, What did you do? Like, how did that even start?
It was just reaching out to people. It was connecting in Facebook groups, starting to meet people, networking online because I mean, we started the business and the podcast in 2019. And so Covid hit Business
Podcast was in 2020. Business was started in November, 2019. Yeah.
Wow.
So yeah, I mean, Covid hit and we're like, shit, what do we do? And so it was all online. It was all through social media and that's, I mean, Victor's event last year was so cool for me. Thad didn't get to go, but I went and had a great time.
See you there.
Nice.
Yeah. But to meet like Ishmail in person. Fantastic. So like, such a cool person to meet Victor, to meet him in person. Jason Julian was there. One of our clients getting to meet him in person, like there was so many incredible people that we've had on this show. Devin Harrison. we met there for the first time in person and it was wild cuz I had had so many conversations with these people. I felt like we were best friends already.
I stayed with Devin Harrison and We had never met in person before. It was just through online chats that I had met these people. I felt like I was a millennial dating people online. But all for business. It was great.
you, you guys do such a good job with us presence that I, it was later, way later in the game that I found. You guys were in Canada. Hmm. Yeah. So good job. Because I was like, wait, I hear that accent. I know what that is.
boot it. Ah, it's funny. But like, so, but here's a real, like I've worked with two different organizations in the past that were US based companies that have came to Canada and what I found is that the US doesn't necessarily understand Canada, but Canada understands the US a lot more. Just because of the way, I mean you look at somebody in Florida and they don't understand what winter and Canada's like, right? But us in Canada know what Florida can be like.
Cuz when we go on vacation somewhere like that, it's hot as fucking, we're sweaty, right? So we understand the pain points, right? So it's just a little bit different of a knowledge base on that, which I think allows us as an organization to be able to, to better go into the US market, in my opinion anyways. At least that's one of the reasons that I think it works in. Plus I think we're just pretty cool. Shit. There's a Canadian niece for you, right? So back to you guys. Big picture training.
Yeah, I wrote that down is I wanted to dive into a little bit about what that means and what is, what do you guys do in that because you talked a little bit, you briefly hinted at it where you know, the owner has their vision, the GM has their vision, but yeah, what I'm assuming the big picture training is going down to the granular level with every single person working on what their high or why is. So if that is in fact the case, what does it look like?
How do you do it and how does that help you guys in your culture and what you guys have built?
Well, people wanna know why they're doing what they're doing. Like you have SOPs, you have processes, you have all these really granular micro processes even. Why can't we do this? Why do we have to respond to a contractor? like and say, instead of saying, No, we don't do that, why do you say yes and this is what it will require? Like how do we do that? How do we support the contractor's dream? And how do you get involved in that?
So we said, you know what, Everybody that comes, we actually start study the Ritz Carlton's training. Which is like you're going through 250 hours of orientation training, and then you're going through a year of being on probation before you can make decisions.
But once you understand the why behind the brand for any company, why you're coming to work and what purpose you're trying to accomplish, like what does my role have to do with this big b a they're talking about from scaling up or, So we start at the beginning and why is your role important and why is responsiveness important? Where do we come from? Where are we going? What do we expect out of each person? What's an A player? What are these characteristics we're looking for?
What does that sound like in the day to day? Right? Everybody rolls up their sleeves and says, We wanna pick me attitude. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'll help. I wanna try and learn that that's who we're after. And so we spend five days doing that. And that's because people deserve to, when they're on your team and they're working for your company's purpose, they deserve to know why. So we spend a lot of time training and developing and doing that.
And as of the last year or so, I deliver that training in person myself as much as possible. Our vice president of operations is participating in that. Our executive team is very heavily involved cuz we wanna meet those people face to face. and I do just about every final interview myself, just so we know who's joining our team, what they're gonna mean to it, and what our goal and our vision is. So that's big picture training and usually people are like, When am I gonna get to my actual job?
It's like the following week that we get into the nitty gritty, but. You gotta get excited about your job before you can do it well.
True, and you gotta get excited about who you're doing it with and, and again, why you're doing it. Right. And that's my son and I, he loves to listen to audio books. He's 12. But he loves to listen to audio books and so we listen to him together. And so we were listening to Stream Ownership. Great book. And, then we followed it up with, of course, Dichotomy Leadership after that. And one of the key concepts that I keep hounding with myself to him is understanding the why within our family.
Why is it that we're doing things? Employees will rarely do what it is you want them to do until they understand why you're doing it and that it's moving you closer to that bigger vision and core concept that you're going after. So I absolutely love that. I think it's fantastic.
Well, there's a flip side to that. When it comes to culture, And so this is totally off cuff, but your employees need to, and I, and we don't even say employee, we don't even have the word employees and Energuy, Right. We say team members are part of our team. Feels weird to say, like, you have staff for employees, they're like with you in the trenches.
But the other side to that is us understanding their why, Like, I, we were at a meeting last week and I told one of our managers, there's an arsenal of tools as a leader. One of them is understanding what your team members are passionate about. It's outside of inter guide guarantee you, it's like their family or their big vision for themselves. You gotta understand that. And you have to understand their why and drive their why, even if it means they eventually leave you.
Yeah. But right then, like, if you can unlock that, your power as a leader is untapped.
Absolutely. Oh, and this is something that we've referenced numerous times on the show Tersh Blissett who happens to be chiming in just now. And Thad just said, hey, too. When we had him on the very first time he told a story of one of his employees that wanted to open his own business, and so he pulled back the curtain and showed him everything that it takes to run a business.
Yeah. Now that employees decides to take that a run and go run a great business and have a little bit of a shortcut, great. You're on the good side of that because you helped them get to where they wanted to go. If they look at all that and they say, Shit, that's a lot to do. I don't want to do all that.
It now reinforces them to be an even better employee or team member to be able to step into that role even more because they appreciate and they have so much better understanding what it is that you do as a business owner. And so they're willing to work harder for you. And we've used that lesson numerous times on this show cuz it's so important. Absolutely.
It's funny you mentioned that because I've been having calls one on one calls with all of our team this week diving into what are their big goals. And some of them went straight professional and where they want to go professionally. Some of them went highly personal. But I encourage both of them to do both sides of it because her life is not binary. Just this and that's it. And this is the only area we wanna focus on. We have so many different areas of our life that we need to focus on.
So it's been incredibly rewarding to dive into that with the team.
Yeah. And sometimes you gotta like, even at the cost of losing someone, right? I mentored somebody last year and about six months later, she left the company for something better. right? So that was kind of funny, and it was like, Oh, wow. but it was still cool.
Yeah. Well, and when you look at that experience what would you rather have? Someone who is incredibly motivated to show up to work every day because they're working towards a bigger dream and gonna put in a tremendous effort and you're investing a lot of time into, and then they leave, or someone that you invest no time into is unhappy. They're not doing a great job. They have no training because you don't want them to leave, and instead that's who stays.
Well, our VP of operations, Cam actually just referred to that. He, taught me a term earlier this week, I believe, or maybe last week, it's called Quiet, Quitting. You guys heard of that? Versus like totally disengaged and we talked about that and I love to do that. And that was done with me at Energuy as well. Like they absolutely opened up like Eric and Cam and the owners of Energuy, the initial owners of Energuy were just like, What are you after?
And I kind of told them, I'm only gonna be here for three years, guys, and then I'm done. Like this is just gonna be a stop on my journey and eventually I wanna work for myself and I wanna do all this stuff. But those guys pushed my passions and dreams and nothing no matter what I've done. So yeah, we'll support it. We'll support it totally have my back. So, we do that to the whole team and it makes a huge difference. 98% retention. So I think it's just investing in people.
I was gonna ask you about that question because I saw that on a LinkedIn post with your guys', 98% retention, which is a phenomenal stat for employees. But this goes even further those one on one conversations, right? That we still can't get rid of our cams chime in right now. I saw Evan laughing and I'm like, he's gotta, he's gotta be reading a comment. So, and of course my distraction, ADD brain looked down on it and forgot what I was talking about.
But looking at this this buying, getting people bought into the company's vision along with the one on one conversation that Evan you're having with our team right now. And finding out what some of their higher wise and what some of their passions are, and I'm assuming that you do some of that now in your current role. What does that conversation look like? What do you, where do you even begin? So let's pretend I'm an HVAC business owner. This concept is new to me.
I'm like, shit, I should probably get them on board with a higher vision and a higher why? I mean, well first off, the company needs to have that, but once in assuming that they have that, how do you then sit down and have a one on one conversation to be able to say that to somebody without being, I guess, too conceded or cocky about the company?
Actually I'm asked. I wait till I have asked for my opinion, first of all. I usually don't interject it until I'm asked like, Man, how do you guys keep people? Like we don't really have a staffing problem right now. We have a very thorough interview process, takes about a thousand resumes to even hire one person to Energuy And somebody will say like, How do you guys keep people around Why you have the same people and they're great. And how come you don't have a staffing problem?
And then I get to answer that question, What are you doing? Like, who are you talking to? And I'm in those offices and I'm in the offices typically at a very tumultuous time, right? So the permits are behind, something's happening. And I get to watch the interactions and through the relationships I've developed, which is just like what I told you about the Raiders when I first started. It's very candid, very upfront. Like, Hey, you guys have a lot of potential here.
You have a lot of business coming in, you have a lot of leads. But this person feels lost. I'm telling you like, this person doesn't have enough direction. And most of the time I'll actually say like, I'll just come in, we'll come in and we'll help this person. We'll teach 'em about permits, We'll teach 'em about Title 24. We'll give 'em the, some help. They need to answer those questions if they don't know what they're doing.
But this person needs some direction, and I'll ask that person if it's an admin or entry level, Hey, what's going on in your life? You have any kids? I notice pictures and looks about 12. I have kids similar age and just a real, natural conversation. Then I get to tell a CEO or an owner this person is their goal is actually to buy their house. Did you know that? To buy a house, their single parent to buy a house for their kid and them, and to have somewhere stable?
if you help that along, they'll be here forever. Or we work with the top performing contractors in the state, in the country, and we work with. The not so top performing contractors in the state. And one of the, one of our favorite stories is just that, is it's working with companies who have those core values. And I worked with someone who said, my goal, like what was surprise first of all that I was even asking. And then my goal is to buy a home.
I wanna be a homeowner and I wanna get promoted from install coordinator to install manager. And I thought, Oh, that's awesome. So excited. Been with the company for 10 years, like bleeds, their brand colors, works 24 hours a day, answers their phone, does all this stuff. And we had a growth plan together, Okay, we'll take all this off your plate and then you can focus on that. and the manager's there, if we would have that conversation.
And I said, Hey this person wants to become a homeowner, is really interested in providing a stable life for her child. And the more that conversation happened, it was just natural. To come up and have that conversation that was candid, open. And sometimes they'll ask me, What do you think I'm doing wrong? What's wrong with my staff? What's the communication issue? They hire somebody new and they'll be like, What do you think of her? What's going on?
And I'll be, Well what's the probability of her staying? Like three like Maybe we could do something different. So it's just that being really open and having those conversations and noticing and taking the time and then risking that you're gonna piss a contractor off when they ask you about your opinion, you, you can ask, Do you really wanna hear it? Or you gonna get mad at me for my opinion? And that kind of breaks the ice to begin with. And then you just lay it.
Right. Well, thinking about bigger picture that's you guys working with your guys', contractors, your clients for that to be able to go in and help their team and help coaching and almost like a consultancy role which is super fascinating to be able to say, Hey, we also help your team when we're doing it, it's not just, we're not just your what you do for Energuy it's just not that. We do a lot more and we go above and beyond, which is also cool.
And which is probably why a lot of your team also probably likes that as well, that they can say, Hey, I can also help and impact that. And so for somebody that's a business owner that takes that over there, just have a natural conversation with somebody That's it. That's all you have to do is don't talk about work, just ask 'em about something personal and let the conversation. So I'd lo I really love that.
How often do you schedule those kind of conversations with the team to check in and hold them accountable to getting to those bigger dreams and goals?
We have meeting rhythms. So the executive team has a meeting rhythm. The executive team to the managers have a meeting rhythm. The managers to their supervisors and team have a meeting rhythm and then down from that to the group huddles. So we try to get on those huddles as much as possible. I have an open door policy, so came in Eric, and people can come and get whatever information they need and we'll see. Send a chat.
You have a few minutes, so on demand, like when they need us, but hopefully you're developing leaders. we only need you for new situations and situations that they've already tried several things with. And when they're out of things to try, then they come and get you and they want your guidance. But we also just launched a leadership series in Inner Guide where we're talking deep dive, how to handle situations, very specific emails, accountability, crucial conversations, those types of things.
And then we also have a mentorship program where we do one-on-one concentrated mentoring with the leaders in our company to dive into exactly that. What are your personal barriers? What's holding you back? What are you afraid of? Because that's a lot of it, right? People have these deep, dark secrets in their mind, like they dream of what they could be, but they won't say it out loud cuz of the accountability. So that mentorship is like, what is it that you wanna do? How big do you wanna get?
And like pushing them toward that.
Love it. It's funny, both Thad and I came from selling Cutco knives and that was just regular conversation there.
I heard those are badass knives though.
They're keep ass knives. Absolutely.
You wanna buy a set
It was just crowd of in my kitchen the other day. My daughters girlfriend was like, How come you don't have Cutco knives?
That's so funny. but the culture at the company was why I stuck around for so long. I was there for eight years. And that constant focus on how were you developing and growing as a person, not how were you selling more knives? It was never about that. And they have that corny joke. It's not about the knives, it's about the lives, but, Right. but really that's what they live. That was the core concept of the company, was how can we continue to develop people because we are in the people business.
We're not in the knife selling business.
Well, we're being really like real on this podcast, right? That is the biggest pain in the ass of managing a company though, right? Yep. Is managing people. So they're the heartbeat of the company. But it's also the biggest challenge for managers is how to deal with people and complaints and issues and personal lives and like, how do you manage all that stuff? And it's, not my favorite thing to do, like if I'm saying that, but I love to watch people grow.
So what you're saying is that's, you can't tell people to just get fucked damn it.
Sometimes. It depends.
If that's what they need,
Good time. I don't know. Yeah. Sometimes.
Probably not a good cultural advice.
Well, trust that helps. Keeps us around for sure. So there you go.
All right. Yeah. Let's dive into the round question. And I'm sure that you know what this part of the show means. It means we're gonna ask you a random question that has nothing to do with what we're talking about but there are two choice or three choices rather. And you get, choose what the choice is and then we're gonna read off the question to you. So do you want question one, two, or three?
I'm gonna take number one. I like number one, take the number one spot.
If you were to work in at a circus, what job would you choose? Wow. That's a tough one.
That's a tough one. Well, I don't, I won't even go to circuses guys. Like, I don't even take my kid. I think they're so mean.
I thought you were gonna say cause you were scared of clowns or something. I thought I was
going with that same, same logic. Don't worry. So it's why we're business partner, I guess.
No, no way. No way. I, the list of things I'm afraid of is very short. I would be the person to make it humane. Yeah. That's what I would do. Nice. I like that. The Humane circus. See, I was thinking about like the non-animal one.
That's what I was thinking too. Cam, you you read my mind.
Right? Ringmaster Center of the stage. So well let me ask you this. You said your list of things that you're afraid of are, is really, is really small. What are you the most afraid of?
In a really shallow sense, rodents. Okay. Like, that's an easy one. I don't like 'em, but I will go near them on purpose because I'm afraid of them. I'll try to hold them or like go close to them just so that I can be controlled by my fear. Two, missing out on experiences. Not taking advantage of things that are in front of me. Like, that's a big fear of mine. Like, I, I, was talking to the president of our company the other day and about a regret or something.
I think we were listening to questions on your show. And when I was first I met my new husband on Tinder. This is kind of a long explanation,
It's okay. I met my wife on Plenty Fish, so you're good.
There you go. Okay. It wasn't a hookup, I swear. But So we're finally texting. We're asking, and he, and I think he asked me like, What do you like to do for fun? Or something like that. And my regret is only, My only regret I think, is just, I think I, I text back something so dumb, like as soon as it leaves your fingertips, you're like, Oh, shit, why did I say that? Why did I say that? And you knew I said, Know what my response was like it was. bad. Right. Let's hear it.
I responded and said, Anything I can get my hands on? and then I was like, Oh, no, that's not what I meant. I meant like, I like to be outdoors. Thank you guys. And I was just like, Oh, crap. But it goes back to like, if somebody says like, Hey, have you ever done this? No. You wanna do it? Yes. That's what I wanna do. Like I'm afraid of missing out. Yeah.
Sorry, I was gonna think of my, I was gonna try to collect my thought on that, but but, but you're right. I mean, so, this is a topic of mine that I kind of get passionate about when it comes to, to this, right? And I like to really go off on tangents on this in particular when it comes to like something like a vacation, right? So the majority of people, North American, US, is a little bit higher than Canada. It's like 60% of people don't use their full vacation in a year.
They don't, use it all. It's crazy. Mind. And it's just like they, they want to continue to work and they work and they work and they work well. Well, nobody ever sit on a death bed. G I wish I spent more time at the office. No, they want to go out and they now they have this single regret that they're there. Like, Man, I wish I did this. I wish I did x I wish I did y I wish I did Z. And so when somebody can just say, Yes, I'm in, and just go for it.
And they, they release themselves from that inhibition, but also have an organization, which I'm sure I'm certain that yours is probably like this, that Hey, if you wanna go do that, go do that. Right? We're not gonna stop You You're gonna go, go for it and go have fun. Which is a good thing to be able to see, to be able to have that aligned though with what you preach and what you actually want to do though is actually something that's super fascinating.
So good on you guys for having that as part of your guys' organization in there. And I don't know if Evan's frozen or if I'm frozen it appears that, Oh, I am apparently Evan. Okay. Or you just taking a really long drink. Right.
It's really good. little sip at a time, apparently. Right. That's funny. I'll try and fix that video here in a second. But I do wanna ask this question cause I'm really curious. So you said you have a fear of missing out. Yeah. You also mentioned earlier in the show that you were only gonna start at Energuy and work there for three years, and now you've been there for five because you wanted to start your own business.
I'm curious, one, is that still a dream of yours or are you afraid of missing out if you're not gonna start your own business? Or are you afraid of missing out if you leave Energuy?
That was a deep que that was a deep question.
Evan coming from left field man No, I, Energuy I see as being part of my life for a really, really long time. and luckily the, I work with a couple of guys that definitely support my dreams outside of this. So not really. I, I wanted to do consulting because I happened to have a knack for having those raw, candid conversations and pointing out the pain pointing out pain points and then fixing them. But I get to do that here. So I don't even know, like I'm going to work really.
And a couple of years ago when we discussed that, they were amazing enough to bring this to me. I didn't have to ask, but they brought ownership to the plate for me. So that was good. But now I want to reach out and do a nonprofit. Because like your legacy and what you leave behind, but helping young women to develop those skills and get into this particular industry is starting to peak my interest a little bit.
I was a teenage mom at one point and there's a lot of things I thought, oh, I'm never gonna be able to do. So I really wanna focus on that group of people and and enter guy stands a hundred percent behind that. So I have this year taken about five or 10 minutes every day to work a little bit on that nonprofit and giving women those skills and hopefully bringing them into some kind of opportunity in the HVAC industry would be really exciting for me.
So I will continue to do that, but I'll also continue to help with Energuy. And just recently, last December, we bought another company in Canada that does these energy audits for ourselves actually. That's really exciting.
Well, and I love that because, and this was something that I even brought up in, in a couple of the one-on-one conversations we had with our team, is that your goals can change and your dreams can change. Like, I love the Jim Roan quote of if I had known what getting to the top of the mountain of some of those early goals would've cost me, I never would've paid the price. And like I'm a big believer in the one thing that's a book that I've studied countless hours on. I've read it numerous times.
I've listened to it, I've gone to courses on it. I listen to their podcast like I just, I, I live that book. And one of the things that they talk about is it's about having a relationship with your goals. Well, most people just write down the goal and then they stick it in a drawer and they never see it again. They never check on it again. They don't know where their progress is.
If you have a real relationship with your goals, you can check in with yourself on a constant basis to see if this is actually something that still matters to you or not. or am I living this through some other way? Right. Most people go after a goal, not because they wanna achieve the goal. They want what the goal is going to give them the feeling it's gonna provide for them.
And if they realize that that feeling can be created on a daily basis, they all of a sudden don't need that thing anymore. Great. So that's really beautiful.
Yeah, I love that. And that's what all of our, your clients and my clients all do well, Right. They all do the culture thing really well. you're producing a hundred, 150 million a year. I walk into those offices, I meet with those teams, and they care about their people. That's the common thread with all of the top perform. and not only like they have some business things going on, right? They know their numbers, they track their numbers, their prices reflect their value, right?
You always have the most expensive contractors they're at the top and their, value goes into all the service they provide, but their culture as a vendor for these contractors, I know how good their culture is. Cuz I'm in there during those meetings, but also because I'm talking to the same person fi from five years ago, I'm not getting right. Bounce back emails like, Oh, that person doesn't work here anymore. Oh, that person doesn't work here anymore.
and I have to constantly tell my team for those other companies, Oh, they've had a staffing change, now we have to get to know this person. Oh, they've had a staffing change. But you have those people and they're advancing and you can see it that the contractors that are at the very top that are selling their company for hundreds of millions of dollars, they have their culture together. And one of the examples that I have like.
You take the Bell Brothers or NextGen and at NextGen it's like there's a lot of pressure there. It's a high performing company, right? So internally they're going every second of the day and there's a lot of pressure. But the one thing they all have in common is that they all feel like Ish has their back like that. He's gonna provide them a future. Their executives work hard because they know he is going, he does what he says he's gonna do, and he helps them work toward their goals.
Bell Brothers, same things. It's that person, the me, the manager is now an executive, is now an owner, is now has share programs and they're working their way toward that. And it's like the same person, but you see them grow and grow and grow. The culture, it's like a thousand percent when makes or breaks these companies. So they all do it and they do it well.
Well, this is a super common theme. Like you look at almost every guest that we've had on talks about culture, right? And some people are like, Well, I can never find anybody to work for me. And other people are like, We have too many resumes. Well, they're both doing hvac. One just has a greater culture than the other. Right? Cuz people wanna work there, wanna stay there, they wanna feel valued, they wanna feel appreciated in that like working towards their goals.
Like the individual's goals, not the company's goals. That's part of it too. Exactly. Working towards their individual goals. And so if you don't know, if you're sitting there listening like, gee, that's, that's our shattering shit. Well, yeah. Go ask your people what their personal goals are in their life. Like Yeah. Start there. That's an easy starting point.
Go for coffee and take them out of the shop and go to a coffee shop and just have a conversation with, Ask 'em what their goals are and that's when you're gonna start to move the needle and creating an amazing company culture. And it doesn't have to be ish size company to be able to do it. It can be a million dollar company, a $2 million company. It could be a $700,000 company too. It doesn't matter the size.
You just have to start there and have those conversations and build it into your daily, I wouldn't say daily, but at least quarterly conversations
at least. Yeah, for sure. Agreed. Yeah, they all do the same things. It's amazing. We get to see, we're not an HVAC contractor, but we know all of the best practices and we know them intimately because we have those relationships for so long, and you just like, you can recognize it now within like five minutes of being in a company and from the experience that you have, their communication is so fast, like it's unclogged, it's so quick.
The responsiveness time, the, you know that when you talk to somebody in install and you talk to somebody on the executive team, they have the same messaging. You're like, that's a strong company. Because their culture is strong. And when you talk to someone who's like, Well, the worst thing I think I've ever heard entering a contractor's office is one of their employees throwing them under the bus. Right. Like like, Oh, something's broken here.
And they'll say, Well, my manager wouldn't let me approve that. And that's what's going on. And you're like, what you say, we like, anytime anybody takes responsibility for mistakes, that's all of us. We all have share responsibility, but that's how, you know the culture is good or needs improvement.
I've got eight things written down right now in terms of like top companies versus not. Cause I, I, I'm a big believer in success leaves clues, right? Yep. And it, it's not rocket science. If you just do what other successful companies have done, you're gonna get there too. Right. So what I've written down so far, core values care about their people. They've got a culture of that. They've got a culture of support. They've got integrity and follow through with what they say they're gonna do.
Their price reflects their value of that one. Strong communication and they've got exceptional standards. any others that you would add to that list?
They innovate. They're not so arrogant to think that what they've been doing still speaks to their client base. they just keep changing. And so in big picture training, we tell everybody if you're a really good fit for Energuy who love chaos, if you like turning chaos into order, because the minute the industry speaks, when I start hearing our biggest contractors, they need something. And it's all similar. We need to innovate, we need to change, and we need to adapt and meet that need right now.
And. That's always gonna happen. And I'm always gonna be out there. We're gonna be trying to put our feelers out thinking what's changing? What's the new need? And I, when I start to hear a common theme, okay, change a process. So get ready cuz it's gonna change all the time. And that's the example that like we take from the top contractors, they push us to be better. I'm sure yours due to they're always bringing something like, That's not gonna work for us. We need this.
And then you go to your other three top contractors and they're like, Oh yeah. So right now staffing is so big for our contractors. It's crazy. Like the, you guys were talking about it on one of your podcasts that Dang it, who was on that was talking about if people would talk more about the financial opportunities within the HVAC industry, we wouldn't have this tech shortage. Howard
sounds like there are lots of people, but I don't Yeah, Tom Howard.
Tom howard. Howard, owner of Lee, and like. It's underestimated what you can do in the HVAC industry. And being the HVAC industry isn't even being in the HVAC industry anymore, it's also being in the tech industry. And it needs to be presented like that. Like you're coming into the tech industry by coming into the HVAC industry and those need to be synonymous right now.
But with the staffing shortage, when you work with us, we plan to add to your division in compliance permitting, ladder drops, final inspections. I sat in a contractor's office and it's pretty simple. Like you go back to the basics. I, my meeting with them gets interrupted six times cuz they have a phone call. Oh well a permit is this, this is why you need a permit. This is why you need a hers rate. This is the difference in an inspector.
And we thought like just in your phone tree, push three to get information on your permits. And that goes right to enter guide. Let us take that off your plate. You focus on revenue generating stuff and we'll take everything else. So in this staffing shortage, Develop your people that are leaders and then outsource the rest to experts. that's the other thing they do. That's pretty common.
Love that. So for those of you that want to make sure that you are outsourcing this and need to save some time and staffing and all of that right now, make sure that you are reaching out to Energuy that you got the banners ready? Yep. All right. Energuycom. Wanna make sure that you're checking out their website. Get all the details on there. There's tons of value on there too. So definitely check out the website regardless if you're gonna be using them or not.
But if you need to, reach out to them sales@energuy.com. Of course, you can check out their Facebook posts and their Facebook feed, facebook.com/theenerguy. And on Instagram, instagram.com/energuyinc. And soon to be Enter Gal
I do, I I know since we're on the banner train one of the things that you talked about was innovating and companies that can innovate and adapt and change with the times are gonna be leaps and balance ahead of them. I think of somebody like Billy Stevens, Billy Go and Sera Tech, or Sera Systems.
Of course we have to mention our sponsor, Sera so if you wanna get in touch with them on how they can also help reduce some of your staffing as well and create efficiencies in your business sales.sera.tech/hvac-revealed to get a demo with them. Because what they're doing, combined with what the Energuy does, while you can create a bigger efficiency within your business to be able to increase your bottom line, which is not always what people are in business for, but a lot of times
well, it allows you to focus on what it is that you love to do, right? When you're hyper efficient at everything that you're, you're doing. Right, You're able to do more of what you love to do. I had this conversation with our video editor today when we were going through her goals list, and I was like, it can sometimes be counterintuitive.
You got all these tasks that you need to do on a daily basis, but your one thing that you really want to improve on and her one big professional goal is to become a master video editor. It's like, so in order to do that, you need to do extra trainings. You need to study what other video editors are doing and learn from them. And by applying that, you're gonna be better at those tasks.
So yeah, you got a lot on your plate today and the most important thing that you can be doing right now is taking 10 minutes to go and study. Definitely. And if you don't prioritize your day to focus on that one big goal that you really want to go after, it's never gonna get done. Because you're gonna do this. We say that all the, we talked about, and she's gonna see this video when she goes back and doesn't edit it. So it's gonna be great.
You're gonna do exactly what she talked about and try and fit it in when your tasks are done. But when you just try to fit it in, it's no longer a priority.
Run the day or the day's gonna run you.
Write that one down evan quote Stephanie Gorton on that. I do, I know you kind of briefly went over it, but the idea of outsourcing your permitting and your hairs rating and that by just simply adding press three or whatever the number is to talk about your permitting and it goes to Energuy Wow. What a time saver. Right?
Four to six hours a job.
Yeah. Job. There you go.
Let us take the pain in the ass. Like if that's what we do. All the stuff you don't wanna do. Like it's, it sucks sometimes, but like that's the way it is. And we want, The thing is, is that it's not even a sales tactic. It's like, w by nature, if you focus on revenue and you grow and you have more volume, we do too. So let us take it all off your plate and you just focus on installing and doing your happy calls and making sure your customers are happy. We'll answer all the questions.
Value added service right there.
Yeah. Did you have any final questions before we get to the final?
Yes. She probably knows what the final question is, though. She studied the show a few times. She came prepared. So one of the things that I know you and I when we very first chatted you had mentioned that you guys have an ideal customer avatar and for those that don't know what an ideal customer avatar is, was watching the show, we're not gonna get into that, is basically, well, I guess in the short narrow, it's the most ideal person that you wanna work with.
Now you guys also know that intently Ater guy and you will say no to certain contractors. Now I think more people in business need to know how to say no. Especially for jobs coming in and what have you. How is a business do you go about saying no to somebody without hurting their feelings?
Well, if it's outside of our core values for Energuy, which if you run a company, you you develop those core values. And so one of our core values is treat your. Clients and your team like partners. So if that's the behavior is outside our core values, or if your core values are not aligned with us, I'm just gonna say no. An extreme case of that would be, we had a very, very big account that brought in a lot of revenue several years ago.
And you don't, you really want a tiptoe around those large volume contractors, right? Cause they do 80% of your business. They also talk to all the industry players. But one of those really, really big players called up our team and called him an f and idiot and just kind of d demolished him, right? And my role really with difficult contractors or pissed off contractors is don't call my team and yell at them. Here's my cell phone number.
You wanna get pissed off and yell at someone, like call me. And so a couple conversations of that and I actually packed up all of their permits and shipped them back to their office and was like, We don't wanna do this. Like I don't care. We don't care how much revenue we lose, we can't let you do that. So your core values are not to treat each other like partners.
And then if we say we just can't do something, cuz it's like, why would you promise a contractor you can do something and then you under deliver? That's like the worst thing you can possibly do. So even in our sales pitch, it's not even a sales pitch. We go in and we talk about the contractor, What do you need? What are your pain points? What's your process now? How do we fit in there?
And our secret is we're gonna ingrain ourselves so much in your business model that it's very difficult to replace us. Like now we're part of your team. So you can't really just like, Oh, we're not gonna work with Energuy, we're gonna work with someone else. It doesn't work like that. Like you have to disengage your customers, your marketing flyers. We do a lot of that stuff.
So but if a contractor wants us to do something that's outside our core values, we're not afraid to say no. And we're not afraid to say no to money. Like revenue doesn't matter to us as much as having our team. Like we are credible leaders and we can say no by saying that doesn't really match up with their core values. But I know someone who might be able to help you, and I'll refer my heartbeat if it's not something that we do.
And that's, yeah, I mean, it's really powerful. And again, it comes back to knowing your why, having your core values established so that you can say no one to customers, also to employees and team members, right? If you have a team member that is your top selling tech, But they are cancerous to your dispatch team. They are cancerous to your install team. Are you willing to let them go?
Yeah, totally. Like you're willing to go through the coaching steps and you're willing to say to them on a one on one, your talents are so strong and your potential is so vast, but your arrogance or your inability to work with a team is gonna hold you back here. So we don't care whether you've been here five years, 10 years, one year, 15 years if you like, especially veterans. You need to behave as an example to the rest of these people.
And we don't care how much you produce or how great you are, we will absolutely say, You know what? This probably isn't the best fit for you. If you can't respect our core values. So that's something we're teaching our managers because they're very. They tip toe around our top producers, well they do this many jobs and they can do this much. Yeah. But it's not fair to everybody else who comes. And it is aligned with the core values for this person to be an outlier.
Like cuz they're, they've been here for so long and we've had those conversations with veterans that like you are arrogant and your, or your inability to trust or your inability to delegate or whatever it is. You think you're above this, you're not. And the next two interactions, we're gonna give you 90 days to get your stuff together, but we don't even need to do the 90 days. Are you committed to doing this within our core values?
Cuz tell me right now if you're not, and we'll make an exit plan if you are, we'll do everything we can to work on your strengths and patch your weaknesses to be able to fit the here. So we do that often. Yeah.
I love that.
Know when to hold him. No. When to hold him, and no one to fold him. Right.
Okay. There you go.
No, that's exactly it. And offer coaching first, right? You don't jump straight to firing and straight to letting go, or straight to saying no to a client, but offer the coaching first and then if it's not a fit, it's not a fit and that's okay. Yeah. It's gonna be better for your organization. Yeah.
Yeah. Why do you want this? Why, why is this happening? What's your side of the story? Here's the feedback I have for you. So you tell me your side. And then we'll figure it out. But coaching first, and then you gotta be willing to stick to those core values. You, called them core for a reason, and sometimes your top performer, even though they're a top producer, is not a top team member, right?
Yeah.
And if they're in a role where they are contributing to the team and be needing to be a support member of the team, Maybe they're in the wrong seat on in the bus. Right? And wrong seat on the bus, another position. Right? And if not, then well, then it's time to let 'em go.
There you go. But it's harder to say no to money. It's really hard. It's harder to take your top producing client, your contractor, the contractor that everybody wants to work with, and the contractor that you know, has high demands. And the minute they step outside of those core values, you have to be willing to say, We don't need your business to survive. Right. And I feel like that's a secret, right?
Like, if you just do the right thing and you stay committed and you're willing to make those sacrifices to do the right thing, then you're gonna be a business 50 years from now,
right? And you think of the message that that sends to your team, you think of the message that that sends to other customers and other clients that you could potentially be bringing on when you say like, these are our values and we're not willing to bend on this. They're more willing to, come on board now because of that.
You'd be surprised at how many contractors, even if you say, You know what, this is not something we're gonna do. And to be honest with them and say like, it doesn't really make us any money. We're kind of spinning our wheels. Right. And it's not fair to us. Like we can't, we're losing money on that. How many of them will actually stick around even though they, we will try to leverage their business and their volume against you and say, Well, we'll just go to your competitor. Right.
And the moment you say like, Go ahead. I hope they can help you Cause we can't. Right? Yeah. We can't do that. They're like, Oh, well. Or how many clients have gone to our competitors and not had their needs met and been back a year later? Yep. I had a, I had a conversation with a contractor like that, that was like, Hey, we've been with ex competitor for so long. And in a sales pitch for us, I guess you could consider that was like, we took under guy for granted.
We didn't realize all the work you guys did. We didn't realize until we got told no so many times over here that we're really sorry. Like we should have valued what was going on over here. But if we had not been willing to be like, Okay, go ahead. Sure, try the competitor, then they would've never had that appreciation, that renewed appreciation for the relationship and partnership we did provide. don't know what you're missing out on until you leave.
You guys know that I'm sure firsthand, No, I'm gonna go with the cheaper bid. Right. With the websites or whatever like that person's willing to do it for less. And you're, in your mind, you're like, Okay. And good luck. Yeah. Good luck with that. And our contractors do the same thing. Yep. Yep. And that's what I say, they, their prices reflect their value because they know what they're bringing to the table, right? And they're like, Hey, well your competitor's gonna do it for $4,000 cheaper.
And as the person bringing value, our contractors can say, Go right ahead. Call me when you need something fixed Right? Cause they didn't do it right. Yeah. Yep. Or I'm not gonna pull a permit. I'll save you two grand
But that's the thing, like the amount of contractors that I talked to, I'm like, How many installs have you done in the last week where the system was less than two years old because it was installed incorrectly by Chuck and the truck who no longer runs their business. There's no warranty, there's no guarantee. They installed it incorrectly. Doesn't work anymore. And now they need to replace it. Like, Oh, Josh, if only I account. Right. Like why haven't you posted that to social media?
Yeah, exactly. That's a really good point. Like we Right, we walked into a situation where we were being asked to come back and fix our competitor's issue. And the reason that they were chosen in the beginning was even like price. Right. Hey. And, and they'll call me up like, Hey, so and so's in here. They're giving me a better price. And I don't know how you operate a business and provide a culture on that price, so, Right. Yep. Go with them if that's your value.
And that's the most important thing. Go ahead. Well, two years later you're calling me cuz you're half a million dollars in rebates short to your customers, and you're like, Can you help? Now of course we can dig in, get those half a million dollar rebates issued, but that's what you have to pay for, right? Yeah. And our customer, our clients do the same thing like our contractors.
I see it in that in your guys' Facebook group all the time and a couple other Facebook groups and they're, they paste, the paste, actual text messages in there. Like the back and forth between clients and you're like, you don't know how much you're paying for culture and training and development and your problem to be solved immediately. So, I know because I used, I shopped so many places to do our website. And I'm so sorry. I didn't know you guys at that time. First of all,
It's all good. When you're ready to redo it again, give us a call
Yeah. If that'll happen. we ended up going with a more expensive version because we felt like that company resonated with our purpose. Right. And it wasn't a a $10 job difference. It was like $25,000 of difference. That's big, right? But we felt the difference in the meetings when they were like, So this is what you envision for Energuy. This is what you feel and this is what your team represents.
Versus like, this button clicks here and that button clicks here, and you're like, you don't really get it. Do. So the fact that you guys are so immersed in the program and so into your client's needs and so attuned that we use a media company for HVAC training is like amazing. So good job and thanks for having me on. It's been fun.
Nos, it's been a pleasure. So but as we wrap up, we do have one final question That is, what is one question that you wish people would ask you more but don't? okay. I wish people would ask us more. Oh, I wish people would ask us more about what our team can add, who they don't have to hire because they hire. Like, I think they ask us about price a lot, and it's really difficult to talk about that because it's like, Yeah, you wanna bargain with me for 10 bucks a job or something.
But do you know that with our team you could put another $30,000 install in one day on your calendar? Like, what can, can we do with Energuy and how much can we utilize you? Except for like, instead of what are your prices, what are your services? We customize everything to the contractor's needs and their business model. But normally they're like, how much? So it's like, what? Well, what can you do for me? That's what I want them to ask me. What can you do?
Yeah. So Stephanie, what can you do for me?
Well like a contractor I referenced a little while ago. We met this contractor at $9 million a year. We took over their permit process. And the following year they were at 12 million a year by not adding and not adding any significant staffing. The following year they were at 16 million a year, and the following year they were at 21 million a year. And that install coordinator bought her home for her child that she was a single mom.
And they got to experience that, which is the best part for us is being a part of that story. But also a general manager made partner. And we watch them grow and we ask them, like we said, we're so honored to be a part of these organizations that are so crazy big. When we make a call to your contractor, we put on your brand of hat, like, we're wearing your shirt, we're calling on behalf of you, of your brand. And just to watch them grow and do all that stuff.
We can take all that work off your desk and imagine not having dire, We have a staff of 60. You don't have to train any of those people. You don't have to hire them. You don't have to do the resumes, you don't have to do the recruiting. We will walk your customers through that difficult process that I went through as a pain in the as homeowner. We'll answer all those questions.
I promise we got that all buttoned up now, But you just focus on selling and doing what you do best, which is installing HVAC contractors aren't permit experts. So let us do that. You do your expertise and we'll make it work.
Love it. Although I'm, I'm gonna say I was a little disappointed. I was kind of expecting you to answer that question with whatever I can get my hands on.
I learned my lesson. I learned my lesson.
Evan. Evan, I'm so glad you said that when I was thinking that at some point in that answer, I was gonna interject with that. So I'm glad that you said it.
I'm gonna take another drink.
I do have to ask too, Is Bella your daughter? She is. All right. Well, when you answered that question the first time she had that response. So she was watching on YouTube and just said, Mother, Aww,
I didn't need it like that. I didn't need it like that. I didn't need it like that. But
Well, I do, I do just wanna say like your team has been on YouTube Absolutely. Going back and forth and all caps too on that table. Yeah, they're having a blast. So they're having an absolute blast. Which, I do just wanna commend guy, I mean, not only have you talked about the culture, but you guys are living the culture.
Sometimes people come on the shows and they talk this big talk, and I'm not saying this is actually the case for any one person in particular, but people will talk a big talk, but they don't actually walk the walk. And in this case, we're seeing you not only talk the talk, but your team is in here walking the walk and supporting you in the best way possible in. Great. Like the banter back and forth that I've been watching on this side has been hilarious. There you go.
And I was gonna say, they're enjoying the show, right? And hopefully they enjoyed the show as well.
Thank you for dropping so many nuggets.
Oh man. We'll be, we'll be publishing this all over the place and it'll become more and more part of training because you guys are so, like, what'd you call you? You're the shits
So like that?
Yeah,
that's like, if you have the shits in the US it's kind of a bad thing. Oh,
I said we're good. Shit. Oh, you're good. Shit. Yeah. There we go. Yeah. Okay. That's my, that's my small town Canadian knees for you.
Yeah, half our staff is in Canada, so they get it full on, but they'll be using this as for training pretty soon.
I love it. I love it. Well, I will be the first to say thank you for taking the time outta your day to sit and chat with us. And of course, until next time, cheers.
Wow. Another fantastic episode. Stephanie, thank you so much for coming on the show and delivering so much value to this audience. This show is jam packed with nuggets. gotta start off. Number one, First and foremost, women in the trades, it's necessary. They bring so much value to the business. It's incredible to see the impact that they can make in an office.
And an interesting conversation that we got into after the show ended was not only how can we attract more women into the trades and into your business, but also how do we retain them and provide them with a space where they can really flourish and help the business truly grow. So definitely something that I want to hear from you. What are your thoughts? How can you retain some strong, impactful women within your business to help you truly thrive? So I definitely wanna hear from you on that.
Also love the nuggets around. I mean, let's face it, Energuy they have the ability to work with some of the biggest, baddest companies well in the entire continent of North America, both in Canada and the US and being able to collect some of those ideas around what these businesses are doing so well and just truly help them to stand out from the competition. she went through nine key things, communication within the business and outside the business.
Are there standards for communication in the business? Do they have standards in general for the business was number two. Innovating, are they constantly looking for ways to improve their process, to improve their customer experience, to improve the quality of service that they are providing? The culture. How do they take care of their people? Do they have standards around what it means to work for that company?
Are they offering support to their people, both for training and helping them get better at their job, but also support for outside of the office? We've heard that for many, many, many guests that we've had on the show, so definitely check out some of the past episodes around that. Integrity. Are they following through on what they say they're going to do? And again, is that a standard for their business core values? Do they have them? Are they outlined?
And is this something that every single person in the company can sputter off because it is ingrained in their culture? Do they truly care about their people? And finally does their price reflect their value? If you're providing a tremendous customer experience, you need to charge what it costs to do a great job. Amazing, Amazing, amazing tips on all of that. I loved all of it, but I do want to hear from you, what were some of your favorite nuggets from this episode? What did you take away from.
Because again, ideation without implementation is the ultimate failure. Make sure that you are taking ideas from this and you are implementing one thing into your business this week. Just one. That's it. That's. And if you did find some value in this episode, if you could introduce it to someone else, it would mean the world to us. It's how we can make a greater impact and continue to share the message of these amazing guests that we have on the show. Thank you so much for tuning in.
If you're missing the live shows, you gotta tune into the live shows because there's so much interaction that happens on there. As you heard from this one. Steph's team was going nuts in the chat on YouTube. We had a bunch of people chiming in on Facebook as well.
So join our Facebook group, facebook.com/groups/hvacrevealed to tune into the live shows where we go live each and every week, somewhere between one and 3:00 PM Mountain Standard Time does fluctuate a little bit, so if you're not following the group, You're not gonna get those updates as to when we're going live, so make sure you check out the group, Join the group.
There's lots of great chatter that happens in there as well outside of the show too, so there's tons of great value that you can get from that. Thank you so much for tuning in. We'll catch you next week, and until then, cheers.
Well, that's a wrap on another episode of HVAC Success Secrets Revealed. Before you go, two quick things. First off, join our Facebook group, facebook.com/groups/hvacrevealed. The other thing, if you took one tiny bit of information out of this show, no matter how big, no matter how small, all we ask is for you to introduce this to one person in your contacts list. That's it, That's all one person, so they too can unleash the ultimate HVAC business. Until next time, cheers.