Hey, welcome back to another HVAC Success Secrets Revealed with Thaddeus and Evan. We were live at Service World Expo. Unfortunately, the internet wasn't that great, so we weren't able to go live with all of our episodes, but we did record them and we're going to be rolling them out here in the next little bit. The first podcast that we did was with Eric McGrath. He's with Driven Leadership.
Him and his wife, Mary, started this organization and they offer unique training programs to small and medium sized businesses to challenge The business owners and the managers and the leaders of the organization, whoever it is, that's participating to problem solve and experience the outcome of their choice. But all of their, trainings are done through experiential learning because there's only so much that we can do sitting down in a classroom. We've all been to events.
We've all been to conferences where we sit down and people are talking to us and we take notes. And then it's on us to go out and implement what it is that we learned. And that's great. But that's one way of learning. Most people learn by actually doing. And so that is exactly what they do is they put you as an owner in an interesting position where you have to come up with the creative ways and uncover how it is that you operate as a leader. And it was truly a fantastic conversation.
I had so much fun with it, but I think you will as well. Take a listen to Eric McGrath with Driven leadership.
Welcome to HVAC Success Secrets Revealed, 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.
Hey, welcome back to another HVAC Success Secrets Revealed with Thaddeus and Evan. He's Thaddeus, I'm Evan. We're here to have a good time at the Service Nation Service World Expo by Service Nation and here having a fantastic time stopped by a booth of Driven Leadership. We got Eric McGrath here, him and his wife, Mary run a fantastic leadership training. We've just been hearing all about it.
They run some incredible game changing ideas around leadership, getting you to think differently and how to evolve yourself so that you can have a greater impact on your team and your individuals. They've been doing it for over 14 years, have trained thousands of companies and leaders. Welcome to the show, eric.
Hey, I'm excited to be here. I like this impromptu setup. It's great. They just come into our booth and just set up. It's amazing.
It was actually pretty, it's a pretty sick setup when we did this. And we're just chatting about what you guys doing. Hey, do you want to record a podcast? Cause I think It would be, the toughest thing, and we chatted about this before is when you're running a business, when you get to a point, you have to develop leaders in order to be able to develop leaders. You got to develop yourself first, correct?
And so, Josh and Laura Kelly from Gold Clover, they were talking about it where, what other weekend thing. So I guess walk us through what you guys do to be able to help develop and grow leaders.
We got in this industry a long time ago and the reason we got into it was we'd see all these companies that were. Doing a lot right, people get into it and they're really passionate about connecting with their clients or providing great customer service or expanding their business or doing whatever they're doing and just a lot of them get to a place where they start to plateau and that plateau is connected to their leadership style. Sure. But also how did they develop the people underneath them?
How are they developing those middle managers and to create accountability. And connection to really not just be about the numbers, but be about how do we really deliver something exceptional? How do we stand out? How do we, I mean, take HVAC, right? And there's a ton of HVAC companies around here and they're all going, how do I drive more business, how do I build what's going on? But it comes down to how are they led, how does it work within the company?
Well, and I think that at least when I'm talking to a lot of businesses, they're looking for the magic pill. When it comes to recruiting, I want the technician that's going to come into my business. They're going to know everything that they already need to know. They're going to be able to run calls right away, get in the truck, and they're going to be able to not only do that, but sell.
And the reality is, is that more often than not, not even us on a marketing side, we want people that are going to come in and be able to run marketing effectively and efficiently and know everything that they need to know right away when they come in. Yeah. But the question always comes back to, well, Are you being the type of leader that can attract that type of person into your business?
Even expand exactly but expanding on that right so you have a great leader They're gonna attract great managers correct those great managers start to build an incredible culture Yeah, what happens is people come in you take HVAC and plumbing and all these different service businesses that are struggling right now to find quality people And the differentiator with the person you're talking about that walks in that's got it like that. They get to pick Yeah, they get to choose.
Where am I gonna work? Who am I gonna work for? Yeah, what are they looking for? They're looking for that person that's done the work No, you know somebody comes in and they're going I'm not perfect, right? And I'm gonna talk to you as a human being and we're gonna sit down we're gonna figure this stuff out But it takes a different level of awareness emotional intelligence. How do you handle conflict? When it gets stressful, are you the same person?
Are you that great leader that calms the situation down and starts to move everybody through it? Are you the one that escalates it blows up or disappears, which I think is worse, right? And the challenge in, in service businesses, they are, they're brilliant at what they do. And a lot of times haven't been around or exposed to how do I really lead those people? To big help them be good at what we do, right?
And so it makes a difference to me culture is the is the differentiator the ones that really get culture they can recruit they don't chat. They're not challenged the same with hiring people. They just aren't.
Well great culture attracts great employees because they want to work for somewhere where they have that culture and you hear the difference between in this obviously isn't a recruiting based topic for today But right, you know the difference between the companies to say man, I have a tough time finding great individuals To work on my business through, there's nobody around and the other companies that have. A long line of people out the door. Well, it's culture and it's what you do, right?
One of the things, and I mean, I got a couple different ways I want to go, but you know, you say great leader, and that's how they attract great managers. Oftentimes people get into the business they were a tech. They're like, Hey, you know what? I'm going to be in turned into a business owner and they grow business and they don't necessarily have some of that natural ability to have leadership. They can learn it, but they don't have some of that natural ability.
So what do you say to somebody who's. Maybe at that three to five million dollar per year mark and they're like, well, okay now I need to start developing leaders but I don't know how.
Yeah, and Gosh, it's it's almost like a cliche, but you got to start with yourself, right? So it's like how do I Show up in those. How do I lead a meeting? And how do I do it effectively, right? How do I get the buy in from the people that I'm talking to? And the way we buy in as human beings is we're constantly observing, right? If I'm working for somebody, I'm paying attention, I'm going, Okay, do they know what they're talking about? Are they confident in what's going on?
Does it take a whole lot to rattle them? when a customer's unhappy, they're watching. How do we handle that customer? When an employee's unhappy, how do we handle that situation? and you could go on and on, but these are all conflict situations, change situations.
What a lot of new leaders that we see, what they do is they go to control, or they go to telling, or they go to this autocratic place where they're, stepping in, they're going, you got to go left, but by, you'll get them to go left in that moment, but what you lose in the long term is you lose the buy in and the wanting to participate, and then what you're left with over time is a bunch of people that aren't very creative.
They don't want to voice their ideas because you might shut them down or they don't want to be, looked at as somebody that is opposing you or in any way in a bad light. And everybody else, all the really solid ones, the ones that have the great ideas and the confidence, they leave because they don't want to work in that environment. So to answer your question, really, it starts with how do I lead that individual leadership? And how do I handle the big moments?
Most of us can lead when things are going well. I mean most of us are easy to get along with. We can work with each other. it's when it's a fan. How do we show up and how do you practice that? You got to practice hitting the fan.
I'm curious on your opinion around the different leadership styles. I know you've got the disc assessment right up there. Obviously, everyone's personality is a little bit different. Do you believe that anyone can lead regardless of whatever their strengths are or do you think it really portrays to certain attributes?
Yeah, so, my view on leadership, leadership by definition is influence, right? So the reality is can anyone lead? Everyone does lead. Everyone does. What you're talking about is can they lead a company to greatness? That takes a lot of skill sets. There's a lot of things that go into it. But leadership in general, that question, is leadership taught or is it, are you born with it? Some people, when you look at American leadership, a lot of times it's the big, the loud, The boisterous.
Yeah, our style. But you go over to Europe, it's very different. Every personality, style, leadership style, whatever you want to call it, can lead. No question. The question is whether or not they do all the skill sets. That are more than just being able to speak the skills. Some of us are quiet. I'm not quiet, but there's definitely great leaders that are quiet. And yet, they produce amazing companies. They use their skills, they use their strengths, their talents, they connect with people.
They're not afraid to hold a high bar and create accountability, but they do it in a way that really works and inspires trust in their company instead of shutting people down and causing them to run the other direction.
A fascinating topic too, the skill set to lead. How, I guess, I mean obviously there's loud like you're a loud person. I'm a loud person. Yeah, he's in the mix, right? Depending on how many drinks he has or if he's laughing really loud, right?
But you know when you look at the skill sets and okay So if somebody's now identified this as they know that they need to work on these skill sets, you know Whether it's the disc or those things they can get those that information on how they show up as a leader but What are some of the things that are the easy low hanging cliffhangers or like a low hanging fruit that somebody can say? Okay, I want to work on this skill set to become a better leader. What would you say the the biggest ones are?
Yeah, so we can talk about targets when you talk about easy That's a different thing, right? So Most of us learned how to lead from whoever influenced us when we were a kid, you know So it could be your parents brothers sisters friends things that nature And it may be a case where a lot of them really weren't great leaders, or they weren't great different way to say leaders is they weren't great influences in different ways on inspiring people to perform better.
Right, which is really what we're after. So if you look at that, and that's my upbringing, then the skill sets I need to learn are first and foremost, what are all those things and how does it relate to me, I might be really good. at getting things done and taking action, which I'd say is an important skill of a leader. But I'm really bad in taking that action of how I bring people along and how I communicate with others and all those type of things.
So, first and foremost, a real accurate look at where am I at? Okay from there, a typical easy, low hanging fruit that's a lifelong journey at the same time is getting into emotional intelligence and how do I respond? What am I feeling? What are you feeling? And how are these things mixing? people that are, it's a silver bullet when you're talking about leadership. Not that it fixes everything, but if you don't have it, leadership gets real hard.
if I'm not aware of what's going on, or I don't manage it well, or I'm not empathetic enough to understand where you're at, and I don't have a way of talking about that without being highly emotional, I'm going to create some pretty rough responses. And the end result is I go home with frustrated people, which frustrates me and
And then they're not happy and it creates that poor culture, right? And looking at, well, EQ Emotional Intelligence 2. 0, Travis Bedbury, great place to start, great book to be able to understand. And like you do the questions and the skills and it actually puts out, hey, these are the things that you should ask yourself when you're having those conversations. It's fascinating things. like you look at a lot of the studies. Well, EQ.
Is what defines a lot of times a great leaders because they have that empathetic understanding to be able to relate to the people that are having those issues. Yeah, so much of it gets easier when there's some type of growth in that area. You don't have to be, none of us are perfect at it, right? But if I've got some understanding there, some awareness, changes the game quite a bit. Everything else gets easier to learn too
Well, and I love what you said about, and the reason I asked the question around, can anyone be a leader is something you said right at the beginning and being able to tap into what it is that your strengths are. Yeah. Understanding yourself so that you can lead. Because if you don't know who you are, it's impossible to be able to connect with other people.
That's a starting place, right?
So how much of that then when you're looking at hiring and you're looking at bringing other leaders into the organization or growing your own people? How much are you looking to surround yourself with people who complement you versus? It's so easy to find someone that, Oh my gosh, you're just like me. We think the same way. I need you on my team versus I don't understand you as well because you are so different than I am and you fill in the gaps.
Yeah. So I love how you said that because consistently, so I don't want to call it like it's a weak leadership mindset because I think that, I think that's framing it wrong, but it's when I'm looking for me all the time, usually there's a reason underneath that, right? It's I'm either, I feel challenged or insecure by the people that are different. well, that person's different and, maybe I'm quiet and they're loud and I'm just like, I don't want to deal with that.
So I hire a whole bunch of submissive, quiet people, but then I can't get my company to move or to grow and nobody's taking initiative, right? Great teams have a variation of all of this, right? And we're hiring for the role and what really fits there, not hiring for what fits me. And that can be, challenging for a lot of people. Interesting enough, we go in, we'll do cultural assessments and take a look at what's going on, right? When we go into an organization.
Consistently, we will see themes in the culture, where it's like everybody's... This way or that way and those are typically hiring practices.
They're subconscious a lot of times but where I'm hiring to match me which is the normal common way to go about it Right not always the most effective right definitely not but it takes a skill set It takes a real work on me to be able to interact with all these different personalities and do it effectively and know what they need And know how to connect with them and help them grow.
Looking at that, that need to connect, with your, with your employees and even your, your middle management, how can somebody better connect with all the different personality types? Cause there's a lot. How can somebody do that?
Yeah, I mean, well, first of all, that's not a, here's your answer right? So, great leaders listen and they listen, they're not just listening to the words that you say, they're listening to how you're saying it. What's the meaning in between? What are the things I'm not hearing, right? What do you need? What are your needs in this conversation? How can I support that? and again, going back to American leadership, I think a lot of times it's about telling.
It's about coming out and saying you need to, our goal, a lot of times leaders seem to be, the goal is to get somebody to do something. And I'm always like, that's not our goal. Our goal, if you're a manager, if you're a leader of people, your goal is to help them think. And to help them think, I've got to know what are they thinking. And I've got to listen intently and understand that. So, yes, if I understand personality types or who you are or whatever, definite, extremely helpful.
It just helps in communication. But, just listen. People will tell you. You If you're wanting to improve your department and you've got those people, as soon as you start there, you're in trouble. Because those people were probably hired by you, or you hired somebody who hired them. Those people, you've tolerated the behavior for how long, and those people are the same ones that are frustrated with you because they don't understand why it's not going the way you think it's supposed to.
So If I listen, I communicate, and I start to have those, and for some people, they, they go, Oh, that's, that's soft. It feels soft. you do need accountability with it. There are, when people aren't performing, but if we come from care and understanding and listening, then we can pretty much connect with anybody. Most of us are pretty skilled at it.
It is an innate thing and a lot of people lose that connection to it because, like you said, whether it's an ego thing that's driving them or Yeah. Ego gets in the way of a lot of stuff, especially with a lot of men in leadership roles For sure. Not me ever, everybody else. Of course not. Absolutely
I don't have an ego either.
Yeah, no. Yeah, you definitely know.
learning lots here on the podcast.
Most humble guy around. Most humble guy around. Yeah.
I was listening to a podcast with Gary Keller. Yeah. Founder of Keller Williams Real Estate. Happens to be a pretty phenomenal leader and one of the things that he said, which really resonates with something that you just shared is that leaders don't teach people what to think. They teach people how to think. I'm curious your opinions on that cause you were talking about getting them to think in a certain way.
I mean, I feel like the same thing we're just talking about, but it's my opinion, doing this for a long, long time. If I walk into an organization, I go and I ask everybody, I go, what, what's the biggest challenge you're facing, right? They almost always go communication. That's what we hear. Communication in the company is lagging, but communication doesn't happen because we don't really understand.
We're not thinking in a way that, connects the values, the vision, the goals, the understanding, we're not asking the right questions. We're not listening. Communication comes a lot down to listening. Yes. And so when you tie all these together, right? So I've got people that I don't understand how you're thinking, but I'm supposed to help you perform better. Well, it's much better to go, okay, he screwed up and go, okay, talk to me about why he did it that way. I want to understand.
And they go, well, this happened and that happened, that happened. And then we go, oh, I get how you got there. And then we can coach and we can really be that because management, I think when people use the word management, a lot of times they're going. It's almost synonymous with telling and controlling, right? Not always, but a lot of times. And it's really, it should be about coaching. Yes. It should be about getting in there and going, but I can't coach unless I understand.
If anybody's been with an executive coach, they sit down and they're like, okay, tell me what's going on. Why did, it's all questions. Great managers ask questions. Great leaders ask questions. They get curious. And then when you're curious, and you understand how they think, then we can get into how you think. And then when I'm not there, the thinking's already in alignment, so I know the decisions are there. Just gets easier.
I love that.
Well, and Dan Martell, I don't know if you've followed any of his stuff, the Buy Back Your Time, the, the 1 3 1. So, I'm curious, have you heard of that strategy from him by, chance? I haven't. No, so the idea is, is that if they have one problem and they have to define it down to one, sometimes they'll have multiple. Bring them back to one problem or one solution or one specific instance. Now you come up with three possible solutions.
And then you choose what solution is going to be the best, and that's what you present to the person that says yay or nay to be able to help that out. And so now that guides along that thought process, where you can say, hey, well, what about adding this in, right? And that's it in a nutshell. Is there something similar that you would encourage somebody to do to be able to understand how to teach them how to think?
Yeah, so first of all, I love what you just said. Because there's no layer to that. It's by having them come back with solutions. It starts to become collaborative. So we're coming back and they're going this and going, okay, why did you think about that? What's going on? feel like it echoes what we were talking about. But it's being a master of questions. It's being somebody that I get curious. I dig in. I want to know. I want to understand.
And yes, I was just talking about this with a gentleman that leading a sales organization. He's brand new. Just came by the booth and he's been there three months, right? And he's going I've been charged with changing my entire culture of these sales guys and some of them have been here 15 20 years and so I said great. What's your strategy for that? What are you doing? He goes?
Well, I'm talking to you He goes what I've been doing I came in I outlined to them exactly what we need to change And I told them to do it and they're not doing it of course So what do you think the problem was? And he just sat there for a minute and he goes telling him what to do. And I go, okay, so what would you do different? But all I'm doing, I'm asking him the question. The reason being because, I mean, we're meeting at a trade show. I may talk to him again, I may not.
My hope is he thinks a little different. So, ask the questions, and you're going to get the answers, but more importantly, you're going to get where they're going to usually discover. They're going to go, oh, I was thinking, oh and then we start to pull it back, but if not, we can discover together, we can collaborate, we can start to come up with something different. A collaborative environment produces win wins. It does.
but getting there requires trust, requires connection, requires understanding and that can take time. It can also be in the big moments. How do we show up? That's what creates that. You want to fix trust really quick, is you show up awesome in the big moments. It can happen overnight.
Give us an example of that. I know I was right on the spot. come up with a long, long answer, long, long winded sentence to be able to get that, but you know, straight to it.
Well, so, client stories, right? I'll go there, leave the client name out. so had a client that HVAC and is doing online sales with HVAC. So it's little pioneering in the industry and what they're doing really struggling in one department, which was customer service and the interaction with them, especially through all the changes this past year that HVAC has been going through and was having a natural disaster with their client base. I mean slamming the phones angry.
All these things are going on, right? So, and one day it was happening. They were working on it one day came to a head. I mean, it was just consistently over and over again. A great deal of them that were having trouble with it and you're right. But bottom line turned into one day, this has been going on, but turned into a big emergency that day.
And so how you're working in a high stress environment with people that are busting their butts, they're doing the best they can, but they didn't have the tools because everything was changing, newer kind of industry, all these things that are going on. And they just didn't have the ability to service the client at the right level. So they're giving them answers that the client doesn't want. So with handling that situation, his response wasn't very great, right?
So he basically just said, we're just going to hold tight and be where it is. Well, all of a sudden everybody's quitting, right? So leader comes in and goes, okay, this is falling apart. What are we doing? We've got to do something. And in an emergency has to tell people what to do because we got to shift, right? Well, never earned the trust to do that. That's why all the everybody's screw it. I'm out of here, right? Same type of situation had there been trust like we've spent the time.
I know your goals I know what you're after personally. I know your kids names like we're more than that. That's the surface stuff, right? We get to work with a university sports teams. We'll go in and work with them cool setting up their season and There's a book out there. Oh my god Authors escaping me. It was called Run to the Roar and it's a book about the winningest coach in NCAA history And it was in the sport of squash Okay, so Interesting. It was at Trinity College, which is this like d3?
I don't know if they're d3, but they're like lower level school. Yeah, and he was a tennis coach And he came in and Trinity College is like, Hey, we need a squash coach. And he's I don't even know what the sport is. And so he starts doing a little study, starts coaching it and he started every session, every team. He started with a whole thing on what's your greatest fear. That's where he'd spend his time with his players. And it was amazing because he'd sit there in the conversations.
It's one on one, not in a group. And he's like going, what are you afraid of? What's going to shut you down? What's going to paralyze you when all the stress hits? What are you afraid is going to happen at home? What are you afraid socially? And he started to really get to know them. There were deeper questions than what's your kid's names, right?
The output of that if I remember right it was 16 national championship titles year after year after year never losing a game at a D3 school D3 I think it's D3 school playing against the big dogs, which were all I believe Harvard, Yale, right? Columbia all those guys and he crushes it. Why? Because he'd done the work on the trust when the emergency hit when it they were willing to go because they knew their voice had been heard before they knew they were cared about.
It was a long ramble I don't even know if I answered your question.
No, no no, a hundred percent you did because it like when you it goes back to that trust, right? and if you have the ability to If they bought into you and they bought into your vision and they bought into everything now your job is to buy into them and learn about them and their nuances and who they are, not just as people, right? And we had a conversation last night about one of our employees and I was mentioning that as well about one of, one of the things he's Oh, really?
I didn't even know that. Not to call you out on that. It's just, that was what I was going through that and having those conversations. And so it, when you have that buy in. And they know that there's that back and forth. You can, really hone in to fix things too as well, because now they're gonna believe in it.
So let me go back to this scenario here in this, this organization. Yeah. You are the leader of that organization who doesn't have that trust yet. Yeah. What questions would you ask of your people so that you could start connecting with them to get that buy-in to solve that problem?
Yeah. I hate to say it this way, it's less about the questions, and it's more about the sitting down and going, just going in. If I'm leading into it, mean you gotta start somewhere. there is a series of questions that is about how to fall in love with someone. I don't remember what it's called, you guys know what I'm talking about? Okay, it's a psychologist that came up with, I don't remember, it was like 21 questions. And you sit down with somebody, stranger, and by the end of it...
You're pretty intimate. And they say, and there's some ridiculous statistic on people that start dating. If they do this in the beginning, then the outcome is more often than not, they get married in the end. Wow. Okay. It's like this crazy stuff. The reason the question, so you're asking for specific questions and I don't know how you Google search that, but look that up. Because you can take the questions and you can morph them.
Rather than be about a personal relationship, it's about getting to know you really. You as a person. And it's not weird. No, it sounds like it would be weird, but I mean, it's, it's deeper question, like interviewing with behavioral questions instead of non behavioral questions. Give me a scenario where you had conflict in your last job and, what happened? Give me a little on that. And what did you do?
I want to know how you thought that's what I'm after in a behavioral question, but it's the same thing if I'm working with an employee, it's okay, so talk to me about. Why you left the last job? Really? What went on? You're here now. I want to know how to work with you better. I want you to really understand my strengths and weaknesses. And that humility to step into that as well really has value.
Oh, it definitely does.
Let me rephrase it a little bit then. You're the leader of the company. How do you coach your manager to be able to go into that department to start to solve this issue and move forward?
Okay, so it depends if I'm working with somebody who knows how to build rapport or not. If I've got somebody that's real bad at building rapport, I do it with them. Got it. I go in with them, I sit down, and if I'm really bad at building rapport, and they're really bad, there's somebody in this organization that's pretty good at it, but typically that's something as a leader of organization. Hopefully you've got some skillet. If not, work on it.
Get in your training.
Yeah, come on, we got you but no, so I'm going to sit down with them not as a mediation, but more going you know what? You're new here or you're not new. It's like you've been here a while we've been amiss. We haven't taken the time to really understand. I want to know your goals. That's usually where I start people can talk about their mission, their goals. What's the output?
So if I'm sitting down with and I'll go in there with him, I usually start on things that are easier to talk about, but also have impact which is things like goals. Talk to me about where are you from? Why this job? What are you after? what are the bigger things? And I'll do it in an interview. I'll go, what's your long you ever want to start a business? Do you want to is your goal to move to Italy and live on a farm? I'll ask him that in the interview.
If I've done a good job and they feel safe enough and understand, I'm not asking whether they're going to ditch me in a year. I'm asking them like, what's your mission? Because I want to help you hit your mission. If I'm in that space, He knows I want to start a business sometime. And he's like wanting to help me do it. I want to be here. Because you're not just in it for the money. You're in it for what I care about, what I'm after. Does that answer your question?
People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. But it's real, right?
It is. So, And there's ways to do that and show that. People hear things like that and they think it's soft or whatever. There's definitely ways to do that where it's strong. It's it means we're about something bigger than just sitting around here doing our job every day.
Yeah. It's not just about that next customer, that next sale. It's about you.
There's got to be a mission. There's got to be a bigger purpose.
Well, and that tying into their goals, right? Asking them what motivates you? Yeah. What's one of your number one goals. And you can do that in the interview process. Like you said, like we actually build that into part of our interview process as well. We missed the mark on connecting that into further conversations, like intrinsically in our business. And so that's a gap, that's a hole. You have to bridge that when you have that in there.
You guys got a machine down there.
I hear even more in the headset right now. Oh yeah. I'm just like, Oh, I would like the guy with the, duck cleaning thing. He fired that up. I was like, fuck, is this going on here? I'm like, I think it just pulls in all the extra sound sometimes too in my headset, but yeah.
We'll just talk over it.
ThIs has been fantastic. We do have one final question for you before we get to that though. If people have been fascinated by this conversation, they want to look you up. Where can they go?
Sure drivenleadership.com. That's our website. I'd say, if you're somebody, we do it a little different. Mm-Hmm We're looking for people who really want to grow. They want to develop, we do everything process based. Meaning, it's more like dropping 'em on a deserted island and getting real behavior and helping 'em through the challenge, than teaching this stuff in a classroom.
We wanna be sticky, we want you to walk away and you're like, man, I just changed 10 things that have radically increased my company. That's what we're about.
I love that in the conversation that we had, because. If you really wanted to learn a language, the best way to do it is to be immersed in the language. I f you really want to change your habits and how it is that you do things and your processes, you need to immerse yourself in something different. Yep. And that experiential, experiential training is incredibly important and I love that you do that.
Let's go live in Spain instead of learn a language. Yeah, exactly. I like that concept. Yeah, it's really good.
Awesome. Curious what's one question that you wish people would ask you more but they don't?
Wow, that's a good question. Honestly, I'd say why more people don't really push on developing themselves. So it's in our business, we don't want everyone and the reason we don't want everyone is because there's so many people that are fighting so hard to prove that the way they do it is the right way. And that's great, and I hope it is. But it's the people out there that are really in this kind of growth mindset I got more to learn. It doesn't matter how successful you are.
What matters is, is your frame of mind, I'm done? cause as soon as you're in that frame of mind, there's decline that starts to happen, right? So it's, how do I grow? That doesn't mean you keep working as hard. It doesn't mean any of that stuff. It's like, how do I grow as a person? How do I impact my grandchildren better? How do I leave a better mark on this world? How do I show up differently? When you run a company from that place, you get something different.
So, why I wish more people would ask that, because if they're asking that, they're like going, how do I create more of this in my business? Or how do I create more of this in my family? Or wherever it is, or in my community.
I can't tell you the time, I mean, I'm 50 now, and every single year, my opinion is, This country needs, this world needs more leadership than ever, not getting into political stuff, just going, we need people that can really think under pressure, have great decision making that's about more than themselves. Every company needs it too. When we do, the profits come. They do. They, show up because we show up differently.
And trickle down even further. Every family needs it.
Yeah. so I wish more people were asking about how do I grow at the end of the day, yeah. Love it.
What are you reading right now?
I'm actually reading it. So it's by Susan Lee and it's Bruce Lee's daughter, wrote a book and it's called Be Water My Friend and it's some deep stuff, man. I mean, so I, I didn't know Bruce Lee was a philosopher, right? So she's covering and she's an academic and she's like covering kind of his thought process and what made him tick and how he changed. Yeah. How he changed Kung Fu, but it's not less about Kung Fu and it's more about the thought process and the philosophy of him being.
Great book, highly recommend it, about halfway through it. So she says it gets deeper as you get into it. So I can't wait.
I love it that's fantastic. Eric, this has been a pleasure. Thank you so much for doing this. Love the leadership conversation. Cause it's absolutely something that's missed. Everyone's driving. How do we sell more? How do we recruit more? The end of the day, the answer is always, you need to grow yourself. Yeah. And I love what you guys are doing. I really, really do.
This is cool. Come in here and have all this and set it up and we just drop it down right now.
Boom. There we go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. First one on the set up too. So, well, and until next time,
great to meet everybody.
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.