Blue Collar Success with a Masterclass in Operational Excellence

[SPEAKER_01]: Just school wasn't going for me raised in a single, single, fifth parent home. [SPEAKER_01]: Needed to build a kind of relief mom from some of the stress of having to put food on the table two kids. [SPEAKER_01]: I buddy was working as an electrician. [SPEAKER_01]: I went and applied and taught all that happened. [SPEAKER_01]: I found out really quick that I enjoyed working with my hands. [SPEAKER_01]: I was really good at it.

[SPEAKER_01]: What I learned was [SPEAKER_01]: To own a business, you got to have good business acumen. [SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't have it at that time. [SPEAKER_01]: I did not have that. [SPEAKER_01]: So I owned a paycheck as one I told people. [SPEAKER_01]: This industry literally changed my life. [SPEAKER_01]: It changed my life and my future, my family's future and for that I feel forever indebted to it. [SPEAKER_01]: I worked under Jim and his team for a while as a coach and a trainer.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I learned that I was pretty, pretty damn good at it. [SPEAKER_01]: And I learned this from Jim Abrams. [SPEAKER_01]: He said the number one reason why business any business fails is they're not price property. [SPEAKER_01]: So first thing that we're going to do is we're going to check to make sure they're priced correctly. [SPEAKER_01]: The second reason why business fails is they don't know how to get the price that they need to charge.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sales and operations are really my thing. [SPEAKER_01]: Man, that really jazzed me up a lot, like helping businesses, not just drive revenue, but do it profitably. [SPEAKER_01]: Manage margins to make sure that they're really dialed in on their overhead. [SPEAKER_01]: This is to the point. [SPEAKER_00]: of Lionel Experience, voted one of the top home services marketing and operations podcast, cutting through the bullshit and getting to the point.

[SPEAKER_02]: with another Chris, not just you, Chad, but another Chris. [SPEAKER_02]: It's a great name. [SPEAKER_02]: It was more of a common name when our guests, Chris and I were born, because we're pretty much the same age, a little older than Chad.

[SPEAKER_02]: Not so much for common name now, I don't know why, I thought Chris was pretty solid, like you can go either way, you can be a boy or a girl name, it's pretty, there's something special about the name Chris, I think, and I know Chad, you feel the same. [SPEAKER_00]: I could definitely, there's two of you here. [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's, I think it's interesting though because like all those names come back around.

[SPEAKER_00]: So like I think about all the boys in my sense daycare class, you've got like Jack. [SPEAKER_00]: My brother's name in his son Hank, like all of these like old school names that are making a resurgence, which is interesting. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Did you meet my, you met my friend, Dan, I grew up with this like, well, my best buddy's a group with Chad. [SPEAKER_02]: I can't remember if you met him. [SPEAKER_02]: He was at Rhino X this past year.

[SPEAKER_02]: He owns a job. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he, he has, he had two twins. [SPEAKER_02]: They're about, I think they're at five or six years old named George and June. [SPEAKER_02]: Pretty cool, but like old George and June. [SPEAKER_02]: So well, listen, okay, I know Chad's got to get out the top of the outreach plan, Mr. Mom right now. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so we got to make sure he's out on time to go pick up the little Petermans.

[SPEAKER_02]: But we are excited to have our friend Chris crew president of Blue College success group on the show today, which we just met time to sing episode. [SPEAKER_02]: This episode is probably a few months ago. [SPEAKER_02]: I got to actually meet a new of Chris. [SPEAKER_02]: but never actually met him and I told him this, that's when I got to meet him at the conference at Blue Color Success Group, had out here in Phoenix, Glendale actually, like I said a few months ago.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, excited to have him on just in a short amount of time, he and I got to chat. [SPEAKER_02]: I saw him presenting on stage and he was actually presenting, he did like a Q&A with Ryan, catering from prolific, which was cool, which is kind of what sparked the conversation a little bit. [SPEAKER_02]: that he picked up that there might be something more than me just being supportive of prolific, which is now you could see a sponsor here on the podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I got to spend some time with him, watch how he communicated to that room full of contract, which is a great event, dude, by the way. [SPEAKER_02]: Like that's a first one I'd been to. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that was a legit, that was a legit deal, man. [SPEAKER_02]: And it was cool to watch you do your thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I didn't get chances to get with Kenny, but he was kind of bombarded with a bunch of [SPEAKER_02]: People are much usually all the stuff goes, but it's always fun having different coaches on here too, but coaches who kind of been through it and Chris has been through it and had some success in the industry and he was just an electrician.

[SPEAKER_02]: He learned how to coach other electricians and plumbers and HFAZ technicians and so I'm always excited to have these guys on one because they usually have a lot to say. [SPEAKER_02]: They've also worked with a bunch of different size contractors in today's climate, you know, to experience like what's good, what's bad, like what are things you're dealing with, what are they looking forward to, all that type of stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: But I don't want to forget a couple of things.

[SPEAKER_02]: Number one. [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, though Chris did not graduate high school. [SPEAKER_02]: Is that correct, Chris? [SPEAKER_02]: I get that right. [SPEAKER_01]: What? [SPEAKER_01]: I'd tell people my experience. [SPEAKER_01]: I got it in a shorter amount of time. [SPEAKER_01]: I just got it done in ten years. [SPEAKER_02]: So, oh, oh, makes total sense. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yes, yes. [SPEAKER_02]: Most of all those honors classes you were taking.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, we call those honors classes for sure. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, the pride of Pauling County High School, Go Patriots. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: That's a word we don't like to say around here at Go Colts about what Cardinals fan. [SPEAKER_02]: If the Cardinals play the Colts, I choose the Cardinals. [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm there. [SPEAKER_02]: So it's clear.

[SPEAKER_02]: So nobody like misunderstand that I'm not a Cardinals fan, but it's your for the Colts do thing gather in different divisions. [SPEAKER_02]: Where's that good? [SPEAKER_02]: So I think I heard you tell me. [SPEAKER_02]: But I don't know, because I was doing a little bit of research on Eucharist. [SPEAKER_02]: I started to get confused, because you've kind of bounced around the US a little bit. [SPEAKER_02]: Now, let me see if I got this thing right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you currently live in Florida? [SPEAKER_01]: That's correct. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: I got one, right? [SPEAKER_02]: But you're from, but you're a Georgia boy. [SPEAKER_02]: Is that correct? [SPEAKER_01]: It is. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, originally from Northwest Georgia. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, there are two for two. [SPEAKER_02]: Doing pretty good. [SPEAKER_01]: Good, man. [SPEAKER_01]: You're batting a thousand percent right now.

[SPEAKER_02]: But Pauling County High School isn't Texas. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no, sir. [SPEAKER_02]: Son of a bitch. [SPEAKER_01]: No, sir. [SPEAKER_01]: However, while we're on this, I tell people, I'm originally from Paulding County, the town I'm from Dallas, Georgia, and I tell people all the time, the real Dallas. [SPEAKER_02]: I saw Dallas. [SPEAKER_02]: And I assume, you know what happens when you assume, Chad? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: make an ass of a bitch.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, and you know, and just feel for the record for all of our listeners, too. [SPEAKER_02]: I do not have any affiliation with Rhino with blue color success group. [SPEAKER_02]: So that's not why I brought Chris on here. [SPEAKER_02]: I legit brought him on here because I was like, dude, he like it was I was it was [SPEAKER_02]: He's got some good stuff to share with all of our listeners.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think a lot of ours will resonate with what Chris has to talk about some of the questions that we have. [SPEAKER_02]: But I'm excited to have you on, man. [SPEAKER_02]: And I want to have you just share a little bit of your background. [SPEAKER_02]: But beforehand, I think what I read was that you started [SPEAKER_02]: as an electrician, which by the way, so did I, so did I, fun fact. [SPEAKER_02]: Not a good one, but I did sort of, sorry, it was to add stuff laughing.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a fucking normal electrician, shut your mouth, okay? [SPEAKER_02]: I'm a contractor, okay? [SPEAKER_00]: That purge of what says otherwise.

[SPEAKER_02]: You remember that guy's got a good man. [SPEAKER_02]: Chris, there it doesn't electricity at sixteen. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, and then eventually built and sold, built and sold, electrical service, electrical service company. [SPEAKER_02]: And I think it was from, you got it at three and took it to thirty or somewhere in that thirty million mark. [SPEAKER_02]: And it was in four or five locations or somewhere like that. [SPEAKER_02]: Am I close Chris?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we're you're close to that. [SPEAKER_01]: That's okay. [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe you want to actually tell the story a little bit better because I don't know if I but you did or if I was closer. [SPEAKER_02]: Well, but just kind of get the listeners a little bit of your background and then kind of what what your job is today is I know you were a coach for boost Blueclash. [SPEAKER_02]: That's before you become president.

[SPEAKER_02]: So maybe just kind of walk us through a little bit of that journey like the cliff notes version of it and then we'll get into some questions. [SPEAKER_01]: Yep, so as you alluded to, um, tenth grade, uh, just school wasn't going for me raised in a single single parent home, uh, needed to build a kind of relief mom from some of the stress of having to put food on the table two kids. [SPEAKER_01]: I got out started working in my hands.

[SPEAKER_01]: My grandfather says, Chris, if you're going to quit school, you got to get a job, you can work forever. [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, all right, cool. [SPEAKER_01]: A buddy was working as an electrician. [SPEAKER_01]: I went a plot and taught all that happened. [SPEAKER_01]: I found out really quick that I enjoyed working with my hands. [SPEAKER_01]: I was really good at it, mechanically inclined. [SPEAKER_01]: But that is crazy as it sounds.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was a new construction company and as many people know new construction. [SPEAKER_01]: I ended up moonlighting doing sidewalk service work here and there and it got to a point to where I couldn't do both. [SPEAKER_01]: And so early on, I started an electrical business at a, I don't know, it was twenty years old. [SPEAKER_01]: But what I learned was, [SPEAKER_01]: To own a business, you got to have good business acumen. [SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't have it at that time.

[SPEAKER_01]: I did not have that. [SPEAKER_01]: So I owned a paycheck is what I tell people. [SPEAKER_01]: So fast forward, I went to work for a large contractor in Atlanta, Georgia, which is my hometown. [SPEAKER_01]: That company would get bought out and then they franchised it. [SPEAKER_01]: As a part of that franchise, that's how I ended up in Sarasota. [SPEAKER_01]: They recruited me to come to work for their corporate office.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was very, very fortunate to go to work for somebody that I would consider to be a legend in the industry and Jim Abrams. [SPEAKER_01]: I get to work for Jim Abrams directly and just met a lot of people and it was there where I wouldn't kind of doubt what I call my college a degree.

[SPEAKER_01]: like I worked for I worked under Jim and his team for a while as a coach and a trainer and I learned that I was pretty pretty damn good at it and moved my way around in corporate in two thousand. [SPEAKER_01]: Two thousand thirteen Patrick Kennedy, which is who I worked for in Atlanta, Georgia, who was the original owner of Mr. Sparky. [SPEAKER_01]: He asked me to come partner with him. [SPEAKER_01]: And me and another one of his partners would eventually grow that business.

[SPEAKER_01]: We bought Patrick out in two thousand fourteen. [SPEAKER_01]: We bought him out. [SPEAKER_01]: And it was a small electrical company about three million dollars in revenue. [SPEAKER_01]: And when I sold that, we were on a thirty million dollar run rate. [SPEAKER_01]: That business today will do seventy million electrical service only. [SPEAKER_01]: just just fundamental basic business principles of things that I learned while it was getting my education.

[SPEAKER_02]: I did not know it was Mr. Sparky. [SPEAKER_02]: That's a interesting fun fact. [SPEAKER_02]: So, right now, it is a, Mr. Hazard's strategic partnership with the thorny brand. [SPEAKER_02]: So, all the trade brands we do, lots of, you know, a lot of stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: I have no idea how many at this day, but we have a relationship with Mr. Sparky. [SPEAKER_02]: We had Aaron Hagan on here before you know, Aaron is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Aaron is actually a very, very good friend of mine and also one of our clients as well. [SPEAKER_01]: So. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, great human being. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, dear friend of mine, him and Darrell both. [SPEAKER_02]: So, it's probably been, I think it was maybe the end of the last year, I don't know, good dude. [SPEAKER_02]: But his business keeps blowing up too. [SPEAKER_02]: I think he might be like the largest now independent, like the independent spark here, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: They are the largest independent in the franchise network for sure. [SPEAKER_01]: And that came from some humble beginnings, man. [SPEAKER_02]: He shared, he shared, like the down and dirty details of that whole thing. [SPEAKER_02]: It was a great episode. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: So then you transition into Blue College Success Group in, I think it was eighteen, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Two thousand eighteen, is that when you went into it? [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I sold.

[SPEAKER_01]: I sold my shares at the end of seventeen and kind of took a six month hiatus and was like, all right, I don't know what I'm going to do next, but I'll find something to do. [SPEAKER_01]: Kenny Kenny was a, it's really crazy how the industry works, but I had two separate friends of mine that were friends with Kenny and was like, you've got shit in me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so Kenny was in Tampa one day and I drove up the Tampa we met and shot the shit for a little bit and I was like, all right, cool. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it surfaced and he was like, hey, man, I don't really know what we can do together, but let's see if we could do something. [SPEAKER_01]: And so I was like, yeah, man, I don't really need anything to do right now, but hey, I can do some coaching and training for you. [SPEAKER_01]: I remembered at that point why loved doing it.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I got back into it again, after I had left Clockwork and that world where I had coached. [SPEAKER_01]: And so I was a little bit different where you see contractors today that sell and then become a coach. [SPEAKER_01]: I was a coach before I owned an operated. [SPEAKER_01]: So after I operated, then go back to coaching again, which is, has really been my passion. [SPEAKER_01]: This industry literally changed my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: It changed my life, my future, my family's future. [SPEAKER_01]: And for that, I feel forever indebted to it. [SPEAKER_02]: What was your strongest like what was your strongest contribution to the business then like if you're also coaching and you must been super passionate about like a thing or a couple of things I mean not everybody's good at the entire facet of business but like what was your niche like what was your thing that you were best at.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sales and operations are really my thing, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So going up didn't even know that sales were a thing for me. [SPEAKER_01]: I sold, sold door to door, cancer insurance at night, right, on the side. [SPEAKER_01]: And I did okay with it. [SPEAKER_01]: But man talking to people about dying is not fun. [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't fun for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so when I went to work for Mr. Sparky, I was able to connect [SPEAKER_01]: the concept of doing electrical work with selling. [SPEAKER_01]: And quickly, you know, was able to hone in on that skill and then, you know, fast forward at that being the, the opportunity I had when I was at the clockwork, just really the operational stuff, man, like that really jazzed me up a lot, like helping, helping businesses, you know, not just drive revenue, but do it profitably, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Manage margins and make sure that they're, they're really dialed in on their overhead. [SPEAKER_02]: You don't usually hear some, I say sales and operations, combine together as your own skills. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think they, I don't think they actually like each other. [SPEAKER_00]: They don't, don't, don't drive, not hanging out together. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: So once again, I'm an anomaly. [SPEAKER_01]: I get it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I get it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I appreciate. [SPEAKER_02]: I have a very, a very good, great appreciation for well-run operated businesses and people who can do them. [SPEAKER_02]: I also have appreciation for sales, but I lean in the sales and marketing world. [SPEAKER_02]: So I was going to do any coaching and it's going to be in that where not so much in operations. [SPEAKER_02]: So let's just fast forward a little bit into your coaching world today, okay?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because you're working with a lot of contractors and probably even some that are listening right now. [SPEAKER_02]: What are the, what are the main things? [SPEAKER_02]: Now, actually, let me back up a second. [SPEAKER_02]: How many, how many coaches do you guys have at Blue College Success Group today? [SPEAKER_01]: Six today. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, six.

[SPEAKER_02]: So the, like I'm sure that they all, like they're all coaching all facets of the business are some like geared towards ones operations, one marketing, one finance, one sales, whatever.

[SPEAKER_02]: When you're coaching, like, or even now with all your other, with all the other coaches, what are like, [SPEAKER_02]: What are the main hiccups that you see these, that these contractors are running into today, like that you guys are hearing, is it, you know, volume a slow, is it, we're having hard time with recruit, like what are the things that you're hearing are the biggest pain points for the contractor, the members in your group?

[SPEAKER_01]: that that has changed any vault a little bit where we're now getting into where you know some some markets not all of them some of the work is slowing down right and and I would equate that to you know go all the way back to twenty twenty

[SPEAKER_01]: and twenty twenty made operators believe that they were good salespeople and marketers and it kind of rolled them to sleep and so taught all here we are I mean like and I tell people if you if you would a cut say December to January December of two thousand nineteen and cut it off and then cut all the way out to you know the beginning of twenty five and smash those two together not really much changed

[SPEAKER_01]: not a lot changed with marketing what happened is people got led to believe that they were better at it than they were because it was easy and so yeah we do see a quite a bit of that today where you know I heard people say things like oh we just turned off marketing and I was like god that's the kiss of death man don't turn it off I was like redirect funds like do something don't just stop so we we do see that the next thing that we really see people struggle with is

[SPEAKER_01]: is the actual organization of the operation, like making it run the way it's supposed to run, because most operators, once again, don't come with the operational experience of running a big business. [SPEAKER_01]: And so sometimes the business grows beyond their capacity. [SPEAKER_02]: Yep. [SPEAKER_02]: Well then, so I love thank you for the plug on not stopping marketing. [SPEAKER_02]: I agree.

[SPEAKER_02]: That was not scripted to the listeners just so you know that was all organic I appreciate you Chris So then the I mean listen there's there's listeners of all shapes and sizes here now would you and and and what is like what's a what's a range on size of businesses that that are members and your guys is group [SPEAKER_01]: So let me answer the question to caveat. [SPEAKER_01]: So we are not a one size fits all meaning that it's just one membership.

[SPEAKER_01]: So a lot of your other best practices group. [SPEAKER_01]: It's just one one level membership. [SPEAKER_01]: What we recognize is a smaller operator can't afford. [SPEAKER_01]: the coaching that a thirty million dollar business needs and the tools and training that a thirty million dollar business needs is not the same as a one truck operator. [SPEAKER_01]: So we do work with various sizes. [SPEAKER_01]: Our real sweet spot is that five to twelve million dollars.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's kind of our sweet spot of operators and businesses. [SPEAKER_01]: We've got, you know, we work with companies that are private equity and very large, you know, you know, hundred million plus dollar businesses all the way down to people that are, you know, still trying to get figured out how to get the second truck.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I know it's probably not the best what people will say, man, you really got to focus on one thing, but it goes back to where we're trying to help people.

[SPEAKER_01]: So our business model is a progression model. [SPEAKER_01]: So once you grow to a certain level, hey, you need to unlock additional tools and resources in coaching and training that take your business to the next level. [SPEAKER_01]: So we grow with them. [SPEAKER_01]: They never outgrow us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Chris and that in that sweet spot of what you said to five to twelve million dollar contractors what so I'm a I'm a ten million dollar contractor and I come to you and my guess is there's there's it's pretty predictive of what should need to work on what you typically see like those contractors like there's the what I think I need to be doing [SPEAKER_00]: And then there's the, and this is really what you need to be doing. [SPEAKER_00]: What are those?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what you really need to be doing. [SPEAKER_00]: Type things that they may not be thinking about that you guys are like, hey, we can unlock a lot of growth and efficiency and all of that stuff there. [SPEAKER_01]: That's a great question, Chad. [SPEAKER_01]: What we typically find, and I'm going to back up and answer the question a little bit more methodically, when people come to us, the very first thing that we do is we make no assumptions.

[SPEAKER_01]: We make no assumptions. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you're a thirty million dollar business. [SPEAKER_01]: We make no assumptions of how you got there. [SPEAKER_01]: So we do a process where we go back, very first thing that we know, and I'll learn this from Jim Abrams. [SPEAKER_01]: He said the number one reason why business, any business fails is they're not price properly. [SPEAKER_01]: So first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna check to make sure they're priced correctly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Number one, Jim Abrams taught me the second thing. [SPEAKER_01]: He said the second reason why business fails is they don't know how to get the price that they need to charge. [SPEAKER_01]: And that goes back to, all right, cool. [SPEAKER_01]: So you don't really have a good selling system in place. [SPEAKER_01]: And selling systems are more than just technicians at closing tables. [SPEAKER_01]: It's more than a kitchen table sales.

[SPEAKER_01]: For me, a selling system is the culture of the business. [SPEAKER_01]: like it's how we operate. [SPEAKER_01]: And I also am very careful to say this. [SPEAKER_01]: We don't believe and teach people that the idea is the truck backs up to the door like a dump truck and you hit the eject button and sell as much shit as you can. [SPEAKER_01]: It goes back to what's the full experience that your client is asking for, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we really become a premier provider in the marketplace? [SPEAKER_01]: And then once we get that dialed in, now we can start working on the number one problem that we see with every contractor that comes in the door, really bad gross margin. [SPEAKER_01]: not a strong gross margin. [SPEAKER_01]: So we go to work on material and equipment and field labor.

[SPEAKER_01]: It goes from comp plans to that are just terrible to not really understanding how to source and mark up material correctly. [SPEAKER_01]: And so we take a little bit of a different approach. [SPEAKER_01]: We, we, hey, we're going to check the box. [SPEAKER_01]: Make sure you know how to do this so that we don't have to revisit less and three when we're at less and fifteen. [SPEAKER_01]: Does that make sense?

[SPEAKER_01]: So the number one thing we see, not price correctly, number two, not good at selling. [SPEAKER_01]: And that includes the phones too, like how they answer the phone, the dispatching systems, because as the business grows, it's eventually gonna outgrow the person who got it off the ground, the owner. [SPEAKER_01]: And for me, that's a good feeling. [SPEAKER_01]: When I'm like, this thing runs without me. [SPEAKER_01]: That's what, I think that's the entrepreneur's dream.

[SPEAKER_01]: Build a business that runs itself. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: I would agree with that. [SPEAKER_00]: I think that the advice that I've given is it agree with all those things. [SPEAKER_00]: The advice that I've given is you want to get to a point to where it runs by itself and you're able to go back in and validate that it's actually running the way that it should be because I feel like so many entrepreneurs are like, [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I bet this thing runs.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going on vacation doing all that. [SPEAKER_00]: Like the minute they say that is the minute that I get scared. [SPEAKER_00]: Like hold on a second. [SPEAKER_00]: Like I get it. [SPEAKER_00]: You gave them the keys. [SPEAKER_00]: You've got the SOPs, all of this stuff, but are you holding them accountable? [SPEAKER_00]: What's the saying? [SPEAKER_00]: Trust but verify or inspect what you expect. [SPEAKER_00]: That is a lesson I have learned.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I never have learned it yet. [SPEAKER_00]: I just keep going back to crap. [SPEAKER_00]: I forgot to do that again. [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I think those are those are the couple of things and the people that I talked to and they're like, hey, I got a problem or hey, can you help me out? [SPEAKER_00]: Where would you start?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's all on the nuts and bolts and I think that [SPEAKER_00]: especially in today's day and age, you can get caught up in all of the shiny objects that are out there that are just supposed to be the magic bullet and all of a sudden I'm gonna go from five million to fifty next year because I've got some widget that supposedly does something. [SPEAKER_00]: This business hasn't changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's tools that are nice that make things more efficient and you can do more, but there isn't a whole lot of this change. [SPEAKER_01]: My guess is your listeners know another legend in the industry. [SPEAKER_01]: It's a dear friend of mine, Alan O'Neill. [SPEAKER_01]: And Alan, Alan, it's so funny. [SPEAKER_01]: I love him. [SPEAKER_01]: I love him. [SPEAKER_01]: That's such a great human being. [SPEAKER_01]: I was listening to him talk to another manager.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was talking to one of his managers and we were having a conversation. [SPEAKER_01]: He said, here's the one thing I can tell you. [SPEAKER_01]: When the business isn't operating correctly, [SPEAKER_01]: I guarantee you there's a basic that's not being done. [SPEAKER_01]: Guarantee you. [SPEAKER_01]: It's a basic that's not getting done. [SPEAKER_01]: And he said the challenge is people think when businesses get really big that the basics don't matter anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: The basics are boring. [SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, sometimes people are looking for the next shiny thing, but it goes back to what you said, Chad's like, if I'm a, if I'm an owner of a three truck operate operation today, I'm assuming that what I taught them to do in the field is being done. [SPEAKER_01]: I still got to inspect that.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I'm a thirty million dollar business, I still got to inspect the same stuff and how you inspect it might be a little bit different at thirty million versus a three truck operation. [SPEAKER_01]: But the concept doesn't change and I think that's where a lot of entrepreneurs get rolled into sleep is to believe like, hey, this thing's grow and it's print and cash. [SPEAKER_01]: But then I always ask the question like, what if the key person that's running this business quits?

[SPEAKER_01]: What do you do? [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Here's a great. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Here's a great example. [SPEAKER_00]: So every single morning at nine a.m. [SPEAKER_00]: We have almost five hundred people running around here at eleven different locations at every single morning. [SPEAKER_00]: My call center manager sends me the booking rate. [SPEAKER_00]: from yesterday because I know that that is the key.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to see that sucker every single day and it's amazing the minute that I started asking for that is the minute it's starting getting better and pretty single day just getting better and better and better and better and better and but yeah it just goes all but it's it's so based all of these basics we get we get lost in the in the shuffle so often [SPEAKER_01]: Well, Chad, that's interesting that you say that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even, you know, when me and my partner were growing the business, we grew at a very rapid pace, and some people would say growing fast as messy.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I see if you've got a good plan and you work the plan, it's not messy. [SPEAKER_01]: So one of the things that we knew was as we were growing, trust but verifiable. [SPEAKER_01]: So to this point, I'm gonna get all my reports and then I'll talk all managers to do this because I did it. [SPEAKER_01]: Said, here's the deal. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna do a sampling, which means I'm gonna go in and randomly listen to a call.

[SPEAKER_01]: If it sounds exactly like it was supposed to sound, I don't dig any further. [SPEAKER_01]: If it doesn't sound good, you can guarantee I'm gonna dig in a little bit deeper. [SPEAKER_01]: Because I'm trying to find, for me, I'm not trying to find how do we get to the ninety percent. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to find that ten percent that we're not good on. [SPEAKER_01]: And I always told him, like, what's the chances that I stumble across a needle in a hay stack?

[SPEAKER_01]: Or I review a call on the board and I'm just gonna go look at it and I'm gonna notice that Chris did not do, didn't follow our sales process. [SPEAKER_01]: How in the hell did Chris not follow the sales process and then I'm going to go back and look at Chris's calls from yesterday? [SPEAKER_01]: Well, he's not following the sales process again, but yet we're growing and we're profitable. [SPEAKER_01]: Like how do we improve the business?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's it's those little because I've heard it said before small hinges swing large doors and so in a business once it gets scale start trying to find the small hinges because small hinges can make such a massive difference in the business. [SPEAKER_02]: I've never heard that analogy before. [SPEAKER_02]: Small hinges. [SPEAKER_02]: Small hinges. [SPEAKER_01]: Small hinges swing large doors. [SPEAKER_01]: I think it was appropriate. [SPEAKER_01]: It was written on it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, there's that's probably part of my problem.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so we're actually, we take a step back real quick. [SPEAKER_02]: And when you were, what was the timeframe it took you to give from that thirty to three minutes since you're referencing growing it fast? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we went from really, I mean, we took that thing over in thirteen and one of the reasons why we bought Patrick out. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that guy was filthy stinkin' rich at the time. [SPEAKER_01]: He's passed on now and he did, he'd left an amazing legacy.

[SPEAKER_01]: That man was amazing, but he was kind of content and me and my partner were still young and trying to be aggressive to do what he had done and he throttled us back a lot. [SPEAKER_01]: So we were like, [SPEAKER_01]: We got to get him out of the way, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So that was the whole we got to buy him out. [SPEAKER_01]: So really that transition happened around the end of thirteen and then I sold it the end of seventeen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: So we went from, you know, three million dollars to a run rate of thirty and, you know, three and a half years. [SPEAKER_02]: That's pretty cool. [SPEAKER_02]: Um, yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, the job in electrical. [SPEAKER_01]: All electrical service. [SPEAKER_01]: All electrical service, man. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, and I was a franchise. [SPEAKER_01]: I was also paying my fees. [SPEAKER_02]: I felt the pain in that state. [SPEAKER_02]: And saying that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, look, man, I believed in that brand that brand, even after I sold, I was still emotionally attached. [SPEAKER_01]: I had to take a hideous from the brand, like I didn't have anything to do with it. [SPEAKER_01]: I still got my trophies from when I was in the field selling. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm, I got all kinds of memorabilia that brand. [SPEAKER_01]: It means a lot to me and every penny that I paid them was worth it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, well, and you probably had a nice exit from that. [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: You can concur by the way. [SPEAKER_01]: I happen to know that, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Sure. [SPEAKER_01]: Another Canadian friend of mine. [SPEAKER_02]: I figured you probably would. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: So, okay, we're so for our seasonal folks, you know, HVAC world. [SPEAKER_02]: It's summer time. [SPEAKER_02]: So hopefully everybody is rocking and rolling and busy.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the miss podcast comes out. [SPEAKER_02]: We was probably going to be in early July. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm somewhere around there, Ish. [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe Juneish. [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, whatever, it's summer. [SPEAKER_02]: So it should be busy. [SPEAKER_02]: Now, [SPEAKER_02]: I think I read your stance on this, but in regards to training and employee development for you, this isn't a seasonal thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're an advocate for year-round training and development and things like that. [SPEAKER_02]: So when it's busy like that, you're not thinking, oh, that we're busy, let's just keep running. [SPEAKER_02]: You're saying, hey, man, we don't just train when it's a shoulder season. [SPEAKER_02]: We're also training when it's in the busy season. [SPEAKER_02]: Did I read that right? [SPEAKER_01]: Well, let's put that to professional athletes for a minute. [SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So they do train in the all season to maintain, but they kind of take some time off in all season or slow season, right? [SPEAKER_01]: They take some time off. [SPEAKER_01]: When when really training starts to ramp up, when they're about to start playing the game for money and when the stakes are on the line. [SPEAKER_01]: And so I tell people all the time, you're missing the biggest opportunity because retention rates are not as high.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I train in the fall for things that we're not going to do until the winter, [SPEAKER_01]: Like in the fall, I train on fall stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: In the winter, I train on winter stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: In the summer, I train on summer stuff, right? [SPEAKER_01]: We got to make sure because what happens is when volume goes up, what do you think happens? [SPEAKER_01]: I got plenty of calls and the every salesperson knows this.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if they're at the kitchen table, [SPEAKER_01]: It's not as easy. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, I'll just run the next one. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not like, why would I fight this? [SPEAKER_01]: I'll just go run the next one. [SPEAKER_01]: But in the fall, we're like, every call matters. [SPEAKER_01]: So what happens is I'm more meticulous about following the process when things are slower and the spring when things are slow. [SPEAKER_01]: Now do I train on the exact same stuff?

[SPEAKER_01]: No. [SPEAKER_01]: In the summertime, I'm going to be training on the stuff that makes us who we are that allows me to have high tickets in the summertime. [SPEAKER_01]: For example, you know, and I see this all the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: HVAC contractors don't really want to do duct work and insulation to win slow season. [SPEAKER_01]: But I'm like, you're in the home in the summer, even if you sell it now and let them know that you're scheduling for a couple of months out for that. [SPEAKER_01]: That's fine, right? [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a get it done kind of guy. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not a proponent to sell it and put it off.

[SPEAKER_01]: My rule of thumb is don't let more than twenty-four hours go by without something being done that the job gets locked in. [SPEAKER_01]: Example generators. [SPEAKER_01]: We sold a lot of generators and it's a eight to twelve-week process to get a generator done. [SPEAKER_01]: The day that we sold at the next day, we dropped the equipment off, set the pad, and everything was there, Mount the Switch gear, even though we can't really quote work on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got to get that job going, and that goes back to, you know, summertime. [SPEAKER_01]: What is that I'm training on? [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to be training on all the smoke screen stuff, all the objection handling stuff in the summertime. [SPEAKER_01]: I got it, you know, because, you know, every company around town right now is trying to price it cheap, just to get it done. [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, in the summertime, most people try to maximize revenue by selling cheap.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, in the summertime, it's the best time to make the best margins, right? [SPEAKER_01]: It's good to play when you're playing from ahead. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, is there a frequency to it? [SPEAKER_02]: Is this like a weekly thing that you're doing? [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, hell to the, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we're training every week now. [SPEAKER_01]: Am I going to bring everybody in? [SPEAKER_01]: And I do believe in segmenting your training as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: So making sure that the topic that I cover is applicable to the people that are in the room, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm, I might if I run a company with selling tax versus straight advisors, I may be having a little bit of a different conversation. [SPEAKER_01]: So if, if, [SPEAKER_01]: And this goes back to Chad, we talk about this operationally. [SPEAKER_01]: I need a training plan that I can follow. [SPEAKER_01]: So I don't have to just like, oh shit, we need to train.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the regular cadence. [SPEAKER_01]: Every day, every time I might change in shift, if I say, hey, I'm noticing right now that clothes rates are going down and it's not just [SPEAKER_01]: You know, my tech leads. [SPEAKER_01]: It's also, I've got my salespeople and advisors. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm probably going to bring them both in. [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about post rates and like, what are the tactics of why we're not getting there?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, are we getting a soft commitment on the front end? [SPEAKER_01]: Are we following the steps? [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm a lot, a lot of skill practice. [SPEAKER_01]: You guys might call that role play, but a lot of that because what I teach [SPEAKER_01]: Uh, what they, what they proven is retention rates are much higher if I can apply immediately. [SPEAKER_01]: That's why I'm a big fan crisp of training in the summertime.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like no better time to train this like I can learn it right now and the calls I go run today. [SPEAKER_01]: I'll use it right now. [SPEAKER_01]: And so retention rate goes up so therefore you get better more bang for the buck in the summertime than you do the slower times. [SPEAKER_02]: Did you see him perk up a little bit when I asked that question, Jeff? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Some people might consider it pissed off. [SPEAKER_01]: I just consider it passionate.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it makes perfect sense. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, I think that I wrote that down. [SPEAKER_00]: Make training, mirror and athletic schedule. [SPEAKER_00]: Train on the thing that you're doing today. [SPEAKER_00]: Because I often ever ran a training and it's like, well, we're just preparing for summer and it's fifty degrees outside. [SPEAKER_00]: But they're never going to see it. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, what?

[SPEAKER_00]: But what's our application going to be like in four weeks? [SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully they remember that really powerful training session that we had. [SPEAKER_00]: That's going to be awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, now I mean, I think that that's it's such we always like, hey, just again, to your point. [SPEAKER_00]: Do all the stuff in the offseason that you don't want to do because you're going to be dizzy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, like, what's to stop you from having a thirty minute training before you go to your first call? [SPEAKER_00]: And that may be super impactful and help you raise what the calls are there. [SPEAKER_00]: You need to be training. [SPEAKER_00]: So no, I got plenty of notes. [SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate this. [SPEAKER_00]: This is awesome. [SPEAKER_01]: And think about even huddles, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like how powerful is a huddle and don't overlook the fact that a formal training, like it's no different than, you know, you know, we're playing a football game or we're playing a basketball game.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, hey, we're down three points. [SPEAKER_01]: We got to call a timeout right now. [SPEAKER_01]: I need to know what play we're running right now. [SPEAKER_01]: And so when it's hot, reminding everybody of like, hey, do this. [SPEAKER_01]: Don't forget this. [SPEAKER_01]: Make sure you take care of this. [SPEAKER_01]: And it's that good reminder, right? [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to say this. [SPEAKER_01]: This industry asked a lot of frontline people.

[SPEAKER_01]: We ask a lot of them, learn how to be a finance expert, learn how to be a salesperson, learn how to be a technical person, learn how to, and this, you know, not everybody remembers everything. [SPEAKER_01]: So it's like we've got to be that constant reminder for them of the things that matter, Chad, like that's what you're writing down is let's talk about what matters, not just what we think we need to talk about.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I love role-playing because I think it does as much as everybody hates it and people probably try and ask, you know, you question just to keep you talking to them. [SPEAKER_02]: They got they get through less role-playing. [SPEAKER_02]: But it's such a good tool because it's uncomfortable, but it actually puts you in a real-life scenario. [SPEAKER_02]: It's never going to be harder when you're talking to the person who has the answer, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: When you're role-playing with the person who has the answer, but so impactful. [SPEAKER_02]: I always hated doing that whenever I was in sales before I started this, but it did make me better. [SPEAKER_02]: We would do, so this is, have you ever heard of the movie, Glenn Gary, Glen Ross, Chris? [SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: It's old school sales. [SPEAKER_02]: So that is, you know, copies for closures.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you've never, if anybody's listening, never heard, just look it up and thank be later. [SPEAKER_02]: Especially in sales organization. [SPEAKER_02]: But you can't show it to your sales organization because you'll get in trouble for it. [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, it's not PC. [SPEAKER_01]: I guess you would say right. [SPEAKER_01]: PC. [SPEAKER_02]: But that's kind of like, you know, it was before I started this company at work for another company and it was you came in.

[SPEAKER_02]: I hated Sundays because Monday was the next day and I knew I had to do all this stuff and it was you came in Monday, seven a.m. [SPEAKER_02]: seven, thirty, maybe if you're doing good on your numbers and all you do is check up the phone and set your appointments for the week Friday back.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then you'd stay until seven p.m. [SPEAKER_02]: that night and so what did is from five, maybe four p.m. [SPEAKER_02]: to seven p.m. [SPEAKER_02]: you'd just do straight sales training straight sales training hated it. [SPEAKER_02]: And I was like, if I just get really, really, really good at sales, they're never going to ask me to stay for sales training. [SPEAKER_02]: They might ask me to give some sales training, but I'll never have to do it again.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's not actually how that works at all. [SPEAKER_02]: It still made me stay for sales training. [SPEAKER_02]: But even as good as I was, I still feel like I learned shit in each one of those things. [SPEAKER_02]: Or, you know, I remember like, oh, damn, I've been trained on this twice before. [SPEAKER_02]: I just forgot about it. [SPEAKER_02]: And then this just reminded me that I could do XYZ.

[SPEAKER_02]: So even as good of a salesperson as I was, I was still continuing to learn shit because of the role playing situation. [SPEAKER_02]: But I don't think it's changed. [SPEAKER_02]: I think that's probably been a shitty thing for a lot of salespeople for a long time. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'll mention this. [SPEAKER_01]: It typically, it's because of the facilitator sucks.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why when you have a really good facilitator that makes things engaging, that makes things applicable, that when I realize that I'm getting an opportunity to improve the quality of my life, even if I am good. [SPEAKER_01]: And that goes back to what we had.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if you've got really high-powered salespeople in a room with entry-level salespeople and you're trying to take basic fundamental stuff and [SPEAKER_01]: That's where you got to teach on the level of the people that are in the room and make it engaging, make it fun. [SPEAKER_01]: Training doesn't have to suck, man. [SPEAKER_01]: Working out in the gym doesn't suck, but getting there does. [SPEAKER_01]: The process of getting to the gym sucks.

[SPEAKER_01]: But once you're in the gym, hey, you're good. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, the same thing is with training inside of a service business. [SPEAKER_01]: It's early mornings, they're usually not, and you got people that are prop in their eyes open, so how do you make it to where people want to be there? [SPEAKER_01]: and so it goes back to, I can always tell if the trainer is prepared or not. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, my, my facility was a total dick. [SPEAKER_02]: So I probably, there you go.

[SPEAKER_00]: I figured that one out there. [SPEAKER_00]: But I would double, I would double down on Chris's comment about the segment of training. [SPEAKER_00]: We do some longer trainings where it may be, you know, a day or two, but our most successful ones are these micro trainings. [SPEAKER_00]: We're like, if we're going to teach financing, I'm not going to teach it to every tech that I have.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like some of my maintenance techs, [SPEAKER_00]: They're not going to need to use financing nor is that what they should be worried about. [SPEAKER_00]: But I may take my top performers and we may do some finance training because they're the ones presenting the big tickets and you're so right in that we get so much more engagement when the content is directed at them. [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't even care if you have five texts.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've got two that are really good and you got three that just need to know the basics. [SPEAKER_00]: Like meet with just those two and go over some of these more advanced topics. [SPEAKER_00]: I think the other thing it does is you start to set them apart because I feel like sometimes when you put them in a room and you teach them the basics, you like don't respect their talent.

[SPEAKER_00]: where is like when you bring these high performers in and it's like hey you're in this high performer class obviously not everybody's here because we think you are the best of the best and we want to treat you some more advanced topics and like the things that you actually want to know and then again [SPEAKER_00]: you don't have the guys falling asleep that are the, you know, more novice that, I've never, I've never done a financing application.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just tune up furnaces like that's what I'm here for. [SPEAKER_00]: Now one day you may get there, but today is not that day. [SPEAKER_00]: I just think that it's such a powerful topic that I don't want people to gloss over as far as segmenting that training. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, and this is a great point that you make as well, because when you really break it down, what is it?

[SPEAKER_01]: They're sitting in a room and they're giving a part of their life to you because you told them to. [SPEAKER_01]: And so if they don't feel it's applicable, they don't feel like it's improving them. [SPEAKER_01]: They don't really want to be there. [SPEAKER_01]: It's a waste of their time and a waste of your time. [SPEAKER_01]: You're not really going to get through to them. [SPEAKER_01]: And so really understanding the needs of the audience, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Understanding the people that are in the room to your point chat. [SPEAKER_01]: When I first, we first launched our safety advisor program. [SPEAKER_01]: I had two. [SPEAKER_01]: I can't teach safety advisor tactics to the entire company. [SPEAKER_01]: I just can't, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Because those people, it's going to be so high level. [SPEAKER_01]: It's not even going land with them. [SPEAKER_01]: And then they're going to walk out, be like, well, that was a waste of time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then the sales people are going to be like, well, that was great for me. [SPEAKER_01]: But if I had to teach on everybody else's level, they're going to say, God, that was so basic today. [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't really learn anything. [SPEAKER_01]: So that's where segmenting things out. [SPEAKER_01]: And as the business gets larger, that becomes easier.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's it's hard to do it when you're small business and I always say this all the time, you'll never become a big business until you start doing what big businesses do simply put. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's good. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I want to just do a small little segue, but still cut on this training piece or or.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's mostly going to be around like the new tools, new technology, AI, things like this, and you're having to like train on this stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm assuming at least at some level, or at least helping them to understand how to actually integrate whatever the hell it is that they've chosen. [SPEAKER_02]: If they've chosen five hundred things, we need to slim it down to like two and actually implement the two things as they're trying to all of them.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I mean, because this is still new to really you, any coaching group, any business because there's so many new options today. [SPEAKER_02]: And Chad and I talk a lot about a lot about shiny objects because there are so many options. [SPEAKER_02]: But you know, a lot of the contractors are kind of half ass integrating them, right? [SPEAKER_02]: So they're not really getting the value out of the tool that they've chosen.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then they'll move on to another one without having figured out the first one. [SPEAKER_02]: But are you guys having to, are you noticing that that's also some sort of, or at least your coaches are noticing, hey, this is another thing that keeps popping up is, hey, we bought the tool, we got the thing, but it's not actually working and you're like, oh, yeah, it's because, well, let's look and see how you're actually, like, how are you using it?

[SPEAKER_02]: And is it, and have you integrated it properly? [SPEAKER_02]: Are you dealing with stuff like this? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I'm going to use one. [SPEAKER_01]: I know that they spot that they sponsor the show and so it which is funny. [SPEAKER_01]: I was actually just on with contractor commerce this this morning. [SPEAKER_01]: I did an interview with them. [SPEAKER_01]: They're they're great people as well. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, with Paul Redman.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: That's a great deal. [SPEAKER_02]: Yep, buddy. [SPEAKER_01]: So let's go back to Rilla for a minute, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So Rilla is a perfect example of poor implementation, bad result. [SPEAKER_01]: So if I'm going to implement Rilla, I've got to make sure that number one that my sales process is built into it, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like the actual sales process and we hear all the time, you know, people come to Rilla and they're like, we can't really do anything until you get your sales process. [SPEAKER_01]: which I'm just blown away at the contractors like, well, we don't really have one of those. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, oh, you do. [SPEAKER_01]: You just don't know you do because if you've got dirty tech, you've got dirty sales processes, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: If you've got ten tech, you've got ten sales processes. [SPEAKER_01]: You've got one whether intentionally or not. [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, I start with that, which is build the foundation of the technology and then answer the question, what's in it for them? [SPEAKER_01]: Forget what the business is going to do. [SPEAKER_01]: Forget the customer, forget all that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Man, you're going to hit a source subject for me because most people are like, you know, we're in the customer service in here. [SPEAKER_01]: He's like, yeah, well, let me just tell you if the difference between that technician pay and his rent and the customer, I can promise you, they're going to pay the rent. [SPEAKER_01]: They're not going to do the customer to the solid, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Like, it's just natural reaction.

[SPEAKER_01]: So living in this world, to believe that our people are going to put our customers at the top of their list, we're lying to ourselves. [SPEAKER_01]: I got a win first, but I want to build a win in equal proportion to the customer. [SPEAKER_01]: In other words, if my comp plan says, well, when you do the right thing for the customer, you take a pay cut. [SPEAKER_01]: That don't make sense to me, man, at all.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, Rilla, if I implement Rilla and go, hey, this is gonna be a great way where we can train you.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's gonna be this thing that listens to your calls and grades you, oh shit, so now you're following me on all my calls, why? [SPEAKER_01]: So if you position it correctly and answer the question, what's in it for me? [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to get a lot further, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Because now the adoption rate is much higher. [SPEAKER_01]: The all in is going to be much higher, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So it's not just that I'm doing it. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing it all the way.

[SPEAKER_01]: So hey, we use Rilla, but yeah, all right, cool. [SPEAKER_01]: So let's say it's in place. [SPEAKER_01]: I got myself system in place and I'm doing it. [SPEAKER_01]: But I haven't taught my managers how to use real as a tool. [SPEAKER_01]: It's just in software, if not, just like any other software would be. [SPEAKER_01]: It's just another software. [SPEAKER_01]: If we don't train the how to use it, but more importantly, you got to start with why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why are we doing this? [SPEAKER_01]: And if it's all about the company, the adoption rate's not going to be high. [SPEAKER_01]: You've got to first ask the question, how does the team member win first? [SPEAKER_01]: How does the customer win second? [SPEAKER_01]: And then how does the company win third? [SPEAKER_01]: And I've always lived that way because I came from the customers, always first.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, [SPEAKER_01]: Well, that might be true in certain situations, but I can promise you, if it comes down to me getting paid or the customer doing work, I'm gonna get paid. [SPEAKER_01]: Within moral and ethics rules and guidelines, I'm not saying sell stuff to mate faults, claims about stuff, but somebody said this once, you can customer service yourself right out of business. [SPEAKER_01]: That's right.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you customer service yourself so high, that you customer service at the example or at the expense of the team member you're losing. [SPEAKER_01]: So when we see this concept of, hey, I signed up. [SPEAKER_01]: None of them if you guys are familiar. [SPEAKER_01]: There's another AI platform out there. [SPEAKER_01]: Blow your freaking mind. [SPEAKER_01]: You guys familiar with PXE. [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, uh, so po one is who owns peak Z startup, but he's the guy that actually started pull some. [SPEAKER_01]: So if you know that little story, so, um, so they do this crazy analysis where I've been really paying attention. [SPEAKER_01]: I know this will be really near and dear to your heart as well, Chris, but, um, they said SEO is dead. [SPEAKER_01]: but then they caveat it because it's no longer search engine optimization.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's search engine, it's search everywhere. [SPEAKER_01]: I'll do the picture. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's like so now it's your video, it's your social media, it's your stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: And so PXZ basically takes in all your information about your business. [SPEAKER_01]: I've seen the demo of this and I know customers that are using it. [SPEAKER_01]: I can pick three to four to five to six. [SPEAKER_01]: I can pick as many competitors in my market that I want right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the sediment stuff that's out there about that company because it's if it's on the internet, it's found, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So they pull it in and they're able to compare you to your competitor, but more importantly, it's now being used as a recruiting tool because now online reviews, [SPEAKER_01]: Well, those are searchable as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when I've got customers mentioning technicians, names, and all this stuff, I mean, we live in a very, in, by the way, if you're afraid of privacy standards, then you shouldn't even have a phone, right? [SPEAKER_01]: You shouldn't have a computer. [SPEAKER_01]: If you're afraid of privacy standards, [SPEAKER_01]: The reality is, information is only internet and this is another prime example.

[SPEAKER_01]: I signed up with PGZ because they do help you with understanding your marketing. [SPEAKER_01]: They understand with recruiting. [SPEAKER_01]: They understand with acquisitions. [SPEAKER_01]: And you can really find out information about other companies in a market, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Not just yours, but about others and compare yourself. [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't implement that correctly, all you do is you just found out information.

[SPEAKER_01]: What are you going to do with it? [SPEAKER_01]: What's the plan? [SPEAKER_01]: What's the motive behind it? [SPEAKER_01]: That is one of the things that we work with with contractors to answer the question. [SPEAKER_01]: Pick any kind of new software, whether it be AI, anything at all. [SPEAKER_01]: And an example, contractor commerce. [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't set it up correctly, it won't work. [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't do the hard work, it won't work for you. [SPEAKER_01]: So for us, it's more of what's your goal and objective? [SPEAKER_01]: Why did you even sign up for this? [SPEAKER_01]: Why did you start doing this? [SPEAKER_01]: That's the number one thing. [SPEAKER_01]: What problem were you trying to solve or what opportunity were you trying to take advantage of? [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, cool. [SPEAKER_01]: That's a good point of reference.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we use that to leverage in our coaching now. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, Chris, you said you wanted this.

[SPEAKER_01]: You said you wanted to do that as something change because it has, I mean, it sells one or one, right? [SPEAKER_01]: It's just communication. [SPEAKER_01]: We got to understand what they're wanting and then how do we help them get it? [SPEAKER_02]: Pretty straightforward. [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes they don't need the shiny object. [SPEAKER_01]: I'll just say that. [SPEAKER_01]: You need to go focus on your close rate in the call center. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, a hundred percent.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, for the sake of Chag's, I know you got to get going, buddy, here pretty soon. [SPEAKER_02]: I just, I want to say, I had, I'm bummed because there was another question I really wanted to get to, but I did, and then it was around AI agents versus human beings. [SPEAKER_02]: But we don't have time for it. [SPEAKER_02]: So you're kind of just cliffhanger. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, cliffhanger. [SPEAKER_00]: But hey, do we have a minute? [SPEAKER_00]: Just one minute.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you're the one that I'm trying to hurry for. [SPEAKER_02]: So if you have a minute, then sure. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, Chris, I hate to do this at the end of the episode. [SPEAKER_00]: Chris trying to prepare you before this episode trying to give you all the pointers. [SPEAKER_00]: This sounds going to go to be a intro. [SPEAKER_00]: This will be our talk. [SPEAKER_00]: The one thing that my partner here was remiss to say is that he has been on this kick.

[SPEAKER_00]: since beginning of the year where he is just so proud, just so damn proud of these dad jokes that he tells. [SPEAKER_00]: And he forgot him. [SPEAKER_00]: And even though he shows them to me, he forgot them. [SPEAKER_00]: And so I did a little Google search and I will be providing a dad joke here at the end so that we can keep consistency throughout this. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's because it's while embarrassed. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm happy to win the helping hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when I'm going to do is I'm going to give a dad joke. [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't have a punch line. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just a running joke, okay? [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not good at selling these, but it kind of goes along with the with the trades. [SPEAKER_00]: I gave my handyman a to do list, but he only did jobs one, three and five. [SPEAKER_00]: Turns out he only does odd jobs. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: There we go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm in the junior shop. [SPEAKER_02]: Peter, but you'll be our only one. [SPEAKER_00]: Multi-talented here. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Next time we're gonna have Chad either doing a little karaoke or dancing. [SPEAKER_02]: That's next, right, Chad? [SPEAKER_02]: It may be. [SPEAKER_02]: That'll be next next time. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that was good enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think you could at least get a stand-up bag going out of it. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I actually did miss my dad jokes, not some good ones prepared. [SPEAKER_02]: So Chris, sorry. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, but Chad, that was pretty solid. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm proud of you. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I was waiting for that in the prep session before we started recording, but I was like, hey, this is my opportunity to be a helping hand.

[SPEAKER_02]: that was I'm very I'm very proud of you so well I Chris that was a real treat dude you just like that was the first experience just Chad tell us first had jokes he's he hated in the beginning and now he loves it so much so he thought it's in the table [SPEAKER_02]: Well, listen, Chris, we appreciate you giving us the time and anyone hanging out with us for a bit.

[SPEAKER_02]: The time flew by, which sucks, because I just like I said that really, really loved to have talked about the AI agents versus even beings. [SPEAKER_02]: I have a pretty strong thoughts on all of that. [SPEAKER_02]: But we appreciate you coming on here, too, and just sharing with everybody. [SPEAKER_02]: Anybody that wants to get in touch with you? [SPEAKER_02]: What's the best way for them to contact Chris? [SPEAKER_01]: Just the our website, the bluecollarsuccessgroup.com.

[SPEAKER_02]: Cool, we'll share it in the notes, and to make it easy. [SPEAKER_02]: And then obviously, if any of the listeners want to reach out to us, and you want me to connect you with Chris, I'm happy to make the connection as well. [SPEAKER_02]: And you shared a lot of things on here too, and sometimes it's just as simple as maybe you seem to focus on the blocking tacking.

[SPEAKER_02]: Or, hey, maybe you seem to focus on doing some sales training, even if it's specific to the sales training you need in that particular season. [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe that's the basics you need to do in a [SPEAKER_02]: It's actually the first time I think we've ever talked about something like that, Chad, that I can remember when we talked about doing actual seasonal training in the season that it's in. [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.

[SPEAKER_00]: That conversation makes a lot of sense, right? [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, oh, I overlook the obvious. [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe you, Lister, that's what you need to focus on is, isn't fucking seasonal training, man? [SPEAKER_02]: It's summertime, all right? [SPEAKER_02]: You get a lot of, you get a lot of bads right now, so just keep refining that sales process. [SPEAKER_02]: But Chris, I appreciate coming on here, brother. [SPEAKER_01]: Man, it was absolute pleasure Chris and Chad.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was pleasure to meet you guys today and have some time here on the studio. [SPEAKER_01]: So thank you all for the invite and the opportunity. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, man, it was our pleasure to our listeners. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, got to do everything, but you got to do something. [SPEAKER_02]: No zero days.