0:07: Welcome to the Blue Collar Nation podcast, the podcast dedicated to making the lives of home service professionals better. 

 0:16: Now join Eric and Larry to talk about all things home service. 

 0:22: Well, hello everybody. 

 0:23: This is Larry from the Blue Collar Nation podcast, and I'm here with my articulate business partner, the tech whisperer, Mr. 

 0:31: Eric Sprague. 

 0:32: Eric, how in the world are you today? 

 0:34: Well, I'm good. 

 0:34: I don't, I don't, I'm a little flummoxed because you're saying something well that I think is nice, which you never know, so check it out. 

 0:42: you've been speaking on stages lately, and it's been going well. 

 0:47: So I looked up, you know, the definition of articulate. 

 0:50: It's an outspoken, expressive. 

 0:52: Which you are, and glib, and I'm like, what is glib? 

 0:56: And I looked it up and I've got it right here. 

 0:58: It says it was very nice speech. 

 1:00: That's fluent, smooth, confident, and then it says, Dismisses complex issues too easily, and I was like, oh. 

 1:11: I like that, but I think it's quite the opposite. 

 1:14: I'm the one that dismisses issues, way complex issues, way too easily, totally. 

 1:19: So maybe I'm the glib one. 

 1:20: But anyway, it's not about me. 

 1:22: It's about you and your articulate, articulateness. 

 1:25: I'm gonna take it as a compliment, and I'm gonna roll with it because usually you say something horrible about me on every show. 

 1:30: I know. 

 1:31: Well, you're gonna have good behavior, so we'll give you that. 

 1:34: There we go. 

 1:34: I'm gonna, I'm just gonna take it. 

 1:36: All right. 

 1:36: All right. 

 1:37: Well, we got a quick message here for you right now. 

 1:39: And now, a quick message from our title sponsor, Supertech University. 

 1:46: Did you know 85% of financial success comes from soft skills abilities and only 15% from our technical abilities? 

 1:54: Supertech U was created by longtime restoration pros, Eric Sprague and Larry Wilberton. 

 1:59: Their daily 3 to 5 minute videos train your entire company on the soft skills they need to make your business thrive. 

 2:07: Plus, your entire team earns IICRC CEC credits, all for about the cost of one tank of gas. 

 2:14: To get more information about Super Tech University and receive a special 6 lesson e-course on in-home sales, go to supertechu.com/podcastoffer. 

 2:28: Again, get your free in-home sales training at supertechU.com/podcastoffer. 

 2:40: We're back and we're with Eric, extra focused. 

 2:43: We could see his nose hairs. 

 2:44: Isn't that great? 

 2:45: I don't know what happened. 

 2:47: Anyway, we have an amazing show set up today with some amazing people, owners of Restoration Make Simple, Nate Cisney and Stacy Sargent, and they have been in the industry. 

 3:02: I was looking at their resumes earlier and they've been. 

 3:05: Doing all kinds of things in the industry. 

 3:08: But the thing that was significant about Nate's bio was that he's a wannabe pro cyclist, which I thought was really cool. 

 3:14: And I wanted to bring that up because I don't think I wanna ride with him at this point because He might blow us off the doors. 

 3:21: I don't know. 

 3:22: We'll see. 

 3:24: This, Larry, right now is the best chance we have of riding with Nate that there is, just so you know. 

 3:29: OK, cool. 

 3:30: Right now that's an inside conversation that Nate and I have consistently. 

 3:34: I told, I told Nate like until he's back in 100%, that's. 

 3:38: The only time I'll ride with them. 

 3:42: We have Stacey here. 

 3:44: Stacey, her last name is Sargent, but she has well been a drill sargent, and it says on her resume, drill sergeant, which makes her extra qualified to deal with restoration contractors, which I was very impressed with. 

 3:57: And she's been a social worker, and of all of this, you had a large resume of restoration. 

 4:02: Accomplishments, which was wonderful. 

 4:04: We can go over all those people, but Larry, you're dying. 

 4:06: You're dying to say sergeant sergeant, right? 

 4:09: I know. 

 4:10: No, no, no, I wasn't, no, but that would have been great. 

 4:13: I mean, Stacy Sergeant, the sergeant. 

 4:15: I mean, I don't know. 

 4:15: Were you married then? 

 4:16: I mean, you know, it was very cool. 

 4:20: So you're well qualified as well being a social worker and working with the restoration industry. 

 4:24: So that's very cool. 

 4:25: So it's a pleasure having you both with us today. 

 4:29: Here's our clap track. 

 4:31: Thank you. 

 4:32: Thank you. 

 4:34: And Eric has a wonderful outline that he's gonna share with everybody and I'm looking forward to it. 

 4:40: I wish he would zoom back because I'm looking at his face. 

 4:42: I don't know. 

 4:42: I don't know how. 

 4:44: I don't know how. 

 4:46: I, I, I'm afraid to even move my, oh, see, it's moving now. 

 4:50: Like I don't even know what I'm doing. 

 4:51: I got this new, my team, our team told me I needed a new camera, and I have this camera, and now it does all this stuff, and I don't, I don't know how to. 

 5:00: I'm, I'm in the same boat as you are. 

 5:01: I'm still using my laptop camera, and I wanted to put my good one in, but I'm afraid I'm gonna screw everything up. 

 5:07: Yeah, yeah, so you guys are gonna have to just deal with me like in my balloon head in your, in your face. 

 5:12: I'm sorry. 

 5:13: I, I apologize. 

 5:14: So, all right, well, let's, let's get into it a little bit. 

 5:18: So, Nate and I have become friends. 

 5:19: We, we have lunch like once a month, and, and you guys are close to, to me here in Utah, and it's nice to have industry friends, and we all share the same things and do the same. 

 5:29: Stuff, so it's cool. 

 5:31: Nate, why don't we start with you, and then we'll go to Stacey. 

 5:33: Why don't you just tell us a little bit about your background, including your wanna be pro cyclist career, and, and let everybody know just, a little bit about Nate, and then we'll get to Stacey. 

 5:45: Sure, well, Thank you for having us on, and I will say you guys are by far the most rambunctious and jovial group that we've participated. 

 5:53: So you guys, I don't know if we'll ever get through the actual podcast, but this is, well, that's, that's OK. 

 5:59: Look, we do the podcast for us. 

 6:01: Yeah, I think it's, it's great. 

 6:02: So, so thank you. 

 6:04: But yeah, so I mean, let's talk about the fun stuff. 

 6:06: So cycling, yes, I am. 

 6:09: I'm a major cyclist, but unfortunately, I had 3 knee surgeries last year, and I've had a lot of other health problems. 

 6:15: So cycling has been put on the back burner. 

 6:17: But my goal is to get over and do what Eric's gonna do this year, which is to go ride the Tour de France, prior to each stage, and go do that. 

 6:26: So one day, I'm gonna get to Europe and go do that, but I love cycling, but I love anything. 

 6:30: Active, exercise outdoors, ultra backpacking, all that type of stuff. 

 6:35: Love, love, love that. 

 6:36: So, and we live in Utah, so it's a great place to do all that. 

 6:39: So, as far as just a little bit of the background goes, yeah, I mean, we started 20 years ago with Ashley Stacey's brother and my brother. 

 6:47: They had a ChemDry, cleaning franchise. 

 6:50: They were one of the largest in the nation. 

 6:52: As most of us know, we start into the restoration space from carpet cleaning, and that's exactly what happened with us. 

 6:59: , Camry did not allow at that time for you to do restoration work per their contracts. 

 7:04: So my brother and, Greg, my partner and Stacy's partner, he, they decided to open up a disaster cleanup company on the side, and they'd asked me to come help build that with them. 

 7:15: So my background is Always been with startup companies, but I was coming from the education sector. 

 7:20: So I knew nothing about the industry whatsoever. 

 7:22: Nothing. 

 7:24: yet again, as we talked about prior to this, being naive and stupid is sometimes a blessing. 

 7:28: We started right around that 06, 07 when the market was crashing, and, I was out doing all the sales, just trying to build the business, It took about 6 months. 

 7:38: I think, Greg and my brother were about ready to say, hey, we gotta stop, cause it was, you know, work was not coming in. 

 7:44: And then there was that light switch, a ha moment, where all of your hard work finally pays off. 

 7:50: And it definitely was a light switch for us. 

 7:53: we were We were able to do a lot of CE classes for insurance agents. 

 7:58: We had a flood house, so we were inviting people to come to the flood house while they were getting caught. 

 8:03: And things just really, really, really took off. 

 8:06: So within those first couple of years, we grew it very, very quickly. 

 8:09: We're super lucky. 

 8:10: And then, after 2 years in, me and my other business partner bought Greg and Steve out from that company. 

 8:18: And we just continued to grow. 

 8:20: We had 2 restoration companies at that point in time. 

 8:23: And, You know, I won't take through all the boring details, but yeah, we had grown it to, double digits as far as millions goes, and we had 3 different offices. 

 8:34: the year that I sold out, we did 2300 jobs, which is crazy. 

 8:38: I still to this day, don't know how we did that many jobs, but that's what we did. 

 8:42: It's a lot of jobs. 

 8:43: It was a lot. 

 8:43: It was a lot of headache, and like anybody else, we ran into that problem when we got to that $5 to $7 million dollar phase. 

 8:50: We were making less money than we were at that $30.04 million dollars dollar phase, which really hurt because we were working harder than we'd ever worked before. 

 8:58: And so that's when we pumped on the brakes. 

 9:00: We did hire consultants to come help us at that point, because we knew we didn't want to keep working for less money. 

 9:06: It just didn't make sense and more headache, So, at that point, we really actually tried to slow down our growth and not actively grow it really quickly till we got all of our SOPs in place. 

 9:18: And at that point, then we turned the, you know, put the full pedal to the metal again and started to grow it. 

 9:24: And so I sold out to my partner about 3 years ago. 

 9:28: And then unfortunately, he sold the private equity. 

 9:31: I wish I would have been a part of that one, would have made a little bit more money, but, I went into the consulting side with Craig and Stacy, and honestly, it's been the best thing ever, is Larry and Eric, you know, helping other business owners. 

 9:44: I don't think there's any better job that we could ever have. 

 9:48: We're all honest, we're all transparent, we're all blunt, and working with these owners. 

 9:52: It's just a great thing to be able to give back and try to make this industry a little bit better. 

 9:57: So, that's where we're at, you know, on that side of things. 

 10:00: All right, Stacey, what about you? 

 10:02: Came from the military, obviously. 

 10:05: I did, but I went in late. 

 10:07: I went in late in life at like 27. 

 10:11: so before I went into the military, I did work with Greg and Steven, Nate's brother on the Drive franchise. 

 10:19: OK. 

 10:21: And then I went over and we Worked in China for about 3 years, and then I came back and, joined the military when I was 27. 

 10:31: And so I was active duty for 10 years. 

 10:33: And during that time, I did a couple of years on the trail as a drill sergeant, which was wonderful. 

 10:38: but I was in the intelligence field. 

 10:41: When I left the military, it's been about 9 years now. 

 10:45: I came out, Greg was just starting the consulting company. 

 10:49: And he had asked me if I wanted to, to come aboard, and I thought, you know what, I really should finish my education. 

 10:56: I had my undergraduate degree. 

 10:58: I always kind of had in the back of my mind, that I wanted to go into social work. 

 11:02: So I did my master's in social work, and during that time, I did a little bit of work with Greg. 

 11:07: , and listen, social work is not for everyone. 

 11:13: I loved the training, I loved the education, but you kind of want something that you can go 100% at. 

 11:22: If you go 100% at social work, you burn out in 6 months, right? 

 11:27: And so it's kind of to, to be successful long term in that type of field, you have to be a certain personality that can kind of cruise at 60%. 

 11:35: percent and feel fulfilled and that just really didn't fit with my personality style. 

 11:43: and so fortunate enough for me and, and I'm not really a, a, you know, a white collar kind of girl. 

 11:48: I have one on for you today, but I really am a blue collar, a blue collar person. 

 11:53: And so I've always loved the service industry, right? 

 11:57: And so Greg said to me, listen. 

 11:59: , we really need to beef up our training offerings because what owners need, what technicians need is training, consistent training and good training, but owners and project managers do not have the time to put together and implement consistent training. 

 12:18: With their technicians. 

 12:19: It's just not something a lot of them are cut out to do, and it's something I want to offer my owners, he said. 

 12:25: So will you come on board, put together a consistent training offering that we can offer, write weekly, specialized training, that kind of stuff. 

 12:34: So that was my intro, coming in to Restoration made Simple. 

 12:38: Was focusing specifically on the training, the consistent training needs and identifying the training holes, right, that we have kind of as an industry and how to create a really good training program that can support our owners and the training culture that they want for their technicians. 

 12:59: Yeah, that's great. 

 13:00: Look, Larry and I feel the same way. 

 13:01: We, we do the same thing you guys do, but differently, right? 

 13:04: Different side of the coin, right? 

 13:06: And you need both sides to work well, right? 

 13:08: We're, we're always doing the, the service and the, the human interaction, and you guys are doing all of the technical training, which is much needed, right? 

 13:18: So, well, let's, let's open it up and talk about that a little bit. 

 13:21: Like in the restoration space, what do you think most companies get right about training, and what do you think lacks? 

 13:30: That you see Stacey, you wanna go first or me? 

 13:34: Ladies first. 

 13:35: I can, I, I can go first. 

 13:36: Ladies first. 

 13:37: Lady, who are you calling a lady? 

 13:42: Sergeant, sergeant, I think, I think if they're trying to do it, right, if they're trying to do it and trying to be consistent, they're doing something right, right? 

 13:56: If they're making it a priority. 

 13:59: I don't know where you're going, Eric. 

 14:00: I don't know. 

 14:02: It's lost. 

 14:02: I'm gonna, I'm gonna fix this. 

 14:04: I'm gonna fix. 

 14:05: I'm gonna fix this. 

 14:06: Hold on. 

 14:07: My team's gonna have to just ignore the man behind the curtain. 

 14:11: He's not the wizard. 

 14:12: There he goes. 

 14:13: That's awesome because it just comes up like prove them wrong, and I'm like, I, yeah, I just want to basically prove them wrong with what you're talking about them wrong. 

 14:24: I, I was just gonna say Eric's getting high, literally, he, he's getting high. 

 14:28: It was, I felt like the, it was set up in the air or the balloon, the old man with the balloons, and they're just rising up. 

 14:36: Oh, yeah, yeah, that's what I felt like there, and I'm like waving, hello. 

 14:41: He saw me up jumping in front of the camera. 

 14:43: The worst, worst radio ever. 

 14:48: OK, continue, Stacia, a very important point. 

 14:52: I think that if owners are attempting to prioritize training, they are absolutely doing something right, but I think unfortunately the majority of them are not. 

 15:03: And that would obviously be what the majority, I think, are doing wrong, right? 

 15:08: So, if we take out those portions that are not putting training as a priority and go to those that are training, what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong, I think that they're looking for outside solutions. 

 15:22: That are accessible, right? 

 15:24: And I think a lot of times they're they're finding those, but they don't necessarily meet their needs, right? 

 15:31: And I, I think that that's just a difficult thing to find training needs that meet your specific company's goals. 

 15:38: Your company's culture and that type of thing. 

 15:40: So I think that's a difficulty for everyone. 

 15:42: They have to find an outside solution most of the time. 

 15:46: It's difficult to find one that is a good fit and a good match. 

 15:50: Eric talks about that in one of his videos when he talks about picking a coach. 

 15:54: You have to find somebody that gets you, that you connect with. 

 15:57: And it's the same thing with the training. 

 15:59: If somebody's boring you, or not even that, just just talking it in one perspective and you're not getting it. 

 16:06: What's the difference? 

 16:06: It could be the most entertaining person in the world, but if it's not connecting, and what you're saying is finding, because in training is investing in your biggest asset. 

 16:16: I mean, it's hard to say your biggest asset is your team, but it's your biggest expense every single week. 

 16:22: I mean, you're paying out, you know, what is it 25, 30% of what you've got coming in towards these people. 

 16:28: So, It's, you might as well invest in them. 

 16:31: And we talk about that all the time, and obviously you guys do. 

 16:34: But what your point was that the type of training needs to connect with your team, and I think that's significant that many of our listeners need to realize. 

 16:42: I'm glad you brought that up. 

 16:44: Yeah, you know, what I've seen over the years, and, you know, Nate and I are doing the same thing, right? 

 16:49: We're talking to owners all day every day, and we're in the intimate parts of all their problems, and Nate, you chime in if you, you hear this too. 

 16:59: They'll have technicians, like, like I'll just make up a name, right? 

 17:02: So I have Steve, and Steve is my tech, and Steve in theory, could be great. 

 17:08: But he is doing all kinds of things wrong. 

 17:10: So owners, they don't want to stop and train, so they're like, well, I'm gonna get Steve a new van, right? 

 17:17: If, if I got Steven nicer van, he'll, he'll, he's gonna work so much harder, right? 

 17:21: Or, or I'm gonna get him a new tool, like they're always looking for some sort of like quick and easy, like I could just buy this and then it's gonna fix that person, opposed to, let's get real. 

 17:33: It's harder work to sit and train somebody, right? 

 17:37: So, Nate, are you seeing that too? 

 17:39: Like, they're always looking for this quick fix, and usually they're trying to do it with money, opposed to effort. 

 17:47: Yeah, no, I, I think you nail it on the head. 

 17:50: The part I was gonna bring up is I I tell all my clients, I don't believe in micromanaging, but I do believe in accountability, and there's a very big difference between the two of those, right? 

 18:00: So, accountability is, to me, making sure that people are doing things the right way. 

 18:06: And if they're not doing it the right way, then you correct them and you coach them. 

 18:09: And I think the biggest problem that we have is that most donors assume, and I get it, you know, we're limited on resources. 

 18:16: They send somebody to WRT and then they go, hey, go out to the job. 

 18:21: But nobody's following up on these jobs with the technicians, and I don't think we can expect our labor field to get better if somebody's not helping them understand what they're missing. 

 18:32: I literally just had this conversation yesterday twice with two clients. 

 18:36: I think that most of in this industry, and I know you guys teach a lot about cleaning, it's no different, but in restoration, to a technician, everything is fans and D-2s and tear out. 

 18:47: That's how they see almost every single job, right? 

 18:50: And there is so much more than that, but if we don't take the time to teach them, you know, if it's carpet cleaning, then for the carpet cleaner, it's just, oh, I'm gonna go and just put this chemical down and I'm not gonna upsell on all the odor stuff, and I'm not gonna do this, right? 

 19:05: Because it's just like, oh, I'm here to clean your carpets. 

 19:07: But there's so much more to it than that. 

 19:10: But if somebody's not there teaching them along the way, we will not get better results. 

 19:14: And so I think the biggest thing is just accountability and teaching them. 

 19:18: And that's, it's an entrepreneurial thing because there's many different trades listening to this podcast, plumbers, electrician, HVAC, etc. 

 19:26: I mean, we want to send somebody to school and have them come back good, so we could just plug and play and get them out there and do it. 

 19:32: But it takes a lot of what you're saying, accountability, following up. 

 19:36: Are you doing the right thing? 

 19:37: Aren't you doing the right thing? 

 19:38: What do you need help with? 

 19:39: So, just sending them to school doesn't fix everything. 

 19:43: It's a temporary fix and the same thing as Eric's saying, buying them a truck. 

 19:47: Or something tools that they're dying to have because they love getting these tools and the technical training. 

 19:53: But they still need to be accountable and do all those little things that are that they don't teach them in school. 

 20:01: And you know, I'm gonna piggyback off what Nate said about WRT. 

 20:05: Look, I'm all for the IICRC and I'm all for WRT, ASD, AMRT. 

 20:10: Almost like they're people that aren't in the restoration trade that are listening and HVAC plumbers, who said, we got a lot of listeners. 

 20:15: That's a training program for the restoration industry, water restoration training. 

 20:22: Yeah, but, but the thing is, is that People act like WRT. 

 20:27: Like I send Stacy to WRT for 3 or 4 days or whatever it is, and now she's supposed to come back and just know everything about how to do restoration out in the field. 

 20:37: I mean, that is such a ridiculous ask, right? 

 20:41: I mean, WRT is awesome. 

 20:44: Theoretical basic knowledge and understanding of how to dry out a home or a building, right? 

 20:49: But Stacy, I'm gonna call on you, but that is not gonna get you through doing jobs, right? 

 20:55: I mean, it's it, it's just not enough, right? 

 20:57: So, this is where, like, your training comes in for the actual doing it. 

 21:03: So, the way I structure my training, obviously is based off of the basic training model, which is you have 3 phases. 

 21:11: You have red phase, white phase, and blue phase as you go through basic training. 

 21:15: And red phase is focused on discipline and fundamentals. 

 21:19: That would be an example of WRT. 

 21:22: We look Learn the fundamentals, we learned the language, we learn the tools, right, the equipment, that type of thing. 

 21:28: So, that's your red phase. 

 21:30: So, every time I do a training, I'm assuming that I have some people in that training that are in that red phase still. 

 21:36: So, I'm always gonna have some focus on building discipline and the basic fundamentals. 

 21:42: White phase is when you start to build confidence in training situations, right? 

 21:47: So you'll go out to a firing range, we'll go do some land navigation, we'll start to put what we learned kind of in the war room into action in some training scenarios. 

 21:58: That would be if you're a basic assistant, technician, and you're bringing in the dehumidifiers, they say, hey, go get me 5 air movers, you know where the air movers are, you can get them and bring them in and plug them in, right? 

 22:11: That's white phase. 

 22:12: Blue phase is when you're actually starting to be capable of doing some tactical maneuvering. 

 22:20: Right? 

 22:20: So this is we build autonomy, we're decision makers, we can make equipment calculations, we can be innovative on our drying plans, we can make decisions based on what needs to be demoed out and what doesn't, right? 

 22:33: We can start to explain to clients why we're doing the things we're doing. 

 22:37: And we're documented in such a way that we have justification for what we're doing in the field. 

 22:43: And so, that's what I I like to try to do, as I'm putting together any training, is always relate back to the discipline and fundamentals, build confidence in their ability to make these decisions, and then the final, right, that we continue to get better and better at, is having autonomy and the ability to be a tactical mover, right, in those, in those, in those jobs, those water losses, those fire losses, those mold jobs. 

 23:10: Yeah. 

 23:11: So can you walk us through what the training would look like? 

 23:14: Like, so I'm brand new, and we just signed up with you, and I've got a bunch of people, and I'm all excited. 

 23:21: How's it work? 

 23:22: Like, what's it look like? 

 23:24: So we have a couple of different options. 

 23:26: You can just go straight online, and we have, I specifically in the technician section, have over 400 hours of training videos. 

 23:36: Now I'll tell you how that breaks down. 

 23:37: Nate on the sales end, the sales and marketing end, he has a similar number of content available. 

 23:45: So what we do for our clients that are available to attend. 

 23:50: In person is every week, Nate on the sales side, myself on the technical side, we have a weekly Zoom, right, where anybody who is a member and paying for that certain subscription can get on and be part of that live group training. 

 24:05: , and so mine is every Thursday. 

 24:08: I have two time zones, so depending on when technicians, what time zone they're in, they can get on, but I have a specific training every day. 

 24:17: The online content is broke up in such a way that I have a course called communicate, Document, innovate. 

 24:26: And it is basically structured like a WRT, but instead of staying in that red discipline and fundamentals phase, we're going into that white phase where we're building confidence, and that's about a 7 to 8 hour self-paced. 

 24:42: Online course. 

 24:43: So, a lot of our owners, when they get a new technician in, they will have them sit down and do that course at his initial introduction. 

 24:50: We talked documentation, how to take photos, equipment calculations, what each piece of equipment does, all that stuff. 

 24:58: So there's that basic offering. 

 25:00: , for any new technicians. 

 25:03: Then, I have two specific categories. 

 25:06: I have my technician trainings by replay. 

 25:10: That means you get the replay of my weekly Thursday calls. 

 25:15: And right now, there's over 3 years of a library in there, of those weekly technician replays. 

 25:22: But then I've also taken those replays and put them in a course called replays by category. 

 25:28: So if you're looking for stuff specific to stocking your truck, right? 

 25:33: Truck checklists, how to respond on the first day of an emergency loss, air movers, dehumidifiers, advanced drying techniques, wood floors, equipment decontamination, equipment maintenance, right? 

 25:46: I've got Anywhere from 5 to 20 videos in each one of those specific categories. 

 25:54: and then I also have a portion where I have extended trainings for things specific, like a 2-hour focus on sewage losses, a 2 hour focus on mold losses. 

 26:05: It's a 2-hour focus on fire losses, right? 

 26:09: and so that's what the online training looks like. 

 26:13: If you're a consulting client, you have access to all of the live trainings. 

 26:17: So that's every Thursday, and then the first Friday of every month, I do my extended training. 

 26:23: But then that's live. 

 26:25: That's lives live, all live. 

 26:28: But then I also do specific one on one trainings for companies. 

 26:32: I just had a company the other day that Nate works with, and Scott, one of our other consultants, and they said, hey, we're having a lot of loss due to just breakage and technicians being, you know, not just irresponsible on site. 

 26:47: So I put together a one hour. 

 26:49: Training for them. 

 26:50: We all met and talked specifically about situational awareness, right? 

 26:54: Like slow is fast. 

 26:56: We need to put together, you know, that type of thing. 

 26:59: So I can also do individual personal trainings for our consulting clients as well. 

 27:04: Yeah, no, that's cool. 

 27:07: Have you guys heard about one Tom Plumber? 

 27:09: It's pretty fantastic. 

 27:10: If you're looking to get in the commercial water damaged space, you need your own plumbing company. 

 27:16: If you're looking to be less dependent on TPAs and do more water overall, you need your own plumbing company. 

 27:22: One Tom Plumber is a bolt-on. 

 27:24: Franchise to your restoration company. 

 27:27: I know you're interested in creating generational wealth, and if that's the case, what you've got to do is reach out to Rocky at oneTom.com or visit oneTP franchise.com and start making some big money today. 

 27:42: What, what do you think most companies do wrong when it comes to the techs with their training, other than not do it at all? 

 27:52: I think you guys mentioned it, and it is follow through. 

 27:55: We go back to, you know, basic rifle marksmanship. 

 27:59: Sorry for all the military lingo, but you've got your, your basic fundamentals, right? 

 28:04: Steady position, sight picture. 

 28:08: Steady breathing and trigger squeeze. 

 28:12: None of that matters if once I pull the trigger, I close my eyes. 

 28:17: The 5th fundamental is follow through, and I think that that's what owners or project managers do wrong, right, is they just put the training out there, and then they expect it to happen. 

 28:30: There is a huge responsibility for follow through management and leadership on the owner and the project manager level, and nobody gets away with that. 

 28:41: And one of the things Greg, and I think Nate incorporated too. 

 28:46: They had a morning meeting. 

 28:48: Every single morning, they were in there with their technicians. 

 28:52: They were checking that their vehicles were cleaned and restocked. 

 28:56: They were checking the jobs from yesterday to make sure all of the documentation was submitted. 

 29:00: They were checking to make sure photos were in there. 

 29:02: They, you know, all of those things, and doing that, they could then probably walk away for the rest of the day, the project manager, the owner, but if you missed. 

 29:13: That 1st 5, 1015, 20 minute meeting in the morning, you are playing catch up and filling holes and stopping at Lowe's to get, you know, 6 mil all day long for the next 2015, you know, 30 years that you're in business delivering DUs delivering overs delivering you Stacy, you, you just hit the nail on the head. 

 29:35: I mean, that's, I mean. 

 29:37: What you just explained is what Larry and I did, because we did it wrong at the beginning and we're running to Home Depot and all the other stuff, right? 

 29:45: And then all of a sudden you're like, oh, that's where all my money went, right? 

 29:48: You know, and, Nate laughs because he knows. 

 29:51: And, and then you figure it out and, and, and you're right, certain people never change how they operate. 

 30:00: They do that forever. 

 30:01: And we did exactly what you did. 

 30:03: We had the morning meeting. 

 30:05: We went through the jobs. 

 30:06: We had to line up for the trucks because it's the only way to do it. 

 30:11: It was structure, and we brought structure. 

 30:14: One thing too that I've noticed, if I can just jump in, so, you know, we talked about the IICRC, you know, the WRT AMRT, which is teaching good foundational stuff. 

 30:23: The part where I'll just give kudos to Stacy. 

 30:27: That's good principle book stuff, but then we have the real world stuff and Stacy's classes. 

 30:32: So when we say there's 8 hours, this is not 8 hours of WRT. 

 30:36: It is so far from that. 

 30:37: It is the real hands-on, hey, if we're gonna set up containment, and we've got the zip pull over here, like she's legit going over the stuff that guys are dealing with on the job. 

 30:47: And I think that's a huge difference because guys, you know, you throw somebody out after WRT and go say, go hang containment. 

 30:55: They're gonna look at you and go, dude, I know we saw it in this class, but I don't even know how to raise the extension thing to flip it up to get the post to go up, right? 

 31:04: I just, I just had this date. 

 31:06: I had a coaching client of mine that is new, and they are new, and he called me and he's like, hey, can I have my lead guy FaceTime you from a job? 

 31:17: I'm like, sure, you know, whatever. 

 31:20: He gets on there, it's his first job ever. 

 31:23: And He's holding a pro, he's holding a protimeter and he goes, I don't know how to turn this on. 

 31:32: I'm lying. 

 31:34: Push the yellow button, you, you know, and then nothing happened, and I'm like, well then flip it over and make sure the batteries, the batteries, and, but to your point, Nate, about Stacy with the zip pole or how to put a zipper on or whatever, everybody loves to gloss over those things because maybe they've done it for 20 years and forgot what it's like to be new. 

 31:57: That's the issue, I think. 

 31:59: I see that all the time. 

 32:01: I see lots of owners, who, let's get real, all of us started in the garage, and we get to make mistakes in private, because we're small, and nobody sees us make all these mistakes, and then a certain amount of time passes, and yes, we figured out how to do all the work as an owner or manager over time. 

 32:21: And now we're holding our people who are newer to a standard that we ourselves at that point in our career could never have lived up to, right? 

 32:30: That's not fair to the tech. 

 32:34: But that's something to think about when they're training their people. 

 32:37: Hopefully people take that into consideration here, but I wanted to ask the opposite question that you just asked, Stacey. 

 32:44: What are people doing out there that's right, that we can reinforce that everybody needs to keep doing? 

 32:48: What do you see that they're doing? 

 32:51: Positively. 

 32:54: I do see a lot of companies that will put together specific times of the week where they're doing things, right? 

 33:00: Thursday, we're doing equipment maintenance, which it's equipment maintenance, but what better time for all of the technicians to get familiar with all of those equipment pieces of equipment. 

 33:15: Right? 

 33:15: And so if I know that anybody is doing that, like Fridays are the day that we clean out the trucks and put them all back together, right? 

 33:23: That's great, because I can put together a specific, what I call a prompt, and if I know that's happening, and I know a little bit about that organization, I'll send a prompt to the project manager, hey, today. 

 33:36: Ask everybody about their DH filters, because I know that I've been to a couple of other companies lately where I found a lot of dirty DH filters, right? 

 33:46: So let's make sure that those are being cleaned out. 

 33:49: But I think that there are companies that are trying to do the right thing, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna put this out there right now. 

 33:56: With AI, another way that owners are trying to shortcut or offload the responsibility is going to AI and having it write them SOPs. 

 34:05: Which I applaud. 

 34:06: I think every organization should have an SOP, but we then have to implement it. 

 34:11: So if I see or know that owners are starting, you know, or they just, hey, I just did brand new SOPs where I was like, OK, send them to me. 

 34:20: So they'll send them to me, and then I'll get with them and say, how can we use these best? 

 34:24: So if you can find little things that trying to do right, they're trying to put things in place, and then help them integrate it and create a follow through system. 

 34:34: And, that's a great thing to do. 

 34:35: So anytime I see a kernel of them going in that direction, they just need a little help on how to implement. 

 34:41: That's the hardest time, right? 

 34:43: Is when you're making a change in the company. 

 34:45: And I just remember when we were building out all the systems for our business. 

 34:49: That, I mean, I could build systems at warp speed. 

 34:53: I can implement about one every 6 to 8 weeks. 

 34:56: Yeah, I mean, to get everybody on board and doing it consistently. 

 35:01: I mean, I think the first year that we decided that we're going to systematize the business. 

 35:06: I think we implemented like about 8 systems that year. 

 35:10: But those my litmus test was, whatever costs, we're going to build the next system, whatever costs us the most money or makes everybody the most frustrated, right? 

 35:19: Those are the things that are, so by only implementing like 8 or 9 in a year, that sounds so little, but it was the 8 or 9 things that were causing 80% of our problems. 

 35:30: Right? 

 35:31: We don't need to build 1000 systems, we need to get certain ones right. 

 35:36: You, you know, so what do you think those are like tech on the technician side, what are the problems that are common to most restorers or trades in general, that they need to get right, that most people don't, Nate. 

 35:53: Yeah, I think for me, right, and we've kind of talked about this is, you know, SOPs, great, we tell all of our clients we want those put in place, but SOPs, a lot of times we present that it's like the employee handbook. 

 36:05: It goes in a file and you never see it again. 

 36:08: And as owners, we get so hung up. 

 36:10: Yeah, I've got this in place, and they'll show me all their stuff, but I'm like, if yeah, if the employees saw it once and then it's gone, right? 

 36:20: And but we go, well, we went over that with our guys. 

 36:22: Why aren't they doing it? 

 36:23: And so I think where I'm gonna hang my hat on all of this over and over and over again. 

 36:29: If you have the resources, having a supervisor go out to the job and seeing what the guys are doing is probably the single biggest thing that is going to change your company. 

 36:40: Because if you have an experienced person that can go look at that job to see what the guys have done, and then go, hey, Really good job on this, but we need to do this as well, and we probably should be doing this. 

 36:52: That is the fastest way. 

 36:54: These, they're blue collar. 

 36:55: They learn by hands-on. 

 36:56: They're not gonna read something. 

 36:57: They don't want to do it. 

 36:59: So if you. 

 37:01: Can get your golden person that is good like Stacy is, and you go walk to a job. 

 37:06: I guaranteed anytime I showed up to a job, there was always two things that were inevitable. 

 37:11: My guys were sitting in the truck vaping or smoking. 

 37:14: Anytime I showed up, I was like guaranteed 1. 

 37:16: What? 

 37:17: What are you talking about? 

 37:18: It's just like, why are you in your truck, right? 

 37:21: Like that was#1. 

 37:22: And then number 2 was Lack of equipment every time I walked in, right? 

 37:27: There was just certain things missing, and I could walk through in 5 minutes and be able to point out 10 to 15 things that they didn't do. 

 37:33: Now, that's my fault, honestly, right? 

 37:36: If I'm just being totally honest as an owner, but I go, if you have that quote unquote supervisor who's good, who can say, hey, on this job, guys, I expect this to be a 3 day dry out. 

 37:47: Here's the equipment we're gonna be using, this is why we're using it, and then be able to help show them and coach them. 

 37:52: That is going to get you faster results than any type of bookwork or any type of other stuff that you do. 

 37:58: But it has to happen consistently, and if it doesn't, we just know it's not going to get done. 

 38:02: So, I think that's where I'm gonna hang my hat is they need an experienced person who's helping them understand more than fans and D2s, cause right now, everything is a fan and a D2 to most technicians. 

 38:13: Yeah, I think one of the other things too is And, you know, what we do with my videos and what you guys are doing with Stacey's training is If you look at, you know, who, who are the, the technicians for the next 5 to 10 years, Generation Z, right? 

 38:30: And Larry and I do a lot of Generation Z stuff in our company, because that's where a lot of the, the issues are lying for most people, because we have young people doing the work. 

 38:41: And if you look at any data from Gen Z, they value a coach more than a manager. 

 38:49: That's the, like, like they want you, they want to be coached. 

 38:53: They don't wanna be you just like how I came up. 

 38:56: It's like, get in a van and go over there and make it happen, right? 

 38:59: Like we all, we all live that way, you know, they want somebody, cause a coach, look, I grew up playing sports, right? 

 39:05: A coach is hard on you, but they know that you also know that person has your best interest at heart. 

 39:12: That's what a coach is. 

 39:14: So, Stacy's training, our training, that's coaching for young technicians, right? 

 39:21: Like, I go to trade shows, guys walk straight up to me and be like, Eric, what's up? 

 39:26: They feel like they know me. 

 39:27: They only see me on TV and they're and only their TV, you, you know. 

 39:31: But the thing is, is that They feel like I'm invested in their life because they see me 5 minutes every single day of the year. 

 39:41: I think that's the future of training techs. 

 39:45: What do you think, Stacey? 

 39:46: You're doing it too. 

 39:47: For sure, it's not a we're not, we're not an obedience workforce anymore, right? 

 39:56: You're told what to do and you're gonna do it. 

 39:57: That doesn't happen anymore. 

 40:00: We have to make allowances for and even provide proactively the why. 

 40:07: Right? 

 40:07: And that's the coaching piece, as opposed to the manager piece. 

 40:12: Explain to them why we need them to do this. 

 40:16: It's very, very unlikely that we're going to get the majority of this new generation, and I don't see it as a negative. 

 40:24: I don't see it as a negative, that their brains want to process the why. 

 40:28: They want to have purpose behind what they're being asked to do and why they're doing something. 

 40:33: And so if we can learn to train and teach and coach, by providing them with a why and the purpose for what they're doing, I think we're going to be much more successful, right, in getting follow through and getting buy-in, and getting ownership, and what it is that we're asking them to do, and that's actually a higher level of workforce, if we just learn how to work with what they're asking us to provide them. 

 40:59: Exactly, like, look. 

 41:01: I, I watch what they demand of companies now, and that they're thinking everything that I thought 35 years ago, right? 

 41:11: Like just able to get away with it now. 

 41:14: Well, they can get away with it because the market is in their favor. 

 41:18: 35 years ago it was just shut up and do your work and you're lucky you have a job, right? 

 41:23: You know, I mean, it's just different, but to be honest. 

 41:26: I want a group of people that question why we're doing things. 

 41:31: You know, I want a group of people that have expectations. 

 41:34: That's better. 

 41:35: I mean, when Larry and I were growing our restoration company, you know, we had millennials then, and that was a new thing, and we didn't understand them, and, you know, the whole thing, right? 

 41:45: And We realized very early on, if we were gonna be successful, we were going to have to adapt to their style on some level. 

 41:54: And you know what? 

 41:55: Once we figured it out, which wasn't quick or easy, to be honest, all of a sudden we have a building full of like super motivated, super smart people who care. 

 42:06: But it was on us, like, just like you, Nate, it's like, when you go on a job site, and it's not how you want it, is it their fault or is it your fault, right? 

 42:15: You know, it's the same for us, like, we weren't leading our millennial team in a way that was gonna feel good to them and make them want to show up and work hard. 

 42:26: Once we figure that out, everything changed. 

 42:29: And I think to Stacy's point, the why, like I've been teaching the seven-step sales process to a bunch of salespeople right now, and we're going over objections, and I, I'm telling everybody that objections are actually a good thing, not a bad thing, cause if somebody has objections, that actually means they're listening to what you're telling them. 

 42:48: But if I can get a yes, ma'am, yes ma'am, yes ma'am, and then I go, OK, are you ready for us to start work? 

 42:53: No, thanks, but I appreciate it. 

 42:55: Right? 

 42:55: I don't want a yes, ma'am. 

 42:56: So when these kids are asking, why do I do this, that's a buying signal, if you think about it, that they actually care about what they're doing. 

 43:03: Now, I don't get why are we doing this? 

 43:05: Why do I need to put the Dho? 

 43:07: That shows they're listening. 

 43:08: So that's the first. 

 43:09: Great side, right? 

 43:10: Cause I'm going, oh, at least they listened to what I said enough to be able to ask me why. 

 43:14: So I, I would say objections from your people, if done the right way, are a very good thing, cause that's a buying signal that they're listening to, and they just want to know why they should be doing it. 

 43:23: And once they understand the why, it makes sense, right? 

 43:26: So, I agree 100% with what Stacey said. 

 43:30: Yeah. 

 43:31: So, Stacey, do you have some like, Like success stories from some I, I love when I hear a technician, like the light bulb went on, and all of a sudden they're just like a new person or what like that makes that warms my heart because I was a technician so many years, right? 

 43:47: So, do you have some like light bulb moments? 

 43:51: Let me tell you this one. 

 43:53: I am a huge proponent of putting blue tape. 

 43:58: In a structure on that initial inspection, right? 

 44:02: I do my initial inspection, homeowners and the work authorization. 

 44:06: I go back in and do my more detailed, inspection. 

 44:10: I mark everything with blue tape. 

 44:11: Couple things that does for me. 

 44:13: I think in your pictures, it's a great visual indicator, and paints the story for everyone on what's a Affected, what's not, where the water migrated to everything else, right? 

 44:24: I also think it's really, really important that if you have a new crew coming in tomorrow, it's very clear, or some companies operate where the project manager gets everything set up, and then the crew comes in. 

 44:36: So the blue tape just makes it clear for everyone. 

 44:38: Well, at this company we've been working with for Maybe 2 years, and they get on all of my trainings. 

 44:46: They're a great company. 

 44:47: Training is really important, but they've never bought into the blue tape thing, never. 

 44:52: Well, about a month ago, they had an asbestos abatement team coming in to pull up some flooring that had, Came back as detect for asbestos. 

 45:04: The abatement team in that particular state is different than the testing team, right? 

 45:08: A lot of states, it has to be that way. 

 45:10: So, the team came in and they abated the wrong flooring. 

 45:15: So they pulled up two floors of incorrect flooring. 

 45:21: It was that's a bad day at the restoration company, bad day. 

 45:26: It was a really bad day, but it was like a week later when they sent me 360 imaging of the three jobs they had done that week, and everything was marked with blue tape to indicate what was being demoed, what was wet, what was staying in place. 

 45:41: And so I just like it when, you know, we teach it, we teach it, we teach it, and there's a point in time where it will stick, which is why I think the repetition is so important, because for somebody to implement it, it has to have intensity for them. 

 45:58: And you never know when a specific lesson that you're teaching is gonna have intensity for that specific company or technician. 

 46:07: I like how you say intensity instead of pain. 

 46:12: We got a lot of pain. 

 46:13: No, we just put them together. 

 46:15: We could put them together, Larry, intense pain. 

 46:18: Yeah. 

 46:20: Well, that's usually the only thing that ever makes change. 

 46:24: Exactly. 

 46:25: Oops, wrong floor, a lot of pain. 

 46:28: Yeah, well, you know, it's funny because I, I'll get, you know, I mean, look, we're doing similar things in a very different way, and, you know, I'll get. 

 46:37: I'll get texts all the time from owners who have played one of our, you know, morning technician videos about, you know, the job site behavior and all that, and they'll be like, how did you know that this is what we needed to hear today? 

 46:51: I'm sure you get it too, Stacy, and it's like, you know, and we have all these clients, and they're all on different days, right? 

 46:58: So like, How would I know? 

 47:00: Like, I don't even know what video you're talking about, right? 

 47:03: There's only 2500, you, you know, but the thing is, is that When you train consistently, Those pain points are gonna come up when it matters. 

 47:14: I don't know why it's that way, but it happens that way. 

 47:17: It just does. 

 47:19: It's like build it and they will come. 

 47:22: Yes, build the dreams. 

 47:31: Hey everyone, Eric here with Blue Collar Nation podcast, and I would just like to take a moment to talk about my favorite magazine for the cleaning and restoration industry, and that is CNR magazine. 

 47:43: I've been a longtime reader of CNR magazine, and now my good friend Michelle Blevins has purchased that magazine and is growing it at an amazing rate. 

 47:53: So, if you're in the cleaning and restoration industry, You will be excited to hear that not only can you get CNR magazine digitally, but you can also get it for free in print form, actual paper where you get to sit on your couch and read it, which, if you're my age, that's appealing. 

 48:12: So, all you have to do is go to CNR magazine.com, and that's CANDR magazine.com, to get your free subscription. 

 48:24: And it's even in print. 

 48:26: So, if you wanna stay on top of what's going on in the cleaning and restoration industry, and here, you know, get to see a lot of cool articles by a lot of very smart people, go to CAMDR magazine. 

 48:42: All right. 

 48:43: Well, I wanna get into after, after we do our next little bit on how to get the videos, how to try them out, all that good stuff. 

 48:50: We definitely want to do that. 

 48:51: But, before we get to that, I'd like to do a little bonus round, and you guys are doing the same thing Larry and I are doing. 

 48:59: So, I'm sure you have some good feedback on this. 

 49:01: Stacey, I'll start with you. 

 49:02: Favorite business book that you can recommend to somebody? 

 49:06: So this is, but it's because I'm in the create and develop good habits, discipline, build confidence, that type of thing. 

 49:17: I just really love atomic habits for building those practices that are gonna make a difference in our, in our everyday life. 

 49:24: I think there's such a good information in there. 

 49:28: Great book, great book. 

 49:30: OK. 

 49:31: you have one more? 

 49:33: You have a second one you want to share? 

 49:35: I'll, I'll stop there. 

 49:37: OK, Nate, I came prepared. 

 49:40: I did my homework. 

 49:41: You have a whole bunch of books that you're gonna show us. 

 49:43: I know, I'm not gonna say all of them are my favorite cause it depends, but if you're just talking as an entrepreneur, if you're a business owner. 

 49:51: Oh, you can't say shoe dog, shoe dog, Phil Knight, right. 

 49:54: So, what do you call it, a business book? 

 49:56: I don't know, but I read that book, one of the best books I've ever read about just opportunity and not stopping, right? 

 50:02: Like, if you need something to tell you that life sucks, and there's, you can keep going and make something great, that book was just hilarious, had so many great parts to it, so I love it. 

 50:12: That. 

 50:12: And we're talking true business. 

 50:14: I love Patrick Lencioni. 

 50:15: My light is reflecting, the ideal team player. 

 50:19: If you're trying to figure out how to hire people, and you guys are really big on this, all of his books are fables, but it brings up like 4 or 5 key things, you know, are they humble? 

 50:28: Are they hungry? 

 50:29: Are they smart? 

 50:30: And when he talks about smart, it's not book smart, it's other smart. 

 50:34: And I just think there's some really sound principles in that. 

 50:36: So if you're looking at hiring people, see if they pass that test that he does. 

 50:41: Super easy read, you know, it's 150 pages. 

 50:43: It's a fable, but I, I do like a lot of Patrick Lencioni's stuff for sure. 

 50:47: All right, awesome. 

 50:48: Yeah, Stacey, podcast doesn't have to be business either. 

 50:52: Favorite podcast if you're, if you're a. 

 50:55: If you're a podcast listener, I love podcasts, but podcasts are where I just have my guilty pleasure, which is true crime, and I know that is standard. 

 51:04: No, no, that's all good. 

 51:06: 40 year old woman in America listening to a true crime podcast, but I fit that. 

 51:13: Do you have, well, look, we have a lot of people that might like true crime. 

 51:15: Do you have a favorite true crime one? 

 51:19: There's one called American Scandal, which isn't always about crime, but it's really interesting. 

 51:25: The last one I listened to was about, you know, the big banking, problem in, 2008 with Lehman Brothers and like the downfall of them. 

 51:34: So American Scandal is a great one. 

 51:37: And then there's another one that I like that is called Opportunists, and it's about people who find, you know, an opportunity, to do better for themselves, and usually it has some sort of enterprise attached to it. 

 51:50: But, you know, aside from the, the Dateline and the 2020 and all that other stuff, American Scandal and the opportunists are good. 

 51:57: All right, perfect. 

 51:59: Nate, what about You, you, you have a hard time talking about his is my favorite. 

 52:03: I just listen when I want something that's for mine. 

 52:06: They, they are business related. 

 52:07: So there's one called The Founder, with Nathan Chen. 

 52:12: so it's all about people who I think had to make it to basically the billion mark, you know, stuff. 

 52:19: So that's one, not my favorite, but it's good. 

 52:21: How I. 

 52:22: Bu il t this, you know, it's about how companies were built. 

 52:24: That guy does it. 

 52:25: And then the other one for our industry, I mean, you guys are great, obviously, so we'll just put that plug in for super tech. 

 52:31: But it's, it's Tommy Mello, right? 

 52:34: You and I talked. 

 52:35: What is, what is his called? 

 52:36: I don't even know the name. 

 52:37: It's a home Service Millionaire. 

 52:40: OK, so I like that one too, because he has some things that just really resonate at times to make you think bigger and better about what you're doing. 

 52:47: And so, and he's very passionate, as we know about what he talks about, so. 

 52:52: Yeah, he's, he's been on this podcast, Larry, what, 4 times? 

 52:55: Yeah, 3 or 4 times, 3 or 4 times. 

 52:57: He's been good. 

 52:58: We've had Tommy on. 

 52:59: He's great. 

 53:00: Yeah, no, that's awesome. 

 53:02: All right, one last thing, Stacey, if you had one piece of advice for a brand new business owner in the home service space, what would it be? 

 53:12: Get a consultant. 

 53:15: Yeah, no, you're not wrong there. 

 53:17: He's not a consultant. 

 53:18: Maybe it's just a mentor, right? 

 53:20: It's somebody in the industry who's been at it for at least 5 or 10 years, and they can really help you, you know, they'll, they'll put their coat down over those, you know, those rain puddles, you know, for you that first year or 2, and so you can hopefully keep. 

 53:36: Your, you know, feet as dry as possible. 

 53:38: I just think that there is no reason to go it alone when there are so many people who have experience and can help you, mentor you and guide you, you know, in those initial 2, you know, 2 years. 

 53:51: It's the difference between being profitable at 6 months or being profitable at 16 years. 

 53:57: Yeah. 

 53:58: Yeah, and look, I mean, I'm with you. 

 54:00: Larry and I got coaching almost immediately after starting. 

 54:04: And everybody's like, I don't have the money for that. 

 54:06: Look, you're gonna spend that money anyway, x 10. 

 54:10: Making mistakes. 

 54:11: So you might as well just suck it up, buttercup and make it happen. 

 54:14: Like, let's get on the right path, right? 

 54:17: I'm, I'm, we're pitching both of our companies right now, right? 

 54:20: Like just get somebody who knows what they're doing to help you. 

 54:23: Yes. 

 54:25: Larry wants to jump in so bad. 

 54:26: I could see him jumping the whole thing. 

 54:28: You gotta find somebody that resonates with you back to what you were saying originally, Stacey. 

 54:33: I mean, we have products here, you know, Super Tech University and you guys at Restoration Made Simple, but if it doesn't work for us, find somebody else because there's so many options out there. 

 54:45: And before you jump in and buy and spend all kinds of money, make sure you resonate with whoever you're talking to to make that investment. 

 54:52: The most valuable that you possibly can. 

 54:56: I agree. 

 54:57: Hey, what would your one piece of advice be other than that? 

 55:00: Yeah, Stacey definitely took it, Renee, so I, I would agree with that as well, but if I were to jump into the other one, is Keep an open mind. 

 55:10: I, I have found there's some very strong social media groups that people join, and some of those are so opinionated in one direction that I think no idea who you're talking about. 

 55:22: So, so I, I think it can. 

 55:26: Lead you down a very dark road. 

 55:28: I am very open-minded as you guys are. 

 55:31: So when it comes to work, I go. 

 55:33: There's no bad source of work starting out initially, right? 

 55:37: You need to look at plumbers, you need to look at property managers, you need to look at insurance, you need to look at insurance agents and TPAs. 

 55:43: I go, keep an open mind, right? 

 55:45: So, for every time you hear somebody that says, absolutely don't do this, try to find a reason why you should do it from somebody else, and then make an informed decision, because I think as owners, some of us get pigeonholed into a certain group, and that really affects your ability to be successful. 

 56:03: Yeah. 

 56:04: No, that's a really interesting and good point, because, and the other thing is, Anytime anybody has an absolute, I'm always skeptical of absolutes, right? 

 56:16: You know, it's like, it's like there's a lot of ways to do this, and you have to fit, you know, like Larry said, with coaching or consulting, you have to find a consultant who fits you, right? 

 56:26: So, you know, like Nate and I do the exact same thing. 

 56:29: Nate and I probably say the exact same things to people. 

 56:33: Yet one person could resonate with Nate completely and not me at all, and vice versa, right? 

 56:37: You gotta find your person, but that person also. 

 56:42: I think it has to be open minded enough to know that there's different ways to do things. 

 56:47: And look, everybody's personality is a little bit different too, right? 

 56:51: What, what works for one person, another person might be very uncomfortable with that, and that doesn't mean they can't be successful as well. 

 56:58: Yeah, you, you know, so I, I agree. 

 57:01: I'm gonna throw one in Larry and myself. 

 57:04: Learn how to job costs right away. 

 57:06: Like, like that, that's my, like, I know, like, I know, like, that sounds like so, but that is crucial to actually making money, especially once you get your first employees. 

 57:20: So if you ever wanna do any consulting with Super Tech University, just so you know what you're getting yourself in, yeah, yeah, yeah, you wanna cut, you're gonna come with us, you're gonna be job costing, you're making your people job costs, right? 

 57:32: Oh, we bring it up every time. 

 57:34: So that was OK. 

 57:35: Thank you. 

 57:36: Finances was gonna be the other thing I was gonna say, right, is make sure you understand numbers and even if it's at a basic level, just make sure you understand numbers, yeah. 

 57:46: Yeah, and I, I, I, I also think So many of us start as technicians, right? 

 57:53: Like, we're a carpet cleaner, or we're a restorer, we're a contractor, and That's awesome, but to run a business, you actually have to have very good people skills as well. 

 58:04: And most of us, that comes as second nature, not first, and myself included, and it's it's learning how to lead, it's learning how to manage effectively, coaching, teaching, right? 

 58:18: Those things don't come easy to a lot of people. 

 58:21: And if in in If it's not gonna be you, then, like, go to Stacy and have her do it, right? 

 58:27: Like, you have to have somebody to do it. 

 58:29: If it's not gonna be you, outsource. 

 58:33: But I think that's where super tech, if I'm giving a plug, you're at least making people aware of something they may have or may not have, and I think that's really good, right? 

 58:42: Because not everybody has that ability, but as they learn about it, they can decide, do I think I can turn into that person, or do I need to hire somebody that can be that person, right? 

 58:52: I was talking to an owner the other day. 

 58:54: We knew for a fact he was not a salesperson. 

 58:57: I said, I could teach you the seven-step sales process. 

 58:59: I can teach you all this stuff, but if you are not that person, it doesn't matter how well you know it. 

 59:04: But he was open enough to go, I'm not that person, so I need to find somebody that is, right? 

 59:09: So, I think that's why it's great what you guys are teaching. 

 59:11: It's opening people's eyes to go, can I be this person? 

 59:14: Can I learn all these soft skills? 

 59:16: Can I learn how to say things the right way? 

 59:19: I think they can, but if they can't, find somebody that can. 

 59:22: Yeah, yeah, Larry and I had a friend who was a plumber in Southern California, and he recognized that he was not like a CEO type. 

 59:31: So he hired a CEO and he stayed out in the field, running big jobs and selling, cause he's like, that's my strongest suit, and that's where I need to be. 

 59:40: I hate being in the office, so I'm gonna put somebody in that place. 

 59:44: I think you should do that for every portion of your business. 

 59:48: Absolutely. 

 59:49: I mean, my goal at Shamrock was to be the dumbest guy in the building. 

 59:53: Like that was my literal goal. 

 59:55: Like I, I want somebody to be better at every single part of this business than me. 

 1:00:01: Teeing it up for me, man. 

 1:00:03: Yeah, yeah. 

 1:00:05: Yeah, smarter than I, I wanna be dumber than everybody but Larry. 

 1:00:15: That, that, that wasn't that hard. 

 1:00:17: You know. 

 1:00:18: Well, it's wonderful having you guys. 

 1:00:20: This is very cool. 

 1:00:21: I've enjoyed hanging out with you so much and we're taking you much beyond where we were expecting, but this is, this is great. 

 1:00:28: We could probably do this again, but we're gonna see you in the next, in the next month or so. 

 1:00:31: Don't you have an event or something? 

 1:00:33: Yes, we have our owner's workshop. 

 1:00:35: Yeah, we're in May. 

 1:00:36: I'm excited. 

 1:00:37: Thank you for inviting, by the way. 

 1:00:38: Yeah, so Super tech will be there, I guess, for anybody that's listening. 

 1:00:41: It's an owner's workshop. 

 1:00:43: It's a two-day boot camp. 

 1:00:44: It's super intense and go over a lot of stuff, so you know, luscious anybody attend. 

 1:00:50: So, how do, if, if people are like, I mean, first off, the videos, if they're interested in the videos, how do they start that process? 

 1:01:00: Stacy? 

 1:01:02: Sure. 

 1:01:02: You can just go to our website, www.restorationmadesimple.com, and you can go to the tab that talks about our offerings for, online trainings. 

 1:01:18: And you can sign up for, you know, monthly or annual subscriptions to the online training, so you can do it that way, or you can go to our website. 

 1:01:27: Site and submit a form, just what you're interested in. 

 1:01:30: If you're interested in technician training or sales training or anything like that, submit a form and we'll reach out to you and make sure that you know, you know, all about our offerings and we can get you, you know, the training that you need for your team. 

 1:01:43: All right. 

 1:01:44: Nate, if somebody wants to come to the owners' symposium, how do they do that? 

 1:01:49: Yeah, great. 

 1:01:50: So, once again, our website, we are lucky, it, it is just restorationmasample.com, and it actually has the events tab, and it has that owner's workshop. 

 1:01:59: It's May 4th and May 5th. 

 1:02:00: They can just go to that. 

 1:02:01: But if they want to talk to us and ask questions, what it's all about and get more details, please reach out to any of us. 

 1:02:06: Our information is on there. 

 1:02:09: but we normally have 80, 70 to 90 owners slash vendors like you that are gonna be there. 

 1:02:15: So it's a, it's rare that you get to talk to that many owners all across the country. 

 1:02:19: And so it's great to bring that brotherhood together and be able to talk along with a whole bunch of training that we do. 

 1:02:26: Yeah, no, I, I enjoyed coming last time. 

 1:02:28: It was awesome, so I, I encourage anybody listening, if you're in, in our space, you should come. 

 1:02:34: Yeah, you'll be a guest speaker, so they're gonna get to hear Eric himself. 

 1:02:37: So, oh, lucky them. 

 1:02:40: Very eloquent. 

 1:02:44: I'll get up there and talk about job costing for, you know, I'm, I'm kidding. 

 1:02:48: I'm not doing that. 

 1:02:49: I know we're, we're not gonna go there. 

 1:02:51: Carry. 

 1:02:52: You're, you're much too glib to make a big deal out of. 

 1:02:55: Oh, someone's paying attention. 

 1:02:57: Very cool. 

 1:03:00: Good job, Stacey. 

 1:03:01: Right on. 

 1:03:01: That's very cool. 

 1:03:03: Well, thank you guys. 

 1:03:04: Appreciate it. 

 1:03:04: You guys are awesome. 

 1:03:05: Thank you so much. 

 1:03:06: Pleasure. 

 1:03:09: Thank you for listening to the Blue Collar Nation podcast. 

 1:03:13: For more information about Eric and Larry and Super Tech University, please visit us at supertechu.com. 

 1:03:21: That is supertech U, the letter U.com.