Building and Growing the Culture, With Chad Peterman

Jack talks with Chad Peterman, who explains how he and his managers go about getting the right people, building the culture, and then growing people within the culture. Peterman explains is organization’s employee focus, saying that the speed at which your company grows is in the hands of your people. “When you grow them,” he says, “they grow your company.” 

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Speaker 1 0:10

Jack tester, welcome to another episode of leadership lounge. Here we are. It's a brisk morning. It's November. It's unseasonably cold outside, 15 degrees on the way to work. But it's great here because it's sitting across the table from me is Chad Peterman. How you doing? Chat ? Good. Thanks for having me. I'm glad you're here and you're in town. For what reason? Uh , we are here at the , uh , at Nexstars business planning workshop, right? Building a plan for next year. Yeah . Good works exciting. And I, and I knew, I , I looked at her attendee list and I looked at it and said, ah, Chad, I know you guys got a good story and , um , I've heard some good things about you from some of our coaches and of course I bump into you at meetings and, and uh, you've done a lot of interesting things here recently, so I figured out that , Hey, let's talk. Yeah, absolutely. Sounds great. So let's do that. So here's what I'd like people to , uh , to kind of set, it's kind of a , give us a sense of, of, of the business today. Then when we go back a few years and kind of fill in the journey, is that okay? Absolutely. Tell us about Peterman right now. Yeah. Peterman right now is in a, in a very good place. Um , and , and I say we're in a very good place because of the people that we have on our team, a huge emphasis. And I think the catalyst to our growth over the past really three to four years , uh, has been one getting the right people , um, building the culture and then growing those people within that culture. Cool. We're going to talk about some of that journey, but give us an idea just for a sense of place. Where's your business? How big is it, et cetera. Yeah, absolutely. So , uh, we are , uh , we should finish this year right around 21 million. Um, we've got 122 people , um, between , um, our primary location is in Indianapolis and we serve pretty much all the surrounding area. Okay . Um, we have a satellite location in Columbus, Indiana, which is about 45 minutes to an hour South of Indy . Um, and then we have a free standing location in Lafayette, Indiana. Um, which is about an hour, I think it's an hour, actually, a different sort of satellite and freestanding. So the satellite, a free standing is, they have a general manager up there. They have their own installers, got it. Own sales guy, all that Columbus. Um, with being situated on the South side of Indy , we're able to really service Columbus pretty easily due to the, the highway system. All right. So it's just kind of employees float. Yup , exactly. Yeah. All right . Well, very cool. So, and you work as plumbing and HVC. Yes, we do a plumbing HPAC. Um , and then also along with the plumbing, the drains and excavation. Right. And , and you have a, a part of your business that's, you know, Nexstar is , uh , is about service replacement, but you have a little piece of, not a little, I don't want to minimize it, but part of your businesses is, was a commercial rehab work. Yup , exactly. So , um, my dad , uh, that's kind of a part of how he got started back in 80 was making some connections with some of these , uh , general contractors and developers where , uh , they buy apartment complexes go in, fix them up. Um , and so our part on the heating side is we would go in and replace, got all the systems. So we still do that a little bit today. Of the 21 million roughly how much would that do for the 21 million this year? I don't want to shortchange dad. That's his department. Uh , he'll finish a little over 3 million this year. Okay. Yeah. All right. Very cool. So 21 minute million dollar business, 3 million of which is kind of outside the service replacement model. Got it. All right . And when did you start in the business because people don't know you, but you're young guy. I mean for me, you look young, right ? When did you start in the business? So I graduated college in 2009 , uh, and after, after that, after that I went out and , uh, I worked completely out of the industry , um, completely out of the state. Uh, I moved to Charlotte. I lived there for a couple of years . Um, and then in 2011 I came back home , um , and started in the business. Let me ask a question before we get there. Why'd you leave? Why'd you first sales? Why you left and didn't come right into Peter and right away? Yeah. So , um, with this being a technical industry , uh, I am the furthest thing from technically sound. Um, and I think I was a bit intimidated. Uh , dad was good at that stuff. My brother's good at that stuff. And you never gravitated , gravitated toward it as a young person? Absolutely not. Yeah. I was, by the way, I know exactly how that feels. Yeah. I was, I was more of the a , I was more of the read a book , uh , type guy , uh , as opposed to , uh , going out and building a table or something like that. So , uh, that , uh, yeah, man, I relate. Uh, so that , uh, that got me moving kind of wanting to establish my own thing. I think that's been a , um, so the, the technical work of Peterman really had no appeal. Absolutely not. I mean the respected, I know you did, but as far as getting in there and certain fittings and all that, Jesus didn't do any of that stuff. Right. So , so what'd you do in Charlotte? So I worked for a , a company , uh, that gave me a start. I actually connected with my, with my first boss, the , uh, the other day I'm on LinkedIn, but , um, and said hi to her. But , uh, it was a company based out of Pennsylvania. Uh, they manufactured adhesive. Um, and I worked primarily, they had a bunch of different divisions. I worked primarily in the paper and packaging industry, so I was going into big paper mills , um, and big packaging places and really working to make sure that their needs were met when it came to big splicing tapes and different things like that . This guy, account rep . yeah. More so account rep than sales guy. Yeah, I would say I got it. Yeah. All right . Very good. So he did that for a couple of years and, and uh, kind of went out on your own and left the family, left the nest so to speak. Absolutely. And then, but you came back. Yup . W what , what happened? Yeah, so I think , uh , I think I got the , uh, somewhat of the itch to come back because I'd always kind of identified going and getting more schooling. Uh , as I said, you know, kind of the , uh , read a book , uh, that was always appealing. Um, and so that was kind of interesting. And then I started as I kind of got that itch and kind of understood more about the real world, if you will, and business and stuff. Then I started to take more of an interest in, well, what is dad doing? Um , and when I tell you I had no like knowledge of the industry. Like I couldn't tell you the difference between air conditioner and a heat pump. Even growing up in it, my dad had done this, that you started the company three months before I was born. So literally my entire life. Um, and not knowing any of that. Um, I'd started to really take an interest in it. Like, what's he doing? Why are we doing this? And I can tell you that the first part , uh , probably the summer , uh, I left in August of Oh nine and came back in August of 2011. I would say that summer of 2011 was really when I kind of , uh, you know, got online and said, Hey, where's dad's, where's dad's company? You know, can we find this? Um, and started to look, okay, search engine. Yeah, it'd be nice to be seen here. I don't see him. Well, what, how do you, how do you raise the ranking? How do you bring , so I started reading a book on ad words and how to boost the website up and all of this stuff, and really just started to kind of piecemeal it. Um, when I first came back, I kind of rebuilt the website. Uh , what'd you come back to do? Well, that was the big question around the office was, you know, with an office of 20 some odd people, it's like, Oh, the owner son's coming back was what's he going to do? Kill the fat and calf . Exactly. Yeah . So I'm not a, you know, it was kind of like, well what's he gonna do? And my dad's kind of answer was, well, I mean, there's plenty to do around here. He'll just find, you know, find something to do and kind of get into it and see if, you know, see if that works. Um, so when I first came back, I was kind of in the marketing side. Um, we had a guy who did some of that said , just figure it out, son. Yeah. You know, here's an opportunity. His business, I love you, trust you , you know , I know you're a talented young man. Yeah. Find , find your place in here. He didn't say fixing our website. No, no. So I started out doing that. I just said, Hey, I think we can, I think this will help us. He said, okay, sounds good. So I kinda did that. And then , um, I would go out on calls with him and kind of see what he was doing and I'd go out with this sales guy and see what he was doing. Um, I eventually kind of gravitated from just the marketing too . We had one sales guy at the time, residential replacement was not huge, so he was kind of playing comfort advisor slash service manager slash operations manager. And we really weren't big enough to be kind of departmentalized to have your total replacement revenues , about 2 million bucks at this time, probably between service. And we were just doing heating at the same time. Um, so yeah, we were, we were , uh, we were putting in some systems and, and we would take care of customers, but it wasn't anything like that. So , um, so yeah. So then I started to gravitate towards sales, did a little bit of sales. Um , about a year and a half in our sales guy quit , uh, the weekend before Memorial day, I'm in Indiana. That's the start . 500. Yeah , 500. That's the start of , uh, the air conditioning season, the busy season. So he quits the Friday before that , uh, we're standing in the hallway and , uh, well we only have one sales guy now and he doesn't know a whole ton. So I became the sales guy as he used to do referencing herself right now. Yeah, exactly. So I became the sales guy , um, very early on , uh, and just as luck would have it, I think that was one of the hottest summers on record in Indiana. Uh, I still remember coming into my desk and having like, just 10 to 15 quotes just all over my desk. Like I'm not even really sure what we're doing here. Um, but , uh, just trying to make it and make it work and , uh, and figure things out along the way. So it's kind of funny to think back on , on that time like, Oh , we didn't, we didn't , uh, we've sure have learned a lot, that's for sure. That's cool. Youthful energy is a good thing. Yeah. Just, yeah. Well, we may screw this up, but it'll be all right. Right.

Speaker 2 9:57

So, so, so you started to get involved in the business. It started marketing, it kinda got sales. Um, did am I hearing you like that you , you like the customer part of this business too? Is that what I'm, or just the cause that's a service replacement

Speaker 1 10:10

side , right? Yeah, absolutely. Um, so we started to , uh, started to take a little bit more of a focus there , uh, as, as I got more in depth in the business and kind of learn new as long warm weather , family video. Brother Tyler is absolutely my brother's three years younger than I. He came , uh, I believe it was 2013 graduated from university of Indianapolis and he came right in the business. I think he graduated in December and he started right away right away. January. You were there a couple of years and he sh they need any roles in , um , and uh , I would say , uh, you asked me about kind of what I did at first. Um, he , uh, we kind of threw him in. We were doing a, a , at that time we were doing a lot of new construction. We were doing a 400 unit apartment complex in downtown Indianapolis and dad sent him out there to run that. Uh, so kind of threw him probably more into the fire than I. um, but I'm a little easy to build a website then. Yeah. Then run a project. Yeah , exactly. Yeah , exactly. Yeah. He probably maybe doesn't have all that much potential .

Speaker 2 11:12

Yeah. Let's leave it where it is. Alright . So, so, so this is, so I'm just kind of getting a feel for things, you know, $2 million business in 11 year , 21 today. Um, a lot happened between now and then. And also when you came in the business, your father and mother were a hundred percent owners of the business. Absolutely. With the owner operators and since 11 when you came in and your brother in 13, that's transition to transitioned relatively recently. Yeah. Yeah. So let's just, let's just talk about kind of your maturation , um, the things that, that, that from when you started after that hot summer, you know, where were the inflection points in this business where you really started to some accelerated growth

Speaker 1 11:54

in professionalism? Where did that happen? Yeah. So I would say I'm kind of working backwards from when we joined Nexstar. Obviously that's been kind of our launching pad. But before that, that was 2015 , uh , when we were in 15, we did a 15 was a big year, new construction. I think we hit 10 million in 15. Uh , and then we fell back as we kind of pulled new construction off back to about seven and a half million in 16. Um, but a couple of years before that. Um, and uh, I have to really think some of really our next, our members now because , um , a few years before that they started to plant those seeds of, Hey, you ought to check this out. And I think they , um, so they , uh, the first one was , uh , Joe Huck , uh, with , uh, with Williams. Um, I had a , I had talked to him and he said, you know, that may be , uh , you may want to check that out. I think at the whatever year. Uh, the super meeting was in Indianapolis was , uh, we had a , we had chatted and he said, you may want to check that out, or they're in town. And as with any new idea, when you're in the midst of everything, it's like in one ear out the other, like , okay . And then , uh , we had a supplier take us over to , uh , Cincinnati. Um, and , uh, this was probably in April of 15. Took us over to Apollo home. Uh, Jamie Gertz and over there was, was kind enough to show us around and I can honestly say I left there and my mind , uh, I was excited. Um , and also anxious. I said, I want , uh , I want something that looks like that. Um, and as we traveled back to Cincinnati , uh , or from Cincinnati , uh, with dad, I could see his apprehension to like, well , that looks like , uh , you know, that's, that's a lot of people. That's a lot of of stuff. And , uh , it was the next day , uh, he, myself and my brother sat in his office and we kind of had the talk of, you know, Nexstars and investment. Um , right after that, next day, next door is a big investment. Um, it's going to take a lot of, you know, us doing a lot of work that changing things, making things better. But if we want to grow a residential business, I think it's the thing that we need to do. And I'm so grateful that, you know, that conversation could have went a bunch of different ways. Hey, we're not invest in that money. This is the way of the company. Um, and he was gracious enough to say, if you guys want to take it that direction, I'll be here to support you. Um, and I still think back on that , um, a lot , uh, because that meant the world to me, knowing that he put the confidence in us to take this , uh , to new Heights. So it's been a fun ride. It's been fun to see him , uh, you know, knowing that he started the company in the back of his garage. Um, and now, you know , uh, we serve 122 employees is pretty cool. It is from one gratitude for , yeah , absolutely .

Speaker 2 14:54

A lot of pride. No doubt. No doubt in that. So, so that was in 2015? Yeah. So, okay. Um, so tell us, you know , um, yeah, as you've, you know, a business isn't growing unless leader grows. Absolutely . Right. So, and I know your father was a good leader and I, but I got the sense that in fact I just did a podcast and I'm not sure if it'll come up before or after this one, but in the , the , the young man on the podcast said there was a time where he felt he was in growth mode and his father rightfully so, was kind of more toward the end of his career. And as it relates to his, his business, he was more in protect mode. I mean, he didn't want to lose what he had. Does that make sense? Yep . And there's a, and there's a mindset that comes in when you're trying to protect what you have, which is, you know, kind of being cautious, being conservative, not, not stepping out, not making big investments, you know, all this stuff. Because, you know, when you're mid sixties, you don't have a lot of time to make up for a big loss versus when you're a little thirties , you know , 30 year old guys and lucky, you know, I got a lot of runway here. Yeah . I'm excited. Yeah . Is that kind of how it would , how it felt at that point in 2015 in your business?

Speaker 1 16:02

Yeah, so , um, as we started in the next star dad's advice , um, it's, it's , uh , kind of subsided a little bit , um, as we, as we continue to grow, but his advice was never grow too fast, don't grow too fast. Um, you know, that's where you get in trouble. And , and he, you know, that was his motto for, you know, so naturally you went from two to $21 million . Exactly. So we followed his advice , uh, now , um, and so that was always his advice. And I think the thing that we unlocked in our business , um, you know, you mentioned there , uh, you know, the leader's got to grow. Um, and I think I realized that very early on as we take on this next door . Um , challenge , um, I'm going to have to become a better leader. And I think if I'm honest with myself in 15 and , and probably some of the people that were with us then, you know, I don't know that I was the leader of the company. I think I was just the son of the owner. And yeah, you've got a lot of responsibility because of your last name and that's perfectly fine. And I think I took the challenge upon myself that, you know, whether it's reading, whether it's working on different things, whether it's getting to a conference, a seminar, or just really taking personal inventory of my leadership abilities. Um, and when I started to do that, I think the one thing that I, that I learned or came to learn was that I need to spread that knowledge. I need to begin to grow our people. Um, because if this company's going to grow, we're going to need people that can not lead a service department of five. They need to be able to lead one of 30. And as we grew people , um,

Speaker 2 17:36

we,

Speaker 1 17:37

I figured out that dad's advice of don't grow too fast. Was ultimately the speed that at with which your company grows is in the hands of your people, God . And when you grow faster than your people grow, is that what I'm hearing? Well, I think what , what happens is when you grow them, they grow your company. Got it. And you know, dad and my brother and I were having a , uh , um, uh , sit down after work one day and we were just talking and you know, this was about maybe about a year ago or so. Um, and um, you know, he said the same thing and I had been putting these pieces together and he said, you know, we just, we just don't want to grow too fast. We just want to , you know, be careful. And this was after years of, I think we grew 30% than 50%. Um, and then we're on pace again for , uh, over 30% growth. But , um, he said, he said that in my response was just kind of a , uh , immediate reaction. I just said, dad, I can't stop it. I cannot stop the growth. And since you told him, yeah. And it just kinda came out of me and then I started to kind of put it and he just kind of looked at me kind of weird. Like what the heck? Tint of anger or was it just a or is it, no, just more aggressive when you send it, right. Yeah. More, more so frustration. Like I can't stop it. And as I went on to explain myself, the can't stop piece of it was if we continue to pour into our people and grow them, I can't put a stop to the technician that wants to do 30% better than he did last year. Yeah . I can't put a stop to the, you know, to the customer service rep that wants to book more calls and wants to take care of more customers and the installers who want to perfect their install. I can't stop that. And so long as they want to keep growing that they're going to grow our company, it's our job to support them however it is that they need support it . Right, right. That's cool. Yeah. And that's it . I like what you're saying. I'm almost like you're apologizing and something I just can't help it. Yeah. Right. This is a result of what we're doing here. Yeah, exactly. Not coercion on my part and I'm not cracking the whip and you know, you know, we , and we heard a nice message and I think that's a really, really important lesson that you just reinforced there. You know, we just had Jim Collins in [inaudible] and uh, he, you know, he talked about these attributes to these internally great companies and one of the attributes was this 20 mile March idea. This idea that, that even through bad times you endeavor to grow. You do grow. Yeah. And there's times during good times, what do you do ? You do throttle it back a little bit, but I liked the , the , the qualifier you put on there is that when the gross emanating from the desires of of talented people to do builders , a technician to understand that, Hey boss, I got capacity to manage. I know there's four , three or four people, you know, take on new responsibilities. Um, it's kind of a natural offshoot of that. And it's not dangerous then. No, right. I mean, it's not dangerous from a operational side. You still had a funded , absolutely. No , there's a , that's

Speaker 2 20:47

a whole different deal, right? You gotta be profitable and you gotta have cash and you know, but, but as far as, you know, the wheels coming off the business as far as, you know, it being unwieldy and, and out of control and people feeling that do not support it because you've got too many people in the managers are spread too thin and you know, then you don't have those problems of growth, if that makes any sense. Yeah, absolutely. That's cool. Yeah , that's really, that's an interesting story. So when you say grow people, that's, you know, that's a broad term. Absolutely. You know, it's a , it's a , and , and I would say that if I asked virtually any owner, are you growing your people, every owner could somehow think back and say, yeah, I am. But it's not that, but they're not. So what are some of the specific things you did that, that would help us understand how to define that in your, in your ideas?

Speaker 1 21:36

Absolutely. So , um, I , I think it is a thing. We are not perfect. Um, and we have areas where we're working on an issue right now where we did not have enough support for our technicians. And so really building out that infrastructure, I think that's the one thing , um , as people grow , um, having that, where do you want to go? Um, and then you may have to build those layers of support before you need them so that you don't run into something where you're not supporting people. Um, a couple of the things that we do that I, I'm really excited about and , uh, we've actually, we just hit a year of it. Um, I teach a bimonthly , um, uh, once at the beginning of the month, once at the end, a leadership class. So , um, in the morning for about an hour , uh, we've kind of paired it down to about an hour. Um, I teach everything that I learn . Uh, I've read a ton of books and listened to a bunch of podcasts and all kinds of stuff. Um, and I take that knowledge and I give it to our managers, give it to our people field and whoever wants to attend. So that 10 enrollment, yeah . You just come , uh , open mic night. Absolutely. Seven in the morning. Absolutely. Um, and uh, so we do that and then we take that information because two thirds of our people are out on the road. We turn that into and we put that information out on our podcast so that they can listen to it while they're in the truck and drive into a customer's home. And , and what, what have you. Um, and I think that that is just one example. Um, I think the one on one meetings are a huge deal. Um, with the ones we , we provide. So you do a one was standing weekly, one on one. Every employee gets that. Uh, not weekly. That's the one we're working on. Um, so actually we have one on ones. I'm sorry. Yeah , no, you're good. Sorry. Um, the , um, the one on ones are a critical piece. I'm a firm believer that if we want to grow people, you grow them in a one on one setting. We don't grow them in a service, meaning we don't grow them in an all company meeting. We grow them one-to-one. Um, and , and that's where we're going to uncover what people are struggling with and then help them with what they need. Um, the , uh, for 20, 20, our big management goal is we're committing to a number of one-on-one goals. So that will be our 20 mile March. So somebody will say, if I'm an employee and it's a 52 week year, every employee is going to give 35 weekly one on ones is LJ , that what I'm hearing? Uh , I don't know about 35. Uh , that made a number of, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So very similar. So we're going to set a big goal. Um, we're still working through the numbers. Um , but what is that goal as management that we're going to agree to? We're going to have this mini . Um , and really I think the biggest thing of that is keeping it top of mind. Um, I , I was reading the other day, I believe it was Simon Sinek that said, you know, as a manager, you're not going to grow the company. You're going to grow the people who then go out and do the work that grow the company. And to me that one on one is that conduit between a manager and a frontline employee, that that's where we're going to grow that employee to go continue to grow out there. So I can't agree with you more. Yeah , I just can't, but you know, here's the, here's the , the , the secret sauce to that. A part of it is , is that you as a manager have to have something off or two absolutely. In that one on one. So the fact that you're listening to a podcast and consuming leadership material and reflecting on your journey and, and, and you know, you're a better person, a deeper thinker, a more thoughtful person today than you were two months ago. Now those one-on-ones become not a routine. It's not a , it's not what I always said with these one-on-ones that we provide. It's not a management activity. It's a leadership development effort . Absolutely. Go into it . That mindset, not how do I manage your activity versus how do I grow your thinking? That's then it's a whole different meeting. Yep . Right. It's a whole different thing. Absolutely. I'm a, I'm a firm believer in , just to piggyback off what you said, I I a common message that , uh , a lot of my managers here, they don't, I don't know that they necessarily like to hear it, but a , a common message is if you do more leading, I'm going to guarantee you can do less managing. Um, and uh, yeah. Uh , you know, if we lead our people, they, they will follow the processes they will follow because they're not at that point in time. If they view you as a leader that I can follow into anywhere and I'm going to be safe. They start to follow you and not follow the process. Yeah . No one wants to follow a process. I was just talking to a manager this morning about that. I said, you're doing a great job of leading because they don't want to follow the process. We need them to follow you. And that one-on-one to me is where like you said, we're connecting, we're growing. People were , and they're understanding that we care about them. It's a safe place. It's all right to make a mistake. We understand you're growing. What help can I give you? What support can I give you? And then all of a sudden, those little that he's not clocking in, right ? He's not doing his options ride . He's not, you know, he's not following the greet step. He's not doing all these things. All of those things start to take care of themselves because he wants to make you proud. He wants to make sure he knows that you have a vested interest in him and he wants to make sure that it's reciprocated. Um, and so we've seen a lot of that. It's just a tough transition because you as a manager have to put yourself out there a little bit. You've gotta be willing to take a risk that this 15 minute conversation, while it may not make an impact today, we're playing the long game. Leadership is a long game. Um , and growing a company is a long game, right ? If you're looking to get rich tomorrow, you're going to struggle and you're not going to impact a whole lot of people. That's really cool. That's really cool. They say that the most important things, you know, so many things in business. Um, we want the immediate , uh , hit absolutely want the buzz. We want the, the rush, you know , that we do something. And while there's a difference tomorrow and, and th and often in times in our business we can do things like that. Yeah. All of a sudden you start camera guy and every, every main line, Oh my gosh, what happened? You know, it's like immediate, right? But you know, developing people is, it's one of those things that, that it's, it all of a sudden it come , it compounds. Yeah. Like, you know, you look back all of a sudden it's like, wait a minute, look where we are. And it feels like it's a compounded effect. Delayed six months. Yup . If that makes any sense. Absolutely. You got to have the, you got to have the fortitude to continue it, right? Yeah. Could we have to have good people to , to start? I mean, there's a lot of things you've got to have, but you know , clearly, you know, I just want to emphasize against yet that, you know, your one-on-ones will be awesome, are awesome because of the work you're doing outside of the one-on-ones to grow yourself. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I think that that's kind of the challenge that we give to , to all our managers is , uh, another thing I say to them that they probably have a whole list of these things that I say to them. They're like, okay, here he goes again. Um, but it's, you know, you gotta lead yourself before you can lead others. And part of leadership and , um, your own personal development. That's leadership. Eat yourself. Absolutely. Give me a , and um , right now I , um, if you're a minister, I'm signing up on your church. Just don't do it right now. I'm a parishioner of the Chad Peterman school leadership. What does that mean to you? Uh, so leadership of yourself is , um, I, I read this somewhere is , uh , you know, be the person , uh, start being the person today that you want to be tomorrow. Um , and so there's a , um, you know, I talk a lot about in our leadership class, whether it's, it's journaling in the morning, whether it's, you know, getting your , getting your mindset right , uh, having a routine, all of these things start to add up. But you know, just because you journal doesn't make you a better leader. Um, it's a compounding effect of when you start to instill these habits within yourself, you become a leader because people start watching people start understanding that, Hey, that guy's really, you know, he's, he's, he's investing in himself. He's, he's moving along that path. And that's what I tried to tell too . You know, some of our frontline guys who, you know, may not consider themselves a leader. You are a leader every day by your actions and how you help others. And if you keep that front and center, you're always a leader because people are always watching. Um, and so leadership personally to me is the foundation of any leadership. You're going to do a , you know, you don't see many great leaders waking up at 10:00 AM they're getting up early or getting the day started there . You know, they have that, there may be some, but you know, who knows. Uh, but , uh,

Speaker 2 30:32

Oh , jimmied though . Yeah, but you're leading here . Here's the thing. In the service business, and I'll talk about our business and you know, maybe there's some models in other industries that, but you know, to have a great service business, there's gotta be a consistency and execution absolutely right across the board that, that, that what happens at eight in the morning happens at eight in the morning every day in a good way, right? It's , it's not erratic . And so therefore, if we expect that out of the behavior of our employees, our behavior can't be erratic, even though we're not doing the things that are required to be consistent. Does that make sense? Yep . So I think that that controlling self, that modeling, you know , the expectation , um, through your own behavior and controlling yourself , um , sets a tone in the business.

Speaker 1 31:18

Yeah. Right. I think it has to , and mine stems from , um, I , I you think back on your past and like, okay, how did I get here? How did I, why did I, why do I think the way I do? And I think that comes from a sense of, you know, when you're a second generation and you come in, especially as I came into a group of 20, you got, you know, outside of my dad, there's 18 other people looking at you going, what are you going to do? And so I think I learned very early on that my best path in was to lead myself and show them that I was , uh, earn their respect. And it was always defer to them. You're the expert. Just tell me how I can help you. Yeah . Um, and I, at the time I didn't realize that I was doing it. Um, looking back I realized that I was indirectly doing that and it's, it's all of a sudden kind of built on that. Um, but you know, leadership when it boils down is , is service to others. Um , and sometimes the, you know, the greatness , uh, service to others you can do is be a good example of leadership. Um, and sometimes we forget that it's all, you know, try to make them do what we need them to do and we forget about, well, maybe being an example would be a good start. That's so cool. Oh man, I have really enjoyed this. Absolutely. You got

Speaker 2 32:40

it going on there, man. Yeah . I appreciate it. Thoughtful young guy that , uh, I can tell you're a consumer of a lot of leadership information because there's a lot of things I've heard here that, that better leaders and myself have uttered . And so you can get yours wide open. Yeah, for sure . Absolutely. Well, well done. Thank you so much for spending some time with us. Man. I, your journey is fascinating and we'll do this again. Is that okay? Absolutely. Happy to share. We had a business planning workshop coming up that we need to get you in there and uh, but I wanted just to sh people to hear a little bit from you. Absolutely appreciate it. I loved it and I loved the , uh, the leadership examples and I'm going to kind of summarize a few things that I took out of this that I thought was great. You know, obviously to grow a business you got to grow your people, right? Yeah . And that was the, what you've committed to do is, is really investing in them. You do what twice a month leadership class that's open to anybody. Yup . You're , you're modeling leadership development through your one-on-ones of your, of your good folks, right? Yeah. And then you're, you're leading yourself right through discipline, through process, through , um, modeling the consistency that you want in your folks through your own behavior. Absolutely. Well done man. Yeah, I appreciate that. This is a lot of lessons here and I sure appreciate it and thank you all for listening to this very interesting episode. Leadership lounges. Jack tested with Chad Peterman, and we'll catch you next.

Speaker 3 34:03

Thanks so much.