Ep 165 - "Culture First With Thomasville Restoration"

0:00 Oh, hey, dude. This was a fun one, man. I mean, I know we say that a lot. So people are like, okay, guys, just get on with it. Welcome to the show, everybody. This one is really good. It is really good. And for the uninitiated, if you're brand new to Head, Heart & Boots, which we were learning about new listeners all the time. That's right. It's fun. What is this about? Well, this is the Founders Podcast for Floodlight Consulting Group. Our clients across the country, big to small, this past year did a quarter billion, over that, over a quarter billion dollars with a business. We partner with restorers who want to grow and scale their companies and add a ton of enterprise value in the process. If you have ever thought about hiring a consultant, go to floodlightgrp.com, kick the tires, schedule a meet and greet.

0:45 I'll get on the phone with you and we can talk shop. But we feel like we're building something special here. And if you're interested, go check it out. Yeah. Today. I'm so pumped. So many of our guests come from us just being kind of fascinated with folks we meet. I mean, that's where a lot of our podcast guests come from. And this is no exception. So two, three weeks ago, this was very recent. I was speaking at the Verisks Elevate Conference down in Utah. Yeah. And I try to take in as many sessions as I can when I'm not speaking. And I sat in on Leighton Healy's panel about recruiting. Know-how, by the way. Know-how. Thank you. Yes. Shout out to know-how. And Alexis, I should have clarified this with her, NIDART, I believe, at Thomasville Restoration was one of the panelists.

1:32 Yeah. Yeah. And she was there talking about brand and the intersection between recruiting and the importance of brand. And I was just, frankly, I was just really enamored. Like she was so good, off the cuff, impromptu, very good speaker. and incredibly passionate about this thing. Like where brand plays into our recruiting and the culture of the business that we're building, how much that affects recruiting. Yeah. And she also talked pretty heavily in that panel about their onboarding process. And I'm like, our listeners have to hear this. Yeah. And so anyways, we've got an incredible show for you. We cover a lot of, there's a lot of origin story there.

2:15 Right now, Thomasville is a big, successful company. And so for those of you that are just starting out your heroic journey within restoration, parts of it you won't be able to relate to, but she gets into her origin story where it all began. And every single person listening to this will be able to relate to that. And also, I think take away gold nuggets of how you can bring this stuff into, into your business regardless of the size. Yeah, I would just add to that. I think what you're going to hear is what's possible. Yep. And where do I start? Yeah. It's possible. And practically, here's where I start. She does a great job. It's so good. Of doing that. This is the kind of show, like we get feedback regularly.

2:56 Folks will pass along their... episodes to their employees, to their leadership team, assigned it as homework, all this kind of stuff. And this is probably one of those where you'll want to share this with your business partner or your leadership team or your GM. Yeah. Because. Or even a peer that you know. Yeah. Like you go to an industry event and you're, you know, the guy gal next to you that you know from the, from the industries are struggling with recruitment. Yeah. What a great episode to point them towards because this is how you solve this problem long term. It's really cool. What an awesome example. And Alexis is absolutely an awesome communicator. You may want to take this in on our YouTube channel where you get the full video as well. Yeah, because she literally… I think her and I and you both smile for almost an entire hour.

3:40 It was fantastic. It was cool. Yeah, it was great. So here we go. Let's go. Wow. How many of you have listened to the Head, Harden Boots podcast? I can't tell you that reaction, how much that means to us. Welcome back to the Head, Heart & Boots podcast. I'm Chris. And I'm Brennan. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead. This new camera angle makes my arms look smaller than yours. I'm noticing that and I really appreciate it. I thought you did that on purpose. No, I don't. I didn't. And I am not happy with it. Welcome to the show, Alexis. I've been stoked about this together. We just met like literally, what was it? Like three weeks ago? Mm-hmm. Yeah.

4:21 And a little shout out to Leighton Healy at KnowHow, who led this panel and brought you in on his panel discussion. I just sat there in the audience and I'm like, man, I want to know more about Thomasville and I want to hear Alexis talk more. So let's get her on the podcast and here you are today. So thank you so much for joining us. No, thank you so much for having me. And I've been a fan of Head, Heart & Boots for a long time. So I've actually been watching you guys a little bit longer. So I was really excited when I got the chance to meet you and chit chat. And I'm even more honored to be here. Sweet. That's so cool. Now, okay, so I want to just set the table a little bit for us. You're a part of a family company. So Thomasville Restoration, to many restorers who've been that work nationally and regionally, like that's a name that I think people will recognize.

5:09 And I think one that also commands a lot of respect from folks that know you guys and have run into Thomasville people at conferences and worked on jobs together and so forth. So I think that's cool. And I hope we get into some of the aspect of that family culture a little bit. But you were specifically... You lead Thomasville's HR and sort of the people side of the business. Is that right? Culture? Yeah. Recruiting? Yeah. Yeah. So I cover our, all of our branding. So anything that has a Thomasville logo on it is, is within my wheelhouse. And then my main focus is to make sure, and it's like my tagline, make sure that people love where they work and look good doing it. So any, any aspect of that is, is how we show up in the marketplace.

5:52 Our Google reviews, our company events that include family members or just teammate related events, those types of things. So it's like kind of a jack of all trades. I'm actually grateful I'm not on the HR side because I don't know how well I would deal with that. But it really is taking care of the teammate as a whole and the customer as a whole. So that's kind of how my focus is. I really bring the lens to our leadership team of, our company values, our mission, and our vision. So I continue to reinforce within the organization, like, this is who we say we are. This is how we're going to show up in the world. And are we making decisions that are right for our team, right for our customers, right for our brand, and so on and so forth.

6:33 So... I've really enjoyed being in this role. I can tell you that if you had told me 10 years ago, I'd be working for my dad, I would say, you're a liar. There's no way in hell. But I used to be in real estate, actually. And the story of how I came on board was my dad was going through a transitional period where his previous business partner was going to start a competing restoration company and And a lot of his teammates were following. And my dad said, I don't know who to trust. And I can pay you $15 an hour. And I need you to come on board. And I already owned my own home. And I was starting my own business, essentially doing what I do now for other small businesses. And I said, okay. Because when you get a call like that from your family, it doesn't matter what the reason is, what the cost is.

7:17 I was going to be there. Yeah. And I did. And it was hard. I was fired like twice. I think I quit like twice. My dad is not the easiest person to work for. When you're his daughter and he holds you to a way higher expectation than the rest of his team. But we were able to find our rhythm when his partner Andy came on board. Andy is a lifelong friend of his. They were friends since their early 20s. My dad went to high school with Andy's wife. And when Andy decided to leave Under Armour to pursue a venture where he could kind of run the organization and grow and build something the way that he did with Under Armour, he was like one of the, like the 20th person hired there. And he left. Yeah, he left the CFO for North America's, I think they're his footwear division or something like that.

7:59 He was he was a senior leader reporting two levels away from Kevin Plank. So he was absolutely he's absolutely that guy. I had to call him Mr. Andy when he started because my dad made me not because Andy made me. Yeah. And when he came in, we realized that Andy was going to be the leader who could grow me past my potential and put me on a trajectory to learn as much as I could about the concept of branding, the importance of customer relations and the importance of taking care of the teammate. One of the things that my dad said when he first started... it was going through that transitional period is that I'm going to do things differently. And I want to create a place that everybody wants to work for. So I've been charged with this mission since he said that, since that day.

8:42 And that was about six years ago. And so when I had the opportunity to finally transition out of working in the business and working more on the business, about four years ago, I came to Andy and I said... we're missing something. And this is what I think we're missing. And, you know, it was this job description that I branded all pretty with the red, black, and white. And I said, I want to be the brand ambassador. I didn't know what a brand ambassador was. I didn't know what it was that I wanted to do, but my heart was so pulled towards towards doing something different than anything else I had seen in the industry. And my industry understanding was so small. It was our, it was the ServPro down the street or the ServiceMaster, you know, and I understood my network within my area.

9:23 But the first time I went to a conference was the... CoreLogic Interconnect conference back from COVID. It was their very first conference that they had and it was in New Orleans. And man, my eyes opened up and I was so charged when I came home from that. And I was so confident in our ability to create something special within this industry. And I just fell in love. And so I think that when I really got to get my hands in, Andy said, go, which I'm so grateful for. He put me in front of all of the right people, having all of the right conversations. Andy even sent me to Kellogg School of Business to take an executive level branding class. And I've never felt more like a fraud than when I was there.

10:03 I was sitting next to the CMO of Coca-Cola South America and the CMO of... Camel Cigarettes, like the brand that owns Camel Cigarettes. And I'm sitting here like, I'm a small mid-Atlantic restoration company. Let me tell you about Thomasville. And by the end of the week of that class, everyone was like, what school did you go to? None. I didn't go to school. I never went to college for any of this stuff. And I think that that's kind of that unique perspective and opportunity that I have because I'm so driven by passion because it's my family. Every one of my teammates has become my family. my purpose. And it's been really wonderful. This is so interesting.

10:44 Okay, I got to ask you, what did you see and experience at this event that got you so fired up? At the interconnect. Yeah, what was happening around you that got you lit up? And then I think the second piece is, when you say you got lit up, what? What was happening? What were you experiencing? What were you getting excited about specifically? Yeah. Yeah, I think the scale was really interesting to me. I had never been to a conference before. I was in real estate. I worked for Redfin for a couple years and they have a really cool brand and culture and things like that. They're publicly traded. So their things are a little bit different. But when I got there, it was just the sheer scale of how many restorers were there, how many people who are so bought into this industry that were attending this conference right outside of COVID and were so excited about these conversations And this was before this was next year interconnect.

11:36 It was before it was CoreLogic interconnect. So these people were so jazzed about these updates. And, you know, I understood our CRM dash for like some level, but to be able to see people getting so pumped up and, and I just felt like the story needed to be told that there are people in this world who are so passionate and so driven to help others that. And it's an industry that nobody sees. And I always explain that like restoration, that the emergency room is like the fire department and the police and the first responders. But the ICU is really where the restoration industry lives. We're the ones who are helping you get back to whole again. And it's so interesting to see that.

12:18 And that was, that was the side of the world I'd never seen before. And I think that that's really what got me so excited and just seeing the pure scale of everything, walking around an expo hall, seeing hundreds of people expoing with all of these amazing softwares, technologies, and services that can, you know, make the restorer's life better. I felt like a kid in a candy shop. It was so inspiring. And I was like, why am I just now finding out about this in a restoration company of 26 years ago? Now we're 150. I don't know that our 20 people knew about what this felt like. I don't know that my dad even knew. I don't think he'd been to one conference. I think at that point, I was like, this is the best.

12:58 I want to be a part of this. It's so special. Wow, that's cool. That is cool. I want to go back to something you actually opened with because I thought it was actually very profound as part of the ownership you take in your role. I feel like I heard you say something to the effect of, I oversee our brand. So our customers' experience of us, our employees' experience of us, and making sure that all of the decisions we make are aligned with that. And I thought, ooh, that's a really high-level leadership thought right there, right? And of course, that is the thing that restorers everywhere, owners everywhere, knowingly or unknowingly, does.

13:39 are struggling with, which is we can say all of these great things about how much we care about our clients and how we're helping them in their greatest moment of need. And this is who we are. And we're tough and we're adaptable and we're all these things. But what really matters is the actual lived experience of what does the client actually experience and receive? And what are our employees actually experiencing in our culture? And I'm curious what your experience has been with that. Because I'm guessing it hasn't all been roses. Like you started your job six years ago and it's like everything has flown perfectly. It's always been in high integrity. Everything's matched up to what we say. What's that journey been like? And how do youth tend to think about that, that alignment piece?

14:22 Yeah, that's a great question. So the most important thing that we started with was how we were showing up in the marketplace. And I don't know if it's a little bit of like my OCD, but the very first thing I started with was making sure that our logo was correct on every single piece of documentation that went out. Now we had had variations of our logo. One was the red with maroon and the white was with gray. And then we were inconsistent with the way that our brand showed up. We weren't using the same logo all over the place. So to keep myself focused on the next step, I would start with something small like that. And I remember spirits were low when we were going through that transition. So from the culture perspective, the very first thing I did, the last teammate from that company left on December 12th.

15:08 So we only had about 20 teammates left at that point. And Thomasville had never had a Christmas party. So I threw a budget Christmas party with dollar store decorations in our office that was very tiny. It was very, very, very tiny. It was like 1,500 square feet. And that was total. And I went and out of my own pocket, bought some bottles of really cheap Prosecco. And we just sat and did a potluck and had some Prosecco and then celebrated Christmas. Luckily, one of our amazing partners at Renewal gave us a ham. So we had some food. They give us a ham every year. So we were able to use that. But I just remember we had people sitting in the conference room and like out at people's desks.

15:51 And I just remember looking around and was like, I never want my team to feel like this again. I never want this to be because everybody was so sad. And there was a time in the organization where we weren't allowed to have potlucks because a senior leader who was no longer, who moved with the transition said that we shouldn't be eating out of other people's kitchen or something like that. Something just really unfair and kind of sad and missing a point, you know, you're missing the point. And so that was our first potluck. And that was kind of like a, yeah, like we're going to have a potluck type of energy. And so that was, that was just the start. The very next thing was. was, again, we're going through COVID times. Contractor Connection Restores Conference was virtual two years in a row.

16:35 And the first year that it was virtual, I said to Andy, we need to get our team together and we need to give out some awards. Let's find a way to recognize our team members and let's get together and just watch the virtual conference. We had attended two years previously before COVID hit. Let's watch the conference together. He said, no, we don't need to do that. And I was like, okay, well, Andy's first answer is typically no. So I always come back a second time because he's that type of leader that you have to show him that you've thought of everything. Yeah. And this was kind of like a fly by the seat of my pants, call in the morning, like, hey, what do you think about this? And so I came back, I found pricing for a room, the cost of the catering.

17:17 At that point, you were only allowed to have events for 25 people. Well, we only had 25 people, so it worked out. And I call him back and he says, all right, fine. I think you might be on to something. I said, okay, cool. So I decorate the entire room in... rock star themes. It was like guitars, like blow up guitars and all these different things. If you go to our YouTube channel, you can still find the video. It was our very first quarterly offsite. It was the start of what have now become, I mean, we're flying in Olympians and Leighton Healy just spoke at our last offsite. I mean, it's become a staple in our culture. Every quarter, our team gets together just about all of our teammates with the exception of a couple of crews that have to stay out in field, but we do bring in field teammates as well for every one of the off sites.

18:03 And it started back in that, back in that small little room in the back of a restaurant with like a projector that didn't work perfectly. And we just continue to reinforce the importance of fun, humor and celebration because every teammate and every one of our team members needed to know that they were seen, they were recognized, what they were doing was important, doing it through a pandemic, of course, but that we can have fun while we do it. We had a game show and one of our estimators dressed up with like a wig. It was hilarious. And then we started doing quarters in review. So I post all the pictures from like, the baby showers and the birthday parties and the new babies coming in birthdays that we celebrated.

18:48 And so we take time in those off sites to celebrate those moments because of that first off site that we've had that we had, you know, four or five years ago. So. I think it was intentionally bringing together the team that was really important and showing them that we're willing to invest in them, not just investing money because investing money is the easy thing. And this is the conversation I have with a lot of contractors who are a lot of restorers who feel like they don't know where to start. Money's easy to invest. Time is not. I had to take guys out of the field. I had to take them away from potential estimates that they could write or projects that they could work on or, on a Friday, because they're always on a Friday, and I had to say, just trust me.

19:28 Let's spend some time together. Let's make a connection. And so whenever I have those conversations with the resource, I say, just start with dedicating some time to celebration, humor, and fun, and make sure that you're recognizing your team. I have some follow-up to this because I feel like there's this underlining theme that plagues our industry that wears us out before we all take the time and dedicate the energy, I think, to hit some of the thresholds that you and Thomasville have hit. And I'm just curious to get your perspective on this. Yeah. Blue Collar World, right? Our team members run the gamut. We used to make a ton of jokes about how I would have to play a YouTube video sometimes in the morning of somebody cleaning a shop desk with Red Bull to just show the corrosiveness of what Red Bull does.

20:14 And I would do it as an ongoing joke because half our team lived on cigarettes and Red Bull and no real substance. So I think a lot of our listeners are going, Yeah, that's my crew, right? This is our people. Right. It seems like it can be difficult for us to prioritize the relational element of our businesses. And I think at times, our people, because they don't know better, they don't have the appropriate context, many of them are from lives that a lot of people... wouldn't want to necessarily all experience firsthand, right? Many of us have our own stories. What kept motivating you to prioritize this kind of investment in relationship?

20:55 And what kinds of things did you see happening that kept you on the trail, like kept you going back and saying, okay, let's level up a little bit more this year. Let's keep giving this time and energy. I will never forget the story. I had a teammate of mine send me a picture. They're out to a fancy dinner. And this is a teammate that has been with us for almost 30 years. And so he's been through all versions of Thomasville. We were a new construction home builder 10 years ago prior to becoming a restoration organization. He sends me a picture of his whole family in Thomasville gear. And we had just recently made a connection, thanks to Andy, to a distributor who got us Under Armour at 40% off.

21:36 So he bought his entire family gear. And I'm talking from the little guy all the way through his wife and his five kids. And I just remember him sending this picture like out to family dinner. And I remember thinking like to have that level of pride that not only you, but your entire family wears a Thomasville badge the same way that they do an Under Armour badge. There's something special here. You are feeling something that... Not everybody gets to feel in all these different types of businesses. So I remember those types of stories I love. And I think a lot of the times when we first decided what our values were going to be, because we didn't decide until 2019, our very first and number one value was family first.

22:20 And I remember another story of one of our teammates telling me that her son had come up to her and said, Mommy, you're a lot happier when you come home now. And it's because of the culture that she experiences here, because of the relationships that she has with her co-workers, her amazing leader. She said, Mommy, you're a lot happier when you come home compared to the job that she had left prior. Those types of stories keep me going. And one of my favorite thing is that because I never forget the Christmas party with the $6.99 bottles of Prosecco is being scrappy. And I truly believe that there is a way to build a brand and build a culture for little to no funds.

23:01 The most important thing is, again, that sacrifice of time. And I understand that it can be tough when you think of the The Red Bulls and cigarettes and gas station breakfast sandwiches. Like I know those guys for sure. We have them on our team. How do you get them bought in? Well, we had to make our very first offsite mandatory, which meant we had to pay our teammates for being there. It was during the workday, but we had to make it mandatory. And at some point, you might have to make it mandatory. And in those conversations, when you spend time in the field with your guys, I rode, I did so many ride alongs at the beginning of this. And every time I left a ride along, I came back with that. We started a Thomasville soccer team because there was a ton of our teammates that really loved soccer. And I didn't even know I played soccer my whole life.

23:42 So I was like, hell. Yeah, we're going to start a soccer team. We started a new internal newsletters from conversations like, I feel like I work in Pennsylvania, you guys are in Baltimore, I feel like I don't know what's going on. Well, let's start an internal newsletter. So you can feel connected and feel that that experience, you know, what's happening in our day to day with our office. And so Again, as a senior leader, it has to start from the top. Andy believed in it. Tom believed in it. My dad and the rest of our senior leadership team believed in it. And when it starts from the top, you get that opportunity to get involved in people's teams and really weave in that importance of that culture and spending time in the field. So, yes, well, you're running multiple jobs as a mitigation manager.

24:23 It could be good to pick a day, shut everything down, go get in the van with your guys, buy them lunch and just talk to them. They will tell you what they want. Your team will tell you because they're there because they believe in what you're doing. They're not there to get a paycheck. It's way too easy to find a restoration company to work for. There's openings everywhere. We know that. We know that there's just talked about recruiting, how difficult it is to find it. But if your team is there, they're there because they believe in what you're doing. So they will tell you, like you give them space to talk, they'll tell you what they need. Okay, so I want to drill into this family first core value, because I think one of the things that all of us, and this is true of us at Floodlight as well, is we have our own set of values. And we've recently been thinking through, okay, why is it that so many companies struggle to actually, like, why often, like we led with here towards the beginning of the conversation, do we have a lot of value?

25:13 people's actual lived experience at a company often does not reflect the core values that might be on the wall. And so this family first idea, can you think of some examples where you guys have lived that out where it was maybe inconvenient or even costly, but because of that core value, you guys were able to live it out in a special way for somebody on your team? What does that look like on a day-to-day basis within Thomasville? Sure. So it's a two-parter. I look at Family First as my teammates and their families, but Family First can also apply to the customer and their families. But from the perspective of my brand and culture department, living out the Family First can look like a couple of different things. One of the benefits that we have at the organization support, I believe for both fathers and mothers, those are types of things that are really easy to implement.

25:59 But it's 120 of our teammates and their family members to medieval times. And I didn't expect to have 120 teammates participate. So I had to find a bunch of free or low cost events for the rest of the year because that was very pricey. But to see like the smiles on the kids faces and they were, it was completely, it costs nothing to our team. And one of the best things is that a lot of the likely wouldn't be able to take a family to five for $60 a ticket to something like that. So it was a lot of our field teammates. And that was the best part. That was the coolest part is to see so many of our contents teammates, our mitigation teammates, some of our project managers really utilize that as an opportunity to spend time with their families and be with their Thomasville families.

26:47 So that's one way. We always do for our leadership team. Every quarter, we either sponsor a date night for our leadership teams, for them and their spouse, or we'll all get together for a bowling or top golf event with spouses. Because we know how much we ask of our senior leadership team here. So we want to make sure that their partners feel honored and they understand that we know what we're asking. And we see them and we know that they have to make sacrifices along with their partner who is a member of our team. And then we have multiple events throughout the year where I try to include family members as much as possible. We had about 400 people in our parking lot this summer. We did a block party. We got some inflatables.

27:28 We had food trucks, DJ. And we get to see all the kids and everybody comes out. You know, we're only 120 teammates. We had 400 people there. So it was great. We didn't leave it open to just... spouses and kids. We include people who want to include their parents. Some of our younger generations are like really proud of what they do here and they want their parents to see it. And so we had a lot of parents there, which is really cool. So yeah, we've had to make some investment for sure, but it didn't always start like that. You know, we did mission barbecue. We rented a pavilion at a park for our very first picnic. And we had about probably a hundred or so people there. And we did like, cornhole and frisbee and it was on a, it was in a park.

28:09 So there was like park things to do. So we were able to do it for a lower, a lower expense before then as well. So there's ways to do it, but I'm fortunate enough that as we have grown as an organization from 20 to 120, 150 teammates, my budget has increased as well because our revenue is increasing as well. So I've been able and been fortunate enough to do more, but I was doing these things beforehand as well. This is kind of an interesting... Do you guys actually have, if you don't mind sharing, not a dollar amount, but do you guys prescribe to a percent that you allot for this particular focus at this point? Like a percent of your revenue, for instance, is a budget for this?

28:49 Yes. The answer is yes. Do I know that percent? No, because I'm terrible with numbers. I have a very detailed bottoms up budget that I operate out of. So we have certain amounts allotted to different events. So we, all of the events that we do for quarterly offsides, a Christmas party and a picnic. And then I have three team building events outside of that. So there's always something happening on every month. Every month there's a birthday and anniversary celebration. And then every month it's either a quarterly offsite, a team building event, the picnic or the Christmas party. So I really try to make sure we do like a potluck in our warehouse. It's like around Thanksgiving, we do a Thanksgiving Day potluck. We run some tables and chairs and that's the only expense that I have. So every month there's something and every other month around is where I try to include either spouses or spouses and kids.

29:35 I mean, it's super consistent. I mean, and it's fairly aggressive in how often. And this is ramped over time, I'm assuming, as you've gotten more confident in the value of it and the team's adoption of it and integration with it. You've upped the ante, I'm assuming, over the years. Yeah, absolutely. And again, it's from those in the truck conversations. I've gotten feedback and I'm really intentional about receiving feedback from our team because I truly believe it's important to do what they want me to do. You know what they're feeling, you feeling pursued by. And so, yeah, it has been hard. It's hard to plan an event every month, but I mean, just the level of participation that we get. So cool to see like our team bragging about it on social media and.

30:16 But, you know, again, back to that's what keeps me going. That's what keeps me driven. But yeah, it can absolutely be a lot. And it was, yes, it was a ramp up period. It really started with the four quarterly off sites, our Christmas party and our picnic. Those are our core events that happen every single year. And then we have the varying other ones, you know, throughout the year. What kind of... Just... We're like cheesy. By the way, Alexis, this is great. You are super well-spoken, super articulate, and your passion behind this is so contagious. And just kind of as a point of reference for our listeners, like... if you're only listening and you're not watching the video of this particular episode, like her smile has barely come off her face since we've started talking.

31:01 And I can't help but chase the smile with my own. So I want to voice something here. I think for some of us, as much as we understand the value mentally, as much as we want to have an organization where people are proud to work for us and with us and inside our organizations, this isn't necessarily our natural strength. And so do you just have some encouragement? Obviously for you, you bleed this stuff. It's like oozing out of you. But for those of us that maybe this... Again, we hear you and we're like, we understand the value proposition in this. What kind of encouragement would you give to those of us that smaller entities, we don't have this role, we haven't hired that role yet, and it's not necessarily our biggest strength?

31:45 Give me from your guts, what are the one or two things that you would just tell us as encouragement and as well as a real value proposition of like, why would this not be negotiable for us in terms of prioritization? Is that cool? Is that... You understand? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So I always kind of compare it to the concept of going to the gym. When you first walk into the gym, you don't know what half those machines do. I swear I was in the gym the other day and I discovered a donkey calf raised machine. And I literally had asked the gym owner. I was like, what? I took a picture. I said, what is this machine? What does this do? And I think it's kind of the same concept. You're not going to know everything when you walk in, but if you just start, start somewhere, just the same thing as walking into a gym, just start with a treadmill.

32:30 Most people know how to operate that. A treadmill is morning meetings where you give 15 minutes, you do a blitz and you celebrate some wins. That's very easy. It doesn't take a lot. And then it's like the momentum will drive itself if you stay consistent. It's the same thing as going to the gym. You're not going to notice immediate gains as you're working out when you first start, but that momentum and that consistency will drive those gains and you'll see the results at the end of it. And, you know, quite frankly, like that, I had a conversation with Jeff Moore of ATI when I very first met him. And one of the things he does is he has an ambassador in every one of his offices, a pairs ambassador, that those are his values. And I really think that you should start with someone in your office who is very clearly a cheerleader and ask them to take on a very small responsibility with a small budget.

33:20 So if you notice the person that decorates every desk for Christmas or birthdays or who always remembers to bring in treats on a Friday when it's pizza Friday or whatever, that person who's doing it already has that bubbly excitedness in them. And all it's going to be is a conversation and it doesn't have to be, Hey, I need you to take on a whole new role. It's, Hey, can you once a month coordinate potluck breakfast for our guys to get at before they get out on the road? And I'll give you $200, a $200 budget. Would you be willing to take care of it? And the excitement and ownership that will come from that person, like, Yes, I get to be a part. And it's all about being a part, guys. I get to be a part of building something great, something that I truly believe in.

34:05 They will get so excited. And you'll know, like you just know who that person is. And any of our listeners today, you're thinking of them right now. You're thinking of the Miss Shirley's and the Mr. Paul's and the whoever in your office who you know would be like, yes, I can ask them to take care of these things. Yes. And here's another example. Every single Google review that comes into your organization that's positive, print it out, put it up on a bulletin board and write under it. Great job. And whoever's job it was, it can start there. It doesn't cost anything. It costs time. And I bet you the Ms. Shirley's and Mr. Paul's of the world will do that for you because they want to be a part of making something special. So I hope that's the encouraging aspect, but you absolutely have to do it.

34:49 It has to be done. Those are great examples. It's so practical. I think that's the beautiful thing about the way that you're communicating this and the approach that you've had is, yeah, Thomasville now, right? This kind of budget, this kind of stewardship and leadership inside the system. But I love, like you can drive this all the way down to brass tacks. Like, where do we start? And it is way more practical than I think sometimes we allow it to be. And AnswerForce. We tend not to give the attention to our call intake that I think we really ought to have as restorers. And of course, one of the biggest challenges we have with our call intake, whether it's an in-house receptionist or a service like AnswerForce, is what do you do when your receptionist goes out to lunch?

35:33 Well, AnswerForce makes that very easy to solve for, right? They're 24-7. You have a receptionist or a call intake person that's out for maternity leave, out on vacation, etc., etc. AnswerForce has a solution to all of those things. And I think too, it also solves for us having a very consistent, repeatable call intake process. We all know how important that is. 100%. And the cool thing is actually we just hung out with these guys and they let us know, let us in on some big feature updates that have recently been pushed through the system. So first, verified contacts, right? So verified contacts, basically it allows the system to understand that this is a repeat caller. And then it allows them to auto capture and fill those details as part of the intake process.

36:14 So smoother, more professional intake. Much easier to kind of give that client that impression. Hey, this isn't the first time you've called, right? Yeah, and we'll listen to the rest of these sets because I think they're super applicable to our commercial opportunities. So specialized scripting, okay? This is great because this is everything from holiday shifts, after-hour shifts, I mean, you name it. There's different reasons, right? Or different layers of the cake, if you will, just based on what's going on in terms of call volume, what's going on time of day. And so with specialized scripting, the script then will match that. And so it's shifting live, if you will, along with that kind of richer context of what's actually happening in the business. Then this other thing, I thought this was super cool, is dedicated phone numbers.

36:56 So going back to that repeat client or that key client or customer, we now can associate a specific phone number to them. And so what happens is, is they get received very uniquely, right? So I can imagine creating a custom script for that client. We now can recognize a repeat caller and autofill and speed up their intake. And then on top of that... there's a specialized number that's dedicated to them. So you really get to marry up that professional service offering, right? That we're promising, if you will, during the prospect. And right from the jump, if you've got a commercial client with specific needs or specific expectations, build that into the script at call intake. Yeah, it's super powerful, super powerful.

37:37 Another one is just access to information wherever you are. So I don't know how many of you are already currently using AnswerForce. You should take it seriously in terms of getting a demo and checking them out. But if and when you shift over to them as a partner, the cool thing is now is that you've got access to all this data, all this information on the go from anywhere on your mobile device. And so you can literally check inbound, outbound calls. You can listen to recording. actively coach the team kind of like midstream, right? And so again, just a ton of efficiency, a ton of automation, and just higher levels of customization coming out of AnswerForce. And it is so stinking affordable. This isn't just for big multi-million dollar companies.

38:18 This is for you that's still working out of your home shop, your garage. And it's also for you that are running a $25 million operation with four locations. It's just, it's pretty extraordinary. They work with some of the biggest companies in our industry and many of the smallest ones as well. So, okay. Actionable. So guys, we have talked about our friendship and relationship to these guys for a long time. Many of you know, in the recent probably year and over the last several months, just this hyper focus on the efficiency and quality. The quality of our estimating, right? Like at the end of the day, our cash flow is heavily impacted by our team's skill and competency around writing a really comprehensive sheet and really making sure that the scope is accurate.

39:00 And one of the powerful things that Actionable has is their actual Xactimate profile. And this profile is a live AI tool that's monitoring you as you write the estimate. And as you're implementing specific line items, it's a lot of people who are doing it. It's helping you be sure that you've really taken into full account all the individual elements and line items associated with this element of the scope that you're trying to accomplish. And I'm not going to highlight any specific teams, but we have heard robust numbers from teams using this. We're hearing everything from 5%, 6%, even 8% top line growth specifically from the quality of their estimates increasingly. I remember when they rolled this out to you that one of the use cases or part of the value that they were trying to hit on is the ability for us to bring up a new estimator quickly up to the standard and competency and the results ultimately of the more experienced estimators on the team, right?

39:57 So this is an incredible onboarding and training tool to get somebody up to where they're very, very competent and producing quality estimates just that much faster. Way faster. And just one last thing I kind of want to hyperindex on is they have just an absolute boatload of white papers and F9 supporting notes. And so this is something that you could participate in being a member with Actionable Insights. But guys, we all know that getting our estimates approved in that negotiation phase is hard right now. It just feels like every carrier is significantly understaffed. They're fighting for error. We're fighting for error. And anything we can do to reduce that friction is better. And so the better we are at providing really good support for what we're calling out in our scope and why we're calling for it, the better.

40:41 And so these white papers, these F9 support notes are super powerful. Man, it's been a little while, but we've been kind of refueling the relationship with CNR quite a bit lately. And that's been good, man. I think both teams got so dang busy. We had a tough time kind of locking in and getting some face time together. But the team over at CNR has been great for our industry, you guys. You know, we've often referred to Michelle as a friend of the industry. She really is keyed in on giving us what we need in terms of tools, communication, intel on the industry, and... And so we just continue to encourage you guys, participate, make sure that you're receiving your quarterly copies and that you're getting all the online content that just comes in boatloads from their team.

41:23 So CNR Magazine, guys, pay attention, make sure that you're participating and getting your intel from their team as well. Liftify, bro. Yeah. Liftify, you know, it's interesting. Yesterday, I was just seeing one of our clients was getting awarded their 750 Google Review trophy. And they were already talking about hitting 1,000. 1,000. That's right. Which somebody has done. Yes. One of our clients has done it. It's remarkable. And I think the most remarkable thing that people are discovering, and we're seeing this every single day with our clients, is that when you start upping the volume of Google reviews you're getting consistently week after week, the recency, when you're getting the recency dialed in and just meaning every week you're adding Google reviews to your profile, dramatic jumps in organic reviews.

42:11 phone calls and lead gen. And of course, who doesn't want that? Every single one of us, including Floodlight, we want that. And that's why we've indexed on, we use Liftify to build up our Google reviews. So it's a simple turnkey service. They've really created a process for capturing the most quality Google reviews from the jobs that you're already getting. So if you want to get more work, grow your revenue just off of the existing work you're already getting. Liftify is a big part of how to do that. And it's simple. It's very, very cost effective. From our experience with Liftify and what we've seen with our clients, significantly better value and better results than many of the other platforms that some of you might already be trying.

42:51 So if you're not happy with the number of Google reviews you're getting, you need to reach out to Liftify. And I think as a point of reference, it's worth us saying. Liftify expects 20% to 25% conversion. So think about that within your own numbers. If you're doing 1,000 jobs a year, you should be adding 200 to 250 Google reviews to your profile every single year. If you're performing under that, you owe it to yourself to reach out to liftify.com forward slash floodlight. You know, one last thing to add to that as part of their kind of more recent integration of AI or advancing that integration of AI, one of the big focuses for their team is gathering more information live project data and analytics for you guys. And so really what this is focused on is equipping all of us to create better customer experiences.

43:36 So not only are they keyed in and driving Google reviews for us, but now they've actually turned the corner and began developing toolkits for us that use Liftify to actually be getting information that can help us modify our service delivery to create better client experiences. Super powerful. Midstream. We're talking mid-job, yeah. Wow. Super powerful. All right, liftify.com. All right, guys. Thanks for hanging out with us. Let's get back to the show. Okay, I want to drill in. I wanted to spend some meaty time here on customer... Excuse me, not customer onboarding. Employee, our internal customer. Talk to us about the system.

44:17 And if you don't mind, just be as concrete as it is, but go into as much detail as you'd like about I get hired for a position at Thomasville. What does the experience of me starting with Thomasville and let's say over the course of my first 30 days with the company, what does that look like, feel like, sound like? So I always love talking about this because for so many years, we were, our brand was so big and our culture was so well known. But this is an area we really fell short in. And it got to a point where we were in a leadership meeting one time and we figuratively swiped everything off the table and said, we're talking about this. This has to change. It has to get better. And we spent our entire hour and a half long leadership meeting discussing this.

45:00 And everybody had something to do when we left. So when we were originally starting, there was like this clunky, yeah, let's, okay, fine. They'll get their software and they're going to get their technology and they're going to get their logins. And like, what do we do with them for the rest of the day? Because we can't send them out in the field because they're not going to be prepared. Or if it's, if it's office team, well, are we going to start training them on day one? Like that doesn't feel good. So it really honestly started from a thought process of what can we do with our teammates, with our brand new teammates that doesn't include them immediately working on their role. And it was a time filler. We were trying to solve a time problem because they were with us for eight hours and we didn't know what to do with them. So Jamar, our general manager, who you guys are going to have the opportunity to meet soon, he said...

45:44 that we are not taking the time to make sure that this team, this teammate is coming in and feels a part of the culture. And it was kind of funny because we went back and forth. Like, do we want them to immediately feel comfortable in our culture? Or do they want, do we want them to organically learn? and go as they experience it. And so we kind of found the balance in between. And I think the best thing that we do is that Andy, our CEO, and Jim, our CFO, sits down with everybody from a mitigation tech to a Thomasville Leadership Team member and goes through our mission, our vision, and our values, and our metrics. And we talk about our metrics are very transparent.

46:25 We let every one of our teammates know how much we're looking to make this year, how we're going to get there by department, what departments are responsible for it. Each team member has a metric that they're responsible to. So we are extremely transparent with our finances. And so we actually go through that with our teammates and we help them understand our goal is X amount of million dollars this year. This is how we're going to get there. Reconstruction is going to do this much. Mitigation is going to do this much. And this is how you're a part of it. And so we really try to connect and create some level of ownership around those financial goals, but also about you're going to get us here and you're going to help us get here so we can do these things.

47:06 And so the very next meeting, so after Andy and Jim are done, I come in and I do a culture session with them. I take them through our brand. I show them that we're advertised with the Baltimore Orioles and the Baltimore Ravens. And we fly a banner around in the air during game days. And we show up strong in the community. And this is how we do our community outreach. And this is our mission, vision, values. And then I even take them deeper into our brand pillars, which is simple satisfaction, rapid response, and lead legacy. Those are the things that holds our brand up. And talking about our elevator pitch and all these things. So I go back through with them. So they're hearing our mission, vision, values at least two or three times throughout their first day.

47:46 And they're understanding that this becomes part of our vernacular. These are words that we use within our ethos at all times. Every one of my team members, you could walk up to at any time and they can repeat all three of those things, which is amazing. A big flex for me. I'm super proud. And then I take them through, you know, the main events like I was talking about our quarterly offsites, Christmas party and picnic. I show them videos of each one so they can not only hear about it, but visually see it, imagine themselves there and how they will be a part of it. And then I show them customer testimonials, some of our really great customer testimonials. So this is how your job and I paint the picture. This is how your job as a financial analyst will get us. to helping this customer feel like this, helping families put our homes and lives back together, which is what our mission is.

48:31 And I paint the picture for them and I take them all the way through. And then the final thing that I do with them is I have three boards that are like these poster boards that were foam and they're all beat to hell, but they are strapped to our walls. And it was the day that we decided what our values were going to be. And every new hire signs it. So they're inking there. It's like putting a handprint on the wall. They're inking their existence, their commitment to our values on a whiteboard. I mean, onto a poster board and you should see it. I mean, it's so full. We're going to have to add, we're going to have to add padding around that because it's, it's gotten to be so full. The other one is what the Thomasville Touch is, which is what is on the wall behind me. The Thomasville Touch is the customer experience, the white glove service that they receive from us.

49:13 So I have them sign as a commitment to providing the Thomasville Touch, not just to our customers, but also to our teammates and what that looks like. And I walk them through that. And then the third one is the magic of Thomasville. It's a little top hat with a wand and the Thomasville logo. And the magic of Thomasville is our teammates. And so I wrap it up by telling them, you are what makes us magical. And I take them through that and I sign them and I said, this is like an exciting part. You're a part of this magic. And finally, I take them through. We have a Thomasville store. It's like a little office that we set up that has all of the clothes on racks and a try-on room. So... They can go in and take whatever material they need. We don't charge for any of it. And then they go home with their little Thomasville shopping bags right after that.

49:57 They have lunch with their hiring manager and the members of those teams. So if it's finance, the whole department has lunch with them. It was so important to me that they were not immediately immersed into their role. I need them to know Thomasville before they know how Thomasville does mitigation, how Thomasville does content. I want them to know that what we have here special is, And it's not something you see all the time. And we knew that you were going to be a part of making it special. And that's why you're here. So it's really more of like an, almost like an honoring ceremony, the way that I structure it. And it adds so much confidence to the teammates. They get so excited. And they're just... The stickiness must be insane.

50:39 You said what? The stickiness must just be insane. I mean, it would be very difficult to believe when that's what you're experiencing in the first 24 hours of formally being accepted to the team. So I need you to say something. Hopefully you can track back to what you said. You said, I need them to know what before they know how to do mitigation. You said, what was your phrase? I need them to know Thomasville before they know how Thomasville does mitigation. Dude, I... Okay, we could have said nothing for an hour. And if the one takeaway is, is there a way for us to more proactively create an onboarding experience where we emphasize the fact that they need to know what we are and who we are before they know what we do?

51:24 That was profoundly important. Yeah. Well, and I think too, as I was just listening to you describe that day one, I was getting kind of chills because I think every single one of us listening to this, we can imagine how special that technician or that job file coordinator or that contents cleaning technician would feel. coming into a day like that, especially those people that have come from the trades, they worked for a property management company, they worked for a local plumbing company or something like that. The chances are very, very, very good that they never experienced anything that remotely felt like that.

52:04 And so I think, wow, wow. And I also just find it really interesting where the conversation started on this, which is we were trying to figure out a way to fill the time. Because that's so true, isn't it? Right? I mean, it's like either we just throw somebody out into the field, which all of us know is not the greatest way to do things. Right. But most common in the industry. Or we're putting people through the motions. They're sitting at an empty desk for part of the day, twiddling on their phone. Like I think every single one of us can relate to what you're talking about. It's like, okay, we got all their payroll forms filled out. Then what? Well, we're waiting on their password to come through for Dash.

52:45 And then what? And so it's just, it's so cool to me that... You guys went from, okay, this is what is now. How do we make this more meaningful and where you guys have ended up and how you've begun leveraging that first full day? It's incredibly inspiring. Yeah, it really is. Okay. So another back to reality check here, right? Okay. What has shifted in your guys' experience regarding finding things? people and being able to put somebody that aligns with who you guys want to be and the kind of relationship you want to have with your clients. Clearly, that's also transitioned over the years.

53:26 Could you just give us the story arc of your mentality around hiring when it started versus where's your organization now? And what I mean by that, Alexis, is like, what are you as leaders experiencing now that that you've prioritized and been so proactive in this system around onboarding and hiring? Yeah, 20 to 150 in six years is significant growth. That's no joke. That's a lot of people to find. Yeah. Yeah. And so it's so funny because as you can imagine, I told you a little bit of our story and what our story looked like in 2019 into 2020 was we need people immediately.

54:07 Do you even understand how to open Exactimate? Okay, you're hired. Like we needed people so fast and we hired quickly. It was funny because prior to Andy coming on, my dad would take everybody to Outback Steakhouse and interview them because our office was like, embarrassingly, it was not, did not look like the vision he had in his head for where Thomas Will was going to be. It does today. Thank goodness. But where it did at the point, he felt like he was going to have a little difficulty swinging some heavy hitters over to our organization from that office. So He would take people to Outback Steakhouse. And we actually found our general manager at Outback Steakhouse. He was hired off of that. So we didn't have a system. We were, Tom was unruly at the time.

54:49 He was hiring people. And we were finding out when they were knocking on our front door that they were hired. And the rest of the team is like scrambling and trying to get them on board and get them repaired. So I remember it was, it was rough. We had to keep the ship above water. So we had to get people in quickly. And Andy came in, he said, hold on. do all of these people, all 25 of these employees think that they report to you? He said, yeah, they do. And he was like, we need an org chart immediately. So Andy came in and started building out an org chart. And Andy's org chart is still his baby to this day. And he started to create leaders. He started to build up leaders that were in the organization. And then he knew what he was searching for.

55:31 at that point once he had the org chart. So when he was going out and looking for, he started with a leadership team. That was the first thing we needed to backfill. He was going and finding the best of the best leaders because we knew where we needed them. We knew on the org chart and not all of them could report to Tom. So we created departments and did some segmenting and things like that. But when we really started to ramp up, we had new hearts starting every week. And that was really tough on our team. It was a lot to ask of our leadership team on top of everything else that they were doing because we don't have a department that focuses specifically on recruiting and onboarding. It's all very distributed amongst leadership, which it really works for us. We're happy with that. So we had to start creating onboarding days.

56:12 So it was the first and third Monday of every month. There's onboarding days. And we require our leadership team now to give us two weeks notice unless it's one of those like, you've got to get them in. Like, this is a great talent. We need them to be a part of our organization. Let's make it happen. And our team will make it happen. And I'm so grateful for that. But as far as the recruiting element goes, we were really trying to build something special here. We wanted to create a place that everybody wanted to work for. So I leveraged our social media to provide a window inside of what the Thomasville experience is like, what it's like to be a teammate. And you can only fake that for so long. At some point, people are going to say, is something going on over there? Is there something special happening at Thomasville?

56:54 And that has been our strategy up until today, because recruiting continues to be a challenge within this industry. It's such a specialized industry. So I was posting every time. I went out on the road with the guys and we're taking selfies and we're goofing off and we're grabbing lunch or I was taking pictures of our birthday celebrations and I was pumping that stuff out and they just started coming guys. The right people for the open seats on the bus, they were coming and they were filling those seats because they wanted to be a part of what was happening here. So it was about that concept of like focusing on the team that we have. And like Layton always talks about the best recruiters are your teammates, the ones who are referring. And so when we were taking care of our teammates, especially teammates that have been in the industry, they were calling their previous coworkers or their cousins or their brothers to come.

57:41 You got to come. You got to come see this. You got to be a part of something here. This is really, really important. So we are really fortunate that we haven't had to do a ton of work marketing for a lot more of the mainstream roles. Now, you know, some of the more specialized roles like our financial analysts and things like that, we've gone out and looked for through Indeed posts or even potentially recruiters. But a lot of what we've done has been referral-based. A lot of how people have started working with us has been referral-based. And so... I knew that I couldn't control the teammates telling their friends, but I could control how the teammates showed up in their lives. And when I see teammates wearing Thomasville shirts, Thomasville polos to nice dinners with their partners, I know I'm doing something right.

58:23 I know that they are feeling what I want them to feel. Oh, that's awesome. Super practical again. Little details. Just little details I'm picking up as you're sharing. This is so fun. Again, I just, I'm so glad you joined the show. I think a lot of us get so caught up in the nickels and dimes of our costs and expenses. Here's just one small thing that I heard you say. When we typically onboard somebody, we give them their one t-shirt, their one polo, and maybe a hoodie. And the way that you conveyed it was different. You have a store... and a try-on room. And it sounds as though your preference is, we want them to have as much Thomasville gear as they want and intend to wear.

59:10 So just a slightly different turn. And what's the marginal cost on that? Well, maybe you end up dropping $150, $200 on the logo gear for one employee and maybe $50 for another. But that employee who's got $200 worth of Thomasville gear, what is the value of them wanting to wear your stuff on the weekends and nights and everything else? And I just think that's a really visionary way of looking at your employee spend. And the cost on that kind of stuff is... Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. If they want a cool Under Armour hoodie, that's a good thing. Let's give them a hoodie to wear, right? I just think that's interesting. Was that something you guys intentionally conceived?

59:51 That idea of let's give them as much Thomasville clothes as they want versus everybody gets one t-shirt, one polo, one jacket. Yeah, so we balance it. So the Under Armour gear is purchasable. So let me clarify. So this I bought myself, but we have that 40% discount and then Thomasville pays to logo. So we have a Thomasville website that our teammates can log on to, they can buy it. And then the bulk order gets put in at one time to save on shipping costs for us. And they logo everything all at one time and then they can get it. But what we give away are like Gildan, kind of like they're nice because I don't do the really cheap ones, but like the cheaper t-shirts. And I actually work with factories in China to get them made. So I cut out the middleman.

1:00:32 So I'm paying like $4 a t-shirt and maybe six for sweatshirts. I don't do hoodies because our teammates will wear the hoods over their heads in customers' homes and I don't like it. So if they want to buy an Under Armour hoodie and they want to put their hood on their head, that's up to them. But I don't have my teammates wear hoods. So they get really nice crew neck sweatshirts. So I found a way to bring that cost down so I could justify that concept of, again, I love being scrappy, the concept of if my teammates need a shirt, I want them to be in nice, clean, Thomasville branded uniforms when they're in our customers' homes. Because the way that our team shows up versus... you know, maybe a competing company that has, their guys have holes in their shirts, their stains from encapsulation paint and, you know, all of these different things.

1:01:16 I would rather them show up in a crisp, black, well-branded Thomasville shirt. And if it means that they need seven of them because they refuse to do laundry, five. fine. I'll pay the $21 or the, you know, whatever that number is to make sure that our team shows up well. And you know what? It was funny when I finally made that transition because we did a rebranding on our uniforms. I made them all turn in every one of the shirts that they had. And if it was in a decent enough shape, it became our subcontractor uniforms for our rebrand. And so every t-shirt that they had, they had to turn in and they got a new t-shirt and a new sweatshirt or whatever. One, it made sure that we had brand cohesion because I had seen uniforms from shirts that were saying Thomasville Homes on it.

1:01:57 I almost had a heart attack. So I got to make sure that we all look cohesive. Everyone's wearing the same thing. We all have the same type of material. And then anything that we had, we had our contents team launder them. And then they became the thing that we were saving for our subcontractors. So we're not spending double making sure that our teammates are fully outfitted as well as some of our trade contractors for our reconstruction side. So I did try to get scrappy. But what I noticed is that when I didn't restrict them, they were really responsible about it. If they see that there's only two largest left in the store, they're going to take one instead of taking all three of them or whatever it looks like, because they're not being restricted. They're not being told they can't. So having that open access has been really helpful for us now.

1:02:38 And what I'm also seeing is that they're investing in it. They want the cool under our gear and they're seeing it around the office. I mean, you guys have seen our quarters. You know how awesome they are. And so our teammates buy them themselves and spend the 20, 30, 40 bucks on it because they're proud of it. So rad. Alexis, this has been really stupid fun. I think that this was a really fun and refreshing show. We'll put this out in several weeks, but I want to encourage anybody that hung in the trenches with us and made it all the way through. This might be one that you earmarked. to go back and take another pass at later, just to remind yourself the importance of this. I think you can connect with some of the emotion that comes from Alexis as she's talking about this.

1:03:22 And visually, if you watch the show and her smile, this is reintroducing purpose back into why we build businesses in the first place. I think we, many of us are missional when we start. And I think we get beat up of the realities of business after a while. And we start to forget and lose touch of what could we be focused on and not only to continue to win financially and in the KPIs and all the nuts and bolts, but to be re-inspired with a sense of purpose on why we're doing it besides just making money. And I think Thomasville is a really great example. You get both. I think it's plain to see when you invest in the purpose, the rest of the stuff comes as a byproduct. And I think that that's an emotionally much better place to be as a business owner and as a leader.

1:04:07 I want to direct people who want to find out a little bit more about your culture. I had a chance, I exchanged some emails with Andy and Tom as part of this upcoming conference that I'm going to have him on my panel. I'm so stoked to meet Jamar, actually. We had a really good conversation. Really cool, dude. But in the process of that, there was a link to a mini documentary that you guys had produced. It's super pro. Can you remind me of the title of that? Let's just allow people to search in YouTube for this. What's the title of that, if you recall? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. The series was called Divinely Orchestrated, The Ben Black House. Yes. It's a, we don't need to tell people anymore, but just go search for that, right?

1:04:47 On YouTube. It's probably what, about 45 minutes all in. There's like five, I think, sections to it. Yeah, 27 minutes total. Okay. Okay. It is really fantastic and tells the story of your dad and some of the inspiration behind the way who Thomasville is now today, some of the things that you touched on. But it is really fascinating. And I think, again, it just speaks to the culture of the company, how you guys think about your service. your care for your clients, some of what motivates your father with the broader mission of the business. It's very cool. So people want to check out more about Thomasville culture. And maybe even there's people in the industry right now that are looking for a new home to build their career in.

1:05:28 I think many might be motivated to look deeper into Thomasville. Those people, you guys are based out of the DMV market, right? Yeah, we... Yeah, Philly, TC. So we typically say the Mid-Atlantic. So we're on the East Coast, Mid-Atlantic region. And expanding. Right on, clearly. Yeah, absolutely. Another thing that we do when we're doing our onboarding is we actually have bilingual onboarding, specifically for the brand section. So we make sure our teammates whose first language is not English can understand the brand from there in a way that they can communicate. So I actually have a brand section... for all of our teammates if their first language isn't English, so they understand what our mission, vision, values are. And then they get to be a part of the entire process as well.

1:06:11 Wow. Super smart. Maybe we dive into that deeper next time we have you on. That is very cool. Episode two with Alexis and Thomasville. There we go. Well done. That was awesome. Well, Alexis, very fun to make friends with you, to be connected in this industry with such a high quality person and such a neat brand that you guys are building. And I look forward to having you on the show again at some point in the future. 100%. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for joining us. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart, and Boots. And if you're enjoying the show, but you love this episode, please hit follow, formerly known as subscribe, write us a review, or share this episode with a friend.

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