Ep 47 - Mid Year Reminders & Pep Talks

0:07 Welcome back to the Head, Heart & Boots podcast. I'm Chris. And I'm Brandon. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead. I don't know, what'd you think? I don't know, it was kind of serious. Should we laugh? Christopher. Christopher Nordyke. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Chris, brother. Yeah. Well, you know what? You were going to talk to me about something with Matthew McConaughey. What was that? Well, I don't know. You were saying something and I pulled out the old, all right, all right, all right. Oh, yes. That's where we were going. McConaughey, and I asked you if you'd seen his TV show because I was totally spacing it with my 42-year-old brain.

0:52 it's called True Detective you seriously have not seen that? you're a McConaughey fan I know but I wouldn't even regret it too I know that was a stupid good book by the way I feel like Matthew McConaughey falls into the category of love or hate I talk to some people about it and they're like oh yeah he's the best and then I talk to other people he's a dirtbag really? yeah I don't know what I think the dirtbag thing is kind of a miss I think you need to get rid of those friends I know right? I'm drinking my circle who thinks McConaughey is a Dirtbag. Jeez Louise. I think maybe they're associating his real life with some of the characters he's had. Because he's had some... Let's put it this way. He's had a few characters. I wouldn't want that persona to be introduced to my daughter.

1:35 That's probably it. Fast times at Ridgemont High. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, True Detective is an incredible... I think he was the first season. They cycle through these lead characters. So it was, if I recall correctly, it was... McConaughey and, was it Woody Harrelson? Or Woody Harrelson was in a second season. Anyway, the True Detective fans are going to comment on our... Yeah, they'll know. But anyway, it's incredible. You have to, yeah, True Detective, you have to check it out by HBO. But... I'll check it out. Jodie Foster is starring in season four of True Detective, which is going to be bonkers. Jodie, so there we go. So is this real? Or this is like a series? It's a series. It's like a thriller drama. Like a drama?

2:15 Yeah, a crime drama. Gotcha. It's amazing. Okay. All right. All right. Okay, dude. So it is June 16th is the date that we're recording this particular show. Probably won't come out for a couple weeks, but either way, it's going to put us in that June, maybe first week of July timeframe. And here was what was on my mind today when I woke up. It's midway through the push. It's midway through the year. Yeah. And I know if... In our business, it's a mixed bag. There's elements where we go, holy cow, we are way further along than where we thought. We're excited, we're motivated by certain aspects of our business.

2:56 And then there's other parts of our business that we're a little frustrated with or maybe not quite hitting the mark that we wanted to. And I thought to myself, okay, just like this must be a scenario that most of our listeners are in where they've established goals for 2022. And there's parts of those goals that maybe they're just destroying. And then there's other parts of their business that they certainly are seeing and saying, yeah, it's a miss. I'm not where I want to be. Sure. So I wanted to tackle that a little bit today. I think my goal for it, for the most part, is a pep talk. I was going to say, is this for our self-help or the benefit of others? Yes. This is self-help. And if it's helpful for somebody listening, awesome.

3:38 But yeah, it's like an internal pep talk. Yeah. It's our podcast. We can do whatever we want. That's right. That maybe some folks can relate to. So my thought was with this, there's a couple camps. Again, like ours, it's a mix in the same business. But I think some businesses probably have had a hell of a year that it's amazing. And I think others are frustrated. So where my thought went is, for those that have just been kicking ass and taking names, and it's nothing but hope and momentum, there's a chance... that in order to achieve that level of success, you said this, that maybe we've ignored some things that may make it difficult to go six more months at that rate.

4:20 And so we just kind of wanted to talk a little bit about, like, hey, pace yourself. What are some things you can be weary of or aware of to make sure you can go all year, right? And not burn out by September or something. And then for those, it might be us from time to time, that are in this camp of, they're frustrated, they're not where they want to be. Yeah. I would say there's opportunity still, right? We've got a whole half of a year. So yeah, dude. And I think if anything, you and I probably in our career, and I think probably some of our listeners can relate to this too, is... is that you're always in this not quite happy with your results. Even when you're hitting... I think in general, we have this somewhat positive discontent, not always positive discontent of just like...

5:03 I think a lot of us are wired as hard chargers, where it's like you take this one hill, and then you see the mountain beyond. You're like, all right, that's the next one up. And it's like, you're always in this state of semi-disappointment that you feel like, okay, that could have been better. We could do more. Yeah, exactly. Right? Yeah. All right. So where do you want to hang first? Let's talk about for those people, they're having a bang out year. Like it's a breakout year. Yeah. Because some of our clients are in this camp. And certainly we have colleagues and folks we've been talking to that are just, wow, growth is really taking off in certain areas. Yeah. One of the analogies that came to my mind as I was thinking about this earlier when you brought it up. I don't know. Yesterday we started talking about this. Is this whole financial principle of...

5:45 rebalancing your investments. I used to be a registered investment advisor. I should correct that. I was a registered rep. I used to sell 401ks and IRAs and stuff like that when I was a state farm agent. And one of the principles we learned is that Part of being a smart investor is occasionally taking your profits off the table on one investment and reinvesting that in a different asset class. So you made a whole bunch of money on these stocks, but you can let it ride or you can peel some of those profits off and reinvest it into other stocks that are down and allow them to appreciate. It's good rebalancing your accounts. And I think that's a principle we can use in our business where things are going really awesome.

6:28 Okay, chances are you have some underperforming stocks in your portfolio as well. Yeah. Right? And so peeling off some of those profits, some of that win, and transferring that energy to other classes of our business, so to speak, is usually really important. You and I have seen that. When we've had runaway growth... Nearly 100% of the time, there's some unhealth that's created in that. Sure. Because it's just like the adapt and overcome mindset that you get in as the work's coming in and you're nearly always understaffed to one degree or another. Yeah. Right? As you're growing fast. And so it's like, whether it's storm activity or it's just an underserved market that you tap into that just creates a ton of growth, chances are you have some...

7:14 under-resourced areas of your business. It could be a process that's breaking down under the stress of the greater work, or it very well could be morale. Yeah. We've been running our people too hard. We've been overclocking our production teams. But anyway, that principle came back to me from way back in my State Farm days of this idea of rebalancing the accounts. Because it's so easy. Growth is exciting for everybody until it's not. Until your PMs are all handling 25 files and there's no job coordinator and there's no admin support and everybody's just grinding till 8, 9pm at night trying to keep the wheels on. But there can be a temptation, I think, as senior leadership to just keep the pedal down.

7:56 Like, hey, we got to make hay while the sun's out and let's... Yeah. And so I think that principle of, wait, we got to make sure we shore up our base too. Yeah. We have to catch our systems up to this level of growth. Yeah. Yeah. So I imagine there may be some people here that are in that position where it's like, okay, things have been really good, mostly. But we're aware of some things that are not so good and maybe getting worse. Yeah. No, I think you're right on point. And I think this is a great time of the year for us to do an assessment. So some folks listening are really diligent in creating performas at the end of their previous year. And they're really doing a great job of comparing their current financials to this performa.

8:37 This is that time of year, even from that perspective. If you're a bit more sophisticated and that's how you're running your operation, great job. And if that's the shoes that you're in, this is that time of year for us to really look at that and say, again, staying in this things are really going well camp. We're doing great. We're killing the numbers. We're way ahead of the power curve in terms of where our pro forma said. okay, great. Well, what are we going to do with those resources, with those financials, with the excess that we've created? And is there a strategy? Is there an area of our business that we can invest in? I think this is a perfect time of year to do exactly what you're talking about. Yeah. And really do it from a bit of a critical eye.

9:18 I think I would encourage like you and I are in this state right now. We're literally doing similar things. I mean, our morning coffee walks have been focused on re-evaluating what we're doing. Yeah. So I think some additional areas like that we would suggest that folks are taking a look at is production, manpower, right? Man, woman power. Where are we at? Do we have something that's sustainable or not? And if it's not sustainable, then what can we do to invest energy and focus and prioritize initiatives then that will bring those pieces of the business in line? Because again, what you're looking for here is it's exciting to grow. But what we want to encourage people to stop getting stuck in is this cycle of I grow and break all my systems.

10:03 I fix them. I grow again and break all my systems. I try to fix them. You and I experienced that multiple times. There is a way, however, to prioritize growth and sustainability at the same time. You know what that reminds me of, man? I think we were at Global Leadership Summit one year, and I don't remember who the figure was. It was probably Patrick Lencioni or Jim Collins or one of those management guru guys. But I remember them saying that the number one role of a leader, and I think you're speaking to the owner or the senior leader, is building their team's capacity. And capacity is really a holistic term.

10:44 It's like, It's building their professional ability, right? Their own sort of... There's a skill component to that. But then there's also just the capacity in terms of financial resources, staffing levels, systems, technology, right? That's our number one job as senior leaders is always building the capacity of... of the team around us. Yeah. How do we level up and prepare to do this level of business profitably moving forward? So now we have this whole new watermark where now we're doing these many jobs per month. Whoa, this is great. The money's flowing in. The EBITDA is strong.

11:25 But what needs to happen for us to be prepared to do this now forever and more? Yeah. Yeah. I think another thing that we see in the same category is folks that reach a certain capacity, current capacity, they're really focused on reputation and quality, which is awesome. And then you find them unwilling or afraid to continue to pursue new relationships. Hmm. They start not being as aggressive in follow-up. Maybe they defer a meeting for a few more weeks. They inadvertently may be doing some things that actually could have a long-term negative impact on their business, but it's because of the current state that they're in, they're not thinking about that far ahead.

12:09 Yeah. Right. We're not really thinking about Q1 of 2023. Yeah. We're just thinking about right now. And so again, I think this still falls into that same category of, in the areas that you're doing really well, let's celebrate. Let's get excited with the team. Guys, you are kicking butt. And there's these things that as a team, we need to make sure that we shore up so that we create a new level of competency and success in our business, not a cycle of business. So anyways, I think that that's an area and that's challenging, right? Because people, for the right reasons, are concerned. Well, if I keep bringing in new work and I can't respond to it appropriately, then we could fail.

12:53 We could fall down. So I guess the answer maybe there, or the suggestion, I wouldn't call it an answer, but the suggestion is, okay, strategically, you Don't get so wrapped up in going out to doing the next job that we forget as leaders. It's our job to think through capacity. How do I take on more work competently so I can continue to have my staff selling, continue to develop new relationships? And that's not always an easy answer, especially right now with hiring issues and struggles. But it doesn't mean that that's not a necessary part of your business to prioritize. Yeah. And as we talk about this, I'm reflecting on some of our... I mean, you and I have been through several really big growth seasons.

13:35 And I think some of them we've handled better than others with more wisdom. And I think a flaw that we succumbed to was... when it's going really good as leadership, you can become the most disconnected from what's happening in the field. Because you're in this mode of capacity building and you're dealing with the hiring shortages. You're dealing with increased labor costs. You're dealing with all the things that come with the growth, right? Maybe it's also you're having meetings with the bank, you're getting financing in place and all that kind of stuff. You're buying vehicles, you're doing all the things. that you can lose track of where morale is at. And especially, I think you were so good at building this esprit de corps.

14:16 There was this... We had a high capacity for taking, adapt and overcome in our business. Yeah. And I think the thing that was a lesson for me is you can have this really powerful spree de corps where you can call in anybody and it's like, you got it, boss. It's just that can-do attitude across the team. Yeah. When it starts to break down, people are hesitant to say so. Right. Right? When they hit legitimate... stalls in their ability, capacity. Whether it's mental health, right? Or it's just physical fatigue. It's all the things. We know this stuff happens. And so that culture, that high power culture can bite you because people don't feel sometimes safe to say, boss, I'm like, my marriage?

15:02 Like I haven't seen my wife for four nights in a row. She's like, I haven't been for, you know, that kind of stuff. Like my home life is suffering because of the load, the pressure, the timelines and everything else. Yeah. they're hesitant to bring that up. And we've had a couple seasons like that where we realized that we probably held the pedal down too long without taking that into account. Yeah. So for those of you that have been winning hard so far this year, that's a good thing to reflect on as an owner. And it's like, how do you get in touch with that? Well, certainly just by asking. Yeah. And I think it also... I think you and I have discovered you have to be really deliberate about building that feedback environment. Yeah. It's easy when we're developing this go, go, go, adapt and overcome culture, for us to forget to also build in the culture of health, sustainability.

15:54 Hey, this is a marathon, not a sprint. Sometimes we forget that. We don't bundle that language in with it. Yeah. And so asking people, Hey, how are you doing? No, really. Have you been having dinner with your family? Are you getting time to manage your life? You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. Asking those kinds of questions. Yeah, because there's probably a piece in us that doesn't want to know. That's right. We don't want to be responsible for it. We don't want to slow down. We don't want to have to push pause or do anything that's going to slow down momentum when we feel like we're just firing on all cylinders and making progress. So again, this is not a negative in any way. I think people need to be just absolutely on fire if they're experiencing a ton of growth and gains and momentum. And growth doesn't necessarily mean top line.

16:35 Sure. I mean, at the end of the day, it's about how much you keep. Oh, man. And that's been a challenge. I mean, I as a leader have really challenged with that where I was just prioritizing top line and I needed to learn to be a better steward and keep more at the end of the day. I think a lot of company owners, a lot of business owners, it's exciting to tell somebody what your top line revenue is. But if you get honest about where the bottom line is, where that EBITDA is, it's not so sexy. Yeah, we so easily ride in our... chats at association events and networking things. Like, yeah, you know, we're, we did 20 mil last year. And it's like, yeah, but how much? Yeah. What was your EBITDA? Yeah, we don't talk. We don't, we don't sling around. What was your EBITDA this past year?

17:16 Right. Yeah. Yeah. But at the end of the day, I mean, that's a health number. Yeah. And so anyways, where I was going with that. Yeah. What's your turnover? What's your EBITDA? Exactly. Yeah. What are these business stats that really point towards whether or not this is sustainable? And have you grown to a point where this is a new operational capacity versus a flash in the pan? So anyways, kudos to you guys. If you're in this zone and you're just motivated and pumped up because your business is just firing on all cylinders... Great job. Continue to be excited. Those are great assessment times. If you're evaluating some of the areas that you need to continue to make progress in to keep up with the growth, those are great problems.

17:58 So be motivated by them. But as a reminder, don't stop looking because things look good on the top line. And I think it's so important because we have so many models inside and outside of our industry to look to is that, There also is a cautionary element of too, is when we're sprinting like that, we're in the midst of a big sprint, is that long-term, that's not how we went. Like Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great, I think, right? Yeah. He talks about how the most legendary, enduring, great companies of our time they led what he called the 20 mile march. Yes. Like it's more of a plodding behavior. Yep.

18:38 One foot in front of the other. We don't skip a step. We don't miss a step. It's just one foot in front of the other. It's like, we're going for first downs here. We're not going for a touchdown every play. Yeah. Consistency compound. And I liked that because, and I think where you and I see that, what can become an error when you just have the pedal down and it's all growth is, is we start to get loose with our battle rhythms. Yes. Yeah, production meetings. The work's coming in. Three weeks. Oh guys, we can't do our production meeting this week, but we'll catch up next week. Yes. And then next week, production meeting moves from Wednesday to a Friday afternoon, and three out of five people show up because they had vacation plans. And then all of a sudden, our dashboard is dirty.

19:20 Yes. We've not been managing the stuff that's making us successful. That's right. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Because I think what a lot of people get twisted... And again, this is like... I'm saying this more out of personal reminder than anything else. Yeah. We forget, as an example, that in order for us to have the resources that we need to hire staff appropriately, spend on overhead where appropriate to sustain these new workloads, these new work cases, what we forget is if we stop doing process, the process that protects our service delivery, our customer experience, our margins, our profit, our cash flow, those are the things that we begin to skip.

20:04 when we get sucked up by these sprints. And inevitably, what that means then is we're not going to have the resource. A, the work might not come again because we've tarnished our reputation or provided a poor customer experience. Yeah. So it's a one and done. Yeah. Right? So we exposed ourselves to all these potential referral relationships, partnerships, clients, and we crapped the bed because we were so caught up in gathering more contracts versus providing quality. Yeah. Obviously, there's downsides to that. You're going to feel the pain in the near future. But then also, it's like, if I don't have the money to put back into my business and support the growth, because I let margins slip, because we weren't having our production meetings, I let stuff get choked up in pre-production.

20:48 It felt good that we had all this labor or all this contracted revenue on the board. but we're not producing it because we're letting those battle rhythms slip. So anyways, just a word of encouragement. Yeah. Those battle rhythms are mission critical even more so the busier we get because it ensures that we're still providing the level of service that protects our reputation and we're still keeping enough money at the end of the day that we have something to reinvest into shoring up those areas that needs our support. So again, it's just, it's very symbiotic, right? We just really, no parts of our business are a silo. And man, again, hats off to you if that's the position you're in because those are great problems.

21:28 But I'm careful not to crap the bed. Boy, don't we all have a whole unique visual here after the Amber Heard and Johnny Depp thing? It's like that term, don't crap the bed, right? We all know what it means, but boy, does that come into vivid color for all of us here these last six months. Apparently superstars. Oh my goodness. So you're not alone in your business. Pair of the hazards, I guess. All right, let's take a minute to recognize and thank our Mitresto Mastery sponsor, Accelerate Restoration Software. And I'm fully aware, by the way, that when I say those last two words, restoration software, that that instantly creates heartburn for some of you out there, right? Because we probably all fall into one of two camps when it comes to software.

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24:31 A 3,700 plus page database of Xactimate templates. I don't know what else to say here other than don't reinvent the wheel. It's already available. Download it, copy it, use it, bam. database of commonly missed items. I think this is huge. So many of us can change the numbers by just moving the needle a couple points. And those commonly missed items can make all the difference in the world. So go check them out at value.getinsights.org backslash FCG. Okay, dude. The camp that is not so excited. It's been a slog.

25:11 It's been six months of uphill battle. Sure. And people are looking at the business so far this year and they've been chasing a goal. Revenue is not where they want it to be maybe or just their EBITDA is atrocious. Something's happening and they're not very motivated by what they've experienced so far. What's the top of mind things that you would say to somebody in those shoes? Yeah. Well, speaking from our own experience operating in the field and also working with clients of all different company sizes, everybody has those seasons. Sometimes they come in the second half of the year and sometimes they come as a hard slog at the beginning. But I think most often when we're not hitting the reasonable targets that we set out for ourselves, in a lot of ways, the exercise is the same as if you're winning.

25:58 It's shoring up the other areas of your business and stepping back and saying, okay, what part of our system is unhealthy at the moment? And building health back into that. But oftentimes, it's lead gen. It's a big... Where are we pulling the business from? That's our first step in salvaging our year. It's figuring out what's our sales problem. Yeah. And when we have a client who comes to us that's got a sales problem, the very first thing we're looking at is, first of all, what are their internal systems to produce the work? Because as somebody who's been in sales, B2B sales for more than 20 years, they're You can certainly find those salespeople who can sell ice to Eskimos.

26:39 That whole stereotypical comment about salespeople. Yeah. Those people are out there and they'll sell turds in a punch bowl to somebody who's willing to buy. Yeah. But the reality for most of us who are what I would consider principled salespeople, we're putting our name and our own reputation out there to rep a service brand. When there's service delivery issues, there's morale issues in your company. When there's leadership behaviors that are out of line, it is very hard for a principled sales executive to go out and rep that brand with the same energy and gusto and drive that you would want them to and that they would otherwise be willing to give.

27:19 Yeah. So the very first reflection point, I think... if you're not where you're at in terms of your top line or bottom line goals, or whatever other goals you may have laid out for yourself is, what is the overall health of the operation of our business? Because that may very well be holding your salespeople back or salesperson or you as the owner that's doing the sales. Mm-hmm. I think sometimes we don't even realize why we have so much call reluctance to get out in the field and meet with those property managers and senior... To go after the business, even as an owner. Yeah. When you know your company is broke, like broken in terms of health and process and systems and stuff like that, even for you, it's hard to go out and sell.

28:05 You know what I mean? Yeah. And so that's the first place to start. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. I think that's a really interesting perspective. Yeah. I think you're right on there. I would encourage folks to say this is at some point, you've got to stop looking backwards. And I think what happens is that we look in the rearview mirror at this time of year and we go, man, we had a lot of misses. Okay. Yes, that is true. Yeah. There's nothing you can do to go backwards in time. So let's evaluate what essentially created those misses. So if we had set out objectives for our business and we didn't hit them, what was the cause of that? So don't just look back in a woe is me, but let's look back cause and effect.

28:48 Absolutely. Disconnect yourself personally from it reputationally and just look at the data and say, well, what happened? Well, did we miss battle rhythms? Were we not meeting with the teams regularly? Was there no follow-up or measuring of these goals that we set for ourselves? Was there a lack of resources to identify whether we were making progress or not making progress? Did we wait too long and look at everything in past versus what change can we modify now tomorrow. And I would just say, once you're done doing that evaluation, identify the kinds of activities and behaviors that your team has to commit to, to make the next 6 months as productive as possible.

29:34 And there's times where we see businesses that are able to make up for losses from the first part of the year. It goes so well that they still end up at the same finish line they were anticipating. Because they identify what slowed them down and they go whole hog into fixing those problems. Oh, dude, we had that. I mean, if anything, that was maybe more our MO because we were so committed to being good. Yeah. So we'd have kind of a slow rolling start and that the lack of hitting our goals was so motivational to us. Yeah. Yeah. And I think there's a lot of people like that. Yeah. The other... I would just offer too, I think one of the best ways to get a grip on what's happening in your business or not happening, if you're not exactly where you want, is to rededicate yourself to grabbing time out in the field as an owner.

30:20 Yeah. Or a GM. Key leader. Key leader. You're a key leader. And that's the thing is, whether you've had a bang up year so far in terms of top line or whatever stuff you're measuring, or you're behind goal or you're disappointed in your current results, right? Yeah. it's a great kind of pause break to say, okay, am I really in touch with what's happening in the field here? Yeah. Because man, I remember you took me out. We did a Rylon when I first came onto the company. You took me around. We visited some job sites, did some QA visits. Yeah. And you have a standard as the key leader that I think unless you're inspecting that standard, it's so easy for that standard just to droop. Yeah.

31:00 And slump. Yeah. Right. And so getting out of the field helps you see things the way they really are. Yeah. Both in terms of how your employees are doing individually. Yep. But then where are our standards at? From where we were when owners started the business, before we ever had a GM, what was my standard when I was showing up to a job site? What did I feel like was our differentiators that we were bringing to our customer? Is that stuff still real? Yeah. Or is it just something that we talk about, but we miss by 5% or 10% or 15% or 20%? No, right on. Yeah. Because ultimately, that bleeds into the other things. Again, that's reputation. It's getting the next referral. It's the happy client that tells somebody. It's the five-star reviews.

31:41 It's all of that. It's all those things. Yeah, I think you're right on point. I think that the piece here for folks is that we run into a principle issue where it's like, for instance, let's say my mitigation team... we're struggling. We're not hitting margins as a department. Maybe dry times have started to extend beyond where we can support it and get paid appropriately. There's all these little things that might begin to pop up. And I think as a GM or a business owner, you're like, I hired... a department head for a reason, right? To share that load. And they are ultimately, from a performance perspective, responsible for that outcome. But I think what can happen is when we do a review and we find out things are not going the way that we want, instead of stepping in and taking...

32:28 I feel like people fall into two camps. They voice their frustration. They are aggravated. They do some threatening. They bitch about it to friends and peers. Or the other camp is they get in and they start doing themselves. They show that they've lost trust. then they divert all their attention away from these long-term spaces that you should be in strategically as a leader. And they start doing, fixing, being the answer to this department issue. And I would just suggest that there's a place in the middle that's probably the right move. And what I mean by that is, we sit down with our key leader, we evaluate the performance in very black and white terms, and we express the fact that we are frustrated and that we are nowhere near where we anticipated being.

33:18 But then instead of chastising and staying in this mode of fix it or I'm going to kill you, fix it, I'm going to fire you thing is, now let's get engaged. Kind of like what you're talking about with getting out in the field is partner with that department head for a while. Yeah. Ask questions, go out into the field together, assess where the problems are, where the challenges are, how did we get caught off guard, and partner in finding resolutions to those things instead of, again, falling in one of those two camps. Because if we take over and begin to micromanage, we're not equipping that leader to make any gains professionally. Yeah. They'll never be capable of owning the role like we want them to if we take over.

33:58 Yeah. If we don't sit down and partner with them and we just do the, I'm going to bitch to everybody else but the person, you're again, you're not equipping them to make change. You're just going to continue to bleed on a salary of somebody that's not equipped yet to do the job at the capacity they need to. And so, again, I just encourage people like we even talked about this with problem solving. Sometimes AR would climb way out of control and I could get all pissed. and principled about it and not reward team members for making gains or all those things. But we've always encouraged people, let's get a win. Who cares? Put your pride down. What is it going to take to get a win? Well, my team's tired too. Let's motivate them. Even though it's their job in quotes, let's give them motivation to tackle this problem.

34:41 Yeah. I think we need to treat our issues, our production issues the same way when we're missing mark, when we're not hitting the goals that we've set for ourselves. Yeah, questions like, what do you feel like would need to happen? What would need to change about your day-to-day schedule? What would you need in terms of resources to turn a corner here? Yes. Right? What do you think needs to happen within our team? Yes. For us to salvage our goal with the remainder of the year? Right. What resources do you think you would need to get the gross profit margin up to here in your mind? Yeah. What do you think the team is lacking that maybe has contributed to us coming in under goal? Yeah. You know, those kinds of questions.

35:22 And ultimately, a lot of times people know the answers. Yeah. And then every now and then you have kind of a bad apple or somebody that's... that just refuses to reflect and shift gears. And they want to instead transfer blame and all that kind of stuff. And then you get those people off the team. But most people want to do well. They do. Most people, they're embarrassed when they don't hit mark. Yeah, there's guilt. There's shame. There's all the things associated with it. Yeah. No, I think that's right on. I think the other thing that I would encourage people is if we've missed so far this year, Just adopt the discipline of consistent inspecting of what we expect. Yeah. That's not a saying I made up.

36:03 In fact, I think it was a franchise owner in our market that I met early, early on in my restoration career that made a comment like that. I just remember how it just stuck to me. When I started to see system problems, it was normally because I had stopped inspecting. Mm. what I expected. I'm an optimist. So it's like, hey, we had a great conversation and set the stage for expectations. You do it now. And I think that we see that happen. We see business leaders get disconnected from inspecting what we expect. And that's how we look back on a quarter or a half of a year and realize, oh man, that sucked. And so I would just encourage people moving forward.

36:43 And there's a lot of overlap between these two camps. But I would just say moving forward, you've got to adopt that and prioritize that battle rhythm mentality of, I'm going to be consistent in production meetings. We are going to be consistent in quarterly all company meetings and rah-rah sessions. We're going to be consistent in these day-to-day battle rhythms because when I am, it helps me prevent us from missing the mark. Because we see it earlier and we can still do something proactive to affect change. Whereas once you start looking in the rear view mirror, you're hosed. There's not a lot that you can do to affect change at that point. So again, I want to say this with positivity. Sure.

37:23 Like guys... you got a whole six months to turn things around, to grind hard, to affect very positive change. And if it doesn't get to the finish line that you anticipated, you can still be excited about the fact that you adopted behaviors, systems, process, priorities that showed you that you could make gains over the next six months. So even if you missed the mark at the end of the year, because the first six months was such a bummer, Show yourself and your team that when you guys commit to something, you can affect positive change in your business and use that to roll right into 2023 with a ton of momentum. I think we'd be remiss if we didn't circle back and talk a little bit more about sales though, because so much like the ground is shifting in our industry when it comes to sales and really probably all the entire home services sector and the services sector, you like how people buy, how much noise there is in the market.

38:22 And then just some of the fundamental changes that have happened in our industry with TPAs and with centralization of claims units and just like the rewriting of claims policy and how claims are handled and adjudicated in our industry. It's like, it's really affected us. It's affected our ability to sell. And I think many of us are still, to one degree or another, stuck in this promotional sales behavior. where we have little or no leadership over the sales process. We're really just waving our flag. Yeah. We're dropping in, we're filling candy jars, we're putting smiley, enthusiastic, attractive people out in the field, talking to people, knocking on doors. But we're really just promoting ourselves rather than selling.

39:03 And so if you're behind goal from a top line perspective, or you're just not where you want to be, that's something to consider is how are we selling? Are we relying on our old strategies that for years and years made the phone ring And now it's not. I think taking a really open-minded view of, do we need to shift the way we're thinking and approaching our sales? Because I think we all intuitively know that the candy and smiles route routine of just doing this rah-rah kind of approach is not creating the same results that it used to. It was no doubt. It was very effective. It was the only way that any of us were really playing to a large degree.

39:45 But I think all of us have noticed and for some of us, it snuck up on us. Yeah. With the old ways, we've continued to invest in it. But maybe we haven't been monitoring our sales and the breakdown of our sales to realize, hey, holy cow, we used to generate two and a half million from agents. And last year, boy, now that we look at it, it was only 1.6. Yeah. But we get some business from other sources and that it just kind of covers up what's really happening. Yeah. Instead of adding two, we just fill the hole. Exactly. We just robbed Peter to pay Paul. And so I think it's really important as companies, as we continue to move forward in the industry, and I sound like a broken record because you guys see this a lot from Floodlight. It is so important that we tap into what's real about our customer situation.

40:29 Understanding, curiosity. Yeah. What has their experience been with restoration in the past rather than just banging our drum? Yeah. Instead, it's asking them to bang their drum. Tell me about what you got going on. Tell me what you like, don't like about restoration. Tell me about your last damage event. What went well in that process and what would you have changed? Yeah. Right? What made that experience difficult for you and your operations team going through that whole thing with XYZ Restoration Company? Yeah. Understanding our customers' situation and their past experience with our industry, and frankly, even just services, is so important.

41:10 Yeah. And I think you've got to follow that with a willingness to adapt operations to meet those needs. Yeah. Once you know... what the situation requires, you're going to have to make some changes. It's true, right? And this all fits together. And that's something that we drill on a ton with our clients and when we're speaking and doing stuff. And you hear it. Those of you that listen to our podcast, right? It all fits together. So we talk about one of the activities we do with our clients is the pain solution table. And first, when we introduce it, it's all about the sales side of it. It's okay. What are the most common pain points that our clients are experiencing we've encountered? And we all intuitively know a lot of these. If you've been in the industry for more than a minute, we know where we fall down.

41:51 Right? But then the other side of that activity is creating these systems and processes and concrete solutions to that pain. That's our whole business. Yeah. It's knowing what our customer's pain is and then building our business around the solutions to that pain. That's how we win. That's how we win. And it looks different for every business, right? Like for the Belfors and ATIs and First On Sites, a big problem they're addressing, a big pain point is scale. Yeah. And so they figured out scale. They know how to operate at a national, international level. And for them, that's a massive problem they solve for some clients. Yeah. We all need to know what is it that we're solving for and how.

42:32 Yeah. Yeah. So anyway. No, and I think that that's a real tactical way for people to affect the next six months. Yeah. So again, if you're sitting in this position where you're not hitting the goals, you're not making the progress that you anticipated, let's do a deep dive into it. I say let's. You need to do a deep dive into your sales process. What are you doing? Are you repeating things that you've always done? Yeah. There could lie the problem. And so I'd say maybe to wrap up that idea is be decisive. Don't get caught up in the frustration, the pity, that trough of sorrows, which a lot of us do, man. The medicating, the I'm hitting three IPAs when I get home because I'm just so frustrated with my business.

43:14 Now's the time to man or woman up and affect the next six months. So I just, I would say be decisive. Where you see issues, where you find that the problem existed and how it prevented you from succeeding this first six months, get aggressive. Be decisive. Be open-minded too. And I think the ego thing, right? Man, it's really hard not to admit defeat, but I think when you're the one driving the vision and the strategy, it can feel really hard to just have that come to Jesus meeting, so to speak, with yourself and your key leaders because part of the process is maybe admitting, I think I misdirected us. I think I missed the mark. Yeah. I think the plan we laid out, here's where I think it was flawed.

43:57 Yeah. Yeah. And that was me. Like the owner, the GM, whatever. There is a piece of that. Yeah. And there's a piece that also really creates, builds a lot of confidence with your team. Like there is nothing... Oh my gosh. When you're willing to humble yourself as the key leader and say, you know what? I think I sent us down the wrong path this first part of the year. And here's where I think we need to go instead. Yeah. Oh my gosh, the trust that's built. Yeah. The trust and the esprit de corps and people's willingness to follow you for the second half and really grind on it to save the day is so much greater when the owner says, you know what, guys? Here's where I think I led us in the wrong direction so far this year. Yeah. Here's where I think I failed to equip you guys for the stuff that I was asking you to do.

44:39 I don't think I put the resources in that you guys needed to actually be able to do this. So listen, we all probably have ways we can be better. Here are some of those things. Let's talk about it. What needs to change? Yeah. I want your input. Yep. Man. And it's positive. Again. It's totally positive. It's a positive thing. I think we can struggle with assessment and after action reviews as they are intended to be something negative. And the reality of it is, is that game changers make gains because they're willing to assess their existing performance and adapt changes to make it better. Honestly. Honestly. Yeah. Honestly. Just get at the truth. Yeah, totally. It's like, that's how we sell. We want to know the customer's truth. We don't ever want to sell against truth, right?

45:21 They have a service provider that they love. Great. They're not a hot prospect right now. And likewise, get to the truth of what's happening in your business. Figure out what's real. Yeah. Not what we say about ourselves. Not what we think should be. Like, where are we at? And then how do we get from here to the next thing? Yeah. Right on, dude. Okay, guys. Listen. You're 6 months in. Some of you are happy as a lark on where you're at. Kudos to you. Evaluate your team. Shore up the missing parts to keep up with that growth. Make sure it's a healthy trajectory that you're on, not just one adding top line. If you're behind the power curve, guys, it's okay. You got 6 more months to to adapt change, you can do it.

46:04 Okay? Stay motivated. Stay in the trench. Keep the pedal down. There's lots of opportunities in front of us to ensure that 2022 ends. And a strong note, and we go into 23 excited about our business. So hang in there. Good luck. We'll see you next time. All right, everybody. Heath, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart & Boots. And if you're enjoying the show, but you love this episode, please hit follow. Formally known as subscribe, write us a review, or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.