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HVAC Masters of the Hustle
Episode #300- Derek Cormier- Owner Climate Experts
00:38:37
HVAC Masters Of The Hustle is EXCITED for our 300 Episode and we have the pleasure of having Derek Cormier in the Hot Seat. On this episode we dive into some great information about a buiness owner building something special for his FAMILy & TEAM....
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Transcript68 lines
- [00:08]
A
We coming live, y'all. 2025. What is up? You are listening to H Vac Masters of the Hustle podcast. And here's your host, J Dub Moneymaker. And welcome to episode drum roll everyone. 300. Wow. It's been consecutive 300 weeks. We've dropped episodes. And I'm super excited because, I mean this episode is going to be absolute fire. We got this podcast sponsored by Nuva Thermostat. This is the thermostat made by the contractor for the contractor. They got some special inside things that they're doing right now. So if you want to go ahead and jump on a demo, give me an email at jwacmasters of the hustle.com. other than that, let's go ahead and roll into the episode because we got a great guest. We got Mr. Derek Cormier in the hot seat. And what brought me to have him a guest in the hot seat is not just the value of information that he's going to be dropping about being a business owners and talking about his struggles and obstacles, but his social media presence, also his team's presence. You talk about brand buy in. I mean, I watch your guys's videos and I'm sucked in and I know your team is definitely brand bought in, so I'm excited to talk about that. But Mr. Derek, welcome to the podcast, brother. Tell my listeners real quick where you're from. How did you get into the crazy trades of H Vac?
- [01:45]
B
Yeah, for sure. Appreciate you for having me. So I started this business back in 2016, just one truck. And my background is similar to yours. I started out in the police force. I was a cop in Hollywood, Florida for five years. Once I turned 21, I did that for five years and I enjoyed it. I decided that I missed the trades though, so I moved back home in Melbourne. So I'm actually from Melbourne, Florida. That's where I live right now. That's where we own our business. And just so just to kind of give people reference to where that is, we service the space coast. So SpaceX, where all the rockets go off Cocoa beach. We, we service that area. So after being a cop, got back into the trades. My dad was a general contractor, so I grew up kind of in the business, you know, roofing, tile, pretty much anything construction. I, I did. And I became a cop to get away from it, thinking I didn't want to do it. And then there I was, right back into doing it. But I learned from my dad that it was difficult being a general contractor and getting that guaranteed Work. And he said, you know, if I did it again, I would focus on a specific trade like H vac, plumbing, electrical, they've got consistent work. So I took his advice, I went into H Vac, I pretty much worked my way through install service, sales. I, I realized I had a skill set in sales. And I kept seeing companies just not take care of their people and not take care of their customers. And I went from company to company and eventually I said, you know what, let me try and do this myself. So I ended up getting my licensing. I started one Truck company, ran calls off of Craigslist back when that was a thing, and grew it from there.
- [03:31]
A
And this was 2016.
- [03:34]
B
Yeah, 2016 is when I started one truck.
- [03:37]
A
So when you started, you know, in 2016, if you could bring yourself back to that year, what was your biggest obstacle and challenge as a new business owner? Starting off just one person in a truck? Because I got a lot of listeners that are probably in your situation or maybe thinking about jumping in a truck and starting their own ventures.
- [03:58]
B
It's a great question and I think it's really important information. So when I started, I really could only rely on the experience that I had. And I was a tech, I was a sales guy, I wasn't a business owner. So this is why you'll typically see at companies maybe a owner that's truly a technician, they're not a business owner, they don't know profit and losses maybe don't create the best culture and processes for the business. But you love the guy because he knows everything as far as the technical side goes. So you enjoy the fact that he knows what he's doing. But the business might not run really well and really profitably. And I didn't come with a business background. I didn't have my master's degree in business. You know, I was a technician. So I can only really rely on the tools that I had, which was technical skills, not business advice. So I did great at running calls, selling jobs, getting them done myself. But I was so reliant on myself and I didn't know how to hire employees. I didn't know recruiting, I barely knew marketing, I knew networking and that's what kept me going. And that only gets you so far to, to a point where you overwork yourself. You're working 80 hour weeks and I wouldn't recommend that. What I did pretty early on, I think I joined Nextar 2019. So I finally realized I needed to join some sort of best practice group, get a coach and a mentor and When I joined NextStar, they gave me the business processes. I learned, you know, how to read a profit and loss, gross profit. I learned all the important operating the business parts of the business. And I felt like after I joined nextar, our trajectory just started changing. Like we started doubling every year. We've doubled every year since then with our revenue and employee count. And I felt like I had more of a plan mapped out. I felt like a lot of sales guys, they're doers, they're action guys, like just, I'm going to get it done. And that's who I was. But I didn't have a solid plan. So I was doing a lot. I was maybe successful in some people's eyes, but I didn't have the metrics down of what I actually wanted. I didn't have that stuff down. So what I would recommend to someone maybe that's in that one truck situation, doing a lot themselves, get a really good mentor or coach or a best practice group to really make sure you have a solid plan, you know what you want, you know how to get there. And someone that's done it before, preferably, I wouldn't recommend going, going to someone that just throws a bunch of hype out there. I'd recommend someone that's done it before.
- [06:24]
A
100%, you know, talking about the best practice groups, I 100% agree as a business owner, as a team, getting into those best practice groups, being able to network with other companies across the nation, but really dial in your, your skill level as a business owner because I mean, let's be real, just like you said, a lot of us that are business owners right now, we were good as technicians, sales professionals, right? And all of a sudden we're just like, hey, we want to start this opportunity and we go do it. We're go getters. And so we don't have that skill set usually. So those best practices and what you said was joining for mentorship as well, who's been able to help mentor you with your team as well as your company and yourself.
- [07:16]
B
So I would say probably the two biggest mentors that I have or one is Greg D'Attilli. He owns Art Plumbing, H Vac and Electric in Coral Springs. And he's actually the first person that got me interested in nexstar. And I saw, I was at one of these ream, I was one at the supply house shows where I think it was for Ream and Gem Air or something like that. And I saw nexstar's booth and I saw these contractors out Front and they're sell me this membership. And it's like, you know, we team up with our competitors. I'm like, what? That doesn't make any sense to me. I don't buy it. So then he was the first contractor I called that was in Coral Springs. And he's like, yeah, it's an amazing organization. All the competitors, we work together. We don't steal each other's people. We help each other out. It just. It was confusing to me because I'm like, usually you go against your competitors.
- [08:05]
A
And I'm like, wow.
- [08:07]
B
Yeah. And I'm like, this mindset, and I'm like, wow, maybe I need to. Because this guy was super successful. I've seen his business. He had his own training academy. It was amazing. And I listened to what he had to say, and I joined. And, you know, ever since then, I've kind of gone to his shop, and he. He. He represents, you know, a really strong leader of what. What a leader should be. And he's got some of the knowledge, but also he challenged himself in the things he wasn't good at. Like, and he grew from there. And, you know, he's very humble, very big on his people and his culture. And it was a lot. And the second one would be John and Jackie. Pink Rats. They own elite electric air and plumbing, and they're in Port St. Lucie. They're about an hour away. And they've been in business for, like, 30 years. They were in Nexstar for, like, 30 years. And again with like, they didn't care that we were an hour away. They didn't see me as competition. They saw us as a team. They poured into me when they didn't have to. Anytime I needed help, they would be on the phone. And it made me a better person and a better business owner. And I was no longer focused on the competition. I was just focused more on myself. And it made me want to help other business owners even more. So then immediately I'm like, okay, who can I help out there? And people can just feel your energy in the business when you've got the mentality that you're there to serve, that you're there to help your community. And you know what? We're all in this together. We're all in the trades together. If we decided to make this leap, like, let's invest in the trades. Let's not beat each other up or talk negatively about each other. Let's just show the way by example.
- [09:42]
A
100% agree with that right there. You know, talk about real Quick going back to when you were first starting and you were just one man in a truck. When did you know it was time to hire your first employee? And what was it that you hired? Was it a dispatcher? Was it another technician, an installer?
- [10:03]
B
Yeah. So my first employee was actually an office manager. And we don't have an office manager anymore because we have more specific roles. And that was when it was like your office manager was your CSR manager, your dispatch manager, your admin manager doing recruiting. So one of my first employees, her name's Robin, she's still with me, and she's in a different role now, and she's killing it. She's actually in an inside sales role because she wanted something where she can kind of retire and then work in. And she's. She's amazing. But my first, I had to hire for maybe what I wasn't already great at. And I was good at sales and I enjoyed doing it and I was good at doing the work. So my first hire was someone that can organize things and handle the phones and the things that I wasn't really taking care of well. And, and that worked out to my advantage because, you know, we got sales on the table and we had revenue.
- [10:54]
A
How'd you, how. When you first started off, how'd you get your phones to ring or how'd you go out there to get appointments?
- [11:02]
B
So a lot of it was grassroots networking. I joined a lot of the chamber of commerces, I joined BNI's. I was constantly out in the community. It was all about referrals. Every single call that I went on, I made sure that they got five star service and I made sure I got a referral and I made sure I made it worthwhile for them to refer. So I gave money to them. I would give some sort of incentive to the next referral. I just took really good care of my customer base. And our marketing spend the first few years was maybe 3 or 4%, and we still grew at a very fast rate even with that marketing spend we didn't get. Our marketing spend now is like six and a half percent and we double every year in revenue. I mean, we're, we're budgeted to 10.5 million this year, so we're not maybe 20, 30 million, but we try to keep that pretty reasonable because that's, I believe, marketing's where a lot of my specialty comes from.
- [11:58]
A
Absolutely. Congratulations to you and your company. What, what did that growth look like year by year from 2016 to the 10 million growth this year?
- [12:09]
B
So it was, it was pretty stagnant the 2016-2019, just because I was doing a lot of it on my own. I really was stubborn the first three years where I wanted to prove to everybody how tough I was and how I could do everything. And I come home and I'd be like, yeah, 80 hour weeks easy. I'll do sales, I'll do install service.
- [12:30]
A
I'm the man.
- [12:32]
B
Yeah. And, and I, I look back now and it's sad because I had a newborn baby back then and I wasn't there for my wife as much as I should have been. And I would do it differently. I would have been a little bit more humble and maybe reached out for some advice sooner. But really the revenue was pretty stagnant. The first three years from 2016 and 2019, probably first year, probably did 250 grand. Maybe second year, 352,019. We probably did like close to 500. And then we last year, just backtracking it from my mind. So last year we did about 6.5. This year we're budgeted to do 10.5. The year before that we did 3.8. The year before that we did about half of that 1.1.9 or something like that.
- [13:30]
A
Yeah, nice. Now, as you grow, you know, there's obstacles and challenges and people say growing pains and things like that, but it seems like you've been able to maneuver things by having the right people in place. Talk about the importance of hiring the right people and the culture within your company that you've been able to create.
- [13:52]
B
Yeah, it's a great question. I think it's really important because you'll hear business people talk about overhead, salaries for the office and like, oh, you guys are overpaying. But then they won't talk about like the bookkeeper that you're paying that's in a different bin, or the accountant or the outsourcing managers that you're paying for. So I think it's important to have things in house so you keep control over it. So we have an accounting manager in house that fully manages, you know, everything from payroll to our financials. We have an in house bookkeeper, we have in house recruiting in hr. And if you work at climate experts, you get an experience like you work at a large organization. So like, if there's a huge issue and you can't solve it with your manager, you have someone to go to pretty much anytime that we're open and have a conversation with them and it's handled professionally versus like just being buddy, buddy and family and it kind of being a little bit unprofessional and not feeling like you might have the best support. So we're set up right now office to handle a $15 million business. So if we exceed budget, which we're going to, we're completely set up to do so on the off office side. So I made sure I designed a company to where I'd want to actually work here and I'd feel like I'd be supported and I wanted to have work life balance for my employees. I didn't love the feeling of not being able to be home with my kids as much as I'd like to be. And I want to make the trades, you know, a successful career. I want you to be able to make good money and have time with your family. And I don't feel like I'd be true to myself if I didn't create a support system that could sustain that. And we have enough CSRs, DSRs, we have enough managers that we can fully, fully support some work life balance. So everyone's not running 80 hours a week.
- [15:36]
A
Yeah. Now having work life balance and everything like that's amazing. What do you all do for processes, procedures, Derek, you know, and how do you make sure that your team is accountable in that as well?
- [15:51]
B
So we use a software called Trainual. And right off the bat, when you hire an employee, I think the most important thing is their onboarding and their first two weeks. Because if you just throw them out there in a truck and you let that person that's in that truck guide what they should be doing, there's a good likelihood that they're going to get some bad habits and they're not going to understand really what they're supposed to do. So we created a really awesome onboarding process for employees that on that first day, we make it an amazing experience to get a little gift package. They have a whole day of onboarding videos on learning about our mission statement, our core values, what to expect. They have to actually test on those too. So, like, if someone doesn't complete those tests and they're out of it, I don't care if they've got 30 years experience and they're the best plumber h vac tech in the world. They're not right for us. We live to our core values and guiding principles and mission statement. So we make sure that that first day that they, they complete that onboarding and then they have a training plan on their first two weeks that is not only just on the computer, it's the computer and then we have checkpoints where they meet with a trainer and then we evaluate them each week to make sure that they're hitting what they're supposed to be hitting. And it took some time to develop. It wasn't easy. We're still developing it every single day. But where we're at right now, our turnover rates less than 3% and our retention rate is close to 100.
- [17:15]
A
So how important, I mean with great people and great culture brings great reviews and testimonials, which you were just talking about a little bit ago. Talk about how you were able to get testimonials and have your team to be able to ask for them. Because a lot of, I think I feel like a lot of teams or companies struggle to get their teams just to do the simple fact of just asking.
- [17:41]
B
So I don't think you should just have a great training program that no one follows it because you're going to find that there's some cowboys out there that want to do it their own way. So you have to have a way to hold, hold your people accountable. And I love rilla or any type of recording software that you can use to help hold your people accountable because you can verify that they did what they said they're going to do. So any way you can put into your process to verify that they get it done, not only put the process in place, but make sure there's some way you can hold them accountable. So whether it's service titan, whatever your CRM is like, whether they're putting a picture or whether they have to put a note in, or whether your dispatcher debriefs with them at the end of the call and make sure it gets done. And then also having a backup system in place that also reinforces that. So right off the bat we had some sort of reputation management that automatically would send a text message to their phone within two minutes of ending the appointment that would invite them to leave a review. So we had that early on, that reputation management system and then what I also created across created a spiff program for our employees and we still do it to this day. So we have a little wheel on the board in our company, a meeting room and it's a huge meeting room. And if anyone gets a five star review, they, everyone in the company gets to spin towards paid time off every single week. If we get any four or five star reviews, if we get any three star reviews or lower, nobody spins. And the person that gets the most 5 star reviews for that week just automatically gets $100 towards a tool account. It's usually a technician. So we've reinforced it into our culture and guess what, if we get a one star review and somebody saves that, a manager, a csr, a technician. Now everyone gets to spin again the next week because they saved it. So we have some weeks where we're doing 3 spins towards paid time off and they're, they're earning a lot of paid time off. So we, we built it into the culture as part of something that, you know, they get incentivized for.
- [19:40]
A
How do you get your team to, to get videos and to be able to produce videos with your team? Because that's what got me to, to really like get in front of, I guess, you know, my platform was your videos just kept coming and coming and I was like, man, this is cool. And then all of a sudden I'm like, man, his team's doing videos and everyone's buying into the culture. And I mean, this looks great.
- [20:09]
B
So in the beginning it wasn't like I was like, I'm just a guy that loves to be on video and let's. I'm not that guy. I'm not the guy that likes to be all over social media normally. I watched Gary Vee talk at one of the super meetings for NextStar and he talked about how important it was to put out content, even if it's not perfect, every single day and just be consistent. And I took it to heart and I set a goal and I said, I'm just gonna keep doing it until it starts.
- [20:38]
A
Challenge yourself.
- [20:39]
B
Yeah, just start. And I didn't force my team to do it in the beginning. I did a lot of it myself. I believe in leading by example, not forcing your people to do things. So if they saw me doing it and having fun, they saw that and they wanted to become a part of it. So people started volunteering to be a part of it. And I would come to them and say, hey, what ideas do you guys have? And get them involved in the idea process because a lot of them are on like the team TikTok and different social medias that I'm not on Snapchat. So they came up with some really good ideas. So guess what? Now they're super pumped about their idea and they're going to be fully involved in it. So I believe if you just get some outside marketing company, you're like, we're going to do a bunch of videos, let's go. And you force them into it, you're just not going to get good results. And it's going to fall flat in its face.
- [21:23]
A
Yeah, talk about your installs and your installers because I think install position, you, you know, people get left out of that role and it's a very important role, especially within a company. Can you talk about a little bit about your installs and what you guys do and what separates you from everybody else?
- [21:44]
B
Yeah, I love that question and I've seen some of your guys install picks and I think you guys do a killer job. I love the lighting that you guys do on the installs too.
- [21:52]
A
Thank you.
- [21:52]
B
That's solid. And I'm similar to you in that aspect. That's one of the first things I wanted to change about this area and our industry was the quality. So I created a 180 point installation checklist for my installers, which they probably hated in the beginning, but I had to prove to them why each point was really important. Because at different companies they do things different ways and I wanted to show why we differentiated ourselves. So I'll just give you an example on ductwork, because we do a lot of ductwork here and in Florida. It's typically mostly flex duct, no metal. So one thing that we do that's completely different is typically people seal their ductwork with mastic on each of their connections or just zip ties, you know, two duct ties and, or, or tape. Florida attics are super humid and there's a lot of moisture there. So the tape ends up just peeling off. And the moisture from the attic, a lot of the times with the mastic because it doesn't insulate and they don't butt that duct all the way up to that boot or to that junction box, you have a gap. And now that mastic is not going to insulate, so it's just going to sweat if it's got a really cold connection there from the cold air. So a lot of the times I look at ductwork and the connections are just nasty. They're full of bacteria growth and they're dripping water all over the place. So I said there's got to be a better way. So we tested a bunch of different methods to seal ductwork. And now we use an insulating foam that gives off no VOCs. It insulates it to a R9 on every single duct connection. We even insulate the boots to the drywall so that it's insulated there as well. And we do that with every single duct installation, no matter what. So right off the bat, no one here does that all. Every single one of our duct connections, you know, is insulated and sealed. So that's just one thing that we do different. As far as H Vac goes. I'm. And here's the thing. If your H Vac system is not going to work right, if your ductwork's not right, it doesn't matter if you have the cleanest install in the world and you're putting in an inverter 20 seer system. If your duct system is undersized, it's not going to work right. So I think we over focus on the equipment. I would rather have a single stage, you know, 14 seer, even straight cool system with a properly sized duct system and properly installed duct system than a 20 seer inverter with an undersized duct system or not when that's properly designed. So we fully design our duct systems in house. Every single one of my sales reps, and they're called project managers, has to learn how to fully design a duct system on their own using static pressure and knowing exactly how much CFM needs to go to every single room. So every single H VAC estimate we go to, guess what? We're checking the ductwork on every single one. And guess what happens when we're going against another bid that's maybe $2,000 cheaper for the equipment. The customer's like, we're going with climate experts because you found things no one else found. You. You measured the return grill sizing. No one did that. You actually went up in my attic. That guy didn't even check my attic.
- [24:48]
A
And it's crazy. People, people are scared to do the extra things because they think homeowners think we're looking for things, right? But it's crazy when you do the right thing, right, and you make yourself different than everyone else. The homeowner is willing to spend extra X, Y and Z because what else is that contractor hiding behind the scenes, right?
- [25:12]
B
100.
- [25:13]
A
I mean, there's a lot of people out there that do bait and switch. You know, I hear it all the time, hey, let's go rip out that install real quick. And then all of a sudden, you know, hey, you know, our guy was out here. Now that we have the system out, they missed this, this, and this. And all of a sudden they tack another 2500 bucks and they got, you know, and you're right, unfortunately, I feel like I have to apologize too many on behalf of our industry and the trades because it happens too much.
- [25:39]
B
I, I agree with you. 100. And like, I, I get people are going towards the putting pricing online, but I still don't feel comfortable doing it because every home's different, just like every person's different. How can I give you a price up front when I have no idea what your situation looks like? Like, and that's what differentiates our company. When we come to your home, we're going to customize this bid based on your family, you know, your needs and your specific home. We're not just going to cookie cutter.
- [26:05]
A
You gonna feel custom tailored?
- [26:07]
B
Yeah. Custom tailored. We do. And that's what differentiates us. And it's fine. I'm not saying that model is wrong if you go that way, but it just doesn't work for us.
- [26:14]
A
Yeah. Now let me ask you, as of right now, standing in your company, do you know your service average tickets on the service side?
- [26:24]
B
Yeah, I do.
- [26:24]
A
What are those numbers?
- [26:26]
B
So H Vac Service, we're 850 average ticket plumbing, we are 675.
- [26:32]
A
675. Now, did you. I. I miss. Might have missed this part. Did you start the H Vac and plumbing at the same time or when did you add the plumbing side to it?
- [26:45]
B
Yeah, so I started the H Vac side first. And we were H Vac only. We started plumbing a year ago. So it really was January 2024 is when we started plumbing. And plumbing has been crazy. It's. It's been growing so fast. We exceeded all budgets. It's just crazy how it's working.
- [27:03]
A
Love it. No, that's awesome. And then what were you saying? Your sales average ticket is right now in Florida.
- [27:12]
B
So for H vac. Install.
- [27:15]
A
Install. Yes, sir.
- [27:17]
B
So we budgeted 13,000, but typically we're probably around 12,5.
- [27:26]
A
So.
- [27:28]
B
And that's on average, we probably do still 80% single stage 20 inverter. We're not afraid of inverter. We offer a lot, but we do a lot more duct work than a lot of people. So we really over focus on that. So we don't really focus on the equipment type as much of just getting the right thing to the customer's home. And just what we see. 95% of duct systems are undersized, not installed properly, not designed properly, not sealed. So because we're focusing on that, you know, H Vac is kind of like the system is kind of a secondary thing. So if you look at our ductwork average sale, it's close to 15 grand.
- [28:04]
A
Nice. And how important. You know, one thing that you mentioned as a business owner was once you started understanding your numbers, right. Talk about how often you and your team meet to discuss your numbers. Your goals and, you know, summer's right around the corner. Are you starting to gear up right now? When do you start that gear up process?
- [28:26]
B
Great question. So what we do with the numbers? I'll start with that first. So we do a daily huddle every morning at 9 and it's 20 minutes long. We do it with all the managers and install coordinator and we go over the key metrics that happened the day before and then what our goals are for today. So we're all in sync. Each department head gets to talk about their individual numbers that we're going to focus on. And then the most important thing is we look at, okay, are we tracking on our monthly goals to see if we're tracking the right direction? And then we talk about turnover opportunities. So we talk about how many turnover opportunities are on the board and then who is going to them? Because that's super important. You know, who are you sending those calls to? And every single day we focus on it. We don't, we have dispatch pro with service Titan, but we don't let it fully, you know, be in charge. We, we still want to make sure we keep humans touch on, on that decision. So we do that every single day. 20 minutes. Sometimes it goes a little bit long, but really try to say 20 minutes. We don't make it about anything else other than the numbers and our goals. We all have our own paper. We bring it to our departments. We also do a huddle with each team for the field every single day. And we do that from 6:45 to 7. We talk about their numbers yesterday, we talk about their numbers today, and we also talk about our numbers in our Monday meeting. We do every single Monday with most of the team. The installers usually get out early, so they're the only ones that aren't in there. But they're, they have those numbers in their install meeting. And then we do a financial meeting with our managers and our business coach where we go through the whole profit and loss. We go through all of our. We do a business planning workshop every year. So we go through those goals that we set the prior year and we make sure that we're hitting those goals. And then we have a next star coach in there like, yo, why are you messing up? What's up with this number? Why is this conversion rate on service 20? You said you wanted 40. Hey, service manager, tell me what's going on. So, because I think what could happen is you have that daily huddle number and you guys are just sitting there reading numbers to each other like Today's goal is 15 calls and we're going to shoot for 100% booking rate. And it's like, that's a waste of time if you just do it that way. It should be about, okay, what are the goals and how do we get there and what were the goals yesterday and what did we hit, why didn't we hit them? So we can adjust and correct.
- [30:44]
A
Yeah, 100% agree with that. Adjust, move forward. Right. And even when you fail some days, use that as a learning experience. Talk with your team. I love that you have those daily huddles and even 20 minutes, that's all you need. You know, quick 10, 20 minute meeting in the morning. Lay down what you guys and girls want to accomplish for the day. The goal, the mission, if there's any obstacle, challenges, how are we going to come together as a team to do that? I like that. You know, also one thing that I think is important that we talk about is being able to network, you know, use our platform to network with people across the nation, which you've done a great deal doing that, making the videos and the content. But talk about also networking with people at the events that you go to. And how often, often do you go to events?
- [31:37]
B
I probably go to like 10 a year. I've seen you at a lot of the events and you always kill it, you know, going up on stage and.
- [31:44]
A
I'm always nervous just to let you know.
- [31:46]
B
Yeah, you kill it. Yeah, you, you always kill it. I always think you make a great impression and you differentiate yourself, which is really cool. But I go to the nextar events I go to. I also make sure that I go to events that aren't just about the trades. Like I'll go to leadership events. Like you'll see me at a Tony Robbins event. I go to meditation retreats. I go to like two or three meditation retreats a year just to make sure that I'm on a personal level in a really good place. Because if the business owner is not in a really good place, it affects so many people and sometimes you don't even realize it. You know, when you smell something really bad and you know it's new, you smell it. But then when it's around you for a long time, you might not realize that the smell is there. So a lot of times you don't see the things that you're doing. So I need to make sure that I hold myself accountable. I don't have a boss, so I need to make sure that I am always attending some sort of leadership Training that is going to help me hold myself accountable. And so, yeah, I'll go to the nextdoor events. I'll go to some of the industry events. Like I'm going to the ahr. I'll go to the Owens Corning event. That's for installation. And my goal isn't just to show up and have fun. My goal is to learn something and get better. And I always make sure I bring a new teammate to any event that I'm going to. So we're going to that RILLA event and I'm making sure I'm bringing a technician that's never been to one of those events and I'm making sure I'm bringing a sales rep that's never been. Because you know what, it's eye opening and they get really excited and they feel like they're part of the team. And I always make sure I keep that going. I don't just bring my manager, my buddies. I bring someone from the company that hasn't gone to an event before.
- [33:20]
A
Well, I'll be looking forward to hanging out with you at the real event in Las Vegas.
- [33:24]
B
Oh, yeah, you'll be sweet.
- [33:27]
A
Yeah, I just did an event with them in Minnesota and it was a good event. And you know, Hook Agency, they did a great job putting on that event.
- [33:36]
B
That's awesome.
- [33:37]
A
Myself, Joker, Sarah was there. Really was there. Great sponsors, a great turnout, packed house. I think we could only hold about 80 people and people were standing up. So really good event. One thing that I wanted to talk about is what's next for you? I mean, what do you foresee, you know, the next three years? Five years for you? Personal business?
- [34:00]
B
Yeah. So I probably have a little bit different of a trajectory than some people. I. My goal wasn't to build something up and sell it and make a bunch of money and then talk about how much money I have. Not saying that everyone's doing that, but that just never was my goal. My goal was to provide for my family, create a really great place to work, and then change the way that the trades are looked at so people weren't just shoved into doing college. Like, and my goal is expansion. So I want to open up five locations in five years and then be owned by us. I'm not looking for the private equity game. Honestly. We're already beating private equity up in our area. All their employees are coming over here. I don't believe that private equity can do just great on its own. I don't think you can go into an H vac or trades company with an MBA and just run it. Well, I think an operator is that it's a really good operator, needs to know what they're doing and needs to understand technicians. I mean, you can come in here with an MBA and try to tell my plumbers and technicians what to do, and they're gonna laugh in your face and they're gonna leave and they're gonna go somewhere where they're. They respect the leadership and that's what I see happening. And they can refinancials and they can adjust budgets and they can make strategic moves. But, you know, without someone driving the mission, the purpose and knowing what they're doing, it's gonna only last for so long and they're just gonna consolidate again. So my goal is five locations in five years. We just added electrical on, so we have that other vertical. And my ultimate goal is to help some employees become owners and, and have some ownership in the branches. And I just want to keep growing from there. I don't have any. I mean, I'm 39. I have no want to get out of the industry. No cash grab. I'm. I'm in a place where I have work life balance right now. I'm home at 4:00. I have my weekends off. I don't get phone calls all the time. Managers handle stuff. We do fun trainings, we do fun videos. Like, it's not a. Once you get it to a good place, it's not so hard. Like, I don't come into work, like stressed. I come into work smiling and like having fun. And it just. I'm going to keep it going that way. It's all about your mentality. So you can look at it however you want. You can look at the grind and just say, oh, I gotta go in there and grind. And I changed that mentality and I don't think that would anymore. We were the blue and red color when we just did H vac. And then when we added plumbing and electric, I said, no, I gotta change the colors just to differentiate because everyone's hot and cold, blue and red. So we added the teal for the plumbing and we added the yellow for electrical. And our customer base was like, man, like, we loved the logo before, but it just pops now.
- [36:35]
A
I love it, love it. And when y'all are driving your. Your vans wrapped right, it feels good when you pull up to the light and like you get the second look, you know, you. That's when you know you got something special.
- [36:48]
B
Oh, yeah. We've had people call our business line and Literally say they just enjoy driving by our shop because our mascot chili just makes them feel happy. It's. It's interesting. They're just like, we get. We get these calls. We're like, hey, I just want to let you know, I'm so happy that you guys are located where you are, because I just get a good feeling every time I see your smiling penguin, like, who's got unrealistically sized muscles. And we're like, cool. That's what we wanted.
- [37:13]
A
I love it. You know, as we're bringing the podcast in it, I gotta ask you, I got listeners from business owners, dispatchers, installers, service technicians, sales professionals. What would you like, Derek, for them to get out of this episode of H Vac Masters of the Hustle.
- [37:31]
B
The biggest thing that I would say is, know what you want, know what you want. Not everybody wants the same thing. And don't base what you want just on what you see other people have. Really ask yourself, what do you want? Because maybe it's not just money, or maybe it's, the money's gonna get you something. Maybe it's gonna get you freedom. Maybe it's gonna get you freedom with your family. Maybe it's gonna get you the ability to travel. Keep asking yourself, why? Why do I want this thing? And just keep going down that road until you really figure out what you truly want. And then make decisions moving forward on how to get there. That's the advice that I would give.
- [38:11]
A
Absolutely love it, man. Until next time. Yeah. I mean, you just dropped absolutely bombs on this episode. Late.
- [38:29]
B
We survive like lion.