July 13, 2026 • 42 mins
Brandon Anderson
CEO & President of Morris-Jenkins
Morris-Jenkins president and CEO, Brandon Anderson, started his career with the company as an HVAC Installer, where he experienced first-hand the work of some of the very people he’d be leading 18 years later.
Brandon understands the importance of doing things the right way and making it easy for customers. Not only from his years of experience in the field, but as he worked his way through various service and leadership roles within Morris-Jenkins. By 2011, he transitioned from installation to service, where he started mentoring other technicians before he ever officially took a leadership position. From there, he became a Service Supervisor, then HVAC Service Director. Because of his growing impact on those around him, Morris-Jenkins developed the Chief Operations Officer role for him in 2018.
Today, Brandon continues to grow and lead Morris-Jenkins. Because of the same people-first mindset he has had since his days as an installer, Morris-Jenkins continues to have a reputation for caring for people, with over 35,000 and a 4.9-star rating to prove it.
Morris-Jenkins
Morris-Jenkins started in Charlotte in 1958 and has grown into one of the area’s largest residential HVAC, plumbing, and electrical companies. In 2026, they opened their first expansion, located in Greenville, South Carolina. The former owner, Mr. Jenkins, built the company around taking care of people and making it easy for customers. That’s still the core of Morris-Jenkins today!
Morris-Jenkins has won Top Workplace USA and Top Workplace Charlotte year after year because their company culture. And they don’t have a big rulebook. Instead, employees are encouraged to be authentic. And because they hire the right people, everyone there is trusted to do the right thing! Throughout the years, Morris-Jenkins has grown into a household name. They’re trusted around the area because they do what they say they will, and the customer experience is like no other.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome to another episode of CEOs you Should Know,
brought to you by iHeartMedia here in the Charlotte market,
powered by Thompson Yes, that's Thompson Child and Family Focus.
And today we have Brandon Anderson, CEO of Morris Jenkins here. Brandon,
thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Absolutely, And I was thinking about this before. This is
a busy season for your company?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Oh it is?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, yeah, Unless I'm wrong, summers are really pectic.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh yeah, I mean you look at the heat wave
that's coming. It's it's gonna be busy.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I know it.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Somebody told me. I don't know if it's true or not.
It's supposed to be into triple digits this weekend.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Is that accurate?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yes, it's it's gonna be over one hundred degrees and
we have a you know, probably a good solid week
of it. So it's gonna be it's gonna be hot,
it's gonna be miserable, and you know we're gonna be
ready to serve Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
You can be busy, brother.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, you guys twenty four seven, three sixty five.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
We operate six am to midnight, seven days a week
o come. We were there nights and weekends, no additional charge.
But in our industry, typically every company says they're twenty
four to seven. But as a trades person, that's a
rough life to live, so you know, we try to
honor that and make sure that we're not bringing those
technicians out, you know, late at night for unnecessary reason.
So we stick pretty much to the to the midnight.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Thank you for being honest about that, because as a
customer sometimes you know, I'm reaching out to somebody's twenty
four seven, but as you do, they're not twenty.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Four cents, right. Yeah, everybody says they are, but that's
not the case.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Trust me.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
When your air conditioning goes out in the middle of
summer in Carolina's and you want somebody to be twenty
four seven or at least honest with you about when
they're at to show up.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, and you want to make sure that you do
show up.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So let's just hop right in because I think that's
a good segue. We talk about honesty and trust and integrity.
You know, your brand and your company's known for those things.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
How important is that to you? As the CEO of
that organization.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
It's extremely important. I mean that's part of our core
values that we say at every meeting. The technicians come
in and share examples of that, you know, honesty, integrity, fairness,
and respect for each individual. So I mean that's at
our core, that's who we are, and that's kind of
what we love about in weeks the employees to live
by that. We don't have much control of the technicians
because they're not they're not in the building right, And
(02:07):
you have to have that strong belief system and strong
culture to be able to provide that service and be
able to trust the people that are out of your home.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
See, I told you you were going to feed me
a little bit today, you're already hitting me values, culture standards.
So tell me a little bit about more about those values.
And as the leader, how important is it to you?
I know, the leader of our organization, every decision I make,
every decision we make collectively, we have to be values aligned.
If it's not values aligned, generally, it doesn't work for
(02:36):
the work we're doing, and it gets us a drift.
It ends up being bad for a customer's communities. Tell
me a little bit about how important values are at
more shinkings.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I mean I would say that's the up most important.
I mean, if you know we're going to continue to
scale and grow and to keep more stinking into who
we are, every individual there has to live by those values.
I mean it's a it's a non ago.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
And even more importantly to you said that, the technicians,
very similar to our organization, are not always in the
building with us. They're out empowering them to do what
they're supposed to be doing. But they've got to be.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Aligned, that's right, And you know you have to you
have to hire people that have that in them. Right.
We say that we hire for character, train for skill.
So we train a lot of technicians from the ground up.
We have schools that we put them through. You know,
they come from different industries, so we're not necessarily looking
for the skill that they have. We're looking for that
(03:30):
character of a human being. Right? Do they have that
honesty in that integrity?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
All right?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Take me to church man, I want to hear more
about that. How do you how do you vt for that?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I mean we have well, one we have an m
j U that teaches all of our fundamentals, our management
Fundamentals at Morris Jenkins and that is where we we
we teach how to go find those individuals. Right. We
look for certain behaviors and values. We cover DISC. We're
firm believers in DISC. Okay, understand than who people are,
how they operate, what they believe in, So we have
(04:04):
an interviewing process for it. But really you're just looking
for people that are man. They just want to do
good in the world, right, And I mean, unfortunately sometimes
that's hard to find.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
In twenty twenty six, it seems harder to find than
it did. That's right, at least from my seat on
a bus where I'm at and the work I've been
over for thirty three years.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
For sure, I'm love.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
That you guys are using performance based assessments, behavioral assessments
like the DISK or a predictive index shop. If you're
familiar with predictive indecks, you can almost imagine what I
may be there. I'm a Maverick, right, risk is my
friend and process is not, and then my team has
to deal with pick up the pieces afterwards.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Very similar to me. Not big on details.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, but it's okay because you got to surround yourself
with people that are right.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
That's super important.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, and that's the importance of disc is understanding who's
on the team, where are the gaps, and what does
each person bring? Yeah, you know, because that if you're
living in the world that you don't value or believe
in and you're trying to be that person, that's the
whole the whole culture, the whole business suffers. Yeah, so
you do have to surround yourself with those high, high
character people.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
I love what you're saying there. We implement Patrick Linci's
ideal team players.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Oh right, humble, hungry and smart.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
You know. Then we're not talking about super intelligence on
the smart side, I mean, because if not, I wouldn't
have passed the vetting.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
But you gotta be people smart at late.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And figure out what's going on with people, you know,
when they're down, when they need to pick me up,
when they need a conversation with those type of things.
Sounds like you It sounds like by the by the
by the shaking of the head. You guys are familiar
with Lyncioni's work.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Oh yeah, that's one of our fundamentals. Ideal team player
and the five dysfunctions of the team.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So there's there's no doubt when I retire, I can
come and make coffee somewhere.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
In Morris Shinkins. Yeah, I have a little fun. Maybe
maybe I'll continue to learn how.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
To well Morris stinkins. I can tell you we're known
for our commercials and marketing, but we're also known for
having fun. Yeah, I mean, that's that to me, is
the most important thing at the workplace.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
One of the things I'm picking up really quick is
you ain't to be known for it externally, but you're
also you guys are really focused on leadership development. Yeah,
developing people in general outside of leadership and picking that
up in a short period of time.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
So kudos to you.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Well, I mean that's if you look at my story,
that is Yeah, that's part of it.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Right, Let's get into that. Let's get into that story.
Tell us a little bit about kind of when you started,
what you did, and how did you get to where
you are now.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
So when I came to Morris Jenkins in two thousand
and six, I was looking for a job, all right.
I wasn't looking for a career. I was looking for
a job to you know, make some money. Until I
figured out what I wanted to do. I was actually
going to school for business management at University of Phoenix
here in Charlotte at night. And once I got the
Morris Jenkins and saw the culture and the values and
(06:45):
what Dewey Jenkins was teaching, right, I mean he was
teaching people how to run the business. He was teaching
them how to manage people. And the longer I was there,
I realized, you know, this place is teaching me more
than what I'm learning a college. So I decide is
not to continue that college journey and state of Morris
Shinkins and really bought into the culture, bought into the
(07:07):
teaching that mister Jenkins was teaching the management team, and
you know that kind of kickstarted my journey went from
being a helper in the HVAC installed apartment to twenty
years later being president of the company. And their stories
all through Morris Sjenkins with the same path as what
(07:27):
I took, right, promoting within teaching them those fundamentals, teaching
them how to run the business. So that's at our court,
mor Shinkins, right, We're looking for those people that have
high character and then we'll teach you, teach you how
to manage people. Manage conflict and manage those behaviors.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
All right, man, I'm foreseeing a field trip coming out
to visit you.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I love what I'm hearing.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
So when you talk about internal promotion preparation, teaching people
how to run the business, that's phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
A lot of businesses don't do that.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Ye I don't care what your status is on tax,
whether your government and play, they're just not taking the
time to teach people to.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Grow in that way.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So when you think about that and you talk about
internal promotions, you know, because obviously if you can train
up your people to be better, that's great for the culture,
it's great for the business, it's great for everything you're
trying to get accomplished.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
When you look at your team around you, now what
percentage of those are internal promotions for versus somebody you
may needed to bring in from the outside.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I think right now our management team is made up
of about sixty five to seventy percent of the people
that get promoted with the WOW. And for me, those
tons of individuals that I've either managed directly in the
past or have been on the team of mine at
some point. For me, it's being able to see their
lives change and not necessarily change from a materialistic type,
(08:49):
but they become better people. They become better stewards of
the community, they become better parents, better siblings, better neighbors
because they're developing themselves, right, and they're COMPLI things that
nobody really thought that they could. That's how I felt anyway, And.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
That's amazing just to hear that percentage of the management
team that were internal promotions. That's probably an anomaly. Yeah,
you know, I think a lot of us strive for that.
We want that a lot of people. One is they
don't have the systems in place. They may not have
the rigor in place. They may I have the culture
in place to get to get to what you're developing
and what was developed prior to you being there.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah, and what a phenomenal story.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Is there a book in the work somewhere downline or
is there one out there?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
We have one now, okay, all right, and that's mister
Jing and stole me. It's been out for a while
and it kind of goes over our culture to get
in that. Yeah, it's a quick read, quick read. It's
something that tells you all about more stinkings. I mean
that talks about all the fundamentals and our culture and
what we believe in. But you never know, there might
(09:52):
be a book number two coming.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Oh I love it. I love it. I love it.
Believe it or not. I wrote a book. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
People laugh when I tell them it was actually called
it's called Unlearned. Most of what I learned about leadership
was wrong. So let me ask you this question. When
you're thinking about, there's so much that you learned that
was right in your journey?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Was there anything that you can think about now?
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Obviously it sounds like a foundation has laid it's all
kind of education evidence back leadership development. Was there anything
you learned coming up that you're like, looking back on it,
that's a what not to do? Well?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Honestly, I was going to school for business management, and
when I was seeing how what we were being taught
at Morris Jenkins and then what I was being taught
in school, I mean it was a lot of red tape,
a lot of corporate talk. I mean that's just seriously
the way that it was. And learning that and not
seeing that in the workplace at Morris Jenkins, I knew
that there was another way to do it wow, and
(10:48):
Morris Jenkins, I mean, we have rules and we have,
you know, a handbook, but really we look for those
values and if people can lean on those values, our
core values to make a decision on it, that's all
they need to do, and we'll make sure that we'll
have their back on it. And it allows us to
move quickly. It allows people to make the right decision
(11:09):
without having to go to page one hundred and sixty
seven in the handbook.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
That being stated, I am not going to have my
children listen to this podcast because I do want them
to go to the university somewhere, if nothing else, just
to develop social skills and the ability to work with
other people.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
But I don't disagree with what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
My fourteen year old and you shared earlier that you
have a fourteen year old he says to me constantly, dead,
I really don't need to go to college.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
YouTube's out there. I can.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Actually I'm going to be a YouTuber. Of course, he's
got a YouTube channel with two subscribers.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Me and his mom. So I'm thinking it may not
be coming.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
But I love what you're saying because to your point,
I don't think you could be super successful. You can
be a great leader. You can learn leadership, you learn
management and learn trades and not.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Go to universities and colleges.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
And I don't think a lot of people really understand
the heights you can achieve.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Ultrn to pass.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
There are. And I would say number one, I would
advise people to go to college if they're going to go,
if that's the route they want to go. And I
think I found myself in a unique position. Not all
businesses operate the way Morstingits do. I think if I
was at a different if I was a different business,
my story would be completely different.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Well, and kudos to whatever they've built and you've continued
to build and grow and evolve, because I agree with
you as somebody as a student of business. Not a
lot of businesses and organizations that are small, medium, are
large are then what you're doing now.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I think they take the human element out of it.
And for me, it's our employees spend more time at
our business than they do it home, and that matters
a lot to me. That matters a lot to me
to where when they show up in the morning, they're
excited and when they leave at the end of the day,
they leave knowing that they had fun and they did
a good job and they were respected for it. And
(12:59):
in the in the trades, I can tell you that's
tough because I mean it's getting ready to be one
hundred degrees. Every technician you know in Charlotte's going to
be out working in extreme temperatures, but a lot of
them are going to be working long hours. And for me,
it's very important to make sure that there's a home
life work life balance. And for the last eight years,
(13:19):
I mean, our technicians have averaged just over forty hours
a week, and that is unheard of in our industry.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Really, it's very love. Is that considered love very low?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I mean, every other technician during the summer is going
to be working sixty sixty to eighty hours a week,
and you think about the family time that they're missing,
the parties, the games or whatever. So for me, that's
that's the most important thing. Making sure people have the
time to spend where it's most valuable for them.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Just hanging out with you for fifteen or twenty minutes.
When my AC does break down, and it will, I
promise you it will, I just pray that it's not
this summer. Yeah, automatically I would go to Morris Jenkins
just because of what you're sharing with me. That's the
type of business that I want to bring my dollars
in business too. Yeah, and I hope you guys get
a chance through this. I'll let others to tell that
(14:05):
story more because it's amazing what the consumer is interested in. Yeah,
you know, like I want to spend my money with
organizations that cure by other people, that do quality work,
that have a good reputation, that.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Believe leadership is important. That's important to.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Me as a consumer. Well, do you guys feel the
same way. I mean, do you get feedback like that
from others?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Absolutely? I mean, and you think about an employee's journey
that gets lost every day in so many businesses, and
for me, whenever you can provide a place of work
that provides a journey, and that journey looks different for
different people. Some people want to do more in the business,
they want to get in management, or maybe they just
want to take on more responsibilities. I mean, there's so
(14:46):
many pathways, but it's really harnessing that discus assessment with
their behaviors and values and you know, letting them come
in to do the work that they love to do. Yeah,
nobody wants to come to work and work on things
they're not good at.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
No, No, I agree.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
I realized just the other day, I was reminded that
the trades wasn't for me. We had we had a
some pump issue a couple of years back on the
home and they came back into the crawl space and
they kind of just, my, my crawl space is cleaner
than my house, Like it is immaculate. You could have
a party down there. And then the guy was saying, hey,
let me show you where the where it is. And
(15:24):
I'm crawling down there with him. I'm six foot four
if you don't see me, and I'm.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Like, how far are we going?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Man?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
And I'm literally under the ducks, bumping into walls. And
they're like, man, I have a lot of respect for
this guy. Like I got to get out of there.
I'm gonna lose it. Oh man, And he said, I've
been doing this for years. I love it, I love
the company I'm with. He goes, but I am going
to I'm going to the police Academy with Charlotte macilbur He's.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Like, I can't do this. Forever. But I really do
love it. Yeah, but it's not for everybody, right.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
It's not for everybody. And I think that that for
me is for technicians or filled employees. We're just in
trades in general. I mean, that's typically what happens. Right,
they're they're a technician for some time, and it is
tough on your body. It's a tough environment and there's
not always a pathway after that. And if you look
at our management team and our training department, you know,
(16:15):
we have a lot of opportunities that they can do
more whenever that time comes and they want to do
something different.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Oh man, my brain is swirling. Man, you're gonna make
me a better leader from this. I promise you that
when you think about you know, you know you target
your parent teenagers. I have two adult children. It's actually well,
eighteen year old calls himself an adult. I don't see
it yet. I love him to death. And he told
(16:42):
me the other day, he's like, you're always coaching me
like I'm an employee. I said, no, no, I'm coaching you
like you're my son. I coach my employees separately. But
you know, if you have one piece of advice, you
had for maybe a sixteen seventeen year old young person
coming up, what would it.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Be, Find somebody that's already successful and look at the
habits that they have, right And to me, it's about
every day having those successful habits. And what I mean
by that is is that you know, getting up and
actually you know, taking initiative of the day, take initiative
of the day, and actually have a plan for the day.
(17:17):
And that's kind of what I see, you know, that
separates success and not success. Too many times people get
up and the day gets by and they're not working
on intentional things.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So I mean I have a fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen
year old now and it's funny because they tell me
the same thing. Quit quit talking to me like I'm
an employee. I'm not a manager. And it's really just
honing in on those habits, the little things, the little
things you know, around the house, make your bed, pick
up the stuff, you know, take responsibility that goes so
(17:49):
much farther nowadays.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
And when I started to develop best warning habits and
mine and mine's pretty clear. You know, I mentioned my
wife earlier. It's funny, this wasn't part of my habit.
It is now the first thing I do when I
wake up is not make my coffee. I actually make hers.
A pre pandemic, she used to make me coffee. I
don't know what happened. But then I actually spend time
in the Word of God, with the Bible, have a
(18:12):
glass of water, get my coffee eventually. Then I'm reading journaling,
reading something outside of the Bible that's already done. Then
I'm working out, so I already have I have a
morning routine. It's about two hours long. Yeah, before I
even get up, get dressed, and get ready to go.
But I'm ready for the day.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
What's your routine? Mine's probably not as rigi and rigid
as in the morning. In the morning, especially during the pandemic.
So for years, I mean I was getting up and
leaving the house at four thirty five in the morning,
so I never saw the kids in the morning at all.
And then when the pandemic kid, I had the opportunity
to actually spend some time with them in the morning.
(18:52):
And since then my days have kind of shifted. So
I try to leave a little later in the morning
and make sure that I spend some time with them,
making sure that they're getting it up in the morning,
even if it's the summer, they might not enjoy it.
But mine's more in the evening, you know, getting home,
getting to the house, sitting on the back porch and reflecting, right,
doing a lot of reflecting and journaling. They're reflecting. I
(19:16):
think that that's where a lot of the personal development
comes from.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Right.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
You think about the day, You think about how the
day went and what could you do different and being
able to document that and be able to learn from
your own your own day. So mine's more in the evening,
I would say. And our routine routine for me and
my wife is right now we're just running ninety miles
an hour with three teenagers. You go through different chapters,
(19:40):
and we're in that kind of a busy chapter right now.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I love what you said there. I think it's so
important to establish some routine. It doesn't necessarily need to
be in the morning, but it also gives you the
ability to take a break from the business of life,
the business of work, and that becomes super critical.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
To us all it. Mine's being just intentional. I mean,
if you think think about normal days, you have eight
hours to work. Typically you have eight hours of sleep
is what's recommended. You're left with eight hours. You're left
with eight hours, become a better person, to find your craft. Yeah,
and really that's what I'm working with the kids on
right now is don't let that eight hours go by.
(20:18):
You know, don't sit on the couch and what TV
and you know, watch video games or whatever it may be.
You have eight hours left, and what people do in
that eight hours is really the difference between success and
not having success.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Absolutely, I tell I say this story a lot because
many people that begin to know me know I'm an
avid reader and consumer of information. And I always said
the reason I'm always consuming is because I'm so damn
bad at leadership.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
I got to get better. I got to figure out
best ways to do that.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, keep learning, you know, self development and learning is
super critical to me. It actually helps me be a
better husband, better father, better individual.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
You know, I'm picking up on it. But how important
is that to you and your leadership role?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Very important? Look at the disc I'm ninety nine theoretical.
I love to learn just to learn, and I don't
read anything that I can apply. And I've been that
way ever since I've been small reading things that have
intent that I can actually use in my life. So
coming to a place like Morris Jenkins where that is
the culture, right, we have our own library, we have
our own fundamentals, we have our own classes for personal development,
(21:22):
leveling up your yourself, finance classes. It was a perfect
fit for me because I don't I don't enjoy reading,
you know, books or anything that's just for pleasure. Right,
It's always intentional, and it's always something that I may
not be able to use today, but I know that
I'll be able to use it later.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
But there also could be pleasure in that too, right.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
There is a lot of times people have like I think,
I think this is kind of ingrain into.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
The CEO of the future. CEO.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
It's reading for personal growth, you know, business leadership, it
could be whatever it is, the personal growth. A lot
of people see that as work. I just see that
as life. Yeah, right, so, and I just think that
people that see that as work are never going to
enjoy what it takes to get to the process if
(22:12):
you will, to get to where you.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Are, that's right, you have to be passionate about it.
Trust me. My wife all the time says, you know,
you need to stop and relax. And I'm the type
that never really sits down, right. I always have something
to do. I have a list to do, or have
something to try to accomplish.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah, it actually can be. And you know, I'll just
ask the question. I mean, you could actually be relaxing
by doing productive things.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Oh, it's very relaxed.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
You don't need to just become a vegetable.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
No, it's it's actually quite the opposite. It's it becomes
stressful for me if I'm sitting around and if I
feel like an hour went by or two hours went
by for the day and I didn't have something something
done that was productive, that is more stressful for me
than actually doing the work. And sometimes it's just my
number work, right, working around the house, cut in the grass,
or whatever it may be. I just I'm always staying busy.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah, action is critical. Action is critical. So let's talk
a little bit about the company. You know we talked
a little earlier. You're in and around Charlotte Greenville, South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yeah, it's our location.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
New location, fifty employees, so you guys are obviously committed
to that market. What are the big plans next three
to five years?
Speaker 3 (23:18):
We have.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
So what I always share ours we have a five
year plan to be the biggest, baddest, and best.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Youth serving organization in the Southern United States. Big goals.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
We're going to serve eight thousand unique children plus their
family members in those states in five years. We're one
year into that journey. What's your five year plan?
Speaker 2 (23:39):
I mean right now, we're a month three in the
Greenville right, So I mean we have to SOLIDI fire
position in Greenville, and we have to continue to build
a culture and build a company down there, because for me,
Greenville is not about just opening a business and looking
at it from year one to year two. We're going
to be done there for decades, right, and we want
(24:00):
to make sure that we're building it right. So that's
obviously in the five year plan, building it the right way,
but providing an opportunity, you know, whether it's through expansion
in the new markets or whatever. You know, as we
talked about people being promoted within Morris Jenkins when we
went down to Greenville, that provided opportunity for our employees,
for the ones that said, hey, I've been working on myself.
(24:22):
I've been you know, becoming a better person, and I
want the opportunity to do more. So that's obviously the
most important thing for me. And as we look into
the next five years, we're looking at you know, service
and other areas in the Carolinas. And for me, it's
not about planting a flag for Morris Jenkins saying oh,
we're in a new market. It's actually about providing that
(24:43):
opportunity because we're a growing company. And when you're a
growing company, you have to provide those opportunities. And if
we don't provide it good people will go find somewhere
else that will provide that opportunity. So for me, the
next five years is continue to make you know, Morris
Jenkins dominant brand in Greenville, and also you know, for
(25:06):
the homeowners in Greenville and even Charlotte, it's so hard.
It's so hard to get somebody to help you take
care of your house. I mean, it is so hard,
and we want to make sure that you know we're
making it easy, you know, being there six am to midnight,
seven days a week, at no additional charge for the
weekends or holidays. You know, when you get home at
five or six o'clock in the evening and you don't
(25:26):
have air, I'm a consumer as well, and I know
what it's like trying to get a contractor out of
your house on a Friday night at eight o'clock. And
that's our culture at its core, right, making it easy
for the customers, but also providing opportunities for the employees.
So that's kind of our five year plan to continue
to expand upon that.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
So you talk about this, you know I'm picking up
bits and piece of this, but I want to ask you,
because we've had to kind of develop this. You know,
there's a lot of differentiators I'm picking up on. But
if I had to ask you CEO, CEO, leader to leader,
what is Morris Jenkins differentiator.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
In a market?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
It's our people hire for character, train for skill. Right,
You're going to love the people that you have in
your home, and we have processes that are going to
make it easy for you. We want to make sure
that it's in the effortless experience. We remove the friction
because really, at the end of the day, all you're
wanting is your air conditioner fixed or your plumbing fixed,
Like you don't care about all the other stuff. That's
(26:26):
not what you asked for. We want to be there
when it's convenient for you, and we want to be
able to take care of the home and get out
of your hair. I mean, that's the main thing is
that people don't have time to sit around and wait.
They don't have time to wait on an appointment, wait
for somebody not to show up, or to take it
extending amount of time at your house. We try to
(26:47):
get in and do same day service, same day installs,
and then you can get back to your life and
then move on to taking care of um.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Sign me up, brother, sign me up. Like, get out
of your hair piece is so right in my face
right now.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
My wife.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
You know, some people in the rim know my wife,
and my wife love her to death, my best friend,
but she likes to do a lot a short amount
of time. So we got a little pool project going on,
which is okay because you're out of the house. Take
all the time you want outside of my home. Then
all of a sudden, we got a little cabinet project happening.
It's a two week project. Strangers in the house. I
(27:20):
want him out of my hair.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yeah, I want him to do.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
The work, do it well, and I'm literally I turn
it into you this this weekend.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Next week, I'm leaving five thirty. I'll be back up
five to thirty when nobody out other than my family.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Some did well, and I mean it's a shame that.
I mean, it is tough to get people to help you. Yeah,
from a you know, showing up standpoint or just being
able to fix it right the first time and that
way you can get back to your life.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
One more question than I want to talk a little
bit about community here in a second. But you know
this move to Greenville, that that must have been very
thoughtful on plan, especially given the culture that you have,
the amount of you know, personal professional development.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
You guys offer.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Tell me a little bit about what it looked like
as an organization that's grown into new cities, new states
and not perfect at it because this is I guess
I'm just asking you for some advice.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Were what were your thoughts and how.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Are you bringing that culture from the Charlotte area into
Greenville and into that Greenville body work.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Well, out of the fifty employees, I would say it's
probably I need to get the number on it, it's
probably seventy or eighty percent of the people that actually
picked up and moved from Charlotte to go to Greenville,
and that was a wonders of your culture well, and
that was important to us. I mean, we didn't want
to go into a new new location and start from scratch, right.
We wanted to take the people that have been there
(28:37):
for a long time. The general manager that's running Greenville
has been with the More Sneakings for ever ten years.
He bleeds blue and yellow. He understands the culture. He
understands the importance of hiring for character, training for skill,
but also teaching the fundamentals. So that was a big
part of it. If we wouldn't have had the population
that said, hey, I want the opportunity to do more,
(28:59):
it might not have been the right time to go.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Wow. So you were kind of assessing your internal team
on who who was ready, willing and able to go
into that market live stand it up, kind of be
curious of the culture.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
If you will.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yep, Yeah, I mean that way. Whenever we go down
to Greenville, you're getting the same experience, right. They have
the same values, they believe the same thing, and as
we continue to hire down there, we're going to bring
in the people that believe those things too.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Yeah, So you're listening. This is much more than an
air conditioning company.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Oh yeah, that's what we do on the side.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Man.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I'm just learning from you. I'm just learning from you.
A lot to learn here. That's amazing. Kudos to what
mister Jenkins started and what you're carrying on. So let's
talk a little bit about you again. Another important thing,
especially where we're sitting and around the Charlotte, Greater Charlotte,
Mecklenburg area, Gaston County and others. Now you're going into
you're in Greenville, you're not going and you were in
(29:55):
that community, you verbalize, Hey, we're going to be there
for decades to come. We're committed. Thompson is a community organization.
Tell me a little bit about Morris Jenkins commitment to community.
What does that look like? Is that part of who
you guys are, who you want to be?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, I mean we're we're always looking to support the
local communities. But our big effort and our big drive
is Levine Children's Hospital. Nice That's where all of our
efforts go. The employees. We were just there last week
or the week before, and our employees through weekly donations
and different rifles and things that we have. We just
(30:31):
donated one hundred and fifty eight thousand dollars to Levine's
and then they usually have projects that you know, they'll
give us to raise money for. We finished off their playground,
which had been you know, not available for the kids
for years, and it's the only place that these kids
can go out and actually get fresh air and actually
have fun and be a kid where they're in a
(30:52):
bad situation. So I would say that's that's our main
driver in the community. When I came to Morris Jenkins,
it was spread out a little bit. You know, you
had ten or twelve organizations that you could actually contribute to.
And I think it was around twenty ten or maybe
sooner that mister Jenkins said that you know what, we're
gonna take all those efforts and we're gonna we're gonna
(31:13):
put those efforts into Levine Children's.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Love it. Love it.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
And by the way, just as a non for profit leader,
I love that, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
And a lot of people might say, hey, let me.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Tell you about who we are, and that's fine, but
here's what I will say, Kudos to you of what
you're doing. And I would encourage other corporate and business
leaders to think about that same approach. It's you know,
it's like, I'm a big peanut butter fan. I love
peanut butter, but when I take a little bit of
peanut butter, I spread it across the bread, all of
a sudden, I don't taste much peanut butter anymore.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
All right, Well, same things.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Happens with impact. When you start diluting your impact salt
and pepper everywhere, you're not going to get the same
amount of impact. So I'm glad that you guys made
that decision. Now I would always be available for a conversation,
but either way, I think that's the right approach. I
really believe that at my core, go deeper with a
high impact organization like Levines. We all we all know
(32:08):
what that means to children, families in a community, And
that's amazing what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Well.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
And every time where they are visiting or meeting about
the next project, every time I'm there, run into an
employee that is having to use the services of Levines.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
So they as you run into them as a customer
of Levines while you're there, yep.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
And the service that they provide and the things that
they believe in, I mean, it aligns so much with
our culture. So it makes it easy to partner with
them and to actually support them.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Udos, kudos to you guys. I think you guys are
doing the right thing there. We're an organization that doesn't
need a little bit from from a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
I mean it always helps. I have told every corporate
partner of ours or potential corporate partner.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
I don't care if you go deep with us, go
deep with somebody, just don't spread it.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
So with them. But nobody tasted.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
There's zero impact when it's red so thin. So I'm
really happy to hear that you're doing that. And I'm
retiring of four or five years, so it doesn't really
So one other kind of question is we kind of
wrap this up here In a few minutes. You talked
about brand, like if you've been in the Charlotte market.
I'm even thinking now that Greenville market off to reach
(33:18):
out to. Some of our team members are wearing Greenville
as well. Morris Jenkins is everywhere, especially during the summer months,
but they're everywhere. You guys do a good job, great
brand credibility. I now know more about what's the heart
behind that, and I think that's amazing. How important is
that brand, story, marketing, advertising, telling the community about what
(33:41):
you guys are, who you are, why you're doing what
you're doing. And to your point, it's not just about
growing the business.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Well, I think that if you look at our brand
and our marketing, I mean, everybody in our commercials works
at Morris Jenkins, right, they're all employees, so at showcase
and really who you're going to have in your home.
And for me, whenever you're you're showing that side of
the culture side of it, you know, I kind of
look at the local economy and I look at what
(34:07):
is Morris Jenkins doing with that local community, local economy.
You know, all of our money and everything that we
spend stays right here. But when you think about the employees,
you know, going back to my story, and as I
said before, there's hundreds of stories within Morris Jenkins that way.
So we're showcasing the employee, but we're changing their lives
(34:29):
and they're also contributing back to the economy right and
through the community. So for me, that's kind of what
our marketing shows. We don't talk about heating and air,
we don't talk about plumbing, we don't talk about electrical
we're actually showcasing our employees and who you're going to
have in your home, and you know, with the intent
of making sure that it's easy, right, it's an effortless
experience that you can get what you need taken care
(34:50):
of and get back to your life.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Here's a question that I asked leaders.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
So, as a non for profit one hundred and forty
years old, we just celebrated one hundred and four preaty
last month, born and raised here on the Charlotte market.
It's kind of interesting. I know, I don't look that old,
but the wor old. But here's the reality. For one
hundred and thirty six of those years. If you didn't
receive a service, we're unemployed, weren't connected through some kind
(35:15):
of historical board member or come to a luncheon, you
don't know who we are, you don't know what we do,
you don't know how you can help, all right, So
we started down this pathway of marketing at a higher
level with the intent to want us to tell the
community what's going on in it outside of the news,
(35:36):
who we are, what we do, how well we do it,
and how you can how you can help. And for us,
it's pretty easy, you know, we're always looking for volunteers,
We're always looking for foster parents, with the largest foster
care agency in the Carolinas for over four hundred and
fifty foster homes.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
And then we're always looking for corporate partners.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
You know, notice I didn't say donors, because once you
start doing those other things, you'll determine what.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Your heart will lead you to to give if that's
where your heart is.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
But three years ago we started doing that and I
started getting a lot of questions about you know, why
are you doing that? Well, because nobody knows who we are,
and we've been in this community for one hundred and
thirty six We're like part of the inn fabric. So
here's my question. I ask a lot of leaders. If
you stop marketing today, what would happen.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I think that Morris Jenkins's name in Charlotte, people know
who we are, and I think if we went dark
on marketing for a while, I think that people would
still know who to call. And I don't think it
would change our culture a whole lot. I mean, obviously,
you know, marketing would have an impact on the business.
It's going to have an impact on any business, so
(36:48):
you know, I mean, it may it may impact some
of the you know, call counts or something like that,
but it's not going to change who we are. For me,
the marketing again showcases our employees and when you think
about other business is not just in the trades, but
think about any industry and think about my story and
think about other people's story within Morris Jenkins, you know,
(37:09):
when you can showcase that story for me, it's always
you know, if you think about other companies and asking
them who's their brandom, right, who has growing up in
the business, and who's been promoted for it. So I
don't know if that necessarily answers your question from a
marketing standpoint. We're massive on marketing, Like everybody in Charlotte
knows who we are. So I'm not gonna downplay it
and say there wouldn't be an impact. But that's not
(37:29):
our culture.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Well, what I'm hearing is your heart that right, right?
I think that's super important.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
You know, I've had several leaders big companies national what
would happen? Everybody knows who you are, Like, everybody knows
who you are. You're almost as big as Thompson. You know,
I'm kidding about that. Everybody, but you know, and it's like, oh,
if we stop marketing today, we'd start losing market share
in two weeks. Like I'm talking about big brand, I'm
talking about you know them. Everybody in this room, everybody
(37:56):
in this building knows that these brands I'm talking about there,
we would start losing market share in two weeks.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Now.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Of course, I love your response. Actually, you talk about
who we are. Yeah, we're not going to change who
we are.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Because of that.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
It might affect it that part of the business, but
we're not gonna We're not gonna affect who we are.
I just think it was interesting. I had another one big,
big department store. You start marketing, start dying. I just again,
those answers are great and and it tells me they're
committed to telling people who they are, getting their brand right,
being available to the community.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
I actually love your response. Well, every wing about to
who you guys were.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Well, and we have a large membership base right that
people need a home service provider to take care of
their HVAC, plumbing, or electrical needs. And we have you know,
over fifty thousand members that are part of that membership,
and that that's who we're doing business with. We're looking
for a relationship customer, not a transactional customer that's just
looking to do business one day and never have business
(38:52):
done again. Right, We're looking for somebody that is looking
for that home service provider and that our values align.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Love that.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I love how you talked about aligning your values to
you actually B two C customer. Yeah, I think that's phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
You've said it. I think you've said it.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
But as we wrap, what do you want these two
large and growing in dynamic communities to know about Morris Jenkins?
Speaker 2 (39:19):
I want to. I want them to know that the
work we do is important, not just out at their home,
but the work we're going back at the office. Right,
we're actually taking every single employee and we're investing in Right,
We're invested, and I'm invested into them. I want to
see their lives change. I want to see them become
better people. I want them to see have a good
quality of life, be able to spend time at home
(39:39):
whenever they need to, and just want to. For me,
that's my passion, right, I mean, and I think that
passion comes a little bit from my story, but also
been able to see it in other people. So for me,
it's not just about the heating and air cooling and plumbing.
It's it's about the employees that are coming into our
business and what opportunities are we providing for them. And
(40:02):
it's not always momentarily in moment money or anything. It's
about them as an individual, right their character and if
we can make them better. You know, That's what I
want everybody to understand. That's who Morris Jenkins is. You know,
we just do heating and air plumbing and electrical that's
the trade. But Morris Jenkins is much larger than that.
We're changing lives.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Oh love it, my friend, as are we. I now
know I need to go to the University of Phoenix
to start recruiting people. They may be learning the wrong things.
But man, that was amazing Brandon, and thank you so
much for joining us. There is no doubt in my mind.
One is I think you walked into an organization that
invested into you heavily, but you invested into yourself. You've
(40:46):
now invested back into that through your leadership journey. So
you've taken something, you're evolving it. I am not a
member yet, but I promise you when when crap goes
bad in my house and it will. It was an
eight bill. I'm calling your company. Well, if you if
you're a matter of factor, you told me who you
were and what you guys are about, and that's a
(41:07):
that's huge.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Well, we appreciate it. And if you decided to become
a member beforehand, you might not have that breakdown.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
You already here. Get in there early. Man, don't don't
don't react after the fact.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
That reminds me. I had a four year old dog.
We were on a trip during the you know that
ice storm we had here and eleven dollars surgery and
I found out if he would have had pet insurance,
it would have been five hundred bucks.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
So there's a lesson to be learned there.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Everybody, get in there early, get that preventative stuff going.
And again, if you hadn't heard the heart of the organization,
the hard of the leader leading that organization, and that
doesn't matter to you as a customer, check yourself. I
think that's phenomenal. Congratulations for what you guys might have built,
what you're building. We're in your markets. We're here to
(41:58):
root for you. We own and operate properties. I'll be
going back and asking my Chief Facilities officer if you
guys are a vendor or not, and if not, what
do we need to do to work with a good
partner like you guys. So again, thanks for coming on board.
As I knew it would be. Actually, it was better
than I thought it was going to be, and I
thought it was gonna be great. You just filled my cup. Brother, No,
(42:19):
thank me a lot to think about it.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Thank you for having me, and I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
All right, Well, Brandon Anderson at Morris Jenkins, thank you
so much. Another episode of CEOs You Should Know brought
to you by iHeartMedia, empowered by Thompson.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Thank you,
All right, welcome to another episode of CEOs you Should Know,
brought to you by iHeartMedia here in the Charlotte market,
powered by Thompson Yes, that's Thompson Child and Family Focus.
And today we have Brandon Anderson, CEO of Morris Jenkins here. Brandon,
thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Absolutely, And I was thinking about this before. This is
a busy season for your company?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Oh it is?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, yeah, Unless I'm wrong, summers are really pectic.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh yeah, I mean you look at the heat wave
that's coming. It's it's gonna be busy.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I know it.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Somebody told me. I don't know if it's true or not.
It's supposed to be into triple digits this weekend.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Is that accurate?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yes, it's it's gonna be over one hundred degrees and
we have a you know, probably a good solid week
of it. So it's gonna be it's gonna be hot,
it's gonna be miserable, and you know we're gonna be
ready to serve Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
You can be busy, brother.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, you guys twenty four seven, three sixty five.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
We operate six am to midnight, seven days a week
o come. We were there nights and weekends, no additional charge.
But in our industry, typically every company says they're twenty
four to seven. But as a trades person, that's a
rough life to live, so you know, we try to
honor that and make sure that we're not bringing those
technicians out, you know, late at night for unnecessary reason.
So we stick pretty much to the to the midnight.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Thank you for being honest about that, because as a
customer sometimes you know, I'm reaching out to somebody's twenty
four seven, but as you do, they're not twenty.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Four cents, right. Yeah, everybody says they are, but that's
not the case.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Trust me.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
When your air conditioning goes out in the middle of
summer in Carolina's and you want somebody to be twenty
four seven or at least honest with you about when
they're at to show up.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, and you want to make sure that you do
show up.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So let's just hop right in because I think that's
a good segue. We talk about honesty and trust and integrity.
You know, your brand and your company's known for those things.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
How important is that to you? As the CEO of
that organization.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
It's extremely important. I mean that's part of our core
values that we say at every meeting. The technicians come
in and share examples of that, you know, honesty, integrity, fairness,
and respect for each individual. So I mean that's at
our core, that's who we are, and that's kind of
what we love about in weeks the employees to live
by that. We don't have much control of the technicians
because they're not they're not in the building right, And
(02:07):
you have to have that strong belief system and strong
culture to be able to provide that service and be
able to trust the people that are out of your home.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
See, I told you you were going to feed me
a little bit today, you're already hitting me values, culture standards.
So tell me a little bit about more about those values.
And as the leader, how important is it to you?
I know, the leader of our organization, every decision I make,
every decision we make collectively, we have to be values aligned.
If it's not values aligned, generally, it doesn't work for
(02:36):
the work we're doing, and it gets us a drift.
It ends up being bad for a customer's communities. Tell
me a little bit about how important values are at
more shinkings.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I mean I would say that's the up most important.
I mean, if you know we're going to continue to
scale and grow and to keep more stinking into who
we are, every individual there has to live by those values.
I mean it's a it's a non ago.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
And even more importantly to you said that, the technicians,
very similar to our organization, are not always in the
building with us. They're out empowering them to do what
they're supposed to be doing. But they've got to be.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Aligned, that's right, And you know you have to you
have to hire people that have that in them. Right.
We say that we hire for character, train for skill.
So we train a lot of technicians from the ground up.
We have schools that we put them through. You know,
they come from different industries, so we're not necessarily looking
for the skill that they have. We're looking for that
(03:30):
character of a human being. Right? Do they have that
honesty in that integrity?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
All right?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Take me to church man, I want to hear more
about that. How do you how do you vt for that?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I mean we have well, one we have an m
j U that teaches all of our fundamentals, our management
Fundamentals at Morris Jenkins and that is where we we
we teach how to go find those individuals. Right. We
look for certain behaviors and values. We cover DISC. We're
firm believers in DISC. Okay, understand than who people are,
how they operate, what they believe in, So we have
(04:04):
an interviewing process for it. But really you're just looking
for people that are man. They just want to do
good in the world, right, And I mean, unfortunately sometimes
that's hard to find.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
In twenty twenty six, it seems harder to find than
it did. That's right, at least from my seat on
a bus where I'm at and the work I've been
over for thirty three years.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
For sure, I'm love.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
That you guys are using performance based assessments, behavioral assessments
like the DISK or a predictive index shop. If you're
familiar with predictive indecks, you can almost imagine what I
may be there. I'm a Maverick, right, risk is my
friend and process is not, and then my team has
to deal with pick up the pieces afterwards.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Very similar to me. Not big on details.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, but it's okay because you got to surround yourself
with people that are right.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
That's super important.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, and that's the importance of disc is understanding who's
on the team, where are the gaps, and what does
each person bring? Yeah, you know, because that if you're
living in the world that you don't value or believe
in and you're trying to be that person, that's the
whole the whole culture, the whole business suffers. Yeah, so
you do have to surround yourself with those high, high
character people.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
I love what you're saying there. We implement Patrick Linci's
ideal team players.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Oh right, humble, hungry and smart.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
You know. Then we're not talking about super intelligence on
the smart side, I mean, because if not, I wouldn't
have passed the vetting.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
But you gotta be people smart at late.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And figure out what's going on with people, you know,
when they're down, when they need to pick me up,
when they need a conversation with those type of things.
Sounds like you It sounds like by the by the
by the shaking of the head. You guys are familiar
with Lyncioni's work.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Oh yeah, that's one of our fundamentals. Ideal team player
and the five dysfunctions of the team.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So there's there's no doubt when I retire, I can
come and make coffee somewhere.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
In Morris Shinkins. Yeah, I have a little fun. Maybe
maybe I'll continue to learn how.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
To well Morris stinkins. I can tell you we're known
for our commercials and marketing, but we're also known for
having fun. Yeah, I mean, that's that to me, is
the most important thing at the workplace.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
One of the things I'm picking up really quick is
you ain't to be known for it externally, but you're
also you guys are really focused on leadership development. Yeah,
developing people in general outside of leadership and picking that
up in a short period of time.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
So kudos to you.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Well, I mean that's if you look at my story,
that is Yeah, that's part of it.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Right, Let's get into that. Let's get into that story.
Tell us a little bit about kind of when you started,
what you did, and how did you get to where
you are now.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
So when I came to Morris Jenkins in two thousand
and six, I was looking for a job, all right.
I wasn't looking for a career. I was looking for
a job to you know, make some money. Until I
figured out what I wanted to do. I was actually
going to school for business management at University of Phoenix
here in Charlotte at night. And once I got the
Morris Jenkins and saw the culture and the values and
(06:45):
what Dewey Jenkins was teaching, right, I mean he was
teaching people how to run the business. He was teaching
them how to manage people. And the longer I was there,
I realized, you know, this place is teaching me more
than what I'm learning a college. So I decide is
not to continue that college journey and state of Morris
Shinkins and really bought into the culture, bought into the
(07:07):
teaching that mister Jenkins was teaching the management team, and
you know that kind of kickstarted my journey went from
being a helper in the HVAC installed apartment to twenty
years later being president of the company. And their stories
all through Morris Sjenkins with the same path as what
(07:27):
I took, right, promoting within teaching them those fundamentals, teaching
them how to run the business. So that's at our court,
mor Shinkins, right, We're looking for those people that have
high character and then we'll teach you, teach you how
to manage people. Manage conflict and manage those behaviors.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
All right, man, I'm foreseeing a field trip coming out
to visit you.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I love what I'm hearing.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
So when you talk about internal promotion preparation, teaching people
how to run the business, that's phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
A lot of businesses don't do that.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Ye I don't care what your status is on tax,
whether your government and play, they're just not taking the
time to teach people to.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Grow in that way.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So when you think about that and you talk about
internal promotions, you know, because obviously if you can train
up your people to be better, that's great for the culture,
it's great for the business, it's great for everything you're
trying to get accomplished.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
When you look at your team around you, now what
percentage of those are internal promotions for versus somebody you
may needed to bring in from the outside.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I think right now our management team is made up
of about sixty five to seventy percent of the people
that get promoted with the WOW. And for me, those
tons of individuals that I've either managed directly in the
past or have been on the team of mine at
some point. For me, it's being able to see their
lives change and not necessarily change from a materialistic type,
(08:49):
but they become better people. They become better stewards of
the community, they become better parents, better siblings, better neighbors
because they're developing themselves, right, and they're COMPLI things that
nobody really thought that they could. That's how I felt anyway, And.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
That's amazing just to hear that percentage of the management
team that were internal promotions. That's probably an anomaly. Yeah,
you know, I think a lot of us strive for that.
We want that a lot of people. One is they
don't have the systems in place. They may not have
the rigor in place. They may I have the culture
in place to get to get to what you're developing
and what was developed prior to you being there.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah, and what a phenomenal story.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Is there a book in the work somewhere downline or
is there one out there?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
We have one now, okay, all right, and that's mister
Jing and stole me. It's been out for a while
and it kind of goes over our culture to get
in that. Yeah, it's a quick read, quick read. It's
something that tells you all about more stinkings. I mean
that talks about all the fundamentals and our culture and
what we believe in. But you never know, there might
(09:52):
be a book number two coming.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Oh I love it. I love it. I love it.
Believe it or not. I wrote a book. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
People laugh when I tell them it was actually called
it's called Unlearned. Most of what I learned about leadership
was wrong. So let me ask you this question. When
you're thinking about, there's so much that you learned that
was right in your journey?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Was there anything that you can think about now?
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Obviously it sounds like a foundation has laid it's all
kind of education evidence back leadership development. Was there anything
you learned coming up that you're like, looking back on it,
that's a what not to do? Well?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Honestly, I was going to school for business management, and
when I was seeing how what we were being taught
at Morris Jenkins and then what I was being taught
in school, I mean it was a lot of red tape,
a lot of corporate talk. I mean that's just seriously
the way that it was. And learning that and not
seeing that in the workplace at Morris Jenkins, I knew
that there was another way to do it wow, and
(10:48):
Morris Jenkins, I mean, we have rules and we have,
you know, a handbook, but really we look for those
values and if people can lean on those values, our
core values to make a decision on it, that's all
they need to do, and we'll make sure that we'll
have their back on it. And it allows us to
move quickly. It allows people to make the right decision
(11:09):
without having to go to page one hundred and sixty
seven in the handbook.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
That being stated, I am not going to have my
children listen to this podcast because I do want them
to go to the university somewhere, if nothing else, just
to develop social skills and the ability to work with
other people.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
But I don't disagree with what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
My fourteen year old and you shared earlier that you
have a fourteen year old he says to me constantly, dead,
I really don't need to go to college.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
YouTube's out there. I can.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Actually I'm going to be a YouTuber. Of course, he's
got a YouTube channel with two subscribers.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Me and his mom. So I'm thinking it may not
be coming.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
But I love what you're saying because to your point,
I don't think you could be super successful. You can
be a great leader. You can learn leadership, you learn
management and learn trades and not.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Go to universities and colleges.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
And I don't think a lot of people really understand
the heights you can achieve.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Ultrn to pass.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
There are. And I would say number one, I would
advise people to go to college if they're going to go,
if that's the route they want to go. And I
think I found myself in a unique position. Not all
businesses operate the way Morstingits do. I think if I
was at a different if I was a different business,
my story would be completely different.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Well, and kudos to whatever they've built and you've continued
to build and grow and evolve, because I agree with
you as somebody as a student of business. Not a
lot of businesses and organizations that are small, medium, are
large are then what you're doing now.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I think they take the human element out of it.
And for me, it's our employees spend more time at
our business than they do it home, and that matters
a lot to me. That matters a lot to me
to where when they show up in the morning, they're
excited and when they leave at the end of the day,
they leave knowing that they had fun and they did
a good job and they were respected for it. And
(12:59):
in the in the trades, I can tell you that's
tough because I mean it's getting ready to be one
hundred degrees. Every technician you know in Charlotte's going to
be out working in extreme temperatures, but a lot of
them are going to be working long hours. And for me,
it's very important to make sure that there's a home
life work life balance. And for the last eight years,
(13:19):
I mean, our technicians have averaged just over forty hours
a week, and that is unheard of in our industry.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Really, it's very love. Is that considered love very low?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I mean, every other technician during the summer is going
to be working sixty sixty to eighty hours a week,
and you think about the family time that they're missing,
the parties, the games or whatever. So for me, that's
that's the most important thing. Making sure people have the
time to spend where it's most valuable for them.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Just hanging out with you for fifteen or twenty minutes.
When my AC does break down, and it will, I
promise you it will, I just pray that it's not
this summer. Yeah, automatically I would go to Morris Jenkins
just because of what you're sharing with me. That's the
type of business that I want to bring my dollars
in business too. Yeah, and I hope you guys get
a chance through this. I'll let others to tell that
(14:05):
story more because it's amazing what the consumer is interested in. Yeah,
you know, like I want to spend my money with
organizations that cure by other people, that do quality work,
that have a good reputation, that.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Believe leadership is important. That's important to.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Me as a consumer. Well, do you guys feel the
same way. I mean, do you get feedback like that
from others?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Absolutely? I mean, and you think about an employee's journey
that gets lost every day in so many businesses, and
for me, whenever you can provide a place of work
that provides a journey, and that journey looks different for
different people. Some people want to do more in the business,
they want to get in management, or maybe they just
want to take on more responsibilities. I mean, there's so
(14:46):
many pathways, but it's really harnessing that discus assessment with
their behaviors and values and you know, letting them come
in to do the work that they love to do. Yeah,
nobody wants to come to work and work on things
they're not good at.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
No, No, I agree.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
I realized just the other day, I was reminded that
the trades wasn't for me. We had we had a
some pump issue a couple of years back on the
home and they came back into the crawl space and
they kind of just, my, my crawl space is cleaner
than my house, Like it is immaculate. You could have
a party down there. And then the guy was saying, hey,
let me show you where the where it is. And
(15:24):
I'm crawling down there with him. I'm six foot four
if you don't see me, and I'm.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Like, how far are we going?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Man?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
And I'm literally under the ducks, bumping into walls. And
they're like, man, I have a lot of respect for
this guy. Like I got to get out of there.
I'm gonna lose it. Oh man, And he said, I've
been doing this for years. I love it, I love
the company I'm with. He goes, but I am going
to I'm going to the police Academy with Charlotte macilbur He's.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Like, I can't do this. Forever. But I really do
love it. Yeah, but it's not for everybody, right.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
It's not for everybody. And I think that that for
me is for technicians or filled employees. We're just in
trades in general. I mean, that's typically what happens. Right,
they're they're a technician for some time, and it is
tough on your body. It's a tough environment and there's
not always a pathway after that. And if you look
at our management team and our training department, you know,
(16:15):
we have a lot of opportunities that they can do
more whenever that time comes and they want to do
something different.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Oh man, my brain is swirling. Man, you're gonna make
me a better leader from this. I promise you that
when you think about you know, you know you target
your parent teenagers. I have two adult children. It's actually well,
eighteen year old calls himself an adult. I don't see
it yet. I love him to death. And he told
(16:42):
me the other day, he's like, you're always coaching me
like I'm an employee. I said, no, no, I'm coaching you
like you're my son. I coach my employees separately. But
you know, if you have one piece of advice, you
had for maybe a sixteen seventeen year old young person
coming up, what would it.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Be, Find somebody that's already successful and look at the
habits that they have, right And to me, it's about
every day having those successful habits. And what I mean
by that is is that you know, getting up and
actually you know, taking initiative of the day, take initiative
of the day, and actually have a plan for the day.
(17:17):
And that's kind of what I see, you know, that
separates success and not success. Too many times people get
up and the day gets by and they're not working
on intentional things.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So I mean I have a fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen
year old now and it's funny because they tell me
the same thing. Quit quit talking to me like I'm
an employee. I'm not a manager. And it's really just
honing in on those habits, the little things, the little
things you know, around the house, make your bed, pick
up the stuff, you know, take responsibility that goes so
(17:49):
much farther nowadays.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
And when I started to develop best warning habits and
mine and mine's pretty clear. You know, I mentioned my
wife earlier. It's funny, this wasn't part of my habit.
It is now the first thing I do when I
wake up is not make my coffee. I actually make hers.
A pre pandemic, she used to make me coffee. I
don't know what happened. But then I actually spend time
in the Word of God, with the Bible, have a
(18:12):
glass of water, get my coffee eventually. Then I'm reading journaling,
reading something outside of the Bible that's already done. Then
I'm working out, so I already have I have a
morning routine. It's about two hours long. Yeah, before I
even get up, get dressed, and get ready to go.
But I'm ready for the day.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
What's your routine? Mine's probably not as rigi and rigid
as in the morning. In the morning, especially during the pandemic.
So for years, I mean I was getting up and
leaving the house at four thirty five in the morning,
so I never saw the kids in the morning at all.
And then when the pandemic kid, I had the opportunity
to actually spend some time with them in the morning.
(18:52):
And since then my days have kind of shifted. So
I try to leave a little later in the morning
and make sure that I spend some time with them,
making sure that they're getting it up in the morning,
even if it's the summer, they might not enjoy it.
But mine's more in the evening, you know, getting home,
getting to the house, sitting on the back porch and reflecting, right,
doing a lot of reflecting and journaling. They're reflecting. I
(19:16):
think that that's where a lot of the personal development
comes from.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Right.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
You think about the day, You think about how the
day went and what could you do different and being
able to document that and be able to learn from
your own your own day. So mine's more in the evening,
I would say. And our routine routine for me and
my wife is right now we're just running ninety miles
an hour with three teenagers. You go through different chapters,
(19:40):
and we're in that kind of a busy chapter right now.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I love what you said there. I think it's so
important to establish some routine. It doesn't necessarily need to
be in the morning, but it also gives you the
ability to take a break from the business of life,
the business of work, and that becomes super critical.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
To us all it. Mine's being just intentional. I mean,
if you think think about normal days, you have eight
hours to work. Typically you have eight hours of sleep
is what's recommended. You're left with eight hours. You're left
with eight hours, become a better person, to find your craft. Yeah,
and really that's what I'm working with the kids on
right now is don't let that eight hours go by.
(20:18):
You know, don't sit on the couch and what TV
and you know, watch video games or whatever it may be.
You have eight hours left, and what people do in
that eight hours is really the difference between success and
not having success.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Absolutely, I tell I say this story a lot because
many people that begin to know me know I'm an
avid reader and consumer of information. And I always said
the reason I'm always consuming is because I'm so damn
bad at leadership.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
I got to get better. I got to figure out
best ways to do that.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, keep learning, you know, self development and learning is
super critical to me. It actually helps me be a
better husband, better father, better individual.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
You know, I'm picking up on it. But how important
is that to you and your leadership role?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Very important? Look at the disc I'm ninety nine theoretical.
I love to learn just to learn, and I don't
read anything that I can apply. And I've been that
way ever since I've been small reading things that have
intent that I can actually use in my life. So
coming to a place like Morris Jenkins where that is
the culture, right, we have our own library, we have
our own fundamentals, we have our own classes for personal development,
(21:22):
leveling up your yourself, finance classes. It was a perfect
fit for me because I don't I don't enjoy reading,
you know, books or anything that's just for pleasure. Right,
It's always intentional, and it's always something that I may
not be able to use today, but I know that
I'll be able to use it later.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
But there also could be pleasure in that too, right.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
There is a lot of times people have like I think,
I think this is kind of ingrain into.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
The CEO of the future. CEO.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
It's reading for personal growth, you know, business leadership, it
could be whatever it is, the personal growth. A lot
of people see that as work. I just see that
as life. Yeah, right, so, and I just think that
people that see that as work are never going to
enjoy what it takes to get to the process if
(22:12):
you will, to get to where you.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Are, that's right, you have to be passionate about it.
Trust me. My wife all the time says, you know,
you need to stop and relax. And I'm the type
that never really sits down, right. I always have something
to do. I have a list to do, or have
something to try to accomplish.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah, it actually can be. And you know, I'll just
ask the question. I mean, you could actually be relaxing
by doing productive things.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Oh, it's very relaxed.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
You don't need to just become a vegetable.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
No, it's it's actually quite the opposite. It's it becomes
stressful for me if I'm sitting around and if I
feel like an hour went by or two hours went
by for the day and I didn't have something something
done that was productive, that is more stressful for me
than actually doing the work. And sometimes it's just my
number work, right, working around the house, cut in the grass,
or whatever it may be. I just I'm always staying busy.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah, action is critical. Action is critical. So let's talk
a little bit about the company. You know we talked
a little earlier. You're in and around Charlotte Greenville, South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yeah, it's our location.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
New location, fifty employees, so you guys are obviously committed
to that market. What are the big plans next three
to five years?
Speaker 3 (23:18):
We have.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
So what I always share ours we have a five
year plan to be the biggest, baddest, and best.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Youth serving organization in the Southern United States. Big goals.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
We're going to serve eight thousand unique children plus their
family members in those states in five years. We're one
year into that journey. What's your five year plan?
Speaker 2 (23:39):
I mean right now, we're a month three in the
Greenville right, So I mean we have to SOLIDI fire
position in Greenville, and we have to continue to build
a culture and build a company down there, because for me,
Greenville is not about just opening a business and looking
at it from year one to year two. We're going
to be done there for decades, right, and we want
(24:00):
to make sure that we're building it right. So that's
obviously in the five year plan, building it the right way,
but providing an opportunity, you know, whether it's through expansion
in the new markets or whatever. You know, as we
talked about people being promoted within Morris Jenkins when we
went down to Greenville, that provided opportunity for our employees,
for the ones that said, hey, I've been working on myself.
(24:22):
I've been you know, becoming a better person, and I
want the opportunity to do more. So that's obviously the
most important thing for me. And as we look into
the next five years, we're looking at you know, service
and other areas in the Carolinas. And for me, it's
not about planting a flag for Morris Jenkins saying oh,
we're in a new market. It's actually about providing that
(24:43):
opportunity because we're a growing company. And when you're a
growing company, you have to provide those opportunities. And if
we don't provide it good people will go find somewhere
else that will provide that opportunity. So for me, the
next five years is continue to make you know, Morris
Jenkins dominant brand in Greenville, and also you know, for
(25:06):
the homeowners in Greenville and even Charlotte, it's so hard.
It's so hard to get somebody to help you take
care of your house. I mean, it is so hard,
and we want to make sure that you know we're
making it easy, you know, being there six am to midnight,
seven days a week, at no additional charge for the
weekends or holidays. You know, when you get home at
five or six o'clock in the evening and you don't
(25:26):
have air, I'm a consumer as well, and I know
what it's like trying to get a contractor out of
your house on a Friday night at eight o'clock. And
that's our culture at its core, right, making it easy
for the customers, but also providing opportunities for the employees.
So that's kind of our five year plan to continue
to expand upon that.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
So you talk about this, you know I'm picking up
bits and piece of this, but I want to ask you,
because we've had to kind of develop this. You know,
there's a lot of differentiators I'm picking up on. But
if I had to ask you CEO, CEO, leader to leader,
what is Morris Jenkins differentiator.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
In a market?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
It's our people hire for character, train for skill. Right,
You're going to love the people that you have in
your home, and we have processes that are going to
make it easy for you. We want to make sure
that it's in the effortless experience. We remove the friction
because really, at the end of the day, all you're
wanting is your air conditioner fixed or your plumbing fixed,
Like you don't care about all the other stuff. That's
(26:26):
not what you asked for. We want to be there
when it's convenient for you, and we want to be
able to take care of the home and get out
of your hair. I mean, that's the main thing is
that people don't have time to sit around and wait.
They don't have time to wait on an appointment, wait
for somebody not to show up, or to take it
extending amount of time at your house. We try to
(26:47):
get in and do same day service, same day installs,
and then you can get back to your life and
then move on to taking care of um.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Sign me up, brother, sign me up. Like, get out
of your hair piece is so right in my face
right now.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
My wife.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
You know, some people in the rim know my wife,
and my wife love her to death, my best friend,
but she likes to do a lot a short amount
of time. So we got a little pool project going on,
which is okay because you're out of the house. Take
all the time you want outside of my home. Then
all of a sudden, we got a little cabinet project happening.
It's a two week project. Strangers in the house. I
(27:20):
want him out of my hair.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yeah, I want him to do.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
The work, do it well, and I'm literally I turn
it into you this this weekend.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Next week, I'm leaving five thirty. I'll be back up
five to thirty when nobody out other than my family.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Some did well, and I mean it's a shame that.
I mean, it is tough to get people to help you. Yeah,
from a you know, showing up standpoint or just being
able to fix it right the first time and that
way you can get back to your life.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
One more question than I want to talk a little
bit about community here in a second. But you know
this move to Greenville, that that must have been very
thoughtful on plan, especially given the culture that you have,
the amount of you know, personal professional development.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
You guys offer.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Tell me a little bit about what it looked like
as an organization that's grown into new cities, new states
and not perfect at it because this is I guess
I'm just asking you for some advice.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Were what were your thoughts and how.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Are you bringing that culture from the Charlotte area into
Greenville and into that Greenville body work.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Well, out of the fifty employees, I would say it's
probably I need to get the number on it, it's
probably seventy or eighty percent of the people that actually
picked up and moved from Charlotte to go to Greenville,
and that was a wonders of your culture well, and
that was important to us. I mean, we didn't want
to go into a new new location and start from scratch, right.
We wanted to take the people that have been there
(28:37):
for a long time. The general manager that's running Greenville
has been with the More Sneakings for ever ten years.
He bleeds blue and yellow. He understands the culture. He
understands the importance of hiring for character, training for skill,
but also teaching the fundamentals. So that was a big
part of it. If we wouldn't have had the population
that said, hey, I want the opportunity to do more,
(28:59):
it might not have been the right time to go.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Wow. So you were kind of assessing your internal team
on who who was ready, willing and able to go
into that market live stand it up, kind of be
curious of the culture.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
If you will.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yep, Yeah, I mean that way. Whenever we go down
to Greenville, you're getting the same experience, right. They have
the same values, they believe the same thing, and as
we continue to hire down there, we're going to bring
in the people that believe those things too.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Yeah, So you're listening. This is much more than an
air conditioning company.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Oh yeah, that's what we do on the side.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Man.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I'm just learning from you. I'm just learning from you.
A lot to learn here. That's amazing. Kudos to what
mister Jenkins started and what you're carrying on. So let's
talk a little bit about you again. Another important thing,
especially where we're sitting and around the Charlotte, Greater Charlotte,
Mecklenburg area, Gaston County and others. Now you're going into
you're in Greenville, you're not going and you were in
(29:55):
that community, you verbalize, Hey, we're going to be there
for decades to come. We're committed. Thompson is a community organization.
Tell me a little bit about Morris Jenkins commitment to community.
What does that look like? Is that part of who
you guys are, who you want to be?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, I mean we're we're always looking to support the
local communities. But our big effort and our big drive
is Levine Children's Hospital. Nice That's where all of our
efforts go. The employees. We were just there last week
or the week before, and our employees through weekly donations
and different rifles and things that we have. We just
(30:31):
donated one hundred and fifty eight thousand dollars to Levine's
and then they usually have projects that you know, they'll
give us to raise money for. We finished off their playground,
which had been you know, not available for the kids
for years, and it's the only place that these kids
can go out and actually get fresh air and actually
have fun and be a kid where they're in a
(30:52):
bad situation. So I would say that's that's our main
driver in the community. When I came to Morris Jenkins,
it was spread out a little bit. You know, you
had ten or twelve organizations that you could actually contribute to.
And I think it was around twenty ten or maybe
sooner that mister Jenkins said that you know what, we're
gonna take all those efforts and we're gonna we're gonna
(31:13):
put those efforts into Levine Children's.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Love it. Love it.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
And by the way, just as a non for profit leader,
I love that, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
And a lot of people might say, hey, let me.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Tell you about who we are, and that's fine, but
here's what I will say, Kudos to you of what
you're doing. And I would encourage other corporate and business
leaders to think about that same approach. It's you know,
it's like, I'm a big peanut butter fan. I love
peanut butter, but when I take a little bit of
peanut butter, I spread it across the bread, all of
a sudden, I don't taste much peanut butter anymore.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
All right, Well, same things.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Happens with impact. When you start diluting your impact salt
and pepper everywhere, you're not going to get the same
amount of impact. So I'm glad that you guys made
that decision. Now I would always be available for a conversation,
but either way, I think that's the right approach. I
really believe that at my core, go deeper with a
high impact organization like Levines. We all we all know
(32:08):
what that means to children, families in a community, And
that's amazing what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Well.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
And every time where they are visiting or meeting about
the next project, every time I'm there, run into an
employee that is having to use the services of Levines.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
So they as you run into them as a customer
of Levines while you're there, yep.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
And the service that they provide and the things that
they believe in, I mean, it aligns so much with
our culture. So it makes it easy to partner with
them and to actually support them.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Udos, kudos to you guys. I think you guys are
doing the right thing there. We're an organization that doesn't
need a little bit from from a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
I mean it always helps. I have told every corporate
partner of ours or potential corporate partner.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
I don't care if you go deep with us, go
deep with somebody, just don't spread it.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
So with them. But nobody tasted.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
There's zero impact when it's red so thin. So I'm
really happy to hear that you're doing that. And I'm
retiring of four or five years, so it doesn't really
So one other kind of question is we kind of
wrap this up here In a few minutes. You talked
about brand, like if you've been in the Charlotte market.
I'm even thinking now that Greenville market off to reach
(33:18):
out to. Some of our team members are wearing Greenville
as well. Morris Jenkins is everywhere, especially during the summer months,
but they're everywhere. You guys do a good job, great
brand credibility. I now know more about what's the heart
behind that, and I think that's amazing. How important is
that brand, story, marketing, advertising, telling the community about what
(33:41):
you guys are, who you are, why you're doing what
you're doing. And to your point, it's not just about
growing the business.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Well, I think that if you look at our brand
and our marketing, I mean, everybody in our commercials works
at Morris Jenkins, right, they're all employees, so at showcase
and really who you're going to have in your home.
And for me, whenever you're you're showing that side of
the culture side of it, you know, I kind of
look at the local economy and I look at what
(34:07):
is Morris Jenkins doing with that local community, local economy.
You know, all of our money and everything that we
spend stays right here. But when you think about the employees,
you know, going back to my story, and as I
said before, there's hundreds of stories within Morris Jenkins that way.
So we're showcasing the employee, but we're changing their lives
(34:29):
and they're also contributing back to the economy right and
through the community. So for me, that's kind of what
our marketing shows. We don't talk about heating and air,
we don't talk about plumbing, we don't talk about electrical
we're actually showcasing our employees and who you're going to
have in your home, and you know, with the intent
of making sure that it's easy, right, it's an effortless
experience that you can get what you need taken care
(34:50):
of and get back to your life.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Here's a question that I asked leaders.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
So, as a non for profit one hundred and forty
years old, we just celebrated one hundred and four preaty
last month, born and raised here on the Charlotte market.
It's kind of interesting. I know, I don't look that old,
but the wor old. But here's the reality. For one
hundred and thirty six of those years. If you didn't
receive a service, we're unemployed, weren't connected through some kind
(35:15):
of historical board member or come to a luncheon, you
don't know who we are, you don't know what we do,
you don't know how you can help, all right, So
we started down this pathway of marketing at a higher
level with the intent to want us to tell the
community what's going on in it outside of the news,
(35:36):
who we are, what we do, how well we do it,
and how you can how you can help. And for us,
it's pretty easy, you know, we're always looking for volunteers,
We're always looking for foster parents, with the largest foster
care agency in the Carolinas for over four hundred and
fifty foster homes.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
And then we're always looking for corporate partners.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
You know, notice I didn't say donors, because once you
start doing those other things, you'll determine what.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Your heart will lead you to to give if that's
where your heart is.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
But three years ago we started doing that and I
started getting a lot of questions about you know, why
are you doing that? Well, because nobody knows who we are,
and we've been in this community for one hundred and
thirty six We're like part of the inn fabric. So
here's my question. I ask a lot of leaders. If
you stop marketing today, what would happen.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I think that Morris Jenkins's name in Charlotte, people know
who we are, and I think if we went dark
on marketing for a while, I think that people would
still know who to call. And I don't think it
would change our culture a whole lot. I mean, obviously,
you know, marketing would have an impact on the business.
It's going to have an impact on any business, so
(36:48):
you know, I mean, it may it may impact some
of the you know, call counts or something like that,
but it's not going to change who we are. For me,
the marketing again showcases our employees and when you think
about other business is not just in the trades, but
think about any industry and think about my story and
think about other people's story within Morris Jenkins, you know,
(37:09):
when you can showcase that story for me, it's always
you know, if you think about other companies and asking
them who's their brandom, right, who has growing up in
the business, and who's been promoted for it. So I
don't know if that necessarily answers your question from a
marketing standpoint. We're massive on marketing, Like everybody in Charlotte
knows who we are. So I'm not gonna downplay it
and say there wouldn't be an impact. But that's not
(37:29):
our culture.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Well, what I'm hearing is your heart that right, right?
I think that's super important.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
You know, I've had several leaders big companies national what
would happen? Everybody knows who you are, Like, everybody knows
who you are. You're almost as big as Thompson. You know,
I'm kidding about that. Everybody, but you know, and it's like, oh,
if we stop marketing today, we'd start losing market share
in two weeks. Like I'm talking about big brand, I'm
talking about you know them. Everybody in this room, everybody
(37:56):
in this building knows that these brands I'm talking about there,
we would start losing market share in two weeks.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Now.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Of course, I love your response. Actually, you talk about
who we are. Yeah, we're not going to change who
we are.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Because of that.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
It might affect it that part of the business, but
we're not gonna We're not gonna affect who we are.
I just think it was interesting. I had another one big,
big department store. You start marketing, start dying. I just again,
those answers are great and and it tells me they're
committed to telling people who they are, getting their brand right,
being available to the community.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
I actually love your response. Well, every wing about to
who you guys were.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Well, and we have a large membership base right that
people need a home service provider to take care of
their HVAC, plumbing, or electrical needs. And we have you know,
over fifty thousand members that are part of that membership,
and that that's who we're doing business with. We're looking
for a relationship customer, not a transactional customer that's just
looking to do business one day and never have business
(38:52):
done again. Right, We're looking for somebody that is looking
for that home service provider and that our values align.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Love that.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I love how you talked about aligning your values to
you actually B two C customer. Yeah, I think that's phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
You've said it. I think you've said it.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
But as we wrap, what do you want these two
large and growing in dynamic communities to know about Morris Jenkins?
Speaker 2 (39:19):
I want to. I want them to know that the
work we do is important, not just out at their home,
but the work we're going back at the office. Right,
we're actually taking every single employee and we're investing in Right,
We're invested, and I'm invested into them. I want to
see their lives change. I want to see them become
better people. I want them to see have a good
quality of life, be able to spend time at home
(39:39):
whenever they need to, and just want to. For me,
that's my passion, right, I mean, and I think that
passion comes a little bit from my story, but also
been able to see it in other people. So for me,
it's not just about the heating and air cooling and plumbing.
It's it's about the employees that are coming into our
business and what opportunities are we providing for them. And
(40:02):
it's not always momentarily in moment money or anything. It's
about them as an individual, right their character and if
we can make them better. You know, That's what I
want everybody to understand. That's who Morris Jenkins is. You know,
we just do heating and air plumbing and electrical that's
the trade. But Morris Jenkins is much larger than that.
We're changing lives.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Oh love it, my friend, as are we. I now
know I need to go to the University of Phoenix
to start recruiting people. They may be learning the wrong things.
But man, that was amazing Brandon, and thank you so
much for joining us. There is no doubt in my mind.
One is I think you walked into an organization that
invested into you heavily, but you invested into yourself. You've
(40:46):
now invested back into that through your leadership journey. So
you've taken something, you're evolving it. I am not a
member yet, but I promise you when when crap goes
bad in my house and it will. It was an
eight bill. I'm calling your company. Well, if you if
you're a matter of factor, you told me who you
were and what you guys are about, and that's a
(41:07):
that's huge.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Well, we appreciate it. And if you decided to become
a member beforehand, you might not have that breakdown.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
You already here. Get in there early. Man, don't don't
don't react after the fact.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
That reminds me. I had a four year old dog.
We were on a trip during the you know that
ice storm we had here and eleven dollars surgery and
I found out if he would have had pet insurance,
it would have been five hundred bucks.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
So there's a lesson to be learned there.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Everybody, get in there early, get that preventative stuff going.
And again, if you hadn't heard the heart of the organization,
the hard of the leader leading that organization, and that
doesn't matter to you as a customer, check yourself. I
think that's phenomenal. Congratulations for what you guys might have built,
what you're building. We're in your markets. We're here to
(41:58):
root for you. We own and operate properties. I'll be
going back and asking my Chief Facilities officer if you
guys are a vendor or not, and if not, what
do we need to do to work with a good
partner like you guys. So again, thanks for coming on board.
As I knew it would be. Actually, it was better
than I thought it was going to be, and I
thought it was gonna be great. You just filled my cup. Brother, No,
(42:19):
thank me a lot to think about it.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Thank you for having me, and I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
All right, Well, Brandon Anderson at Morris Jenkins, thank you
so much. Another episode of CEOs You Should Know brought
to you by iHeartMedia, empowered by Thompson.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Thank you,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of NFL Media hosts including Jourdan Rodrigue, Colleen Wolfe, and Nick Shook provide all the NFL news, previews, recaps and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.