Leadership Lounge with guest Randy Kelley

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
, this Jack tester and welcome to another edition
of leadership lounge.
Uh, my current situation rightnow is I'm in Saint Paul,
Minnesota and uh, sitting acrossthe desk from me is Randy Kelly.
How are you doing Randy?
I'm doing great.
How about you Jack?
Doing good.
Doing good.
What brings you to town?
Little a intro to digitalmarketing.
I, the little workshop you gotgoing on.
We absolutely eight of yourclosest friends.

(00:32):
Eight of the closest friends.
Absolutely.
That's awesome.
That's good stuff.
Good.
Well we're glad you're here andI got to know you a little bit
more this year.
You went pheasant hunting withme.
I did.
That was an awesome time.
We had a good time and we spentsome time in the clubhouse after
the hunt talking and in thefield talking.
And you've got a fascinatingstory and journey through this

(00:54):
industry that's typical in manyways, but atypical and kind of
the success you've achieved.
So I thought it'd be fun to justsit you down and talk about your
journey.
Cool.
I appreciate it.
Thank you for having me.
So, um, you got your start inthis industry, you probably came
right into ownership, didn't,you know, how'd you tell us how
you started, how you started?
Well, um, graduated high schoolin 83, moved to Garland in 84.

(01:17):
Garland, Texas in 84.
Um, met my wife.
Um, she wasn't my wife at thetime obviously, and uh, her dad
introduced me to this fellow anduh, started as a parts runner
and a helper.
All right.
Right at the lowest level ofentry-level I should say.
Didn't know anything about thebusiness.
Yeah.
Parts runner.
Yup.
Technician.

(01:38):
Yup.
So parts owner helper kind ofworked in the office.
Um, became, uh, the servicemanager quit.
Yeah.
And then, so I kind of filledthat role, uh, for a little
while until they hired anotherservice manager and service
manager in this business backthen was the guy that, you know,
he answered the phone, right.
Scheduled the call.
There's a price.

(02:00):
We're about 12 hats.
So absolutely all parts, allthat fun stuff.
You should live learning thebusiness doing that though,
didn't you?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
You know today, if you come in aparts runner, just a technician,
you got, you got to do it all.
Yeah.
It's a, yeah, it's a diff,definitely a different beast
today than it was back then.
For sure.
Yeah.
So became the jet, um, ranservice for awhile.

(02:23):
Service managers quit.
Again, I'm trained in theservice managers in the meantime
and I just, I told the guys, Isaid, I don't want to be the
service technician on my life.
Yeah.
So July of 88, I became theservice manager.
Cool.
Yeah.
Well let me stop you right therefor a minute because I think
it'd be good.
A lot of people know you'd, alot of people don't.
Um, I think it's always good forcontext to kind of talk about
where you are today.

(02:44):
So let's, and we'll come back towhere you stopped being the
service manager.
Is that fair?
Absolutely.
So tell us about your companytoday.
The name size, just to give us asense of place.
Okay.
So in 2019 we finished the yearat a little over 12 million.
Okay.
Um, we're right at about 75 80employees.

(03:06):
Okay.
Um, having a good time, man.
That's cool.
And you're in the, in themetroplex.
Dallas Fort worth metroplex.
Yes.
I'm weeding plumbing, heating,air, plumbing company names on
time experts.
Okay.
Um, we kinda kind of do thewhole metroplex.
That's cool.
Yeah.
But$12 million business and alot of that's come in recent
years hasn't it?

(03:26):
It has, yeah.
Yeah.
So in, um, we grew 73% in 2018,so that's a lot.
Yeah.
You still, you still got asmile.
Yeah.
That's why I have all this grayhair.
Yeah.
A lot of that too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's, that's amazing.
We'll get to that story though.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's good.

(03:46):
So, so I want to give people anidea of kind of who you are and
who I'm talking to and sure.
It's going to provide a littlemore context and color to tell
your story.
Is it?
Absolutely.
Your service manager, 88 88 inbusiness.
And uh, what if I can ask, whatwas the name of the company?
Unique.
Indoor comfort.
Okay.
In Dallas.
In Dallas.

(04:06):
All right.
And you ran that.
Oh, you're, I'm sorry.
You're an employee of that for along time.
Correct.
How long, how long did you workthere?
Um, I've been there my wholelife, my whole working life.
It's the same companies.
You never laughed, you never,never left.
That is so cool.
Yeah, that is so cool.
And so tell us about your, uh,tell us about your growth
through that business and thebusiness.

(04:29):
How it did.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah, absolutely.
So again,[inaudible] became theservice manager doing all that
fun stuff.
Um, but in the meantime, justnot just being a service
manager, I was also in sales, soI would actually go through the
files, find old equipment, sendletters, follow up the letters,

(04:49):
generate sales calls, seqmissions were selling back then
as well.
And I would go installcondensers.
So I would do a lot of differentthings.
And then, you know, just, we didthat for seven years, eight
years.
And um, in 95, I was promoted topresident of the company.
Oh, so graduation.
Oh yeah, they weren't ownerthough.

(05:10):
Right.
You know.
Well there was a time in, um, Ithink it was like 89 or 90.
The owner of the company allowedme to, um, gain some ownership.
Um, just a small amount.
Yeah.
I guess he saw something in methat he allow, he said, well
heck, you've got somethinggoing.
So anyway, so yeah, he allowedme to have some ownership at the

(05:33):
time and then I bought moreownership as the years went on.
Okay, so you bought more sweatequity or, yeah.
Well, sweat equity and thenactually I actually had to fork
over some cash.
Why did you do that?
Why did, what, what caused youto want to do that?
I said, you're a good employee,obviously, probably pretty well
paid, I imagine.

(05:53):
I don't know, but I'm assumingso.
Well, I mean, I don't know backthen, you know, it's a lot
different than it is today.
Why is that?
Heck, I think back then I, youknow, as, as a serviceman, I was
making$7 an hour.
Right?
I mean, today you start, you'renot starting at$7 an hour.
Um, so anyway, it's, it's just,that's why I think it's

(06:15):
different because it's, thingsare more expensive today than
they were then, that kind ofthing.
Right.
But anyway, so I'm president ofthe company making sales calls,
doing that, having fun.
What drove me is I always wantedto be successful.
Why that?

(06:36):
Mm.
I don't know.
I mean, I, you know, I wasn'treal successful.
I shouldn't say we didn't have alot when I was younger.
Um, my dad was a, uh, generalcontractor kind of guy.
He was a painting man, you know,he painted a lot and he was a
remodeler, you know, and then hedrove a truck, you know, that
kind of thing.
So I didn't have a lot, I alwayswanted more.

(06:58):
My, my real ambition though wasto be a pro, a professional
baseball player.
Oh really?
Yeah.
So, and that didn't happen causeI had elbow problems in high
school, but you know, well, myput, my goal was to be a pro
golfer when I was a young guy.
Yeah.
That didn't work either.
So here we are, here we are.
Here we sit then.
So cool.

(07:19):
Right.
So anyway, 95, again, becomepresident of the company.
Um, and yeah, just had theambition to actually, my goal, I
told him at the time I wanted toown one of the unique indoor
comforts one day.
There's a number of thosearound.
Okay.
Yup.
Okay.
See that was your goal.
That was my goal.
Okay.
So you see, you got somefractional ownership.
You're still in you're presidentof business now.

(07:40):
How'd the business do?
Tell us about that.
We grew, I mean, we grew from, Idon't remember the actual
numbers had been so long ago,but, um, we, it's really funny
because we stagnated at about3.2 million for a really long
time.
You would have to understand theownership.
I mean, it was, it was atumultuous year relationship,

(08:05):
his relationship with everybody.
Okay.
Okay.
So, um, yeah, he, we had, we hadbusinesses her, there were
unique indoor comforts inChicago that he would go visit
because he was part of, he was apart owner and all that.
And uh, they called him theTexas tornado.
Oh yeah.
Okay.
So he was your, your partnerboss?

(08:25):
Uh, yeah.
Yeah.
And so I was the guy that kindawent around and you know, padded
everybody on the back and saidit's going to be okay.
I learned from that experiencehow she looked back on that, how
to treat people and how not totreat people.
Did that cause you to do youthink back to that lesson a lot
now?
All the time.

(08:46):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's, that's one of my mainfocuses in our businesses,
treating our people.
Right.
Okay.
It's all about our peoplebecause if you

Speaker 2 (08:56):
don't treat your people properly, then you're not
going to, you're not going toget what you want out of them.
And that is that their verybest.
So is that always a bigchallenge for you then, is to
keep, make sure that you kind ofcontrolled the, the backdraft of
that activity?
Is that, um, it's not really a,I wouldn't say it's a challenge

(09:18):
back then.
I'm talking about back then.
Back then.
Yeah, for sure.
So you were kind of theprotector and let me tell you
what he really meant, that kindof stuff.
It's not so bad.
Right.
You know?
Yeah, yeah, I was, I was theguy.
Excuse me, that would, um, yeah,just like I said, Pat them on
the back and tell him it's gonnabe okay.
Don't worry about it.
You know how he is, because Iknow you're busy, you know, I'm

(09:43):
joking, joking.
No, I get it though.
I get it.
You know, and you know, that's,that's not an uncommon profile.
Back in the day of, uh, acontractor.
No.
You know, kind of from the hip,kind of a little bit of a manage
with aggression.
You know, I've been, that's up.

(10:04):
If I go back and talk to a lotof guys that I knew years ago
starting this organization, Imean, that was it.
That was it.
It's, it's, it's managed byfear.
It's in crooked noses.
They had a few fights and stuff.
Right.
But yeah, I mean, I saw it, soI'm a little different today.
You know, you see, I think youcan run a two and a half million
dollar business in 1987 thatway.

(10:27):
Right, right.
But I don't know if that workstoday.
I don't believe it does.
Because, you know, very fewpeople would have taken what you
took.
Right.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
You know, just this, to havethat, that resilience to hang in
there, you know?
Yeah.
It was a, I always knew therewas light at the end of the
tunnel though.
That was the Raider.

(10:48):
I wasn't sure what kind oftunnel I was in with.
It's coming at you.
Right?
So, so you've got this, thisexperience and so on.
I'm going to paint a picturethat I see right now is that you
were, uh, you knew the business.
You had done virtually everyrole in the company at some
point from answering phones thatdispatched it to service tech,
to install the cell.
Now you're managing and startingto understand leadership and

(11:09):
you've got all that going on,right?
I mean, really, it's anincredible, uh, school you went
to, to get that experience.
Hard knocks.
But you were also, you guys werein a, an organization I've heard
of indoor.
What was it in droves?
Unique, indoor comfort orcomfort.
I mean that was a kind of one ofthe early Vanguards of the
service replacement business.
So you are around smart peopletoo.

(11:30):
Oh yeah, they were Tom muttsstarted it.
I'm not sure if you're familiarwith that name.
Yeah.
Um, but yeah, they're verysmart.
Very smart.
So you had a, not only cause somany other people in this
industry work like you did, butthey didn't learn anything.
Right.
All they did is learn what theirdad did, which wasn't successful
and no offense to fathers, butthat was just it.
Right.
There was a lot of people workhard and debt, all the tasks,

(11:52):
but you actually had some, some

Speaker 1 (11:54):
mentoring at least if not through osmosis or because
you are also a member of likeCSG and stuff too.
Right.
We were not a member of CSG.
I don't know why we didn'tbecause I remember back then it
was around and we had talkedabout it, but we never joined
CSG.
She kind of had your own littlenetwork of kind of, kind of the
early proponents of thereplacement business.

(12:15):
The way I, the way I kind ofequate it to is his unique
indoor comfort.
Back then to me it was like amini franchise.
Yeah.
Because we all use the samefinancial model.
Okay.
Right.
We didn't do the same marketingor any of that really was more
of the financial model and thenwe monthly we would have um,

(12:35):
financials that came out withall the businesses and that we
were able to compare.
So right away it's almost likeyou had a best practice group
going before there was a bestpractice group kind of, but we
didn't know what best practiceswere.
No.
But you know what I mean?
Just, just, you know, notoperating in isolation.
Right.
Which you didn't do.
I mean, and isolation, thisbusiness back then, your only

(12:56):
connection was maybe throughyour manufacturer.
True.
And going away to some littleclass and that, but I day taught
you about the bells and whistlesof right refrigerant and all
that stuff.
Right.
That's all you learned.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
But you had, so I'm going togive the, I know what you went
through is difficult, but I meanit's a great education.
Oh yeah.
There's no question.
I, I, I learned a lot andthere's no doubt about it.

(13:19):
And, um, I, I do give props tothat for sure.
Because if it wasn't for that, Iwouldn't be here now for sure.
Right, right.
So, um, so something happened,you guys, were, you, you, when
did you become the owner of thebusiness?
So I bought the business in 2012so it was recent.

(13:41):
Yes.
I mean recent years.
2020.
Right.
But it's recent.
Yeah.
Um, so tell me about the processof buying the company when you
actually assumed.
Do you own 100% of it now orclose to?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
So tell me about that process.
How did that, how did thattranspire?
That's another story in itself.
I want to hear it.

(14:03):
Um, he told me what he wanted,you know, we agreed to a price.
And what year was that?
This was, I think it was 2010.
2011.
Okay.
So we agreed to a price.
Um, I had to go find the money.
So w what was the name of thebusiness now?
Um, at that time it was afranchise.

(14:23):
You were so you that, so theprior owner had bought and
converted to a franchise?
Correct.
Okay.
Yeah, we were a nationalfranchise.
Um, just HVHC K.
um, so, and at this point intime, I was a 22% owner in the
business.
Okay.
So I went, found a SBA loan andum, gave him a purchase

(14:47):
agreement and he looked at thepurchase agreement and said, uh,
that's, I can't do it.
I need more money.
So the agreed upon price in 2011wasn't good.
Yeah.
It changed anymore.
That's what happens when you'rea 78% owner.
Right.
So, I mean, what are you goingto do?

(15:08):
Right?
I mean, to me it's not right.
Wasn't right, but it is what itis.
Um, I, I talked him down alittle bit.
Um, so we got the deal done.
And um, 2012 so yeah, 2012, um,he hung around the office until
all that money hit his bankaccount and then he kind of

(15:31):
walked away.
Okay.
But now, now you've got debt.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it's, you know, it's, I'venever looked at it as debt here.
Here's the thing, and I tellthis, I tell this to Tony bought
it, by the way, how big was it?
3.7.
3.8 million.
Okay.
I tell people this all the time.
Most people feel the weight ofthe world on their shoulders

(15:53):
when they take on that muchresponsibility at one time.
Right.
I mean, it's just, it's natural.
I get it.
I felt the weight of the worldcome off my shoulders because
now I could do what I needed todo and what I wanted to do to be
able to take care of our peopleand take care of our customers.
Well, that's an interesting wayto view it.
Yeah.
Because it was, like I told youearlier, it was a tumultuous

(16:14):
relationship.
Yeah.
And it, and it got even worse.
So degraded.
Oh yeah.
It was, it was not, it was, itwas not fun.
Right.
So, um, yeah, it was, it wasreally a relief.
That's so cool to get it done.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So let's say you, you wake up,you have, you signed a paper.

(16:38):
Yup.
You got the debt, the guys paid.
Now you're, what are some ofthe, what changed in Randy in
that moment from a 22% owner isstill an owner.
But let's be not, let's not kidourselves.
Right?
You're not, if you don't have51%, you don't own it.
Right.
Fully.
Sure.
So tell me about that.
What changed in Randy that maybethat next day, but shortly

(17:02):
thereafter?
Um, that's a great question,Jack.
I think what changed in me isknowing that now I have control
and I can do what I want to do.
I can do the things that I knewwould drive the business.
What was that?
What did you know you needed todo?

(17:22):
What, what, what?
That's, that's the thing I'masking for.
So the first thing was take careof your people.
Okay.
Right?
The second thing was let themknow, can I stop you there?
Sure.
I hear that a lot.
What does that mean?
Take care of people?
Cause I don't know if that's,that's a broad, and I, and I, if
you go to any owner and say, doyou take care of your people?

(17:42):
I don't know if anyone's saidno, I'm really loud.
It's true.
So what does it mean for youthough?
I know I'm not challenging, butI just want to get specific for
that's to let them know that Ihave their back.
Okay.
You know that, that I'm here tosupport you.
I'm here to help you.
I'm here to, to make sure thatyou can provide for your family,
um, and be as successful as youas you want to be.

(18:04):
My job is to, to, to give youthe opportunity.
Right?
And, and then from there, it'syour job to make it happen.
Okay.
Right?
So just treat them with respect.
Treat them like a human being.
Let them know they'reappreciated.
Let them know they're wanted.
Got it.
Got it.
That's, that's me.
And you were doing that Iimagine on some level before.

(18:26):
Oh, sure.
But you didn't have thebackground noise that you are
competing with[inaudible].
Is that the culture from the topthat might've been negative,
correct.
In your mind at least.
Absolutely.
Yup.
Okay.
So does it, so it was, uh, itwas from you, you, there wasn't
any competing noise in thebusiness and that resonated?

(18:46):
I take it, I think so.
With your folks.
You think so?
I bet a debt.
I think so.
What else do you do different?

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Mmm,

Speaker 1 (18:57):
well, at that time I hired a general manager, uh,
right away he was already in thebusiness as he came in as a
salesperson.
And then we, the whole idea wasto promote into general manager.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
Mmm.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
I don't know who in the first year we, we just, we,
we buckled down to do the thingsthat we knew we needed to do.
Okay.
Um, we grew the business thefirst year from 3.7 to 5.5
million.
It's pretty good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So 2012, you know.
Yeah.
I mean, I'll be honest, it was,it was scary in the beginning
because again, he took all thecash out of the business.

(19:36):
So we started January in 2012with$132,000 in the bank.
That was my portion of the cash.
That was the 22%, you know,three over three and a half
million dollar company orwhatever with that.
They didn't like in high season,in January.
Oh yeah.
Triplex too.
[inaudible] flowing in, man.

(19:57):
So you know that, Oh, that'll,you know, that'll make you
tighten up a little bit.
Right.
So you got pretty serious,didn't you?
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
And that's, you just weren'tbefore, but right.
That just made you go.
Hmm.
All right.
So there was some weight onthose shoulders, but yeah.
But yes and no.
Right.
So yeah.

(20:17):
So, um, tell us, you know,you're, you're on time experts.
That's not a franchise.
What happened there?
No.
So I thought my agreement was upin, in 2013 so I was already
negotiating, ready to get out,get out of the franchise, out of
the franchise, leave thefranchise.

(20:39):
We had a really good agreement.
Um, that's, you know, give propsto the old owner cause he needed
Mark red land a lot of things inthe agreement.
So, um, 2014, um, on ChristmasEve I sent a letter to the
franchise.
Merry Christmas that I'm leaving.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Bad center.
I'm sorry.
I know.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
Well it was, you know, going through this whole
process I had, we own twoterritories.
I gave one territory to anotherfranchise.
Um, and then the one territorythat was, I thought it was going
to be do, it was not due untilit was not, didn't expire until
14.
Um, so this was 13.
That's right.
2013 still operating under thename of this franchise.

(21:25):
Correct.
In 2013.
Um, cinema letter that we'regoing to be disengaging.
We're going to be this, this iswho we're going to be come
January 1st of 2014 experts,correct?
Yup.
And once I sent that letter, Imight've even called and joined
Nexstar before that because noone what was happening, I

(21:46):
believe Lisa May have talked toyou or whatever and vaguely.
Yeah.
And you were like, yeah, okay,we're, he's, he's good.
And so we didn't, so then Ijoined Nexstar just immediately
again, being a part of uniqueindoor comfort, being a part of
a group.
We had joined airtime back inthe day.
Um, being a part of thefranchise, I've always liked

(22:08):
being around other contractors,networks and the value.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I joined right away.
So, um, then I immediately gotsued.
Okay.
By the franchise, earlytermination or something?
No, they didn't like the name ofmy company.
I was too close to whatevertheir name was.
Yeah.

(22:28):
Well not their name, but they, Ithink they thought they owned,
um, the term on time.
Got it.
Okay.
So yeah, obviously you won.
I did.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was in a lawsuit for twoyears.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Okay.
Yeah.
And absolutely onecongratulations.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah, that is cool.
That is cool.
So, um, so you got out and, andnow you've had, uh, so, so when
you bought it, it was, what wasit, three and a half million,
something like that, 3.7 or Icame or the number of was, and
then you grew up right away tofive, and then today you're 12.
Right?

(23:03):
Right.
So let's talk about, you know,let's, let's, let's look at that
time period, which was basicallyfrom 2012 to today, eight years.
Okay.
And, uh, and last year itsounded like there was a bunch
of growth last year.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, we, we've had, I mean, I'll be honest, we've
had our ups and downs, um,since, since I've taken it over
when in 2013, um, I bought abusiness and, um, we went from
5.5 to 8.7 million.
Um, and then in 2014 when wechanged colors, basically

(23:41):
changed companies.
Um, we went down to seven,seven.
Okay.
Um, and then in 2015, um, in amonth and a half, between
January and February, um, I hadfour point$7 million of revenue
walk out my door.
So sales manager, no one hadselling texts at the time.

(24:04):
Selling techs left, took my topflip guys that could turn over
the leads.
Um, so yeah, so we, we went downthat year.
It's a tough year and that was atough year.
Yeah.
It's had some churn and yeah.
Yeah.
But I didn't lay anybody off.
I didn't get rid of anybody.
Again, that's just, that's,that's who I am.
So you learn from that churnanything.

(24:27):
Um, I'm sure I did, but rightnow it's kinda hard to think
about it, but I mean, too soonJack, it's like, no, no, it's
not too soon.
I mean, it look, things happen.
Right, right.
Um, sometimes you put a lot oftrust in people.
Yeah.

(24:48):
Um, and then it probably wasn'tthe right person to put that
trust in.
So you kind of learn people youcan kind of keep learning to
keep your guard up a little bitmore.
Okay.
Um, that's probably what Ilearned is sometimes you just,
you can't, I'm just the type ofperson that I trust you.
Yeah.
That's a good quality, by theway.
Right.
Until you give me a reason notto.

(25:09):
Yeah.
You know, that, that's, I don'tknow if that's good or bad, but
that's kinda how I am.
And I've probably tarnished thata little bit.
Okay.
Not a lot of bit.
That's still, I'm still the sameway.
I'm suspicious and it's no fun,so I won't do that.
Right.
Um, so, but, uh, yeah, it wastough year.

(25:29):
You know, w what I learned, Iguess, is that, you know,
there's sometimes where, youknow, there's Hills and there's
valleys, you know, and whenyou're in that Valley, you just
gotta buckle down, man, youknow, and do what you gotta do.
Yeah.
It's, success is in a straightline, is it?
No, it's not.
Yeah.
So you think to yourself, okay,I went from 3.7 to 12 million
and it was a, you know, a nice15% growth every year, right?

(25:50):
No, no, no, no.
Not at all.
Not at all.
So I had Z you went through thatand I, and I, you know, there's
lots of, of, you know, I,there's probably more to that
story, you know, as far as, youknow, what you saw leading up to
it and what happened and whythey laughed.
And it was probably a lot ofleadership stories right there.
Well, you know, I'll tell you,it was really came out of the

(26:12):
blue roof to me.
It was like, it hit me in theface.
I wasn't expecting it.
Um, because it was my salesmanager.
Like I said, he was also one ofmy top selling guys.
What's really funny is I, I, hewas attending train the trainer
in Dallas, a Nexstar event.
Right.

(26:33):
So I'm trying to figure out whathappened there.
Jack.
He didn't get recruited byextra, remember dating?
I don't know.
I mean, well, I don't know.
Holy

Speaker 2 (26:44):
cow.
I don't know if they were nextdoor at the time, but anyway,
uh, but yeah, so he, uh, yeah.
Okay.
Anyway, so that was, uh, thathappened.
Owl.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It is what it is.
All right, let's turn the pageright now.
Okay, let's come back to someother time.
But whatever, cause you know,you'll, you'll learn through
success.
Right.
And you really learn throughchallenges is what you really

(27:04):
do.
Right?
You lot think you learn morethrough the challenges, don't
you?
Right.
I do.
That's why I'm picking at youright now.
That's what I'm picking the scabthere to go home.
No.
So let's talk, let's talk aboutthe fun though.
Let's talk about the last year.
Why 70% girl, how'd you pullthat one off and, and was it
profitable growth?
Was it cash flowed?

(27:24):
I mean, cause that's how you cangrow a lot, but it's expensive
to write.
Maybe either marketing orcapital equipment, things like
that.
People infrastructure.
Sure.
Tell me, tell me why, how youpulled that off and, and

Speaker 1 (27:39):
you know how to work well in 17 we finished at 6.6,
um, and not as muchprofitability went down quite a
bit.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
So we, yeah, so we, um, we wereprofitable but not as much as
I'd want.
I'd brought on some, someoverhead managers to help cause

(27:59):
I, I mean, I wanted to grow and,um, you know, there's two ways
to grow from, from, you know,some of the people I've talked
to and being in the business,right?
You can, you can prepare for thegrowth by bringing in more
managers, bringing in morepeople, or you can not bring
those people in and thencontinue to grow.
So, um, slightly, right?

(28:20):
So I always looked at it as I'mgoing to bring the people in and
we're going to grow.
So that's what I did.
So we had a little bit of moreoverhead than we needed to
invest in some managementtalent, it sounds like.
Correct.
And, um, so we didn't do as wellas I thought we would do and,
and seven, 17, um, but then in18, that's just, it took off.

(28:41):
And, and I think what it was,when I look back, we did better
on conversions, right?
We raised our average ticket ona HPAC install sales.
Okay.
Um, and we just, we focused onthe numbers.
Right?
Um, that's when we were doingdaily huddles.

(29:02):
I mean, we were, we werefocusing on the number every
single day.
Um, and, you know, we, we grew,I mean, it was, it was nice and
we put 14% to the bottom line.
That's good.
So I think, yeah, with that typeof growth and so, yeah, we were
profitable.
We had cash.

(29:23):
That's cool.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
You know, and, and part of this too is, you know,
you had declined, but you kindof knew what the business looked
like at a couple of milliondollars bigger.
Yeah.
Right.
So this wasn't unknownterritory.
No, that what I'm saying.
12, is that right?
Yes.
Yeah, of course.
You probably know some people at12 that help and all that stuff.
Right.
So it wasn't like you're walkingblindfolded into the future.

(29:45):
No.
Right.
You know.
Well, congratulations, man.
Little thing and, you know,I'll, I'll, uh, just as a shout
out to you, uh, you, you gotpeople here and next door all
the time.
I mean, I see your managers hereall the time and people here all
the time and yeah, but it's atraining class going on.
If we have a big training bundle, there'll be an ontime expert
person.
They're doing something well andyou a lot too.

(30:07):
Right.
That's the name of the game.
Right.
That's, that's another thing youinvest in your people, you know,
train them.
Right.
You know, I don't, I'm not surewho said it, but um, you know,
I've heard the heard the sayingis, you know, you can either
train them in the stay or, or,or train them and they leave or
don't train them and they stay.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
What happens if you train themand they leave, right.

(30:28):
It is what it is.
So be it.
Yeah.
That's an old, but, but it'saccurate.
Right?
Absolutely.
You know.
Absolutely.
You can't stop training causethey might leave.
That's right.
Right.
You can't worry about it.
You can't.
And you know what, as in, that'sa great lesson because I've seen
this and I've been guilty ofthis, is that you get, I'll say
it this way, it's a little selfrighteous, but you get burned.

(30:49):
Sure.
Right.
You invest in Gibeah, you pouryourself into somebody, at least
you think you are right.
And spend some money on them andgive them money and give you a
listen to them and then, youknow, maybe even help them
through a tough time.
So, you know, and then then allof a sudden it's like, well
they'd leave and then, but thenwe just then, then the, the
danger that thinking though isthat I'm not going to do that
again.
Right.

(31:10):
And then you shut down toeverybody.
Right.
But you're only hurting yourselfwhen you do that.
Absolutely.
Right.
So you'll never bat a thousandright, with folks.
Right.
Cause we're[inaudible] right.
And I know that I've chasedpeople off that I just know I
have.
Right.
I just know I've done that.
We've all done it.
Yeah.
Paint.
Perfect.
Right.

(31:30):
No.
So it's not, it is better to, totrust first.
That is a great leadershipquality.
Right?
Yeah.
Not, don't, but you, you, youcan't trust and just be naive.
Right.
Right.
You can't just turn it, youknow, cause you've got to have
numbers.
You've gotta have check-ins.
You gotta be doing the one onones and you know, still
trusting.
Yeah.
Right.
But you, but you have a littlemore early cause it, cause what

(31:52):
I've seen contractors do is theytrust and then they advocate.
I'm just going to turn my back.
Right.
Yeah.
That's stupid.
I'm saying who's ever do that?
That's dumb.
Yeah.
That's not trust.
That's as being an idiot.
You still have to, like yousaid, have your check in.
You do all the time you do that.
It's easier to trust.
Absolutely.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.

(32:12):
And, and a lot of times, yeahand you gotta fight the urge.
Cause sometimes you get in, it'sall the way you do it.
But you know, employees, let'ssay, well you want to do
one-on-ones, what don't youtrust me Randy?
Right.
Well that's all I just want toget to know you want to work as
I want to.
Clapper has nothing to do withtrust, but sometimes it shows up
like that.
Right, right.
It does.
You know, cause they're not usedto it either.
Oh no.
When we first started them, it'slike what are we doing?

(32:33):
Well, what do you, what's,what's on here?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, my underwear, Georgiaand then, but do this enough.
You do these, theseaccountability measures, which
are really more relationshipbuilding measures and then over
time it's like they look forwardto them.
Right?
Like if you don't have a dailyhuddle that my day's missing.
Yes.
I miss that.
Absolutely.
There's, there's relationshipbuilding that happens there and
then the one on ones, like I, ifI don't do it, it's like my week

(32:57):
isn't complete.
Right, right.
Yeah.
So funny how this works, youknow, so absolutely.
Congratulations on what you'veaccomplished and your take here.
I know there's some good peoplelistening here that, that I see
a lot and uh, they're alwayshere and I know you guys are
working together, you know.
Thank you job man.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Appreciate it very much.
Well, I, I wanted to do grab youhere and have a little

(33:18):
conversation before you rolledinto your marketing, your
digital marketing class,learning some new stuff.
Yes.
Right.
Definitely.
You know, and appreciate it,Jack.
Thank you so much.
And, uh, if you see RandyKelly's always worn an orange
shirt and you'll see him walkingaround our events, go say hi to
him.
He's a good guy.
And, uh, um, again, graduations.
Thank you very much.
And thank you all for listeningto this very special episode

(33:41):
leadership lounge.
Our current situation is inSaint Paul, Minnesota, and uh,
we'll catch you next time.
Thanks so much.

Speaker 4 (38:35):
Hi,

Speaker 5 (38:36):
this is Jack tester and welcome to another edition
of leadership lounge.
I'm in Saint Paul, Minnesota, asI almost always are when I do
these and sitting across thedesk from me[inaudible].