August 25, 2023 • 30 mins
Dive into the remarkable journey of business growth and resilience through the eyes of Ian Yearsley. Join Ian and Corey Berrier as they candidly discuss the intricate balance between surging ahead in business and weathering adversities. Gain insights into Ian's path to success, his strategic approach to hiring, and the pivotal role of a growth mindset. Discover how Ian navigates challenges, nurtures a thriving work culture, and fosters a sense of extreme ownership to drive continuous improvement.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Corey Berrier (00:02):
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast.
I'm your host, Corey Berrier.
And today, folks, we got Ian,I'm gonna mess the name
Ian Yearsley (00:08):
up.
Or Ian.
Yearsley.
Yep.
Yep.
Corey Berrier (00:11):
Yearsley.
I was close.
I mess up somebody s normally.
So
Ian Yearsley (00:16):
what's up, Ian?
Hey, not too much.
Happy to be here.
I'm happy for you to be here.
So,
Corey Berrier (00:21):
let's stop you, you've gone through you've gone
through some bumps in yourbusiness to
say
Ian Yearsley (00:26):
the least.
Yeah, for sure.
It's been a ride the last 10months or so.
Well and heck, even the lastfive years.
So, we've definitely beenthrough it, that's for sure.
So
Corey Berrier (00:35):
you, but before we get rolling, you own a
company in North Dakota, did Isay that right?
Is it north or south?
Is that right?
North, yep.
North Dakota.
What's the name of the
Ian Yearsley (00:43):
company?
Air pro heating and cooling.
Corey Berrier (00:46):
Alright.
And so, so you just do HVAC
Ian Yearsley (00:50):
obviously?
Yep.
Yep.
Okay.
Just heating and air on theresidential side mostly we're
focused on residential serviceand replacement.
Corey Berrier (00:57):
But you have experience in commercial too,
Ian Yearsley (00:59):
I think.
Right?
We do, most of my guys areactually from the commercial
side of things before they cameto work for us.
So, we definitely touch on thatstuff a little bit.
The light commercial we'll eventouch a little industrial
occasionally.
Corey Berrier (01:11):
Sure.
Well, so what
Ian Yearsley (01:14):
got you into this business?
Well, originally I was a unionman, so I did about three and a
half years as an apprentice.
And eventually that work ranout.
So I was on the unemploymentlist for about nine, 10 months
until the savings kind of ranout, the unemployment ran out
and me and the business partnerNick we're both kind of in that
same boat.
(01:34):
And we said, well, what theheck?
We don't got much to lose.
You got about 500 bucks to ourname.
So we Jumped in the personaltruck, my little 1500 and loaded
up the tools that we had andaway we went.
Corey Berrier (01:46):
So, alright.
What hap so what Ha, so whathappened next?
Ian Yearsley (01:51):
Yeah.
Yeah, so we spent the the nexttwo years we started this late
or about middle 2018.
We started out in the oil field.
We were doing a lot of newconstruction subbing out for
another company and then Covidcame along and all the buildings
stopped basically overnight.
And so that was really thefirst, Kind of rough patch being
an entrepreneur, being an owner,really.
(02:11):
Where we went from, a hundredmiles an hour.
They're building like crazy upthere in the oil patch, and then
they just turned it off.
It was like turning off thefaucet, right?
So, we had to figure it outpretty quick there.
Luckily we do live in NorthDakota, where population's a
little more sparse and Therestrictions weren't nearly as,
as restrictive as most places.
And so, it was only about three,four months before they turned
it all right back on and back tothe building.
(02:31):
So, we were lucky, to have thatto our advantage.
And so, we continued on to thatnew construction.
But locally we brought it homeoutta the oil field.
We started out here in Bismarckbuilding a company.
And so, we started out with oneof the largest home builders, if
not the largest home builder intown.
And we were doing, 70, 70 homesa year, which is a lot for the
small company that we were.
(02:52):
So, that was kind of our breadand butter.
And so, we did that for, anotherbasically two years up until
now.
So,
Corey Berrier (03:01):
and what made you what made you shift from that?
Ian Yearsley (03:05):
Well, the biggest Kinda mind opening thing was
twofold.
So I've been preparing to switchfrom that new construction to
that service and replacement.
I got with a, with anorganization, a training organ
organization that had taught mea lot about what is actually
profitable in the HVAC business.
And so, when you go to the bankto try to sell your HVAC company
or if you're trying to retireand sell it or to private equity
(03:27):
or which, whichever you choose,right?
New construction, it doesn'thold any water.
It really doesn't mean anythingto them.
If you haven't built amembership base, if you haven't
built a customer list thatrevenue to them and the new
construction side, it meansnothing because, well, you, I
learned that lesson prettyquick.
It can get pulled out right fromunderneath you.
Right?
So, the switch was kind of, kindof transitional.
I had touched base with thistraining organization before and
(03:49):
right before kind of the all thebad stuff started happening.
The second time around.
I had prepared for that andstarted making the systems and
getting ServiceTitan integratedand really drilling down on what
the numbers were on my market tomake sure that we could support
switching over to that serviceand replacement.
And so, once we started in onthat that was right around the
time when that September Octoberof last year hit and well, the.
(04:11):
The faucet got turned off againon home building.
So that's kind of what led us upto that surface and replacement
was we knew we were gonna haveto do more repair and more
replacement didn't get away fromthat new construction again.
Corey Berrier (04:22):
So pain, basically, like you, you had to
get, you had two big lessons inthere, it
Ian Yearsley (04:26):
seems like.
Yep.
And I learned quick.
So after about the second timehaving that happen, it was like,
all right, time to pivot.
Right.
Corey Berrier (04:35):
So did you lose a bunch of money in that
Ian Yearsley (04:37):
process?
I did.
We probably lost upper sixfigures just in invoices that
were outstanding and couldn'tget paid out to us.
And then of course the lostrevenue along the way since we
had all our eggs in that, thatone basket and you're doing$2
million worth of revenue just inhome building, 2.2 million or
slightly above that, right?
You turn off that revenue allthe way.
(04:58):
So lost opportunity cost andlost revenue trying to collect
those checks from thoseindividuals that we were working
with.
Yeah.
You don't
Corey Berrier (05:07):
run into that with what you're doing now'cause
you get paid up front, butbasically
Ian Yearsley (05:11):
Right, right.
Yeah.
Corey Berrier (05:14):
Yeah, dude, I mean, you look at like, 2008.
Obviously a lot of people lost aton of money.
Yeah.
And so you kind of experienced amini version of that, or your
own version of that, so tospeak?
Ian Yearsley (05:26):
Yes.
Well, 2008 I was old enough toto be around for that, and my
family experienced that and wehad to move around because of
it.
So that wasn't the first timethat that I'd been through a
crisis similar to that.
So I'm used to the dealing withthat from a young age, I guess.
And so that probably prepared mea little bit actually to be able
to.
To handle that kind of loss twotimes in a row.
So do you
Corey Berrier (05:47):
ever this is probably gonna be a hard
question, but do you ever, havea, do you ever sit and think
like shit, when's that gonnahappen again?
Ian Yearsley (05:58):
All the time.
I bet all the time.
It's always especially whenyou're just coming out of it.
We just started coming outtathat as this busy season has
kicked in.
Whatever things are kind ofprecarious.
Things are on sand, right?
So the thought is always, well,well, what the heck?
I've almost gotten stuck in thatcycle of that mindset.
And I've always been a growthmindset type of person.
(06:18):
Take the risk keep things going.
But I've found myself and caughtmyself pulling back, right?
And money, like speed.
But Trying to be more reservedwith it.
That's not necessarily a badthing, but it also can work
against you, right?
And so it creates a lot ofanxiety where you're like, well,
I don't know if I'm gonna havethat, that money to pay payroll
next week or that bill or thatsupply or whatever it may be.
(06:38):
And so you kind of hold onto alot more of that cash.
And it just, once you get stuckin that loop, it is hard to
really get back out of again andget back into that growth
mindset again.
It's a
Corey Berrier (06:49):
fine, it is a super fine line.
I mean, it's a really fine linewhen you're looking at, well I
need to hang, like, kinda likeyou just said, I need to hang on
to whatever I've got.
'cause I'm not sure when thenext thing's gonna come in.
And there's, in my opinion, inmy experience, when that
happens, it's almost like, I'llgive you the analogy with your
(07:11):
hands closed, you can't.
Expect for somebody to give yousomething if your hand's closed.
Right.
It's kind of like that.
Right?
Right.
Ian Yearsley (07:19):
It's for sure.
Yeah.
It's it definitely has been thatexperience.
Right.
So, it's just trying to get backoutta that and change that
mindset has been my struggleover, over these last, 10, 10
months or so.
It's Now we are on that betterfooting.
We are kind of, in fact, we'reexpanding.
We're on the opposite end of thespectrum now.
Before it was famine and nowit's feast where we were bidding
like crazy.
We were, looking for work everysingle place that we could.
(07:42):
We weren't gonna quit until wegot work lined up again.
And so while we were biddingduring all that time well, they
all came back and awarded tosolve it.
And so now on the other side ofthe problem, which is now, I
don't have enough staff in orderto get the job done as fast as I
would like, and now it's summer,it's a little harder to get
people to come to work for youor to leave their companies
during summer.
They've got work, it followsthat.
(08:03):
That cycle, that that shoulderseason, the on season, off
season.
And so, but I would rather bedrinking from the fire hose than
wondering where the water'scoming gonna be coming from.
So it's definitely better to bein that position, versus, versus
the one we were in before.
Corey Berrier (08:17):
Yeah, that makes sense.
So, let's talk about for asecond.
How you mentioned hiring.
We didn't say hiring, but yousaid, you're looking for guys,
how what is your, what is yourthought process on that?
How do you bring people on?
How do you hire and fire people?
Or is there a certain.
A way you do that?
Is it?
Ian Yearsley (08:37):
There is, we do have a written process, a set of
10 questions that we rate fromone to 10 that gives us kind of
insight into how that person isgoing to operate within our
company.
And so, obviously having aprocess that you can follow
means that you can then delegatethat process later down the
road.
But it also kind of ensures thatwe're that we're hiring the
right mindset from the startbecause we can teach anybody
(08:58):
pretty much anything.
What we want is the rightattitude, and obviously we want
people to show up on time andare willing to learn.
And so, between that and havinga set of values and a set of,
standard questions we make surethat we're hiring the right
people and we don't always getit right.
I think the statistic is thatlike for every four hires you
get one good one.
But I've learned over the yearsfrom various places,
(09:19):
masterminds, people that I lookup to is that you Hire slow fire
fast.
So you can find out in about 90days what type of person you've
got in front of you.
It's pretty easy to tell andthat's where a lot of business
owners tend to get it wrong, isthey wanna hold onto somebody a
little too long or they'refeeling kind of desperate.
They need that help, right?
And I've been there where youknow, you gotta get rid of that
(09:40):
person'cause it's toxic and yougotta hold onto'em because you
got the work.
Well, a lot of the times whatyou find is.
It's a lot easier to just firethat person, get rid of the
toxicity either.
I mean, you might have to goback to work for yourself or you
might have to have your teamtake over some of that work if
you have one.
But at the end of the day, youusually find out that it's for
the best to really get thatperson on their way.
(10:03):
Unfortunately.
Hey, is
Corey Berrier (10:06):
it, can you think of a time when maybe you have
held on and when you have heldon somebody too long?
And my question really is, How,if you can think of one of those
times, how long did you hang onto'em, which I guess a day
longer than you needed to is toolong, but when, there's usually
a person that you can think of,and I don't need their name, but
(10:27):
just the person that I.
You're like, I think they'regonna work out.
I, and you kind of force it, youpush the envelope and you
realize, damn, dude, if I'd havepulled this bandaid off 4, 5, 6
months ago, a year ago, whatcould it have done based on what
it's doing for you now?
Does that make
Ian Yearsley (10:43):
sense?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And I can think of two.
I had one recently and it wasduring that, that hard
financial, period.
And I had one before that.
And he was a younger kid.
We kept him around just a littletoo long and we let him kind of,
kind of keep on kicking the candown the road, right?
Not showing up on time, notpaying attention, being
argumentative with thejourneymen not willing to learn,
(11:03):
thinking that he kind of had itall figured out.
And the kids is, 19, 20 yearsold.
At the end of the day He justdoesn't really have the
knowledge that a lot of us have.
And I'm not saying that I knoweverything because my job as an
entrepreneur is to hire peoplethat know more than me.
However, that said, sometimesyou just gotta have that
attitude of, well, I'm willingto learn anything and
(11:25):
everything, and he just reallydidn't fit into that culture of
the.
Get it done.
Use your resources be willingand open to learn.
We do what we say we're gonna dowhen we say we're gonna do it.
So very quickly we got him outthe door and it was the same
thing with the more recent one.
The first one took right around.
About a year that I held ontohim too long.
And we were kind of in thatbeginning stage of the company
(11:46):
when we brought it back toBismarck.
So it was a little harder to letthat guy go.
But I had learned my lesson bythe time I got to the second
one.
Right.
And he made it three, aboutthree months, about that 90 day
mark before it was it was over,it was time to go.
So he moved on and.
I don't know what he does now,but I certainly hope that he's
doing, a lot better now and haskind of, kind of learned.
(12:10):
Grow up just a little bit,right?
Corey Berrier (12:12):
Sure.
So, do you hire a lot of youngpeople?
Because I imagine, I wouldn'tsay every young person's gonna
be this way, but Dang.
I mean, the way people are, theway people come up now is very
different.
And I don't know how old you, Ican't really tell, but like I'm
in my mid forties, like I cameup very different than how
people come up
Ian Yearsley (12:30):
today.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I'm 29 so I'm right out,right outside of that generation
that I like to say grew up withthe phones, right?
Right.
That was kind of the changingtime where you have access to a
lot of information.
You have you have that device inyour hand all day long.
I didn't have that growing up.
And so, I know a lot of people,they kind of, They kind of hate
on that millennial generation,that newer generation, the Gen Z
generation.
But right now, that's what youhave to work with, right?
(12:52):
But there's plenty of good onesout there.
And so where those companies aremissing out is that these kids
know a lot more about tech.
And other things like that andhow to access that information,
then we really do.
So they're ahead of the curve.
They're ahead of the curve onthings like social media, which
is a big, integral part ofbuilding a business today.
And once you find the ones thatare willing to learn they learn
(13:15):
quick.
And so I always say that.
Be willing to hire thosemillennials.
'cause I hear it in the tradesall the time.
Well, these millennials, theydon't wanna work anymore.
They don't want to they don'twant to, work hard.
They don't wanna get dirty.
There's plenty of them that do.
The problem is that a lot ofcompanies don't provide the
culture to be able to hire theright people.
(13:35):
People don't wanna stick aroundfor a boss who's, excuse my
language, an asshole.
Yeah, they don't wanna work forthose people and they know they
don't have to post the virus.
Right?
Right.
They know that they are just asquickly replaceable as the next
guy.
And so you have to build thatculture in your company from the
very start.
People want benefits.
They want a good place to work,they want to be appreciated.
It's a lot more than just money.
(13:56):
'cause I see that all the timeis, well, I'm paying 26 bucks an
hour.
Why does no one wanna come towork for me?
Well, it's probably becauseyou're an asshole.
Sorry to tell you.
Yeah.
Corey Berrier (14:07):
You're right, dude.
Look, people don't really,people don't leave jobs.
They leave bosses.
People will work for less moneyfor a guy they like and they
will for more money.
For a guy that's an asshole,that's just, I mean, absolutely.
It is what it is.
And if you're having trouble,your situation's a bit different
'cause you're having trouble'cause you're growing fast.
(14:29):
But if you're having troublejust keeping people and you're
not growing fast, thenunfortunately you gotta look at
what you're doing.
As the owner, you gotta look atyourself.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You can't point the finger atanybody else.
You know what I mean?
You
Ian Yearsley (14:42):
just can't.
Extreme ownership.
That's right.
It's something that is veryhandy in this business is the
end of the day.
It's Everything is your fault,even when it's not your fault,
and usually there's a way to fixit coming from your end before
we go and try to point fingersor place the blame somewhere
else, whether it's in yourprocesses or in your culture, or
(15:03):
in your personal life, whateverit may be extreme ownership will
serve you very well.
Corey Berrier (15:08):
Yes.
I totally agree.
So let's talk about we kinda hiton this a little bit, and I
think you were alluding to the,core values.
What do you think about, it saysabout an owner that.
Maybe they got their core valueson the wall, which look great.
But in one of the core valuesis, well let's just take one of
yours.
We do what we say we're gonna dowhen we say we're gonna do it,
(15:29):
and everybody's supposed to bethere at 7:00 AM including the
boss.
'cause he is done this foryears.
And then all of a, he startsslacking off.
He gets a guy, a servicemanager, he's taking a lot of
slack off, and so he startscoming in at, eight 30.
Now I'm not saying that's awrong thing.
But I do think that if your corevalues, for example, say
(15:49):
everybody's supposed to be hereat 7:00 AM your ass needs to be
there at 7:00 AM Because whathappens is people see you
strolling in, even though you'rethe boss.
And even though you own theplace, it doesn't matter.
You're the number one personthey're looking at.
Ian Yearsley (16:03):
So we wanna, yeah, we wanna lead by example.
For sure.
For sure.
Yeah.
Corey Berrier (16:09):
Absolutely.
Because if not, I mean, you areleading by example, regardless
of which, good, bad, orindifferent.
Ian Yearsley (16:15):
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Yep.
We want to be, yes, we want tobe The example being a leader is
it's not for everybody.
Right?
You gotta have certain traitsabout you to be able to do that
job effectively.
And if you're not, Willing to dothat work and be the example
from the start.
(16:35):
And we do what we say we'regonna do, right?
We do things the right way thefirst time.
If you're not living thosevalues yourself, then no one
else is ever gonna take youseriously.
They're not gonna.
They're not gonna wanna followyou, right?
Because you're saying one thing,but you're doing something else.
And so, it becomes more and moreimportant as you hire more
(16:55):
people to actually double downon those values and double down
on that, that standard and thatbehavior versus pulling back
from it.
Corey Berrier (17:03):
Yeah.
'cause you got more eye, youhave more eyeballs on you at
that point.
I totally agree with you, and Ibelieve that if if you don't, if
you don't, if you don't followthose core values more than just
a poster on the wall it doesaffect the company.
And you may not even see it atfirst.
And, some guys don't see it atall.
I mean, they can't figure out,that's the
Ian Yearsley (17:23):
problem.
Yep.
It all starts there.
Having that culture and havingthose values, People often get
it wrong, right?
They chase the money instead ofchasing the standard or chasing
the the values.
And doing the job right, anddoing the work right?
If you do all of those things,the money's gonna follow right
behind it.
Now, I'm not saying ignore themoney altogether.
I'm not saying that youshouldn't know your finances
(17:45):
from top to bottom.
I'm saying that if you have yourpriorities right, Everything's
gonna follow because yourcustomers are getting treated
right.
Your employees are gettingtreated right.
Your suppliers and vendors aregetting treated right.
And if all those relationshipsare in harmony, you shouldn't
have a problem with thefinancial side.
So those values and thosestandards, they shouldn't just
be a poster on the wall or adusty book on the shelf, right?
(18:05):
They should be something that isevery day in all of our work, in
the weekly meetings all thetime.
Corey Berrier (18:12):
That's right.
Do you make it pr, do you makeit extremely, I would think you
would make it pretty apparent toanybody new that's coming in
like, this is how, these are thethings that we expect from you,
obviously.
Ian Yearsley (18:25):
Right?
Yep.
All right.
In our operational manuals inour onboarding all that stuff is
laid out for them right away.
What we expect from them, havingthose job roles written down,
having expectations, having anemployee manual, having an
operations manual, all of thosethings from the very start is
what ultimately allows you tobe.
80 20 in your business, right?
(18:46):
80% of the time somebody can dotheir job.
The other 20% of the time.
You're never gonna be able toreally account for that.
'cause that's just the nature ofbeing in business.
But making those standards clearfrom the start is easier for
them, easier for you.
Nobody's confused.
So definitely beneficial to dothat.
Corey Berrier (19:04):
And guess what?
That rolls right into thecustomer.
If you give the customerexpectations of how that job's
gonna go, the process, what youknow, if you've gotta, you know
if it's gonna take longerbecause of X, Y, Z, or you gotta
order a part that's not local orwhatever it is, as long as you
set expectations, you'reprobably not gonna have an upset
(19:25):
customer.
But a lot of guys will just.
They avoid setting theexpectation for whatever reason.
I'm not really sure why, becauseit really does make things a lot
easier and you're less likely toget, an irate customer.
Ian Yearsley (19:39):
Yeah.
And this business is all aboutreferrals.
That's the last thing that youwant.
You do not wanna have an iratecustomer.
So having that process in placefrom the very start where you're
setting those expectations, andit's hard.
It is.
And I think that's probably whya lot of people avoid that pain,
right?
Is sitting down and making thosestandards.
(19:59):
It takes you away from thebusiness.
And it can take a long time.
Some guys take six, eightmonths, a year to, to really.
Drill down, just get that firstdraft.
And so, if you're building thoseprocesses now what I suggest to
do is just start with one thing,right?
Sit down with your team andstart with one thing that, that
isn't working so well, and justdocument that thing from start
to finish.
And slowly but surely, you'regonna fill that binder up and
(20:21):
that's the fastest way to do itwhile using the group mind to
get the work done.
Right?
And not only that, but it alsogives buy-in on that process
because people then I.
Feel as though they're valuedfor their thoughts on that
process.
And they're gonna do it adifferent way than you as well.
So you're not out there doingthe work sometimes.
Well, you're gonna want thatfeedback.
Corey Berrier (20:43):
For sure.
I bet.
I talk about this a lot.
I have, I have a D H D.
Most people in the trades have aD H D.
Oh yeah,
Ian Yearsley (20:51):
I do.
And that's the
Corey Berrier (20:53):
reason we hate doing processes because it's
boring.
It is nothing exciting about it.
It's really the last thing onthe list typically.
Ian Yearsley (21:01):
Yep.
Corey Berrier (21:03):
So, if you listen to this and you're like, yeah, I
wish I could do process, but Ilike, I get it, you get it.
It's not fun.
And it's not supposed to be fun,but it is important.
And it's vital to the success ofyour company.
Absolutely.
Yes.
Yeah, a hundred percent dude.
Alright, so you have.
(21:24):
You've you mentioned that you'regrowing quite a bit right now.
Can you give me an idea of,maybe where you guys, and you
don't have to gimme the exactnumbers or anything, but like
the, over the last 10 months, 10months ago you were stressing
out, sounded like up until now.
What kind of, like, per, like,have you seen how much growth
have you seen?
Can you gimme an idea of what
Ian Yearsley (21:45):
that looks like?
Yeah.
So, Two things.
So October it leveled off to, Ithink we made$1,200 in October.
So when you're going fromanywhere from 150 to 350 in the
summer months of revenue runningthrough the, running through the
company to zero Yeah, that doesget pretty stressful.
(22:06):
And so, we've managed to bringthat revenue back around to
probably right around that 200,which is pretty decent for where
we came from, starting from thatzero.
And so, we had a couple monthsin there where it was 15 grand.
We had a couple months in therewhere it was, seven grand.
Then February came along andFebruary was usually my slowest
month.
In February we went over sixfigures.
(22:27):
So we kind of climbed thatmountain real quick and then it
kind of came back down again.
Right.
And I don't know what the heckhappened there.
That march, April was cold, butit wasn't super cold.
People usually have theirfurnaces fixed by then, right?
Sure.
And so we saw that dip again andthen may came along and it
rocketed off like a rocket ship.
So now we're back way up intothe, that six figure range where
(22:50):
just in service and replacement,we probably pull in 50 know fat
service site right in front ofit.
But 50, 60 a week.
Easily.
So, we're doing replacementslike mad now.
What the percentage growth isoff the top of my head I can't
tell you, but I do know thenumbers from realm ServiceTitan
pretty, pretty well.
Corey Berrier (23:06):
That's pretty significant dude, mean that's
pretty damn significant.
Yeah.
Ian Yearsley (23:10):
Yeah.
It went from keeping me up atnight to.
Now, I'm also up at night, butI'm like, well, what am I gonna
do next?
So how do we get the momentum?
Corey Berrier (23:22):
So what do you, how do you try, how do you try
to, how do you try to get newtechnicians?
Or is it something that you lookfor?
Do you ever look for I mean,maybe'cause of the stage you're
in, maybe you wouldn't look forsomebody outside of the
industry.
But have you ever
Ian Yearsley (23:35):
considered that?
We do consider hiring hiringoutside of the industry.
We do have an apprenticeshipprogram.
We do have in-house training.
We have a training area that wejust finished up.
We've had that as an idea for acouple of years to bring in and
train people from the bottom.
Two things.
One, Technicians are in ashortage right now.
It's hard to find technicians.
(23:56):
And number two, when we trainfrom the bottom, we can train
them our way and then we don'thave any bad habits to come
along with that training.
Right?
So it's much easier to do thatand spend six months doing that
training and sending them on thejob training after they get
through that first six weekcourse than it is to.
Try to hire somebody and dealwith all that stuff.
(24:17):
And so, we do put the ads offfor the apprenticeship stuff on
what we call Wise Hire.
It's an app that goes out to all200 job boards.
We get a fair amount of thosethat way.
What we don't get a lot of fromthat method is journeymen or
masters.
And that's because most of thetime they're already working for
somebody.
That's right.
So you can't find people thatare.
(24:40):
Unless they're looking for ajob, they're not on Indeed,
they're not on Monster.
They're not on any of thoseplaces, and so you have to go
where they are at.
And I learned this at ProfitRocket last year.
Facebook is where they are at,right?
If you're running the right ads,just the way that you're
advertising to your customers,you gotta think of hiring in the
same exact way.
So when you're running those adson Facebook to get more leads,
(25:02):
it's the same thing.
You're trying to courtjourneymen and masters and
whoever else, your office peopleto come and work for you.
They don't know that.
They need a new job.
They don't know about you, thatyour culture's good, that your
benefits are good.
And so you gotta put that wordout there and everybody's on
there scrolling all day long.
Right.
That's right.
So, that's right.
We might as well be throwingthose targets out there and
getting those leads in.
(25:22):
And so that's the best way toreally find the people that
you're looking for.
Corey Berrier (25:27):
Interesting.
Yeah.
I like that.
I, and I agree with you Totally.
I just, I don't guess I.
I really asked that question, Iguess.
'cause I really didn't know.
I mean, I guess it made, thatmakes total sense.
I guess I was thinking maybefrom a trade school, but that's
really, that would not be,obviously they would have
experience at that point.
So that would kind of negatewhat I was thinking.
(25:48):
Yeah, dude, that makes completesense.
Not having bad habits, I thinkis.
Vitally important to the successreally for, I shouldn't say any
business, but you know, likesalespeople, I'll give you,
that's a great example.
Like if you can hire asalesperson that's just a people
person, maybe you find'em in arestaurant or maybe you find
them doing a job that they'rejust, maybe they, again, like
(26:09):
you said they don't know aboutyou.
They don't know what's outthere.
So, do you ever see people outand about and you're like, this
guy's not doing anything likewhat we do, but he'd be a great
fit and you just, and you offerto talk to him.
Ian Yearsley (26:20):
Gorilla, gorilla hiring.
Yep.
It is a thing, right?
Yeah, so I actually gave my cardto a guy as I was going through
the the Burger King drivethrough the other day.
I was like that type of customerservice that you just gave,
like.
You definitely can take thatexperience and apply that
somewhere else.
And I don't know what the guy'shabits are like or anything, but
(26:41):
I'm a good read of people eversince I've been young.
I think it's a little bit of oneof those a d h adhd traits.
Yeah, you can tell pretty quickwhat type of person you're
getting and in about sevenseconds, right.
And so I actually gave'em acard.
I haven't gotten a call yet, butgorilla hiring.
Yep.
Yeah, that's, it's a good way toto grab people.
Corey Berrier (26:59):
And you may do this already, but don't be
afraid to go back to that drivethrough and see if that dude's
working.
'cause you know he may be scaredto death to call you.
That's true.
He was working in a drivethrough at Burger King.
He's probably like, this guy'scrazy.
Yeah.
Like, did he not see me workingat Burger King?
It's just the mindset thing.
Yeah.
And that could change that kid'slife.
You never know.
Ian Yearsley (27:17):
Yeah, absolutely.
Corey Berrier (27:19):
Yeah, man.
Well, listen, I reallyappreciate this, Ian.
This is great.
Ian Yearsley (27:23):
Yeah, for sure.
I appreciate chopping it up andbeing able to come on.
Corey Berrier (27:27):
Definitely.
Where can people find you?
Where would you like to telleverybody the company name
again?
The website, and then wherewould you want'em to find you on
Ian Yearsley (27:34):
social?
I.
You can find us on Facebook airPro air pro.cool is the company.
And you can find me and all ofmy socials on pretty much every
one of'em at the Ian Yearsly.
And you can also find all thoselinks@ianyearsly.com.
So, pretty easy to find.
As far as my contact informationgoes, I'm always willing to
help, always willing to sharewhat I know.
(27:55):
I'm always willing tocollaborate.
So definitely reach out to me.
Appreciate
Corey Berrier (28:00):
that, brother.
Thanks.
Thanks a lot.
It was a great conversation myfriend.
Yeah,
Ian Yearsley (28:06):
absolutely.
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast.
I'm your host, Corey Berrier.
And today, folks, we got Ian,I'm gonna mess the name
Ian Yearsley (00:08):
up.
Or Ian.
Yearsley.
Yep.
Yep.
Corey Berrier (00:11):
Yearsley.
I was close.
I mess up somebody s normally.
So
Ian Yearsley (00:16):
what's up, Ian?
Hey, not too much.
Happy to be here.
I'm happy for you to be here.
So,
Corey Berrier (00:21):
let's stop you, you've gone through you've gone
through some bumps in yourbusiness to
say
Ian Yearsley (00:26):
the least.
Yeah, for sure.
It's been a ride the last 10months or so.
Well and heck, even the lastfive years.
So, we've definitely beenthrough it, that's for sure.
So
Corey Berrier (00:35):
you, but before we get rolling, you own a
company in North Dakota, did Isay that right?
Is it north or south?
Is that right?
North, yep.
North Dakota.
What's the name of the
Ian Yearsley (00:43):
company?
Air pro heating and cooling.
Corey Berrier (00:46):
Alright.
And so, so you just do HVAC
Ian Yearsley (00:50):
obviously?
Yep.
Yep.
Okay.
Just heating and air on theresidential side mostly we're
focused on residential serviceand replacement.
Corey Berrier (00:57):
But you have experience in commercial too,
Ian Yearsley (00:59):
I think.
Right?
We do, most of my guys areactually from the commercial
side of things before they cameto work for us.
So, we definitely touch on thatstuff a little bit.
The light commercial we'll eventouch a little industrial
occasionally.
Corey Berrier (01:11):
Sure.
Well, so what
Ian Yearsley (01:14):
got you into this business?
Well, originally I was a unionman, so I did about three and a
half years as an apprentice.
And eventually that work ranout.
So I was on the unemploymentlist for about nine, 10 months
until the savings kind of ranout, the unemployment ran out
and me and the business partnerNick we're both kind of in that
same boat.
(01:34):
And we said, well, what theheck?
We don't got much to lose.
You got about 500 bucks to ourname.
So we Jumped in the personaltruck, my little 1500 and loaded
up the tools that we had andaway we went.
Corey Berrier (01:46):
So, alright.
What hap so what Ha, so whathappened next?
Ian Yearsley (01:51):
Yeah.
Yeah, so we spent the the nexttwo years we started this late
or about middle 2018.
We started out in the oil field.
We were doing a lot of newconstruction subbing out for
another company and then Covidcame along and all the buildings
stopped basically overnight.
And so that was really thefirst, Kind of rough patch being
an entrepreneur, being an owner,really.
(02:11):
Where we went from, a hundredmiles an hour.
They're building like crazy upthere in the oil patch, and then
they just turned it off.
It was like turning off thefaucet, right?
So, we had to figure it outpretty quick there.
Luckily we do live in NorthDakota, where population's a
little more sparse and Therestrictions weren't nearly as,
as restrictive as most places.
And so, it was only about three,four months before they turned
it all right back on and back tothe building.
(02:31):
So, we were lucky, to have thatto our advantage.
And so, we continued on to thatnew construction.
But locally we brought it homeoutta the oil field.
We started out here in Bismarckbuilding a company.
And so, we started out with oneof the largest home builders, if
not the largest home builder intown.
And we were doing, 70, 70 homesa year, which is a lot for the
small company that we were.
(02:52):
So, that was kind of our breadand butter.
And so, we did that for, anotherbasically two years up until
now.
So,
Corey Berrier (03:01):
and what made you what made you shift from that?
Ian Yearsley (03:05):
Well, the biggest Kinda mind opening thing was
twofold.
So I've been preparing to switchfrom that new construction to
that service and replacement.
I got with a, with anorganization, a training organ
organization that had taught mea lot about what is actually
profitable in the HVAC business.
And so, when you go to the bankto try to sell your HVAC company
or if you're trying to retireand sell it or to private equity
(03:27):
or which, whichever you choose,right?
New construction, it doesn'thold any water.
It really doesn't mean anythingto them.
If you haven't built amembership base, if you haven't
built a customer list thatrevenue to them and the new
construction side, it meansnothing because, well, you, I
learned that lesson prettyquick.
It can get pulled out right fromunderneath you.
Right?
So, the switch was kind of, kindof transitional.
I had touched base with thistraining organization before and
(03:49):
right before kind of the all thebad stuff started happening.
The second time around.
I had prepared for that andstarted making the systems and
getting ServiceTitan integratedand really drilling down on what
the numbers were on my market tomake sure that we could support
switching over to that serviceand replacement.
And so, once we started in onthat that was right around the
time when that September Octoberof last year hit and well, the.
(04:11):
The faucet got turned off againon home building.
So that's kind of what led us upto that surface and replacement
was we knew we were gonna haveto do more repair and more
replacement didn't get away fromthat new construction again.
Corey Berrier (04:22):
So pain, basically, like you, you had to
get, you had two big lessons inthere, it
Ian Yearsley (04:26):
seems like.
Yep.
And I learned quick.
So after about the second timehaving that happen, it was like,
all right, time to pivot.
Right.
Corey Berrier (04:35):
So did you lose a bunch of money in that
Ian Yearsley (04:37):
process?
I did.
We probably lost upper sixfigures just in invoices that
were outstanding and couldn'tget paid out to us.
And then of course the lostrevenue along the way since we
had all our eggs in that, thatone basket and you're doing$2
million worth of revenue just inhome building, 2.2 million or
slightly above that, right?
You turn off that revenue allthe way.
(04:58):
So lost opportunity cost andlost revenue trying to collect
those checks from thoseindividuals that we were working
with.
Yeah.
You don't
Corey Berrier (05:07):
run into that with what you're doing now'cause
you get paid up front, butbasically
Ian Yearsley (05:11):
Right, right.
Yeah.
Corey Berrier (05:14):
Yeah, dude, I mean, you look at like, 2008.
Obviously a lot of people lost aton of money.
Yeah.
And so you kind of experienced amini version of that, or your
own version of that, so tospeak?
Ian Yearsley (05:26):
Yes.
Well, 2008 I was old enough toto be around for that, and my
family experienced that and wehad to move around because of
it.
So that wasn't the first timethat that I'd been through a
crisis similar to that.
So I'm used to the dealing withthat from a young age, I guess.
And so that probably prepared mea little bit actually to be able
to.
To handle that kind of loss twotimes in a row.
So do you
Corey Berrier (05:47):
ever this is probably gonna be a hard
question, but do you ever, havea, do you ever sit and think
like shit, when's that gonnahappen again?
Ian Yearsley (05:58):
All the time.
I bet all the time.
It's always especially whenyou're just coming out of it.
We just started coming outtathat as this busy season has
kicked in.
Whatever things are kind ofprecarious.
Things are on sand, right?
So the thought is always, well,well, what the heck?
I've almost gotten stuck in thatcycle of that mindset.
And I've always been a growthmindset type of person.
(06:18):
Take the risk keep things going.
But I've found myself and caughtmyself pulling back, right?
And money, like speed.
But Trying to be more reservedwith it.
That's not necessarily a badthing, but it also can work
against you, right?
And so it creates a lot ofanxiety where you're like, well,
I don't know if I'm gonna havethat, that money to pay payroll
next week or that bill or thatsupply or whatever it may be.
(06:38):
And so you kind of hold onto alot more of that cash.
And it just, once you get stuckin that loop, it is hard to
really get back out of again andget back into that growth
mindset again.
It's a
Corey Berrier (06:49):
fine, it is a super fine line.
I mean, it's a really fine linewhen you're looking at, well I
need to hang, like, kinda likeyou just said, I need to hang on
to whatever I've got.
'cause I'm not sure when thenext thing's gonna come in.
And there's, in my opinion, inmy experience, when that
happens, it's almost like, I'llgive you the analogy with your
(07:11):
hands closed, you can't.
Expect for somebody to give yousomething if your hand's closed.
Right.
It's kind of like that.
Right?
Right.
Ian Yearsley (07:19):
It's for sure.
Yeah.
It's it definitely has been thatexperience.
Right.
So, it's just trying to get backoutta that and change that
mindset has been my struggleover, over these last, 10, 10
months or so.
It's Now we are on that betterfooting.
We are kind of, in fact, we'reexpanding.
We're on the opposite end of thespectrum now.
Before it was famine and nowit's feast where we were bidding
like crazy.
We were, looking for work everysingle place that we could.
(07:42):
We weren't gonna quit until wegot work lined up again.
And so while we were biddingduring all that time well, they
all came back and awarded tosolve it.
And so now on the other side ofthe problem, which is now, I
don't have enough staff in orderto get the job done as fast as I
would like, and now it's summer,it's a little harder to get
people to come to work for youor to leave their companies
during summer.
They've got work, it followsthat.
(08:03):
That cycle, that that shoulderseason, the on season, off
season.
And so, but I would rather bedrinking from the fire hose than
wondering where the water'scoming gonna be coming from.
So it's definitely better to bein that position, versus, versus
the one we were in before.
Corey Berrier (08:17):
Yeah, that makes sense.
So, let's talk about for asecond.
How you mentioned hiring.
We didn't say hiring, but yousaid, you're looking for guys,
how what is your, what is yourthought process on that?
How do you bring people on?
How do you hire and fire people?
Or is there a certain.
A way you do that?
Is it?
Ian Yearsley (08:37):
There is, we do have a written process, a set of
10 questions that we rate fromone to 10 that gives us kind of
insight into how that person isgoing to operate within our
company.
And so, obviously having aprocess that you can follow
means that you can then delegatethat process later down the
road.
But it also kind of ensures thatwe're that we're hiring the
right mindset from the startbecause we can teach anybody
(08:58):
pretty much anything.
What we want is the rightattitude, and obviously we want
people to show up on time andare willing to learn.
And so, between that and havinga set of values and a set of,
standard questions we make surethat we're hiring the right
people and we don't always getit right.
I think the statistic is thatlike for every four hires you
get one good one.
But I've learned over the yearsfrom various places,
(09:19):
masterminds, people that I lookup to is that you Hire slow fire
fast.
So you can find out in about 90days what type of person you've
got in front of you.
It's pretty easy to tell andthat's where a lot of business
owners tend to get it wrong, isthey wanna hold onto somebody a
little too long or they'refeeling kind of desperate.
They need that help, right?
And I've been there where youknow, you gotta get rid of that
(09:40):
person'cause it's toxic and yougotta hold onto'em because you
got the work.
Well, a lot of the times whatyou find is.
It's a lot easier to just firethat person, get rid of the
toxicity either.
I mean, you might have to goback to work for yourself or you
might have to have your teamtake over some of that work if
you have one.
But at the end of the day, youusually find out that it's for
the best to really get thatperson on their way.
(10:03):
Unfortunately.
Hey, is
Corey Berrier (10:06):
it, can you think of a time when maybe you have
held on and when you have heldon somebody too long?
And my question really is, How,if you can think of one of those
times, how long did you hang onto'em, which I guess a day
longer than you needed to is toolong, but when, there's usually
a person that you can think of,and I don't need their name, but
(10:27):
just the person that I.
You're like, I think they'regonna work out.
I, and you kind of force it, youpush the envelope and you
realize, damn, dude, if I'd havepulled this bandaid off 4, 5, 6
months ago, a year ago, whatcould it have done based on what
it's doing for you now?
Does that make
Ian Yearsley (10:43):
sense?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And I can think of two.
I had one recently and it wasduring that, that hard
financial, period.
And I had one before that.
And he was a younger kid.
We kept him around just a littletoo long and we let him kind of,
kind of keep on kicking the candown the road, right?
Not showing up on time, notpaying attention, being
argumentative with thejourneymen not willing to learn,
(11:03):
thinking that he kind of had itall figured out.
And the kids is, 19, 20 yearsold.
At the end of the day He justdoesn't really have the
knowledge that a lot of us have.
And I'm not saying that I knoweverything because my job as an
entrepreneur is to hire peoplethat know more than me.
However, that said, sometimesyou just gotta have that
attitude of, well, I'm willingto learn anything and
(11:25):
everything, and he just reallydidn't fit into that culture of
the.
Get it done.
Use your resources be willingand open to learn.
We do what we say we're gonna dowhen we say we're gonna do it.
So very quickly we got him outthe door and it was the same
thing with the more recent one.
The first one took right around.
About a year that I held ontohim too long.
And we were kind of in thatbeginning stage of the company
(11:46):
when we brought it back toBismarck.
So it was a little harder to letthat guy go.
But I had learned my lesson bythe time I got to the second
one.
Right.
And he made it three, aboutthree months, about that 90 day
mark before it was it was over,it was time to go.
So he moved on and.
I don't know what he does now,but I certainly hope that he's
doing, a lot better now and haskind of, kind of learned.
(12:10):
Grow up just a little bit,right?
Corey Berrier (12:12):
Sure.
So, do you hire a lot of youngpeople?
Because I imagine, I wouldn'tsay every young person's gonna
be this way, but Dang.
I mean, the way people are, theway people come up now is very
different.
And I don't know how old you, Ican't really tell, but like I'm
in my mid forties, like I cameup very different than how
people come up
Ian Yearsley (12:30):
today.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I'm 29 so I'm right out,right outside of that generation
that I like to say grew up withthe phones, right?
Right.
That was kind of the changingtime where you have access to a
lot of information.
You have you have that device inyour hand all day long.
I didn't have that growing up.
And so, I know a lot of people,they kind of, They kind of hate
on that millennial generation,that newer generation, the Gen Z
generation.
But right now, that's what youhave to work with, right?
(12:52):
But there's plenty of good onesout there.
And so where those companies aremissing out is that these kids
know a lot more about tech.
And other things like that andhow to access that information,
then we really do.
So they're ahead of the curve.
They're ahead of the curve onthings like social media, which
is a big, integral part ofbuilding a business today.
And once you find the ones thatare willing to learn they learn
(13:15):
quick.
And so I always say that.
Be willing to hire thosemillennials.
'cause I hear it in the tradesall the time.
Well, these millennials, theydon't wanna work anymore.
They don't want to they don'twant to, work hard.
They don't wanna get dirty.
There's plenty of them that do.
The problem is that a lot ofcompanies don't provide the
culture to be able to hire theright people.
(13:35):
People don't wanna stick aroundfor a boss who's, excuse my
language, an asshole.
Yeah, they don't wanna work forthose people and they know they
don't have to post the virus.
Right?
Right.
They know that they are just asquickly replaceable as the next
guy.
And so you have to build thatculture in your company from the
very start.
People want benefits.
They want a good place to work,they want to be appreciated.
It's a lot more than just money.
(13:56):
'cause I see that all the timeis, well, I'm paying 26 bucks an
hour.
Why does no one wanna come towork for me?
Well, it's probably becauseyou're an asshole.
Sorry to tell you.
Yeah.
Corey Berrier (14:07):
You're right, dude.
Look, people don't really,people don't leave jobs.
They leave bosses.
People will work for less moneyfor a guy they like and they
will for more money.
For a guy that's an asshole,that's just, I mean, absolutely.
It is what it is.
And if you're having trouble,your situation's a bit different
'cause you're having trouble'cause you're growing fast.
(14:29):
But if you're having troublejust keeping people and you're
not growing fast, thenunfortunately you gotta look at
what you're doing.
As the owner, you gotta look atyourself.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You can't point the finger atanybody else.
You know what I mean?
You
Ian Yearsley (14:42):
just can't.
Extreme ownership.
That's right.
It's something that is veryhandy in this business is the
end of the day.
It's Everything is your fault,even when it's not your fault,
and usually there's a way to fixit coming from your end before
we go and try to point fingersor place the blame somewhere
else, whether it's in yourprocesses or in your culture, or
(15:03):
in your personal life, whateverit may be extreme ownership will
serve you very well.
Corey Berrier (15:08):
Yes.
I totally agree.
So let's talk about we kinda hiton this a little bit, and I
think you were alluding to the,core values.
What do you think about, it saysabout an owner that.
Maybe they got their core valueson the wall, which look great.
But in one of the core valuesis, well let's just take one of
yours.
We do what we say we're gonna dowhen we say we're gonna do it,
(15:29):
and everybody's supposed to bethere at 7:00 AM including the
boss.
'cause he is done this foryears.
And then all of a, he startsslacking off.
He gets a guy, a servicemanager, he's taking a lot of
slack off, and so he startscoming in at, eight 30.
Now I'm not saying that's awrong thing.
But I do think that if your corevalues, for example, say
(15:49):
everybody's supposed to be hereat 7:00 AM your ass needs to be
there at 7:00 AM Because whathappens is people see you
strolling in, even though you'rethe boss.
And even though you own theplace, it doesn't matter.
You're the number one personthey're looking at.
Ian Yearsley (16:03):
So we wanna, yeah, we wanna lead by example.
For sure.
For sure.
Yeah.
Corey Berrier (16:09):
Absolutely.
Because if not, I mean, you areleading by example, regardless
of which, good, bad, orindifferent.
Ian Yearsley (16:15):
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Yep.
We want to be, yes, we want tobe The example being a leader is
it's not for everybody.
Right?
You gotta have certain traitsabout you to be able to do that
job effectively.
And if you're not, Willing to dothat work and be the example
from the start.
(16:35):
And we do what we say we'regonna do, right?
We do things the right way thefirst time.
If you're not living thosevalues yourself, then no one
else is ever gonna take youseriously.
They're not gonna.
They're not gonna wanna followyou, right?
Because you're saying one thing,but you're doing something else.
And so, it becomes more and moreimportant as you hire more
(16:55):
people to actually double downon those values and double down
on that, that standard and thatbehavior versus pulling back
from it.
Corey Berrier (17:03):
Yeah.
'cause you got more eye, youhave more eyeballs on you at
that point.
I totally agree with you, and Ibelieve that if if you don't, if
you don't, if you don't followthose core values more than just
a poster on the wall it doesaffect the company.
And you may not even see it atfirst.
And, some guys don't see it atall.
I mean, they can't figure out,that's the
Ian Yearsley (17:23):
problem.
Yep.
It all starts there.
Having that culture and havingthose values, People often get
it wrong, right?
They chase the money instead ofchasing the standard or chasing
the the values.
And doing the job right, anddoing the work right?
If you do all of those things,the money's gonna follow right
behind it.
Now, I'm not saying ignore themoney altogether.
I'm not saying that youshouldn't know your finances
(17:45):
from top to bottom.
I'm saying that if you have yourpriorities right, Everything's
gonna follow because yourcustomers are getting treated
right.
Your employees are gettingtreated right.
Your suppliers and vendors aregetting treated right.
And if all those relationshipsare in harmony, you shouldn't
have a problem with thefinancial side.
So those values and thosestandards, they shouldn't just
be a poster on the wall or adusty book on the shelf, right?
(18:05):
They should be something that isevery day in all of our work, in
the weekly meetings all thetime.
Corey Berrier (18:12):
That's right.
Do you make it pr, do you makeit extremely, I would think you
would make it pretty apparent toanybody new that's coming in
like, this is how, these are thethings that we expect from you,
obviously.
Ian Yearsley (18:25):
Right?
Yep.
All right.
In our operational manuals inour onboarding all that stuff is
laid out for them right away.
What we expect from them, havingthose job roles written down,
having expectations, having anemployee manual, having an
operations manual, all of thosethings from the very start is
what ultimately allows you tobe.
80 20 in your business, right?
(18:46):
80% of the time somebody can dotheir job.
The other 20% of the time.
You're never gonna be able toreally account for that.
'cause that's just the nature ofbeing in business.
But making those standards clearfrom the start is easier for
them, easier for you.
Nobody's confused.
So definitely beneficial to dothat.
Corey Berrier (19:04):
And guess what?
That rolls right into thecustomer.
If you give the customerexpectations of how that job's
gonna go, the process, what youknow, if you've gotta, you know
if it's gonna take longerbecause of X, Y, Z, or you gotta
order a part that's not local orwhatever it is, as long as you
set expectations, you'reprobably not gonna have an upset
(19:25):
customer.
But a lot of guys will just.
They avoid setting theexpectation for whatever reason.
I'm not really sure why, becauseit really does make things a lot
easier and you're less likely toget, an irate customer.
Ian Yearsley (19:39):
Yeah.
And this business is all aboutreferrals.
That's the last thing that youwant.
You do not wanna have an iratecustomer.
So having that process in placefrom the very start where you're
setting those expectations, andit's hard.
It is.
And I think that's probably whya lot of people avoid that pain,
right?
Is sitting down and making thosestandards.
(19:59):
It takes you away from thebusiness.
And it can take a long time.
Some guys take six, eightmonths, a year to, to really.
Drill down, just get that firstdraft.
And so, if you're building thoseprocesses now what I suggest to
do is just start with one thing,right?
Sit down with your team andstart with one thing that, that
isn't working so well, and justdocument that thing from start
to finish.
And slowly but surely, you'regonna fill that binder up and
(20:21):
that's the fastest way to do itwhile using the group mind to
get the work done.
Right?
And not only that, but it alsogives buy-in on that process
because people then I.
Feel as though they're valuedfor their thoughts on that
process.
And they're gonna do it adifferent way than you as well.
So you're not out there doingthe work sometimes.
Well, you're gonna want thatfeedback.
Corey Berrier (20:43):
For sure.
I bet.
I talk about this a lot.
I have, I have a D H D.
Most people in the trades have aD H D.
Oh yeah,
Ian Yearsley (20:51):
I do.
And that's the
Corey Berrier (20:53):
reason we hate doing processes because it's
boring.
It is nothing exciting about it.
It's really the last thing onthe list typically.
Ian Yearsley (21:01):
Yep.
Corey Berrier (21:03):
So, if you listen to this and you're like, yeah, I
wish I could do process, but Ilike, I get it, you get it.
It's not fun.
And it's not supposed to be fun,but it is important.
And it's vital to the success ofyour company.
Absolutely.
Yes.
Yeah, a hundred percent dude.
Alright, so you have.
(21:24):
You've you mentioned that you'regrowing quite a bit right now.
Can you give me an idea of,maybe where you guys, and you
don't have to gimme the exactnumbers or anything, but like
the, over the last 10 months, 10months ago you were stressing
out, sounded like up until now.
What kind of, like, per, like,have you seen how much growth
have you seen?
Can you gimme an idea of what
Ian Yearsley (21:45):
that looks like?
Yeah.
So, Two things.
So October it leveled off to, Ithink we made$1,200 in October.
So when you're going fromanywhere from 150 to 350 in the
summer months of revenue runningthrough the, running through the
company to zero Yeah, that doesget pretty stressful.
(22:06):
And so, we've managed to bringthat revenue back around to
probably right around that 200,which is pretty decent for where
we came from, starting from thatzero.
And so, we had a couple monthsin there where it was 15 grand.
We had a couple months in therewhere it was, seven grand.
Then February came along andFebruary was usually my slowest
month.
In February we went over sixfigures.
(22:27):
So we kind of climbed thatmountain real quick and then it
kind of came back down again.
Right.
And I don't know what the heckhappened there.
That march, April was cold, butit wasn't super cold.
People usually have theirfurnaces fixed by then, right?
Sure.
And so we saw that dip again andthen may came along and it
rocketed off like a rocket ship.
So now we're back way up intothe, that six figure range where
(22:50):
just in service and replacement,we probably pull in 50 know fat
service site right in front ofit.
But 50, 60 a week.
Easily.
So, we're doing replacementslike mad now.
What the percentage growth isoff the top of my head I can't
tell you, but I do know thenumbers from realm ServiceTitan
pretty, pretty well.
Corey Berrier (23:06):
That's pretty significant dude, mean that's
pretty damn significant.
Yeah.
Ian Yearsley (23:10):
Yeah.
It went from keeping me up atnight to.
Now, I'm also up at night, butI'm like, well, what am I gonna
do next?
So how do we get the momentum?
Corey Berrier (23:22):
So what do you, how do you try, how do you try
to, how do you try to get newtechnicians?
Or is it something that you lookfor?
Do you ever look for I mean,maybe'cause of the stage you're
in, maybe you wouldn't look forsomebody outside of the
industry.
But have you ever
Ian Yearsley (23:35):
considered that?
We do consider hiring hiringoutside of the industry.
We do have an apprenticeshipprogram.
We do have in-house training.
We have a training area that wejust finished up.
We've had that as an idea for acouple of years to bring in and
train people from the bottom.
Two things.
One, Technicians are in ashortage right now.
It's hard to find technicians.
(23:56):
And number two, when we trainfrom the bottom, we can train
them our way and then we don'thave any bad habits to come
along with that training.
Right?
So it's much easier to do thatand spend six months doing that
training and sending them on thejob training after they get
through that first six weekcourse than it is to.
Try to hire somebody and dealwith all that stuff.
(24:17):
And so, we do put the ads offfor the apprenticeship stuff on
what we call Wise Hire.
It's an app that goes out to all200 job boards.
We get a fair amount of thosethat way.
What we don't get a lot of fromthat method is journeymen or
masters.
And that's because most of thetime they're already working for
somebody.
That's right.
So you can't find people thatare.
(24:40):
Unless they're looking for ajob, they're not on Indeed,
they're not on Monster.
They're not on any of thoseplaces, and so you have to go
where they are at.
And I learned this at ProfitRocket last year.
Facebook is where they are at,right?
If you're running the right ads,just the way that you're
advertising to your customers,you gotta think of hiring in the
same exact way.
So when you're running those adson Facebook to get more leads,
(25:02):
it's the same thing.
You're trying to courtjourneymen and masters and
whoever else, your office peopleto come and work for you.
They don't know that.
They need a new job.
They don't know about you, thatyour culture's good, that your
benefits are good.
And so you gotta put that wordout there and everybody's on
there scrolling all day long.
Right.
That's right.
So, that's right.
We might as well be throwingthose targets out there and
getting those leads in.
(25:22):
And so that's the best way toreally find the people that
you're looking for.
Corey Berrier (25:27):
Interesting.
Yeah.
I like that.
I, and I agree with you Totally.
I just, I don't guess I.
I really asked that question, Iguess.
'cause I really didn't know.
I mean, I guess it made, thatmakes total sense.
I guess I was thinking maybefrom a trade school, but that's
really, that would not be,obviously they would have
experience at that point.
So that would kind of negatewhat I was thinking.
(25:48):
Yeah, dude, that makes completesense.
Not having bad habits, I thinkis.
Vitally important to the successreally for, I shouldn't say any
business, but you know, likesalespeople, I'll give you,
that's a great example.
Like if you can hire asalesperson that's just a people
person, maybe you find'em in arestaurant or maybe you find
them doing a job that they'rejust, maybe they, again, like
(26:09):
you said they don't know aboutyou.
They don't know what's outthere.
So, do you ever see people outand about and you're like, this
guy's not doing anything likewhat we do, but he'd be a great
fit and you just, and you offerto talk to him.
Ian Yearsley (26:20):
Gorilla, gorilla hiring.
Yep.
It is a thing, right?
Yeah, so I actually gave my cardto a guy as I was going through
the the Burger King drivethrough the other day.
I was like that type of customerservice that you just gave,
like.
You definitely can take thatexperience and apply that
somewhere else.
And I don't know what the guy'shabits are like or anything, but
(26:41):
I'm a good read of people eversince I've been young.
I think it's a little bit of oneof those a d h adhd traits.
Yeah, you can tell pretty quickwhat type of person you're
getting and in about sevenseconds, right.
And so I actually gave'em acard.
I haven't gotten a call yet, butgorilla hiring.
Yep.
Yeah, that's, it's a good way toto grab people.
Corey Berrier (26:59):
And you may do this already, but don't be
afraid to go back to that drivethrough and see if that dude's
working.
'cause you know he may be scaredto death to call you.
That's true.
He was working in a drivethrough at Burger King.
He's probably like, this guy'scrazy.
Yeah.
Like, did he not see me workingat Burger King?
It's just the mindset thing.
Yeah.
And that could change that kid'slife.
You never know.
Ian Yearsley (27:17):
Yeah, absolutely.
Corey Berrier (27:19):
Yeah, man.
Well, listen, I reallyappreciate this, Ian.
This is great.
Ian Yearsley (27:23):
Yeah, for sure.
I appreciate chopping it up andbeing able to come on.
Corey Berrier (27:27):
Definitely.
Where can people find you?
Where would you like to telleverybody the company name
again?
The website, and then wherewould you want'em to find you on
Ian Yearsley (27:34):
social?
I.
You can find us on Facebook airPro air pro.cool is the company.
And you can find me and all ofmy socials on pretty much every
one of'em at the Ian Yearsly.
And you can also find all thoselinks@ianyearsly.com.
So, pretty easy to find.
As far as my contact informationgoes, I'm always willing to
help, always willing to sharewhat I know.
(27:55):
I'm always willing tocollaborate.
So definitely reach out to me.
Appreciate
Corey Berrier (28:00):
that, brother.
Thanks.
Thanks a lot.
It was a great conversation myfriend.
Yeah,
Ian Yearsley (28:06):
absolutely.
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