December 10, 2024 • 47 mins
Welcome to another engaging episode of "From the Yellow Chair," where we sit down with Leo Morales, the inspiring co-owner of BCI Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling from Denton, Texas. What if the secret to thriving in business and life lies in the people you surround yourself with? Leo's riveting journey across 34 relocations and diverse industries reveals just that. Through life-altering experiences, he has embraced the importance of personal growth and the transformative power of aligning team strengths, a philosophy that has proven crucial in his business ventures.
Our conversation with Leo takes us into the heart of community engagement and strategic vision. Drawing inspiration from storytelling business experts like Patrick Lencioni, we uncover how aligning team members with roles that resonate with their strengths can ignite productivity and foster a profound sense of shared purpose. Leo shares the success story of an innovative vehicle system that dramatically cut down supply run times, demonstrating the impact of patience and strategic planning. Additionally, we explore how local involvement and supporting charities can elevate both a business's standing and its connectedness to the community fabric.
In the final segment, we explore the art of selfless leadership and the enduring impact of a cohesive, cross-trained team. Leo emphasizes the humility required to transition from trade mastery to business ownership, highlighting the importance of learning from mistakes in a supportive culture. By investing in team bonding activities and embracing a dynamic brand refresh, Leo's company not only strengthened its internal culture but also became a community landmark. Join us for an episode filled with invaluable lessons on leadership, adaptability, and the power of nurturing potential within both individuals and organizations.
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We'll see you next time, Lemon Heads!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, lemonheads ?
Welcome back to another episodeof From the Yellow Chair.
I'm Emily and I have a veryspecial guest with me here today
in the actual lemonade stand,not the virtual lemonade stand
and he came in yesterday.
He's a client of ours and washanging out with us a little bit
, got to enjoy the cigar loungelast night and someone asked him
hey, why did you come intotalent, what are you doing here?
(00:20):
And he said well, they asked meto record a podcast, podcast,
and I just really love toconnect with people.
So I made the trip down, justso we could do this and not have
to do it virtually.
And so we're going to get todive into his experiences and
his philosophies with howconnecting with people and
surrounding yourself with theright people will really change
the trajectory of your company.
So, without further ado, let'ssip some lemonade, all right.
(00:56):
So here in the lemonade standwith me I have Leo Morales, one
of the owners of BCI Plumbing,heating and Flowing out of
Denton, texas, and Leo welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, thank you, it's an honor to be here.
You know, I love your team, Ilove your brand and I'm just
excited to be part of this.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Awesome.
Well, this is kind of a loadedquestion.
So I'm gonna say tell me alittle bit about yourself.
But I know you have such adiverse background and come from
a lot of different walks oflife and experiences and stuff.
But I think that's what reallycontributes to how you're
leading the organization andpouring into your people.
So tell our listeners a littlebit about your background and
how you got to being here at BCI.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
You're right, it's a little bit of diverse.
I have through many reasons inlife.
I've actually relocated 34times 34 times.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
That sounds terrible.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, it can be and it has its pros and cons for
sure.
But I've had the opportunity toexperience multiple industries,
from retail, wholesalemanufacturing to export, import
and coaching, and I got anopportunity to come into this
industry from the vendor sideand the longer I was in it, the
(02:08):
more I fell in love with thepeople.
I fell in love with, I want tosay, the spirit of who is doing
this kind of work and I learnedto appreciate and I just had an
opportunity to open up, to bepart of the team at BCI.
At that point they were 35years in business.
We celebrated our 40th thisyear.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Thank you.
It was definitely fun.
We did a lot of crazy stuff tocelebrate that.
But as far as how thatinfluenced everything, to be
honest with you, you get areally good sampling of what not
to do.
Hey, that's uh, you know, youalways had that situation when
you're like I would never belike that boss and I promise you
(02:51):
you are that one point another,because that's what you know.
But you, when you change somany scenarios, you get to
sample the good, the bad and theugly.
And then you get to startmaking a decision of hey,
someday, if I have thisopportunity, I really want to
emulate this or I really want tonot emulate that, and I need to
figure out I'm not to do that.
(03:12):
Uh.
And then over time you realize,uh, there's a saying that says
you're the average of the fivepeople you spend time right
right, and you know a differentstory for a different day, but
I've I should have been deadabout three or four times
already, and just differentmotorcycle accidents and things
like that.
And I remember waking up from ablood clot from my ankle to my
(03:35):
heart oh my gosh, it was.
It was a situation where I hadabout 18 chance of living and I
realized at that moment that Iwas going to make it past, that
I had to change mindset.
I had to change my approach, andso when I came out of that
scenario, I started reading, Istarted working out, I started
surrounding myself with smarterpeople than me, which you know,
(03:58):
if you're doing the scale,that's a lot of people above, so
this is easy to pick thosesmarter people.
But I started to appreciate theindividuals and understand that
we all have a worth, but if wedon't have value ourselves, how
can we add value to anything oranything?
And so breaking apart theindividual is is through a lot
(04:22):
of different books that I read.
Uh, I mean, I love one thingthat I know that you guys do it
here.
You have your bookshelf and theneverybody can read the things
that you have read.
And so I just, I know, kind ofjust start tumbling down through
books about things that Iwanted to learn a mindset, the
idea that I want to try harderso that I can be better, that
(04:42):
I'm not just going to sit inhere, say this is what I am,
this is who I am, and I'm justgoing to accept it and be this
for the rest of my life.
And I realized, no, I canchange.
If I look at the mirror hardenough, I can accept my flaws
and I can surround myself withpeople that will help me with
them.
And that's a little bit of whatwe've done with our teams.
(05:04):
We have celebrated theirsuccess, we celebrate their
strengths.
Book Strength Finders helps youunderstand what your core
competencies are as a leader.
And so we took our managementteam in and started showing each
other who we were.
And then we emphasize okay,this is how you flow, this is
(05:25):
how you operate, let's make yousuccessful, let's give you the
training, let's give you theauthority, but let's give you
the support and then run with it, run with it and then, every
time that we put those people inthe right place, to be honest
with you, emily.
They run circles around.
Anything I could.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, it just shows the right people in the right
seats can make the world adifference.
And you know, I think you're sowise because so many people,
like you said I'm looking tosurround myself with people that
are smarter than me, and youwere jokingly saying, like
there's you know a whole tonmore than there are below you,
but like I don't believe that'strue, because I think so many
people are unwilling to acceptthat they aren't the smartest
(06:05):
person in the room or that theyneed help.
And so to me, that's so wise torealize that you still have
things that you can learn fromeverybody, and everyone does
bring a different experience andwork ethic and value that they
can contribute, and so beingwise enough to put ego and pride
aside so that you can learn andabsorb that, I think that's
tremendously wise.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I appreciate it.
I mean from outside theindustry.
I don't have a leg to stand onon the HVAC conversation and you
don't want me to change youryour toilet flange.
Are you going to mess it up?
And again, I've been on thefield.
I've done a lot of stuff.
I probably know more than I'mletting out, but you have to be
humble.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Correct, yes.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
And the one thing that I've seen in the industry
and this is not specific to justthe industry, this is actually
generational, I think is thereis this unspoken need that if
you're the owner or if you'rethe manager, you have to know
all be all, and then everythinghas to be you.
So you have to be the head ofmarketing, you have to be the
head of HR, you have to be thediscipline, you have to be
accounting.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Accounting yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
It's just you can't right.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Or you'll hit a cap and you'll never get anything
beyond that.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
And the problem is because we created this culture
having to be like I have to haveeverything.
We then thwart our growth bynot allowing people that and
sometimes we will feelthreatened by you know, my
partners very smart veryincredibly smart.
They I cannot, would not be ableto compete with them, because
(07:40):
they have a career plumbers andHVAC techs and and a career
development in new construction,cause we have all aspects of
the residential, commercial,industrial and new construction.
And so for what?
For that knowledge too, I willspend a lifetime chasing them.
I still wouldn't be able to, sowouldn't be able to accept that
(08:02):
and say, but that's not my role, correct, and I am so glad that
I have these people and thoseroles because I wouldn't want
anybody else there.
So then I am going to supportthem, I'm going to make sure
that they know I appreciate it.
I want to make sure that theyknow that we rely on that and
then we celebrate each other'ssuccess.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
That's great.
One of my favorite sayings isyou deserve what you tolerate,
you get what you reiterate, butyou keep what you celebrate.
And so those qualities that youdo want, you'll keep those.
If you celebrate them, don'tlet it go unnoticed or make
someone that feels like, don'tmake them feel unappreciated for
what they're bringing to thetable.
But when you celebrate that,celebrate your wins, celebrate
(08:44):
your diversities.
That's what you'll keep andthat's how you'll rise above.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, and a lot of times you know our teams they're
not aware of what they'recapable of.
You know, and you know I havethis thing in life and I've seen
it happen to me a lot of times.
But if you have to thwartsomebody's success so that you
can be successful, you're doingit wrong.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And if you have to block somebody from achieving
their goals so that you can getahead and that happens a lot
you're doing it wrong.
And so we focus on what istheir lane, what does success
look like for them and what isthat success for the overall
picture?
And then we talk about thosethings.
We've been going through a bookcalled Death by Meeting.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Gosh, this meeting could have been an email.
They're beating it to death oroverthink it, overanalyze it.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Well, it's funny because that was the initial
reaction we got with it, but itactually it almost.
When you read the book and Idon't want to give away, you
know I guess we're in a podcast,you can't fast forward.
The premise of it is is youshould have more meetings, but
these meetings are specific fora way that you conduct them and
(09:59):
so and they break it down.
It's a really good book tofollow because it's a story, so
it's very engaging.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Who who is the author ?
Is it patrick linceoni?
Yes, I sound right okay becauseI read another.
You're talking about the rightpeople in the right seats and he
has like the six workingpersonalities or six working
type, but it's written in astory manner to where it's like
very easy to fall, like it's notlike so self-help driven this
way, but it teaches theprinciples through.
So it's a very differentapproach to a lot of leadership
(10:27):
books.
So I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
It's like if you would have read the script of
friends.
You know you're watching theirlife develop and you see the
challenges and you're going.
That's happened to me.
I know that feeling and so themessages that stay better.
But we've actually startedgoing to a point where our
meetings are so effective.
Yeah, we may have what it seemsfeels like more, but you're
actually accomplishing things,because when a meeting parameter
(10:51):
is breached, we take that topicand say well, I'm sorry, this
goes to this meeting and this istop, keeping it super constant.
Hey, we have this to work, andso you know the team themselves.
They're becoming so efficient.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Which is great.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
We've um, the In war they always talk about.
You really want to know what'sgoing on and go to the front
lines, right Like they actuallyknow what's going on.
And so what was it?
January of 2023, I don't know.
Maybe I just blurbed my mouseand shouldn't have said it, but
I announced that we were goingto go to an all packout vehicle,
(11:27):
we were going to figure out howto increase our efficiencies
and it sounds great.
It took 18 months 18 months forone.
For anybody that is watchingthat have tried it, there is
every combination until Sunday,that you can do for Milwaukee
and it's really hard to figureout how it fits the vans, all
(11:48):
the dimensions and the curves,and we spent 18 months and it
took specific people on the teamto take care of their, their
role and responsibility in thedevelopment.
Then, when it came together, weeven had a, an executive from
milwaukee, to come over and lookat it and he was like, okay,
I've seen the majority of theones in the uS and this was, for
(12:11):
sure, the best one that I'veseen.
And so we started now.
The goal at that point is wediscovered that our team was
spending 40 plus hours a monthat the supply houses, and that
was not including driving time,and so, with every individual
that took ownership of it, westarted doing calculations,
(12:32):
figure out how to do it, talkingto vendors, working with them
for solutions.
But it wasn't.
I guess the point I'm trying tomake is it wasn't all me.
I casted a vision and it tookfor our team to own that vision.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Well, but also the vision and the patience to allow
it to come.
So, like you said, it took 18months and you know that was
probably those team members areworking on.
That was not revenue producingat that moment.
You know it's overhead expenseat that point I'm sure you
probably tried lots of thingslike we just bought that.
Now that's not going to work,but it took that investment.
(13:16):
But for the long term vision ofhow this is going to long term
improve our efficiency, savemore time.
We're going to be able toservice more customers in the
same amount of time becausewe're not at the parts warehouse
or on the road going to theparts warehouse.
So it took that visionary andthat patience to get it right
versus well, we've been doing it.
There's no other way to fixthis.
Like we've tried this for sixmonths how much more are we
going to go at it?
But having that diligence tomake it come through.
And so I'm sure you've seentremendous efficiency and
improvements since it's beenimplemented.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
We've cut down.
I mean, now there's a processnot to bore you with details,
but if you go to a job site andyou have everything in your van,
they use the stuff in your van.
If you don't, don't touchanything in your van, you're
already going to supply houseGet everything, because nine
times out of 10, there'ssomething you forgot.
So we want to make sure youhave your inventory available.
And then we have vendors thatwe worked out where we supply.
(13:54):
We scan a book and then sendthe order in every day and by
the next day we have all of ourthings.
So it created efficiency.
We uh, we brought the vehicle toa car show in denton and the
community response to it wasreally impressive.
Like people were like okay, Iwant you to service us
Technicians from not even ourindustry locksmith and mechanics
(14:17):
they're like we need this, youknow.
And so the team took such apride to it.
And then that was part of usengaging with the community
events, which is a big thing forus, right, that was at the auto
show.
Then we went to a festival.
That was at the auto show.
Then we went to a festival jazzfestival, it was three days and
then we did a bunch oftrunk-a-treats, so the team is
(14:39):
involved in giving back to thecommunity.
We once a year select charitiesand do a little voting
competition and they get to hearthe stories about hey, this is
what's happening in yourcommunity and as a business we
need to make sure that thecommunity knows that we are also
part of the community, and sothe team has seen stories of how
(15:02):
their work has had an influenceon a life and how it was
impacted either an elderly or asingle mother.
There's just so many good causesout there, so our goal is for
us to remember and to show thecommunity hey, we're still here,
we're part of this, we'regiving back, and that, I think,
(15:28):
has changed the community'sperspective on who we are.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Well, and again, that's another, I think,
visionary type thing, becauseI'm sure you didn't go to this
trunk or street and because youdid that, you sold five new
systems right there from thatevent.
No, but it's.
It's that long-term marathonstrategy of building
relationships Like, hey, this isour community, we live here too
, we play here too, like we'reyour neighbor.
We happen to do heating and airconditioning and plumbing, but
(15:54):
we live here and we're peoplefirst.
You know and we care aboutpeople.
And so I know you're personallyinvested in being very involved
in the community through someboards that you serve on.
But also BCI's approach to beinginvolved in the community.
I know you know we help.
You order lots of swag itemsand different things to just
give out.
You know it literally makes youno money.
You're spending money to justgive it away.
But I'm sure you've seen somepositive reinforcements from
(16:17):
that.
And again, that takes a growthmindset because we get contract
oh, no one will go to I can'tget anyone on my team to go to
that or like it's just a wasteof money.
Or like I did a giveaway and wegave it to a guy and then he
didn't even buy a new systemfrom us.
He bought it from ourcompetitor.
I was like, okay, that was oneperson, but who are the other
200 people that you met and gotto talk to?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So I have pretty amazing partners.
One is in the board of.
Jazz Fest, their board ofplumbing and then Coats for Kids
.
So this is not something Istarted.
This has been the heart of thecore of the leadership since the
beginning.
But we've never aired ourlaundry.
We never told people about it.
The coolest part of it wasthey're right, the people that
(17:04):
are telling you nobody wants togo.
They're right, we watched acompetitor this last Jazz Fest
chasing somebody I'm not tryingto sell you something, you know
and we were like, oh that'sharsh, right, like you don't
want that kind of interaction.
So our focus has been let's goand have fun and let's go and
(17:28):
meet our customers when nothingis broken.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Let's go meet them when everything is fine and
let's go do something thatthey're not expecting and so.
Well, you know, first year wewent out there we had bubbles
for the kids that's fun we hadglow sticks for the nighttime,
we had beach balls, we hadglasses, we had I mean, it was
(17:52):
it.
It was crazy.
We had our koozies right, andI'm sure nobody liked us because
everybody was selling them for$2 and we were just giving them
away and so anywhere you walkedin that whole thing for three
days, it was just a sea of tealand BCI logo everywhere.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Well, and then you never throw away a koozie, so
they're going to put that intheir drawer at home and when
they need a koozie, you know,pull it back out, and it's just
that top of mind awareness,brand reinforcements, where
whenever they do, need you.
So it wasn't right then at thatfestival.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
And all they had to do is the kids would come over
and spin the wheel, and so thekids had a blast.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
And I remember you, I remember I gave the kids
koozies with a beer in it.
I'm kidding Ranchwater.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Anyways.
But no, there was.
We even had some $10 gift cardsfrom Amazon.
I still remember the firstperson that ever hit it, because
we made it really hard.
It was like a half a sleeve andit was like a 16 year old kid.
And he goes oh, I guess I don'tget that.
I said, well, did you spin thewheel?
He goes yeah, so here's your$10.
And so their faces lit up.
(18:54):
They told all their friendsabout it and then people were
coming over with their kids andthen eventually they'd back up
for a second and look around andgo what do you guys?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
do yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
And those were the most honest conversation.
Our customers were coming overand going this is really cool,
what are you doing?
We're just giving away.
Really cool, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
We're just giving away.
We're just giving away, that'sall we're doing.
And it breaks down a barrierthat people you know people
never want to be sold to or,like you know, it's a painful
thing when they do have toactually call you because they
have a plumbing problem or HVACproblem.
But you're removing thatbarrier by going to where the
people are going out, to thiscommunity, these events, things
like that.
You're going through that andyou're breaking down those
barriers, making yourself moreapproachable, humanizing
(19:33):
yourself and the brand, andyou've witnessed the benefits of
it.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
It is, and a lot of times the contractors and I
guess I get it.
We're busy, right, like we'reabsolutely busy, and when we're
not we think we are.
We create our own busyness.
But taking the time to engagewith the chamber, you know I I
go there and I do the monthlythings.
I go to some of the ribboncuttings.
(19:59):
I don't ever bring my cards.
I build relationships with them.
So when the time came that wewere doing our 40th anniversary
party, we decided, okay, it's 40years, I mean that's a big,
that's a big deal.
I know 50 is going to be bigger,but that's 10 years from now.
So so we were here, right, thisis a marker.
And we decided to put a tent upin the middle of the hottest
(20:21):
time of the year it's like 98degrees in Texas, you know with
the sun beating and um we uh,painted our wall.
We put a giant sign.
We painted our wall, we put agiant sign, which is a beautiful
sign, and one of our, I guessour bank donated the food, so
they brought this giant trailerwith barbecue.
(20:43):
Oh, that's awesome, and we askedour vendors we're going to
celebrate with the communityWould you consider supporting us
by providing something that wecan give away?
There was no expectation of anykind.
We weren't looking for anythingin particularly, but the party
got a little expensive and westill wanted to impact the
(21:07):
community.
And so, lo and behold, we had320, 325 people that showed up
to the event, and this wascommunity leaders, customers,
mayors, representatives of thestate.
That's awesome.
It was just really really cool.
We had photographers and wegave away somewhere between
(21:28):
$12,000 and $15,000 of thingsthat were donated for the cause
between $12,000 and $15,000 ofthings that were donated for the
cause.
So after we, my partners, gotto share their heart, which some
of the stories were reallyreally cool and it was really
touching.
We had people in there thatwere originally with the company
when they first were there, andthey were retired.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
How special.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
So they came with their spouses and so some of
these people my partner had notseen in years, and it was a
really beautiful moment.
And so some of these people mypartner had not seen in years,
and it was a really beautifulmoment.
And then we spent almost anhour just calling numbers, like
it was so fast, Like who's gotthis?
Okay, you win Because it wasjust so much stuff.
It was a table full of ofeverything from gift cards to we
had an air compressors, campingequipment, we had tools, we
(22:09):
have I mean cool, yeah, we haduh uh tickets to the rangers and
so everybody got to to reallyhave a fun time in there.
Some of our people won becausethey were there and they had a
ticket.
So we had a um a time with ourteam before that where we also
did some of that with them youknow, and so it's.
(22:32):
We're trying to just be mindfulof the overall picture.
We're all trying, the communityis trying, the times were hard.
The team is trying they'refeeling it just like the rest of
us, and to be able to pause andcelebrate and say, hey, be
proud of what we accomplished asa team, because once you get to
(22:56):
a certain point, there's justthere's no one person doing
everything it's.
I have to trust that everyperson that is in every role
knows to raise their hand andask for help when needed.
And if you're not raising yourhand, then it's not that I'm
ignoring you, but that meansthat, hey, you got this and I
trust you.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
You got this, yeah.
So community involvement andengaging, that has been pivotal
for your company.
What are some other things thathave been, you know, really
moved the needle or reallychanged the trajectory of your
company?
Speaker 2 (23:27):
There's probably two things that I would say, uh,
that we do.
One in particular is we are, uh, in the plumbing side of things
.
You need to get licenses.
If you have no intention ofgetting a license, if you're not
there to actually furtheryourself, then that's okay,
we'll find somewhere else foryou to go, but we need you to be
(23:49):
constantly doing that.
So our philosophy has changed.
Where there's a lot of training, we do.
We do 52 trainings a year.
We meet once a week fortraining, for sure, but we meet
multiple times a week and we tryto bring content to it.
Obviously, what we're doing forthe vehicles is made them just
look forward to going.
(24:09):
I want that vehicle, I wantthat to have the pride of
opening that and saying, hey,this is cool and I'm in charge
of it.
And so we've encouraged peopleto go get certifications and
licenses that are hard to get,and we back them up by simply
saying, hey, once you pass allof this, bring your receipts,
(24:31):
we'll reimburse you, simplysaying, hey, once you pass all
of this, bring your receipts,we'll reimburse you.
We want you to pursue it foryourself, because you need to
want things, and then we'llreward you for accomplishing it.
So that's one aspect of it istraining, training, training,
and then the branding would bethe second aspect of it and that
(24:54):
is we went to a trunk of treataspect of it and that is, we
went to a trunk of treat and I,we, we set, we set up a booth
and this lady walks over he goes.
I've been meaning to talk to youguys since, just since you did
your rebrand and I gotta tellyou re and it's not rebranding,
it was refreshing the brand,right, yes, uh, our name had
mechanical on it.
Most people have no idea whatthat means Correct, and so so
(25:18):
now we have BCI plumbing,heating and air, and now you
have a better picture of what itis.
But also our brand was, was asshe put it.
She goes.
I just want to tell you youguys did an amazing job with
your brand.
You know you were unknownbefore.
Now you're a landmark In oureyes.
We didn brand.
You know you were unknownbefore, you're now you're a
landmark in our eyes.
We didn't feel like we wereknown.
We have vehicles everywhere,right?
Right but they also kind oflook like the city vehicles
(25:40):
because it's just red, white andblue and it's a little logo,
and why not?
And so we went through therebrand process, uh, to the
point that we even had, uhmarketing professors at the
local college saying, hey,that's one of the greatest
things that's happened to thistown in a long time.
And we got some greatcompliments about it, and so now
, no matter where you turn,you're half a mile away.
(26:01):
I can tell the vehicles,absolutely, and it's just a
reminder to everybody.
Hey, we're here and we're partof this community.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
And it's been the pride that the team took in.
You know cause we got newuniforms and we got new hats and
we got new everything.
Yeah, it was.
It's an expensive process.
The advice that we have istrust your marketing
professionals.
Trust that they know how thecolors make people feel, that
(26:33):
they know how the lines workAbsolutely.
And then that's one of thethings that I've done with Lemon
Seed is, when I met with myteam the first time, I told them
I said, okay, here's how it'sgoing to work.
I'm just going to let you runfree.
If there's something, for somereason, that doesn't add up,
line up, I'll comment then.
But I brought you in to do whatyou do best and then I get to
(26:57):
navigate through it.
Sometimes we're going to haveconversations and I'm still
going to make an executivedecision.
Other times you're going totell me things I don't know, and
that's why I have you yeah.
You know, and the proof is inthe pudding.
We had an incredible,incredible rebranding experience
.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
That's great and I'll preface this Lemon Seed did not
do your rebrand.
This was before us.
Kick Charge did it.
But Kick Charge does phenomenalwork and you know, you can
testify to that and you know youmentioned seeing the teal
koozies and stuff.
But that's what having adisruptive brand and even if
it's just a color, it's like youguys don't have a character or
anything like that Like a lot ofpeople can say like, oh, you
can't do that or I hatecharacters Well, you can still
(27:34):
have a really professionallooking brand.
So that's still going to bedisruptive, turn heads, catch
eyes and it really make adifference.
And your guys' brand is a truetestament of that.
But you're right, it is aninvestment.
And again, don't, don't fixwhat's not broken.
And sometimes, when you're inlove with your baby, this brand
(27:55):
of how it looks like and well,this is how it's always been
Sometimes you got to kill thatugly baby and it can hurt and be
painful.
But if you can trust theprocess, trust the experts, let
them do their thing.
Don't nitpick it to death andinsert your own opinions or
objections that may not reallyeven matter or really be a thing
(28:16):
.
That's when magic can happen.
Well, the lemonade, as we liketo say, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I had this in my pocket, and I honestly didn't
put it in my pocket for thepodcast, but I did have it in
here.
So one of the things that wedid when we did our anniversary
party is we put together thischallenge coin, and so what it
has is our original logo on oneside and then the current logo
on the other side.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Such an improvement.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And the funny part about this and this is something
if you've ever read the poemthe dash and I've told people is
when you look at this coin, thecrazy part about this is is the
edge.
That is the most importantthing and the reason why is
that's what's between this logoand this logo, and it represents
40 years of learning what notto do Wow.
(29:02):
Or learning that something thatused to work doesn't work
anymore and that's okay.
And learning that, hey, we needsomebody that can do this, and
it's not me.
And learning that we have torely on each other.
So, like you know, people,there's a challenge when you
have commercial and residentialin one place, but when you have
commercial, residential,industrial and new construction,
(29:24):
that's a very diverse and not alot of people will tackle all
four of those almost differentverticals, if you will.
They are.
And we toyed with the idea ofhey, what happens if we just go
residential?
What we toyed with the idea of,hey, what happens if we just go
residential?
What happens if we cut this off?
And at the end of the day werealized, wait a second, we have
expertise, we have knowledge,we know how to do this.
So what we lack is cohesivenesswith the team.
(29:47):
So how do we accomplish that?
And so it took first.
You know, everything startswith leadership, and whether you
think that the triangle goesdown or up, right, if leadership
is at the bottom, you have toserve to be able to get it.
And so we started realizingokay, if new construction is
busy and service is slow, we'regoing to sub out our service
(30:12):
team into construction.
They're going to go do arough-in, they're going to go do
a top-out, they're going to golearn all this stuff.
When service is extremely busyand new construction is in
between projects, then theirteam comes in and does what we
do.
They watch us talk to thecustomers.
They realize we do things alittle bit more than just show
up to a job.
They have the same job for sixmonths and just take the next
(30:35):
thing.
And the next thing you have toassess, you have to be able to
procure parts, you have to talkto the customer about pricing
you had.
There's just so much more andwe've had is, is, is, uh, an
understanding and a respect foreach other in a different way.
We even bring plumbers to hvac,hvac to plumbing.
We just cross-train, cross-train, cross-train and, uh, we
(30:56):
primarily just focus on on youngtechnicians that that, uh, have
a mechanical aptitude, but theyhave a great attitude and
they're teachable, and so all ofour techs are cross-training
for package units all the way to.
You know, we even teach themchillers.
So we were, we're just crosstraining across the whole thing.
(31:16):
Why?
Because then you're notsettling one thing and you get
to see all the aspects of whatthe industry truly is.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Knowledge is power, like the more you know.
Even if that's not what you doevery single day, at least
having some frame of referenceand a starting point to at least
be able to know the rightquestions to ask.
I think it just sets your teamup for success and allows you to
, when you need to kind of pushand pull in those different
verticals or you might be alittle bit slower in this
department, but like we'rekilling it over here, it's like
we're just going to shift youtemporarily over here, having
(31:46):
that instead of being like, ohmy gosh, no one knows how to do
anything else except this teamhere.
So it allows you to kind ofpush and pull a lot more fluidly
.
I'd say when everyone does havemore of that cross training.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Well, think about it from efficiency point for
everybody watching this.
If Emily is the only personthat I have that can do chillers
and we see a lot of chillersand not saying, you know, it
could be package units oranything else you know how much
time we waste when everybodyshows up and say, oh, we got to
call Emily and now we got towait.
Right Now our team has beenexposed so much to everything
that they, even with the helpover the phone, they can start
(32:27):
the diagnosis and they can lookat certain things and they're no
longer afraid of the panels andnot afraid of anything
necessarily like they used to.
You know, like when people goto see mini splits and they're
deer in the headlights, I don'tknow what to do.
Like when people go to see minisplits and they're deer in the
headlights, I don't know what todo.
So we train on that across theboard and say you may not be
able to fully diagnose,depending on the problem, but
(32:49):
HVAC is refrigerant, it'sairflow and it's electrical.
The same is true for a packageunit, the same is true for a
split homosystem.
Now they work slightlydifferent, they're bigger, you
know there's different featuresabout them.
But in essence, go back and, asmy partner says this, just go
back to your roots.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
What do you know?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
And then we remove that fear, we encourage them and
then they get on the phone andthe manager that we have in
there, he's extremelyknowledgeable and he's done a
great job at coaching andteaching and empowering and
making them believe inthemselves.
So now, things that we wouldhave had to postpone for a
second trip that you normallydon't charge for, because you
can't just keep charging,because you didn't have the
(33:27):
right person.
Now they're solving problemsthat we didn't have to waste
that time and our efficiency isgoing up and the ability of
serving the customer in a timelymanner is is now something that
we see every day.
Versus oh sorry, he's notavailable till Friday or next
week.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Yeah, cause that's the only guy that we have for
that and that's superfrustrating to the customer and
that's not the brand image orthe service that you want to
provide to them.
So, yeah, well, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah.
So it's been a great journey.
Um, again, learning toappreciate what everybody brings
to the table and, moreimportantly, you know, knowing
who you are for me is knowingwhose I am, you know, and that
is you know I give.
(34:16):
I give praise to God foreverything that he's done and
then the more that I Iunderstand who I am in him, the
more that I'm actually able tocelebrate where people are
better than me at other thingsand be okay with it, because
that was, that's what they'recreated to be, that's, that's,
that's their roles and that'sthe reason why they're even in
our lives, right?
So, oh, if I was, uh, if I.
(34:39):
There's a book called who, nothow.
It's an incredible book.
And I put it in a situationlike this if we're going to go
be running track or or you know,running 100 dash or or whatnot,
and we're going up and realize,hey, I may be the captain, but
I can only run it in 10 secondsflat and emily can run it at
(34:59):
seven, why would I put myself in?
Because I have to go rundistance.
And if I go do your race, whichI know I won't win, I'm going
to take energy from my race,which I know that.
That's what my strength is,yeah, and so celebrating and
knowing there is no, there's nolike anybody's taking your job
is I'm, I'm, I'm purposelytelling my team I need you here
(35:23):
because this is your, this iswhere you fit, this is where you
excel and I trust what you'redoing here.
And people take an autonomy,take an ownership of that, and
and then when you start creatingthat kind of culture in your
team, then everybody startscelebrating each other and you
take correction better too.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
For sure and I think some of it also is like we have
some team members that we haveto tell them like hey, I know
you were trying to be helpful, Iknow you were trying to take it
off of other people's plates,but in reality it's actually
doing them a disservice becausethey never get the opportunity
to try to do something or tolearn and to rise up to this
occasion in your pure well goodintentions of just trying to
(36:03):
help them.
But you actually learn and cangrow and do so much more by
doing the hard things or havingsome perceived failures when
we're out.
It's not a failure, it's, youknow, did you learn from it?
You know what did you learnfrom it and stuff.
And so sometimes by we need tolet them struggle, sometimes for
the sake for them to rise above, you know, and not always
(36:24):
removing that opportunity forthem.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
You have to.
I learned this years ago.
Let people err on the littlethings you know.
It might cost you some money.
That's okay, that's right,that's okay.
You know you go to college.
(36:47):
You pay for people to teach youwhat you know, what the blind
spots are, what the knowledgeyou don't have.
We don't have the luxury in here.
We have to sometimes just kindof, you know, oh, that's not how
you wire the motor, get anothermotor them just simply ask okay
, what did we learn?
Because when they learn thoselessons, you will save yourself
so many more motors, so manymore errors, so many more things
.
And when they're afraid thatyou're going to come down on
them every time, fear has a wayto create more errors.
That's right.
Then the security comes to knowthat somebody's got my back.
(37:10):
You know, if I did the rightthings, thought through it
correctly and I still deliverwrong, somebody still got my
back, and that's the kind ofculture that we're trying to
create.
Plus, the other thing is alwaysbe working yourself out of a job
.
That's right.
And so you know, I came in, Itook a role and I brought
somebody with me and I said I'mgoing to have you shadow me for
(37:33):
three years, because in threeyears you're going to take over
this role.
And they're like what are youtalking about?
And I said and not only that, Ipromise you something.
You're going to run circlesaround me.
What you will accomplish inthis role will be a lot more
than I ever will.
But I had to explain somethingto them and that's this we spend
(37:53):
our careers climbing the ladderto the next step and the next
step and the next step right inthis case, let's say plumbing
I'm gonna go get my, my journeyman's or my tradesman's journey
man, and then I'm gonna go getmy master's.
And then we get to the master'sand we think, well, awesome,
I'm gonna open a company.
Hold on one second, you justclimbed the ladder of plumbing
(38:14):
career, but now you're gonnajump over to a different ladder
is going to be businessownership.
So just because you just tookthis last step off the career of
plumbing does not mean thatyou're any higher in the
business side and you have tohumble yourself to say, ok, this
is a new ladder, what do I needto learn?
(38:35):
Who do I surround myself?
Because there's so much I don'tknow.
And for any entrepreneur thatis watching this, they know that
that the first year is brutal.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Oh yeah, why did I do this?
Speaker 2 (38:46):
And you get to appreciate.
Well, now I know what my bossused to charge this.
Now I know, because you know wewent and did this $10,000 job
and the customer doesn't want topay.
Yeah, that does happen.
And so the people that havedone this in our company,
they've excelled.
And now what I'm doing ischallenging and say okay, who do
you have behind you that you'retraining to take over?
(39:07):
Because at some point, noteverybody's going to climb any
further and that's okay.
You climb as far as you can,you want to and you're able to.
But when you're coaching andmentoring somebody else, you
become better.
That's right, because it's aselfless act.
You're literally telling me I'mcoaching you to do what I do,
but that means you're developinga whole new set of skills as
(39:29):
leader and you can see a biggerpicture than you did before.
And so, for the most part, part, some of these people are going
to move up to the next level.
If you grow vertically is onething, but if you grow
horizontally, what you're doingis they're training other small
pockets of leaders so that wecan actually carry more crews
(39:49):
and have have a network of uh,interconnected leadership where
your you're all rowing in thesame direction.
You have the same desires.
Your culture is the same thing,and so that's part of the
reason why we're so selective inwho we bring on board, because
our culture would dictatewhether or not you're going to
make it.
If you understand who we areand how we operate and that is,
(40:14):
we support and celebrate eachother, and then we figure out
how to have fun while we'redoing it you know and one last
story we have two of our leadersthat once a month they bring
out the flat iron and they comeout 6am and they're making some
crazy recipes.
You know, like they literallyput the ground beef onto the
(40:34):
pancakes with the chocolatechips, and then, you know, you
make a big taco of it, thingslike that.
And the guys love it.
But they make some amazingbreakfast and that was their
initiative, that was their wayto serve and they have a blast
and they come for two, two and ahalf hours of cooking because
you know, we got 60 people thatrun through there.
So there's a lot of food thatthey have to make, but the team
(40:57):
appreciates it.
You know, the team reallyenjoys it.
Uh, we even our christmasparties we started um, including
the family and and okay, we'veall had maybe this is irrelevant
to the conversation, but we'veall had the boring parties where
, even when you bring the family, you're like, okay, this was,
(41:18):
this was, you know, this was.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Might everyone endure through this.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah, exactly.
And so what we, what we've done, is we've we started
experimenting with venues andsay, okay, what if we just
brought people in to enjoythemselves and not to have a
conversation or have a timeframeand trickling through,
eventually right now, this yearwill be a second year going to
Six Flags, Cool Fun.
So it's simple Go up when youwant, leave where you want.
(41:44):
If you want food there's.
There's a period of time wherewe have a pavilion and we have
food and we may say some words,but really what it is is
thanking your families for everytime that your kids needed
their dad and he wasn'tavailable because he was with us
, you know, and every time thathe'd come home late or tired or
covering who knows what you know.
(42:05):
And so the families have really, really enjoyed that.
They get to celebrate.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
And it's important for you know spouses or children
or stuff to see, hey, what myparent or my spouse is doing is
important.
They're valued.
The company that they're doingthese long hours for extra work,
they are valued and appreciated, and so sometimes just them
being able to witness thatfirsthand is crucial and
game-changing, and so providingthat opportunity I helps them
(42:34):
have a happy home, yeah, and Iwant to share it.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
So.
So the biggest, one of thebiggest challenges for everybody
who's looking at saying youknow, I've tried the new things
but I just can't get by it.
There's something that one ofmy partners does that he's
really good at, and that is ishe starts plowing the ground
ahead of time of the decision,but he starts working through
the ground ahead of time of thedecision but he starts working
through, kind of talking aboutit and then getting their
(43:00):
heartbeat, then addressing theirfears, and then he's got an
analogy that is really good, andit's just an analogy of the old
shoes versus the new shoes.
Right, like you could have areally nice pair of tennis shoes
that you wore for the last yearor two.
They're broken in, they'recomfortable.
You didn't have to untie themyour feet, you just slide right
in.
You know, hopefully you haven'tbroken the back of them, it's
(43:22):
just, it's just perfect.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
But the way it is, you actually afraid to untie
them because, if you do, they'llnever fit the same.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yes, and then you get a new pair of shoes.
Yeah, sure, the new pair ofshoes is exciting, but they
don't fit the same way, and whenyou walk it's just not like the
old shoes.
And the problem is is your oldshoes are not going to take you
as far as your new shoes weregoing to, and so we just have to
(43:51):
understand that there is aperiod of breaking in the new
shoes, which will take youfurther than the old shoes, and
so we created that culture.
I say we, but it was really hespearheaded this whole thing,
and it's been something that wetalked about.
Hey, remember the old shoes andnew shoes.
You know when people arerumbling from changes, you know,
and so that's.
(44:13):
That's probably the best adviceI can give when you're working
towards that is, help plant theseed of the growth mindset into
your team by using, you know,analogies like this one and
saying I know it's going to beuncomfortable, the new CRM is
going to be a little bitdifficult at first, but it's
going to make a difference.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
That's right the new, you know, widget or training or
whatever it is.
You know, sure, it might feel alittle bit different, but once
you got it pat down, it's meantto do a world of difference for
you and um, you see themencouraging each other, you see
(44:54):
them talking about the old shoesand new shoes and for a second
you're really proud of your teambecause they get it and, more
importantly, they trust that theleadership is vetting things in
a way that we're also takingthem into account prior to
rolling things out.
Doesn't mean that it's easy.
It doesn't mean that they don'tcomplain, or sometimes, you
(45:14):
know, we have a couple weeks ofgrumbling, sure, sure, but we
sink our teeth in as leaders andwe listen, and then we navigate
it through, and sometimes wehave to make changes and
sometimes, no, this decision isstill good.
You know, let's keep going.
And then you see your team grow.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
That's awesome.
Well, leo, thank you so muchfor your time here and sharing
all your insights and wealth ofknowledge and perspectives that
you have, and I know yougenuinely care about pouring
into people.
So if anyone wanted to reachout to you or just pick your
brain, how could someone get incontact with you?
Speaker 2 (45:53):
Oh, I didn't know.
I guess you can go ahead andshoot me an email and then you
can even put in the subjectLemon Seed Podcast, so that I
actually know.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Actually look at it.
Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
Well, we're all guilty.
We get about a thousand emailsa day and there's just something
we never open, you know.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
There's just something we never opened, you
know.
So L Morales, soL-M-O-R-A-L-E-S at
BCIMechanicalcom and we'll putthat down in the show notes.
So put Lemon Seed Podcast inthe title and Leo will answer
you and pour into you.
I know as much, just because heis a wealth of knowledge here
and does value pouring intopeople.
Just because he is a wealth ofknowledge here and does value
pouring into people.
So, leo, thank you for sharingall this and making the drive
from Denton to come sit withhere in the real lemonade stand.
I really appreciate thisconversation and thank you for
(46:44):
being here.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
It was an honor.
Thank you so much and I hopeit's a benefit to people.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
So if you, have questions, just let me know.
I'll do what I can, absolutely.
So if you enjoyed this episode,please leave us a review.
Follow us on all the socialmedias.
Follow BCI on their socialmedia.
Is a great company doingamazing things.
So thanks so much for listening.
We'll see you next time.
What's up, lemonheads ?
Welcome back to another episodeof From the Yellow Chair.
I'm Emily and I have a veryspecial guest with me here today
in the actual lemonade stand,not the virtual lemonade stand
and he came in yesterday.
He's a client of ours and washanging out with us a little bit
, got to enjoy the cigar loungelast night and someone asked him
hey, why did you come intotalent, what are you doing here?
(00:20):
And he said well, they asked meto record a podcast, podcast,
and I just really love toconnect with people.
So I made the trip down, justso we could do this and not have
to do it virtually.
And so we're going to get todive into his experiences and
his philosophies with howconnecting with people and
surrounding yourself with theright people will really change
the trajectory of your company.
So, without further ado, let'ssip some lemonade, all right.
(00:56):
So here in the lemonade standwith me I have Leo Morales, one
of the owners of BCI Plumbing,heating and Flowing out of
Denton, texas, and Leo welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, thank you, it's an honor to be here.
You know, I love your team, Ilove your brand and I'm just
excited to be part of this.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Awesome.
Well, this is kind of a loadedquestion.
So I'm gonna say tell me alittle bit about yourself.
But I know you have such adiverse background and come from
a lot of different walks oflife and experiences and stuff.
But I think that's what reallycontributes to how you're
leading the organization andpouring into your people.
So tell our listeners a littlebit about your background and
how you got to being here at BCI.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
You're right, it's a little bit of diverse.
I have through many reasons inlife.
I've actually relocated 34times 34 times.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
That sounds terrible.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, it can be and it has its pros and cons for
sure.
But I've had the opportunity toexperience multiple industries,
from retail, wholesalemanufacturing to export, import
and coaching, and I got anopportunity to come into this
industry from the vendor sideand the longer I was in it, the
(02:08):
more I fell in love with thepeople.
I fell in love with, I want tosay, the spirit of who is doing
this kind of work and I learnedto appreciate and I just had an
opportunity to open up, to bepart of the team at BCI.
At that point they were 35years in business.
We celebrated our 40th thisyear.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Thank you.
It was definitely fun.
We did a lot of crazy stuff tocelebrate that.
But as far as how thatinfluenced everything, to be
honest with you, you get areally good sampling of what not
to do.
Hey, that's uh, you know, youalways had that situation when
you're like I would never belike that boss and I promise you
(02:51):
you are that one point another,because that's what you know.
But you, when you change somany scenarios, you get to
sample the good, the bad and theugly.
And then you get to startmaking a decision of hey,
someday, if I have thisopportunity, I really want to
emulate this or I really want tonot emulate that, and I need to
figure out I'm not to do that.
(03:12):
Uh.
And then over time you realize,uh, there's a saying that says
you're the average of the fivepeople you spend time right
right, and you know a differentstory for a different day, but
I've I should have been deadabout three or four times
already, and just differentmotorcycle accidents and things
like that.
And I remember waking up from ablood clot from my ankle to my
(03:35):
heart oh my gosh, it was.
It was a situation where I hadabout 18 chance of living and I
realized at that moment that Iwas going to make it past, that
I had to change mindset.
I had to change my approach, andso when I came out of that
scenario, I started reading, Istarted working out, I started
surrounding myself with smarterpeople than me, which you know,
(03:58):
if you're doing the scale,that's a lot of people above, so
this is easy to pick thosesmarter people.
But I started to appreciate theindividuals and understand that
we all have a worth, but if wedon't have value ourselves, how
can we add value to anything oranything?
And so breaking apart theindividual is is through a lot
(04:22):
of different books that I read.
Uh, I mean, I love one thingthat I know that you guys do it
here.
You have your bookshelf and theneverybody can read the things
that you have read.
And so I just, I know, kind ofjust start tumbling down through
books about things that Iwanted to learn a mindset, the
idea that I want to try harderso that I can be better, that
(04:42):
I'm not just going to sit inhere, say this is what I am,
this is who I am, and I'm justgoing to accept it and be this
for the rest of my life.
And I realized, no, I canchange.
If I look at the mirror hardenough, I can accept my flaws
and I can surround myself withpeople that will help me with
them.
And that's a little bit of whatwe've done with our teams.
(05:04):
We have celebrated theirsuccess, we celebrate their
strengths.
Book Strength Finders helps youunderstand what your core
competencies are as a leader.
And so we took our managementteam in and started showing each
other who we were.
And then we emphasize okay,this is how you flow, this is
(05:25):
how you operate, let's make yousuccessful, let's give you the
training, let's give you theauthority, but let's give you
the support and then run with it, run with it and then, every
time that we put those people inthe right place, to be honest
with you, emily.
They run circles around.
Anything I could.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, it just shows the right people in the right
seats can make the world adifference.
And you know, I think you're sowise because so many people,
like you said I'm looking tosurround myself with people that
are smarter than me, and youwere jokingly saying, like
there's you know a whole tonmore than there are below you,
but like I don't believe that'strue, because I think so many
people are unwilling to acceptthat they aren't the smartest
(06:05):
person in the room or that theyneed help.
And so to me, that's so wise torealize that you still have
things that you can learn fromeverybody, and everyone does
bring a different experience andwork ethic and value that they
can contribute, and so beingwise enough to put ego and pride
aside so that you can learn andabsorb that, I think that's
tremendously wise.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I appreciate it.
I mean from outside theindustry.
I don't have a leg to stand onon the HVAC conversation and you
don't want me to change youryour toilet flange.
Are you going to mess it up?
And again, I've been on thefield.
I've done a lot of stuff.
I probably know more than I'mletting out, but you have to be
humble.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Correct, yes.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
And the one thing that I've seen in the industry
and this is not specific to justthe industry, this is actually
generational, I think is thereis this unspoken need that if
you're the owner or if you'rethe manager, you have to know
all be all, and then everythinghas to be you.
So you have to be the head ofmarketing, you have to be the
head of HR, you have to be thediscipline, you have to be
accounting.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Accounting yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
It's just you can't right.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Or you'll hit a cap and you'll never get anything
beyond that.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
And the problem is because we created this culture
having to be like I have to haveeverything.
We then thwart our growth bynot allowing people that and
sometimes we will feelthreatened by you know, my
partners very smart veryincredibly smart.
They I cannot, would not be ableto compete with them, because
(07:40):
they have a career plumbers andHVAC techs and and a career
development in new construction,cause we have all aspects of
the residential, commercial,industrial and new construction.
And so for what?
For that knowledge too, I willspend a lifetime chasing them.
I still wouldn't be able to, sowouldn't be able to accept that
(08:02):
and say, but that's not my role, correct, and I am so glad that
I have these people and thoseroles because I wouldn't want
anybody else there.
So then I am going to supportthem, I'm going to make sure
that they know I appreciate it.
I want to make sure that theyknow that we rely on that and
then we celebrate each other'ssuccess.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
That's great.
One of my favorite sayings isyou deserve what you tolerate,
you get what you reiterate, butyou keep what you celebrate.
And so those qualities that youdo want, you'll keep those.
If you celebrate them, don'tlet it go unnoticed or make
someone that feels like, don'tmake them feel unappreciated for
what they're bringing to thetable.
But when you celebrate that,celebrate your wins, celebrate
(08:44):
your diversities.
That's what you'll keep andthat's how you'll rise above.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, and a lot of times you know our teams they're
not aware of what they'recapable of.
You know, and you know I havethis thing in life and I've seen
it happen to me a lot of times.
But if you have to thwartsomebody's success so that you
can be successful, you're doingit wrong.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And if you have to block somebody from achieving
their goals so that you can getahead and that happens a lot
you're doing it wrong.
And so we focus on what istheir lane, what does success
look like for them and what isthat success for the overall
picture?
And then we talk about thosethings.
We've been going through a bookcalled Death by Meeting.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Gosh, this meeting could have been an email.
They're beating it to death oroverthink it, overanalyze it.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Well, it's funny because that was the initial
reaction we got with it, but itactually it almost.
When you read the book and Idon't want to give away, you
know I guess we're in a podcast,you can't fast forward.
The premise of it is is youshould have more meetings, but
these meetings are specific fora way that you conduct them and
(09:59):
so and they break it down.
It's a really good book tofollow because it's a story, so
it's very engaging.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Who who is the author ?
Is it patrick linceoni?
Yes, I sound right okay becauseI read another.
You're talking about the rightpeople in the right seats and he
has like the six workingpersonalities or six working
type, but it's written in astory manner to where it's like
very easy to fall, like it's notlike so self-help driven this
way, but it teaches theprinciples through.
So it's a very differentapproach to a lot of leadership
(10:27):
books.
So I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
It's like if you would have read the script of
friends.
You know you're watching theirlife develop and you see the
challenges and you're going.
That's happened to me.
I know that feeling and so themessages that stay better.
But we've actually startedgoing to a point where our
meetings are so effective.
Yeah, we may have what it seemsfeels like more, but you're
actually accomplishing things,because when a meeting parameter
(10:51):
is breached, we take that topicand say well, I'm sorry, this
goes to this meeting and this istop, keeping it super constant.
Hey, we have this to work, andso you know the team themselves.
They're becoming so efficient.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Which is great.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
We've um, the In war they always talk about.
You really want to know what'sgoing on and go to the front
lines, right Like they actuallyknow what's going on.
And so what was it?
January of 2023, I don't know.
Maybe I just blurbed my mouseand shouldn't have said it, but
I announced that we were goingto go to an all packout vehicle,
(11:27):
we were going to figure out howto increase our efficiencies
and it sounds great.
It took 18 months 18 months forone.
For anybody that is watchingthat have tried it, there is
every combination until Sunday,that you can do for Milwaukee
and it's really hard to figureout how it fits the vans, all
(11:48):
the dimensions and the curves,and we spent 18 months and it
took specific people on the teamto take care of their, their
role and responsibility in thedevelopment.
Then, when it came together, weeven had a, an executive from
milwaukee, to come over and lookat it and he was like, okay,
I've seen the majority of theones in the uS and this was, for
(12:11):
sure, the best one that I'veseen.
And so we started now.
The goal at that point is wediscovered that our team was
spending 40 plus hours a monthat the supply houses, and that
was not including driving time,and so, with every individual
that took ownership of it, westarted doing calculations,
(12:32):
figure out how to do it, talkingto vendors, working with them
for solutions.
But it wasn't.
I guess the point I'm trying tomake is it wasn't all me.
I casted a vision and it tookfor our team to own that vision.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Well, but also the vision and the patience to allow
it to come.
So, like you said, it took 18months and you know that was
probably those team members areworking on.
That was not revenue producingat that moment.
You know it's overhead expenseat that point I'm sure you
probably tried lots of thingslike we just bought that.
Now that's not going to work,but it took that investment.
(13:16):
But for the long term vision ofhow this is going to long term
improve our efficiency, savemore time.
We're going to be able toservice more customers in the
same amount of time becausewe're not at the parts warehouse
or on the road going to theparts warehouse.
So it took that visionary andthat patience to get it right
versus well, we've been doing it.
There's no other way to fixthis.
Like we've tried this for sixmonths how much more are we
going to go at it?
But having that diligence tomake it come through.
And so I'm sure you've seentremendous efficiency and
improvements since it's beenimplemented.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
We've cut down.
I mean, now there's a processnot to bore you with details,
but if you go to a job site andyou have everything in your van,
they use the stuff in your van.
If you don't, don't touchanything in your van, you're
already going to supply houseGet everything, because nine
times out of 10, there'ssomething you forgot.
So we want to make sure youhave your inventory available.
And then we have vendors thatwe worked out where we supply.
(13:54):
We scan a book and then sendthe order in every day and by
the next day we have all of ourthings.
So it created efficiency.
We uh, we brought the vehicle toa car show in denton and the
community response to it wasreally impressive.
Like people were like okay, Iwant you to service us
Technicians from not even ourindustry locksmith and mechanics
(14:17):
they're like we need this, youknow.
And so the team took such apride to it.
And then that was part of usengaging with the community
events, which is a big thing forus, right, that was at the auto
show.
Then we went to a festival.
That was at the auto show.
Then we went to a festival jazzfestival, it was three days and
then we did a bunch oftrunk-a-treats, so the team is
(14:39):
involved in giving back to thecommunity.
We once a year select charitiesand do a little voting
competition and they get to hearthe stories about hey, this is
what's happening in yourcommunity and as a business we
need to make sure that thecommunity knows that we are also
part of the community, and sothe team has seen stories of how
(15:02):
their work has had an influenceon a life and how it was
impacted either an elderly or asingle mother.
There's just so many good causesout there, so our goal is for
us to remember and to show thecommunity hey, we're still here,
we're part of this, we'regiving back, and that, I think,
(15:28):
has changed the community'sperspective on who we are.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Well, and again, that's another, I think,
visionary type thing, becauseI'm sure you didn't go to this
trunk or street and because youdid that, you sold five new
systems right there from thatevent.
No, but it's.
It's that long-term marathonstrategy of building
relationships Like, hey, this isour community, we live here too
, we play here too, like we'reyour neighbor.
We happen to do heating and airconditioning and plumbing, but
(15:54):
we live here and we're peoplefirst.
You know and we care aboutpeople.
And so I know you're personallyinvested in being very involved
in the community through someboards that you serve on.
But also BCI's approach to beinginvolved in the community.
I know you know we help.
You order lots of swag itemsand different things to just
give out.
You know it literally makes youno money.
You're spending money to justgive it away.
But I'm sure you've seen somepositive reinforcements from
(16:17):
that.
And again, that takes a growthmindset because we get contract
oh, no one will go to I can'tget anyone on my team to go to
that or like it's just a wasteof money.
Or like I did a giveaway and wegave it to a guy and then he
didn't even buy a new systemfrom us.
He bought it from ourcompetitor.
I was like, okay, that was oneperson, but who are the other
200 people that you met and gotto talk to?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So I have pretty amazing partners.
One is in the board of.
Jazz Fest, their board ofplumbing and then Coats for Kids
.
So this is not something Istarted.
This has been the heart of thecore of the leadership since the
beginning.
But we've never aired ourlaundry.
We never told people about it.
The coolest part of it wasthey're right, the people that
(17:04):
are telling you nobody wants togo.
They're right, we watched acompetitor this last Jazz Fest
chasing somebody I'm not tryingto sell you something, you know
and we were like, oh that'sharsh, right, like you don't
want that kind of interaction.
So our focus has been let's goand have fun and let's go and
(17:28):
meet our customers when nothingis broken.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Let's go meet them when everything is fine and
let's go do something thatthey're not expecting and so.
Well, you know, first year wewent out there we had bubbles
for the kids that's fun we hadglow sticks for the nighttime,
we had beach balls, we hadglasses, we had I mean, it was
(17:52):
it.
It was crazy.
We had our koozies right, andI'm sure nobody liked us because
everybody was selling them for$2 and we were just giving them
away and so anywhere you walkedin that whole thing for three
days, it was just a sea of tealand BCI logo everywhere.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Well, and then you never throw away a koozie, so
they're going to put that intheir drawer at home and when
they need a koozie, you know,pull it back out, and it's just
that top of mind awareness,brand reinforcements, where
whenever they do, need you.
So it wasn't right then at thatfestival.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
And all they had to do is the kids would come over
and spin the wheel, and so thekids had a blast.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
And I remember you, I remember I gave the kids
koozies with a beer in it.
I'm kidding Ranchwater.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Anyways.
But no, there was.
We even had some $10 gift cardsfrom Amazon.
I still remember the firstperson that ever hit it, because
we made it really hard.
It was like a half a sleeve andit was like a 16 year old kid.
And he goes oh, I guess I don'tget that.
I said, well, did you spin thewheel?
He goes yeah, so here's your$10.
And so their faces lit up.
(18:54):
They told all their friendsabout it and then people were
coming over with their kids andthen eventually they'd back up
for a second and look around andgo what do you guys?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
do yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
And those were the most honest conversation.
Our customers were coming overand going this is really cool,
what are you doing?
We're just giving away.
Really cool, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
We're just giving away.
We're just giving away, that'sall we're doing.
And it breaks down a barrierthat people you know people
never want to be sold to or,like you know, it's a painful
thing when they do have toactually call you because they
have a plumbing problem or HVACproblem.
But you're removing thatbarrier by going to where the
people are going out, to thiscommunity, these events, things
like that.
You're going through that andyou're breaking down those
barriers, making yourself moreapproachable, humanizing
(19:33):
yourself and the brand, andyou've witnessed the benefits of
it.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
It is, and a lot of times the contractors and I
guess I get it.
We're busy, right, like we'reabsolutely busy, and when we're
not we think we are.
We create our own busyness.
But taking the time to engagewith the chamber, you know I I
go there and I do the monthlythings.
I go to some of the ribboncuttings.
(19:59):
I don't ever bring my cards.
I build relationships with them.
So when the time came that wewere doing our 40th anniversary
party, we decided, okay, it's 40years, I mean that's a big,
that's a big deal.
I know 50 is going to be bigger,but that's 10 years from now.
So so we were here, right, thisis a marker.
And we decided to put a tent upin the middle of the hottest
(20:21):
time of the year it's like 98degrees in Texas, you know with
the sun beating and um we uh,painted our wall.
We put a giant sign.
We painted our wall, we put agiant sign, which is a beautiful
sign, and one of our, I guessour bank donated the food, so
they brought this giant trailerwith barbecue.
(20:43):
Oh, that's awesome, and we askedour vendors we're going to
celebrate with the communityWould you consider supporting us
by providing something that wecan give away?
There was no expectation of anykind.
We weren't looking for anythingin particularly, but the party
got a little expensive and westill wanted to impact the
(21:07):
community.
And so, lo and behold, we had320, 325 people that showed up
to the event, and this wascommunity leaders, customers,
mayors, representatives of thestate.
That's awesome.
It was just really really cool.
We had photographers and wegave away somewhere between
(21:28):
$12,000 and $15,000 of thingsthat were donated for the cause
between $12,000 and $15,000 ofthings that were donated for the
cause.
So after we, my partners, gotto share their heart, which some
of the stories were reallyreally cool and it was really
touching.
We had people in there thatwere originally with the company
when they first were there, andthey were retired.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
How special.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
So they came with their spouses and so some of
these people my partner had notseen in years, and it was a
really beautiful moment.
And so some of these people mypartner had not seen in years,
and it was a really beautifulmoment.
And then we spent almost anhour just calling numbers, like
it was so fast, Like who's gotthis?
Okay, you win Because it wasjust so much stuff.
It was a table full of ofeverything from gift cards to we
had an air compressors, campingequipment, we had tools, we
(22:09):
have I mean cool, yeah, we haduh uh tickets to the rangers and
so everybody got to to reallyhave a fun time in there.
Some of our people won becausethey were there and they had a
ticket.
So we had a um a time with ourteam before that where we also
did some of that with them youknow, and so it's.
(22:32):
We're trying to just be mindfulof the overall picture.
We're all trying, the communityis trying, the times were hard.
The team is trying they'refeeling it just like the rest of
us, and to be able to pause andcelebrate and say, hey, be
proud of what we accomplished asa team, because once you get to
(22:56):
a certain point, there's justthere's no one person doing
everything it's.
I have to trust that everyperson that is in every role
knows to raise their hand andask for help when needed.
And if you're not raising yourhand, then it's not that I'm
ignoring you, but that meansthat, hey, you got this and I
trust you.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
You got this, yeah.
So community involvement andengaging, that has been pivotal
for your company.
What are some other things thathave been, you know, really
moved the needle or reallychanged the trajectory of your
company?
Speaker 2 (23:27):
There's probably two things that I would say, uh,
that we do.
One in particular is we are, uh, in the plumbing side of things
.
You need to get licenses.
If you have no intention ofgetting a license, if you're not
there to actually furtheryourself, then that's okay,
we'll find somewhere else foryou to go, but we need you to be
(23:49):
constantly doing that.
So our philosophy has changed.
Where there's a lot of training, we do.
We do 52 trainings a year.
We meet once a week fortraining, for sure, but we meet
multiple times a week and we tryto bring content to it.
Obviously, what we're doing forthe vehicles is made them just
look forward to going.
(24:09):
I want that vehicle, I wantthat to have the pride of
opening that and saying, hey,this is cool and I'm in charge
of it.
And so we've encouraged peopleto go get certifications and
licenses that are hard to get,and we back them up by simply
saying, hey, once you pass allof this, bring your receipts,
(24:31):
we'll reimburse you, simplysaying, hey, once you pass all
of this, bring your receipts,we'll reimburse you.
We want you to pursue it foryourself, because you need to
want things, and then we'llreward you for accomplishing it.
So that's one aspect of it istraining, training, training,
and then the branding would bethe second aspect of it and that
(24:54):
is we went to a trunk of treataspect of it and that is, we
went to a trunk of treat and I,we, we set, we set up a booth
and this lady walks over he goes.
I've been meaning to talk to youguys since, just since you did
your rebrand and I gotta tellyou re and it's not rebranding,
it was refreshing the brand,right, yes, uh, our name had
mechanical on it.
Most people have no idea whatthat means Correct, and so so
(25:18):
now we have BCI plumbing,heating and air, and now you
have a better picture of what itis.
But also our brand was, was asshe put it.
She goes.
I just want to tell you youguys did an amazing job with
your brand.
You know you were unknownbefore.
Now you're a landmark In oureyes.
We didn brand.
You know you were unknownbefore, you're now you're a
landmark in our eyes.
We didn't feel like we wereknown.
We have vehicles everywhere,right?
Right but they also kind oflook like the city vehicles
(25:40):
because it's just red, white andblue and it's a little logo,
and why not?
And so we went through therebrand process, uh, to the
point that we even had, uhmarketing professors at the
local college saying, hey,that's one of the greatest
things that's happened to thistown in a long time.
And we got some greatcompliments about it, and so now
, no matter where you turn,you're half a mile away.
(26:01):
I can tell the vehicles,absolutely, and it's just a
reminder to everybody.
Hey, we're here and we're partof this community.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
And it's been the pride that the team took in.
You know cause we got newuniforms and we got new hats and
we got new everything.
Yeah, it was.
It's an expensive process.
The advice that we have istrust your marketing
professionals.
Trust that they know how thecolors make people feel, that
(26:33):
they know how the lines workAbsolutely.
And then that's one of thethings that I've done with Lemon
Seed is, when I met with myteam the first time, I told them
I said, okay, here's how it'sgoing to work.
I'm just going to let you runfree.
If there's something, for somereason, that doesn't add up,
line up, I'll comment then.
But I brought you in to do whatyou do best and then I get to
(26:57):
navigate through it.
Sometimes we're going to haveconversations and I'm still
going to make an executivedecision.
Other times you're going totell me things I don't know, and
that's why I have you yeah.
You know, and the proof is inthe pudding.
We had an incredible,incredible rebranding experience
.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
That's great and I'll preface this Lemon Seed did not
do your rebrand.
This was before us.
Kick Charge did it.
But Kick Charge does phenomenalwork and you know, you can
testify to that and you know youmentioned seeing the teal
koozies and stuff.
But that's what having adisruptive brand and even if
it's just a color, it's like youguys don't have a character or
anything like that Like a lot ofpeople can say like, oh, you
can't do that or I hatecharacters Well, you can still
(27:34):
have a really professionallooking brand.
So that's still going to bedisruptive, turn heads, catch
eyes and it really make adifference.
And your guys' brand is a truetestament of that.
But you're right, it is aninvestment.
And again, don't, don't fixwhat's not broken.
And sometimes, when you're inlove with your baby, this brand
(27:55):
of how it looks like and well,this is how it's always been
Sometimes you got to kill thatugly baby and it can hurt and be
painful.
But if you can trust theprocess, trust the experts, let
them do their thing.
Don't nitpick it to death andinsert your own opinions or
objections that may not reallyeven matter or really be a thing
(28:16):
.
That's when magic can happen.
Well, the lemonade, as we liketo say, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I had this in my pocket, and I honestly didn't
put it in my pocket for thepodcast, but I did have it in
here.
So one of the things that wedid when we did our anniversary
party is we put together thischallenge coin, and so what it
has is our original logo on oneside and then the current logo
on the other side.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Such an improvement.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And the funny part about this and this is something
if you've ever read the poemthe dash and I've told people is
when you look at this coin, thecrazy part about this is is the
edge.
That is the most importantthing and the reason why is
that's what's between this logoand this logo, and it represents
40 years of learning what notto do Wow.
(29:02):
Or learning that something thatused to work doesn't work
anymore and that's okay.
And learning that, hey, we needsomebody that can do this, and
it's not me.
And learning that we have torely on each other.
So, like you know, people,there's a challenge when you
have commercial and residentialin one place, but when you have
commercial, residential,industrial and new construction,
(29:24):
that's a very diverse and not alot of people will tackle all
four of those almost differentverticals, if you will.
They are.
And we toyed with the idea ofhey, what happens if we just go
residential?
What we toyed with the idea of,hey, what happens if we just go
residential?
What happens if we cut this off?
And at the end of the day werealized, wait a second, we have
expertise, we have knowledge,we know how to do this.
So what we lack is cohesivenesswith the team.
(29:47):
So how do we accomplish that?
And so it took first.
You know, everything startswith leadership, and whether you
think that the triangle goesdown or up, right, if leadership
is at the bottom, you have toserve to be able to get it.
And so we started realizingokay, if new construction is
busy and service is slow, we'regoing to sub out our service
(30:12):
team into construction.
They're going to go do arough-in, they're going to go do
a top-out, they're going to golearn all this stuff.
When service is extremely busyand new construction is in
between projects, then theirteam comes in and does what we
do.
They watch us talk to thecustomers.
They realize we do things alittle bit more than just show
up to a job.
They have the same job for sixmonths and just take the next
(30:35):
thing.
And the next thing you have toassess, you have to be able to
procure parts, you have to talkto the customer about pricing
you had.
There's just so much more andwe've had is, is, is, uh, an
understanding and a respect foreach other in a different way.
We even bring plumbers to hvac,hvac to plumbing.
We just cross-train, cross-train, cross-train and, uh, we
(30:56):
primarily just focus on on youngtechnicians that that, uh, have
a mechanical aptitude, but theyhave a great attitude and
they're teachable, and so all ofour techs are cross-training
for package units all the way to.
You know, we even teach themchillers.
So we were, we're just crosstraining across the whole thing.
(31:16):
Why?
Because then you're notsettling one thing and you get
to see all the aspects of whatthe industry truly is.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Knowledge is power, like the more you know.
Even if that's not what you doevery single day, at least
having some frame of referenceand a starting point to at least
be able to know the rightquestions to ask.
I think it just sets your teamup for success and allows you to
, when you need to kind of pushand pull in those different
verticals or you might be alittle bit slower in this
department, but like we'rekilling it over here, it's like
we're just going to shift youtemporarily over here, having
(31:46):
that instead of being like, ohmy gosh, no one knows how to do
anything else except this teamhere.
So it allows you to kind ofpush and pull a lot more fluidly
.
I'd say when everyone does havemore of that cross training.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Well, think about it from efficiency point for
everybody watching this.
If Emily is the only personthat I have that can do chillers
and we see a lot of chillersand not saying, you know, it
could be package units oranything else you know how much
time we waste when everybodyshows up and say, oh, we got to
call Emily and now we got towait.
Right Now our team has beenexposed so much to everything
that they, even with the helpover the phone, they can start
(32:27):
the diagnosis and they can lookat certain things and they're no
longer afraid of the panels andnot afraid of anything
necessarily like they used to.
You know, like when people goto see mini splits and they're
deer in the headlights, I don'tknow what to do.
Like when people go to see minisplits and they're deer in the
headlights, I don't know what todo.
So we train on that across theboard and say you may not be
able to fully diagnose,depending on the problem, but
(32:49):
HVAC is refrigerant, it'sairflow and it's electrical.
The same is true for a packageunit, the same is true for a
split homosystem.
Now they work slightlydifferent, they're bigger, you
know there's different featuresabout them.
But in essence, go back and, asmy partner says this, just go
back to your roots.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
What do you know?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
And then we remove that fear, we encourage them and
then they get on the phone andthe manager that we have in
there, he's extremelyknowledgeable and he's done a
great job at coaching andteaching and empowering and
making them believe inthemselves.
So now, things that we wouldhave had to postpone for a
second trip that you normallydon't charge for, because you
can't just keep charging,because you didn't have the
(33:27):
right person.
Now they're solving problemsthat we didn't have to waste
that time and our efficiency isgoing up and the ability of
serving the customer in a timelymanner is is now something that
we see every day.
Versus oh sorry, he's notavailable till Friday or next
week.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Yeah, cause that's the only guy that we have for
that and that's superfrustrating to the customer and
that's not the brand image orthe service that you want to
provide to them.
So, yeah, well, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah.
So it's been a great journey.
Um, again, learning toappreciate what everybody brings
to the table and, moreimportantly, you know, knowing
who you are for me is knowingwhose I am, you know, and that
is you know I give.
(34:16):
I give praise to God foreverything that he's done and
then the more that I Iunderstand who I am in him, the
more that I'm actually able tocelebrate where people are
better than me at other thingsand be okay with it, because
that was, that's what they'recreated to be, that's, that's,
that's their roles and that'sthe reason why they're even in
our lives, right?
So, oh, if I was, uh, if I.
(34:39):
There's a book called who, nothow.
It's an incredible book.
And I put it in a situationlike this if we're going to go
be running track or or you know,running 100 dash or or whatnot,
and we're going up and realize,hey, I may be the captain, but
I can only run it in 10 secondsflat and emily can run it at
(34:59):
seven, why would I put myself in?
Because I have to go rundistance.
And if I go do your race, whichI know I won't win, I'm going
to take energy from my race,which I know that.
That's what my strength is,yeah, and so celebrating and
knowing there is no, there's nolike anybody's taking your job
is I'm, I'm, I'm purposelytelling my team I need you here
(35:23):
because this is your, this iswhere you fit, this is where you
excel and I trust what you'redoing here.
And people take an autonomy,take an ownership of that, and
and then when you start creatingthat kind of culture in your
team, then everybody startscelebrating each other and you
take correction better too.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
For sure and I think some of it also is like we have
some team members that we haveto tell them like hey, I know
you were trying to be helpful, Iknow you were trying to take it
off of other people's plates,but in reality it's actually
doing them a disservice becausethey never get the opportunity
to try to do something or tolearn and to rise up to this
occasion in your pure well goodintentions of just trying to
(36:03):
help them.
But you actually learn and cangrow and do so much more by
doing the hard things or havingsome perceived failures when
we're out.
It's not a failure, it's, youknow, did you learn from it?
You know what did you learnfrom it and stuff.
And so sometimes by we need tolet them struggle, sometimes for
the sake for them to rise above, you know, and not always
(36:24):
removing that opportunity forthem.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
You have to.
I learned this years ago.
Let people err on the littlethings you know.
It might cost you some money.
That's okay, that's right,that's okay.
You know you go to college.
(36:47):
You pay for people to teach youwhat you know, what the blind
spots are, what the knowledgeyou don't have.
We don't have the luxury in here.
We have to sometimes just kindof, you know, oh, that's not how
you wire the motor, get anothermotor them just simply ask okay
, what did we learn?
Because when they learn thoselessons, you will save yourself
so many more motors, so manymore errors, so many more things
.
And when they're afraid thatyou're going to come down on
them every time, fear has a wayto create more errors.
That's right.
Then the security comes to knowthat somebody's got my back.
(37:10):
You know, if I did the rightthings, thought through it
correctly and I still deliverwrong, somebody still got my
back, and that's the kind ofculture that we're trying to
create.
Plus, the other thing is alwaysbe working yourself out of a job
.
That's right.
And so you know, I came in, Itook a role and I brought
somebody with me and I said I'mgoing to have you shadow me for
(37:33):
three years, because in threeyears you're going to take over
this role.
And they're like what are youtalking about?
And I said and not only that, Ipromise you something.
You're going to run circlesaround me.
What you will accomplish inthis role will be a lot more
than I ever will.
But I had to explain somethingto them and that's this we spend
(37:53):
our careers climbing the ladderto the next step and the next
step and the next step right inthis case, let's say plumbing
I'm gonna go get my, my journeyman's or my tradesman's journey
man, and then I'm gonna go getmy master's.
And then we get to the master'sand we think, well, awesome,
I'm gonna open a company.
Hold on one second, you justclimbed the ladder of plumbing
(38:14):
career, but now you're gonnajump over to a different ladder
is going to be businessownership.
So just because you just tookthis last step off the career of
plumbing does not mean thatyou're any higher in the
business side and you have tohumble yourself to say, ok, this
is a new ladder, what do I needto learn?
(38:35):
Who do I surround myself?
Because there's so much I don'tknow.
And for any entrepreneur thatis watching this, they know that
that the first year is brutal.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Oh yeah, why did I do this?
Speaker 2 (38:46):
And you get to appreciate.
Well, now I know what my bossused to charge this.
Now I know, because you know wewent and did this $10,000 job
and the customer doesn't want topay.
Yeah, that does happen.
And so the people that havedone this in our company,
they've excelled.
And now what I'm doing ischallenging and say okay, who do
you have behind you that you'retraining to take over?
(39:07):
Because at some point, noteverybody's going to climb any
further and that's okay.
You climb as far as you can,you want to and you're able to.
But when you're coaching andmentoring somebody else, you
become better.
That's right, because it's aselfless act.
You're literally telling me I'mcoaching you to do what I do,
but that means you're developinga whole new set of skills as
(39:29):
leader and you can see a biggerpicture than you did before.
And so, for the most part, part, some of these people are going
to move up to the next level.
If you grow vertically is onething, but if you grow
horizontally, what you're doingis they're training other small
pockets of leaders so that wecan actually carry more crews
(39:49):
and have have a network of uh,interconnected leadership where
your you're all rowing in thesame direction.
You have the same desires.
Your culture is the same thing,and so that's part of the
reason why we're so selective inwho we bring on board, because
our culture would dictatewhether or not you're going to
make it.
If you understand who we areand how we operate and that is,
(40:14):
we support and celebrate eachother, and then we figure out
how to have fun while we'redoing it you know and one last
story we have two of our leadersthat once a month they bring
out the flat iron and they comeout 6am and they're making some
crazy recipes.
You know, like they literallyput the ground beef onto the
(40:34):
pancakes with the chocolatechips, and then, you know, you
make a big taco of it, thingslike that.
And the guys love it.
But they make some amazingbreakfast and that was their
initiative, that was their wayto serve and they have a blast
and they come for two, two and ahalf hours of cooking because
you know, we got 60 people thatrun through there.
So there's a lot of food thatthey have to make, but the team
(40:57):
appreciates it.
You know, the team reallyenjoys it.
Uh, we even our christmasparties we started um, including
the family and and okay, we'veall had maybe this is irrelevant
to the conversation, but we'veall had the boring parties where
, even when you bring the family, you're like, okay, this was,
(41:18):
this was, you know, this was.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Might everyone endure through this.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah, exactly.
And so what we, what we've done, is we've we started
experimenting with venues andsay, okay, what if we just
brought people in to enjoythemselves and not to have a
conversation or have a timeframeand trickling through,
eventually right now, this yearwill be a second year going to
Six Flags, Cool Fun.
So it's simple Go up when youwant, leave where you want.
(41:44):
If you want food there's.
There's a period of time wherewe have a pavilion and we have
food and we may say some words,but really what it is is
thanking your families for everytime that your kids needed
their dad and he wasn'tavailable because he was with us
, you know, and every time thathe'd come home late or tired or
covering who knows what you know.
(42:05):
And so the families have really, really enjoyed that.
They get to celebrate.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
And it's important for you know spouses or children
or stuff to see, hey, what myparent or my spouse is doing is
important.
They're valued.
The company that they're doingthese long hours for extra work,
they are valued and appreciated, and so sometimes just them
being able to witness thatfirsthand is crucial and
game-changing, and so providingthat opportunity I helps them
(42:34):
have a happy home, yeah, and Iwant to share it.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
So.
So the biggest, one of thebiggest challenges for everybody
who's looking at saying youknow, I've tried the new things
but I just can't get by it.
There's something that one ofmy partners does that he's
really good at, and that is ishe starts plowing the ground
ahead of time of the decision,but he starts working through
the ground ahead of time of thedecision but he starts working
through, kind of talking aboutit and then getting their
(43:00):
heartbeat, then addressing theirfears, and then he's got an
analogy that is really good, andit's just an analogy of the old
shoes versus the new shoes.
Right, like you could have areally nice pair of tennis shoes
that you wore for the last yearor two.
They're broken in, they'recomfortable.
You didn't have to untie themyour feet, you just slide right
in.
You know, hopefully you haven'tbroken the back of them, it's
(43:22):
just, it's just perfect.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
But the way it is, you actually afraid to untie
them because, if you do, they'llnever fit the same.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yes, and then you get a new pair of shoes.
Yeah, sure, the new pair ofshoes is exciting, but they
don't fit the same way, and whenyou walk it's just not like the
old shoes.
And the problem is is your oldshoes are not going to take you
as far as your new shoes weregoing to, and so we just have to
(43:51):
understand that there is aperiod of breaking in the new
shoes, which will take youfurther than the old shoes, and
so we created that culture.
I say we, but it was really hespearheaded this whole thing,
and it's been something that wetalked about.
Hey, remember the old shoes andnew shoes.
You know when people arerumbling from changes, you know,
and so that's.
(44:13):
That's probably the best adviceI can give when you're working
towards that is, help plant theseed of the growth mindset into
your team by using, you know,analogies like this one and
saying I know it's going to beuncomfortable, the new CRM is
going to be a little bitdifficult at first, but it's
going to make a difference.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
That's right the new, you know, widget or training or
whatever it is.
You know, sure, it might feel alittle bit different, but once
you got it pat down, it's meantto do a world of difference for
you and um, you see themencouraging each other, you see
(44:54):
them talking about the old shoesand new shoes and for a second
you're really proud of your teambecause they get it and, more
importantly, they trust that theleadership is vetting things in
a way that we're also takingthem into account prior to
rolling things out.
Doesn't mean that it's easy.
It doesn't mean that they don'tcomplain, or sometimes, you
(45:14):
know, we have a couple weeks ofgrumbling, sure, sure, but we
sink our teeth in as leaders andwe listen, and then we navigate
it through, and sometimes wehave to make changes and
sometimes, no, this decision isstill good.
You know, let's keep going.
And then you see your team grow.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
That's awesome.
Well, leo, thank you so muchfor your time here and sharing
all your insights and wealth ofknowledge and perspectives that
you have, and I know yougenuinely care about pouring
into people.
So if anyone wanted to reachout to you or just pick your
brain, how could someone get incontact with you?
Speaker 2 (45:53):
Oh, I didn't know.
I guess you can go ahead andshoot me an email and then you
can even put in the subjectLemon Seed Podcast, so that I
actually know.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Actually look at it.
Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
Well, we're all guilty.
We get about a thousand emailsa day and there's just something
we never open, you know.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
There's just something we never opened, you
know.
So L Morales, soL-M-O-R-A-L-E-S at
BCIMechanicalcom and we'll putthat down in the show notes.
So put Lemon Seed Podcast inthe title and Leo will answer
you and pour into you.
I know as much, just because heis a wealth of knowledge here
and does value pouring intopeople.
Just because he is a wealth ofknowledge here and does value
pouring into people.
So, leo, thank you for sharingall this and making the drive
from Denton to come sit withhere in the real lemonade stand.
I really appreciate thisconversation and thank you for
(46:44):
being here.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
It was an honor.
Thank you so much and I hopeit's a benefit to people.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
So if you, have questions, just let me know.
I'll do what I can, absolutely.
So if you enjoyed this episode,please leave us a review.
Follow us on all the socialmedias.
Follow BCI on their socialmedia.
Is a great company doingamazing things.
So thanks so much for listening.
We'll see you next time.
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