In this episode, we are joined by Roy Adcock from SERVPRO Industries where we discuss the influence of culture and its impact on team building. Everyone loves a good comeback story, and in this episode, you get a double treat. We dive into the gripping story of how Roy left SERVPRO, found a lack of culture at a different company, and then returned back to SERVPRO Industries. His story serves as a reminder of life’s unpredictability and the importance of embracing change, even when it feels uncomfortable. We also delve into Dion Sanders' influence and ponder over the thought-provoking question he raised – Can you win without a culture?
We wrap up the episode by discussing culture's role in branding, the importance of family in shaping teams, and creating an atmosphere of encouragement and restoration. And what's a conversation without humor? Enjoy a chuckle or two as we share an amusing anecdote as our continued debate encounter with a Stranger Things Star, Ric Flair's surprise appearance at a hotel, and a creepy antique doll that made an unexpected journey. So sit back, relax, and get ready for a conversation that'll leave you pondering about culture's impact long after it's over.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Well, hey, hey, welcome into the higher up
podcast.
I'm Adam West, a video creator,and I'm joined by an
accomplished entrepreneur, BenjiWilson.
Look, our mission is simple, isto empower you in every aspect
of your life, from business topersonal growth.
We're just here to inspire youto make a positive impact on the
world through sharing our ownlife experiences and having a
(00:27):
chance to have conversationswith other successful
individuals.
But either way, together we'llexplore living a higher up life.
Let's jump into today's episode.
Well, Benji, welcome into thebig one-oh, double digits.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Love it man.
We got our first guest on withus today.
Really excited man.
Yes, we're excited man.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
It's exciting.
Before we introduce him to youguys, we jump into that.
This will be episode 10.
We're going to be talking alittle bit about culture and
impact today.
I'm a little pumped.
We talked about this a lot withour team this week.
We had a big, what we callreally dream building.
You guys have heard us talk alittle bit about it, but we get
to meet with all of our teamsfrom Dallas and Houston and our
(01:15):
Birmingham team man.
We talked about just cultureand impact and why that's
important.
I got some cool stuff todaythat we're going to talk about.
We're going to look.
Right before we startedrecording, I saw a post we're
going to talk a little bit about.
It is Deion Sanders doesn'tcare about having culture and
things they can win without it.
So I'll be interested to heary'all's take on that I can't
(01:39):
wait to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I was going to say don't jump into it.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yet we're going to be good, so we're going to jump
into that.
So you guys know, I do want toapologize, benji, and I know
what you normally do every otherThursday.
It's been kind of busy and Ifeel like we say that every time
.
So I apologize, but we're backon it.
This will be a special earlyrelease, I guess.
Well, I don't know if it'sreally early or considered late,
but it's in between the weekwhen we normally would release
(02:01):
one.
So, but without further ado,I'm excited to introduce look,
this guy is a brother fromanother mother.
Oh, yeah, he's one of the firstpeople I think I met when I got
to visit Sir Pro headquarters.
Roy is working there right now.
But, roy Adcock, I'm going tointroduce you.
You know what?
Even you know, roy, I'm evengoing to give you a special oh
(02:26):
look at that man, it can go for30 seconds.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
No, look, look, you're trying to make my ego
match my waistline, so youreally need to tone it back some
, adam.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Okay that was great For those of you that aren't
watching, but you're listening.
Roy is about a buck 95.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, back in fifth grade.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Good looking dude.
Good, but no, but Roy is a goodfriend of our team.
We've I've known you probablyfor about five years now, benji,
probably a lot longer.
Oh yeah, so as long as I've beenthere, but we've been really
good friends.
We were excited when we werelike you know what, 10th episode
?
Benji kept pushing hey, let'sget a guess, let's get a guess.
And I said you know what?
(03:12):
Let's, let's get to number 10.
And we'll have a guess.
And I told him, I said I wantRoy to be our first one.
So, roy, I'm just happy to hear, man, I'm honored, thank you
guys so much.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
It's an honor and a privilege I mean, benji, you
know I respect the heck out ofyou, man, and everything you do
and Adam being your shadow andall and you know, getting to
bond with Adam over the pastseveral years, getting to know
not just his talents in theworkspace but also getting to
know him as a man and a brother,reflecting the kind of people
(03:45):
that you guys bring in to yourcorporate family, that you guys
have.
I mean, it's just kudos to youand what you've built, and he
knows this.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
We tell our we're very blessed to have Adam too,
but we're very blessed to knowyou too, roy.
And you know it's awesome tohave it's awesome to have men of
faith around us and you know,just to have the bond, you can,
you can.
We get things done together, wework together, we have some fun
together on the side too.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So it's kind of nice.
But, man, thank you for joiningus.
It was fun and I think, roy, Ithink one of the first times
that we really met met was whenwas it this I'm trying to think
back it was when convention wasonline.
Right COVID year, it was ourCOVID convention.
Oh wow, covid convention.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, I mean everybody was telling me.
They were like, hey, we gotthis guy coming up, he's going
to help us out.
Some take a lot of photos.
His name's Adam West and I'mlike why are we bringing.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Batman, if it came from Mark and Bow, it's a
hundred percent a lie.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Well, I mean, I didn't know why we were bringing
the old Batman.
That's the only thing in mymind.
I was, like everybody knowsSuperman's cooler.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Well, it was funny because when we came up there,
you guys had everything on lock.
Really, we were wanting tostart doing something similar.
We wanted to start streaming.
We were going to startstreaming training classes.
We knew that we were going tohave to start streaming with our
other franchises.
And so Benji's like look, goand learn everything you can in
like four days time.
(05:14):
And I didn't really crash courseand I didn't really have a role
.
When I came, really, you know,you guys had everything on lock
and I just became this weird newguy that was taking random
pictures.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Hey, you took some of the best photos I've ever seen
of myself.
Your picture.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
That picture I took of you where you're sitting on
that stool doing the mean tweets.
Whatever you did, it's stillwhen you call me.
It's still what I see.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Well, I had so many people I think I even put that
up as my Facebook picture for awhile and somebody was like hey,
are you running for office?
Why are you so serious Like allthese different things?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And I'm like Adam took this photo and apparently
he does glamour shots becauseyou made me look better than I
am, so you were not a colossaldisappointment during that, so I
wish.
I want to get that where I canplay it back like every day.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
That's an encouragement piece right there.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
It's a joke to our listeners.
But so, hey, we're like I said,we're going to jump in today
and talk about culture andimpact.
Roy very much lives that withwhat you guys do at Serpa
headquarters.
You as an individual as well.
I know you're a culture guy.
I know you're going to share alittle bit.
You got a cool story.
(06:27):
Funny enough, Roy left us.
For what was it?
60 days 67 days.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
He's got it down, man Look when you were in that
toxic of a culture you came backquick.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Oh yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I remember you called me and told me that you had
gotten a position.
It was a big position and I waslike God man, when you called
and told me you were going to beleaving, felt like a part of me
was being ripped out.
I was going to miss you.
Then I kid you not, man.
I think a month or so had goneby and we had text like how's
the new job?
Kind of a little bit back andforth.
(07:11):
Then you called me what feltlike a month later and you're
like hey, man, so I'm comingback.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I'll never forget.
We were at the first ResponderBowl in Dallas.
Sarah and I went and Roy wasthere with Chris and Chad.
By the way, if you listeners,if you haven't tuned into the
first Responder Bowl, reallycool thing that SurfPro puts on.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
The man you were hearing from does all of it.
Yes, I'm privileged to he does.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
But we got to talk to him and I told him I said, roy,
how you doing, man?
He said, well, I'm leaving.
I said, yeah, adam told me Goalor whatever.
Now we were, honestly, we werehappy for you, we were happy
that you had the opportunityahead of you.
We were sad that you wereleaving.
And then the good thing is Iassume that he didn't, as you
(08:00):
heard, he didn't like theculture there.
He called back and his positionwas still open because it
hadn't been long gone, longenough.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
And I'll tell you this whole thing.
I don't know how to put itother than it being a God thing
and I'll give the listeners justa quick overview.
I'd been with SurfPro for 14years, so like I'm indoctrinated
to the company, I mean Itechnically bleed green and
orange at this point right, andone of the lessons that I've
learned in my life it's whenyou're not looking for anything
(08:30):
is when stuff can happen, Likewhen.
I met my wife.
I wasn't looking to date anygirls, I had gotten out of a bad
relationship a long time beforethat and, boom, it just
happened.
So I had this company approachme on LinkedIn.
They sent me this message andI'm like huh, spam or whatever.
Somehow they got my cell phonenumber.
(08:52):
They reached out to me, we hadthe conversations and everything
just sort of fell into placeand I went in for an interview
because I'm like what willinterview hurt?
It'll help me maybe grow andjust get a little bit of
experience in that field.
So I did that and then silencefor three weeks.
And this guy calls me and he'slike hey, I'm so and so with the
(09:13):
company and I'm like who?
And he was even offended likeyou don't know who I am and I
was as polite as possible.
I was as polite as possible andI was like, man, I'm sorry.
Look, it's been three weeks Ididn't hear anything.
I wrote you off and I said, tobe honest, I'm in a hotel in
Omaha right now doing training.
So they said, well, look, youimpressed us.
(09:35):
Yada, yada, yada, we'd reallylike to hire you on as our
marketing manager.
And I'm like, okay.
And he gave me the salaryinformation, all the benefit
information, all that kind ofstuff over the phone and I said,
well, sir, I appreciate it Ifyou would just email it over to
me so I can just take a look atit tomorrow.
Like I said, traveling, I'm inthe middle of stuff.
(09:56):
Next day I opened up my email.
The title had changed todirector of marketing and the
salary had increased by another30%.
And I'm like, whoa, wait aminute.
I even called their HRdepartment.
I said I think you guys mighthave sent me the wrong offer
letter and they were like no, wetook a step back and we were
like the responsibilities forthe role and all this sort of
(10:18):
stuff.
We felt like this was theappropriate title and
compensation.
And at that point I was like,hmm, I need to call my wife.
You know we had to have thatconversation and you know I
didn't know what to do.
I wasn't looking, I was semicontent where I was at you know
14 years and get in a rut, butwhatever.
And so, with the support of mywife and family they were like
(10:41):
you know give it a shot, seewhat happens.
This doesn't happen every day,so I did, and that's when Adam
cried, when I called him.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Well, because remember because also in that
same moment this now Benji knowsabout it we had, I had this
conversation.
Finally one day in his office.
I fessed up to it, but I had alland just so you know, I don't
know if I told you Benji, butRoy was the only person that
knew, but I was going.
You know, remember, I waslooking at doing something
(11:10):
different.
Like I was, like I just Iwanted to create and do more
with video and photography andRoy was, and you, when you
called and told me we are both,were kind of in that same
position, right, and so, yeah,it was.
It was because mine didn't workout and I'm like, well dang, no
, he's leaving me.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Well, I mean, and I left and, just to sum it up real
quick, a bunch of red flagsstarted going off and for me I
was like okay, 14 years at onecompany.
I'm just still used to that.
I'm just getting adjusted tothe change my wife can attest.
I'm not a fan of change for themost part, but the red flag
(11:50):
started getting a little bitbigger, a little bit more
prominent, and I noticed that itwasn't just me, but it was
actually my whole team at thatcompany started to have that
mentality and everything that wetried to do and overcome was
just getting shot down by higherups.
And then one day I had a higherup come in.
We were being as cordial and asprofessional as possible, asked
(12:14):
how we were doing doing great,hey, by the way, did we get that
report from?
I asked him if we got a reportfrom this other company that we
were using.
He said oh yeah, I got it lastnight.
Send it off to the CEO,everything's good.
I said that's great.
Do you mind if we get a copy ofit, because we needed for a
project we're working on?
And he turned around, raisedhis voice and proceeded to
(12:37):
berate me in front of the entiredepartment, to the point the
two other departments and theupstairs of the building heard
it.
And then he just sort of stormedout and one of my team members,
she got up and she shut thedoor to our department.
She was you.
Okay.
I'm like, yeah, I think so Kindof doing a slow burn right now.
(12:57):
You know, and I had a younggirl, you're in shock at this
point.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I was, I was.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
And we had a graphic designer girl.
You know she's way better thanAdam, by the way, but anyway,
graphic designer girl, I'm not agraphic designer.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I'm like I'm gonna say he's not.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
No, he she's like how did you not punch him in the
face?
And I just said it's not worthit, it's really not.
And you know I told them.
I said you guys go take a lunch.
And I just started to get on myphone just to sort of, you know
, get my mind out of it orwhatever, decompress.
Yeah, you know.
And no joke about that time.
All of a sudden I startedgetting emails.
(13:34):
It was LinkedIn communicationand it was actually the HR
director and recruiters fromSerapro Same day.
They're like hey, how's thatnew job going?
You interested in coming back,maybe?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
And I was like well, you didn't tell me that, oh yeah
.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, and I was like, well, do you have time for a
phone call?
And so I called him and youknow we started talking and I
admitted you know I'm a man thatwill admit when he's messed up
or whatever made the wrongchoice.
And I said, look, I nevershould have left.
You know, hindsight's 2020,grass isn't always greener,
whatever kind of other phraseyou want to throw out.
(14:13):
And I said I don't know what isopen or what's available, but
you know I'm willing to.
You know, do what I can to comeback.
And that's when she was like,well, your old job is still open
.
And I was like, really, howabout?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
that.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
And she said, yeah, and just the team of people that
literally surrounded me at thatpoint from serve pro.
You know, that's when I knew Iwas gone 67 days because that's
what she had told me and youknow there's certain you know
requirements you have to do asfar as background checks and
like drug tests and all thatkind of stuff.
So it's like I had to gothrough that whole process again
(14:48):
.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I thought you were going to tell me it had been so
quick, you didn't have to.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
No, well, that would have been 66 days.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Oh, it was a day late , $1 short yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
But no, it just it surprised me on how quickly
things just literally fell intoplace.
Now I know they didn't fallinto place.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
I know it was put that way for a reason and you
know the way God works in all ofour lives is different.
But he gave me better, a betteroutlook on things and I've even
had a few people tell me like,man, since you've been back,
you've been more calm andcollective, you've been more
(15:36):
engaging.
You know all this kind of stuffand I'm like I got a little
different view, more you know, Idon't know happy view or a more
satisfied view, I don't knowthe best word to describe it.
But oh, that's good, you know,and it's just been awesome to be
back.
Outside of technology issues, Ilove our IT department, but
(16:01):
that's a whole nother issue.
But I mean, when it all comedown to it, it was the culture
of the place.
It was toxic.
I went three weeks withoutseeing my kids, except on the
weekends, and you know they'rejust downstairs.
I was getting up, going inbefore they were awake and by
(16:23):
the time I got home they werealready asleep in bed.
Now I know a lot of people dothat for their jobs and I give
kudos to them for putting in thehard work and effort, but it's
like it just wasn't worth thetime or the money at that point.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Yeah, yeah, quality over quantity at that point.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Sorry for the long drawn out story there.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
No, I think it's something listeners need to hear
, because it sets the table,because there are probably, adam
, I don't mean to cut you, thereare probably people that have
been exactly through that samestory and sometimes you have to
your point the grass is alwaysgreen on the side.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Whether I mean being an entrepreneur, there's no
different for an entrepreneur asit is an employee.
It's just a different type ofthing, right?
We all go through things and weall realize that.
You know what?
maybe the Lord has somethingbetter on the other side for me
and if it's going back to what Iwould say is normalcy, great.
(17:19):
Maybe it's my kids, maybe it'smy wife, maybe it's my church,
maybe it's my you know whatever,and so it's just interesting to
hear, because you never knowwhat the impact as we're gonna
talk about in a few that you'regonna make on someone's life or
someone's made on your life thatwanted to have you come back to
the current role, and we justthink the Lord, the role was
(17:40):
still open.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Oh yeah, that's a good thing.
That was all his timing on allof that and I have no ill will
towards that company that.
I left.
There's a couple of peoplethere that I don't have the best
opinion on, but that's my ownand I won't voice that to
anybody else.
But I met a lot of amazingpeople at that company.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
And since I've been back, like I've been back now,
for what are we in now?
We're in August, now.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
It feels like a while .
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I came back in early April or late March so I was
like I've been back for a fewmonths now and it's like I never
left, like it never happened.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
You had to go running .
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I was like I'm not gonna stop at him, yeah, but I
still stay in touch.
Like I actually met one of theguys last week for lunch we just
met and had lunch.
And I let him.
I think he needed to decompressa little bit I just let him
talk and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
See, that could be a reason for the connection.
Maybe you're helping himthrough something, yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
He very well could be , and yeah, so I'm glad to be
back.
I'm honored to be your firstguest on the higher up, and
there's one thing I will saybefore we move forward.
Benji, how in the world couldyou not know who Eleven is from?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Stranger Things, okay so let me set the record
straight.
I have never watched the showand I'm just gonna say this.
Okay, and look, people havetheir own opinions about
different shows.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Nobody has an opinion .
It's just when I actuallyhappened.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
There are, like my wife and our oldest have watched
this show, I choose not towatch it, and the only reason I
don't I know this is gonna soundweird.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
You're scared of the dark, maybe, maybe.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Okay, okay.
The only reason I don't isbecause I choose not to.
I was taught at an early agethat you just don't let stuff
even though it's not real letthat stuff get to my house.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Is it like the underside of the world?
Because it's almost like aheaven and hell type thing.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Okay and yeah, that's where I come from.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And it's not.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I don't like it.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
It's not, I don't, so anyway we're, I'm standing
there, I choose to believe inthe scare of it.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Just a quick story.
I may have told this a fewepisodes ago but we're standing
there and Sarah had walkedacross the street at convention
and was standing there lookingfor me.
I was looking for her and meand three other guys were
standing there talking toanother owner.
Okay, and this girl comes upand taps me on the shoulder.
Had a red like sweatshirt on,put it overhead and she taps me.
(20:11):
She said Do the accent?
Do the accent?
I can't know if I can it waskind of English, british,
whatever she says, I was 11 onstranger things or stuff.
And I'm like and I look, and Ilook over to another guy and I
said and then I all I heard was11 stranger things.
(20:35):
I thought she was talking abouther age.
I had no clue.
That was her name.
Anyway that's exactly whathappened.
That is exactly what happened.
I won't give you three otherwitnesses standing there with me
.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
I will give you this.
Okay, I'm gonna say it so ourlisteners can hear it.
Okay, in that same episode, youtalked about the Ric Flair and
I still didn't believe.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
No, no Ric Flair, he was there.
He was there.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
The cigar parlor that we went and visited.
Yeah, I followed them onInstagram.
They posted a picture video theother day of Him in the humidor
picking out a cigar, doing hisRic Flair, so I'll give you that
so Ric Flair was there Doesn'tmean 11 was there.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
now, here's the thing Ric Flair, he was at our hotel.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Okay, so you saw him too, I saw him too, and one of
our franchises.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
They shot a selfie with him out there.
I'll leave you over Brady andEric any day, so you know he was
there and and there were otherstories that happened and and if
anybody is a Wrestling fan thatthey know, which I learned that
apparently Tampa is like a miniMecca, yeah, for the wrestling
(21:39):
community.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So yeah, I would have noticed him straight up.
If I seen, I'd have gone, I'dhave gone fan crazy.
I mean, I grew up a Ric Flair.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Oh exactly, millie Bobby Brown was not there, okay.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Edie was telling you.
They showed a picture of her onGoogle to me and I was like
that looks like the girl.
And then another guy that wasthis with me goes.
That was the girl.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
He said so have you.
That was her.
They've got this one reallycool thing called its.
Celebrity impersonators LikeMichael Jackson and Elvis are
still alive if you walk downsome streets, benji I mean, it's
true.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
By the way, his other don't know, you know other
source.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I just want to throw this out here, roy, for our
listeners.
Yeah his two sources that werethere that saw it.
His, his wife was convenientlyacross the street.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
But you're talking about the superfan of stranger
things.
Yeah across.
Oh yeah, she was a good street.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
But it was Brady, which I don't even think.
The guy owns a TV Because he'sa hustler.
He's always working.
And then Eric, who does nothingbut basically lift weights from
the moment he gets up till he'sat work, till he goes back to
bed, so the two people thatdon't watch TV really at all.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Sources yeah, I can take it with her or not.
I have never seen an episode.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Just tell me what she said, I just hope this is a
nice running joke for ourlisteners, because oh, it is, it
is, and I think you know Benjineeds to get a bunch of stranger
thing dolls and toys forChristmas and his birthday he
knows who 11 is.
He's gonna say hey guys, I met12.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
It's like.
It's like we go to move it tomy.
We did meet 12 houses down bythe lake a few weeks ago and she
has this.
She had this antique like Armwine, the corners all glass.
Oh, please don't tell me has,like there was old there was old
porcelain dolls and there shegoes, talking about my youngest
are.
She said, no, mckenzie, you canhave to, and I said no, no they
(23:34):
ain't coming to our house.
No, I'll give you that one ifthings will start talking to you
.
Yes, no, antique antique creepydolls.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I gotta tell story and then coming home.
Antique creepy doll.
Real quick.
My mom found one in her closet.
Okay, she found it.
It was creepy.
Yeah, it was still in the box.
Somebody he given it to hercreeped her out.
She kept it to be nice, put itin a box in the closet.
Hmm, we were helping them gothrough some stuff.
My wife found it.
She goes hey, I can sell thison Facebook Marketplace.
(24:01):
All right, she did.
She put some money on it.
Somebody bought it.
Somebody that works at HQbought it.
Oh, wow.
Okay and they bought it for thesole reason To put it in your
office, to put it in their houseto scare her husband.
Oh so she periodically says shewill move the doll around the
(24:23):
house without telling him.
Oh my gosh, no thank you andshe.
She may be somebody of a namethat you know at HQ.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
My dear tea is Nikki Britt.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
There's no question about nope.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Kim.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Maybe somebody that oversees chem.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
They doing it to Chad .
Speaker 3 (24:46):
No, it was it was like old.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Oh Allison.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Allison says she she bought it so she will scare Chad
and move it throughout.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
This was.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
I think this was before the baby was born too, so
like when they were getting thenursery ready.
She would say, oh no oh man andoh Anyway sorry so scary doll,
that's awesome over, but notice,enjoy her.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
It's cool.
It's cool to hear your, your Iwon't say negative culture
impact, but you know I mean it'sreally this one, it sounds, but
think about it.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
You're that the think about where you are, and I got
something I want to share withyou guys in a minute.
But think about it, I mean.
Basically, I Mean that thatnegative culture led you back to
where you were, and I thinkit's important.
What Benji talks about with youis there's, there's people
right now that are listening.
That could either be onelooking to change companies it
(25:40):
was where they are and thishopefully be like hey, really
look into before you do it ortwo.
Maybe they have changed orhaven't.
They're just in a company rightnow that has a bad culture and
they're just dealing with it,and so the the tough part is, I
think, someone, until theyexperience what good culture is,
they don't realize what it was.
(26:02):
And you said the same thing,like when you came back.
You're like man.
I mean the grass isn't green onthe other side, like I, you
know, and not that.
That's why you were looking toleave, like you had.
You know they were looking togive you a promotion and do some
, you know some otheropportunities and some things.
You're like man.
This will be good for my resume.
This will give me to build goodlearning experience.
So, either way, there's peoplethat are in that position and I
(26:22):
think it's.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
It shows you the power of culture and and what it
can do and I think if anybodyis in that situation Currently,
any advice that I would give andagain, I'm now, I'm no expert,
I've just life experience hereTake a step back, yeah, and look
, because you know there's theold saying, especially for men,
there's stuff right in front ofour faces that we don't see.
(26:43):
You know, my wife I'll where'sthe ketchup bottle in the fridge
.
She'll walk up hand it to me.
You know it's.
It's like I just didn't see it.
But if you take a step back andMaybe even look through it, look
at it through different lensestoo, because you know you've got
blinders on.
You're so focused on, maybe,the negative events that have
been happening or the lack ofany kind of forward momentum
(27:06):
that you have been hoping forsomething like that.
Just to take a step back intoreevaluate the culture.
Yeah, because you know, like Isaid, 14 years for me at one
place I mean 14 years at oneplace for anybody these days is
amazing, absolutely.
Yeah, I'm not, I'm not tryingto pat myself on the back here,
it's just you think about theworld today.
But a Little bit moreforethought and a little bit
(27:30):
more consideration before anyhasty decisions to be made,
because you know culture is onething that can be changed.
You can make an influence inculture to make it better or
push it in the more positivedirection.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Well, let me, let me ask you about this.
So we talked about this alittle bit in.
We're getting the episodekicked off, benji, but I
literally I saw it like it gotposted last night and I just saw
it was on sports is on sportsillustrators Instagram page and
it was a quote from DeontSanders and I just think this is
great because I mean, obviouslythe guy has done so much.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I mean he.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
He changed so much at at Jacksonville State and then
moving to Colorado has alreadybeen influential.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I think we talked about the spring game so yeah,
only they sold.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I think it was Literally.
They made More in that one gamethan the past 15 years.
Oh yeah, for a spring game.
And yeah, I think spring gamesare cheap right, Absolutely.
I mean it'd be an easy to takeyour kids.
Hey, let's go spring gamescouple.
You know, like I'm now here inAlabama or Auburn, like I'm not
going to a spring game becauseit's like a game.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
But for them you know , that's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Rotas.
But so here's a quote here.
This it was he was on.
It says this I'm a read thestraight to this.
It says I don't care aboutculture, I don't even care if
they like each other, I Want towin.
It says basically the thecaption for it was some coaches
was zero in on culture as ameans to kick starting a
(29:08):
turnaround.
Deont Sanders is not somecoaches, so Thoughts go.
I want to hear this.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I mean, I'll tell you this.
I Understand what he's tryingto say and I think that he's
he's trying to redefine.
He even said I Heard his speechwhen he first got there in the
team room.
He said I'll go ahead and sayit right now.
A lot of you will not be on thisteam come fall practice, that's
just telling you, oh yeahbecause he said you don't have a
(29:36):
good work ethic, you don't havea good diet, you don't have a
good.
He went through all the listand it's true Most of those I
mean it was probably within thenext week or two into the
transfer portal.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I realize you know I'm not even gonna make it with
this coach.
He's gonna probably have reallyhigh expectations.
I mean Colorado back in the 90sfootball they were.
They were on cloud nine won anational championship.
They really had it dialed inand then they fallen off the
bandwagon just because now itmay, because it's the pack 12,
who knows?
but I don't even know how I'mgonna now Maybe six or something
(30:10):
but the thing about DionSanders is he's going to bring a
winning tradition wherever hegoes.
He wants to win.
He wants to win.
He did it at the Cowboys whenhe's back up.
He did it at Florida State, hedid it at the Cowboys, he did it
with the Braves.
He did, he did it everywhere hewent.
And if he comes to Colorado andhe's really saying that I don't
(30:33):
care about the culture, I thinkwhat he's trying to get people
understand he does care aboutthe culture.
It's just his way of doing it.
He's just not calling it.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
I was gonna say.
Plot twist is the culture Notcaring about the culture?
I?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Think it's.
It's not caring about theexisting culture, because the
existing culture has them wherethey are today.
Yeah, yeah, and you know you,you bring in prime time.
All right, you bring in primetime with a big stick.
He's gonna stir the pot, yeahwhich is what he's done with the
culture of Colorado and nowhe's setting the foundation to
(31:09):
Build the culture, a winningculture for them.
You know that's the same thinghe did.
You know, was it Jackson State?
Jackson, yeah, yeah.
I mean that's the reason thathe got the attention that he got
.
I mean he has prime time, let'sbe honest.
But For what he did there, Imean Colorado needed that.
They needed a change in theirculture to see Positive, more
(31:32):
momentum.
I mean you're right, adam, youjoked a second ago.
It's not pack three, it's packyour bags and leave.
Yeah that's why they're bringingup.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
They're all leaving.
It's good they're all leaving.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
But I mean, I think it's, I think he, I do think
part of what he's doing is he,like you said I love the way you
put it like he.
He's gonna say things thoseways, because what bleeds leads?
He's making waves which he's inthe news he's staying consistent
in the news, but I think that'salso part of what he's teaching
these guys is Making sure thefocus remains on you.
(32:03):
But he also I feel like he doeshave a good culture with, with
what he does, like he's you.
There was a post where he wasTalking about how they were
gonna speak to the women on theteam.
He was like you will not say,hey, babe, chick, whatever, like
, whatever, you will addressthem by their name and the
degree they've earned.
Like, if they're a doctor,you're a doctor, if you're at
that, if you're a trainer,you're gonna call my trainer
(32:24):
because they work for that andyou're gonna do it.
So I think too, while he'ssaying those things, he is, he
is building a culture.
That's why I mean jokingly yes,this culture is his culture,
not having culture, but what itis is that he is showing how
they are going to do things andthat they're not gonna be
mediocre.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
And that's really what the culture had been was
just exist he does have apersonal culture too, and and I
say that because Several yearsago I'm talking like 12 years
ago we were able to get Dion atone of our server pro events and
One of the requirements was heneeded personal security for the
(33:03):
event, and I'm a big guy.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Please tell me you were the bouncer.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
I.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Did some money.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I was Dion's second bodyguard for the night.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yes, and you have a picture that we could show for
viewers?
Please tell me you have apicture.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
I will say this yes, there is a picture of me on
stage with Dion at the event.
I was in a and I'll find it.
I was in a brown suit.
I remember this.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
We will post on our Instagram.
I need this.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
It's gonna take me a while to find it because
Computers and backup hard drives.
I'll have to look for it.
But the night that we weredoing it I Was asked to go to
Dion's hotel room and he took meupstairs and I met one of his
own Personal protectionindividuals was he bigger than
you?
We were about the same size.
Well, he might have been eightfeet tall, but he was also eight
(33:58):
feet wide.
So I mean he was a big guy.
Okay, I know I'm a big guy, butas far as his shoulders go I
was like a middle schooler.
So we get in the room and ofcourse I'm meeting Dion mr
Sanders, nice guy and we satdown, we talked.
He said look.
He said I've got this veryspecific amount of rules here.
Nobody comes on the stage withany alcohol in their hands.
(34:20):
Hmm, one person at a time.
If anybody is disrespectful toanybody in line while trying to
get on stage, especially theladies, you have full authority
to pull them out and escort themaway.
How about that?
The final thing is I don't knowif you've seen this have you
ever seen where, like KeanuReeves, when he gets his
pictures made with any of hisfans, especially his female fans
(34:41):
, he kind of always shows hishands kind of behind them?
Where his hands?
Speaker 1 (34:45):
He's not touching them.
I love him.
Just washed arm with four lastnight.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I haven't seen it yet , no spoil anything.
But like Dion did similarthings to that on stage with
people, yeah, and so he was like, as long as you can follow
these I mean it was maybe fiverules he said, follow these five
rules, he said will be good forthe night.
And Sure enough, like I thinkwe had him for a total of three
hours for the event.
He did like an hour ofautographs, hour of photos, and
(35:11):
then he was on stage doing likea motivational talk kind of
thing, that's cool but hispersonal culture Defined the
night on how it went.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
That's a great way to put that and I think that's
exactly what he's doing there.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Did you know Impact that Dion Sanders had?
Did you guys know that hebrought the Tomahawk chop to the
Atlanta Braves from?
Speaker 1 (35:34):
no way not know that no way.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
So he did.
Florida State had had had thetune tune right.
Yeah, he brought that to theBraves.
They never did that before hegot to play at the brace.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
I did not know that, Yep the Tomahawk chop when he
was there.
That had to be Fulton CountyStadium when he was there right,
okay, I'll just say he was notthere during Turner field days
Because I think when Turnerfilled was built didn't he play
for the Reds too?
He did.
Because I want to say I was ata Reds game and he was there
playing that game and I was likethis is cool, I've seen DL play
(36:08):
a different sport outside offootball.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
I think it's.
I just think you look at those.
I mean, even though he's sayingthat he's, he's creating that
Culture and that's somethingthat we've been trying to
instill in our team.
Really, as of lately, I meanlike that's been a huge selling
point for me.
I think Brady regrets bringinga creative into several projects
that we're working on right now, because I try to explain, it's
(36:34):
not just putting things onpaper, it's how's it gonna look,
what are we gonna do with it?
And that's.
You know, we had thatconversation the other day.
It was it was me, him and ourdirector of HR, and we were
talking through some projectsand and he was, he was just
trying to bring me to therealization.
He was like, hey look, I knowyou want to do this, you want to
do that.
He's like you or a culture guy.
(36:55):
I get it, okay, I get it.
He was like we've got toremember, we've got to build the
culture, but we've got to makesure that it's something that
people can buy into.
And he was like if you keepjust Not giving them a reason to
buy into it, they're not goingto mm-hmm.
And so he was just talkingabout how, how important it is
that what it we're building,this, this culture for them.
(37:16):
So that's what we talked aboutthis past week was what that
impact was, and we showed avideo of Benji's father when he
passed away, and it was just alot of people in our team didn't
know.
Mr Wilson, the hear's talk abouthim and the hear's talk about
the impact that he had, butthat's all they just they're
hearing it.
So that video you know it was agreat video that was produced.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Awesome video.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yeah, my mark and bow at thanksquare's media.
They did such a good job withit.
They did, and there was so manyWithout the reason that we
wanted to show.
It was not for them.
We were very careful.
We're like, look, we're nottrying to show you this, we're
not trying to bring you buddyAren't trying to show you who
their dad is and trying to showwhat we want to show you is how
many different people From allover interviewed and are in this
(38:00):
video.
Yeah, because of the impactthat he had on the Serpereau
community.
There's people lining up to sayhow I want to.
I want to say my piece on whathe did for me in my business,
especially as an entrepreneur.
Every single owner in thatbusiness.
The only reason they were inSerpereau was because of of him
yeah and so that was an impactthat he had.
(38:23):
Absolutely and we do the samething.
We try to do the same thingwith our team.
There's so many people on ourteam that I feel like if they
were any other, any othercompany They've worked in
positions that didn't work out,and any other company I'd be
like, alright, we're gonna cutyou loose, we're done what I've
always loved about us.
It's like alright, so maybethat one didn't work out?
Where's somewhere else on ourteam?
(38:44):
Because you have experience,you have Knowledge, you have
value on our team.
Okay, maybe that doesn't fit.
Where's another position we canput you in and figure out what
we can do.
To me that's so important too,because you're helping people
find that, that value and Ican't think right now you're Our
(39:06):
director of large law said atone time your dad.
Oh, what did your dad say whenthey hire Brad?
Because it was hilarious,because you and Brady didn't
want to hire Brad, and your dadalways said it was don't hire
for the position, hire for theman.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (39:19):
No, you know, you don't train for.
You don't hire for the position, you train for attitude.
If you can get someone, that'sgot a good attitude on your team
.
You can bring them on and hedid.
He had an impact on people, Imean.
I mean we said it best thislast week at our big team
meeting that you never know theimpact that you're gonna make on
Someone's life, and I think itwas the same day or the day
(39:41):
after we had one of ouremployees same day.
Who actually?
it was really cool.
One of our employees hit theyhe was at a water damage at this
folks house.
The mom was distraught, the sonwas, and again I may have the
story wrong but I'm gonnaparaphrase one of them you know,
fish or whatever had somefishing tackle there and so one
(40:01):
of our employees goes to histruck, gets some fishing gear
out and just sits down on thesidewalk with the son and Starts
, you know, helping him with hisfishing gear and stuff like
that.
And the mom grabbed a pictureand sent it to us and it was
like that's the impact.
You know we what we do at surfpro.
Again, water damage is clean up, fire damage is clean up, but
(40:22):
you can never replace that withthe impact that you make on
someone's life.
Yeah, they'll remember thewater damage, but they're gonna
remember so much more himHelping her son with his fishing
tackle in a bad situation.
That's the kind of impact thatyou want to have on people.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
It's like a restoration of faith and human
culture.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Yes, that's such a good way to put it, because we
we talked about it in ourmorning meeting on Friday and so
every Friday we talked about it, talked about reviews.
We kind of go over things withthem because we we want to
celebrate them.
We want to celebrate the workthey're doing.
When I celebrate what they'reaccomplishing in the field and
we talked about it and it wasfunny the production techniques,
kevin, you know.
(41:01):
I texted the night before.
I was like brah, like I'mbringing this up tomorrow.
I said look, I got teary-eyedwhen I read it.
I was like I said look, it wasvery minimal but it's such a big
deal.
And I told him I was like I'mgonna try my best not to end up
getting teary-eyed while I'mtalking about it, but I was like
man, you know, you don't knowwhat's going on in that kids
life.
I said you know, like kids gethome, you don't know what's
going on like.
See, have a good home life,does he not like?
(41:22):
And obviously he does like.
What's funny is I realized whothe who the mom was.
I knew the mom, like thecustomer, when I saw who it was
actually worked with her formany years at the YMCA and so I
messaged her and I was like, hey, don't know if you remember me.
I said you know, kind of youknow.
I said hey, I would love to usethis.
And she's like no, please, theywere amazing.
She said.
She's like yeah, she said Istill follow you, I see what
(41:44):
you're doing.
She's like you guys wereamazing.
And what's even cooler about itis Another restoration company
and come in and couldn't handlethe job.
That's how it came to us.
So you want to talk about agodsend?
It ended up being the, our oldGM that used to work for us.
Now he has his own constructionbusiness, being his own
(42:04):
entrepreneur.
Okay and he, he went in to dosome recon.
He's like all this ain't right,like this isn't done right,
like this isn't dried, like we,we.
So he's like you should callsir.
I promise you they'll get youfixed.
Call them and had him call usand we went out there and so
just think about all thesedifferent pieces that fell into
place for this one little storyand we shared it and it was.
(42:25):
It was just a cool, like I evensent it into HQ like, hey, we'd
love it, like this was.
This was just really cool storyfor us To kind of see, because
we preached culture.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
It was just nice to see that they grabbed on to it,
yeah, and they took it and theyran with it because they
literally was the day of it'sthose kind of stories and those
in engagements and encounters,man, the people that engage it
and do it firsthand, and then,like all of us, that hear it on
the second hand, like you getchills, yeah, yeah, you get the
(42:56):
teary eyes, you know that kindof thing and it's, it's.
It's hard to describe, but it's.
It's a really good feeling.
Yeah, well, it's.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
We've tried really hard to let people know,
especially with art, like webuild that culture with, and we
tell them that, like every timewe meet will, I'm finding like
you're not just a Productiontech, you're not just a water
mitigation technician, firerestoration or fire technician.
You have an opportunity to makean impact on these people, like
we don't just have to be aservice Right that comes in and
(43:26):
cleans up.
We could be somebody that makesan impact on it.
But a lot of that comes fromthe culture.
Yeah, that has been built intous and instilled To help that.
And then the big thing on thatfor me is the more the better
the culture is, the more thatyou're bought into things.
Like I joke with binge yellowtime.
I'm like that time I tried tobranch out and go work somewhere
(43:46):
else Probably was stupid andI'm like because there's no.
And like you're not gonna find,for me at least, a better
culture and honestly, the onlyreason I even had the
opportunity to interview at thatother position was because of
the culture that we had atSerpereau that had put me in a
(44:06):
position to do those thingsRight.
So culture obviously is a hugething.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
So here's a question.
I mean, I know I'm the guest,maybe I shouldn't be asking
questions.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
No, ask away.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
No, both you guys have said it a couple times in
this talk is building theculture.
Building the culture what doyou think are some of the
characteristics required tobuild a good culture?
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Benji, you hit that from the owner standpoint and.
I'll talk about it from likewhat it's like to be one of
y'all's team.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
I think the big thing is from a culture standpoint.
We always want to build peopleup.
We want to give them, instillthem.
They can do anything biggerthan they could have ever
dreamed and imagined.
We're not talking aboutmonetarily.
Those things come.
I'll never forget, and just togive you a quick story, when my
dad passed he had always triedto get me to read books, and I
(45:03):
never read books.
By the way, I still don't readthat many books, I just don't.
I listen to worship music.
I listen to any kind of music.
That's kind of my downtimeskill.
But I was cleaning out hisoffice when he passed and there
was this book in there.
It was called the Five GreatCharacteristics of a Great
Leader and the book was aboutthis thick, the words were about
(45:25):
that big and it made it veryeasy to read.
Not to get into the details.
But the fifth one was to thankpeople, just simply thank people
.
I mean, think about this you goto Disney World.
What do they do?
Thank you for being here, thankyou for being on the run.
You go to Chick-fil-Aid.
My pleasure, you got Starbucks.
Thank you for ordering whatever.
(45:45):
It's simple little task.
You don't get that atMcDonald's.
No, you don't get that atWendy's.
So I think from a culture theytry to emulate it sometimes.
They try, but it takes the.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
It can't just be one person trying to do it.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
If you don't get the employees to buy into the
concept and the culture.
They're not going to do it,they're just doing it out of
just whatever they're having abad day or whatever they're
going to be.
So our culture is we want toinstill in our people that they
can do bigger and better thingsthey could ever dream and
imagine.
And what it's going to take toget them there is to highlight
(46:21):
them, praise them, take care ofthem in times of need, minister
to them when they have needs.
Maybe some of your businessowners are listening out there
right now that maybe you don'thave that trait, brady, and I
don't.
We have a company chaplain thatdoes that on their behalf.
So things like that that youcan give them extra tools and
benefits, I think are whatbuilds the culture.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
I think from an employee standpoint I feel like
Benji and Brady.
They emulate that a lot throughwhat they're doing.
They're building the culture,they're doing those things.
It's funny because we've seenkind of a change in our company.
Benji's moved into a more of avisionary role.
The one who is always kind ofbehind the scenes and hidden is
(47:08):
now the one that's in front.
So Brady's always in front ofeverything.
Now We've seen a culture shiftand it's fun.
Our company has more access toBrady than ever before, and
that's something that we'vetalked about.
So one thing I feel like we,that I feel like from that, is I
brought up in a meeting as likeI'm going to be super
(47:29):
philosophical here.
When I told Brady we weremeeting, I said I read a quote
and I think I shared this withBenji.
I was like I read a quote and Iwas like, because we have a
goal as a team, I'm like, okay,how do we get our team to buy
into that?
What happens when we get there?
What happens when we?
You know, like, what is thebenefit of making the goal for?
Speaker 3 (47:46):
our team.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
But I read a quote that said don't just teach
someone how to how to build aboat.
Teach them to yearn and vastfor the open sea.
Very similar to the you know,don't teach.
You know, don't give someone afish.
Teach them to fish.
You know, you feed them forlife.
But the whole point was, okay,we've got.
I told him.
I was like we've got to build aculture that we're not just we
(48:11):
don't.
We don't want people justthinking like, hey, I have a job
.
Okay, I don't want people toever feel that way because I
feel like if you're just for me,this is for me.
If I feel like I just, oh, Ihave a job, I have a job, then
I'm not doing what I enjoy andI'm obviously just I'm living
the same thing.
I'm getting up in the morning,going to work, coming home, and
that's for me, that's not what Iwant.
Like I want something where Ifeel like I'm making a
(48:32):
difference.
So I was like we've got tofigure out a way to have people
want to achieve the goal, likegive them a reason to want to be
out on the sea not just likehey, I built the boat All right
next on to the next one.
No, give them a reason to wantto like say, all right, we built
it, let's go Right.
All right, let's get out there.
And so I feel like we doexperience that a lot and that's
(48:56):
why we do see a lot of theteams that we have.
But I mean, they've, if youlook at their team, there's some
people in there that's got 15,20, 25 years, and that's not
just by happy accident.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
To me, that's not someone just enjoying their you
know, or just someone that'sgetting up and going to work
Human nature we're not.
We're not going to want to dothe same thing every day and day
.
That's Monday and no change.
Like this.
There's got to be a reason,which is that culture being
built, and so I feel like we seethat through those things and
that was my biggest thing islike, all right, have me yearn
(49:29):
for it.
Like let's, I want to be onthis team, like I want to be
people to see that, like I wantother people to be.
Like man, I want to be on teamWilson, like I want to be a part
of that.
But that's the culture I feellike we've built.
Speaker 3 (49:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
That people are wanting that.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
A culture with a want .
I like that, that's.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
I'm gonna bring that up with.
I'm gonna bring that with Bradynext meeting and tell him my
thought about that.
A culture with a want.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
And then he's gonna say, hey, email from Roy and he
said that this was his idea.
Speaker 3 (50:00):
No, he's gonna say some guy named Roy, never heard
of him before.
No, no.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
I but yeah, I mean that's, that's kind of where it
was, Cause I just I'm for me, Ijust don't want to get up every
morning and just go.
I don't want to do the samething every day.
I mean, yes, I do the samething every day, but it's
different every day.
But it's different becausewe've built that culture and
that family too.
I think, I think a big part ofthat, too, is not just culture,
but building, or part of yourculture, is building a family.
Speaker 3 (50:29):
I mean, like I can text these guys and talk to them
.
And that's what I had at serve.
Bro was a family.
I still have that family to thisday and when I went to that
other company, I can tell you Ihad two pictures on my desk.
I had my family, my wife and mykids, and I had the picture of
our group that they took whenthey they.
(50:51):
They gave me a nice going awaydinner that night and we took a
group picture and those were thetwo pictures that I had on my
desk the entire time I was atthat other company and I found
myself on those late nightswhile I'm dealing with people
looking at that picture going.
I miss my family.
(51:14):
I miss that work family and itmade me think about the culture,
the attitudes, the want, thehearts, everything that was in
it and that was something Itried my best to emulate at that
other company was I was tryingto build that culture in our
department Because I can tellyou, the company culture there
(51:35):
wasn't where I hoped it wouldhave been, but I did have that
with, with our team was we aregoing to do our part to raise it
up a level.
Yeah, and I was very proud ofthe group of people because
because they were doing that,yeah, and you know, you hear
people say, oh, I really wantthem to, they're not going to be
, a fit in our company cultureand it's like, how can you
(51:58):
determine that so quickly off ofan interview, like if it's your
first interview, kind of thing.
I think it's the first thing,like if it's your first
interview kind of thing.
I think it's got to do withreading people.
I mean that's part of itBecause, let's be honest, you
get around certain people andthey give you the heebie-jeebies
, the creep, the creep factor,like you know what you offered
(52:18):
me ice cream and puppies out ofthe back of your van.
No, not so much you know.
But I mean you showed sincerity, you showed genuine concern,
you showed empathy.
You know you just get thosefeelings and those
characteristics about people.
Speaker 1 (52:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
And that's how you can change a culture?
I think yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
Well, there's a thing is ownership, and culture too.
That's the biggest thing isthat.
There's so much like everythingwe do.
So when we had thisconversation and hopefully I'm
not sharing more than Bradywants me to share, but we had
this conversation the other dayabout culture and we're talking
more and he brought up a goodpoint and I felt bad because I
felt like I was the one that wasthe driving factor.
(53:03):
I'm like I kept pushing, likeBenji and Brady, are the culture
like you guys?
Are the culture like you guysstart the culture, you're our
ownership.
And we met the other day and hewas like at what point do we
need to make?
I basically realized we aren'tthe only ones building the
culture, like we aren't theculture.
And it was funny because Leo andI had we've kind of been on the
(53:25):
same page with this likebecause we're redoing our
handbook and we're wantingculture to be kind of the first
thing that's in there.
I mean, it's a huge project.
And so we both, like I had noanswer, like I'll be honest with
you, like he and I both werelike I didn't really I guess I
hadn't thought about it that way.
He was like I need y'all to bethe culture, like I, because he
(53:48):
said, if he said and it hit mewhen we sat there he said if
y'all are being the culture,then I've done my job.
I've done what I'm supposed todo.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
Pass it down to the team Yep.
Speaker 1 (53:58):
Absolutely, it's coming up on the top and
trickling down, and so he waslike I need you guys to be our
culture ambassadors and start,because he said, once you all do
it, then those that youinteract with are gonna do it
and they're gonna do it andthey're gonna do it.
And I mean, again, we saw thatwith our production team the
other day.
I mean it was the first time wehad done this type of meeting
(54:22):
when we completely changed whatwe were doing, like how we
presented to the team and we gotto watch them, basically take
what they heard that morning andput it into effect.
And, for all I know, kevindidn't even think about it,
cause that's just, and I'llhonestly, it's who he is Like,
that's just the person he is.
And so he didn't think of, heprobably didn't like, but we got
(54:46):
to bring it up in the meeting.
I said, look, this is a big dealbecause you're making such an
impact.
So it was just kind of, it waskind of cool.
It was something he said andstuck with me.
You know he was like if you'rebuilding the culture, then I've
done my job.
That's cool, so good so, verycool, so good, so, but it's good
stuff.
I literally could sit and talkabout culture forever.
(55:07):
Culture and branding, those aremy two, those are my two things
.
Speaker 2 (55:11):
So Roy, I was going to tell you.
Thank you, man, for joining us.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
It's.
Speaker 2 (55:15):
It's an honor and a privilege to serve alongside of
you, Even though I know we don'twork at the same location.
Speaker 1 (55:21):
we're still part of the same family, very close to
have you back in the surfboardworld.
I'm just waiting on him toinvite us, you know, like he
invites other people to HQ andwe can hang out, but that's good
.
Speaker 3 (55:31):
Benji, I told you you have an open invitation.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Yeah, I'll be there actually in a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (55:36):
Never, even in the cafeteria.
Speaker 3 (55:39):
Wait, are we talking about your high school days, or
now?
I?
Speaker 1 (55:42):
mean you'll have a high cafeteria at corporate.
That's kind of cool, oh yeah,yeah, no, it's awesome.
It's a great cafeteria.
Speaker 2 (55:52):
No.
Speaker 3 (55:53):
I am very grateful for you guys.
I am very humbled and honoredthat y'all asked me to be the
first guest for hire up and it'sbeen an absolute privilege and
honor.
Anytime I can talk with youguys, I mean it's a good day and
I always look forward to seeingyou, benji, at convention.
Adam yeah, I love you too, man.
Speaker 1 (56:16):
Thanks, man, Just know.
Hey, I really appreciate youbeing our first guest.
Any pick.
Now we know what to do with thenew other guests.
Speaker 3 (56:22):
This guy's not coming back ever again.
Next time we mute the mic.
That's what he's saying.
Speaker 1 (56:30):
No, you did good man.
Speaker 3 (56:32):
I think it's fun, you did good man Translation, you
didn't suck, you did no Thanks.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Adam, I appreciate it , man, not at all.
You did great.
Look, I'm always probably.
You're funny, you're a greatindividual.
Speaker 2 (56:46):
I'm just totally kidding, I like it, I like it,
I'm not kidding about what I'msaying.
Speaker 1 (56:50):
I'm being goofy the way I put it.
Okay, I'm digging a hole.
My wife always says lay in theplane, Lay in the plane.
Speaker 3 (56:58):
No, you just made a nose dive into a very shallow
lake.
Speaker 1 (57:02):
Look, man, we appreciate you coming on and
hanging out.
I know you're taking away fromfamily time to do this, that's
all good.
I know that's big for you.
I know you got a lot going on.
We're excited for everythingyou have going on this year.
You're starting to work on thefirst responder bowl again.
Speaker 3 (57:15):
You sent your first email the other day.
Super excited and listeners.
December 26,.
Check out ESPN the firstresponder bowl.
Last year we had a great game,great turnout.
This year I'm hoping thatcollege football doesn't
disappoint at all.
I mean, I want it to be likethe best season ever but, like
(57:36):
you said, all the shakeups withall the different leagues and
everything, the Pac-2 or one bythe time, this podcast is over.
Speaker 1 (57:43):
Get us some good teams, roy, I know you're over
this.
Speaker 3 (57:46):
I wish I could control the teams.
I really wish.
Speaker 1 (57:50):
You could actually get to call ESPN and say hey, I
want this team and this team,that's what I've been told.
You basically get to talk topeople.
Speaker 3 (57:57):
Yeah, you know, matter of fact, I did have a
meeting with ESPN this pastWednesday and I got on the horn
and I was like, guys, we got tohave good teams, we do.
And you know what they said.
They said done Alabama andAuburn will not be there this
year.
Speaker 1 (58:15):
Instead, we're going to put Middle.
Speaker 3 (58:17):
Tennessee State University in there and just you
know go.
Speaker 2 (58:21):
Colorado and Colorado .
That would be hilarious.
Speaker 3 (58:24):
We got prime time at that bowl game.
Speaker 1 (58:27):
You have achieved your goal.
Speaker 2 (58:28):
That would be a big impact.
Speaker 3 (58:31):
I'll go back down to the sidelines.
Hey, do you remember the time Ilike this security for you.
Speaker 1 (58:36):
Hey man, remember my own security for you.
I was about to say if you getprime time, you have to record
that.
Speaker 3 (58:42):
Funny little tidbit.
At the end of it and I probablyshouldn't say this, but at the
end of it, you know, hissecurity guy came over and you
know, thank you so much, you dida great job.
And he was like so how manyyears you've been doing PP?
Oh, and I'm sitting there in mymind going PP, personal
protection.
Oh you know about three or fouryears on and off, you know
nothing.
Really full time on anything,three full minutes.
(59:04):
He handed me his business cardand said the next time you're in
Dallas, if you ever need anywork, give me a call.
Speaker 1 (59:12):
Oh dang, Look at you.
Speaker 3 (59:14):
You're piecing everything, bro, You're like no,
I was just a fat guy in alittle coat up on stage, you
know as Chris Farleyimpersonating up there.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
But you're like this is, this is chubby eagle.
Speaker 2 (59:24):
This is chubby eagle, really Chubby eagle, chubby
eagle, okay To all our listenersout there.
Thank you so much forsubscribing and listening and
joining.
Share this podcast wherever youmight go, with your friends,
family, neighbors, whatever andgo out there and live a higher
(59:45):
life.
Speaker 3 (59:46):
Amen to that, we'll see you guys later.
Speaker 1 (59:48):
Thank you, and the goal of this session is to
(01:00:18):
empower you in every aspect ofyour life and we're thankful for
your support.
We've got new episodes of thehigher up podcast dropping every
other Thursday, so take asecond and turn on notifications
to stay in the loop.
Make sure that you follow us onyour favorite social media
platforms to stay connected withour community community.
We just want to thank you againfor listening and we look
forward to having you joining usagain on the Hyrule podcast.
Well, hey, hey, welcome into the higher up
podcast.
I'm Adam West, a video creator,and I'm joined by an
accomplished entrepreneur, BenjiWilson.
Look, our mission is simple, isto empower you in every aspect
of your life, from business topersonal growth.
We're just here to inspire youto make a positive impact on the
world through sharing our ownlife experiences and having a
(00:27):
chance to have conversationswith other successful
individuals.
But either way, together we'llexplore living a higher up life.
Let's jump into today's episode.
Well, Benji, welcome into thebig one-oh, double digits.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Love it man.
We got our first guest on withus today.
Really excited man.
Yes, we're excited man.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
It's exciting.
Before we introduce him to youguys, we jump into that.
This will be episode 10.
We're going to be talking alittle bit about culture and
impact today.
I'm a little pumped.
We talked about this a lot withour team this week.
We had a big, what we callreally dream building.
You guys have heard us talk alittle bit about it, but we get
to meet with all of our teamsfrom Dallas and Houston and our
(01:15):
Birmingham team man.
We talked about just cultureand impact and why that's
important.
I got some cool stuff todaythat we're going to talk about.
We're going to look.
Right before we startedrecording, I saw a post we're
going to talk a little bit about.
It is Deion Sanders doesn'tcare about having culture and
things they can win without it.
So I'll be interested to heary'all's take on that I can't
(01:39):
wait to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I was going to say don't jump into it.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yet we're going to be good, so we're going to jump
into that.
So you guys know, I do want toapologize, benji, and I know
what you normally do every otherThursday.
It's been kind of busy and Ifeel like we say that every time
.
So I apologize, but we're backon it.
This will be a special earlyrelease, I guess.
Well, I don't know if it'sreally early or considered late,
but it's in between the weekwhen we normally would release
(02:01):
one.
So, but without further ado,I'm excited to introduce look,
this guy is a brother fromanother mother.
Oh, yeah, he's one of the firstpeople I think I met when I got
to visit Sir Pro headquarters.
Roy is working there right now.
But, roy Adcock, I'm going tointroduce you.
You know what?
Even you know, roy, I'm evengoing to give you a special oh
(02:26):
look at that man, it can go for30 seconds.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
No, look, look, you're trying to make my ego
match my waistline, so youreally need to tone it back some
, adam.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Okay that was great For those of you that aren't
watching, but you're listening.
Roy is about a buck 95.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, back in fifth grade.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Good looking dude.
Good, but no, but Roy is a goodfriend of our team.
We've I've known you probablyfor about five years now, benji,
probably a lot longer.
Oh yeah, so as long as I've beenthere, but we've been really
good friends.
We were excited when we werelike you know what, 10th episode
?
Benji kept pushing hey, let'sget a guess, let's get a guess.
And I said you know what?
(03:12):
Let's, let's get to number 10.
And we'll have a guess.
And I told him, I said I wantRoy to be our first one.
So, roy, I'm just happy to hear, man, I'm honored, thank you
guys so much.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
It's an honor and a privilege I mean, benji, you
know I respect the heck out ofyou, man, and everything you do
and Adam being your shadow andall and you know, getting to
bond with Adam over the pastseveral years, getting to know
not just his talents in theworkspace but also getting to
know him as a man and a brother,reflecting the kind of people
(03:45):
that you guys bring in to yourcorporate family, that you guys
have.
I mean, it's just kudos to youand what you've built, and he
knows this.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
We tell our we're very blessed to have Adam too,
but we're very blessed to knowyou too, roy.
And you know it's awesome tohave it's awesome to have men of
faith around us and you know,just to have the bond, you can,
you can.
We get things done together, wework together, we have some fun
together on the side too.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So it's kind of nice.
But, man, thank you for joiningus.
It was fun and I think, roy, Ithink one of the first times
that we really met met was whenwas it this I'm trying to think
back it was when convention wasonline.
Right COVID year, it was ourCOVID convention.
Oh wow, covid convention.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, I mean everybody was telling me.
They were like, hey, we gotthis guy coming up, he's going
to help us out.
Some take a lot of photos.
His name's Adam West and I'mlike why are we bringing.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Batman, if it came from Mark and Bow, it's a
hundred percent a lie.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Well, I mean, I didn't know why we were bringing
the old Batman.
That's the only thing in mymind.
I was, like everybody knowsSuperman's cooler.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Well, it was funny because when we came up there,
you guys had everything on lock.
Really, we were wanting tostart doing something similar.
We wanted to start streaming.
We were going to startstreaming training classes.
We knew that we were going tohave to start streaming with our
other franchises.
And so Benji's like look, goand learn everything you can in
like four days time.
(05:14):
And I didn't really crash courseand I didn't really have a role
.
When I came, really, you know,you guys had everything on lock
and I just became this weird newguy that was taking random
pictures.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Hey, you took some of the best photos I've ever seen
of myself.
Your picture.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
That picture I took of you where you're sitting on
that stool doing the mean tweets.
Whatever you did, it's stillwhen you call me.
It's still what I see.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Well, I had so many people I think I even put that
up as my Facebook picture for awhile and somebody was like hey,
are you running for office?
Why are you so serious Like allthese different things?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And I'm like Adam took this photo and apparently
he does glamour shots becauseyou made me look better than I
am, so you were not a colossaldisappointment during that, so I
wish.
I want to get that where I canplay it back like every day.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
That's an encouragement piece right there.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
It's a joke to our listeners.
But so, hey, we're like I said,we're going to jump in today
and talk about culture andimpact.
Roy very much lives that withwhat you guys do at Serpa
headquarters.
You as an individual as well.
I know you're a culture guy.
I know you're going to share alittle bit.
You got a cool story.
(06:27):
Funny enough, Roy left us.
For what was it?
60 days 67 days.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
He's got it down, man Look when you were in that
toxic of a culture you came backquick.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Oh yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I remember you called me and told me that you had
gotten a position.
It was a big position and I waslike God man, when you called
and told me you were going to beleaving, felt like a part of me
was being ripped out.
I was going to miss you.
Then I kid you not, man.
I think a month or so had goneby and we had text like how's
the new job?
Kind of a little bit back andforth.
(07:11):
Then you called me what feltlike a month later and you're
like hey, man, so I'm comingback.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I'll never forget.
We were at the first ResponderBowl in Dallas.
Sarah and I went and Roy wasthere with Chris and Chad.
By the way, if you listeners,if you haven't tuned into the
first Responder Bowl, reallycool thing that SurfPro puts on.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
The man you were hearing from does all of it.
Yes, I'm privileged to he does.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
But we got to talk to him and I told him I said, roy,
how you doing, man?
He said, well, I'm leaving.
I said, yeah, adam told me Goalor whatever.
Now we were, honestly, we werehappy for you, we were happy
that you had the opportunityahead of you.
We were sad that you wereleaving.
And then the good thing is Iassume that he didn't, as you
(08:00):
heard, he didn't like theculture there.
He called back and his positionwas still open because it
hadn't been long gone, longenough.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
And I'll tell you this whole thing.
I don't know how to put itother than it being a God thing
and I'll give the listeners justa quick overview.
I'd been with SurfPro for 14years, so like I'm indoctrinated
to the company, I mean Itechnically bleed green and
orange at this point right, andone of the lessons that I've
learned in my life it's whenyou're not looking for anything
(08:30):
is when stuff can happen, Likewhen.
I met my wife.
I wasn't looking to date anygirls, I had gotten out of a bad
relationship a long time beforethat and, boom, it just
happened.
So I had this company approachme on LinkedIn.
They sent me this message andI'm like huh, spam or whatever.
Somehow they got my cell phonenumber.
(08:52):
They reached out to me, we hadthe conversations and everything
just sort of fell into placeand I went in for an interview
because I'm like what willinterview hurt?
It'll help me maybe grow andjust get a little bit of
experience in that field.
So I did that and then silencefor three weeks.
And this guy calls me and he'slike hey, I'm so and so with the
(09:13):
company and I'm like who?
And he was even offended likeyou don't know who I am and I
was as polite as possible.
I was as polite as possible andI was like, man, I'm sorry.
Look, it's been three weeks Ididn't hear anything.
I wrote you off and I said, tobe honest, I'm in a hotel in
Omaha right now doing training.
So they said, well, look, youimpressed us.
(09:35):
Yada, yada, yada, we'd reallylike to hire you on as our
marketing manager.
And I'm like, okay.
And he gave me the salaryinformation, all the benefit
information, all that kind ofstuff over the phone and I said,
well, sir, I appreciate it Ifyou would just email it over to
me so I can just take a look atit tomorrow.
Like I said, traveling, I'm inthe middle of stuff.
(09:56):
Next day I opened up my email.
The title had changed todirector of marketing and the
salary had increased by another30%.
And I'm like, whoa, wait aminute.
I even called their HRdepartment.
I said I think you guys mighthave sent me the wrong offer
letter and they were like no, wetook a step back and we were
like the responsibilities forthe role and all this sort of
(10:18):
stuff.
We felt like this was theappropriate title and
compensation.
And at that point I was like,hmm, I need to call my wife.
You know we had to have thatconversation and you know I
didn't know what to do.
I wasn't looking, I was semicontent where I was at you know
14 years and get in a rut, butwhatever.
And so, with the support of mywife and family they were like
(10:41):
you know give it a shot, seewhat happens.
This doesn't happen every day,so I did, and that's when Adam
cried, when I called him.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Well, because remember because also in that
same moment this now Benji knowsabout it we had, I had this
conversation.
Finally one day in his office.
I fessed up to it, but I had alland just so you know, I don't
know if I told you Benji, butRoy was the only person that
knew, but I was going.
You know, remember, I waslooking at doing something
(11:10):
different.
Like I was, like I just Iwanted to create and do more
with video and photography andRoy was, and you, when you
called and told me we are both,were kind of in that same
position, right, and so, yeah,it was.
It was because mine didn't workout and I'm like, well dang, no
, he's leaving me.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Well, I mean, and I left and, just to sum it up real
quick, a bunch of red flagsstarted going off and for me I
was like okay, 14 years at onecompany.
I'm just still used to that.
I'm just getting adjusted tothe change my wife can attest.
I'm not a fan of change for themost part, but the red flag
(11:50):
started getting a little bitbigger, a little bit more
prominent, and I noticed that itwasn't just me, but it was
actually my whole team at thatcompany started to have that
mentality and everything that wetried to do and overcome was
just getting shot down by higherups.
And then one day I had a higherup come in.
We were being as cordial and asprofessional as possible, asked
(12:14):
how we were doing doing great,hey, by the way, did we get that
report from?
I asked him if we got a reportfrom this other company that we
were using.
He said oh yeah, I got it lastnight.
Send it off to the CEO,everything's good.
I said that's great.
Do you mind if we get a copy ofit, because we needed for a
project we're working on?
And he turned around, raisedhis voice and proceeded to
(12:37):
berate me in front of the entiredepartment, to the point the
two other departments and theupstairs of the building heard
it.
And then he just sort of stormedout and one of my team members,
she got up and she shut thedoor to our department.
She was you.
Okay.
I'm like, yeah, I think so Kindof doing a slow burn right now.
(12:57):
You know, and I had a younggirl, you're in shock at this
point.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I was, I was.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
And we had a graphic designer girl.
You know she's way better thanAdam, by the way, but anyway,
graphic designer girl, I'm not agraphic designer.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I'm like I'm gonna say he's not.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
No, he she's like how did you not punch him in the
face?
And I just said it's not worthit, it's really not.
And you know I told them.
I said you guys go take a lunch.
And I just started to get on myphone just to sort of, you know
, get my mind out of it orwhatever, decompress.
Yeah, you know.
And no joke about that time.
All of a sudden I startedgetting emails.
(13:34):
It was LinkedIn communicationand it was actually the HR
director and recruiters fromSerapro Same day.
They're like hey, how's thatnew job going?
You interested in coming back,maybe?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
And I was like well, you didn't tell me that, oh yeah
.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, and I was like, well, do you have time for a
phone call?
And so I called him and youknow we started talking and I
admitted you know I'm a man thatwill admit when he's messed up
or whatever made the wrongchoice.
And I said, look, I nevershould have left.
You know, hindsight's 2020,grass isn't always greener,
whatever kind of other phraseyou want to throw out.
(14:13):
And I said I don't know what isopen or what's available, but
you know I'm willing to.
You know, do what I can to comeback.
And that's when she was like,well, your old job is still open
.
And I was like, really, howabout?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
that.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
And she said, yeah, and just the team of people that
literally surrounded me at thatpoint from serve pro.
You know, that's when I knew Iwas gone 67 days because that's
what she had told me and youknow there's certain you know
requirements you have to do asfar as background checks and
like drug tests and all thatkind of stuff.
So it's like I had to gothrough that whole process again
(14:48):
.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I thought you were going to tell me it had been so
quick, you didn't have to.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
No, well, that would have been 66 days.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Oh, it was a day late , $1 short yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
But no, it just it surprised me on how quickly
things just literally fell intoplace.
Now I know they didn't fallinto place.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
I know it was put that way for a reason and you
know the way God works in all ofour lives is different.
But he gave me better, a betteroutlook on things and I've even
had a few people tell me like,man, since you've been back,
you've been more calm andcollective, you've been more
(15:36):
engaging.
You know all this kind of stuffand I'm like I got a little
different view, more you know, Idon't know happy view or a more
satisfied view, I don't knowthe best word to describe it.
But oh, that's good, you know,and it's just been awesome to be
back.
Outside of technology issues, Ilove our IT department, but
(16:01):
that's a whole nother issue.
But I mean, when it all comedown to it, it was the culture
of the place.
It was toxic.
I went three weeks withoutseeing my kids, except on the
weekends, and you know they'rejust downstairs.
I was getting up, going inbefore they were awake and by
(16:23):
the time I got home they werealready asleep in bed.
Now I know a lot of people dothat for their jobs and I give
kudos to them for putting in thehard work and effort, but it's
like it just wasn't worth thetime or the money at that point.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Yeah, yeah, quality over quantity at that point.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Sorry for the long drawn out story there.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
No, I think it's something listeners need to hear
, because it sets the table,because there are probably, adam
, I don't mean to cut you, thereare probably people that have
been exactly through that samestory and sometimes you have to
your point the grass is alwaysgreen on the side.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Whether I mean being an entrepreneur, there's no
different for an entrepreneur asit is an employee.
It's just a different type ofthing, right?
We all go through things and weall realize that.
You know what?
maybe the Lord has somethingbetter on the other side for me
and if it's going back to what Iwould say is normalcy, great.
(17:19):
Maybe it's my kids, maybe it'smy wife, maybe it's my church,
maybe it's my you know whatever,and so it's just interesting to
hear, because you never knowwhat the impact as we're gonna
talk about in a few that you'regonna make on someone's life or
someone's made on your life thatwanted to have you come back to
the current role, and we justthink the Lord, the role was
(17:40):
still open.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Oh yeah, that's a good thing.
That was all his timing on allof that and I have no ill will
towards that company that.
I left.
There's a couple of peoplethere that I don't have the best
opinion on, but that's my ownand I won't voice that to
anybody else.
But I met a lot of amazingpeople at that company.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
And since I've been back, like I've been back now,
for what are we in now?
We're in August, now.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
It feels like a while .
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I came back in early April or late March so I was
like I've been back for a fewmonths now and it's like I never
left, like it never happened.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
You had to go running .
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I was like I'm not gonna stop at him, yeah, but I
still stay in touch.
Like I actually met one of theguys last week for lunch we just
met and had lunch.
And I let him.
I think he needed to decompressa little bit I just let him
talk and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
See, that could be a reason for the connection.
Maybe you're helping himthrough something, yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
He very well could be , and yeah, so I'm glad to be
back.
I'm honored to be your firstguest on the higher up, and
there's one thing I will saybefore we move forward.
Benji, how in the world couldyou not know who Eleven is from?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Stranger Things, okay so let me set the record
straight.
I have never watched the showand I'm just gonna say this.
Okay, and look, people havetheir own opinions about
different shows.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Nobody has an opinion .
It's just when I actuallyhappened.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
There are, like my wife and our oldest have watched
this show, I choose not towatch it, and the only reason I
don't I know this is gonna soundweird.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
You're scared of the dark, maybe, maybe.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Okay, okay.
The only reason I don't isbecause I choose not to.
I was taught at an early agethat you just don't let stuff
even though it's not real letthat stuff get to my house.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Is it like the underside of the world?
Because it's almost like aheaven and hell type thing.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Okay and yeah, that's where I come from.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And it's not.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I don't like it.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
It's not, I don't, so anyway we're, I'm standing
there, I choose to believe inthe scare of it.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Just a quick story.
I may have told this a fewepisodes ago but we're standing
there and Sarah had walkedacross the street at convention
and was standing there lookingfor me.
I was looking for her and meand three other guys were
standing there talking toanother owner.
Okay, and this girl comes upand taps me on the shoulder.
Had a red like sweatshirt on,put it overhead and she taps me.
(20:11):
She said Do the accent?
Do the accent?
I can't know if I can it waskind of English, british,
whatever she says, I was 11 onstranger things or stuff.
And I'm like and I look, and Ilook over to another guy and I
said and then I all I heard was11 stranger things.
(20:35):
I thought she was talking abouther age.
I had no clue.
That was her name.
Anyway that's exactly whathappened.
That is exactly what happened.
I won't give you three otherwitnesses standing there with me
.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
I will give you this.
Okay, I'm gonna say it so ourlisteners can hear it.
Okay, in that same episode, youtalked about the Ric Flair and
I still didn't believe.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
No, no Ric Flair, he was there.
He was there.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
The cigar parlor that we went and visited.
Yeah, I followed them onInstagram.
They posted a picture video theother day of Him in the humidor
picking out a cigar, doing hisRic Flair, so I'll give you that
so Ric Flair was there Doesn'tmean 11 was there.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
now, here's the thing Ric Flair, he was at our hotel.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Okay, so you saw him too, I saw him too, and one of
our franchises.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
They shot a selfie with him out there.
I'll leave you over Brady andEric any day, so you know he was
there and and there were otherstories that happened and and if
anybody is a Wrestling fan thatthey know, which I learned that
apparently Tampa is like a miniMecca, yeah, for the wrestling
(21:39):
community.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So yeah, I would have noticed him straight up.
If I seen, I'd have gone, I'dhave gone fan crazy.
I mean, I grew up a Ric Flair.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Oh exactly, millie Bobby Brown was not there, okay.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Edie was telling you.
They showed a picture of her onGoogle to me and I was like
that looks like the girl.
And then another guy that wasthis with me goes.
That was the girl.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
He said so have you.
That was her.
They've got this one reallycool thing called its.
Celebrity impersonators LikeMichael Jackson and Elvis are
still alive if you walk downsome streets, benji I mean, it's
true.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
By the way, his other don't know, you know other
source.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I just want to throw this out here, roy, for our
listeners.
Yeah his two sources that werethere that saw it.
His, his wife was convenientlyacross the street.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
But you're talking about the superfan of stranger
things.
Yeah across.
Oh yeah, she was a good street.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
But it was Brady, which I don't even think.
The guy owns a TV Because he'sa hustler.
He's always working.
And then Eric, who does nothingbut basically lift weights from
the moment he gets up till he'sat work, till he goes back to
bed, so the two people thatdon't watch TV really at all.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Sources yeah, I can take it with her or not.
I have never seen an episode.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Just tell me what she said, I just hope this is a
nice running joke for ourlisteners, because oh, it is, it
is, and I think you know Benjineeds to get a bunch of stranger
thing dolls and toys forChristmas and his birthday he
knows who 11 is.
He's gonna say hey guys, I met12.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
It's like.
It's like we go to move it tomy.
We did meet 12 houses down bythe lake a few weeks ago and she
has this.
She had this antique like Armwine, the corners all glass.
Oh, please don't tell me has,like there was old there was old
porcelain dolls and there shegoes, talking about my youngest
are.
She said, no, mckenzie, you canhave to, and I said no, no they
(23:34):
ain't coming to our house.
No, I'll give you that one ifthings will start talking to you
.
Yes, no, antique antique creepydolls.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I gotta tell story and then coming home.
Antique creepy doll.
Real quick.
My mom found one in her closet.
Okay, she found it.
It was creepy.
Yeah, it was still in the box.
Somebody he given it to hercreeped her out.
She kept it to be nice, put itin a box in the closet.
Hmm, we were helping them gothrough some stuff.
My wife found it.
She goes hey, I can sell thison Facebook Marketplace.
(24:01):
All right, she did.
She put some money on it.
Somebody bought it.
Somebody that works at HQbought it.
Oh, wow.
Okay and they bought it for thesole reason To put it in your
office, to put it in their houseto scare her husband.
Oh so she periodically says shewill move the doll around the
(24:23):
house without telling him.
Oh my gosh, no thank you andshe.
She may be somebody of a namethat you know at HQ.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
My dear tea is Nikki Britt.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
There's no question about nope.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Kim.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Maybe somebody that oversees chem.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
They doing it to Chad .
Speaker 3 (24:46):
No, it was it was like old.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Oh Allison.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Allison says she she bought it so she will scare Chad
and move it throughout.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
This was.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
I think this was before the baby was born too, so
like when they were getting thenursery ready.
She would say, oh no oh man andoh Anyway sorry so scary doll,
that's awesome over, but notice,enjoy her.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
It's cool.
It's cool to hear your, your Iwon't say negative culture
impact, but you know I mean it'sreally this one, it sounds, but
think about it.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
You're that the think about where you are, and I got
something I want to share withyou guys in a minute.
But think about it, I mean.
Basically, I Mean that thatnegative culture led you back to
where you were, and I thinkit's important.
What Benji talks about with youis there's, there's people
right now that are listening.
That could either be onelooking to change companies it
(25:40):
was where they are and thishopefully be like hey, really
look into before you do it ortwo.
Maybe they have changed orhaven't.
They're just in a company rightnow that has a bad culture and
they're just dealing with it,and so the the tough part is, I
think, someone, until theyexperience what good culture is,
they don't realize what it was.
(26:02):
And you said the same thing,like when you came back.
You're like man.
I mean the grass isn't green onthe other side, like I, you
know, and not that.
That's why you were looking toleave, like you had.
You know they were looking togive you a promotion and do some
, you know some otheropportunities and some things.
You're like man.
This will be good for my resume.
This will give me to build goodlearning experience.
So, either way, there's peoplethat are in that position and I
(26:22):
think it's.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
It shows you the power of culture and and what it
can do and I think if anybodyis in that situation Currently,
any advice that I would give andagain, I'm now, I'm no expert,
I've just life experience hereTake a step back, yeah, and look
, because you know there's theold saying, especially for men,
there's stuff right in front ofour faces that we don't see.
(26:43):
You know, my wife I'll where'sthe ketchup bottle in the fridge
.
She'll walk up hand it to me.
You know it's.
It's like I just didn't see it.
But if you take a step back andMaybe even look through it, look
at it through different lensestoo, because you know you've got
blinders on.
You're so focused on, maybe,the negative events that have
been happening or the lack ofany kind of forward momentum
(27:06):
that you have been hoping forsomething like that.
Just to take a step back intoreevaluate the culture.
Yeah, because you know, like Isaid, 14 years for me at one
place I mean 14 years at oneplace for anybody these days is
amazing, absolutely.
Yeah, I'm not, I'm not tryingto pat myself on the back here,
it's just you think about theworld today.
But a Little bit moreforethought and a little bit
(27:30):
more consideration before anyhasty decisions to be made,
because you know culture is onething that can be changed.
You can make an influence inculture to make it better or
push it in the more positivedirection.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Well, let me, let me ask you about this.
So we talked about this alittle bit in.
We're getting the episodekicked off, benji, but I
literally I saw it like it gotposted last night and I just saw
it was on sports is on sportsillustrators Instagram page and
it was a quote from DeontSanders and I just think this is
great because I mean, obviouslythe guy has done so much.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I mean he.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
He changed so much at at Jacksonville State and then
moving to Colorado has alreadybeen influential.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I think we talked about the spring game so yeah,
only they sold.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I think it was Literally.
They made More in that one gamethan the past 15 years.
Oh yeah, for a spring game.
And yeah, I think spring gamesare cheap right, Absolutely.
I mean it'd be an easy to takeyour kids.
Hey, let's go spring gamescouple.
You know, like I'm now here inAlabama or Auburn, like I'm not
going to a spring game becauseit's like a game.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
But for them you know , that's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Rotas.
But so here's a quote here.
This it was he was on.
It says this I'm a read thestraight to this.
It says I don't care aboutculture, I don't even care if
they like each other, I Want towin.
It says basically the thecaption for it was some coaches
was zero in on culture as ameans to kick starting a
(29:08):
turnaround.
Deont Sanders is not somecoaches, so Thoughts go.
I want to hear this.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I mean, I'll tell you this.
I Understand what he's tryingto say and I think that he's
he's trying to redefine.
He even said I Heard his speechwhen he first got there in the
team room.
He said I'll go ahead and sayit right now.
A lot of you will not be on thisteam come fall practice, that's
just telling you, oh yeahbecause he said you don't have a
(29:36):
good work ethic, you don't havea good diet, you don't have a
good.
He went through all the listand it's true Most of those I
mean it was probably within thenext week or two into the
transfer portal.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I realize you know I'm not even gonna make it with
this coach.
He's gonna probably have reallyhigh expectations.
I mean Colorado back in the 90sfootball they were.
They were on cloud nine won anational championship.
They really had it dialed inand then they fallen off the
bandwagon just because now itmay, because it's the pack 12,
who knows?
but I don't even know how I'mgonna now Maybe six or something
(30:10):
but the thing about DionSanders is he's going to bring a
winning tradition wherever hegoes.
He wants to win.
He wants to win.
He did it at the Cowboys whenhe's back up.
He did it at Florida State, hedid it at the Cowboys, he did it
with the Braves.
He did, he did it everywhere hewent.
And if he comes to Colorado andhe's really saying that I don't
(30:33):
care about the culture, I thinkwhat he's trying to get people
understand he does care aboutthe culture.
It's just his way of doing it.
He's just not calling it.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
I was gonna say.
Plot twist is the culture Notcaring about the culture?
I?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Think it's.
It's not caring about theexisting culture, because the
existing culture has them wherethey are today.
Yeah, yeah, and you know you,you bring in prime time.
All right, you bring in primetime with a big stick.
He's gonna stir the pot, yeahwhich is what he's done with the
culture of Colorado and nowhe's setting the foundation to
(31:09):
Build the culture, a winningculture for them.
You know that's the same thinghe did.
You know, was it Jackson State?
Jackson, yeah, yeah.
I mean that's the reason thathe got the attention that he got
.
I mean he has prime time, let'sbe honest.
But For what he did there, Imean Colorado needed that.
They needed a change in theirculture to see Positive, more
(31:32):
momentum.
I mean you're right, adam, youjoked a second ago.
It's not pack three, it's packyour bags and leave.
Yeah that's why they're bringingup.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
They're all leaving.
It's good they're all leaving.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
But I mean, I think it's, I think he, I do think
part of what he's doing is he,like you said I love the way you
put it like he.
He's gonna say things thoseways, because what bleeds leads?
He's making waves which he's inthe news he's staying consistent
in the news, but I think that'salso part of what he's teaching
these guys is Making sure thefocus remains on you.
(32:03):
But he also I feel like he doeshave a good culture with, with
what he does, like he's you.
There was a post where he wasTalking about how they were
gonna speak to the women on theteam.
He was like you will not say,hey, babe, chick, whatever, like
, whatever, you will addressthem by their name and the
degree they've earned.
Like, if they're a doctor,you're a doctor, if you're at
that, if you're a trainer,you're gonna call my trainer
(32:24):
because they work for that andyou're gonna do it.
So I think too, while he'ssaying those things, he is, he
is building a culture.
That's why I mean jokingly yes,this culture is his culture,
not having culture, but what itis is that he is showing how
they are going to do things andthat they're not gonna be
mediocre.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
And that's really what the culture had been was
just exist he does have apersonal culture too, and and I
say that because Several yearsago I'm talking like 12 years
ago we were able to get Dion atone of our server pro events and
One of the requirements was heneeded personal security for the
(33:03):
event, and I'm a big guy.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Please tell me you were the bouncer.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
I.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Did some money.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I was Dion's second bodyguard for the night.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yes, and you have a picture that we could show for
viewers?
Please tell me you have apicture.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
I will say this yes, there is a picture of me on
stage with Dion at the event.
I was in a and I'll find it.
I was in a brown suit.
I remember this.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
We will post on our Instagram.
I need this.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
It's gonna take me a while to find it because
Computers and backup hard drives.
I'll have to look for it.
But the night that we weredoing it I Was asked to go to
Dion's hotel room and he took meupstairs and I met one of his
own Personal protectionindividuals was he bigger than
you?
We were about the same size.
Well, he might have been eightfeet tall, but he was also eight
(33:58):
feet wide.
So I mean he was a big guy.
Okay, I know I'm a big guy, butas far as his shoulders go I
was like a middle schooler.
So we get in the room and ofcourse I'm meeting Dion mr
Sanders, nice guy and we satdown, we talked.
He said look.
He said I've got this veryspecific amount of rules here.
Nobody comes on the stage withany alcohol in their hands.
(34:20):
Hmm, one person at a time.
If anybody is disrespectful toanybody in line while trying to
get on stage, especially theladies, you have full authority
to pull them out and escort themaway.
How about that?
The final thing is I don't knowif you've seen this have you
ever seen where, like KeanuReeves, when he gets his
pictures made with any of hisfans, especially his female fans
(34:41):
, he kind of always shows hishands kind of behind them?
Where his hands?
Speaker 1 (34:45):
He's not touching them.
I love him.
Just washed arm with four lastnight.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I haven't seen it yet , no spoil anything.
But like Dion did similarthings to that on stage with
people, yeah, and so he was like, as long as you can follow
these I mean it was maybe fiverules he said, follow these five
rules, he said will be good forthe night.
And Sure enough, like I thinkwe had him for a total of three
hours for the event.
He did like an hour ofautographs, hour of photos, and
(35:11):
then he was on stage doing likea motivational talk kind of
thing, that's cool but hispersonal culture Defined the
night on how it went.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
That's a great way to put that and I think that's
exactly what he's doing there.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Did you know Impact that Dion Sanders had?
Did you guys know that hebrought the Tomahawk chop to the
Atlanta Braves from?
Speaker 1 (35:34):
no way not know that no way.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
So he did.
Florida State had had had thetune tune right.
Yeah, he brought that to theBraves.
They never did that before hegot to play at the brace.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
I did not know that, Yep the Tomahawk chop when he
was there.
That had to be Fulton CountyStadium when he was there right,
okay, I'll just say he was notthere during Turner field days
Because I think when Turnerfilled was built didn't he play
for the Reds too?
He did.
Because I want to say I was ata Reds game and he was there
playing that game and I was likethis is cool, I've seen DL play
(36:08):
a different sport outside offootball.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
I think it's.
I just think you look at those.
I mean, even though he's sayingthat he's, he's creating that
Culture and that's somethingthat we've been trying to
instill in our team.
Really, as of lately, I meanlike that's been a huge selling
point for me.
I think Brady regrets bringinga creative into several projects
that we're working on right now, because I try to explain, it's
(36:34):
not just putting things onpaper, it's how's it gonna look,
what are we gonna do with it?
And that's.
You know, we had thatconversation the other day.
It was it was me, him and ourdirector of HR, and we were
talking through some projectsand and he was, he was just
trying to bring me to therealization.
He was like, hey look, I knowyou want to do this, you want to
do that.
He's like you or a culture guy.
(36:55):
I get it, okay, I get it.
He was like we've got toremember, we've got to build the
culture, but we've got to makesure that it's something that
people can buy into.
And he was like if you keepjust Not giving them a reason to
buy into it, they're not goingto mm-hmm.
And so he was just talkingabout how, how important it is
that what it we're building,this, this culture for them.
(37:16):
So that's what we talked aboutthis past week was what that
impact was, and we showed avideo of Benji's father when he
passed away, and it was just alot of people in our team didn't
know.
Mr Wilson, the hear's talk abouthim and the hear's talk about
the impact that he had, butthat's all they just they're
hearing it.
So that video you know it was agreat video that was produced.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Awesome video.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yeah, my mark and bow at thanksquare's media.
They did such a good job withit.
They did, and there was so manyWithout the reason that we
wanted to show.
It was not for them.
We were very careful.
We're like, look, we're nottrying to show you this, we're
not trying to bring you buddyAren't trying to show you who
their dad is and trying to showwhat we want to show you is how
many different people From allover interviewed and are in this
(38:00):
video.
Yeah, because of the impactthat he had on the Serpereau
community.
There's people lining up to sayhow I want to.
I want to say my piece on whathe did for me in my business,
especially as an entrepreneur.
Every single owner in thatbusiness.
The only reason they were inSerpereau was because of of him
yeah and so that was an impactthat he had.
(38:23):
Absolutely and we do the samething.
We try to do the same thingwith our team.
There's so many people on ourteam that I feel like if they
were any other, any othercompany They've worked in
positions that didn't work out,and any other company I'd be
like, alright, we're gonna cutyou loose, we're done what I've
always loved about us.
It's like alright, so maybethat one didn't work out?
Where's somewhere else on ourteam?
(38:44):
Because you have experience,you have Knowledge, you have
value on our team.
Okay, maybe that doesn't fit.
Where's another position we canput you in and figure out what
we can do.
To me that's so important too,because you're helping people
find that, that value and Ican't think right now you're Our
(39:06):
director of large law said atone time your dad.
Oh, what did your dad say whenthey hire Brad?
Because it was hilarious,because you and Brady didn't
want to hire Brad, and your dadalways said it was don't hire
for the position, hire for theman.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (39:19):
No, you know, you don't train for.
You don't hire for the position, you train for attitude.
If you can get someone, that'sgot a good attitude on your team
.
You can bring them on and hedid.
He had an impact on people, Imean.
I mean we said it best thislast week at our big team
meeting that you never know theimpact that you're gonna make on
Someone's life, and I think itwas the same day or the day
(39:41):
after we had one of ouremployees same day.
Who actually?
it was really cool.
One of our employees hit theyhe was at a water damage at this
folks house.
The mom was distraught, the sonwas, and again I may have the
story wrong but I'm gonnaparaphrase one of them you know,
fish or whatever had somefishing tackle there and so one
(40:01):
of our employees goes to histruck, gets some fishing gear
out and just sits down on thesidewalk with the son and Starts
, you know, helping him with hisfishing gear and stuff like
that.
And the mom grabbed a pictureand sent it to us and it was
like that's the impact.
You know we what we do at surfpro.
Again, water damage is clean up, fire damage is clean up, but
(40:22):
you can never replace that withthe impact that you make on
someone's life.
Yeah, they'll remember thewater damage, but they're gonna
remember so much more himHelping her son with his fishing
tackle in a bad situation.
That's the kind of impact thatyou want to have on people.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
It's like a restoration of faith and human
culture.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Yes, that's such a good way to put it, because we
we talked about it in ourmorning meeting on Friday and so
every Friday we talked about it, talked about reviews.
We kind of go over things withthem because we we want to
celebrate them.
We want to celebrate the workthey're doing.
When I celebrate what they'reaccomplishing in the field and
we talked about it and it wasfunny the production techniques,
kevin, you know.
(41:01):
I texted the night before.
I was like brah, like I'mbringing this up tomorrow.
I said look, I got teary-eyedwhen I read it.
I was like I said look, it wasvery minimal but it's such a big
deal.
And I told him I was like I'mgonna try my best not to end up
getting teary-eyed while I'mtalking about it, but I was like
man, you know, you don't knowwhat's going on in that kids
life.
I said you know, like kids gethome, you don't know what's
going on like.
See, have a good home life,does he not like?
(41:22):
And obviously he does like.
What's funny is I realized whothe who the mom was.
I knew the mom, like thecustomer, when I saw who it was
actually worked with her formany years at the YMCA and so I
messaged her and I was like, hey, don't know if you remember me.
I said you know, kind of youknow.
I said hey, I would love to usethis.
And she's like no, please, theywere amazing.
She said.
She's like yeah, she said Istill follow you, I see what
(41:44):
you're doing.
She's like you guys wereamazing.
And what's even cooler about itis Another restoration company
and come in and couldn't handlethe job.
That's how it came to us.
So you want to talk about agodsend?
It ended up being the, our oldGM that used to work for us.
Now he has his own constructionbusiness, being his own
(42:04):
entrepreneur.
Okay and he, he went in to dosome recon.
He's like all this ain't right,like this isn't done right,
like this isn't dried, like we,we.
So he's like you should callsir.
I promise you they'll get youfixed.
Call them and had him call usand we went out there and so
just think about all thesedifferent pieces that fell into
place for this one little storyand we shared it and it was.
(42:25):
It was just a cool, like I evensent it into HQ like, hey, we'd
love it, like this was.
This was just really cool storyfor us To kind of see, because
we preached culture.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
It was just nice to see that they grabbed on to it,
yeah, and they took it and theyran with it because they
literally was the day of it'sthose kind of stories and those
in engagements and encounters,man, the people that engage it
and do it firsthand, and then,like all of us, that hear it on
the second hand, like you getchills, yeah, yeah, you get the
(42:56):
teary eyes, you know that kindof thing and it's, it's.
It's hard to describe, but it's.
It's a really good feeling.
Yeah, well, it's.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
We've tried really hard to let people know,
especially with art, like webuild that culture with, and we
tell them that, like every timewe meet will, I'm finding like
you're not just a Productiontech, you're not just a water
mitigation technician, firerestoration or fire technician.
You have an opportunity to makean impact on these people, like
we don't just have to be aservice Right that comes in and
(43:26):
cleans up.
We could be somebody that makesan impact on it.
But a lot of that comes fromthe culture.
Yeah, that has been built intous and instilled To help that.
And then the big thing on thatfor me is the more the better
the culture is, the more thatyou're bought into things.
Like I joke with binge yellowtime.
I'm like that time I tried tobranch out and go work somewhere
(43:46):
else Probably was stupid andI'm like because there's no.
And like you're not gonna find,for me at least, a better
culture and honestly, the onlyreason I even had the
opportunity to interview at thatother position was because of
the culture that we had atSerpereau that had put me in a
(44:06):
position to do those thingsRight.
So culture obviously is a hugething.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
So here's a question.
I mean, I know I'm the guest,maybe I shouldn't be asking
questions.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
No, ask away.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
No, both you guys have said it a couple times in
this talk is building theculture.
Building the culture what doyou think are some of the
characteristics required tobuild a good culture?
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Benji, you hit that from the owner standpoint and.
I'll talk about it from likewhat it's like to be one of
y'all's team.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
I think the big thing is from a culture standpoint.
We always want to build peopleup.
We want to give them, instillthem.
They can do anything biggerthan they could have ever
dreamed and imagined.
We're not talking aboutmonetarily.
Those things come.
I'll never forget, and just togive you a quick story, when my
dad passed he had always triedto get me to read books, and I
(45:03):
never read books.
By the way, I still don't readthat many books, I just don't.
I listen to worship music.
I listen to any kind of music.
That's kind of my downtimeskill.
But I was cleaning out hisoffice when he passed and there
was this book in there.
It was called the Five GreatCharacteristics of a Great
Leader and the book was aboutthis thick, the words were about
(45:25):
that big and it made it veryeasy to read.
Not to get into the details.
But the fifth one was to thankpeople, just simply thank people
.
I mean, think about this you goto Disney World.
What do they do?
Thank you for being here, thankyou for being on the run.
You go to Chick-fil-Aid.
My pleasure, you got Starbucks.
Thank you for ordering whatever.
(45:45):
It's simple little task.
You don't get that atMcDonald's.
No, you don't get that atWendy's.
So I think from a culture theytry to emulate it sometimes.
They try, but it takes the.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
It can't just be one person trying to do it.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
If you don't get the employees to buy into the
concept and the culture.
They're not going to do it,they're just doing it out of
just whatever they're having abad day or whatever they're
going to be.
So our culture is we want toinstill in our people that they
can do bigger and better thingsthey could ever dream and
imagine.
And what it's going to take toget them there is to highlight
(46:21):
them, praise them, take care ofthem in times of need, minister
to them when they have needs.
Maybe some of your businessowners are listening out there
right now that maybe you don'thave that trait, brady, and I
don't.
We have a company chaplain thatdoes that on their behalf.
So things like that that youcan give them extra tools and
benefits, I think are whatbuilds the culture.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
I think from an employee standpoint I feel like
Benji and Brady.
They emulate that a lot throughwhat they're doing.
They're building the culture,they're doing those things.
It's funny because we've seenkind of a change in our company.
Benji's moved into a more of avisionary role.
The one who is always kind ofbehind the scenes and hidden is
(47:08):
now the one that's in front.
So Brady's always in front ofeverything.
Now We've seen a culture shiftand it's fun.
Our company has more access toBrady than ever before, and
that's something that we'vetalked about.
So one thing I feel like we,that I feel like from that, is I
brought up in a meeting as likeI'm going to be super
(47:29):
philosophical here.
When I told Brady we weremeeting, I said I read a quote
and I think I shared this withBenji.
I was like I read a quote and Iwas like, because we have a
goal as a team, I'm like, okay,how do we get our team to buy
into that?
What happens when we get there?
What happens when we?
You know, like, what is thebenefit of making the goal for?
Speaker 3 (47:46):
our team.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
But I read a quote that said don't just teach
someone how to how to build aboat.
Teach them to yearn and vastfor the open sea.
Very similar to the you know,don't teach.
You know, don't give someone afish.
Teach them to fish.
You know, you feed them forlife.
But the whole point was, okay,we've got.
I told him.
I was like we've got to build aculture that we're not just we
(48:11):
don't.
We don't want people justthinking like, hey, I have a job
.
Okay, I don't want people toever feel that way because I
feel like if you're just for me,this is for me.
If I feel like I just, oh, Ihave a job, I have a job, then
I'm not doing what I enjoy andI'm obviously just I'm living
the same thing.
I'm getting up in the morning,going to work, coming home, and
that's for me, that's not what Iwant.
Like I want something where Ifeel like I'm making a
(48:32):
difference.
So I was like we've got tofigure out a way to have people
want to achieve the goal, likegive them a reason to want to be
out on the sea not just likehey, I built the boat All right
next on to the next one.
No, give them a reason to wantto like say, all right, we built
it, let's go Right.
All right, let's get out there.
And so I feel like we doexperience that a lot and that's
(48:56):
why we do see a lot of theteams that we have.
But I mean, they've, if youlook at their team, there's some
people in there that's got 15,20, 25 years, and that's not
just by happy accident.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
To me, that's not someone just enjoying their you
know, or just someone that'sgetting up and going to work
Human nature we're not.
We're not going to want to dothe same thing every day and day
.
That's Monday and no change.
Like this.
There's got to be a reason,which is that culture being
built, and so I feel like we seethat through those things and
that was my biggest thing islike, all right, have me yearn
(49:29):
for it.
Like let's, I want to be onthis team, like I want to be
people to see that, like I wantother people to be.
Like man, I want to be on teamWilson, like I want to be a part
of that.
But that's the culture I feellike we've built.
Speaker 3 (49:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
That people are wanting that.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
A culture with a want .
I like that, that's.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
I'm gonna bring that up with.
I'm gonna bring that with Bradynext meeting and tell him my
thought about that.
A culture with a want.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
And then he's gonna say, hey, email from Roy and he
said that this was his idea.
Speaker 3 (50:00):
No, he's gonna say some guy named Roy, never heard
of him before.
No, no.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
I but yeah, I mean that's, that's kind of where it
was, Cause I just I'm for me, Ijust don't want to get up every
morning and just go.
I don't want to do the samething every day.
I mean, yes, I do the samething every day, but it's
different every day.
But it's different becausewe've built that culture and
that family too.
I think, I think a big part ofthat, too, is not just culture,
but building, or part of yourculture, is building a family.
Speaker 3 (50:29):
I mean, like I can text these guys and talk to them
.
And that's what I had at serve.
Bro was a family.
I still have that family to thisday and when I went to that
other company, I can tell you Ihad two pictures on my desk.
I had my family, my wife and mykids, and I had the picture of
our group that they took whenthey they.
(50:51):
They gave me a nice going awaydinner that night and we took a
group picture and those were thetwo pictures that I had on my
desk the entire time I was atthat other company and I found
myself on those late nightswhile I'm dealing with people
looking at that picture going.
I miss my family.
(51:14):
I miss that work family and itmade me think about the culture,
the attitudes, the want, thehearts, everything that was in
it and that was something Itried my best to emulate at that
other company was I was tryingto build that culture in our
department Because I can tellyou, the company culture there
(51:35):
wasn't where I hoped it wouldhave been, but I did have that
with, with our team was we aregoing to do our part to raise it
up a level.
Yeah, and I was very proud ofthe group of people because
because they were doing that,yeah, and you know, you hear
people say, oh, I really wantthem to, they're not going to be
, a fit in our company cultureand it's like, how can you
(51:58):
determine that so quickly off ofan interview, like if it's your
first interview, kind of thing.
I think it's the first thing,like if it's your first
interview kind of thing.
I think it's got to do withreading people.
I mean that's part of itBecause, let's be honest, you
get around certain people andthey give you the heebie-jeebies
, the creep, the creep factor,like you know what you offered
(52:18):
me ice cream and puppies out ofthe back of your van.
No, not so much you know.
But I mean you showed sincerity, you showed genuine concern,
you showed empathy.
You know you just get thosefeelings and those
characteristics about people.
Speaker 1 (52:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
And that's how you can change a culture?
I think yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
Well, there's a thing is ownership, and culture too.
That's the biggest thing isthat.
There's so much like everythingwe do.
So when we had thisconversation and hopefully I'm
not sharing more than Bradywants me to share, but we had
this conversation the other dayabout culture and we're talking
more and he brought up a goodpoint and I felt bad because I
felt like I was the one that wasthe driving factor.
(53:03):
I'm like I kept pushing, likeBenji and Brady, are the culture
like you guys?
Are the culture like you guysstart the culture, you're our
ownership.
And we met the other day and hewas like at what point do we
need to make?
I basically realized we aren'tthe only ones building the
culture, like we aren't theculture.
And it was funny because Leo andI had we've kind of been on the
(53:25):
same page with this likebecause we're redoing our
handbook and we're wantingculture to be kind of the first
thing that's in there.
I mean, it's a huge project.
And so we both, like I had noanswer, like I'll be honest with
you, like he and I both werelike I didn't really I guess I
hadn't thought about it that way.
He was like I need y'all to bethe culture, like I, because he
(53:48):
said, if he said and it hit mewhen we sat there he said if
y'all are being the culture,then I've done my job.
I've done what I'm supposed todo.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
Pass it down to the team Yep.
Speaker 1 (53:58):
Absolutely, it's coming up on the top and
trickling down, and so he waslike I need you guys to be our
culture ambassadors and start,because he said, once you all do
it, then those that youinteract with are gonna do it
and they're gonna do it andthey're gonna do it.
And I mean, again, we saw thatwith our production team the
other day.
I mean it was the first time wehad done this type of meeting
(54:22):
when we completely changed whatwe were doing, like how we
presented to the team and we gotto watch them, basically take
what they heard that morning andput it into effect.
And, for all I know, kevindidn't even think about it,
cause that's just, and I'llhonestly, it's who he is Like,
that's just the person he is.
And so he didn't think of, heprobably didn't like, but we got
(54:46):
to bring it up in the meeting.
I said, look, this is a big dealbecause you're making such an
impact.
So it was just kind of, it waskind of cool.
It was something he said andstuck with me.
You know he was like if you'rebuilding the culture, then I've
done my job.
That's cool, so good so, verycool, so good, so, but it's good
stuff.
I literally could sit and talkabout culture forever.
(55:07):
Culture and branding, those aremy two, those are my two things
.
Speaker 2 (55:11):
So Roy, I was going to tell you.
Thank you, man, for joining us.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
It's.
Speaker 2 (55:15):
It's an honor and a privilege to serve alongside of
you, Even though I know we don'twork at the same location.
Speaker 1 (55:21):
we're still part of the same family, very close to
have you back in the surfboardworld.
I'm just waiting on him toinvite us, you know, like he
invites other people to HQ andwe can hang out, but that's good
.
Speaker 3 (55:31):
Benji, I told you you have an open invitation.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Yeah, I'll be there actually in a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (55:36):
Never, even in the cafeteria.
Speaker 3 (55:39):
Wait, are we talking about your high school days, or
now?
I?
Speaker 1 (55:42):
mean you'll have a high cafeteria at corporate.
That's kind of cool, oh yeah,yeah, no, it's awesome.
It's a great cafeteria.
Speaker 2 (55:52):
No.
Speaker 3 (55:53):
I am very grateful for you guys.
I am very humbled and honoredthat y'all asked me to be the
first guest for hire up and it'sbeen an absolute privilege and
honor.
Anytime I can talk with youguys, I mean it's a good day and
I always look forward to seeingyou, benji, at convention.
Adam yeah, I love you too, man.
Speaker 1 (56:16):
Thanks, man, Just know.
Hey, I really appreciate youbeing our first guest.
Any pick.
Now we know what to do with thenew other guests.
Speaker 3 (56:22):
This guy's not coming back ever again.
Next time we mute the mic.
That's what he's saying.
Speaker 1 (56:30):
No, you did good man.
Speaker 3 (56:32):
I think it's fun, you did good man Translation, you
didn't suck, you did no Thanks.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Adam, I appreciate it , man, not at all.
You did great.
Look, I'm always probably.
You're funny, you're a greatindividual.
Speaker 2 (56:46):
I'm just totally kidding, I like it, I like it,
I'm not kidding about what I'msaying.
Speaker 1 (56:50):
I'm being goofy the way I put it.
Okay, I'm digging a hole.
My wife always says lay in theplane, Lay in the plane.
Speaker 3 (56:58):
No, you just made a nose dive into a very shallow
lake.
Speaker 1 (57:02):
Look, man, we appreciate you coming on and
hanging out.
I know you're taking away fromfamily time to do this, that's
all good.
I know that's big for you.
I know you got a lot going on.
We're excited for everythingyou have going on this year.
You're starting to work on thefirst responder bowl again.
Speaker 3 (57:15):
You sent your first email the other day.
Super excited and listeners.
December 26,.
Check out ESPN the firstresponder bowl.
Last year we had a great game,great turnout.
This year I'm hoping thatcollege football doesn't
disappoint at all.
I mean, I want it to be likethe best season ever but, like
(57:36):
you said, all the shakeups withall the different leagues and
everything, the Pac-2 or one bythe time, this podcast is over.
Speaker 1 (57:43):
Get us some good teams, roy, I know you're over
this.
Speaker 3 (57:46):
I wish I could control the teams.
I really wish.
Speaker 1 (57:50):
You could actually get to call ESPN and say hey, I
want this team and this team,that's what I've been told.
You basically get to talk topeople.
Speaker 3 (57:57):
Yeah, you know, matter of fact, I did have a
meeting with ESPN this pastWednesday and I got on the horn
and I was like, guys, we got tohave good teams, we do.
And you know what they said.
They said done Alabama andAuburn will not be there this
year.
Speaker 1 (58:15):
Instead, we're going to put Middle.
Speaker 3 (58:17):
Tennessee State University in there and just you
know go.
Speaker 2 (58:21):
Colorado and Colorado .
That would be hilarious.
Speaker 3 (58:24):
We got prime time at that bowl game.
Speaker 1 (58:27):
You have achieved your goal.
Speaker 2 (58:28):
That would be a big impact.
Speaker 3 (58:31):
I'll go back down to the sidelines.
Hey, do you remember the time Ilike this security for you.
Speaker 1 (58:36):
Hey man, remember my own security for you.
I was about to say if you getprime time, you have to record
that.
Speaker 3 (58:42):
Funny little tidbit.
At the end of it and I probablyshouldn't say this, but at the
end of it, you know, hissecurity guy came over and you
know, thank you so much, you dida great job.
And he was like so how manyyears you've been doing PP?
Oh, and I'm sitting there in mymind going PP, personal
protection.
Oh you know about three or fouryears on and off, you know
nothing.
Really full time on anything,three full minutes.
(59:04):
He handed me his business cardand said the next time you're in
Dallas, if you ever need anywork, give me a call.
Speaker 1 (59:12):
Oh dang, Look at you.
Speaker 3 (59:14):
You're piecing everything, bro, You're like no,
I was just a fat guy in alittle coat up on stage, you
know as Chris Farleyimpersonating up there.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
But you're like this is, this is chubby eagle.
Speaker 2 (59:24):
This is chubby eagle, really Chubby eagle, chubby
eagle, okay To all our listenersout there.
Thank you so much forsubscribing and listening and
joining.
Share this podcast wherever youmight go, with your friends,
family, neighbors, whatever andgo out there and live a higher
(59:45):
life.
Speaker 3 (59:46):
Amen to that, we'll see you guys later.
Speaker 1 (59:48):
Thank you, and the goal of this session is to
(01:00:18):
empower you in every aspect ofyour life and we're thankful for
your support.
We've got new episodes of thehigher up podcast dropping every
other Thursday, so take asecond and turn on notifications
to stay in the loop.
Make sure that you follow us onyour favorite social media
platforms to stay connected withour community community.
We just want to thank you againfor listening and we look
forward to having you joining usagain on the Hyrule podcast.
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