July 31, 2022 • 14 mins
Brian Cotter is the President of Durham Artificial Grass (established 2018) and Lloyd’s Grounds Management Professionals (established 1963). He and Leon discuss the lessons he’s learned growing a family business and the effects of climate change, employee shortage, and COVID-19 on both his well-established business and new but rapidly growing business.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Leon Goren (00:00):
Special thanks to Cleveland Clinic for helping us
(00:02):
for you today's PEO leadership'ssnippets podcast. Welcome to our
snippets Podcast. I'm LeonGoren, CEO and president of PEO
leadership, North America'spremier peer to peer network and
leadership advisory firm. TodayI'm very excited to welcome
Brian Cotter, the president ofDurham artificial grass and
Lloyd's ground managementprofessionals. Durham's
(00:23):
artificial grass is family ownedand operated since 2018,
providing artificial grass andvarious accessories in southern
Ontario and the GTA. Lloyd'sgrand management professionals
is also a family owned andoperated business founded in
Scarborough in 1963. It startedwith nothing but a lot more and
a few hand tools. Brian recentlyjoined PEO leadership and as a
(00:44):
member of Pat seven, led byMiguel Gonzalez. He's been an
awesome addition to the groupand the larger PEO leadership
community. Brian, it's great tohave you with us here today.
Brian Cotter (00:54):
Thank you, Leon.
It's nice to be here. We'reexcited to share some
information.
Leon Goren (00:59):
So I thought we'd kick it off a little bit in
terms of some history. And Iknow you were sharing this with
me just moments ago, but it'stoo good of a story to pass
over. So how did you get in thisbusiness? Brian?
Brian Cotter (01:11):
Well, it was interesting. I was 16 years old
in high school, you know,thought I had the world at my
fingertips. I was dating thisbeautiful girl, who actually is
my wife, currently only wife.
We've been together for many,many years. Her dad came home
for lunch came in the backyardand said, Who's this fellow? So
Kim introduced me and he says,oh, nice to meet you. How come
you know? Like, I mean, like,what are you doing? No, I'm
(01:34):
taking the summer off andrelaxing. Next thing you know,
he comes out of the house with apurple work boots in his hand
throws them over to me and saystry these on. So I tried them
on. Yeah, they fit pretty good.
He said, Okay, good. Let's gojump in the truck. He brought me
out in the field. At that point,and I've been in business ever
since my parents kind of losttheir mind. Because when I got
(01:54):
home and told me I got a job.
And when I was doing like, youcan't do that you're allergic to
everything. fresh cut grass doespollen, you name it. So I
started in the business. And ayear later, my allergies went
away.
Leon Goren (02:05):
That's amazing. This is a while ago. So Brian, how
many years have you beenmarried?
Brian Cotter (02:10):
We have been married, you put me on the spot
here. 34 years, July 30. It'llbe 34 years.
Leon Goren (02:17):
That's awesome. So that original business, you
obviously started your ownbusiness and you got two
businesses going. And familybusinesses, obviously your wife
everybody's involved in it. Butyou mentioned also the, you
know, differences in running afamily business, some of the
challenges you had in the earlydays. And maybe there's a couple
of lessons we're sharing witheverybody.
Brian Cotter (02:39):
Absolutely, that in the early days, as a family
business, we didn't haveemployment agreements, there was
no roles, responsibilitiesresults, there was really no way
of holding each otheraccountable to what we were
supposed to be doing. We justkind of went on the although do
their job. It's all good.
They're having a slump, a lot ofit. We didn't have budgets and
accountability meetings. The onebig thing we changed in about
(03:02):
2012, 2013 is we brought inemployment agreements, targets
for production targets forsales, job descriptions for
everybody roles,responsibilities, results. And
it really made quite a shift.
For us. One of the things wefirmly believe in the family
business is that if you're afamily member, you want to work
(03:24):
with us on our team, you have tohave two jobs somewhere else. It
doesn't have to be in thisindustry. But you have to have
two jobs in another company tounderstand that there is rules
and why we have to follow them.
And that somebody is not justbeing a PR that day, we were
trying to make sure that we'rewe're being responsible and
successful.
Leon Goren (03:41):
Did you you've gone through that process a few times
with a guess a few familymembers. How does that work?
Actually have they've beensuccessful? It's sort of finding
those other jobs, doing the jobsand then eventually joining it.
Brian Cotter (03:55):
So I would say yes, for the most part, actually
kind of a funny story. One of mydaughters was not allowed to
work with our family business.
She was not a cultural fit, shedid get a couple other jobs. And
then recently, as in two yearsago, she has joined the company
business, the family business,and she's very, very successful.
She learned a lot from workingat the other companies
(04:16):
understanding that you have toshow up on time there is roles,
responsibilities and results.
Learn how to speak on the phone,because believe it or not, the
younger generation has a toughtime answering phone calls and
speaking with people on thephone carrying on a
conversation. She's donewonderfully. And it's worked out
really well.
Leon Goren (04:33):
Now, the two business and one is you know,
just just thinking about thiswhole artificial grass that I'm
going to ask you the climatechange because as we're doing
this, right, you look at Europeand what's going on the fires,
the fires out west, everything'schanging. That business must be
growing by ads, even in ourneighborhoods. I see it now
starting to pop up everywhere.
Brian Cotter (04:54):
So luckily, our artificial grass business was
registered four years ago. andit has outgrown our business has
been around since the early 60s.
That's how popular it is rightnow, for several reasons, their
environmental reasons. Numberone, the water conservation,
we're not putting nitrates onthe ground, which is from
fertilizers into our watersystems. We don't have a lot of
chemicals we can use, but theones that we do typically are
(05:17):
being overused the drought, sothat's coming in now July in
August, even in the GTA andsurrounding area or grasses, all
going doormen, people don't wantto see that they're having been
tracked into their house. Itreally does have a big impact. I
always say that the mostunnatural natural product, we
have his grass. Everybody wantsKentucky Bluegrass is not from
our climate. It takes so manyresources to keep that alive.
(05:41):
We're punishing the environmentby actually trying to keep real
grass alive. I'm ahorticulturalists certified. And
I'm putting artificial grass inthe ground. It has its place it
has its uses. It's not foreverywhere, but it's definitely
saves a lot. There's a hotels inLas Vegas, actually, that have
nylon, artificial grass on theroof. And it's been proven that
(06:01):
it slowed the fire down on thehotel enough for the
firefighters to get up there andput the fire out and save a good
part of the hotel.
Leon Goren (06:10):
Wow. That's amazing.
That's in the last four yearsand it's grown like that. That's
incredible.
Brian Cotter (06:15):
It's it's a, it's been a ride, it's definitely a
challenge to keep up to. It'ssomething we welcome. And it's
it's definitely grow and changequickly, especially with the
economy we've seen in the lastfour years.
Leon Goren (06:28):
Yeah, it's sort of possibly the question around
talent that because, you know, Ihear this everywhere, right?
Everyone's dealing with talent,you got a company that's growing
at an incredible pace here. Howare you dealing with the talent?
Are you are you facing the sameissues everybody else is facing
today?
Brian Cotter (06:44):
We are facing issues with with talent, what
we're finding is, we don't stickto our own industry to find
talent. We're hiring onattitude, right fit to our
culture, and commitment. And wewill teach them the skills that
they need to do this job. It'sdefinitely challenging to find
the right fit person, it takesquite a while, you know, the old
(07:07):
days used to be hire slow andfire fast. I don't look at it
that way quite so much anymore.
We definitely have to investmore more training into our
team, make sure they're theright fit and invest in them as
much as they invest in us intheir time. It's a challenge as
we grow the last couple of yearshas been more challenging,
especially with COVID and therestrictions to bring people on
(07:27):
board. That's pretty much ournumber one challenge, I would
say right now.
Leon Goren (07:34):
You guys were open probably right through COVID as
well, right?
Brian Cotter (07:37):
Yeah, our grounds maintenance company was due to
sanitary conditions, becausepart of maintaining the
properties is looking afterlitter. Certain buildings we
look after, are involved in thefood industry. So they have 18
to 24 inches around thebuilding. There's no vegetation
allowed. So help keeps rodentsand whatnot away from the
building. And then obviously,with the snow removal, that's
(07:57):
number one concern for people inthe winter. So we were fortunate
we're we had about a six weekwindow where they shut down and
then we're allowed to open backup again and operate.
Leon Goren (08:08):
And I know you shared location with me because
you're not like right in the GTAor so it's not like a pool of
talent anywhere close to you.
You're actually I'm fromrecruiting from everywhere. We
are.
Brian Cotter (08:22):
People pretty much say that we're in the boonies,
we have no public transit here,the 407 is not far from us. The
401 is about 10 minutes south ofus, we're pretty much north of
Bowmanville, north of Curtisarea. So they need their vehicle
to get here. And then in thewintertime, even in a snowstorm
they need to be able to get toour facility in order to get out
(08:43):
to work. So that definitely addsanother spin into finding some
talent that we can pull from,
Leon Goren (08:49):
I guess you're not faced with it. I want to work
three days a week and two daysat home in your world.
Brian Cotter (08:54):
No working from home. Because we move around so
much, we kind of need people tocome to the yard and we pay them
from the time they leave theyard to the time they get back
because like especially ourgrounds maintenance, they might
move around from four to 12sites a day. So we can't have
like a construction site. You goto the same site every day for
(09:16):
weeks on end. That's not the wayour business works.
Leon Goren (09:18):
So how are you dealing with the whole inflation
element? I think your costs arerising. Your Labor's a problem.
You know, you're trying torecruit they're driving, you're
moving artificial grass. The gascosts must be crazy. Yeah, what
what's life like here with?
Brian Cotter (09:35):
It's interesting.
We order all of our materialstractor trailer loads. So
typically, we have a small bulkof time where we can lock our
prices in. And then we add thatat the time we ordered let's say
we ordered July 1, we projectwe're gonna go to order the next
load and we asked our materialsuppliers, what are your
projected costs going to be forour next load? That's helped
quite a bit because what we cando slowly Increase our prices
(09:58):
where we need to, to try andkeep up to it before we get hit
with an increase bills where ourclients aren't getting hit with
a with a bigger increase theartificial grass company, we're
always selling to new clients.
It's not an ongoing contract. Sowe're fortunate that way where
we can creep things up a littlebit. And with our labor, what we
(10:19):
did is rolled out a health carespending account this year,
where if they have a gymmembership, prescriptions that
aren't fully covered, any ofthose types of things that would
typically come out of theirpocket, they bring the receipts
in, and we have a set amount peryear where they're allowed, and
the company will pay it forthem. Of course, it's a taxable
benefit. But we will pay thosecosts for them to try and help
(10:41):
with some of the increases. Andwe also rolled out a photograph
and video competition this year,where they have to send in the
Krewson and videos, short videosless than a minute and pictures
to our marketing manager. Andhe's going to pick the top two
victory categories and the toptwo videos where we're going to
(11:01):
give up some monetary bonuses ifyou will, to the to those people
as well. So they're not gettingcash stuffed in their pocket
just to show up to work, theyrealize that there's there's
more to it than just that, youknow, put a little extra effort
in and you're gonna get a littleextra effort back to help offset
some of your costs as well. Iknow some of our team members
are also carpooling to try andabsorb the costs and share it
(11:24):
out as well.
Leon Goren (11:25):
Do you just through your own eyes? I mean, I'm
watching all these differentindustries, you can never
predict inflation, right. But ifwhat you're seeing and costs
today moving forward, do you seethe same type of inflation? Or
is it starting to settle down alittle bit?
Brian Cotter (11:42):
To be honest with you recently, it's starting to
settle a little bit, I hope it'snot just a blip in the map.
Because I mean, you know, sincelast year, costs have escalated
more than probably anybody wouldhave imagined in such a short
period. For instance, like gasand fuel. I had a funny
conversation the other day, acouple of the team members in
the air pay only paid $1.60Today, that's amazing. I had a
(12:06):
chuckle they didn't want towreck their their highlighter
the day when I'm thinking of$1.68 while I remember when it's
49 Nine. What quite a differencethere. Luckily, we're seeing
some things so down a littlebit. I talk to other business
owners that are much larger thanwe are and then some other
industries. They're not asoptimistic. But they also have
(12:30):
admitted that they've seen somesoftening. So we're we're we're
staying optimistic, we obviouslyhave to keep our eyes open to
rising costs and trying toabsorb and mature them. But we
are seeing a little bit ofsoftening happening, which is
encouraging.
Leon Goren (12:42):
That's very insightful. And it's something
actually that I've started tohear around the different groups
to different industries.
Everybody's got their phone set,it's actually now starting to
slow down and a buck 68 for gas.
That's actually quite a drop.
So-
Brian Cotter (12:56):
Compared to six weeks ago, that's quite a drop.
Leon Goren (13:00):
Yeah. So anyway, we will hold our finger fingers
crossed on this stuff. Brian, Iwant to thank you for joining us
today and sharing your insightsand your stories. If anybody's
looking for either some of thatmanagement, professional
services management and orartificial grass, you know where
to reach Brian you could dothrough the Global Leadership
Exchange or you could just givethem a give Miguel a call. And
(13:22):
I'm sure Miguel will connect youwith Brian. So on a side note,
if you're interested in our livewebcast, the way forward live
and or any other snippets,please take a moment and visit
us peo-leadership.com. You'llfind on our site various
previous recorded webcasts whichinclude guests such as Morgan
Housel, Professor Janice Stein,Rob Chesnut, Dr. Jason Selk, the
(13:44):
list goes on, as we cover suchtopics as mental health
leadership, the new world and ahost of others. Thank you for
joining us today and we lookforward to seeing you again
shortly.
Special thanks to Cleveland Clinic for helping us
(00:02):
for you today's PEO leadership'ssnippets podcast. Welcome to our
snippets Podcast. I'm LeonGoren, CEO and president of PEO
leadership, North America'spremier peer to peer network and
leadership advisory firm. TodayI'm very excited to welcome
Brian Cotter, the president ofDurham artificial grass and
Lloyd's ground managementprofessionals. Durham's
(00:23):
artificial grass is family ownedand operated since 2018,
providing artificial grass andvarious accessories in southern
Ontario and the GTA. Lloyd'sgrand management professionals
is also a family owned andoperated business founded in
Scarborough in 1963. It startedwith nothing but a lot more and
a few hand tools. Brian recentlyjoined PEO leadership and as a
(00:44):
member of Pat seven, led byMiguel Gonzalez. He's been an
awesome addition to the groupand the larger PEO leadership
community. Brian, it's great tohave you with us here today.
Brian Cotter (00:54):
Thank you, Leon.
It's nice to be here. We'reexcited to share some
information.
Leon Goren (00:59):
So I thought we'd kick it off a little bit in
terms of some history. And Iknow you were sharing this with
me just moments ago, but it'stoo good of a story to pass
over. So how did you get in thisbusiness? Brian?
Brian Cotter (01:11):
Well, it was interesting. I was 16 years old
in high school, you know,thought I had the world at my
fingertips. I was dating thisbeautiful girl, who actually is
my wife, currently only wife.
We've been together for many,many years. Her dad came home
for lunch came in the backyardand said, Who's this fellow? So
Kim introduced me and he says,oh, nice to meet you. How come
you know? Like, I mean, like,what are you doing? No, I'm
(01:34):
taking the summer off andrelaxing. Next thing you know,
he comes out of the house with apurple work boots in his hand
throws them over to me and saystry these on. So I tried them
on. Yeah, they fit pretty good.
He said, Okay, good. Let's gojump in the truck. He brought me
out in the field. At that point,and I've been in business ever
since my parents kind of losttheir mind. Because when I got
(01:54):
home and told me I got a job.
And when I was doing like, youcan't do that you're allergic to
everything. fresh cut grass doespollen, you name it. So I
started in the business. And ayear later, my allergies went
away.
Leon Goren (02:05):
That's amazing. This is a while ago. So Brian, how
many years have you beenmarried?
Brian Cotter (02:10):
We have been married, you put me on the spot
here. 34 years, July 30. It'llbe 34 years.
Leon Goren (02:17):
That's awesome. So that original business, you
obviously started your ownbusiness and you got two
businesses going. And familybusinesses, obviously your wife
everybody's involved in it. Butyou mentioned also the, you
know, differences in running afamily business, some of the
challenges you had in the earlydays. And maybe there's a couple
of lessons we're sharing witheverybody.
Brian Cotter (02:39):
Absolutely, that in the early days, as a family
business, we didn't haveemployment agreements, there was
no roles, responsibilitiesresults, there was really no way
of holding each otheraccountable to what we were
supposed to be doing. We justkind of went on the although do
their job. It's all good.
They're having a slump, a lot ofit. We didn't have budgets and
accountability meetings. The onebig thing we changed in about
(03:02):
2012, 2013 is we brought inemployment agreements, targets
for production targets forsales, job descriptions for
everybody roles,responsibilities, results. And
it really made quite a shift.
For us. One of the things wefirmly believe in the family
business is that if you're afamily member, you want to work
(03:24):
with us on our team, you have tohave two jobs somewhere else. It
doesn't have to be in thisindustry. But you have to have
two jobs in another company tounderstand that there is rules
and why we have to follow them.
And that somebody is not justbeing a PR that day, we were
trying to make sure that we'rewe're being responsible and
successful.
Leon Goren (03:41):
Did you you've gone through that process a few times
with a guess a few familymembers. How does that work?
Actually have they've beensuccessful? It's sort of finding
those other jobs, doing the jobsand then eventually joining it.
Brian Cotter (03:55):
So I would say yes, for the most part, actually
kind of a funny story. One of mydaughters was not allowed to
work with our family business.
She was not a cultural fit, shedid get a couple other jobs. And
then recently, as in two yearsago, she has joined the company
business, the family business,and she's very, very successful.
She learned a lot from workingat the other companies
(04:16):
understanding that you have toshow up on time there is roles,
responsibilities and results.
Learn how to speak on the phone,because believe it or not, the
younger generation has a toughtime answering phone calls and
speaking with people on thephone carrying on a
conversation. She's donewonderfully. And it's worked out
really well.
Leon Goren (04:33):
Now, the two business and one is you know,
just just thinking about thiswhole artificial grass that I'm
going to ask you the climatechange because as we're doing
this, right, you look at Europeand what's going on the fires,
the fires out west, everything'schanging. That business must be
growing by ads, even in ourneighborhoods. I see it now
starting to pop up everywhere.
Brian Cotter (04:54):
So luckily, our artificial grass business was
registered four years ago. andit has outgrown our business has
been around since the early 60s.
That's how popular it is rightnow, for several reasons, their
environmental reasons. Numberone, the water conservation,
we're not putting nitrates onthe ground, which is from
fertilizers into our watersystems. We don't have a lot of
chemicals we can use, but theones that we do typically are
(05:17):
being overused the drought, sothat's coming in now July in
August, even in the GTA andsurrounding area or grasses, all
going doormen, people don't wantto see that they're having been
tracked into their house. Itreally does have a big impact. I
always say that the mostunnatural natural product, we
have his grass. Everybody wantsKentucky Bluegrass is not from
our climate. It takes so manyresources to keep that alive.
(05:41):
We're punishing the environmentby actually trying to keep real
grass alive. I'm ahorticulturalists certified. And
I'm putting artificial grass inthe ground. It has its place it
has its uses. It's not foreverywhere, but it's definitely
saves a lot. There's a hotels inLas Vegas, actually, that have
nylon, artificial grass on theroof. And it's been proven that
(06:01):
it slowed the fire down on thehotel enough for the
firefighters to get up there andput the fire out and save a good
part of the hotel.
Leon Goren (06:10):
Wow. That's amazing.
That's in the last four yearsand it's grown like that. That's
incredible.
Brian Cotter (06:15):
It's it's a, it's been a ride, it's definitely a
challenge to keep up to. It'ssomething we welcome. And it's
it's definitely grow and changequickly, especially with the
economy we've seen in the lastfour years.
Leon Goren (06:28):
Yeah, it's sort of possibly the question around
talent that because, you know, Ihear this everywhere, right?
Everyone's dealing with talent,you got a company that's growing
at an incredible pace here. Howare you dealing with the talent?
Are you are you facing the sameissues everybody else is facing
today?
Brian Cotter (06:44):
We are facing issues with with talent, what
we're finding is, we don't stickto our own industry to find
talent. We're hiring onattitude, right fit to our
culture, and commitment. And wewill teach them the skills that
they need to do this job. It'sdefinitely challenging to find
the right fit person, it takesquite a while, you know, the old
(07:07):
days used to be hire slow andfire fast. I don't look at it
that way quite so much anymore.
We definitely have to investmore more training into our
team, make sure they're theright fit and invest in them as
much as they invest in us intheir time. It's a challenge as
we grow the last couple of yearshas been more challenging,
especially with COVID and therestrictions to bring people on
(07:27):
board. That's pretty much ournumber one challenge, I would
say right now.
Leon Goren (07:34):
You guys were open probably right through COVID as
well, right?
Brian Cotter (07:37):
Yeah, our grounds maintenance company was due to
sanitary conditions, becausepart of maintaining the
properties is looking afterlitter. Certain buildings we
look after, are involved in thefood industry. So they have 18
to 24 inches around thebuilding. There's no vegetation
allowed. So help keeps rodentsand whatnot away from the
building. And then obviously,with the snow removal, that's
(07:57):
number one concern for people inthe winter. So we were fortunate
we're we had about a six weekwindow where they shut down and
then we're allowed to open backup again and operate.
Leon Goren (08:08):
And I know you shared location with me because
you're not like right in the GTAor so it's not like a pool of
talent anywhere close to you.
You're actually I'm fromrecruiting from everywhere. We
are.
Brian Cotter (08:22):
People pretty much say that we're in the boonies,
we have no public transit here,the 407 is not far from us. The
401 is about 10 minutes south ofus, we're pretty much north of
Bowmanville, north of Curtisarea. So they need their vehicle
to get here. And then in thewintertime, even in a snowstorm
they need to be able to get toour facility in order to get out
(08:43):
to work. So that definitely addsanother spin into finding some
talent that we can pull from,
Leon Goren (08:49):
I guess you're not faced with it. I want to work
three days a week and two daysat home in your world.
Brian Cotter (08:54):
No working from home. Because we move around so
much, we kind of need people tocome to the yard and we pay them
from the time they leave theyard to the time they get back
because like especially ourgrounds maintenance, they might
move around from four to 12sites a day. So we can't have
like a construction site. You goto the same site every day for
(09:16):
weeks on end. That's not the wayour business works.
Leon Goren (09:18):
So how are you dealing with the whole inflation
element? I think your costs arerising. Your Labor's a problem.
You know, you're trying torecruit they're driving, you're
moving artificial grass. The gascosts must be crazy. Yeah, what
what's life like here with?
Brian Cotter (09:35):
It's interesting.
We order all of our materialstractor trailer loads. So
typically, we have a small bulkof time where we can lock our
prices in. And then we add thatat the time we ordered let's say
we ordered July 1, we projectwe're gonna go to order the next
load and we asked our materialsuppliers, what are your
projected costs going to be forour next load? That's helped
quite a bit because what we cando slowly Increase our prices
(09:58):
where we need to, to try andkeep up to it before we get hit
with an increase bills where ourclients aren't getting hit with
a with a bigger increase theartificial grass company, we're
always selling to new clients.
It's not an ongoing contract. Sowe're fortunate that way where
we can creep things up a littlebit. And with our labor, what we
(10:19):
did is rolled out a health carespending account this year,
where if they have a gymmembership, prescriptions that
aren't fully covered, any ofthose types of things that would
typically come out of theirpocket, they bring the receipts
in, and we have a set amount peryear where they're allowed, and
the company will pay it forthem. Of course, it's a taxable
benefit. But we will pay thosecosts for them to try and help
(10:41):
with some of the increases. Andwe also rolled out a photograph
and video competition this year,where they have to send in the
Krewson and videos, short videosless than a minute and pictures
to our marketing manager. Andhe's going to pick the top two
victory categories and the toptwo videos where we're going to
(11:01):
give up some monetary bonuses ifyou will, to the to those people
as well. So they're not gettingcash stuffed in their pocket
just to show up to work, theyrealize that there's there's
more to it than just that, youknow, put a little extra effort
in and you're gonna get a littleextra effort back to help offset
some of your costs as well. Iknow some of our team members
are also carpooling to try andabsorb the costs and share it
(11:24):
out as well.
Leon Goren (11:25):
Do you just through your own eyes? I mean, I'm
watching all these differentindustries, you can never
predict inflation, right. But ifwhat you're seeing and costs
today moving forward, do you seethe same type of inflation? Or
is it starting to settle down alittle bit?
Brian Cotter (11:42):
To be honest with you recently, it's starting to
settle a little bit, I hope it'snot just a blip in the map.
Because I mean, you know, sincelast year, costs have escalated
more than probably anybody wouldhave imagined in such a short
period. For instance, like gasand fuel. I had a funny
conversation the other day, acouple of the team members in
the air pay only paid $1.60Today, that's amazing. I had a
(12:06):
chuckle they didn't want towreck their their highlighter
the day when I'm thinking of$1.68 while I remember when it's
49 Nine. What quite a differencethere. Luckily, we're seeing
some things so down a littlebit. I talk to other business
owners that are much larger thanwe are and then some other
industries. They're not asoptimistic. But they also have
(12:30):
admitted that they've seen somesoftening. So we're we're we're
staying optimistic, we obviouslyhave to keep our eyes open to
rising costs and trying toabsorb and mature them. But we
are seeing a little bit ofsoftening happening, which is
encouraging.
Leon Goren (12:42):
That's very insightful. And it's something
actually that I've started tohear around the different groups
to different industries.
Everybody's got their phone set,it's actually now starting to
slow down and a buck 68 for gas.
That's actually quite a drop.
So-
Brian Cotter (12:56):
Compared to six weeks ago, that's quite a drop.
Leon Goren (13:00):
Yeah. So anyway, we will hold our finger fingers
crossed on this stuff. Brian, Iwant to thank you for joining us
today and sharing your insightsand your stories. If anybody's
looking for either some of thatmanagement, professional
services management and orartificial grass, you know where
to reach Brian you could dothrough the Global Leadership
Exchange or you could just givethem a give Miguel a call. And
(13:22):
I'm sure Miguel will connect youwith Brian. So on a side note,
if you're interested in our livewebcast, the way forward live
and or any other snippets,please take a moment and visit
us peo-leadership.com. You'llfind on our site various
previous recorded webcasts whichinclude guests such as Morgan
Housel, Professor Janice Stein,Rob Chesnut, Dr. Jason Selk, the
(13:44):
list goes on, as we cover suchtopics as mental health
leadership, the new world and ahost of others. Thank you for
joining us today and we lookforward to seeing you again
shortly.
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