CEO'S You Should Know - Thompson & Son's Waterproofing Inc

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
iHeartMedia Presents CEOs you should know.H I am John Denkel, founder and
CEO of Dnkel Business Development, andthis is iHeartRadio CEOs you should know.
I'm here today with Matt Thompson,owner and operator of Thompson and Son's Waterproofing.
Welcome Matt, thanks for being here, Thanks for having me. Yeah,
really appreciate you taking the time andlook forward to our conversation. So

(00:26):
I thought maybe to start things offfor those who may not be familiar,
could you tell us about Thompson andSons of waterproofing. So basically, Thompson
Son's Waterproofing is just that we waterproofbasements and there's a few different situations where
you would need to waterproof your basin, whether it's from a large, heavy
rain coming into your house, whetheryou're finishing your basement, or if you

(00:47):
have foundation issues or cross space issues. We would tackle all of those projects.
Gotcha, and could you talk aboutyour mission? The mission is to
give the Baltimore community basically a companythat can do this sort of work for
a reasonable price and have someone standbehind it. We're filled with national companies
that give the gift customers run aroundand are charging two to three times the

(01:10):
amount of money that I'm charging.And the whole mission was to keep our
overhead down, increase the number ofjobs that we do for the community,
and at the same time make agood living. So it's so far,
so good. That's great, that'sgreat. And besides the water proving,
so somebody has, you know,a leaky basement, let's say, so,
what are some of the services thatyou're providing. Obviously the getting the

(01:34):
water out, drying it, andthen from the reconstruction side, do you
do services there as well? Wedon't do any reconstruction, but we do
install drain systems and some pumps andwall sheeting to ensure that the basement can
stay dry for the lifetime of theproperty. Great. Great, And do
you also do businesses as well?Are you focusing on in the residential market?

(01:59):
Well, primarily it's residential because themajority of commercial properties are built on
slabs, so they're not underground,there's no basements. But I do plenty
of commercial properties as well, youknow, especially in historic areas where you
do find basements. So with summerabout here, you know, what do
homeowners need to know this time ofyear to kind of help prevent a catastrophe

(02:19):
if it's possible. So it's notreally even just a summer thing. It
should be quarterly. You need togo around your house, make sure that
your gutters are clear, that yourdown spouts are extended, and that the
dirt that surrounds your house is slopingaway from it. If you see anything
otherwise, I would get on itimmediately because you can create a problem really
quickly. Now, if somebody hasquestions around that, would they could they

(02:44):
call you and talk to you aboutthat or talk to your technicians about that?
Oh? Absolutely. Everyone can callme directly or they can reach us
on our website and we have atexting app that you know, you can
just ask questions to me and I'llanswer right away. That's really cool.
So that's really cool. Yeah,that's really cool. So what would you

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say? And that's that's a kindof a good differentiator. But what else
sets you apart from your your editorsout there out there? So I think
the main thing is that I youknow, whether I can do this forever
or not, I'm not sure becausei might run out of steam. But
I'm one site day one, I'mone site. At the end of the
job, I'm making sure that everyjob is done exactly the way it was

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talked about. I have the samecruise day in and day out that I've
had relationships with for twenty years.I know exactly what kind of work they're
going to do. So it's justit's the main thing is that we just
have, you know, this energywithin the company to make things streamlined.
Yeah, that's great, that's great, that's great, we'll switch you gives

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a little bit, tell us alittle bit about your your personal background,
and hey, you got to thispoint in your career. So the reality
is, I'm a third generation basementwaterproofer. I'm probably the only third generation
waterproofer out there. My grandfather openedup either the first or the second,
that's debatable, based on waterproofing companypost World War Two, and then from

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there he had a company for youknow, his company lasted forty or fifty
years. My father had a company, and then you know, ultimately I
decided that I wanted to do itthe way that I thought that was correct,
and that's how I ended up doingit myself. That's awesome. Now,
did you know at a young age, like that's what you wanted to

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do, and you had had yourmindset on that or did you kind of,
you know, just figure that outwhen you got a little bit older.
Well, I wanted to be aprofessional baseball player, but that didn't
work out. So the next stepwas I have a I saw this company
I got I understood it at ayoung age. I saw I liked the
people. I liked the interactions withwith with homeowners and businessmen and realtors,

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and I just kind of fell inlove with it. And you know,
with it being and I'm on theroad all day. It works for me
personally, and I think it's it'sa great business. If you like it,
yeah, that's really cool. Well, I like to talk about leadership
on the show, and I wantedto ask you, you know, how
would you describe your leadership style?Just treating everyone as an equal. I

(05:15):
don't come off as a boss.I don't. I don't give firm orders.
I asked people to do things.If they say no, we have
a conversation about it. But Idon't push anyone to do With this kind
of job, there's certain things thatare just too hard for some people to
do and other people can do it. So I don't get angry with anyone
if they can't do something or won'tdo something. It's it's literally just about

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making this job as easy as itcan be, because it's among the toughest
jobs you can do. Yeah.Yeah, well, and looking back even
probably made it even tougher looking backa few years, you know, when
the pandemic hit, you know,it was tough. Yeah what what what
did you What did you learn aboutmanaging people and communication during that time?

(06:00):
I learned that you got to keepthe people you trust close, uh,
and the people that you don't trustfar away. I learned I learned that
doing you know, zoom meetings forbasement waterproofing, uh is not the easiest
thing to do. And look,I learned that, you know, when
people are stuck in their house.I mean. The funny thing was about

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the pandemic was my my business wentup because people were stuck in their house
and if they saw water, theycouldn't ignore it anymore. Yeah yeah,
So it kind of worked in aweird way for us, but it was
it was an interesting period for sure. Yeah yeah. And you mentioned your
your team a few times. Youknow, what's what's the labor market look

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like now? For for your industry? I have there's there's no no one
wants to do labor anymore, especiallyit's especially the younger generation. So but
yeah, it's always going to betough to find good help with with labor.
Yeah, do you see that thattie turning a little bit though?
With you know, a lot ofyou know kids, you know, when

(07:10):
they graduate high school and you know, back in the day, I guess
to say, they immediately went tocollege. And it seems to be turning
a little bit. And I thinkthe pandemic had an effect on that,
and people waiting or taking gap yearsand figuring out, and and also I
think parents recognizing that, man,there are like awesome opportunities to own your

(07:32):
own business, make a ton ofmoney, you know, work in the
trades. Do you do you kindof see any of that happening. I
see a lot of people wanting tobe the boss. Yes, I see
a lot of that, but inan interesting But it's interesting what you said
because my nephew, for instance,just graduated high school and for some reason,

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him and his friends are very interestedin home improvement. They're all going
there. He's going to college.He will never have a real need to
do home for but he but mynephew wants he comes with me on jobs.
He he he wants to He doessome days where he wants to carry
buckets for us, and you know, maybe that's a change or maybe he's
just strange. I don't know,but yeah, yeah, I think I

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think that's part Like you know,I you know, if I look at
my own family, I think alot of people in that age range are
kind of piecing together things. Itseems it's like, you know, they're
okay with like doing you know,maybe doing home improvement, and then all
the side they're they're writing, youknow, or they're doing something else.
Oh, absolutely, absolutely, it'sI think they're all I don't think I

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don't think that generation is going todo one thing in particular and just stick
with it. I think there's gonnabe a lot of people doing a lot
of little small things and uh hopefullyworks out for them. Yeah yeah,
I'm sure. Well it sounds like, you know, it sounds like you
have a good culture there and youknow, and it's a great place to
work. So that's the main thingis me and my me and my wife
basically run everything. And my wifeis you know, the bubbly nice you

(09:01):
know, wife that you would hopefor and treat the guys with, you
know, great respect and and andthey like you know, it's no there's
no hierarchy. Really, it's justlet's do our job, let's make some
money, and let's just go homeand enjoy our families. That's all that
matters to us. Yeah, that'sawesome. Well, well gets you excited
about the future of Thompson's and Son'swaterproofing. So, I mean, the

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one thing that you know obviously comesto mind is the son's part. You
know, I've an eleven year oldand a nine year old who you know,
I don't know what they're going todo with their future, but this
will always be an option for them. So the idea of working with them
down the road is something that reallyreally makes me. Uh makes me smile.
Yeah, Yeah, that's that isreally exciting. It would be cool
to pass it on. Yeah,that is really cool. Yeah, my

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youngest son, Gavin works with usfault. That's awesome. It's I'd never
thought I would be able to havethat, but it's still this is pretty
neat. But that's that's so cool. So, I know, we talked
a little bit about the labor stuff, But what what kind of keeps you
up the night? Also rain,so I guarantee, so I guarantee every

(10:13):
work that we put in for life. So if it rains really hard and
a some pump goes up, I'mI'm out there myself changing that some pump.
So you know, if we havea heavy storm or hurricane, I
get concerned that customers that we didwork for are going to possibly have a
problem that I need to fix.So that's always my concern. Luckily,
knock on Wood this year has beenamazing on that front. But some pumps

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are machines and they can fail,and that's some pumps are the one thing
that keeps me up. That's that'smy answer. Others than the labor part.
Yeah, in the labor part andmaking sure everyone's on time and all
that stuff, that's awesome. Well, the guys kind wrap things dub.
Is there anything else you'd like ourlistener should know about you and Thompson and

(10:58):
Son's waterproofing. No, just basicallythat when I come to your house or
any or anybody's house or anybody's business, I'm only going to tell you what
I think you absolutely need, andif you don't need anything, or if
it's something that I don't even do, I'll recommend you to somebody. But
I am not pushy and I willalways tell the truth about what I am
seeing. And it's not because I'mthe best guy in the world. It's

(11:20):
just the business decision I made yearsago was being honest in this industry is
rare and if I can, ifI can make that who I am,
it's going to create business and sofar it has. Yeah. Well,
thanks Matt, and and tell ushow to find more information about Thompson and
the Sun's waterproofing. Absolutely well,you can definitely go to our website that's

(11:41):
Thompson and sons ink dot com.That'll have all the information, pictures and
all of our contact information as well. Awesome. Well, well, thank
you so much for taking the timeto talk though. It was great to
learn about you and and the businessand really appreciate you taking the time out
today. It was a pleasure man. Thank you. I have a gilling
goodbye you too. This has beeniHeartMedia CEOs. You should know