[00:00:07.390] - Chris
Welcome back to the Head Heart and Boots Podcast. I'm Chris.
[00:00:10.830] - Brandon
And I'm Brandon. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead.
[00:00:17.870] - Chris
I don't know what did you think?
[00:00:19.230] - Brandon
It was kind of serious.
[00:00:21.170] - Chris
Should we laugh?
[00:00:25.950] - Brandon
Chris?
[00:00:26.990] - Chris
Yes, sir.
[00:00:27.710] - Brandon
How are you, sir?
[00:00:28.570] - Chris
I'm really awesome.
[00:00:29.640] - Brandon
Oh, you're really awesome.
[00:00:30.860] - Chris
I'm feeling pretty good this morning. Really?
[00:00:33.110] - Brandon
Anything set that off? Good bowel movement or that? We did.
[00:00:36.440] - Chris
But you know what? It's funny. You hit the nail on the head. Now, to be totally honest, I get this random text from my wife about 15 minutes ago that just says, Hi, I love you.
[00:00:47.340] - Brandon
Oh, hey.
[00:00:48.000] - Chris
That makes me feel good.
[00:00:49.610] - Brandon
Yes. Right now that's great.
[00:00:51.270] - Chris
I'm a merchant. I'm a high merchant, which means words of affirmation.
[00:00:54.140] - Brandon
Oh, that's in your wheelhouse. You just got the warm and fuzzy.
[00:00:58.030] - Chris
Nice gasoline on the fire.
[00:00:59.810] - Brandon
Well, now that we're all warm and fuzzy, let's get technical.
[00:01:02.560] - Chris
Yeah, let's do it.
[00:01:03.840] - Brandon
Okay. For our audience, guys, chris and I are really continuing to develop ourselves and develop our business processes, all the things. And as you guys know, when we renamed the show to The Head, Heart and Boots, that was intentional. Right. The idea there was that we want to stay in this pocket of content where we are bringing things to the show. We're having discussions about topics that affect our health in terms of our mental health, how we manage ourselves internally. Right. Heart for us is kind of on that let's call it like the spiritual woo woo emotional, emotional side. And then Boots for us, we've always just seen that as the technical aspect of what we do, the work. Right. And so we want to get more consistent in these categories. We've been a little bit we just kind of cover topics as they come to us.
[00:01:52.270] - Chris
We've been enamored with for good reason, the leadership, the self leadership, leadership, behaviors, mindset, that kind of stuff. Because, well, that's the stuff that really drives growth. Yeah. And the technical prowess is also something that drives growth too. It's all instead of one or the other.
[00:02:13.180] - Brandon
Yeah, it's all the above. And so we're going to try to be more consistent with the kind of equality of the content as it's coming out in terms of those categories. So today I wanted to throw down a bit more of a technical piece and specifically project management. And I think what I'd like to do here is we're not going to necessarily say this is project management for construction, but in general, right. Most of us in the restoration business, we have everything from emergency response content, cleaning, mold, commercial, residential. It runs the gambit. So I just want to think about project management as kind of as a whole. And then those for you that listen that aren't in our industry specifically, that you're more in that's home service business or service business in general. I think we can almost look at this as like production management, project management, they all kind of fall in a similar category. So anyway, so that's where I want to hang today. Sure, if you'll hang with me, I'll follow you there if you will. So I think a great place to start is I want to reframe potentially the role of a project manager.
[00:03:15.050] - Brandon
I think with some of these kinds of topics we just continue to operate with so many assumptions. That's part of our problem. We don't do a good job of stopping long enough to reorient ourselves towards the why behind these positions. And then we fail sometimes to do a good job of communicating the why to our people so that they understand the value that they bring in this role specifically. So that's where I wanted to start. And we have a couple more topics that we're going to talk through in terms of how they relate to project management. So the first one, the primary role, I think for many of us, we have project managers that made their way up through a trade craft, either on the large loss side, on the EMS side, or they came up in the construction trades remodeling or yeah, remodeling new construction. Sometimes we hire great past general contractors, right. They're looking to be a part of their team. Anyways, long story short, a lot of times these are doers. These are folks that have consistently done time in the field and the value that they brought to the team was executing.
[00:04:12.190] - Brandon
They did work, they completed something and then that in itself was the value that they brought. And I think what we see as a transition mentally that needs to happen in order for a project manager to move from dealer to a proactive leader that's really managing the client and the brand in the field is this perspective of it's not about me doing and it's more me playing the quarterback and really understanding that my job as a project manager is to do a series of things to create a really exceptional customer experience. One is, and we're going to dive into this a little bit deeper, is managing my sub relationships really creating a friction free experience for my client. And we're going to get into that in a little bit more detail. I can't tell you how common it is because we see project managers that might be running too many files at the same time, how much responsibility they inadvertently push back onto our clients and they don't really realize it. So anyways, primary focus is to manage proactively, manage our sub relationships. And this goes beyond our schedules. This is all about communication, timeframes, timelines, all the things.
[00:05:21.750] - Brandon
Probably the number one and most important role of the project manager is to keep our client well informed about processes, about time frames, timelines, managing their perceptions, managing their expectations. That is all very different than you. Once a week, reminding them that a sub is coming on such and such dates. That's not even kind of scratching the surface in terms of what your primary role is. Your primary role is to stress free, create a stress free environment for your client because they haven't done this for a living and you do okay. And so we can unpack that a little bit more. And then the third component, from my perspective, this is my opinion, is a steward of the brand, ie. Setting the stage for getting more opportunities by the way that we conduct ourselves and carry ourselves out in the field. That's really our three primary roles as a project manager. And underneath that, we have some and.
[00:06:18.860] - Chris
That'S not your opinion. That's a law of the universe, right? Like that PM. Aside from the field teams that are walking around in that customer's house, that PM is going to have the most profound interactions with our customers that our whole brand has, period.
[00:06:35.270] - Brandon
And they're also normally so if we have a project manager on a job, so even if it's on our EMS side or emergency side, it's going to be something that's around a larger, more complex scenario, right? You're not going to have normally a mid PM, if you will, on a standard residential loss. And so my point of that is to go back to what you're saying, Chris, is normally our project managers are engaged in a portion of the project where either there's a lot of liability and risk associated with the relationship and or the scope of the work, and they're going to be interacting with our client for an extended period of time. And I think one of the things that we see in a lot of service companies and or on our EMS side, specifically in our industry, is that when we're only engaged with the customer for three or four, five, six days, boy, you can kind of just wing it, get through it, and the customer is probably going to be okay. I know I'm over generalizing there, but when you're going to be engaged with a client for weeks, sometimes months, sometimes a year, and multiple subs engaged, then there's just so many opportunities for us to drop the ball and lose the steward effect that we are shooting for anyways.
[00:07:41.290] - Brandon
Okay, so I want to hang in the pocket on kind of the primary role. And then the last kind of two things I'd like to talk about a little bit is time management and then some KPIs regarding our performance as a project manager. So that's where we're going to go today. So hanging in the pocket then with this primary role. So when we talk about managing the client, there's a couple of aspects of this that I think are critical. One is the proactivity of it. I think we see this the difference between an effective project manager and a great project manager is the extent at which they proactively manage their projects. And it's common, probably more common than not to have a team of project managers that really are just their purpose, they feel, is just to put out fires. And the faster they put out the fire, they can get to the next fire, and that's them doing a job well done. And the challenge with that is that from the customers experience, from our subs relationships, from our vendor relationships, they're feeling the weight of the fact that they're getting your attention just long enough to put out a fire.
[00:08:42.580] - Brandon
You're not proactively leading the project, and they know it, even if they're not telling you. Everybody's experience is a byproduct of this firefighting, and they're not being led. And so therefore, there's not a ton of value to the relationship for them. And I know that sucks to say, and for some of us, hearing that, especially if you're a project manager and working your ass off, that feels very.
[00:09:03.600] - Chris
Unrewarding, because in those sub relationships, right, correct me if I'm wrong, but in a lot of cases, too, we're asking them to help us meet our budget. There's some strategic sort of horse trading going on that we need in order to make this project successful and make money, but it's got to be a win for them, too, and a lot of times it's dumping on them. It's funny. Just a little side story here. So my wife and I are in the middle of a kitchen remodel following a water damage event that's been dragging on for two months. I have a lot of opinions about project management now that I didn't necessarily hold previously, but I stopped at a flooring store to make our selections. Selections are a whole another sort of conversation, right? Material selection. So we're looking at these flooring options, and lo and behold, one of my buddies from high school, guy graduated a couple of years ahead of me. I was like, oh, Keith, what's up, man? He's running this direct flooring store. He's been in the industry for ten years. He said, what are you doing? Chris asked, restoration operate in the field now.
[00:09:55.620] - Chris
I'm consulting. And he said, oh, restoration companies. I said, what's your experience, Span? He's like, do they always have their hair on fire? It's like it's calling last minute. You guys do an install tomorrow. I got a whole bunch of LBT. I got you got to lay down. Oh, and I need you to do it for this price to $3 a square foot. Can you? So he just painted this perfect picture of they want to grind me down on price. They want everything last minute, and it has to be done. And if I don't do it, they're going to go to somebody else next time. And I'm thinking, wow. That's their Sub management 101.
[00:10:28.710] - Brandon
Oh, my gosh, that's great.
[00:10:30.500] - Chris
But this guy deals with probably a dozen restoration companies in this market. All go through this direct flooring place and I was like, well, sorry dude. Yeah, that's a problem.
[00:10:40.640] - Brandon
And that's a perfect example of what we're delivering most of the time. And we've kind of bought in that it's okay and it's not okay. So let's hang there. So let's think about our client and our responsibility for proactively managing our client. We try to keep our shows down to an hour so there's no way that we can do an exhaustive audit on what it means to be a project manager. We've got opportunities for you guys to work with.
[00:11:03.110] - Chris
So this won't be 2 hours, but.
[00:11:04.430] - Brandon
Hang in there, this will be eight. So this relationship management with our client, I think first and foremost, we need to understand that our job as a project manager is to protect our client through this experience. That's different than you delivering a service to your clients. Our job is to protect them. And what do we mean? What are we protecting them from? What we're protecting them from obvious things like quality issues, timeline issues, cost discrepancies, right? Some of the basics. But more importantly, and probably this skill set is going to then in turn help these other categories. Is it's our job to ensure that our clients understand what is happening, why it's happening, and when it's happening? Okay? If we think about it and really that's our responsibility to our subs our vendors, right, is we have to be really keyed in on what are we doing, why are we doing it, what is the purpose, what's the value for the client by us taking this action, by doing this kind of replacement, by choosing this kind of product? So what we're doing, why we're doing when we're doing it, right? And then dialing in our timeline.
[00:12:10.310] - Chris
Let me add another angle though.
[00:12:11.630] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:12:12.210] - Chris
So if that's our charge, is to understand and know and sort of manage the perception of all of those things and the delivery of those things, what do we need to know? What does our project manager need to understand about our client in order to effectively manage those elements? And I would say that's where we talk a lot about humility and curiosity relative to sales. But it isn't just a sales thing, right? It's how we're delivering the customer experience product, which is ultimately that's what we do. Like we sell customer experience. And really in our experience, it doesn't matter whether we're talking to a commercial decision maker client or we're talking to a homeowner. What does that PM need to know at the outset of that build back project? The most important thing they need to understand is what is this person's relative experience?
[00:13:00.520] - Brandon
Bingo.
[00:13:01.160] - Chris
With this kind of situation? And this is the conversation we overlook and we skip over nine times out of ten. Some of you are the exception to that. And you're listening. We have this really elaborate restoration checklist conversation where we learn about their background or whatever, that's great. And that is what we're advocating for. But like that PM, one of the most primary questions they need to ask and understand is, is this the first time you guys have ever been through a major project like this in your home or at your plant or at your hotel? Because we truly don't know the answer to that. And the answer will give us 90% of what we need to effectively execute, right? Because then we'll find out that their last experience was with XYZ restoration, and it was stressful, it was anxiety producing, and it came at a bad time and it added insult to injury. And here's why. And when we asked those follow up questions, as a project manager, well, I'm really sorry that was such a negative experience. What can you think back and what was it about the people or process that really made it the most difficult?
[00:14:00.010] - Chris
If we get clear on that information and we're disciplined and we have a system in place for relaying that information to the rest of our teams, all of a sudden we have the tools we need to be very successful in that project. The other piece of that that I just need to mention, though, because it ties in with commercial, like, all of us are trying to grow commercial, right. This is a really common breakdown with project managers. Is that when we take that emergency call from a commercial client. Right. The onus is on the sales rep or the responding MIT team to know that information. Gather that information at the front of that loss as well. So that they can then communicate that to the project mayor. Who can then revisit that information on the build back component. Hey, real quick, before we get started, I'm going to talk you through the timeline of what's ahead, blah, blah, blah. Before this. It sounds like this is the first time you guys been through this and you maybe had a not so great experience. Can you just tell me a little bit more of that so I can inform my team, make sure that we create something better for you and gather that information again?
[00:15:00.170] - Chris
Because you may hear more as they've grown to trust the team. You may get more detailed information about their past experience. And so, again, these things are not this isn't ours to your process. This isn't like multiple meetings now. It's just taking that five minutes to learn about where is this person coming from, what biases do they bring into this?
[00:15:19.170] - Brandon
It's simply being more intentional with our initial conversation with the client, again, and it's why we talk about getting clarity on what is the role of a project manager is. When we understand what our true role is to steward and protect our client, then we understand what our initial responsibility is. When we roll up and you hit it perfectly, is when we ask those questions and determine what perspective our clients coming into this situation with. Now we can proactively, and I'm going to use that word a million times, we can proactively manage that perception and that experience. A perfect example. It's very easy for us to think proactivity or non proactivity based on, let's say, a cabinet special order. Right? It's like, okay, well, we know cabinets might be six weeks out. Well, the sooner we get jumping on that in terms of the ordering process, the less negative impact it will have on our timeline. That's a great example of proactive management versus not. But we forget that the proactivity translates over to the relationship management part and you hit it perfectly. And that is, if I understand the issues that my client might be bringing to this relationship based on their previous experience, I can now proactively engage those scenarios to make sure that perception doesn't have a negative impact on their experience and our brand.
[00:16:34.160] - Brandon
Whereas if we kind of do, what we do most of the time is I don't know, it's an issue until I get into a scenario where there's.
[00:16:41.950] - Chris
A problem, until the customer is reacting exactly to a situation based on previous experience that may not even be associated, people will hear us say something and it'll trigger them. Oh, that's what that last company did and then they screwed us, or something to that effect. Right. They have a perception. They pulled his file folder in their brain. Oh, he said this and last time this is what that meant.
[00:17:03.330] - Brandon
Exactly. Yeah. Now you're spot on. So this proactive engagement has to carry over to not only just the way that we're managing the production of the job, but it's how we're stewarding the relationship with our client. Another kind of tool set to add under that is what we're doing to communicate and how we're communicating. So going back to your example, when we're introducing ourselves to the client for the very first time as a project manager and we're setting the stage of getting all the knowledge base that we need in order to proactively lead the relationship, we have to talk about communication style, methodology and frequency right out of the gate. Most of you have a system that you go by where you have standards and that's great. What we do is we talk to our client about what those standards will look like and then we affirm with them. Does that work for you? Right. So an example here is and we're seeing a lot of this I'm going to sound like an old guy, but there was no way a couple of years ago that primarily you were communicating with most of your clients via text message.
[00:17:58.710] - Brandon
There was no way. I know you're right now I literally will have, I mean, obviously in what we do, but it is so common now for the average consumer. Don't email me. It's just going to go into a box of 30,000 emails and don't call me because if I don't recognize your number or I'm in the middle of just doing life, I'm not going to answer anyway, text me or whatever. Right. And so what we encourage folks, again, setting the stage for this leadership, this relational stewardship, is, hey, sir, madam right client. Our normal process is we're going to have one face to face meeting per week on your project. And it's really critical that during that meeting, everybody's here. I know that's tough to do, we're all busy, but once a week, if we can just commit to that, it's really going to help us both stay on the same page and not allow any miscommunication on a project. The other thing that I normally do is I'm going to follow up with you every 24 hours, every 48 hours, whatever your team decides. Okay, we've got perspective on this. I think every 48 hours is about as far as you're going to want to go.
[00:18:57.370] - Brandon
But we're going to follow up with you with an update on your project and here's how that's going to look like. Does that work for you? Do you think that will be at a pace that's up? I normally communicate in this way. What do you prefer? Are you more of an email or texting person? Now, I was intentional about that. Here's. Why I'm asking it. Are you more of an email or texting person? I want my communication at some point to make its way into writing. Okay. Yeah. So our primary is I'm going to give my client call. We're going to talk about a shift in the schedule. We're going to talk about whatever, a subs response to something, whatever. I'm going to follow that up, though, in some form of writing that I can go back and retrieve that's time and date stamped. Okay, that's really important. And that is just as important as part of this relational stewardship as anything else. So I'm asking those to the question, are you more into texting or email? Because I want to know which follow up method that puts it in writing will be most effective for them.
[00:19:51.350] - Brandon
And I'm commonly communicating to my client that you'll get calls from me as we're kind of making updates on the fly and then I'll follow up via text or email, whichever you choose. Okay, why is that important? Well, now I've set the stage. I've got agreement from my client how often and what communication methodology that we're going to use. And now I can preemptively really lead my client through the process. And I know they're going to catch what I'm communicating or what my needs are or homework assignments because I'm using the methodology that they've said that works best for them instead of, again, me coming in, this is how we do it. Here's my assumptions. I've done this 50 times this month. You've never done it. And then getting frustrated later when my client doesn't understand, doesn't know what's happening because they haven't checked their email inbox, in a year. Like a lot of us, right?
[00:20:38.210] - Chris
Yeah. Here's one other if I can make one other suggestion along these lines because I think we have to take ownership of the experience we're creating, which includes all this communication, everything else. One opportunity that I don't see a lot of people do in our industry is your project manager should be sending calendar invites for all agreed upon meetings. Don't just verbally look at your calendar. Don't do the whole friend thing of, hey, so when are we going to hang out next? Well, next Thursday at six, would that work for you? Yes. Okay, great. The reality is, did you just have a conversation with their client while they were driving home? Now they got to remember and then hopefully they're going to mention it to their spouse when they walk through the door. Oh yeah, I talked to so and so. We're going to meet this Thursday. It is so much more professional and reliable. As soon as you make that thing, get off the phone, create a calendar invite, drop your customers emails, so it is going to hit their email, but it's also going to hit their Google Calendar and their Apple calendar as a tentative meeting.
[00:21:30.130] - Chris
So that way, again, we're doing what we can on our side to ensure.
[00:21:35.950] - Brandon
It'S path of least resistance for the customer. That's right. It's removing friction for their decision process and their experience. And I like where you've gone there. I think it's critical. Like what are we talking about when we establish clarity on our communication methodology and time frame? What are we doing when we get clarity on someone's previous experience so that we can manage their perception of the project and or make shifts in our service delivery to meet or exceed some of these things they're coming in with? The point of this is that we are leading and often what we see happen is we get confused with what is a great customer experience. Well, I don't want to push too hard, I don't want to drive too hard. I kind of want to go based on some of their considerations and their lifestyle and all these things. And I think what we missed here is that people need to be led through this process. They want to be led through this process. So providing our clients with some choices, great. But always ensure their choices that fit into your guys'core process. And you're the one giving them the one or two options to choose from because gotta be careful, right?
[00:22:44.440] - Brandon
Because we're fairly well connected with some of the folks working on your project. But even you, you've been in the industry a long time, indirectly, right. And you still want your project to be led by somebody.
[00:22:57.390] - Chris
I don't want to lead it.
[00:22:58.560] - Brandon
You don't want to leave it. That was the whole point of having a company do it. And so even if you get some initial, very proactive a personalities, you're going to feel like they're putting pressure on you and that they're the ones driving the car. And we just have to remember, as a really competent project manager, stop, slow the team down, and begin getting clarity on how you're going to run the project, why you're going to do what you're going to do, and get affirmation and confirmation from your client. They want to be led. They do.
[00:23:29.810] - Chris
And an example of that is in the selection piece. It's so important. This particular project manager we're working with loved them, had lots of great experience with them, and this is one area that they could do better. And I know it's such a common thing, but we need to sort of pre think about what are the actual possibilities in this repair project, right? What are the actual materials available right now? Because right now, material shortages and supply chain is a massive issue and we do enough of this work, guys, that we should have a line on right now. I'm not going to tilt people towards everything is just we can do whatever you want. Now I need to create kind of a channel for that customer to walk in. And the more I can help guide them towards a smaller set of choices right. The better experience I'm going to create for that customer. Like when we went to go do floor covering selections, it's like the world is your oyster. It's like, well, tell me what you guys want. It's like, well, shoot, give me some guidance here. Right? And I think sometimes we almost think there's more value in telling and we can do whatever you want.
[00:24:36.310] - Chris
That's the feel good conversation of so what's kind of your dream kitchen? And stuff like that. And people can really go off the rails, including me and my wife. My wife has this marmoleum thing that she saw, this cool color she wanted. And the more we dig into it, like marmoleum, it may not be the best for a variety of reasons, but at the front end we didn't really get that advice. So we ended up spinning our wheels, going after funky looking pinterest marmoleum thing my wife found when really we needed to keep our site set on traditional tile or LBT or just stuff that's more readily available for our timeline and so forth. We know this stuff our client, to them, it's just like, let's just get creative and do whatever. That selection process is an opportunity for us to guide them through a reasonable set of options rather than forcing that whole process on them.
[00:25:27.740] - Brandon
Agreed.
[00:25:28.090] - Chris
Because your average now some people are going to bucket like, no, I want exact okay, great, fine. We know how to cater to those picky customers. But for the most part, our clients want to be given a reasonable set of selections that. They can make in conjunction with the rest of their life. Most of our clients are not going to go on a shopping spree hunting for the ideal piece of granite countertop. You know what I mean?
[00:25:51.580] - Brandon
Yeah, I think like a really common or maybe a good rule of thumb is 34 options. And anything beyond that, you're beginning to put somebody in a place where there could be anxiety around paralysis. Big time. And again, if we go back and we're starting the stage well by asking our clients some questions regarding experience, hopes, what did you plan for this? Now that we're in this scenario, was there any remodel work that you were interested in doing or that you had been processing? Right. If we do a good job of engaging the relationship at the beginning so that we're equipped with the best information to steward it well, and then in turn, the client is going to have a much more friction free experience doing business with us. That's our job. Our job is to not make phone calls and ensure a sub gets on the job. Is it part of it? Absolutely. But the core responsibility is to steward the relationship with our client because when we approach project management from that perspective, it ensures these other behaviors follow. Right. Because if my job is to steward the relationship with my client, then I have to proactively manage my sub so that they show up when I've said they're going to show up.
[00:27:04.470] - Brandon
Right. So again, it's just kind of this shift of where the value the value is. So, again, I think those are great. Trying to keep this a bit tactical and not too overwhelming. So communication frequency and methodology, meeting times. So a big thing for me. I'm a huge proponent of at least one day a week on a live project, I will meet with the business owner, property owner, key decision makers, face to face. Now, I understand some of you have remote property owners. It's an investment property. They may not even live in the same state. Let's get a zoom call going. Let's do something where I can physically see my clients eyes and talk to them and read their body language is best to my ability on their project.
[00:27:45.680] - Chris
I was going to ask you about that. So, like, FaceTime become more popular.
[00:27:48.760] - Brandon
FaceTime totally appropriate, right? Walking my client through the loss via FaceTime, pointing out things that we're addressing.
[00:27:56.320] - Chris
We need that emotional read, though. That's the important thing. I need to see their eyes. I need to hear their voice and see the body language.
[00:28:03.320] - Brandon
And we need to ask hard questions. We need to ask the kinds of questions where the answer may not be something we want to hear. We're identifying quality control at that moment. Like, let's get a read on what's happening. Let's not wait until we're doing a punchless lock at the end of the job and trying to scramble to correct any kind of perception or quality issues that the clients raise. When we have that once a week meeting, the job, the intent, slow the clock down. Do not be answering texts or emails with your other client and give this client enough focused attention that you can get a good read on their experience to date. And again, we're digging for information that will give us more tools to manage perception or potential perception issues moving forward. Here's another thing that we see that's really common in multiple business partner scenarios. Scenarios where there's a board or some kind of multiple decision bodies, a committee or a committee or marriages, roommates. We have this scenario where we may be communicating on a consistent basis with one person and not realizing that that communication doesn't get any further.
[00:29:09.590] - Chris
And some marriages are roommates.
[00:29:11.250] - Brandon
Hey. Yeah. And there's just a reality. You've got two different personalities in the decision making process.
[00:29:16.720] - Chris
They may or may not be communicating at all.
[00:29:19.670] - Brandon
They commonly don't. It's just normal. Think about you, think about me. My own life. Is it easy for me to go a week to ten days and not, like, converse about some topic that I kept telling myself I needed to bring up at home?
[00:29:32.270] - Chris
Yeah.
[00:29:32.610] - Brandon
It's totally normal. Of course. So our opportunity when we set the stage for this face to face meeting is I'm even going to go out of my way at the beginning of the project to say, hey, it's really important these people are at this meeting. Here's why. This is how it helps us produce a better job for you. Here's how it helps us manage expectations and perceptions and keep this train headed down the right set of tracks. So get them there. And that's our opportunity. Hear from them. If one person speaking up a ton, great, listen. But then if you see someone that clearly has an opinion and that opinion is not coming very quickly, let's ask some questions. Let's try to dig that up. Again, it sounds heavy, but if we start again from the perception of as a project manager, my job is to steward relationships. The other things come in line, right? Okay. So we talked about some meeting frequency communication frequency in terms of giving our projects updates. Please don't go more than two days without updating your client.
[00:30:27.890] - Chris
One just quick thing about that. As a recent customer, we know within the industry, right, that there's a lot of days where nothing is happening.
[00:30:37.960] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:30:38.460] - Chris
And there's a variety of reasons for it, right? Sometimes we're waiting for asbestos samples to come back and find out if we can then cut into stuff, whatever. Sometimes we're waiting on flooring materials or whatever. It's construction timeline pauses that just happen. But the customer doesn't understand that. Most of our customers, even our commercial ones, don't understand the flow of a construction timeline and why there would be nothing happening. All they perceive is nothing is happening. Why?
[00:31:05.870] - Brandon
Yeah. And? I don't know.
[00:31:07.110] - Chris
And so when we talk about this communication frequency, you're like, why? Every 48 hours sometimes there's nothing happening. Customers need to know nothing is happening. And so the burden is not huge. Right. Sometimes it's quick. Email is saying, hey, just want to check in with you guys. Nothing happening today because we're waiting on X. Once we get X, next thing up is why? And then the customer can just it goes out of their brain and it's no longer a thing that they bitch about to their spouse at the dinner table like, hey, did you hear from.
[00:31:35.030] - Brandon
Their neighbor or right.
[00:31:37.180] - Chris
A fellow in the mailbox right at the water cooler. Hey, how things going? We got this water loss and oh really? Yeah, we got this company. Right. That's the last thing you want, but question marks produce that problems.
[00:31:51.520] - Brandon
Yeah. When people are void of information, they will fill in the blanks and when they do so, it often is off of negative assumptions. It's not normally in your brand's favor and normally because of the anxiety, people are talking about it even before they have answers or solutions from you. So the longer you create this communication gap where your client can process and mentally go through this anxiety rich opportunity, they're going to be talking to people about it. Yes. If we think about our own scenario. How many times have I been talking out loud, processing in my mind, well, here's what's happening, here's what I'm thinking about it and I'm trying to get everybody's opinion except for the team that is doing the job right. And it's normally not great for you. Hey friends.
[00:32:37.650] - Chris
Hey listeners. We're doing something a little bit different with our ads. So you've been accustomed to hearing some ads with our favorite partners and companies in the industry. Now we actually have a product page, our partners page on our website. So floodlightgrp. Compartners. I want to give you a quick rundown though of the people that we're partnering with and we believe in as really go to resources in the industry. The first one is restorationerp.com. Right. ERPs are an important part of our sales process, our customer development process. And why reinvent the wheel? The restriction ERP platform is awesome. It can be customized to your business, branding and all that kind of stuff. It has all the components to really create a value add for your commercial client. Accelerate job management software. Everybody needs job management software and we just found Accelerate. Not only is their team just really great to work with, when they get ideas from customers, they throw it in the product roadmap and they implement it. They're really advocating for the contractor and trying to create a stopper solution that works for them. Actionable insights. We recommend actual insights all the time, right.
[00:33:41.510] - Chris
All of us as restoration operators are looking for turnkey resources and training solutions that we can take our team to the next level. And AI, when it comes to estimating and matterport and a lot of the other essential tools we're using, they're an awesome resource and they're always coming out with new great stuff.
[00:33:59.450] - Brandon
Yeah. Super influential in the industry. Super Tech University soft skills development training for your technicians, for your frontline personnel. Let's face it, frontline personnel are the heartbeat of our company. They are the ones that connect with our clients and create the customer experience. There's no better investment than investing in the ability for those individuals to represent themselves, our clients, and our brands well. So Super Tech University, surety, they essentially are cutting down this lifecycle between delivering service and then getting paid, stepping in, removing the middleman in terms of mortgage companies, refining that pipeline, making sure that there's at least friction as possible so we can go out and do a great job, and then our businesses don't suffer while we're waiting to get paid. The money is coming and it's coming quickly. And then the last one guy is lifted. It's kind of a newer entry to the industry. They're driving Google reviews, so they're a turnkey partner that we can literally go out, provide a great customer experience, hand that name off to our trusted partner in Lift Ay and have them go chase that Google Review 25% conversion rate.
[00:35:05.920] - Chris
Which is industry wide. People tend to average 5% of people you ask for review actually convert Lift to five, bumps out to 25. We were such a big believer. We're a customer, and they've been generating all of our floodlight reviews. And in a matter of a week and a half, we're up to, I don't know, close to 15 reviews in just a short period of time.
[00:35:22.820] - Brandon
And I think people just underestimate what happens organically with your SEO search activity when you're getting these new and active five star reviews from our clients. And we just can't let the pedal up on that because of the effect on our business is long.
[00:35:36.260] - Chris
Big deal. So check it out. Check out our partners page. Do business with them. You won't regret it. We're confident in that floodlightgrp compartners.
[00:35:45.030] - Brandon
Thanks, guys.
[00:35:46.990] - Chris
We might need to do part two on project management because there's just so much good stuff here. But one other thing in terms of setting good expectations on this communication thing is we know the process well enough as an industry, as a team, and many of you as individuals, project managers are listening to this. You understand the flow of these projects. Of course, there's variables all the time and stuff goes wrong, but we know what's coming the customer doesn't, right? And so that we used to refer to it as a restoration checklist meeting. Our PM would sit down with the customer, and we have literally a checklist where we walk through what's the timeline going to look like, what are the different departments they're going to be interacting with at our company, the different roles, how is billing and invoicing going to work, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And one of the things we talk about in that is we sort of cast a road map view. We're like, hey, there are going to be and we tell people upfront, I think this is such a key thing is we tell them some parts of this are not going to be fun.
[00:36:39.790] - Chris
It's really important that when you tell people, hey, this part is going to be frustrating. This may be irritating, this may be downright not fun at certain intervals here, and let me try to give you a heads up what those are going to be. And one of them we know people call it by different names. We called it the silent phase. And instantly, probably those you've been in the industry for a minute, you know what we're talking about. But it's during that period where we're negotiating scope with the Adjuster or potentially, depending on the loss size, we're dealing with an IA or we're dealing with a consultant or whatever. To the customer, it's a black box. Like, what the hell is going on? It's been six days since you guys stabilized and had all your equipment in here and got everything out and nothing has been when is the reconstruction going to start to happen? And we know on our end how complicated that period can be. Sometimes it drags on for a lot more than a few days. But when we tell customers, when we're disappointed in telling people about the silent phase beforehand, it is far less severe and sometimes a non event when it comes.
[00:37:43.820] - Chris
Because then when we send that 24 hours update, we can just let them know, hey, remember the silent phase, we're in it. We sent this communicate to the Adjuster. We're waiting on a reply. We expect this negotiation may take a few more days, but we'll keep you updated. And then honestly, the next day, maybe a similar copy and paste comment just to let you know we're still in hanging in this zone, whatever. But when we communicate proactively, it often reduces the feelings and the way that the customer perceives it when it actually shows up.
[00:38:14.030] - Brandon
No, that's spot on. And again, you're right. There are so many like, little smaller details like how do you execute on this on a day to day basis. But I think what we're trying to accomplish with this particular episode is just mindframe. It's mindset PM. And I think what you're talking about is there's a critical experience difference from the client subventor relationship perspective when we intentionally and proactively manage expectations versus getting swept up in them. Here's a perfect example. Let's say I was working on a project for you and there's a couple of different scenarios that can unfold. One is my drywaller has just come in and done the sheet rock we've mud taped. It looks we're done basically, we're ready for prime and paint if I don't put my eyes on that before you do as a customer and you come and you see issues or concerns, like here's a common one, my tape is bleeding through my mud. I see that little waffle pattern. Right? Well, the difference between you finding it and calling me and me going, oh yeah, don't worry, I'm going to take a look at it in the morning and we'll make any changes or modifications.
[00:39:19.730] - Brandon
Don't worry, we got it. Versus, hey, sir, madam, I just stopped by your job because my sub just got done with the drywall. I saw a couple of areas where it looks like our tape went through the mud. It was a little thin. Here's what I plan to do about that. Okay. I'll update you when we get it all wrapped up. The difference in the customer experience between me telling you don't worry about it after you've caught it versus me proactively leading you and saying, hey, as your PM, my job is to Stewart, to you and do quality control. I checked in on my project after a sub was completed and here's what I found. Here's what we're going to do about it. The difference in your experience is two different sports and the same thing applies to any of our communication regarding ordering materials, materials not showing up, a sub not being on site at the right time. My point is this proactive communication wins over. Oh, yes, here's my answer or my excuse for the thing that you're concerned about.
[00:40:18.470] - Chris
Versus damage control.
[00:40:20.180] - Brandon
That's it. Again. So we're going back like 30,000ft. What is your job? Your job is to not get drywall completed. Your job is to proactively steward the relationship, to create as much of a friction free experience as possible. Proactivity is king. And what that means, that when you're managing your projects and your time, which we're going to get into a little bit, but I think before we hang this up is if you're running in such a way that you're not seeing work recently completed by a sub before your client can, you're wrong. You're just wrong. I don't care what the reasoning is. You and your operation team need to look at the operational tempo and your project assignments and find out what you need to do to ensure you can do the level of work so that you remain proactive, period. Or your customer experience will suck hands down. The way that we're managing our time in terms of leading ourselves. If you find out from a subcontractor that they're going to be five minutes late, it's critical that you get on the phone, you talk to your client about the experience and what you're already going to do about it.
[00:41:25.460] - Brandon
Here's an example. This isn't even industry related, but I just thought it was great. Not too long ago, went into a clothing store and had to order some new pants, new dress pants.
[00:41:34.300] - Chris
Funny the language a man uses.
[00:41:35.570] - Brandon
Had to spend as little time as possible. So I'm purchasing these pants. They need to be hemmed. Okay? So I'll take them up a little bit for me, leave. They pin them, they do their thing, I'm gone. Okay? About three days later so I'm scheduled to go pick these up that Friday. Two days later. I'm now multiple days ahead of schedule, ahead of my pick up time. I get a proactive text from the individual that says, hey, something happened. Here's the scenario. When we stuck this pin through the bottom of your pant, it pulled out the threads in the clothing, and so I basically put a tear in it. Let's call it. I've already sourced the pants from the vendor. They won't be here in time. If you would like, you can take these and I'll mark them down a certain percentage for you and give you an inspiring credits towards another purchase. Let me know, and I'll ensure we still get them ready by Friday. You know how pissed I would have been if I walked in on Friday and found out my pants weren't ready? And that same individual told me, oh, I meant to tell you, actually there was a tear in your pants, and so we didn't think you would want them, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:42:37.430] - Brandon
How many scenarios are you as a project manager in, or allowing your project managers to be in, that your customer shows up on Friday and shit is not done as anticipated, and now you're giving the 50 good reasons why it's not done instead of calling them two days prior to tell them why it's not done.
[00:42:53.720] - Chris
And don't believe the lie. When you get friendly old Mrs. Jones, it's like, it's okay. It's okay. Don't ever believe that because it's not true.
[00:43:00.860] - Brandon
Now, that's lowering your performance to the lowest common denominators. Even if it were true, is that the standard you want to set?
[00:43:07.160] - Chris
I think it's very actually, that's an interesting analogy, the clothing shop deal. But here's the thing we do know about restoration. We know shit is going to go wrong. It's going to your example of getting in front of stuff.
[00:43:19.280] - Brandon
Absolutely.
[00:43:19.840] - Chris
Well, why not also include some conversation about this in that very first restoration checklist meeting?
[00:43:27.160] - Brandon
I love it because I think the.
[00:43:28.560] - Chris
Temptation by all service vendors is to paint a good picture. This is going to be great. We're going to take care of you, right, Butters? We value communication. Communication like all of this bullshit lofty. We're going to create this thing. You're going to be so glad you chose us. Blah, blah, blah. The reality is they have a difficult process in front of them.
[00:43:51.640] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:43:52.040] - Chris
I don't care how good your teams are. There are elements that are going to be difficult. Every single recon project you have. And so if we can talk about that and give them the truth, but then part of what we're affirming to them when we explain the project at that death, hey, this part is really going to suck. I mean, pardon my language Mrs. Jones, but it just does. This is hard for everybody. This period, silent phase, whatever, selections of materials is always a challenging thing for people because like you guys, most people still have full time jobs in the midst of this and selections are really hard. So can I tell you how as a team we try to handle that process to have as little of a hold up in the timeline as possible? Here are some of the things we're going to ask you to do and it's going to be hard because I know you guys got work and you have vacations and everything else in the midst of all this. But when I reach out to you when we hit that part of the timeline, the speed at which you respond and do your homework is ultimately going to affect how long this thing takes, right?
[00:44:48.480] - Chris
So when we're just honest, instead of trying to paint a rosy filter over everything, instead of being honest on the front end, man, does it ever prepare the customer?
[00:44:58.700] - Brandon
Well, that's exactly it. And I think it's the same like when we think about quality control. That's why it's so critical that you get on your jobs every couple of days, period or right after a trade finishes because it's your job to jump in front of whatever potential issues are going to be there because they will and ensure your client anytime. We are the ones that bring something to our clients attention, we are winning. People are not expecting a construction project to go friction free. They're just not. What they want to know is that you're leading and protecting them. And the way that you do that is you proactively engage and say to them, hey, here's what I found. Here's our solution. Here's what it's going to do, okay? And it just applies to everything across the board. Everything from selections, back orders, misfits, quality issues, schedule issues with subs. If you understand that it's your job to get in front of that train as quickly as possible and proactively guard your clients experience by telling them what's going to happen and why and providing your solutions. Right? Like you've already thought about it, you've processed it and you're providing solution.
[00:46:03.740] - Brandon
Okay? So I think again, this is not a PM 101, but mindset, okay? I think we're establishing a difference in this perspective. Project managers that are winning are the ones that are consistently proactively managing their jobs. They know when it's going to happen, what's going to happen, why it's going to happen. Okay. Not firefighting. All right, so how do we do that? So time management is a real issue for all of us. There's kind of a piece I want to touch on there. First off, I think we have to, as leaders, business owners, project manager, staff leading up the chain of command, we have to be honest about our workload. And there's just a reality that some project managers, from a production perspective, can be proactive with a larger file case load than others.
[00:46:48.960] - Chris
Sure.
[00:46:49.410] - Brandon
And we need to consider that when we're evaluating performance. If it's mandatory that a project manager in your outfit has to be able to manage 15 to 20 live projects at any given moment, be sure to understand that level of engagement when you hire and ensure that 15 to 20 files for that particular person still gives them the ability to be proactive. And if they can't, you are wrong as a leadership team to have that expectation on your project manager, and they will under deliver and your brand will suffer the consequences for it. You will become okay versus great, and there's a big difference. Okay. All right, so time management beyond that piece there, where the ownership or the key leaders are responsible for defining how many projects are appropriate for a project manager. We have our own personal time management. And one of the things that I see happening all the time I did it. I was felt prey to this more often than I'd like to admit. Is my day basically started by me waking up to emails and texts. Buzzing my phone. And I just went hard into the paint until I passed out at the end of the afternoon and I got up the next day and started all over again.
[00:47:55.410] - Brandon
You can't get in front of anything when you're managing your time that way. There's two things that you can do that I believe are really powerful in helping us gain control of our calendar. First and foremost, if it's not on your calendar, it will be filled by something else. So specific types of activities, key meetings, client face to face meetings, production material, pickup order, all these different functions to the best of your ability. Ensure it has a spot on your calendar, so that when someone calls you and asks you to meet at such and such time on such and such day, you actually look at your client or your calendar and ensure you've got a spot to put that in. Here's what's really important. People don't know what's on your calendar, and they're just like you in the sense that they have stuff that happens and they schedule it, and they don't give you a four point explanation of why they can't be there on such and such date. They're just not available. And it's critical that we manage our calendars the same way. Your client doesn't know if you're on an internal meeting with your leadership staff or if you're on another client's project.
[00:48:58.090] - Brandon
The point is, don't say you can be somewhere if you can't let them know, hey, I can't make that time frame, but I can be there at such and such day at this time. Is that work better for you? Is that work okay for you? Great. All right, let's do it. Leading, not chasing. Okay. Yeah.
[00:49:12.500] - Chris
I love just a little appointment setting sort of best practice that I learned way early on, actually, when I was working with cutco knives. Always give the customer an either or option yes rather than a yes no. It's always the best practice when you're scheduling with somebody, hey, I'm looking at my schedule for this next week, and I've got Tuesday at three available, or I've got Wednesday at 09:00 A.m.. Which one would work better for you guys?
[00:49:37.700] - Brandon
I love that.
[00:49:38.520] - Chris
Right. Either or presenting two options that fit in your calendar.
[00:49:43.230] - Brandon
That's right.
[00:49:43.720] - Chris
Rather than doing the whole and we should probably practice this more. Honestly, I'm realizing I've gotten a little lazy with this and some of our scheduling with clients and podcast guests and stuff. But it's an excellent best practice. It greases the wheels and it feels really pro. Yeah, because this is how attorneys schedule meetings. This is how CPAs schedule meetings with somebody. They don't just say, hey, what's good for you? It's like, no, I'm a professional. I have a calendar that I'm working on with Wednesday at two or with Thursday at three be better for you.
[00:50:12.580] - Brandon
And here's the beautiful thing about that. Anything you do to protect another client's experience, in turn, will be a benefit and or a professional layer to the experience that other customer is going to get.
[00:50:25.680] - Chris
So true.
[00:50:26.280] - Brandon
And you're basically showing them how you manage your time right through that example, and they're like, oh, this is great. I have a pro on this job, not a hack. Okay, so time management, one of the things I see very commonly is we project out, hey, it looks like I've got a loan in my calendar on Thursday, man, that Thursday is my admin day. I am going to get in front of all my shit on Thursday. In the meantime, my hair is going to be on fire. But it's all good because Thursday I'm going to buckle down and take care of business. Thursday morning, 745, a new fire loss comes in, and everybody's excited as hell to go get that six, seven figure loss. Admin day gone. So now I'm a week behind. I've now thrown out the day that I was going to dedicate to getting caught up. And who knows how deep into the following week I'll be before I have any opportunity to.
[00:51:11.270] - Chris
And usually that follow up also consists of client check ins. So now we've gone a week without them hearing anything.
[00:51:16.470] - Brandon
Exactly right. All our proactive management of expectations, reviewing our calendars, reviewing our production schedules, all the things. So here's what we suggest. And again, this kind of goes back to the proactive calendar management. The client doesn't know what you're doing in this time window. They don't know why you're not available. They. Really don't give a shit. They just want to know when you are right. Book end your days. So for project managers, when our primary responsibility is being a cab warrior, being out in the field, talking to my clients, meeting my subs, working my projects, you've got to protect some administrative time to do the things that we're talking about every day, every single day. It cannot be maybe Thursday every morning and at the end of every day to the best of your ability. Build in and then protect. Meaning. Do not schedule a job review during this time frame. Build in admin time every single day. The advantage to that is it doesn't have to be long, right. If we can give something a half hour to an hour two times a day, every day of the week, we will, in most cases be well in front of our major issues and concerns.
[00:52:27.830] - Brandon
Because you're not going to stop the job from producing fires for you to put out. Yeah, it's humans. Subs are going to make mistakes. Vendors are going to make mistakes. My clients not going to show up for something. Whatever the day is going to have chaos in it. You can't remove it, sure, but you can protect pockets of time that no matter what's happening in your life projects, that's the space for you to get in front of your clients expectations, calendars, production schedules, things like that. So what are we doing during that time? Well, like we talked about, our goal is to ensure that we communicate with our clients. Right. Proactively. Well, a beautiful time of the day is in that pocket. That A M and P M pocket, where we just are considering our jobs. Okay, I just got done on Friday. I reviewed the Smith job. Here's my notes.
[00:53:10.970] - Chris
Okay?
[00:53:11.260] - Brandon
Yes. I got to update my calendar for that restruction schedule shifted a little bit. I'm going to make that phone call. I'm going to leave that message. I'm going to type that email. I'm going to send that text. Oh, I need to confirm a dollar amount on the XYZ project with my Subs. That's what we're doing. We're creating a budget for my client to go out and make their three selections. I'm sending a follow up communication in writing that I had over the phone the day before. I'm updating project budgets. I'm producing a change order for my customer to sign via Panda Doc or DocuSign or something. Right? That, hey, the timeline is changing here's. The cost out of pocket to you. Right. We need that approved. So that's what we're doing during those time frames. Because we understand as soon as you hit go, the day is going to race, and there's going to be all sorts of things that come at you that you will have to juggle, all sorts of plates that you'll have to spend. But if we protect a bit of time every single day to do this administrative requirement that's processed that's required by us.
[00:54:11.990] - Brandon
We'll stay in front of it. If you lose one block, well, then you're not wiped out for an entire week. It's just one morning block that didn't get secured. Right. And that's a whole lot better than us pushing everything off till Thursday afternoon and then losing Thursday afternoon. Okay, KPIs last piece. Here. A big issue that we see in general, is it's difficult for us to know what we need to be focused on in order to be winning in our role and project managers. Again, I think we get so hyper focused on, I'm winning if the drywall is put in right. I'm winning if the floor goes in and looks good. Yes, those are things. We're a paid contractor. So, yes, our projects need to be done professionally. That's the bare minimum. But really, how we win is giving our customers the kind of experience that when it's over, they can't wait to get on Google and give us a five star review.
[00:55:09.780] - Chris
Yeah, right. What's the old adage? How we make people feel in the course of delivering our services is the work.
[00:55:16.680] - Brandon
That is the work. That's the work. Because you can't do shoddy work and have a customer that feels good about the process.
[00:55:23.240] - Chris
Quality, timeliness, all of that stuff follows.
[00:55:26.790] - Brandon
It all follows. It all follows. And so what are we looking for? We're looking for tight timelines, respectable time frames. We're looking for customer satisfaction that's excited for a five star Google review. We're looking at quality, of course, the quality of the project. And then this I know this is going to sound crazy, guys. It's really critical that we monitor and hold our projects accountable to a budget and the profit margin. Here's why. You and I have talked a lot about the four P's, and we talk about how protecting the profit is. It will never trump relationship. Relationship trump's. All right. However, if we think about our performance as a project manager and we think about the fact that a job that's been produced on budget, what does that actually tell us about the way that we stewarded the project in the relationship? Do you think jobs come out on budget when our hair is on fire the entire time and we're always chasing the last call? Do jobs get done in a timely manner and on budget when we're constantly behind schedule? When we're constantly shifting our project production schedule based on lack of communication with subs or not proactively getting our client to order a product at the right time?
[00:56:42.050] - Brandon
Like, if we don't proactively manage a project, the chances of it being produced on budget is almost zero. So that if we're monitoring a performance, when we have a project manager that consistently produces jobs at the appropriate profit margin, it's often telling us that the proactivity engagement of that project is probably going the way that we want it as well. Right. It's a telltale sign of how we're performing our job when the profit margins on point. So, again, so if we're talking about, like, bonus structures and things like that here's, the kinds of areas that we like to look at overall revenue that's been generated and managed, because, again, that's a sign of their productivity and their capacity. We want to monitor gross profit margin because that's normally the lagging indicator of how well we managed the project. Customer surveys or Google reviews and then timelines standard time frames on a job. Did we fall?
[00:57:35.600] - Chris
What's our cycle time averaging?
[00:57:38.650] - Brandon
A little summary, guys. This is a lot. Went through a lot here, but what we're trying to encourage folks to do on the project management side is make a mental shift. Your job is to steward relationships out of that responsibility. You will have other tasks that you have to execute on, ie. Managing your schedules, managing budgets, ensuring your sub show up when they do. But the reason you're doing that stuff is to steward the client relationship.
[00:58:05.350] - Chris
And knowledge is power, right? We leave so much knowledge and understanding of our client on the table because we just don't ask these curious questions. And I think part of it is we have our blinders on, like the Clydesdale Horse that I have a path in front of me, I need to walk. I need to pull this stuff down the path. And we've failed to ask the questions that open our view and be like, all right, they had this experience last time with such and such. I need to make sure that I'm speaking to that I'm addressing, that I'm setting good expectations, I'm communicating that to the team. But knowledge is power. It helps. So often the stuff that goes wrong in a project right. Was us getting blindsided by an attitude or perspective the customer came into the job with. And oftentimes it had nothing to do with, like, an egregious error on our part. It was their perception of something based on past experience. And once we know that, it's like, we can avoid a lot of those things.
[00:59:00.150] - Brandon
Yes, absolutely. Then we talked about some KPIs. We talked about some communication and time management methodology. We got a book in our days every day. We've got to build in components that are required to perform the job well. We can't defer stuff to some fictitious time out on the horizon that we hope to catch up. You can't do that and remain proactive marriage tip.
[00:59:24.410] - Chris
It's like, why we didn't have kids. You got to schedule sex in conversation, right? Right. You don't schedule it. It's just like week to week. You can have these weeks as a married couple where it's like, okay, when was the last time we had a meaningful conversation besides the dishwasher clean or dirty? Like, where are we taking the kids this Thursday? Who has soccer games? Right? It's like, we have to schedule those things it has to be like hard edges around that calendar item or it doesn't happen. It's the same principle, right. The tyranny, the urgent takes over.
[00:59:52.390] - Brandon
That's right. And the reality of it is even as leaders in the organization, technically kind of what you are as a project.
[00:59:59.240] - Chris
Manager, you didn't think I was going to be able to work.
[01:00:01.470] - Brandon
Secondly, I didn't see that coming. But I'm really pleased.
[01:00:04.160] - Chris
I was thinking about it for several sentences.
[01:00:06.070] - Brandon
You really worked that in.
[01:00:07.800] - Chris
Yeah, I know.
[01:00:09.290] - Brandon
All right, so we'll probably come back to this topic. It's a complicated one. I think from a technical aspect, you can really get down to all the nuts and bolts and the details. But I think our goal here was just it's mind shift. It's mindset shift. What's your real priority?
[01:00:21.890] - Chris
I think a future episode or something. We should actually go through that restoration checklist meeting.
[01:00:27.080] - Brandon
Yeah.
[01:00:27.440] - Chris
Don't you think I'd be an amazing, totally good technical guys? Well, this is great. Listen, if this stuff is valuable to you, please, one way to thank us or to share it is to comment on our stuff when we post this on LinkedIn, we do that every week with our podcast episodes. But certainly sharing the podcast on LinkedIn, on Facebook, letting other people know what you've been listening to. I was just talking to somebody. They listened to every single episode. We have 54 episodes or something out now. But the podcast is growing as people are hearing about it. And we've got this neat community kind of forming around it. The other ways you can engage with us, join the floodlight community.
[01:01:05.220] - Brandon
Right.
[01:01:05.650] - Chris
There's a lot of different ways to people will hire us to do onsites to come out to them and do workshops and trainings for the people. We work with companies one on one. In fact, we have a slot that's coming up and we have a client that we're finishing up with. So we have a slot open for that. You can reach out to us via floodlightgrp.com. And we've got links to our one on one consulting on site workshops. And then also if you are trying to grow your commercial sales right, and you're looking for just a great turnkey training resource for your team to get them up to speed where they can effectively chase commercial business and not do the whole candy and smiles thing we know is dying off. Our commercial Sales Master course is a really affordable way for you to do that and get your new salesperson activated quickly in the commercial field. So that's another thing.
[01:01:52.380] - Brandon
Yeah.
[01:01:52.860] - Chris
And then also you can join us for our Floodlight Friday live Streams 09:00 A.m. Pacific. Normally we're actually going to be traveling next week to go visit a client and we bought some new studio gear. That's kind of our travel setup. Yes, we're going to try to do a roadie episode, so that may be a different time next week, but whatever. So thank you so much for following us. Really grateful. That's it. Yeah.
[01:02:15.120] - Brandon
All right, bye. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart and Boot.
[01:02:22.650] - Chris
And if you're enjoying the show, you love this episode. Please hit follow. Formerly known to subscribe, write us a review, or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.