[00:00:00.250] - Brandon
Christopher, I see what you did there.
[00:00:02.160] - Chris
hey dude
[00:00:02.370] - Brandon
I caught that.
[00:00:02.920] - Brandon
Don't try to sneak that past me.
[00:00:04.040] - Chris
I drank one of those celsius energy drinks that today's guest turned me, and I've seen her posting about the late nights at the office and the celsius drinks, and I'm like, jeez, I'm not much of an energy drink guy, but they work. Oh, I've been on a roll this morning.
[00:00:21.350] - Brandon
What is it that gives them all caffeinated?
[00:00:24.290] - Chris
It's like green tea extract or something like that. It's like the equivalent of a cup of coffee. But anyway, I digress.
[00:00:31.140] - Brandon
Does we have a fridge of those? Is that what's in there?
[00:00:33.390] - Chris
Oh, yeah, bro.
[00:00:34.010] - Brandon
Oh, jeez.
[00:00:34.580] - Chris
You know what?
[00:00:34.970] - Brandon
I keep drinking those. Like, they're just don't drink them.
[00:00:37.550] - Chris
Afternoon, man.
[00:00:38.110] - Brandon
Like, get a refresher in. And I think that I've been inadvertently my caffeine levels thinking that they're just a good old fashioned replacement for the lacroix.
[00:00:49.640] - Chris
No, careful, bro, careful.
[00:00:52.450] - Brandon
Okay, that explains a few things. I won't go into detail.
[00:00:55.880] - Chris
We either got off track and are really annoying all of you listening right now, or you're going to go out and buy some celsius as the Wawa 711 later sponsored.
[00:01:05.310] - Brandon
Yeah, that's right.
[00:01:07.500] - Chris
Yeah, exactly. Celsius hit us up. We'll bring you on a sponsor.
[00:01:11.230] - Brandon
We'll make it word.
[00:01:12.120] - Chris
Just send us free stuff. We have a great guest today.
[00:01:15.460] - Brandon
We do.
[00:01:15.990] - Chris
And this is actually go ahead.
[00:01:18.630] - Brandon
We're about to say the exact same thing.
[00:01:22.570] - Chris
We've been wanting to have a conversation with Trish for a long time, and so it's worth kind of unpacking Trish Wall a bit in terms of her background and who she is. So anybody's paying attention knows we have a kind of a group of serve pros that we've been working with. And it's just so funny for you and I, right, because we used to sell so hard against serve pros back in our independent days. Yeah. But man, we've discovered so many cool people within the Surf Pro system. It's really fun. And Trish is certainly one of those people. Trish and her husband Jim run Team Wall, which is a top 50, I mean, for all I know right now, top 15 Surf Pro operator, they've got, what, 14 or 15 licenses in the Northeast? But I think what's probably most dramatic is they've been in a huge growth curve. The last three, I think since 2019 is when they really started to put.
[00:02:12.590] - Brandon
The afterburners on, I think so three, four years tops. Yeah, crazy growth.
[00:02:16.880] - Chris
And now I think when they started, they started with a couple of helpers, right. Trish and Jim were working in the business and grinding away. Well, today, 14 years later, they have 160 employees, one of the biggest, frankly, restoration operations, period. It has to put them in the top 5% or I don't know. But anyway, this is a really fun conversation because we spend a lot of our time really talking about the head games of a leader? How do we think about ourselves, our work? How do we work with our downline in a productive way? How does our stuff sometimes intermingle with all that? I mean, this is a topic that you and I love to talk about. It's just hearing a restorer, like a current operator that's in the mix, man, they're like neck deep, just neck deep in massive growth. Just to hear somebody really reflect honestly on what's that like, what's that feel like, what is it like to have a family? They have youngish children. I don't know how she does it. I just think I'm a big believer. There are some people that just have much higher capacity, and she's one of those people.
[00:03:26.850] - Brandon
They both run and they're sacrifices.
[00:03:31.010] - Chris
Yeah, there's sacrifices that they're making to become a real, live, grown up company, which is what she's I love how she said that.
[00:03:39.220] - Brandon
Yeah, that's like one of my hangover notes. What's our goal? Well, our goal is to build a grown up company, which I thought was pretty awesome.
[00:03:46.440] - Chris
That was fun.
[00:03:47.290] - Brandon
It's a fun talk. I think there is some heavy elements to it, but I just think it's so raw, it's so real. I think it's super entertaining. And I think just about anybody that listens to it is going to be able to put themselves in these shoes to some extent. Whether it be current or right around the corner or something that you know, is on the horizon.
[00:04:08.270] - Chris
I think the thing that is so, I don't know, hard sometimes as an entrepreneur is you have this big hairy, audacious goal out there that someday, like, I was talking to a restorer and someday he wants to be like a 500 million dollar company. I'm like talking to this dude and that's where he's trying to go. And yet it's pretty rare that you get to talk to somebody who's already done that. She isn't 500 million, but you know what I mean? They're swinging for the fences like big time companies, and you just don't have a sight picture of what does that look like, what does it feel like to lead a team like that? And you get some of those nuggets from her, some of the behind the scenes just raw gritty. And I think what's so interesting about it is it feels you and I have never run a company that huge, but it's relatable. Yeah, it's familiar. It's like, okay, the challenges, the things she's thinking about, it's the same kind of stuff that you and I have wrestled with over the years as we've grown smaller companies, relatively speaking. It's just so familiar.
[00:05:06.030] - Chris
I think the problems just get bigger and maybe more weighty versions of it.
[00:05:10.390] - Brandon
It's like the characters of it though, is the same. The underlying kind of like, cause Asian, it's the same.
[00:05:16.680] - Chris
That's the same thing.
[00:05:17.430] - Brandon
It's kind of like when we talk about big losses, like more square footage, but the behaviors tend to be the yeah.
[00:05:23.720] - Chris
Yeah, totally. So anyway, that's fun. We should move on, though.
[00:05:26.330] - Brandon
All right, let's rock some sponsors and then let's jump in.
[00:05:29.420] - Chris
Yeah. I'll take answer force this time. So Answerforce.com not a new name in the restoration business, but it's new to know. It's, like, funny how many of these things can kind of sneak under the radar when you're not looking for it specifically. But we met them at RIA Call reception, call intake agents. I don't know what the official term they call themselves, but they're a remote reception company, and I think all of us have maybe worked with call centers over the years. We've tried them. Some of you have heard bad things because they aren't as professional. I think that was the first thing we were really blown away by. At RAA is just the professionalism. They're the real deal. Like, super pro. The folks that were manning their trade show, we had oh, my goodness, Mandy. I almost forgot. Mandy from Answer Force actually came on our podcast live at the RIA and talked to us. But here's the high points I want to highlight today is outside third party call reception. Like, Answer Force isn't just for those of us who are starting out as a Joe in the know. We're running the business from our house.
[00:06:29.840] - Chris
You need a professional sort of reception presence. It isn't just for that, although certainly they can fill that for you, no problem. And really cost effectively. But I think we also felt like, shoot, this is also for medium and large companies because what do you do when your receptionist is out on lunch? We normally just forward the phones to whoever and they get whatever kind of intake experience. Maybe it works out, maybe it doesn't, but, man, do you want to take the risk with your inbound job leads?
[00:06:53.800] - Brandon
Yeah, same with just workflow, right? Like, we get cat events, storm events. We get spikes in incoming call volume. Don't want to burn the team out. There's lots of applications.
[00:07:04.030] - Chris
Seriously, guys, we're talking about hundreds of bucks. That's, like, what we're talking about. So to pro up your business for a few hundred bucks a month, that's kind of a no brainer. That's the no brainer stuff that you just implement it, move on, right? And so you definitely should get a demo from them and find out how it can fit in with your business and how you can leverage it. But there's tons of use cases like we already mentioned in the talk here, so answerforce.com Floodlight.
[00:07:29.400] - Brandon
Love it.
[00:07:30.260] - Brandon
Oh, you know what?
[00:07:30.930] - Brandon
One thing, just because it's important, is the uniqueness of the customization. So, again, I think the biggest thing that we were wrestling with before is you kind of get this one size fits all. You might really prioritize the onboarding of the client process, and then you really feel hesitant and fearful to hand that off to anybody other than your own internal staff. Well, these guys will partner with you to really make that seamless. Like, what do you do? Okay, let's build a system that matches that. So anyways, thought that throw that out there. CNR Magazine. And it's funny, it's like when we say CNR magazine. Well, that's the professional name, but underneath it's like to me it's always just it's Michelle. It's Michelle and her team. That's the friend of the industry, right? Anyways, we love her. You guys know that. You've heard us talk about her very highly. And you guys also see all over LinkedIn through their Eblast, through their own platforms, through their podcast. I mean, they are all over the place and on top of all the stories, just awesome. She just works her and her team work tirelessly to make sure that we have updated information in front of us as an industry.
[00:08:32.520] - Brandon
And so we just encourage you to be a participant, be a subscriber to that and really leverage that resource for you and your team. And then of course, guys, you know how much we beat the drum for Liftify. We actually have something really interesting. So because of our partnership with Zach and the team [email protected] is they will often send us reports based on how some of the referred clients that we are partnered with are doing and how things are happening. And I'm going to give a little shout out to somebody. So one of our friends in the business, let's put it that way, george and Michelle Gutierrez, they run Team Gutierrez at Serve Pro. And it's interesting, they were already in a number one seat, which George and Michelle are competitors. So it's fun.
[00:09:15.780] - Chris
Out of more than 800 Serve Pro.
[00:09:18.130] - Brandon
Operators yeah, they were already outperforming the majority, if not everyone in the franchise. From a Google review perspective, we talked about it. They met with Zach, zach partnered with them and launched the program with them.
[00:09:29.880] - Chris
About 550, if I recall. Total reviews.
[00:09:32.700] - Brandon
Yeah, at the time they were approaching like that six range, 600 range. And they're now just under 1000. If not 1000 in ten weeks. In ten weeks, 48 ish percent, I think racker increase.
[00:09:44.610] - Chris
All time increase in all time. Google not just year to date, right?
[00:09:48.570] - Brandon
No, all time. There was a 48% increase just in the weeks that they've been part of that program. And also a shout out to George and their team is there also have been a bit of a voice with Zach and their team as they iterate specifically to make sure the product continues to work well for us. So, guys, liftify.com it's. Automated Google reviews. I can't say enough to how much of a program shifter this is. It is free organic SEO activity for you. One of the most cost effective ways to implement I've ever seen. And then the team is consistently iterating to make sure that their product doesn't just work for service companies, but works especially for us as an industry, as disaster restoration contractors. So, okay, enough about them. Liftify.com. Do yourself a favor and just get over there and signify.com bloodlight. Make it happen. All right, dude.
[00:10:46.350] - Chris
Welcome back to the Head Heart and Boots Podcast. I'm Chris.
[00:10:50.050] - Brandon
And I'm Brandon. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead.
[00:10:56.770] - Chris
Man, I love this industry.
[00:11:00.370] - Brandon
Well, Trish, thank you so much for joining us. As folks are going to learn here in just a moment, you're not exactly sitting around looking for new things to do to fill your time.
[00:11:12.230] - Trish
Nope.
[00:11:12.697] - Brandon
nope
[00:11:12.760] - Brandon
So we appreciate that and respect that. Before we get rolling, though, I think it's so important. Of course, as part of our intro, the team start to get an idea of, wow, who is this Trish Wall person? But just give us the rundown, the 30, 45, 2nd version of what it is that you are doing. Like, who is Trish? What are you guys building, you and your husband?
[00:11:34.520] - Brandon
What is it that you do?
[00:11:36.430] - Trish
Yeah, so this whole life is I didn't dream it up. It kind of came to me through my husband. So we both were laid off in 2008, ish in the recession, and Jim always wanted his own business, and he stumbled upon Surf Pro. And so we started with one license in Hunt Valley, Maryland, was undeveloped. And through the years, the last 14 years, we have grown to 15 licenses now between four different metro markets. So most of that growth has happened since 2019. We went from one employee gym on the truck, doing all the calls, everything I joined, and now we're up to 160 employees and trying to manage and navigate what that looks like and quickly growing.
[00:12:21.230] - Brandon
160 employees.
[00:12:24.340] - Trish
Yes.
[00:12:25.390] - Brandon
Now, did I just hear this correctly.
[00:12:26.920] - Chris
That it was just you and Jim and you and Jim until 2019 when you guys turned the afterburners on or.
[00:12:34.230] - Trish
When no, it was just Jim and myself for probably two months. And then we brought a crew chief on. And then by the end of that first year, we had about four people on staff. So even the people that work for us have no idea how it began. It was in a 900 square foot warehouse with no AC and no heat and no bathroom, and I just don't think people realize it. Start with us now. Like what? That was just 14 years ago.
[00:13:05.770] - Brandon
Yeah. So for those of you that haven't seen or had the opportunity to visit the team, your team has called us in. We've had the opportunity to do some live stuff with you and some of the surrounding companies. And it is quite a facility. There is a lot happening there's, a lot of moving parts. You guys are obviously heavily engaged in cat and large commercial loss, and your team shows it in terms of assets, re, infrastructure and all the things it is a giant machine. There's a lot happening, and I think that that's valuable for the folks listening. Not just because most of us are operating businesses that may not be that size, right, because you guys are fairly abnormal in our world, but it's to show people like, hey, this journey is being done by really successful people like you and Jim and the rest of your team. And there's this reality of we're not alone in a lot of the pain and the frustration and some of those places in our business where we get high centered. And I think that's part of Chris and I's excitement is when we can bring somebody like you onto the show who is winning at a high level and yet is willing to share with us that that thing doesn't look like what social media says, that there's a lot of hard work and gut checks that happen along the way.
[00:14:19.650] - Brandon
And that's one of the things we really appreciate you, Trish, is that you're willing to do that.
[00:14:23.920] - Trish
Yeah, no problem. I think part of it is I know that we've been successful and I see that, but I always recognize all the things we have to work on. So when people are like, oh, you're kicking butt, you're doing awesome, I'm always like, oh, my gosh, have you looked under the covers? We have so many things to work on.
[00:14:43.530] - Chris
That's a really good segue into kind of our starter topic today, I think. Like you say, so many people, they look at the outer success and they make a lot of assumptions about what it's like for that person, what they make a lot of assumptions of what's happening in their business and what it looks like based on the external success. Right. And you sent us an email a couple of weeks ago just kind of sharing some of your inner thought life behind the scenes of, okay, what's really going on? What am I struggling with? And so forth. As a leader of 160 employee enterprise. Let's dig into that a little bit because this is a topic Brandon and I really care about is this idea as leaders the importance of self reflection and deeper levels of self awareness, like understanding what's going on in my head. What are some of the themes in my thought life that are affecting kind of the way I work, the way I do, relationship with others, the way I see myself, all that kind of stuff? So I just love that you brought this and I love that we're going to talk about this because I think it's going to help so many other operators to get in touch and some of their own self reflections and so forth.
[00:15:53.020] - Chris
So let's talk about this. One of the words that came out for me is I was reading your email again was just this there's an instinct or drive for perfection, even though maybe you don't use that word subconsciously there's a drive for making things just so, and a part of that, too, being just a heavy amount of self criticism. When you don't achieve that standard, can you kind of go into your headspace? And when you were writing this email to us, just what provoked it, maybe, and where you've been at kind of in your head as a leader lately?
[00:16:26.050] - Trish
I think it goes back to I'm not a perfectionist, but I do have perfectionist tendencies, and I haven't always been this way. I really haven't. In high school, I got good grades. I was upper average sports, but I never really drove home hard trying to practice and be the best. And then I do have a defining moment of when that all changed. I went to college. I had to pay for my own college education. And I remember sitting down in my very first class, Economics 101, and just doing the math of how much money I'm going to be in debt when all of this is over, and if I don't get the best grades possible and the best job possible out of all this, what am I doing? This is like $40,000 at the time for four years. It's much different now, but that's kind of where it all changed and where I studied my ass off all through college and got fantastic grades and got a great job opportunity off of that, and then that great career experience because of that. And I've just always been that way. And I think I mentioned in my email, even down to just working out, I love to go to Orange Theory is one of my favorite workouts.
[00:17:40.190] - Trish
And I'm like, you know what? I'm not in the mood. Just going to go do what I want. And then I get on there, I'm like, I got to go. I got to beat this person next to me. I got this. I just can't bring it down. I always have to go to the next level and try to be the best I can be at all moments, and that's just who I am. And I can see that sometimes bleeding into my team, maybe not in the best way, and it's unfortunate because I'm not expecting perfection out of them. And so when I see something going awry, I want to step in and help and coach. But sometimes I feel like they're seeing that as them not being held to my standards, and that's not the case. I see it quite differently. I see it as I didn't do something for them that I should have. You know, jocko Willink extreme ownership, right? It's on me. I didn't do something to support them correctly. So it's just that perception that sometimes I struggle with. And I want them to know I have a standard for sure that I need you to hit, because sometimes if we're not hitting that standard, there's significant consequences that happen.
[00:18:49.830] - Trish
And so I want to make sure that we're there. But if you're not hitting that standard, I think that's on me, that I need to do something for you better so that you can be to where we need to be. And I hope that's not just word.
[00:19:02.740] - Brandon
Vomit put out there, but no, it's great. I think it's right on point. Here's what I'd kind of like to do, because I feel like there's almost two parts to this conversation potentially, right? There's this internal piece which I don't want to skip over. And then there's this application as a leader, like us thinking about our team members, our staffing leadership teams, right? Like, how does this apply? And I think that a lot of people already have heard what you said, and they're like, okay, yes, those shoes fit. I see where she's going here. If you guys are cool with it. I want to hang in the self piece first know? And this is like Chris and I's own kind of think mission is we're just massive believers that most of the work that needs to happen in our organization starts between the ears of our top line leaders like company owners top line. Like, there's just so much internal work that when the time's spent and it's done well, what the rest of our sphere experiences is pretty unbelievable, right? And so I want to hang in that pocket first if we so trish from your perspective, because I think I relate, at least to a certain extent.
[00:20:07.420] - Brandon
I don't think I could be in your camp. I honestly still see you and Jim and some of the things that you're capable of doing, and I'm kind of in awe, to be honest. But I do relate to you and some of the descriptors that you put in this email from that kind of more a driven personality. Like, there is this pursuit of iterating next better, let's keep more discipline. Right? Well, if someone says this is an opportunity or that somebody could perform at this level, I want to figure out then how do I do that? And for me personally, though, it also can be an immense weight, and at times it can reduce the enjoyment I'm having out of the journey. So, like, my wife, for instance, is not like me. She's a creative, she's an artist. She's very good at being in the moment. Like, there's real bliss at times. Of course, it's not always like this, but when she's in the moment, there's something powerful that's happening with her, whether it be in relationship or in creating or whatever the case may be. And the thing for me that I've struggled with almost my whole life is I'm always en route from A to Z.
[00:21:13.620] - Brandon
And all those points in the journey for me feel like they're in the way because I'm in pursuit of landing on Z. And my wife has always been this balance to me of, yeah, but we're at point B right now and point B is pretty cool too. We're not stopping the journey but let's hang here for a moment and really enjoy what we're experiencing from your perspective that drive that pursuit for iteration and getting better. Do you ever feel yourself getting lost in the journey and not enjoying part of what you're doing while you're in route? How's that impact you? I guess personally I love that question.
[00:21:51.010] - Trish
Oh that is great. Yes. It's just fuzziness gray fuzziness right now. I don't think I'm enjoying any of it because I do have a point I want to get at. I have call it a crusade for a grown up business. Crusade for a grown up business. And so I want to get to that point and so when I feel like we're there I feel like I can slow down and enjoy a little bit in the meantime. I'm not joking, I'm working 80 to 90 hours a week. So it is hard to slow down and enjoy. It's just constant development and training and coaching and recruiting and over and over and over again and I feel like we're starting to get traction there and then I can kind of slow down and enjoy what's been created. But I think part of the hard part know this crusade for grown up business we came from again just Jim and myself and then it's just been like craziness like a rat race trying to keep up with everything and I think a lot of restoration owners probably have this issue. You are a startup by yourself and everything you're founded on is doorway conversations, excel spreadsheets out what calendars and you can't run your business that way when you get to a certain level and we didn't catch on to that for way too late.
[00:23:15.620] - Trish
So now it's like this rat race of trying to create this grown up business. How does the corporation run? We should probably be mimicking that the communication and the processes and all of that kind of thing. So there's just so much to do and I feel like we're building the USS Enterprise while the floodgates are opened and that's why it's hard to slow down and enjoy I guess. But I probably should.
[00:23:43.590] - Chris
I follow you on Facebook and LinkedIn and so forth, many other people do. But you're a mom and you and Jim are married. You have a like what does it look like to manage that kind of growth in a business and still maintain some of these other life elements for you? How can you give us a picture of what does that look like to maintain a marriage and a family as you're doing this?
[00:24:07.950] - Trish
It's not easy. We've gotten better at know for example, Jim has been out of town for about five weeks now so that actually is kind of a blessing. I've had to slow down and there's no one else here to help with the kids and I see them sitting in their rooms on their phones for 4 hours while I'm taking meetings and I feel guilt about that. So I am being conscious about that and saying, guys, let's go do this together. Let's go have this dinner. I might take them for Pedicures, maybe this afternoon, something like that. But it does mean a lot of nighttime hours. It does mean a lot of early morning hours. It does mean Jim sacrificing in some spaces to give me that time to work and then vice versa. It does mean you get to your sports practice or sports game an hour early and drop the kids off to get ready for the game and I go to the car and do work until the game starts. So it is a lot of multitasking. There really is not a lot of time for yourself. That's just the hard reality of it.
[00:25:10.080] - Trish
But you're working to the point where there is that time for yourself eventually. And I got to keep that hope in my mind that that's going to happen.
[00:25:19.350] - Brandon
So it's funny, I'm thinking about your guys'company, just the size and scope of it. And I'm also thinking, of course we've got a little insider trader information, but expansion and continued development of the organization isn't necessarily stopping either, right? So you're iterating putting systems in and because you guys are respected and you're driven and you're succeeding, then people want you to do so from your perspective. Trish, sometimes when we ask questions, I never want to guess, especially you, to feel judged right by the question. So I just want to preemptively put that out there. But are you concerned that this because I do this, it's this perpetual movement of the finish line right, where I'm like, okay team, I need to double this year. We've got to double in size here's why here's, blah, blah, blah. The team we all commit, we go and then we're doing that. So like our team on a tiny scale compared to you, we have doubled in size and we're almost ready to hit that finish line. And it's like I don't even give myself or the team the opportunity to celebrate because I'm like, okay, well, we're almost there.
[00:26:29.820] - Brandon
Let's move that marker out again. Hey guys, we're going to this number and I have a lot of creatives on my team, so they want to celebrate and route, whereas I can just get caught in this trench of perpetually pushing the marker out. Is there any concern for you that you never arrive because the business is going to get bigger tomorrow and then next year it's going to get bigger again? Are you concerned that you're perpetually moving that finish line out and you'll never actually see it or experience it?
[00:27:01.210] - Trish
Yeah, that's a great question. I guess that's something I get caught up. I'm like you. That's just what I'm used to. So I never really think about the team. Do they feel that. Way? I don't know. That's a great question, but I can just say from the franchise perspective, we've got 950 owners all around us, and I could tell you we are nowhere close to the largest. So I'm always looking, you got to be in a room, surround yourself with people better than you. So I'm always looking at those people that are way ahead of us, and I'm thinking, God, every year I think, this is the year we're going to make the top ten. Never. We never do. And that's fine as long as we keep growing. I'm good with that. But it's just to have you're always having these people that are performing at much higher levels than you to look at. So I guess I never take that perspective of, look where we've come from. I don't think like that. I don't think, oh, man, we used to just be a two person company making $300,000 a year. I'm always looking at, well, what are these top ten people doing?
[00:28:05.210] - Trish
That's incredible. We have one guy that signed a $150,000,000 contract, and I'm like, Damn. Yeah. So I'm looking at these guys, and I guess that maybe erases what my goal lines are, because I'm just always looking at the people that are killing it in comparison.
[00:28:28.530] - Chris
Do you feel like you guys have a particular vision of what you're trying to create, that you guys share? Or do you guys have kind of independent are your whys? Are your reasons that you guys are driving different? Or how does that look like within a marriage business partnership? What's the picture? What's the vision? I mean, without sharing the playbook, you know what I mean? But what's the why? We hear the drive, we hear the competition. Certainly we can relate to that, but what is the end game as far as building a grown up company? What does that produce for you and Jim? What's the driver?
[00:29:04.100] - Trish
I mean, I think originally the driver was just to pay our kids college tuition, to take great vacations, own our cars, have to retire at a semi early age. That was the vision. And then I hate to say it, but we're both very competitive people, and you get caught up in that. You really do. We're very competitive, and I do tend to operate at that. Have you read good to Great by Jim Collins.
[00:29:35.550] - Brandon
Oh, yeah, sure.
[00:29:36.840] - Trish
So he's got, like, level five, not you know, when I assess myself, I think I'm like level three, trying to work to level four, but level five, you've got the fierce resolve combined with humility. And I definitely have that fierce resolve, like, I will not give up ever. And so I don't know where I'm going with this, but I think that's part of it is I got that fierce resolve. Jim, he's competitive, and he's a Gemini, so he's got two different personalities. So sometimes he's like, I want to sell right now, and then sometimes he's like, let's go buy this market in this crazy location. Think the combination of all of this has resulted in where we are today. We did have a consultant come in, like a financial consultant, kind of look at our operations and our business, and he identified 65 gaps. But the question and the gap that hit home was we just don't really know what our end game is. We don't know when to draw the line. So it's really something we have to figure out what that is. And I think I can't think that I'm alone in that.
[00:30:43.710] - Trish
I think there's a lot of people that don't have their step by step playbook of that we're going to do this, this, and then we're out.
[00:30:51.790] - Chris
I relate to that.
[00:30:52.750] - Brandon
It's interesting because in the job side, right, we talk a lot about starting with the end in mind, yet that just seems fairly foreign when we think about our business, right? Like, is there a way for us to mentally kind of start with the end in mind? Meaning we don't really know what that punch out date is or what it will actually execute like or look like, but just this idea of having a vision of, hey, this is where I'm working towards. And as we get closer to that than some sense of accomplishment or of landing or achieving. Okay, so I have a question along the same lines. Hopefully we can switch a little bit more in terms of impact on our so I'm making a lot of references to me on this. I just think I relate to Trish on this particular one a lot. But Chris and I have been talking a lot about there's an element of creating that we have to be engaged in, like, just for our own personal health. And for me, this has been a conversation I've had with my wife a lot is what feels like more of a grind to her because, again, she's in the moment free, wants to spend more time kind of contemplating what's happening relationally.
[00:31:56.800] - Brandon
All the things for me to slow down, there is an element of slowing down, actually is not great for me. It's not good. I've tried to look at it a million different ways and shape it and hold it this way and that way and that the reality is that in the moment of downtime I do kind of feel some sense of relief. But then there's just this thing that's plaguing me in the back of my head the whole time where I can't really enjoy this downtime all that much. And so I'm trying to figure out the balance point of what about that is natural wiring. And it's totally okay for me to feed because it just makes me feel more fulfilled. And what of that is just guilt or pressure that I'm allowing other things besides my own vision for myself or my own goals between my wife and I to drive.
[00:32:47.190] - Chris
All right, Headhart and Boots listeners wanted to stop here just a moment and thank our underwriting sponsor, Bloodlight Consulting Group, as all of you. You know, Brandon and I, this is our passion project, Headhart and Boots is, but it's also a way more and more that our consulting clients find us and in effect, they interview us, right? Those of you been listening to show for a while, you get to know who we are, right, what we're about. So if Headheart and Boots is valuable to you, one of the best things you can do is share it with your friends. And it's been incredible to watch just the audience grow and we still get text messages from many of you about shows that you really like and impacted you. So that's number one. And please keep doing that. Many of you have been huge advocates of the show. We also just want to remind you too, if you're a restoration company owner and you're interested in a partner in your growth, you want some help building out systems, developing your leadership teams, helping set up the infrastructure for you to scale and grow into the company that you're trying to build.
[00:33:46.440] - Chris
That's what we do. That's what we do is we come alongside restoration company leaders, we help equip them and we help support them in that growth trajectory. So if you're looking for that go to Floodlightgrp.com, potentially we could be a great match for each other.
[00:34:00.620] - Brandon
Another way that we really do serve our client base and our sphere of influence is through our Premier Partners. We work really hard to vet those folks that we believe bring a level of value to the industry, that it can really be leveraged in a way to have a sincere, positive impact on your business. We take that very seriously. The folks that we create, those kind of ongoing partnerships, that's not a check the box kind of scenario. We really see strategic alignment in the value that they bring. We see value in the way that their leadership teams and their partners are developed. And we've done very sincere work of ensuring that these folks that we introduce our clients and our sphere to can actually create vetted value. So go check out Floodlightgrp.com Premier Partners and see if there's some folks on there that you can connect with and begin developing some other resources to support your growth and your business. What am I chasing and being overly committed to? Because I feel like I have to subconsciously. And what about it is me being in alignment with what makes me healthy and at some point I work differently than other people and it's okay.
[00:35:06.180] - Brandon
Like, it just is healthy for me. I don't even know if there's a question in there. Can you relate to that at all as part of what we're talking about?
[00:35:13.800] - Trish
Definitely. We take a vacation at least once a year and I think everybody can relate to this right before you take vacation. It's crazy town, trying to get ready for it and trying to think of all the things that might be dropped while you're gone. And then you get there and you're like, this is great, but it takes you two days probably to just disconnect, and then you're cool for like, three days, you're like, this is great. And then you start getting anxiety again, knowing what you're going back to. And I mentioned this in my email, but I think this is really what brings me a lot of anxiety is to step back a little bit. Back in 2009, we did start our business together. I got pregnant with our second child, and I stayed home for eight years. Then I had another child. So I was home from 2010 until about 2017, 2018. So that's a big chunk of time where Jim was running the business all alone. And he did a great job, and he brought it from when I left, I think we were at $500,000. He brought it to maybe an $8 million business.
[00:36:17.740] - Trish
That's a huge amount of growth, huge amount of people that were brought on, but there's also a lot that just wasn't handled, because how can you do it all? So since the moment I came back in 2018 ish there's just been a lot of projects, a lot of messes to clean up, a lot of things to organize. And I would say I've kind of been the fall girl in that respect. Anything that wasn't handled comes to me to fix, to untangle, unwind, put back in order, put some documentation behind it, train everyone, and then hope to God that it's taken and kept accountable for. So that last piece, though, is the piece that's the hard one is having our leadership understand it and keep the team accountable for it. And so that anxiety on vacations is what's been dropped and what am I going to have to fix when I get back? So that's really the driver for me of that anxiety.
[00:37:16.330] - Brandon
Yeah, I think that makes sense. Oh, it totally does. Yeah.
[00:37:21.710] - Chris
It sounds like this is a work in progress, right? Where are you currently approaching that accountability mean? I think every owner that's listening right now or GM or senior leader can relate to that anxiety, that tension of, is my team going to execute if I'm not there? How do you not not you guys? How do you manage that accountability and execution piece? Do you have a certain cadence? Do you have a way you think about it? Is there a way that you do your one on ones? Like, how do you manage accountability in your part of the business?
[00:37:53.030] - Trish
Well, that is your part of the business. That is a very apropos statement. So I think that's the hard part is the world that I oversee and the people I oversee. It's not fine. There's a lot to work on for sure, but there's a level of control there and a level of oversight. But I'm not overseeing the whole business. There are pieces that report to others, and that's the hard part to help merge those. And everybody in the entire company works together. We're all integrated heavily. I don't hope this doesn't get too raw on everybody, but it's hard. It's really difficult because yesterday I'm talking to Jim, I'm like, what can I do differently? What am I not doing that's not sinking in, that's not resonating with people, that they're not picking it up and learning it and coaching to it. I've made these flowcharts. Feedback is, I don't understand a flowchart. Okay? I understand that the flowchart is basically the blueprint for a house, right? You need that. You need the blueprint. All right? You don't understand the flowchart. Let me put this into verbal documentation and give it to you. Let me record myself on teams, make a video about it, share my screen, walk through it.
[00:39:10.430] - Trish
Let me do that. Let's have one on one trainings. Let's do group trainings. Try it all. And at the end of the day, still not being understood, embraced and kept accountable to. And I think part of the missing piece is leadership has to dig in, understand it, do it themselves, and then understand the tools that are out there to keep their team accountable to it. So that's the missing piece. And I do have a lot of their serve pro franchises asking me for my flowcharts, asking me for my resources. And part of me is like, man, I spent so much time. I missed so many tournaments. I missed so much family time, so many runs I could have gone on to make this step. And part of me is like, oh, I don't want to just give it up the keys for free. But then at the same time, like, okay, I can give you the keys, but it's not like driving a car. It's like driving a semi tractor trailer. You got to learn how to operate that Jbreak and everything. That's not easy. So I can give them the keys, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to have success in that accountability.
[00:40:15.770] - Chris
Piece either, because I hear you very humbly saying, I created all these flowcharts and it's hard for me to translate this over to my team or to get my team to adopt.
[00:40:26.400] - Trish
Totally.
[00:40:28.310] - Chris
And listen, when you say that, I feel so much kinship in that space because of course, that's a lot of what we do, the way we're trying to help restoration companies is introducing mean. Brandon and I wrestle with this, too, is what is the best way to equip people around these processes and procedures? Like, what's the best way to teach and help them understand? Like help them really get it and assimilate it into their day to day, week to week process. And it's hard. It's hard. It's like sometimes people pick it up really quickly and they just get it and you're like, wow, God, okay. If I expected that to be a little more difficult and then other times where you think it's going to be somewhat routine or kind of almost kindergarten, it's incredibly hard to get people to kind of coalesce around this new thing. Has there been some pockets of success that have given you kind of a clue as to how to do it better? Or is it still just kind of a big cloud of what am I doing wrong? Have you found some little pockets of success in rolling out process and flows and stuff that have worked?
[00:41:29.400] - Chris
Or is there any insights yet that you're starting to make in terms of how to do that and how to transfer that down through your team?
[00:41:37.470] - Trish
And this is not an answer. This is a horrible answer, actually. I found that when I do the one on one training with somebody, it's effective, it works. They're like, oh, I didn't know that. I think it's because I go above and beyond to try to explain why and if you don't do this, what's that going to affect? And maybe that's really where our leadership is not understanding. Like there is a reason to hit that timestamp, a very important reason. If you don't hit that, this resulting scorecard is going to be worth nothing. And then ultimately, if we're holding employees accountable and their performance reviews are based on a scorecard that's not going to be fair to them, they're not going to get a bonus because you didn't hit the timestamp right. There is a resulting action for everything. So I found our construction administrative team. I had a manager in place there and then that did not work out. So now all six of those folks are now reporting to me and I'm very quickly realizing what they know and how much they do not know. And so each team meeting we have, we're taking a portion of a flowchart and just walking through it.
[00:42:44.780] - Trish
And I have been recording everything so that I can use that to train more mean. I think just getting that level of understanding from the leadership team of this is not something Trish is saying just to do to do. There is validity behind it and there's reason behind it and it's going to elevate this company to the next level. That's hard. And we're getting better. I think we are bringing on more and more leaders and getting more buy in. And it's like I said back in the beginning of Know, we're gaining traction slowly. It's just hard in the moment. I put a post on LinkedIn while we were on vacation. I listened to a podcast that was just a reading of a poem, if by Rudyard Kipling. And I'm like, oh my gosh. I was like, bated breath listening to yes, yes. If what if what? Like if I do all this and then the end was like, you'll be a man. My son. I'm like, oh, I want to be.
[00:43:44.150] - Brandon
Like something else that didn't land quite where I was.
[00:43:48.010] - Chris
I don't know identify with that but so be it.
[00:43:50.800] - Brandon
That's awesome.
[00:43:51.760] - Trish
But I really liked so I cut out the two paragraphs. I really like that really spoke to me about that. I'm like, okay, and back to what you were saying before. This is very lonely. This is extremely lonely. There's not a lot of people to talk to about this. I was on a call last week with a friend of mine from New Jersey, a SERP owner. He's like, who do you talk to? I don't know. I don't have anybody. I talk to people, but I can't really talk to them about the inner workings of my head. I don't have anyone to know. Hold tight, just keep going. You're going to get this. It's going to be okay. Somebody that's been there, been through transformation management and knows the other side and knows how to guide and lead me and tell me that's not going to work or you should try this. There's just not a lot of people out there that tried to do something so massive that affects so many people.
[00:44:44.920] - Brandon
Yeah, I think that's fair.
[00:44:47.290] - Chris
Can you walk us into how do you maintain your mental health in the absence of that circle around you that really understands you and get in your head? Do you have a process, a way of I hear exercise was part of it. I heard orange earlier and you're a fit person, but beyond that, how do you manage your mental health? There's a massive lift you've been doing over time, an extended period of time. What does that look like for somebody in your position and with some of the struggles and some of just the own personal challenges that you've talked about, how do you make sense of all this and keep going and progressing without.
[00:45:25.700] - Trish
Becoming well, exercise is a huge part of it. My kids are a big part of it too. My son said to me the other night, he's like, mom, you know, I think by the time I graduate high school, I'm going to know more about business than any other adult just because.
[00:45:42.320] - Brandon
Listening to you guys talk and they're around, right? Like you guys consistently have them around the business. We saw the boys the couple of times we've been around.
[00:45:52.340] - Chris
Yeah, they've always been around.
[00:45:54.830] - Trish
They're there for everything. I mean they've been on jobs from the time they were two years old. They've been there for everything. And they really are. I say it to them sometimes, but it's kind of true. They're really my best friends. They see the true silly me when I'm silly and I do probably tell them more than I should, but they listen and they ask mean they also this is actually the reason I came to you guys. I lean on podcasts and books and kipling and things like Prose, because those are people that have been there. They've done. So, yeah, I'm like, oh, this is a topic I'd love to learn more about. I put high standards, perfectionism, all that into Google. It was leadership, and it was all negative stuff. And I'm like, that can't be real. You can't get to high places by not having high standards. So that's why I thought, well, maybe Chris and Brandon have some thoughts on.
[00:46:54.610] - Chris
A.
[00:46:54.950] - Brandon
What a that is so interesting that you punch those phrases in, and the majority of what you receive back is negative. Okay, so hang with me, guys. This kind of shifted in my head a little bit. Okay, I'm going to tie some loose things here together that we've kind of been going over.
[00:47:13.680] - Chris
All right, here we go.
[00:47:14.350] - Brandon
Buckle up. Okay, so for those of you listening, because I'm not sure if the context of this has been crystal clear, so Trish trish. Just her and her husband kicking ass, taking names. Clearly what you've heard so far, and a bunch of humility is they don't think they're perfect, which is awesome. But what we've kind of started with was this idea that you have a real significant level of we'll call it self accountability, but also kind of almost self judgment, right? Like of keep going, keep iterating keep progressing. That's been at play in the business. Knowing that you're wired that way, you do a little bit of research into these terms, these phrases that maybe to a certain extent have been part of your identity. Is that fair?
[00:47:55.880] - Trish
Yes.
[00:47:56.620] - Brandon
And what we get back is fairly negative, like, for me as an eight. So I'm eight on the enneagram. I don't know if anybody knows what the hell the enneagram is, but it's kind of like a real extensive version.
[00:48:07.880] - Chris
Of this self strength finder disc or.
[00:48:11.280] - Brandon
Like, who are you? What's the color? And eights are drivers and challengers, and they also get nicknamed assholes. Now I'm an eight. I think part of the challenge that we have in our businesses and in our relationships is there's people wired like us. And again, I'm not eluding the fact that Chris isn't like this or any of that.
[00:48:33.110] - Chris
Oh, yeah. What are you trying to say?
[00:48:35.190] - Brandon
So when you're wired this way, it does and can feel negative, right. So here's an example. Last night, and this has been a consistent thing that sometimes pops up since Jana and I are working more cohesively together in this business, right? My wife, my wife, again, the Challenger piece doesn't motivate her. Like, me coming at her and saying, you know what you got to do and this and that and try this and put this in line, and blah, blah, blah. It just crushes her spirit. That kind of feedback is not what motivates her. Yet I fall into a category where when you tell me where I'm jacked up. There's a strong chance now that I know I need to work on that I'm going to be fairly motivated through working through that thing. I like that. Challenger, contact, whatever you want to call it. I would say the majority of our personnel don't. I don't think that aggressive challenging works for most personalities. And I could be off. That's not concrete, it's just my opinion. So Trish, what I wrestle with in our business is how do I ensure that the level of relationship that I've built with my key leaders?
[00:49:49.780] - Brandon
Right? Let's just start there because I can't talk to every single person on my team. What can I do in development of the relationship with my key leaders so that I have the credibility and the credit in the account to withdraw on when I have to challenge them? Like, negotiating is not one of the variables I can pull. We're not negotiating. This is the standard. If we don't all perform to this level, we will never experience what we need to experience in this business because someone will constantly be carrying something for someone else. Right. So I think this whole conversation that we're talking about is folks like you and I, we have to lead that way. Like, there's something special about a leader that can bring accountability and drive focus on a certain level of expectation. Yet we get frustrated because our teams don't necessarily buy in the same way we do. What can we do relationally with those folks to create the respect and the bandwidth to be able to challenge them at the level that we have to in order for us to build the kind of organization that meets the standard.
[00:50:58.900] - Chris
That you have in your mind.
[00:51:00.470] - Trish
Ready?
[00:51:00.920] - Chris
Go.
[00:51:01.680] - Trish
Oh gosh.
[00:51:05.490] - Brandon
No. Right.
[00:51:07.910] - Chris
Where does that relationship component come up for you? How do you think about that? You have such a large team.
[00:51:13.430] - Trish
Yeah, I think it's just a matter. I mean, you all talk about the cadence of meetings and one on ones and team meetings and like I said, the folks that kind of lay in my world, not everybody buys in, not everybody is on board. But for the most part they see the vision, they see the why. And I think it's a matter of those constant touch bases. And I do listen and I think that's part of it too. I have a high standard. I want to get here, but I want to do it collaboratively. If this idea I put out there and this process that I've written, if that's not going to work, I want to hear why and I want to massage it to figure out how it can work and how it can fit both of our needs. So I think that's part of it is you got to have a high standard but you have to do it in a way that's reasonable and that's going to support everybody that they need. The way they need to be supported. We all want to be successful. We all don't want to be working 80 hours a week.
[00:52:12.400] - Trish
We all want to kick butt, and we don't want these fires popping up, and we don't want to lose customers, and we don't want to miss invoicing. We all want the same thing, but it's got to be in a way that fits all of us the way that we need it to be fit. So I think having that just level of empathy for everybody and making sure that they know if they come to you saying this might not work, that you're okay hearing that and you're okay working with them to make it work. And I think that's probably one of the challenges. I think this is a therapy session for me, guys. Maybe some of the problem is I was rewatching a meeting I had laying out our morning Whip meeting. Needed some serious revisions. It just wasn't really effective and didn't fit the purpose that it should have. So spent a lot of time collaboratively with multiple people figuring out how this would work, laid it out, didn't happen. Coached for it again, didn't happen. Changed some things. Coached it again, taped that, recorded it. And I looked back at it, and I'm like, I'm asking for feedback.
[00:53:20.420] - Trish
I'm asking if there's concerns. I'm doing all the things, trying to get people to give me stuff, and it's just like shaking heads, and I'm like, watching. I'm like, they're not comfortable telling me they all hate this, but they're not going to tell me they hate it. And that's hard. And that's more the team that isn't really under my wing. And so maybe there's just not that comfortableness coming to me saying, we hate this. This is not going to work. But I need to hear that I can't fix something if I don't know that it's not going to work. And I need to know, is it not going to work because you don't like change, or is it not going to work for a functional reason? Because that's two very different things. We need to at least try it and make that leap to change and then determine that it's functionally not going to work. But we can't just sit there not using it. We got to at least try.
[00:54:11.970] - Chris
So can you take a step further? And how are you currently planning to resolve that?
[00:54:19.410] - Trish
Well, my dear husband's gotten more involved, so that's helped tremendously. His voice is heard, for sure.
[00:54:26.460] - Chris
Okay.
[00:54:27.370] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:54:28.630] - Trish
He sent an email out, and all of a sudden, look what happens.
[00:54:33.670] - Chris
All right.
[00:54:35.130] - Trish
Yeah.
[00:54:36.650] - Brandon
Interesting, dynamic, and it's not abnormal. Right. In the sense that maybe this isn't crystal clear, but you predominantly lead and cast strategy and vision over the administrative processes of the organization.
[00:54:49.960] - Chris
Is that fair?
[00:54:51.250] - Trish
Yeah.
[00:54:51.820] - Brandon
And Jim's a little bit more oriented towards the actual service delivery, the field facing side of the operation. Right?
[00:54:58.530] - Trish
Yes.
[00:54:59.470] - Brandon
So the reason I just create that context is because this is an example. That what's happening in our own businesses at a small scale, right? Because you guys are substantially good sized operation. For the rest of us, though, it's the siloing, and we have some version of it. Sales don't speak with operations. Operations think sales just out glad handing all the time and they have no connection to what we do. And admin is our support personnel, in quotes, where we as the field staff, go out and do the real job. And then there's all these support staff that think about the administrative garbage that we have to be responsible for. I'm using all tongue in cheek reference here just in case people aren't picking up on that. The silos, though, and I think relationally, this is one of those hotspots in our businesses that we as a team will often underestimate the importance of getting a grip on it. And what I mean is that it's very easy for us to create a relationship with our people. And I think some of the by the way, I'm not saying that Jim is doing any of this.
[00:55:58.130] - Chris
I just want to be clear.
[00:55:59.380] - Brandon
I think sometimes what we do as a leader, I know I'm susceptible to this because I want to be seen as the savior, the challenger, the good guy when they said, Follow me, that the team won. Right now there's that being lived out in action, meaning I'm consistent and I hold my team accountable and I set a standard and they hit it and we win. There's also the shortfall of this, which is the I say things in certain ways, I posture in certain ways, and I interact with you in a certain way that makes you like me and trust me, but it doesn't necessarily give us the performance we need at a legacy level. And so what I see is leaders are very good at building a friendship or relationship with their staff. So they will do what they say, but they inadvertently create a lack of trust or commitment to a voice that comes from a parallel department division or leader. And I think one of the things that we have to do as a company is we have to establish clarity around a unified leadership front. Meaning that and again, guys, I want to clarify.
[00:57:00.830] - Brandon
I'm not saying that Jim or Trish or anybody on Team Wall is doing this, but what we see often is we aren't unified as a leadership team. We might be on the surface in terms of, okay, we need this thing. We need this level of accountability or this process. Everybody agrees, okay, cool, high five, go out and do your job. But that's different than an integration of relationship where I have Chris's back. So as a leader in the company, what Chris is going to do with his team, I have to play a role in supporting and being a partner, in helping his team succeed in that just as much as I. Need Chris, then to support me and my role with my division and hold me accountable to doing what is necessary for my team, for them to win as well. And one of the things and by the way, we totally jacked this up more times than we got it right. Just so there's clarity there. But, man, I'll tell you what, when a leadership team has true unity and buy in, meaning they care as much about the success of their peers team as they do about their own, you begin to see those barriers come down.
[00:58:17.490] - Brandon
Now, obviously, if we have 50 people, it's a whole hell of a lot easier than organizations your size. But do you feel any connection to that? Do you see kind of some of that coming into play as you guys have continued to iterate and get your arms around the business? Is that relationship between the leadership, has it played a role in that? Or am I kind of coming from left field there?
[00:58:39.740] - Trish
No, I think that's true. I think we all really genuinely like each other and want to be there for each other and support each other. I think you've got it on the head of the nail. There is a 50 person company versus 161 location versus four locations. It just magnifies everything. If you think about, like, pantyhose. I haven't worn this in 6th grade, but if there's like a small tear in a pantyhose, you don't notice it. But when you stretch it, boy, do you notice that crack. So I think that's the challenge there. You grow to this large size, multiple markets. You've got a whole layer of middle management now at play, and then you have your executive. So your executive management might be all be on the same page, getting that middle management layer. There is a whole other challenge in itself. And then your bottom line, boots on the ground. Folks have to understand it as well. And there's more churn there. There's a lot of new faces coming in and are they getting trained up the way they should? Are they hearing the vision of the way they should? So it's very dynamic.
[00:59:45.300] - Trish
I think executive wise, we could all be on this, have the same vision, but it's got to be cast down the same way to all folks.
[00:59:53.470] - Brandon
Love that.
[00:59:54.370] - Chris
Okay, so I want to shift gears just slightly and I want to talk about one on ones. It's come up many times, like when we were on site with you and just talking about the business and walking around, you've referenced the one on ones you do with your team a number of times. It seems like it's a real part of your operating system, kind of as a leader, could you talk about that? And how has your approach to one on ones changed? And then maybe just reflect on what your one on ones look like now?
[01:00:21.720] - Trish
Oh, yes, that's good. I've actually always done them from the time I came back from being home with kids. I started right away with them and I think I was the only one in the company doing that for a good four or five years. But I was not good at them in the beginning. It would be a lot of just me hearing about people's personal problems and I'm so nice that I can't stop them from talking about it. So it might be an hour long one on one and 45 minutes is talking about their husband problems. So that has changed. I don't do that anymore.
[01:00:55.730] - Chris
How do you avoid that? Is that an intentional thing to yeah.
[01:01:00.520] - Trish
I learned from Jim on that one. He's very good at nipping that in the bud. So he's always like, you got to stop that. You just need to change the direction of the conversation. So I've learned to politely change the direction of the conversation, but I think also the people I have have come into maybe a higher caliber where they know that's not appropriate to do. But when I have my game on and I have the time to commit, I always have an agenda before, after each one on one, I always do a follow up of what our discussion points are, what our action points are. So I use that for the starting point for the next one on one that we have. So every two weeks we do them. A lot of it is maybe sometimes project based. It depends on the position of the one on one. If it's maybe a construction admin, it's going to be very mechanical and project based and that kind of thing. If it's somebody that's maybe a leadership position, we're talking about the people they lead, maybe some roadblocks, they're coming solutions, things in the process that aren't working.
[01:02:01.720] - Trish
We brainstorm a little bit on solutions to that and then think about interdepartmental roadblocks that we have. How can we navigate around that? So higher level conversations to some degree. And then I did listen to a podcast a couple of months ago that I really liked and they said the last, I'm going to butcher it. But there should be three questions at the end that you ask. One should be, is there anything what's weighing heaviest on your mind? Because that's really going to bring out some good stuff for you about what is really in the back of their head that they're not bringing up. If you catapult them to bring it up, that's great. What can I do to support you? There's another one, I need to listen to the podcast again, but I always try to what can I do to support you? What's weighing heaviest on your mind is two things that I always try to ask.
[01:02:48.790] - Chris
Yeah, that's awesome. So currently 160 employees. You're the chief administrative officer for the company. Who do you prioritize having one on ones with?
[01:02:58.230] - Trish
I do it with all of my direct reports. I did just like I said, inherit the entire construction admin team.
[01:03:05.280] - Chris
That's right. So that's a temporary thing right now.
[01:03:07.150] - Trish
That you're so I had to draw the line. I just physically can't do one on ones with all them. So we are doing team meetings, and when you break it apart, they're smaller teams and it's been great, and they already kind of have their own bond, so it's been actually really refreshing to take those teams on. I've really enjoyed it. But everybody that reports directly to me has a one on one with me every two weeks. And then the weeks in between, we do a team meeting for that business division, and then my direct report should be doing the same, having one on ones with their folks.
[01:03:38.870] - Chris
Okay.
[01:03:39.460] - Brandon
We got to be cognizant of time landing this plane. I think I have a landing plane question.
[01:03:44.950] - Chris
Okay.
[01:03:45.420] - Brandon
Two questions, because I don't want to end on a negative. So two questions trish negative than positive. What do you see for yourself personally as a leader, as a company owner? What's the biggest gap or thing that you feel like you're going to have to begin investing some time and energy in to compensate for or work through it? What's that?
[01:04:07.580] - Chris
Yeah. What's your growing edge?
[01:04:08.730] - Brandon
Yeah, the growing edge. And then the last one is what this year has stood out to you again personally, that you've worked on and worked through that you feel like has had a significantly positive impact on your journey? Those are the two questions.
[01:04:23.430] - Trish
Okay. All right. So the first one, I've built out an.org chart. It's always changing, and I have built in some upper level management positions that I was afraid that we might not be able to support yet, or maybe I could do it. I don't need somebody yet. I know I need someone eventually, but not yet. But I just had an offer letter accepted on Tuesday for a director of administration who will own all of the administrative teams report to me. So I'll just have three or four direct reports now for sales, marketing, administration, and then I've got a little data analyst guy. That's amazing. So that's exciting. I'm going to pour my energy into developing her the right way, teaching her the right way, and I think I'm really excited about that. I think that's going to be awesome. It's going to be a great asset. I think she's going to get a lot of respect from the entire team. I think it's really going to be good stuff.
[01:05:22.900] - Brandon
That's exciting.
[01:05:24.130] - Trish
Yeah. And the second question, personal?
[01:05:28.310] - Brandon
Yeah. Like that thing that you feel like for you, is it's a leading edge? Like, I got to do some work here. I'm not necessarily going to do it tomorrow, but this is a thing on my mind that I'm going to have to engage in.
[01:05:40.730] - Trish
That's a good one. I mean, I hate to be boring and just go back to exercise, but man, I've been really doing some good stuff with my running lately and I'm really excited about that. Just pouring more time into myself, realizing I got to spend more time on me is important. That's something I've always, that's been a big part of my life since I was twelve years old is that is running and I just love it. It's my identity. So I've had to give that up a lot over the last few years. So getting a piece of that back and getting to see myself get my feedback has been super cool for me. I like that you like to compete.
[01:06:18.530] - Chris
Are you planning to compete like marathons?
[01:06:23.690] - Trish
We do these challenges every once in a while at Orange Theory and just to see myself get faster and faster and get closer to those high school times is kind of a, that's a dorky Trish thing. But that makes me.
[01:06:38.670] - Brandon
Hey. So for those of you that don't know Trish Wall and Team Wall get on LinkedIn and look her up and connect with her. One of the things that we appreciate about Trish is she's busy running a business. She is not trying to be some kind of influencer by any stretch of the imagination, but she's humble and willing to be transparent with her real life struggles building a mega company. And I think all of us can learn and benefit from having more people that we see be transparent with what leadership actually feels like when you're doing it for real. Not the bullshit that we post that makes us sound awesome because leadership is is. And I think those that listen to the Mark Spencer episode not too long ago, they get a glimpse for it too. Mark Springer I'm going to talk to Mark Spencer after this. Mark Springer the humility and leadership piece, it is hard. It's so easy for us to take on titles. It's so easy for us to call ourselves entrepreneurs or business owners. But the leadership that's required from us when we put that mantle on, we often do not connect well with and then we underestimate the challenge in front of us, the weight that leadership carries.
[01:07:50.300] - Brandon
And so anyways, we respect the hell out of you, Trish. We respect Jim and your team that you're building. We know you're not perfect. We know there's plenty of issues that you're going to work on in your business. And all of us get the opportunity to learn and succeed alongside of each other. So thanks again for hanging out with us. We will likely get you back on here, I don't know when, but we'll certainly try to get you back in front of the audience at some point.
[01:08:12.530] - Chris
In the yeah, and I just have to throw this in because people that are maybe hearing Trish for the first time, hearing about Team Wall. They're not in the whole SERP Pro system. You have to like I want to reiterate what Brandon said. Go to the team wall. SERVPRO team wall. LinkedIn page. Follow. That the SERVPRO kids media that you guys are doing with Brandon, so they have a director of marketing and content like, Brandon is, first of all, he's a really cool guy, musician, creative artist, all this kind of stuff. And the video content that you guys are putting out, Trish, is so fun and I think really leading the way, setting some example of it's a big question in restoration is how do you play the whole content game? It's like all video and clever posts. How do you do social media? It's a big question mark for a lot of companies. And I've always been a firm believer of use social media to sort of share the personality, the human view of your business. And I think Brandon has done such a good job of doing that. Yeah, it's awesome. And it's very fun.
[01:09:18.280] - Chris
And your kids are in it. It's just hilarious. I get so much fun enjoyment out of watching that. So you got to go check that.
[01:09:26.240] - Trish
Out if you're there's some fun projects coming up with surf for kids. So keep watching.
[01:09:31.910] - Brandon
Sweet. I love it. Expect we're probably going to have to get the group on the podcast since they are the budding stars of I know.
[01:09:39.370] - Chris
We got to get Brandon on here.
[01:09:40.440] - Brandon
That'd be a fun we got to get the real influencers on here. Trish and Jim own the place, but the kids clearly are taking, so all right. Hey, Trish. Thanks again. We appreciate you, respect you. Thank you for giving us your time.
[01:09:51.710] - Trish
Yeah, likewise. It was fun, guys. I appreciate all your therapy. Therapy.
[01:09:55.810] - Chris
Yeah, right.
[01:09:57.610] - Brandon
All right, gang, thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart and Boots.
[01:10:05.560] - Chris
And if you're enjoying the show but you love this episode, please hit Follow, formerly known as 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.
