[00:00:00.000] - Chris
Wow. How many of you have listened to the Head, Heart, and Boots podcast? I can't tell you that reaction, how much that means to us. Welcome back to the Head, Heart, and Boots podcast. I'm Chris.
[00:00:11.230] - Brandon
And I'm Brandon. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead. This new camera angle makes my arms look smaller than yours.
[00:00:20.890] - Chris
I'm noticing that and I really appreciate it.
[00:00:23.150] - Brandon
I thought you did that on purpose.
[00:00:24.250] - Brandon
No, I don't. I didn't, and I am not happy with it.
[00:00:28.380] - Brandon
Hey, all, thanks so much for listening to the show.
[00:00:30.630] - Brandon
Hey, if you're not already following, please do so and ultimately share, right?
[00:00:35.930] - Brandon
Like the coolest currency that we have in terms of supporting this is share it with a friend, share it with somebody, a colleague, a peer, one of your downline team members.
[00:00:43.260] - Brandon
Let them be able to take advantage of the information you're already leveraging in your favor. And finally, guys, if you hear a show that really moves you, that really moves the needle, will you please leave us a review? Those five-star reviews help us a ton.
[00:00:58.120] - Chris
Right on.
[00:00:59.220] - Chris
And listen, if you're trying to grow your business, you might consider checking out Floodlight's business opportunity audit.
[00:01:04.960] - Chris
It's free.
[00:01:05.770] - Chris
We provided it no charge. It's actually what we use to assess new clients as they come in. It's a 110 point assessment for your business. We've now decided to give access to the general public for it. So go and take our business opportunity audit at floodlightgrp. Com. It's going to help you identify the biggest gaps and opportunities in your business right now. And at the end, it'll assign you a health score to let you know exactly where your business stands right now. Go check it out, floodlightgrp. Com/audit, and take the Boa. It's a great way to get a pulse on your business.
[00:01:38.450] - Brandon
What's up, gang? Hey.
[00:01:39.650] - Chris
Hey, hey. Laten. Raa 2024.
[00:01:41.870] - Brandon
That's right. Yeah. I feel like sometimes when we make that announcement, I can't tell if we've started a Super Bowl commercials or if we're just actually at RIA. But... Yeah, Laten, you've been a busy man. You've literally been all over everywhere. How many breakouts, how many meetings Have you lost count?
[00:02:01.060] - Leighton
Yeah, I have someone that tells me where to go. It's helpful, right? He just text me and says, You're late all day long. I was like, What room am I supposed to be in? And then someone just inject me with something. Then I just... Yeah. But you know what? Hey, I just tell my team, we work really hard for these problems and these opportunities. And so it's good. I hope that we're solving meaningful problems. At the end of the day, it's a lot of hard work if the problem is not meaningful. And I think it's meaningful. We have a compelling vision of the future that includes a workforce dynamic that's very different than it is today.
[00:02:39.000] - Brandon
It's like the fuel at hour 12. That's the one that fires back in for another one.
[00:02:44.700] - Leighton
Yeah, exactly. Another thing that we're doing that we announced yesterday with our partner at the RIA is a new study that I think is long overdue is the cost of doing business in property restoration. I was chatting with the two big brands, Big Independence last night, and they might have been a few wine glasses in, but I don't know if they needed a confessional booth, but I was the confessional booth, and they said, Hey, we don't make money. And we know that all the chest beating and all the Bravos and all that, there's not a lot of people here making money or making... When you consider the input and you consider the outputs, it's not working. Yeah. And I think of Mark Driskill's words, I think it was yesterday where he said, Hey, if we don't band together and make some changes, the economics of this model, and I'm paraphrasing, they won't work. And this industry will collapse as we know it in 10 years. I think a part of that is that the stores need to be able to have a benchmark study to be able to share in their own advocacy efforts in their collective advocacy efforts to be able to share.
[00:03:47.720] - Leighton
No, no, no. This is what it costs to run this business. And so the cost of doing business with work is something that we think is very important. So that registration opened yesterday, costofrestoration. Com. And then the ability to participate in the survey opens on Monday. And then there'll be an intake period. So we're hoping that accounting and finance leaders of independent and franchise brand restoration companies across North America will invest an hour. Complete that survey, it's completely It's really anonymous. It's very secure. I think we do a very good job of that. And then the data that's ingested will be anonymized. But ultimately, it will produce a report that we hope will be an annual cadence that allows companies. We've scheduled the release just on the heels of fall when a lot of companies go into budgetary season. And so the idea would be that they can plan to receive that report and then to be able to prepare where they stick, they'll close their books that year against industry trends, and hopefully it will improve the quality of decision making.
[00:04:44.520] - Brandon
I love that. I think part of what I feel like we struggle with a little bit is it's a big industry full of opinions and perceptions. I think some of the value that you guys and your team has brought is you're actually gathering data that in some cases affirms what many of us are thinking or experiencing at a gut level or in day-to-day business. But I think also it creates a common understanding so that even our extended partners and stakeholders in the industry, carrier side, service partners, we can say the same things and agree to it because it's data-backed. I think there's some pretty massive opportunity for this. From your perspective, what would be... I'm a restoreer and you're saying, Hey, please follow the link, which, by the way, in the show notes below, we'll have the link for this. To participate. But what is the value to them? And I know that may seem like a silly question, but when we're running and gunning, we often don't connect the dots. So why? Why should I participate in this thing that you guys are putting out?
[00:05:42.570] - Leighton
I mean, the number one thing is because you're in this to make money. This is a very expensive hobby, very stressful hobby. And unfortunately, a lot of people, at least if you ask their spouse, looks like a hobby because the economics aren't really adding up. So I think number one is because this is an industry, I think, that does meaning meaningful work. I think this work has a very fulfilling... I think there's a lot of dignity in the work. And I think that this should be an industry that's very profitable. And I think that if it's not, you suck the incentives out of a contractor's world, especially when you hand the baton over to the next generation I mean, that's something you guys are very passionate about. I'm very passionate about is thinking what the next generation restores. And I think there's a lot of individuals that say, hey, dad, hey, mom, maybe this fills you up emotionally and it really fired you up and it got your adrenal gland pumping. But I want to make money. And I know what it's like to grow up in an industry that wasn't actually that profitable. And I don't know if I want to continue.
[00:06:36.640] - Leighton
So I think the continuation, I think the generational continuation of this industry is based on there has to be a strong economics case. And for a lot of restoration companies, they live in a understandable vacuum where they probably have never seen the PnL of another company in their industry. Yeah, for sure. And so they really don't have, I would say, anything to compare their financials to and just say, how are we doing? And I think that when When you pair notes with other individuals in your industry, I think it allows you to be able to know when you're doing a good job. Sometimes accounting teams don't know if they're doing a good job. And sometimes it allows you to say, Hey, you know what? What we've become accustomed to is actually a really distressing number that is not reflective of the industry, and we should probably do something about it.
[00:07:20.360] - Chris
I think, too, you also just have the ego dynamics that all of us are subject to. We want to come across as being successful. We want to be seen as a competent person. And so even in these little tabletop conversations are happening all over right now, there's such a strong tendency to round off the corners of what our EBITDA is. But especially, we hear somebody who has a stronger EBITDA than us. We tend to fudge up words. We might be inclined to do that. I think the data that you guys are going to be collecting and sharing with us can be really valuable because it's going to be clean. It's going to be stripped of the ego stories that we often bundle in those conversations when we gather events like Can you parse out, though, a little bit? What's some of the data, specifically, that's going to come out of this that you're anticipating that will be actionable and strategic intel that companies can use?
[00:08:11.030] - Leighton
There'll be 30 questions. There'll be questions where we've decided really In this function, in this rhythm, it'll be very percentage-driven. So at the end of the day, a lot of, I think, what people are after is rather than just getting dollars and cents, where you spend $5,000 on respirators, that's less interesting than what percentage of your spend was on, say, training and development. What training and development spend did you put in? So a lot of it will reveal, I think, how the pie graph that is, how operational costs are stacked up across the industry. I think that will be very illuminating I think as well, there'll be a lot of clarity brought to topics like 10 and 10, topics like WIP, topics like... I think that people will have a lot more clarity. Some of the other studies that we do with, say, our partners, CNR, that really gives us some illumination on theme Claims, sentiment, trends, buying patterns, batting behaviors. We're not really going into that. We're really just camping out in the accounting and finance department, and we're trying to essentially create an appropriate template of what they're PnL looks like, and obviously anonymized, but being able to then allow an accounting leader to sit across from their business leader, their Ops team, and just be able to pull up their results and pull up the industry's results and just be able to just correlate the two and say, That's a scorecard moment, right?
[00:09:31.330] - Leighton
We're doing well here and we're lagging here. I don't understand how we're going to stay competitive on wages. And obviously, we're so materials heavy or I know that you're super fired up about getting all the new stuff, but How are we going to close the gap? How are we going to compete with an industry that doesn't have this level of, say, I don't know, it's like, obviously, our capital is out of control. So you guys get a rare behind the scenes view in companies, but most companies It's a solo effort.
[00:10:00.980] - Brandon
Yeah, 100 %. And I think that Chris and I have said it a lot. It's like sometimes the superpower ultimately is we just get to see what's actually happening. And so we can talk to people more collectively on what's happening or not happening. They're not alone. You're not in a silo. I think one of the interesting things I'm really curious to see is going to come out of this is the spend. You had mentioned this one specifically on training. And I just think there's this common conversation with a lot of influencers. I'm just thinking yesterday, hearing the AGA talk specifically about some of the things they're doing to represent us as contractors is we want to be seen more professionally because we do hard work in hard environments and unrealistic time frames most of the time. Very complex. It's very complex. Yet we don't get recognized like journeyman plumbers and journeymen electricians as a professional trade. I think there's a lot of things that need to happen there for us that are positive. But I think this points back to it will be interesting to I hear data that we can be more honest around, how much are we investing in training?
[00:11:06.240] - Brandon
Maybe part of that equation is, well, in order for us to be more and more so recognized as a professional industry, we're going to have to look at how we're equipping our people. Is it really just on the job training, throw them in the cab and see what happens? Or is there an intentional investment? I think this will illuminate that for us potentially, and we'll be able to think about what that means. Then I think another byproduct, and please, Leighton, if I'm going off the rail- These are directly in line.
[00:11:32.150] - Leighton
I'm glad that you got the speaker notes before I showed up.
[00:11:34.740] - Brandon
No, no, no.
[00:11:36.380] - Leighton
Good. This is why we're doing this.
[00:11:38.010] - Brandon
Yeah. Well, just one more. Just one more thought here is I wonder, too, if what it will allow us to do is when we start seeing where these spends are more visually, more blown out and stepping back and looking at it. Will it also tell us where some of these walls are in our business that we keep beating our head against it? We're not necessarily seeing a different result. And maybe then it'll give more, maybe something we can take more decisive action on. Let's stop doing in this category because we clearly see it's not helping. And then can we shove that or funnel that spend into a different area of the business? It may give us a different result.
[00:12:13.940] - Leighton
I'm confident that in 5, 10 years, we believe that a big part of Knowhow's contribution to the industry will be to create, we call it a seat belt moment. A seat belt moment, which is we want in five years or participants in this industry to look in the YTS of the of the old guard and say, that's how he used to do it. That's crazy. How did you not... That's crazy. And I look at my parents, I say, I'm harnessing my children into these apparatuses that apparently are going to keep them safe on the car. And then my mom says, yeah, we just threw you in the path. Yeah.
[00:12:47.630] - Brandon
Out in the rear of the station wagon and you bounce the loud.
[00:12:52.270] - Leighton
But at the end of the day, it's really interesting because you question the ethics of their decision-making. You wonder whether they were responsible. Whether they were reckless, how did a generation even survive? And obviously, I'm here to prove that it worked. But I do believe that there'll be opportunities like that. I mean, all you have to do is look at, I think, another industry like, I don't know, take, for example, Blockbuster. I mean, it's probably not a perfect example, but when someone looked at the economics of distributing cassettes and DVDs and Blu-rays and all these things. That was a business model where everybody just lived with a fixed mindset that that model requires a physical brick and mortar distribution model. Okay. Then you see Reid Hastings and his team come along and actually completely uproot that market. I'm hopeful that there are things in this industry that people think are immovable load-bearing walls. All of a sudden, they get moved and you recognize that actually they weren't load-bearing. They were just taking up space. That's a really great way to think about that, honestly. Yeah. I mean, you guys, you get deep down and personal with these companies you work with.
[00:13:57.450] - Leighton
What would be the value in having, let's call it a third-party source of data that you can point to to try to help them to see the need to change.
[00:14:07.790] - Chris
Is that-Oh, I think it's incredibly valuable. Well, I think one of the data points I'm very interested in is cost of sales.
[00:14:14.340] - Leighton
Like sales motion. Yeah.
[00:14:16.810] - Chris
Because I think the industry is so oriented right now on the impact of TPAs. I think many companies that are embraced TPAs are starting to think more critically about diversifying their income streams. Sure. We have a number of companies in our industry that live and die off of plumber relationships. What happens as that market starts to get upset? And so there's X percentage of sales that they're spending out to get those leads from plumbers versus, say, a direct salesperson, right? And the salary costs and commission costs of that. I think sales is one of the bigger black boxes in our business because for so long, it's just come in. And we had the whole agent candy and smiles approach for a while that was very static, getting to hire a fresh face to college kid with some enthusiasm, paying $40,000, fill the trunk of their rig with swag and items like that. And it was a pretty static business model for a long time. Hire somebody for $40,000, give them 3% of whatever jobs they get in. And it was very black and white and very easy to repeat. And of course, that market has changed a lot.
[00:15:18.580] - Chris
And so because of that, people have started shifting their attention to plumber relationships. And of course, that is the Wild Wild West in terms of you got some people paying $200 flat commissions to plumbers, and you got some that are paying 1,500. You got some, we were just talking to a customer that they pay 15 % of whatever job a plumber sends to them. We heard that. That's a commitment. Wow. I think there's an attitude amongst the stores, or there's not even an attitude. I just think we don't have a very good grip on some of these expense ratios and what we should be targeting. And so it's like there's this opportunity mindset. It's just like, yeah, I'll give up 10 %. Sure, I'll do... Yeah, you send me a really sweet job. I'll give you 15 % of that without necessarily Basically, having the experience to understand the downstream effects of that. Yeah, the tail. And who was it? Rod Cruz. He was talking about this idea of monopoly money and how effective it is sometimes to bring out a stack of monopoly money. And with a business owner, divvy out, okay, well, here's your cost of sales.
[00:16:18.330] - Chris
Here's the stack that's left over. Let's talk about your SG&A. And what falls under that. Let's peel that off the top. And getting people this visual representation of how much is left After you've taken all of the cost of operations out. It's just, I think our industry just is now coming into a phase of professionalizing ourselves to the point we understand how to work off percentages.
[00:16:43.520] - Brandon
Yeah, I think one of the things that a possible outcome, too, is, man, if we can establish... Thinking about housing markets, median, and if we can go through the steps of teaching people, Hey, here's averages, here's medium prices. Where do you want to be? What is it that you're looking to Then I think, too, when we get into these engagements with carriers and we're negotiating with adjusters, and I'm not pooh-poohing on anybody, but when we're in that, instead of feeling this weird pressure coming from them, telling them, Well, that's cost of doing business, or that's in the line item, all these things, we're more aggressive, not in a bad way, but professionally saying, no, it's not true. I understand what my PnL looks like. I know I'm not going on Bahama vacations every time we complete a job. And no, it's not in the line item. It is in the cost of business. Or better yet, I heard someone say this yesterday, you're right, it is a cost of doing business. That's why I'm charging for it. But I just think this is it makes us more confident when I'm not trying to give a rebuttal or support my decision making in a silo.
[00:17:46.000] - Brandon
I can say, Hey, I'm saying this, and this is something I'm confident in because restores are saying this. Our industry is supporting this decision or this. I think that's where the value comes that our The industry up till now is just we don't have that unification to support each other as much. That's it.
[00:18:05.830] - Leighton
I see the same thing. There's a few things that come to mind, and I wonder what you guys think about. I'll just like, I'll lay out three things on the table, and then you guys are great thought integrators. I wonder what you think about it. The first one is, I think that there is an interesting cocktail of people in this industry who are extremely resilient, meaning that they will go through walls. They're super-adrenalized, which is another way of saying they have the memory of a goldfish. They're in fight or flight mode. Like your prefrontal cortex is shut down when you're in a heavily adrenalized fight or flight mode. Then this is an industry that I don't think is opportunity to restrain, meaning the work is coming in. Meaning that here's an industry where I'll go through walls, there'll always be another job. And yes, we didn't make the margin on that last job. But you know what? Water under the bridge, let's get on to the next job. I think when you compound effect that over a 12-month annual just motion as a company, I think There are a lot of people in this industry that get to the end of the year and they look at their balance sheet.
[00:19:04.850] - Leighton
They probably just look at their bank account. I feel like I should have made money. But that's number one. Number two is a lot of private equity coming in. I wonder what's going to happen when this report lands on private equity. Is it going to cool or is it going to accelerate? Yeah, interesting. Then I just came from a meeting and the discussion was a lot of heated discussion about how insurance carriers were not staying in a timely manner. And then they shared with the carriers, did you know that this was a Canadian discussion? Did you know that these provinces are regulated? It is the law of the land that you have to pay us within 30 days. And to a one, every carrier is like, Well, I didn't know that. So it's like, well, so they changed all of their policies, and now all these carriers are getting on board and they're changing. Just leveraging a lot. I just wonder for an insurance carrier, if they're that receptive to pivot, like something as critical as when we pay you based on objective information, private equity, and for stores who I think are almost wired to just keep calm and carry on.
[00:20:08.000] - Leighton
I just wonder what the interplay of those dynamics will be of a report like this. If we can stick the landing and produce a good resource.
[00:20:15.810] - Chris
Liftify. Com/bloodlight. You've heard Brandon and I talk a bunch of times about the importance of Google reviews. Maybe even heard our episode with Zack Garrett, the CEO and founder. Recency, consistency, two of the most important things when it comes to maximizing the benefit from your Google reviews. Why not use an outside partner? Liftify is targeting 20 to 25 % conversion, right? So if you do a thousand jobs a year, you ought to be adding right now 200 to 250 reviews a year, every single year. If you're not doing that, you owe it to yourself to get a free demo from liftify. Com. See their system, see how it works, see how affordable it is. I promise you, you'll thank us. Liftify. Com/bloodlight.
[00:21:00.090] - Brandon
We spend a lot of money and a lot of attention trying to get that first call. And one of the things that we do once it happens is sometimes we leave it to chance, right? Who picks up the phone? How do they respond? How do they walk that client into a relationship with us? Well, one of the One of the benefits of partnering with a team like answerforce. Com is we can systemize that, we can make it more consistent. We can also have backup for when our teams need that help, right? Somebody goes on vacation, somebody's out sick. We get a storm search, we get cat event. All All sorts of things can have an impact on how we receive that client. But the most important thing is they need to know that they've chosen the right team. And so answerforce. Com can support you, be a bolt on partner to help you consistently produce an awesome onboarding experience with that first call with your client. So answerforce. Com/bloodlight.
[00:21:51.300] - Chris
That's great.
[00:21:52.620] - Chris
Cnr magazine, we're friends with all the folks at CNR. Michelle and her team, they do a great job of keeping their ear to the ground and reporting all the important information from our industry. You want to stay up on all the M&A activity and what the latest best practices are for selling your company successfully? She's got that. Great articles about all the four quadrants of our business. Cnr is constantly pushing out great material and leveraging great writers and subject matter experts in our industry. It is the water-cooler of our industry. So if you're not subscribed, go to cnrmagazine. Com. Follow them on LinkedIn. Follow Michelle on LinkedIn. Trust us, if you're trying to stay on top of everything happening in the industry, your best destination is cnrmagazine. Com.
[00:22:36.040] - Brandon
You guys, many of you have already heard about Actionable Insights and the training and the technical expertise that they bring to the industry. But how many of you are already leveraging the Actionable Insights profile for Xactimate? That's the game changer. It's essentially an AI tool that's walking alongside of you as you write your estimate, bringing things to your attention that should be added, that could be considered. All of them items that increase our profitability, increase the effectiveness and the consistency of that scope. And it can do anything from helping a new team member assimilate some estimating best practices. And it also helps the grizzled vets add back that few % that we've just forgot over time. So actionableinsights, getinsights. Org/ floodlight, and take a look at what the actionableinsights Xactimate profile could be doing for you and your team.
[00:23:29.970] - Brandon
I think the implications are huge. I think that part of the value of know-how as an example is, I think you've made this comment, but trying to find a place that we can have a universal truth. You use that term, I think, internally. Us as players, if we use the know-how platform, we can create our own internal truth. So it's not tribal knowledge, it's not communication can or what the brain fart, whatever the hell that means. A message shifts between bodies. And I point towards like Actionable Insights. And what they've done as a team is this we're trying to create language that we can all agree to because it's mutually beneficial for all the stakeholders. And I think there's potential that this data will do that. I think it will illuminate on areas that maybe different parties have different assumptions based on their perception and the angle of the table they're sitting at. And I think, again, this is a way for teams like yours to continue to create a unified language, a universal truth, that then when we're negotiating or making decisions, it's like, I don't have to create an argument for the why. The why is understood, and we can just talk about the data, the detail.
[00:24:39.560] - Brandon
Is this something in the scope? Yes or no? Is this a decision we have to make? Yes or no? And try to remove some of the opinions and some of the emotion out of those negotiations or other elements. I think most certainly we'll see that. Boy, that PE thing would be interesting. What do you think?
[00:24:54.350] - Leighton
Yeah. You think it'll cool it or it'll accelerate it?
[00:24:57.090] - Chris
Well, I think there's... I was just talking with a client about this. I think there's two kinds of PE firms. There's ones that are seeing the opportunity from the outside, and they're drawn to it. They're drawn to the economy-resistant nature of our industry, but they don't have a ton of domain expertise. So they're coming in a little bit cowboy, right? Trying to grab the opportunity, but they don't have an understanding of the market. I think they will react differently, perhaps, to the data than the PE firms that are more heavily entrenched in the business that have been added maybe in this space for the last three to five years. I think there's probably going to be different reactions Yeah. Based on different levels of bravado. I think people that are in the business, they've had some sobering moments over the last few years. They understand some of the yin and yang of the industry. And I think these outside PE firms are still continuing to come in, I think there's probably... They're bringing a level of optimism that isn't yet balanced with the realities. But I'm excited about this report because I think one of the themes we've been talking about is just the professionalization of the industry.
[00:25:56.030] - Chris
This is one of those things where us collectively knowing the data of our business on the wisdom of the crowd. There's a lot of best practices that for the last 25 years have been exchanged at conferences like this, but we've been pretty light on the data. Frankly, I think it's objectively so until Still know how it came around. Some of the past research and data you guys have provided, I think that started to illuminate the numbers of the business in a way that we haven't had access to previously. I think that's fair to say.
[00:26:27.290] - Brandon
I think it's totally fair. I think maybe one other just brief concept here is for folks is I think it's empowering for the restorers. Because if I'm valuing my business, evaluating that, I can't do that from a sense of I don't know what I don't know. I might be thinking that my company is worth X. And really, if I look at my financial data in context with all the others in the industry, I think it empowers me then to think about my business and say, okay, well, someday I'm going to have an exit. I want all my options on the table as part of exit. And I want to know what my company's worth. Well, if I can look at this data and I can say, hey, if I tweak these things, it's going to put me in a position where my financials are middle of the pack, top of the pack. Well, that's going to have a direct impact on your multiple when it comes time to potentially exit or do something different versus just the rise and grind. And so I think there's a of that that we will see over time.
[00:27:22.910] - Leighton
When you think about... So to get to a place in due diligence where a capital provider or a private equity fund or a consultant A validating purchaser actually gets their hands on a company's P&L. So the BNBA is in place, the LIO is in place, the LOI story. I mean, there are some gates that a potential acquirer has to go see the financial. There's a lot of work that they've got to go through to see the financials. And so I think it'd be interesting just for a restoreer to be able to say very quickly, Hey, before you even look at my numbers, I'm middle of the pack. Or before you look at my financials, I can tell you right now, I'm top of the pack or I beat the market. Yes. I think it is hopefully just efficiencies, right? Yeah, I agree. I don't know if this is a fair example, but can you imagine how different would... Let's pick a popular sport. What's your sport? Football? Soccer. Soccer. You go soccer. Oh, okay. But that's like football, right? Yeah.
[00:28:16.910] - Chris
Well, apparently. Original football, maybe?
[00:28:19.510] - Leighton
I don't know. That's the soccer. Okay. I would assume that soccer has a lot of the same data as, say, football, hockey, baseball. It's probably fantasy soccer. Sure. Oh, yeah. Just think about how different the game would be if nobody kept score during the game. Fans could not monitor the stats of the participants. You never knew the ultimate results unless you had a way of tracking it of how good an athlete was, and you could never support a system like a fantasy sport. I think it would really just kill so much in sport. I wonder if in a couple of years, after you do this report a couple of times, and we've comparative data. I just I wonder what it will be like. We'll just say it was like we were playing this sport we call property restoration, where no one turned on the scoreboard. You know what I mean? It was fun. It was like maybe we're living in pickup restoration right now. You know what I mean?
[00:29:14.950] - Brandon
We're going to move into the professional restoration league in the near future.
[00:29:19.410] - Chris
I just think we assume so much. We see the people that seem to be succeeding at scale, and we make a lot of assumptions. And that's been one of the interesting experiences of floodlight is, as we get behind the curtain with a lot of companies, many times, the actual financials match the external bravado of that team and the culture of the team and the results and performance and so forth. And there are a lot of scenarios where you get behind the curtain and you start to break down a person's overhead cost and ultimately the EBITDA that they're taking home that they're keeping. And it does not at all match the external picture that that business has put out there. And of course, I think probably many companies have a phase, at least, to the time where the internals don't match the externals. It's just part of the journey of business. But I think we don't have great objective measures, like many other industry do, in terms of really obvious benchmarks that all of us can be working off of.
[00:30:15.450] - Brandon
And, Layton, you're always so humble about this. Maybe we can use this to begin wrapping it up a little bit. But Chris's statement about know-how, and that's legit. If we're honest about who the data present is right in our industry, I would have a real tough time arguing that there's anyone else doing it at the level that you guys are doing it. I think that's part of the affinity that's beginning to develop around you and the know-how team is, you guys were forward-facing heavily with value creation before there's a real ask in terms of, does the Knowhow platform make sense for you to adopt in your organization? We're getting a lot of value from the Knowhow team that's global in nature from our industry. I think it's very I know it's our attraction to working with and around your team is that. It's like you're doing a ton to professionalize and help us get a lift as restoreers. So I don't think people can miss that. But for some reason, if you've been a little bit of Rock, and you're not paying attention to that, all the ebooks, these studies that you guys have presented, all have provided very concrete value that can educate ourselves and help us be better restorers and make way better decisions.
[00:31:28.850] - Brandon
I'm assuming this will We do nothing less than that. As we close up, though, I went on a preach session there. Again, one more time, what is it? What's the link? Where are we going? What are we doing? And then again, we'll have that in the show notes as well.
[00:31:42.460] - Leighton
Absolutely. So today, we are officially launching the Cost of Doing Business survey with the Restoration Industry Association. The study will produce the Cost of Doing Business report, and it will be an annual cadence that is put on by RIA and Know-how. It's a study that You can participate in by filling out a survey, having a financial or accounting leader in your company. Fill out a study. It's going to take you about 60 minutes. It's completely confidential. And you go to costofrestoration. Com, costofrestoration. Com. And it's going to take you through 30 questions that were heavily, heavily vetted. Emphasis on the heavy. There was some serious vetting, but we got there. And the results will go through a period of analysis, and then we'll produce what we hope to be a very detailed and a very well-presented report that will be free. Love it.
[00:32:30.680] - Brandon
That's powerful. Okay. So costofrestoration.
[00:32:34.280] - Leighton
Com. Costofrestoration. Com.
[00:32:35.900] - Chris
Is there another... For those people that maybe they missed the announcements previously, the other reports and resources you guys, is there a place just apart from your main website? Is there a place we can send them to get some of the other industry reports that you guys have previously done?
[00:32:49.670] - Leighton
I mean, definitely our website. There's a resources page. I think all the bounty that we bring to the market is there. It's all free, but you can find most of our stuff on your favorite podcast or or your streaming site. Then most of our studies and our books, if you need a physical copy, they're on Amazon. But I think these copies are great. But the website is the mouth of the river. All those resources that we provide, there's no cost to them. Awesome.
[00:33:14.070] - Chris
Love it. You're main website is Try Knowhow?
[00:33:16.890] - Leighton
Tryknowhow. Com. Tryknowhow. Com. Yeah, tryknowhow. Com. You click on the resource button and you go right down there and studies, podcast, books. It's all there. Love it.
[00:33:26.270] - Chris
Tryknowhow. Com and costofrestoration. Com. Edustration.
[00:33:30.100] - Brandon
Com. Contribute. Let's do it. All right. Thanks, man, for hanging out with us.
[00:33:33.080] - Leighton
Yeah. Thanks for having me.
[00:33:34.240] - Brandon
All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart, and Boots.
[00:33:41.290] - Chris
If you're enjoying the show, 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.
[00:33:53.170] - Chris
It all helps. Thanks for listening.
