Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2: (00:43)
All right everybody, this is Sam Taggart, your host with the D2D podcast and we are live here
Brandon Reed, the national sales director of Safe Home
Speaker 3: Safe Heaven.
Speaker 2: I said these guys are a safe Haven, which is protecting safe home, making calm, safe, safe Haven number one, ADT dealer in the country. And you have been knocking doors since you were 14 before you were 17 years old. And now you guys have a business of what, 1500 employees and 1500 employees, a outside sales division with 60 plus locations nationwide. Um, all w two employees, our technicians are W2 real benefits, health, dental, vision for one try and make it a really different thing from just 10 99 sales positions. So I’m excited to dive into that and the difference in the innovation that you’ve had. Cause you, you know, you went through the whole summer sales programs and you’re, you know, and kind of know G in this industry and um, planted your feet and said, Hey, we’re going to go make a true business.
Speaker 3: (01:43)
And not too long ago, you know, you guys showed me obviously your office space, which was so cool. You know, we’re out here in Kansas city right now and learning and seeing how you guys operate, meeting your managers, being able to speak to them, being able to train your regionals and stuff like that. It’s been fun to get to know how like different and cool this company is. Um, but you got you, we drove by your old office, right? And you were in that office. It was what the size of this hotel room. So what 900 square feet, like there was about 2000 square feet. Yeah, so started with safe Haven in 2010 actually just put the summer sales industry. After that, I did a summer with a silver line and had quit. Thou there was never going back on the alarm sales. Uh, my degree is in criminal justice and communication.
Speaker 3: (02:26)
So I thought, Hey, I made a couple of hundred thousand dollars. I put some money in the bank. I’m done with alarm sales. Now I’m going to go get my real job. I’m going to be a police officer. Then we’re going to go federal and go. That’d be crazy. How many people are like, I’m going to quit the fake job that I just made, a couple hundred thousand and I messed up my young 20s and I’m going to then get the real job. A police officer, it’s like, it’s like so crazy. I wonder how many people really chased the police officer job that should’ve stayed in it. And now being national sales directors, owning companies. I’m sure there’s, we call him the ghost of summers past meeting the guys that could have made it. Absolutely. Anyways, I’m glad you stayed in it because now we’re here. Right? I was close. Yeah. I actually took the physical fitness test.
Speaker 3: (03:09)
I took the written test. I was supposed to start the police Academy and six weeks before starting with safe Haven. So moving out to Roanoke, Virginia, I have family in Roanoke and my brother in law was a detective out there, so kind of a foot in the door. And so I was really close. I was committed going to make $32,000 a year to be a police officer and have people chase and shoot after you. So yeah, I was committed. That is crazy. So then you came here and you’re in this 2000 square foot building and how long ago was it that you moved into that new space? Now it’s 55,000 square feet. You know what I mean? And you have multiple locations. Yeah. What a, I kind of walk us through that journey. So, yeah, so I actually started with my brother and myself, so my brother and myself and worked together for 17 and a half years.
Speaker 3: (03:57)
We did the summer sales program. At one point in time, the Reid brothers were known as a pretty big deal back in the day. Um, work with the first lines, the Pentacles back in the apex now Vivent um, silver line. So just about everyone out there. Uh, it’s a little unique because I started summer sales in middle school and middle school, middle school, middle school, pre legal age. This is awesome. 14 years old. My brother calls me up one summer and says, Hey man, what do you got going on this summer? I said, well, I don’t know what 14 year olds do play basketball. Friends, go to the movies. And he said, man, it just started this summer sales gig. I used to do pest control, now I’m doing security. Would you like to come out and make some money and do it with me? Just have you follow me around and just do my paperwork.
Speaker 3: (04:45)
We’re going to work hard, but we’ll have some good times out there. And I’m thinking, I don’t know, maybe what’d you gonna pay? He said, I’ll pay you $300 a week. Just follow me around and do paperwork. Cause paperwork back then literally took 45 minutes to an hour. So it limited his amount of closing time. And so he was thinking of Ford and thinking, Hey, if I can sell the nugget in and of itself and today if I can sell the deal, leave my brother here to finish the paperwork and not screw up the deal and just wait for the technician, install it. I can then go sell the next house. And it worked well. But 14 years old, I started figuring out things he was going to say before he said it, I started thinking of whatever the objection was going to be from the customer before it came out of their mouth.
Speaker 3: (05:30)
It was like, there’s roleplay going on in my mind. I knew how this thing was going to lay out. So two months into the summer, we’re now around July and I say to my brother, Hey man, I don’t want to do your paperwork anymore. And he says, what? You want to go home? You call it quits? I said, no, I want to go knock on these doors. I think I could do this. And he literally laughed in my face and says, dude, you’re 14 you’re not legal to work. And you look like you’re 12 there’s no way. Plus we’re in Patterson, New Jersey. This is like one of the roughest neighborhoods in the world. Mom would kill me, no way. I said, come on man, let me try it. Let me try it. And I just worked on him, finally convinced them, give me one day, if I don’t sell, I’ll go back to doing your paperwork.
Speaker 3: (06:09)
If I sell, I’m going to keep selling. So convinced them, literally the first door I ever knocked myself, I sold. Then later that day sold a second one. So I literally doubled my very first day ever touching the doors and back then we didn’t have the cell phones. We’re doing van crews. So we had a little beepers provided by the company and he told me, Hey, if I paid you, you need to call me right away. Is it rough neighborhood? I’m going to work right across the street from you. And I get in the very first door, he doesn’t see me get in. Well he goes down the street and knock and knock and all of a sudden he realizes, Hey, I haven’t seen my brother in awhile. Where’s he at? He’s freaking out page me and I’m all pumped
Speaker 4: (06:50)
because I’m aging and guys paging him and I’m in the house
Speaker 3: (06:54)
just pumped. So I’m ignoring the pager and eventually he comes back on the side of the street cause we worked across the street from one another, knocks on the door. Hey, have you seen a little boy? My little brother. And she’s like, Oh Brandon, I still remember her name is Ms. Brown. And she’s like, yeah, he’s actually in here. He comes storming the room, pissed. Why aren’t you answering my pages man? I’m sure I was scared to death. And then he has this realization, there’s paperwork on this table. He just sold a deal. And he’s like, all right. So from that moment on I said, you can sell. Okay, I’ll let you keep selling. And so by the time I’m now 16 I’m recruiting my buddies from high school asking him to come out for the summertime. I’m literally trying to build teams with him and so he and I are co managing teams together. I’m recruiting and next thing you know, I mean 17 1617 I went to the university of Iowa. So then I’m running ads in the local paper. I’m doing the shoulder taps, talking to people. Back in the day, FirstLine would send, you know, attract the females to come knock the campuses with us that that was the day they had the prodigy and I don’t know if you remember this or comment on here, if you guys remember what the prodigy was
Speaker 4: (08:03)
literally, and I’m waiting for somebody else to re-enact this. It was liver Cruz, Chinese and they were doing a reality TV show and people were like saying, Hey, you got to be on TV. And then ever there was, I’ll just a skid. It’s like, come sell for the summer. We’re going to film crews and then every day, no, you got a lot of people, a lot of people to,
Speaker 3: (08:24)
it was a recruiting platform that was absolutely genius and brilliant. They never got the million dollars in the Hummer gun.
Speaker 4: (08:32)
Exactly. You went, Oh yeah. Um, so you went out and sold and uh, built teams and so you kinda had to get step into leadership. Like I actually have a question about that. Cause a lot of people, you know, I even have one of your managers come up to me, he goes, how old are you? Like, you know, obviously I have a long history just like you and you’re looking at us, you’d probably say like, are they graduating college right now? Like, we both have baby faces. We both started really young.
Speaker 3: (08:57)
Um, and I’m sure that the belief system of I’m too young to lead. I’m leading people that are older than me. Still today. You’re, you know, national sales director, and I’m sure there’s people older than you that works for you and you’ve had to boss around what, where does age and how have you balanced the insecurity of age in this industry. Um, so it was actually a big struggle for me for her. So yeah. Um, in 2008, my brother was a regional and so every time he left I ran the Kansas city office and I just felt like, Hey, because I’m so young, these guys aren’t gonna take me serious. You know, they’re constantly just going to second guess me or whatever. Cory’s out of town. I could do whatever I want to. And so it really just took a lot for me to just say, Hey, I have to step up and I have to continue leading from the front.
Speaker 3: (09:42)
So honestly, it took years of development on that end and stopped second guessing myself. And so you’ll hear people say all the time, remember what side of the desk we’re on, who has the opportunity and who has the skill to train these people? What side of the desk you on? Yeah. If you’re the one with the opportunity and you’re sitting on the higher inside, they’re coming to you. They’re looking as you are the person with what they want, no matter the age, the race, the whatever. Right. And I think that so many people get that stuck in their head, you know, I’m not old enough to manage or lead or run a company or whatever that is. You know what I mean? The one thing that really I understood and stuck with me was even if I second guess myself in leadership, I understood they valued the fact that I could sell a lead from the front. So I always try to put hard work for it first and go lean in from the front. So one thing I’ve always done was I was never your top sales guy going and saw 118 in a week or 200 a week. Like I’m chance I was never that guy. But I was always consistent. I was always one of the hardest workers, rain, snow, no matter what it was. I actually preferred working in the rain between two people. .
Speaker 3: (10:54)
I’m like, yes, it’s raining. Everybody’s like, you’re crazy. I’m like, dude, it’s like fun. Kansas city. When I first moved out here and started with safe Haven, we started a canvassing team in our, we started in November, Nixon, you know what snow, when it’s a blizzard and I’m out there in a parka with boots on and I’m going door to door because that’s what we committed to open here. And to me it was like people pitted you almost and said, well, it’s freezing out, so I want you to come in and warm up. And I’m thinking, Oh, you made a mistake. You’re getting alarm system now. Exactly. But the thing I’ve always valued was the leading from the front position and just hard work and some work clicked for me that regardless of, I second guessed the leadership side of things, people saw that and they valued that and then they started, yeah.
Speaker 3: (11:37)
Then you add in supplements and it’s like you can’t ever fake influence. And it ended up giving me a platform. And so through that platform I tried to then use other things and get smarter to work smarter as opposed to harder because I realized my time was really valuable. I at first was really bad at delegating and I figured out, Hey, if I delegate to people and then make them feel like they’re a part of the bigger picture and they buy into the bigger picture, then obviously they’re going to have the same goals and the common Aldi of, Hey, let’s go out there and get this done. And they’re going to watch other people continues to spread. Love it. Love it. So what, uh, so over the years you’ve kind of had your pains of ups and downs, I’m assuming never. It’s never painted super. Pretty.
Speaker 3: (12:21)
What are some of the lessons you’ve learned kind of growing a company from, you know, your kind of open up this division? Like what, three or four years ago you were a number. What of ADT? So first we actually started with safe Haven to open up door door and nationwide. Yeah, before we came out of the company. My brother and self, they were ranked 150 first of all the dealers, they were doing about 3000 installs and some change and the only way they’re doing business back then was mailers and they still use the niche market and the new homeowners, but they sent mailers out nationwide. It was a real reactive way of doing business and they sat back and waited for the phone to ring and Mike Gammons known or the company who was real innovative guy, real smart guy said, I’m never going to grow my business this way.
Speaker 3: (13:03)
I can’t wait for the phones in the ring. I can’t build a business, my law that I can only send so many letters out and wait for the phone to ring so long. He’s like, I ran a water software company at one point in time, did door to door in that that has to work and scared you and he’s unaware of this whole other world of security in Utah and all these big companies and so he reaches out, finds us and we come on board to start this canvassing team forum. We as actually one of the ultimate closers cause he actually had us meet at a restaurant instead of his facility first cause it was some ghetto small hole in the wall. Sat down and had lunch committed to numbers. He said okay great, let’s go see the facility. We walk across the street and it’s this little 2000 square foot hole in the wall was seven employees and around and my brother and I looked at each other and we’re both had this look on her face like what the hell did we just get ourselves into?
Speaker 3: (13:56)
We realized right then and there we couldn’t take a nationwide or company cause we instantly shut them down. They had no support teams, they didn’t have customer service, they didn’t have any retention. They have a shelling department. They didn’t have any of that stuff. In fact, they didn’t even have a payroll department that had a bookkeeper on staff who literally did payroll on yellow legal notepads each week. So every Sunday we were calling the owner and going through commission reports. So I have binders full of every single job I went through and did commissions for. So we started that and we said, okay, we’ll start the door door division. I had 10 years, my brother and I had 10 years of door door with all these other companies. So we knew the pitches, we knew the objection training. We just need to come up with some new material catered towards safe Haven.
Speaker 3: (14:41)
We had quite a big following from previous years. So 30 reps started instantly. We started writing Kansas city. So let’s see how it does here and then we’ll scale it. And it’s good thing we started with one office because we committed to a thousand accounts our first year. Within a couple months we had 1500 installs and we almost put the company out of business. We grew too fast cause we had veteran sales reps. They realize there’s no checks and balances. So co-signers renters, all this stuff you’re not supposed to do. They realize, Hey, I can get away with this stuff here. So all sorts of charge backs rip out all sorts of bad deals. Takeovers that weren’t supposed to be done still in contract, that type of stuff. It was just really bad business compiling on top of the fact they had no one to support it. We literally had the other owner of the company, a guy named Mark Kleeman out there doing installs for us cause we didn’t have enough tech staff.
Speaker 3: (15:32)
At one point in time I stopped selling, I learned how to install so I could slap systems up on the wall, have the other tech come finish the programming. So it was a big learning curve and I’m thinking, man, I promised myself I was done with the security industry is going to be a cop and here I am slapping keypads in the wall and we’re not taking this thing nationwide. So we then had the owners of the company come to us and said, Hey guys, you upheld every end of the bargain. You exceeded our expectations but we actually had your program. Now it’s about to posts out business because when you’re a small little hole in the wall company, you know, making $8 million a year at that point in time. Gross. A couple of bad fundings could put you up business. And so they had these charge backs coming back with no collections department to call on them.
Speaker 3: (16:18)
So I literally had to shut down the program. I went upstairs, fired all 30 of my sales reps and then I spent the next couple of weeks banging on doors and Hey, you owe us money, give me whatever check you get. I was the collector. Um, and then nothing crazy though. Like the hats that you had to wear. Like I think a lot of people don’t realize the, the grit and the work that goes into creating systems and efficiencies and being patient with that. I mean you were like, why you’re in the position you’re in is because you pride in bitch and moan all the time. You said, what do you need me to do to make it work? And you didn’t say, Oh, you’re going to tell my pregnant like what do I need to do? And you went out and actually knocked for collections. You were, Oh, you need me to throw a tech badge on.
Speaker 3: (17:01)
I’ll throw a Tet like I’ll go figure out how to install like that. Like that right there. The quality is what makes a difference between a top leader and performer. Then the average, well that’s what I was saying earlier. I’ve never considered myself to be the best sales rep in this industry or sales person. This industry after 19 years I should be pretty decent. I think I’m okay. But the thing I felt like was the biggest strength for me is I was more of the behind the scenes guy where I was coming up with systems processes. Literally when this company started there was no departments. So ultimately my goal for our managers, I only want them hiring or recruiting, training and producing. That’s the only three things I want them focusing on. But when we started, they were also a customer service for the market.
Speaker 3: (17:46)
They were the collections department for the market. They were the ones running around trying to collect initials or signatures that are missed on paper. They were doing everything because there wasn’t the backend support. So I literally took the time at safe Haven to sit in there and help create every single department that safe Haven halves. So there’s only probably two or three departments and safe Haven that I haven’t physically done that job. Wow. So which is, which is something to be said because a lot of people, they fail to play the long game of saying, I know if I put the systems in place and take the energy and time, because you could’ve just gone in and sold more and said screw it. I don’t want to recruit more people. I’m just going to sell and make more money in my pocket, fat in my pocket.
Speaker 3: (18:28)
But now you look at it back and you say you played the 10 year game, you played the long game and you’re still playing the game. Right. You know, you’re probably, I dunno, I mean do you see it as like more fulfilling or better outcomes? Or had you just said, let me find my own pocket. Like what do you like how it’s absolutely more fulfilling. So we shut down the door door canvassing team, which as you know, there’s a ton of burnout there at the time, even with safe Haven, it was 10 99 so there wasn’t real perks. It wasn’t a longterm vision. It was just, Hey, let’s run summer cruise. Like we’ve always done only with a different name on our shoot at this time. Yeah. And honestly that’s why I quit in the first place. I was tired of jumping from culture and company.
Speaker 3: (19:08)
It was tired of 10 99 I was tired of, you know, not having health insurance, having to go figure that stuff on my own. And so the best thing that could have happened there was a blessing in disguise was when the owners came and said, we have to shut this down. And I actually really respect the way they said it cause they said, guys, you’ve done everything you said you’re going to do, but we care so much about the seven people that worked here before you tell that this put them out of work. And so he said, if you give me a little time, put your faith in me. I’ll promise you will be taken care of financially. Give us a month or so. We’ll come up with a new program. And so we met, we sat in a conference room, we literally came up with brainstorms of all these two crazy different ideas and literally it just kind of stumbled upon this idea of Hey, we sent that wasn’t a letters out every single week and just wait for a phone call.
Speaker 3: (19:54)
What if we just take our skill and being proactive and approaching customers just knocking on their door and combine it with these letters we’re sending out instead of just relying on them to call. Why would you go knock on those doors instead of up and down the street? And you know, because the guy that’s been there for 30 years may not wake up today and say, Hey, today’s the day I want to get alarm system. But the person that just moved in two days ago says, I don’t know the area. You know, maybe this is a good thing to have. It’s an investment. I just spent all this money on my house. Plus we know there are the actual homework. And they’re not renters or co-signers we know they have sufficient credit cause they had to have the credit in order to buy the house. And we know they have expendable income because no bank in the world is going to give them a loan for a home they can’t afford.
Speaker 3: (20:38)
So in our minds they were the prime customers. And so we came up with this new program, no idea what we’re doing cause we’re used to just pounding on every door in the neighborhood. And there was a numbers game and I hated it at first. I’m literally driving around from house to house. I’m looking at all these homes, I’m passing, I’m thinking like all these missed opportunities. Uh, literally cause then I’m driving to a house that no one’s home and the next door neighbor’s water and the flowers on the side. And it took me being really strict and saying I’m not going to talk to this person, figure it out. I got to figure out this person. I figured this program and eventually I figured it out. And next thing you know, been able to, so 10 week, 12 week, my best week was 14 so 14 a week with this while still managing the nation and managing a local team said this better job.
Speaker 3: (21:25)
I realized I liked this better. Yeah. It’s not as taxing. Yeah. It’s not as the burnout’s gone burnout, I was able to realize I’m not walking around in the hot sun 110 degrees all day long, sweating my brains out and I’m not out here in the rain. I’m not out here in the snow and literally get my air conditioned car. I drive to the next house, listen to music and wa listen to motivational tapes or whatever it may be, books on tape, call my friends, call my family, whatever it is, and I’m still making great money doing it. And long term we said, okay, well this is a more sustainable position. So the owner of the company said, Hey, realistically if we’re open offices nationwide and we’re having these people as full time employees, we need to actually make them employees no more of this 10 99 stuff.
Speaker 3: (22:12)
He hated the idea of 10 99 yeah. He said, because number one, it’s violating the tax laws. And number two, let’s actually invest into our people. Let’s make sure they have the benefits they need, the health, dental, vision, let’s get them a 401k plan so they can think about retirement. Let’s get them longterm disability care, let’s make sure they have these things. So that way they’re not just thinking it’s another canvassing 10 99 door or position. So you really had to pivot and say, what do we want to do to D to be different? Like, and I think that’s where a lot of people struggle in business and their management styles and their leadership is they’re stuck in their one belief system and you guys created a whole new program that just didn’t exist to them. And honestly, it was hard because so many people in our industry are used to 10 99 even me, it was like I got my first paycheck.
Speaker 3: (23:04)
I’m like, where the hell all my money go? Yeah, 30% is gone. But where to go? You know, cause I wasn’t used to that. But eventually I wrap my mind around it and I saw the advantages of it. And then when we’re hiring and recruiting and finding people, that was one of the hardships. It’s, wait, wait a minute. I have to be W2. I don’t know if I like that or not. And then we started finding the right people that understood it and were like, wow, okay. I like this way better than 10 99 at this point. I would never go back to being 10 99 mainly because I was young. You’re responsible. I didn’t know how to do taxes and file correctly. I hired some guy that unfortunately didn’t do them correctly and I got audited and I ended up having to pay $150,000 rest.
Speaker 3: (23:46)
You paid because of, Oh, the accountant. I thought you were saying one of your reps did it. I’m not gonna count them. And he’s, he wrote off a bunch of stuff that wasn’t supposed to be written off, like haircuts and gym memberships saying, Oh yeah, that’s, you know, upholding your image for your position. You have to be able to recruit, right. Yeah. To me, it sounded right to the IRS. It didn’t it. So she, I had hired IRS or a tax attorney to represent me. I got three years audited all the way through the books. Uh, I was having crazy anxiety and at the end of the day I had to stroke a check for 150 grand. And luckily I had the money in my account so I could just wrote the check. But if there was anyone else, sales reps that live paycheck to paycheck, they get the big check and go blow it on something.
Speaker 3: (24:32)
So my mind is we’re doing these sales reps and injustice by being 10 99 because they aren’t protecting themselves. They’re writing off stuff, they don’t know tax laws and they’re just believing the God they talked to around the conference table says, Oh yeah, you can write it off this, this and this. Cause I did. I was young and you’re responsible and just Hey, it sounds right. Wow. So well so we’ve got to kind of wrap up cause your time. I know your time is short now. Honestly, I appreciate you one find me out here to, to speak with your team. I mean, this has been fun. I mean, I have so much passion for like teaching what I, you know, my mission of just doing our job better and uh, but to just for being a staple and icon in the industry and not going to be in a policemen.
Speaker 3: (25:16)
Like, like that’s the thing. I mean I, I, we joke about that, but it’s like, man, there’s a lot of people that are maybe sitting on the fence listening to this being like, Oh, I can’t do this another year. And it’s like, maybe innovate how you do it so you can do it another year. Yeah, because this is the, one of the fastest ways to make money is to go out and slang to be good at what we do. And that was our biggest thing is come up with a way to make an attractive job. Or people that are like, Ooh, I don’t know about commission only positions, but also make it a longterm sustainable job. So it wasn’t the burnout in the rotation because we all know what 10 99 or just strictly in home sales, there’s a huge turnover rate. And so we’re trying to fix that in the meantime too.
Speaker 3: (25:55)
So I mean we’ve found the system that worked and you said systems earlier, that’s a big thing for us is we have a system for everything. I love it. Policy system. We’ve managed that system. If you’re not doing it, you’re going to see it in the reflection of the numbers and that’s why it’s create good longterm growth. You know what I mean? Like you’re not a company that just keeps plateauing in its own capacity of human. You know you’re not, you know, you’ve shown growth every year and you know, like you said, were a hundred ranked, the 156 or whatever. What year was that? That was in 2010 so 150 first 2010 we ended up losing years number six in the nation in three years. So we am not that big of a job. That’s got to feel good. And then number four, the volunteer number two, the following year we plateaued a little bit there and then we finally achieved it and we that number one spot.
Speaker 3: (26:44)
There was something we’re really excited about. But earlier you said man, staple. I’m going to tell you, I consider myself a pretty humble guy. I don’t like the recognition. Honestly. I think one of the biggest reasons behind it is finding the right people and empowering those people. So I say that because it wasn’t just me, it was number one. Me and my brother started to thing number two. We found the guy that came in and came up with this new training system that was just incredible. New pitch, new posters, new schedules to follow. We pushed it out to the nation. Then we ran into Dean lamb and came in with the new recruiting system, put new, um, ads out there for the recruiters. We had an internal recruiting department. We came up with just a different way of attracting people, double in size again that following year.
Speaker 3: (27:26)
And then we found a lot of our regionals we found mix up your national trainer, Mike Richardson, who is now oversees our recruiting department corporate. And so he’s our national recruiter there too. And just empowering all those people. Well a year ago we’ve plateaued and we said, well what do we need to do again? And so one of our oldest tenured regionals, a guy named Thomas Martin, we said, Hey Thomas, we want to try this thing where we take a regional and have them no longer run a home team so you can be on the road more and be there for support for your offices more. Be able to be in the field, travel around and actually empower them as opposed to saying, Hey, let me get off the phone. I got a rep in the house right now or let me do what my local level team, you know, whatever it may be.
Speaker 3: (28:08)
And that was one of the biggest things that worked in our favor. The other thing is it’s always been a principle of mine and this worked really well for my brother and I is you find someone with skills that are different than yours but compliment each other, the right hand man effect where you can really empower each other and push each other to the next level. Same goals, same visions, but skills. Yeah. Cause it’s like you have a ton of right hands. Yeah, sure thing you need a left hand for, you know what I mean? And it’s, it’s nice to find team. And I think honestly it’s been something in my business, you know, I obviously have, I’ve got 12 employees or whatever, and every time I’m meeting with these new employees and we’re hiring fast for scaling quite a bit and it comes back to me.
Speaker 3: (28:50)
It’s like, do you compliment me or are you another me or are you tearing away from my vision? Are you like bought into my vision? And you know, hiring is a huge piece and I think that so often people hire too quickly and fire too slowly. Yeah. And if we can really find in, in like where you’re saying the right team, that’s how you can duplicate, you know, you just meeting your team. It’s been fun to get to know him and you can tell the different dynamic of, you know, at Thomas and Nadine and uh, you know, some of these people I’m like, they’re so different. But that’s what makes it beautiful. And honestly I try to lead a little bit different than I think a lot of leaders do. I mean, I’m not the guy that’s going to say you’re going to do it this way and you’re gonna buy the book.
Speaker 3: (29:29)
What I say goes, nothing else. Yeah. I always try to empower the people around. So I mean the regionals that you met with yesterday, I can tell ya, I don’t just implement a policy and that’s what it is. I say, Hey, what do you guys think of this? Is there tweaks to it and you’d like to see happen? I’d try to get everyone’s involvement because it’s no longer this thing that’s just mine. It’s his living, breathing thing that’s been developed and it’s taken a life of its own, but all of them have their impact on it. There’s a lot of hands into this thing. The same thing you were saying, you find the right people, but you empower those people. You give them the vision of how this thing can grow together and how they’re going to be part of it and just takes it to the next level.
Speaker 3: (30:07)
So we’re at 60 plus locations nationwide officially achieved number one, but we’re not happy with that. 100 offices. How do we get to, you know, 100,000 installs and just our department alone in one year. Those are the things we’re going after. I love it. I appreciate you having me on, you know, out here and being on the show and you know, this, this, this is fun. This is fun. So if you got some value from this, we invite you to share this and tag some friends that maybe need some leadership or some inspiration. Um, and yeah, appreciate it. Thank you much love. Thanks for your honest. Yeah. Thank you for having me. Everyone that watched these podcasts. Sam is a beast. He’s absolutely incredible. Keep watching these podcasts. That’s love.