Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Focus Podcast. Today, we have Clayton Robinson with CR Plumbing on the show. Welcome to the show, Clayton.

Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: Absolutely, man. I've been wanting to have you on the show for a very long time. Our schedules just aligned and I've been wanting to have you on ever since we shot a employee testimonial for you guys months ago. What really got me was how genuine your team was on camera on sharing your testimonials on working for the company. Dylan and I, we saw firsthand. We were there for a team meeting, we were there for several engagements. We were like, wow, they're doing something different. They have a culture there. I wanted to have you on to share how other people in trades, in home services and whatnot, can be able to cultivate that culture to have employees come your way. Initially, you reached out to us because you're like, hey, we need more technicians. Business is good. We're getting enough customers. We need technicians to be able to fulfill orders. What do you think is one of the biggest problems in plumbing or the trades and be able to attract and retain top talent?

Speaker 2: Well, there's not very many of us, unfortunately. That's why I had you do that amazing video that you made for us so we could show what we care about and show that our own employees, how they enjoy and like being where we're at and want to give that back out and try to attract other people like-minded like that. But the industry is not much of us, let alone so many that focused on taking care of the customers and want to constantly learn and constantly grow. So that's what we try to focus on and attract those type of clients for us to bring on to expand our team so we can change this industry so it's more support, better knowledge, so we can take care of the customers better.

Speaker 1: No, I love that. And you touched on training and continuous training. We're definitely going to get to that. I want to touch on, though, you said there's not that many of us. Why do you think that is? Why do you think that people are just not going into the trades? Because, and I'm trying to say this delicately, but you can make a really good living in the trades and so why aren't people wanting to do this?

Speaker 2: I mean, you make about $60,000 in two years out of high school. Not very many people are going. We spent multiple generations of TLN people, hey, go to college. Well, if you're not smart enough, go to trades. So we put this whole stigma in there of trades being lower. It's an engineering mindset that just doesn't do great with testing. Every one of our guys, they can problem solve, think outside the box, understand things, understand physics, which is all of plumbing. Just from that aspect, they're just not great test takers. It's not set up for normal society of people.

Speaker 1: And you touched on it, too. I think it's getting a little bit better maybe, but I mean, I'm 45. So when I was growing up, like you said, it was go to college, get a job in an office setting, wear a suit and tie, all those kind of things. And like you said, it was looked down upon to be in the trades. Or back then, it was like ATT tech and things like that. But when you learn trade, then you can take that wherever you want to go. Obviously, if you learn the business aspects of it. So I really hope that people listening now would encourage their kids or themselves to learn a trade, whether it's videography, whether it's plumbing. Because yes, a degree is great, but learning a trade and working with your hands. Because I've been on site with your crew, I've been on site with landscapers, roofers, AC technicians, and you guys are super smart. And you're solving a problem. And one thing I looked at in 2020 was, and I was explaining this to my kids. It's like, look, who's working right now? Pay attention to these retention proof things. So kind of speak to, again, going back to the training aspect. One of the things that we saw whenever we were on location with your team was you were literally doing a real training when we came in. You were training your guys. Talk about the importance of not just getting your certifications, but ongoing training, even if you've been a technician for a while.

Speaker 2: I mean, it goes across the board throughout. If you stop learning, you're not going to keep growing. We get in our own way because, hey, we know that. Well, we lose our aspect of different options, outside-the-box thinking. If you're always having a learning mindset, you're always going to keep growing. It's always going to get better and better. And you see different perspectives from that. It's really important to just focus on, do I know it well enough to be able to teach it to someone? Once you start teaching it to someone, then it's really, you have to understand all the points because you have to explain to them how they understand it and communicate it back. So even we'll get some of our guys where they start teaching it back, that's when you really start clicking more. So now you can actually use it. It's really important to constantly grow, constantly learn.

Speaker 1: That's so good because at the end of the day, you can't really scale your business if you can't teach and duplicate. Because, yes, I'm sure you're very skilled at what you do, but you can only go to so many homes. You have to be able to train it and be able to scale your team. And that goes with the ongoing education. With technology and all the different things, how have you seen the industry changing in a good way? With different tech or maybe it's AI or different things that you've seen in your industry where it's like, we've got to stay on top of these different things. There are so many things you guys are going over that was way over my head, technical-wise. So what are some things that you're seeing where you're like, hey, we need to be on top of this to be cutting edge?

Speaker 2: Plumbers, unfortunately, don't get taught very much. So we're bringing them back to the basics of do you understand why? Why is it supposed to work that way? What is it supposed to do? But why is it supposed to do that? So if you understand why it works, it don't matter if it's... You're solving problems at a 90 degree, but now it's at a 45 degree angle. It's the same thing, but you have to understand it. If you understand the basics, you have to have that foundation of that pyramid to grow. If you understand the basics and understand why, and we beat that into our guys, why? Why is it do that? That allows us to grow more and allows us to have those other aspects when they come in. There's people engineering all kinds of things. We love bringing in new technology. We bring in new technology so we can take care of our customers better, more efficient, perfect. We're going to do it. But we can't understand how it works or how to use it to our advantage if we don't understand the basics or even understand why does that work? And just like our aligning stuff you were in there, what is the chemical reaction that's going on? So you can understand how much more we can push it and this and that.

Speaker 1: No, that's so good. Getting back to the why we do this, because I feel like that gives you a full understanding as opposed to just like, oh, this is just the way we do it here. But explain the why. Then it clicks and they know it. One of the things we noticed, and I mentioned this at the top, was we interviewed three of your technicians. And you can tell, all three of them, it was heartfelt. They really enjoyed working for CR Plumbing. They enjoyed just the culture. Talk a little bit about what are some things that you're doing that has created that culture to be able to attract that top talent like you have been able to do?

Speaker 2: Well, the biggest thing is we communicate to them. We listen to them. One male is getting away all the time. We'll get in the way of ourselves. We think that, oh, slowing down, or I'll just toughen up and keep moving on. Sometimes not being heard is a big difference in your organization. There might be a guy just sitting down and somebody starts talking. Stopping what you're doing and taking that 30 minutes to listen. It could be concerns. It could be something home-like. Having that relationship and understanding them and actually them feeling that they're being heard and caring about that, but also doing all of that to support them and figuring out how you can help them, that helps change everything. That makes them connect. But I have to be a better leader. I have to be able to be a better leader. So I've got to be able to support them. Some of them might need to be supported by reassuring. Some of them might be getting out in the trenches with them. Every one of them is different. But learning about each individual instead of just, they're not a number, they're a person. How can I connect and help support them? And then when they do have frustrations because emotions get in the way, heat gets in the way, frustrations, home life. Work and home are the same. We get told forever, if your work's crap, you're bringing it back home. Then you're going to cause problems there. Then you're going to bring even more back. The only thing we can help out is be efficient and feel supported in our organization. My customer and my manager's customers are our technicians and my office. The customers are theirs. So if we treat our customers with respect and listen to them,

Speaker 1: they're going to take care of their customers. I always tell people, I love doing business with companies that really take care of their employees because you can just tell. There's an ice cream shop that we like to go to and you can just tell that they just love working there. It's not like the, welcome in, we got to serve someone else. You can tell they're taken care of from the inside out and it really does work like that. One of the things that I saw too is you basically help them with a 401k. You're helping them set up a 401k plan. It looks like you guys truly care about the individual and it's not just like, oh, go take care of this plumbing job. That's what I would love to see. I love that you touched on the idea of, again, I grew up old school. Leave your problems at home. It's impossible. When someone's struggling at home, I'm so glad you touched on that. One of the things that I saw on your Facebook, you all are looking for an office administrative assistant.

Speaker 2: What did I see? I saw a couple different ones that were expanding and adding on more people. But touching back to where you were talking about the ice cream shop, we all have an electrical energy that you can fill that by if you want to put it on there and that changes everything. They don't fill that. They're not trusting. People doing business know I can trust. That's a big thing. If they're not feeling comfortable with what they're doing and understanding, you can fill that all.

Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so good. You can tell when someone's really taken care of because, again, you take care of the employee, they're going to turn around and you're going to take care of the customer. So yeah, you guys have done a great job in that.

Speaker 2: We want the plumbing industry to come from lower class. That's where I came from, too. But I want all of our employees to have their own house to be able to support themselves. There's no reason. Learn how to manage money. They don't teach that in school. My mom was working accounting so I got that beat into me. Helping them in any way we can to level up to be able to change the generational wealth. First it's here so they can change the way their kids and then grow up and get a house, perfect. And then we keep building up. So anyway, investing in retirement. They should retire. Most of the plumbers don't.

Speaker 1: They'll work until they're dead. That's not acceptable. That's great. Take care of people so well that they could leave you but treat them so well that they don't. I really feel like you're setting that kind of culture. Going back to what your needs are right now, what kind of positions are you looking to get filled right now currently?

Speaker 2: Currently, we're definitely looking for another office person to help take care of customers and answer the phone. Their first line and the last. Very important process in there. We're looking for an extra one in there for that. We're in the middle of seeing if we can add on AC as well so we're looking for a possible manager that can help support a team. Got the office stuff taken care of. How can we have a manager for AC that can help support the technicians, set them up to succeed so they have someone as well so we can turn that organization and take care of more technicians

Speaker 1: Awesome. Talk to the owner of a garage or repair guy or maybe a plumbing company that's not in direct competition with you guys or roofing company and they're small and they're looking to scale. What's the one takeaway that you want them to have to say, this is how you go about building a strong team So picture one or two guys there, they're really trying to grow to where you guys are. How do they start?

Speaker 2: That's a loaded question for one item. Biggest thing is not you take care of your team and you support them more will come in it's going to take time. But you can't expect them to grow if you're only you're level three. You need to be level ten so you can bring in more level threes and fours and grow in that. You're the problem. Nine percent of the time if you're running a company and you haven't scaled to where you thought you should be you're the problem. It's my fault first. Always my fault first. Did I set them up? Was I clear enough? Did they have support? Don't be afraid to hire someone in the office because they're going to make your life ten times better. That support in the back half so you can spend if you're the technician running the company so you can take care of your team out in the field as well as then take care of the office but you have to have that support in the office. Sometimes they're afraid to, oh I can't afford that. They will make you more money by answering the phones and doing it better than you will.

Speaker 1: I agree. All of our clients that we've worked with over the years were playing that tug of war of we can't afford this. They all maybe took a small step back and then catapulted forward because they could work on the business and not necessarily in the business. When it comes to return on investment it's not just marketing dollars. It is your office admin,

Speaker 2: the people that take care of you. The more women you have in your company the more you can streamline you're going to be. They're going to keep you out of your way. They're going to make sure it's clean, taken care of and support a lot better

Speaker 1: than you can. Absolutely. That's a great point too. On the technicians that are out there, talk to someone who is thinking about getting in the trades. Which direction do I want to go? Why should they come work for CR Plumbing? Whether it's the office admin, whether it is the plumbing technician. Why should they work for CR Plumbing?

Speaker 2: If you're going to you want to get in the trade dream thinking about it, we would love to have those people that are growth minded, want to succeed, want to keep learning. They're tired of not being supported and given the freedom to grow. It's frustrating, it's going to be hard. Especially if you're already at a company and you're like, I don't get support. How much do they listen? I can be outvoted in my own company. Everyone's opinion matters to the success. If you're feeling like you're not in that company come give us a call. We'll definitely come interview you and see how we can find a spot for you

Speaker 1: in our company. I really appreciate you being I learned a lot because I own a business as well, always looking to scale. Thank you for sharing your knowledge here. I saw it firsthand. I know what I saw. It's genuine. You and Hannah are doing an incredible job. Keep it up. If you're out there and you're thinking about even remotely getting in the trades, getting into plumbing like Clayton was saying. If you are already at a company and you're just not really taken care of, I highly recommend that you contact Clayton and his team over at CR Plumbing. Really appreciate you tuning on to the Focus podcast today. Remember if you need a professional video we'd love to help. My name is Mario Wilson with Twelve Media Group where we put your brand in focus.

Speaker 2: I'm going to add to that Mario. If you guys are having a problem hiring Mario can add amazing content that you can use across the platform to actually show people. After we had his stuff going I staffed up within months because he got to express what we already knew we had to the world. Definitely hit him up.

Speaker 1: Thank you so much for that Clayton. I really appreciate that. Thanks again for coming on the show. Thank you. Appreciate it.