Transforming Workshops into Wins with Chris Michel
In this special release from the virtual Lemonade Stand, Emily is joined by Chris Michel from Service Nation! They discuss the power of industry know-how, camaraderie in your community, and Service Nation's upcoming summit in Reno!
0:07 - Service Nation Benefits and Opportunities
9:53 - Workshop Leaders and Learning Opportunities
18:17 - Implementing Ideas for Business Success
24:22 - Community Support and Vendor Partners
If you'd like to meet Chris and the rest of the Service Nation team, register for the upcoming Western Summit! As a special offer, if you register as an attendee by March 16, 2024, you'll receive 50% off a second attendee pass! All attendees will be automatically entered into a drawing to win fabulous prizes - click here to check it out!
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We’ll see you next time, Lemon Heads!
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Speaker 1: 0:07
What's up, lemonheads? Welcome back to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I'm Emily and I'm joined with a very special guest this week. I cannot wait for you guys to hear from Chris Michelle from Service Nation. We have an exciting conversation happening about what is happening in Service Nation, and specifically in Reno, which will be taking happening in April. I'm very excited to dive into this conversation Without further ado. Let's sip some lemonade, all right? Hi, chris, welcome.
Speaker 2: 0:40
Hey Emily, how are you?
Speaker 1: 0:42
I'm doing well. Well, if anyone doesn't know you which I feel like would be hard to do they'd be living under a rock or something. If anyone doesn't, why don't you give us a little introduction, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into Service Nation?
Speaker 2: 0:57
Sure, I've been around the trades for well. Actually, my anniversary will be the week before we go to Reno. We've been in the trades now for 20 years and started out in sales, got the opportunity for management and different things. What I learned over those 20 years is that I really enjoyed training people, really getting to know people and helping them to get from where they are to where they want to go. I had a couple of conversations over the last few years with Tom Peregrino and Tom and I got to know each other. We talked about potentially coming to work with Service Nation as a premier coach, as it turned out. I said I'd really like to do training. They said you want to do what you like training. I said, yeah, I love training and love to do that. Tom brought me in as the training director for Service Nation and that was almost a year ago. I've just gotten the opportunity to really see things change and grow and watch the contractors really adhere to a lot of the things that we're helping them to grow in. It's kind of cool.
Speaker 1: 2:03
Service Nation is definitely a very special organization. We'll go to a lot of these shows and are part of lots of different groups and things like that. There's something to be said about those Service Nation contractors. They're just good, wholesome, good people who are just trying to do good things in their own company and things like that. As Crystal would testify, she cut her teeth, as she'll say, in Service Nation. She was Service Woman of the Year in 2018, I think We've just always appreciated the relationship that we've had with Service Nation and our contractors. We have lots of contractors, our members of your organization.
Speaker 2: 2:43
Cool. The one thing that I really, when I started looking into Service Nation and who it was, the thing that really attracted me to Service Nation was the fact that it's all about the contractors and helping them to form their relationships and help them to really better their lives and take that next step. If you will, whatever that is for them. If they want to be a $2 million, $3 million, $10 million company, great. If you want to be a $3 million company, that's it. That's awesome too. How do we help you to be the most profitable? That was a really cool thing that I got to see. Like I said, it's really about the relationships. I am one of those relationship type of people. I like developing and building those relationships too.
Speaker 1: 3:26
For sure. It's very multifaceted inside of Service Nation. What are some of the services that contractors can find? You said you're very passionate about the training, but that's not all that Service Nation offers. Explain that a little bit more.
Speaker 2: 3:42
Sure, A lot of it comes down to how do we help you to get the resources that make you better at what you do. It's not just about the relationships, the one-on-one contractor relationships. It moves beyond that to we have what we call Premier Coaching, which is helping people who want to get to a different stage than where they currently are. They get people to help out with the finances, the marketing, the branding and all of the sales all the important pieces that I think sometimes we forget that it's just a little change here or there that needs to happen, Whether it's Premier or we've got other programs that actually help put money back into your hands. We're really a best practices group. One of the things that we've done is we've utilized the relationships that we have with all of these vendor partners like Lem&Seed to help to get the contractors the tools that they need to succeed. Then they can make money off of those things as part of being part of this larger group that helps them to get better at what they do.
Speaker 1: 4:55
No, absolutely. There's a lot of buying power and I know their investment service nation is often paid 10 times fold, you know, just by the rebates and things like that that they're able to utilize through service nation.
Speaker 2: 5:10
Yeah, and again, it's we've got these great resources and and it's it can be very overwhelming, right. For somebody who just started out, this can be like completely overwhelming because they don't know where to go, where to start, and we've got some great resources internally that help them on board properly now. So when somebody starts with us, they're going to get an onboarding specialist to say, hey, here are your next steps. Don't forget about this, don't forget about that. Make sure we move in the right direction with those particular pieces, because I think sometimes we can get shiny object syndrome right and we get to go I just want to be a part of this and I want to do this or do that Right, and we forget totally about all the other benefits that are there. And I I do harp on training quite a bit, simply because I'm the training director, but I think too often we forget that just a little nudge here or there in terms of training can make a ton of difference.
Speaker 1: 6:03
Well, and sometimes just that, getting back to the basics and not getting so distracted with all the shiny objects and stuff, that's what is going to really move the needle for you.
Speaker 2: 6:13
Absolutely yeah, and we forget that, especially when post COVID. Now, right, we had so many years where it was just so easy to make money. So does if you were doing the right thing. Well, now we're back into a time where you got to work on the basics. And if you do the basics the blocking and tackling, as we call it right, if you do the basics, you're going to succeed. You will do very well.
Speaker 1: 6:35
That's right, Well, and I know that's great that you guys are so multifaceted from you know operations to marketing, to finances, things like that. But another key thing that I know a lot of our contractors really appreciate about Service Nation is the A B groups.
Speaker 2: 6:49
Yes, so we have for the Alliance members, we have what we call an A, b or advisory board membership and that is a weekly meeting that our Alliance team members get to take advantage of, and it is an opportunity for them to sit in a group of like-minded professionals throughout the country. So it's not somebody in your backyard, it's somebody. It could be somebody in New Jersey, when you live in Atlanta or Dallas or Texas or California or wherever, right, but they're like-minded, like-sized companies and really it's a group of I liken it to a group of people that really want to help you out, so kind of like a mentorship, but not one person is in charge. Yes, there's one person leading the discussion, facilitating, if you will, but it's really about, hey, how can we help each other get better? And they form these bonds and relationships. Imagine if you're meeting with somebody every single week. Right, it's like having a personal coach in your back pocket. It's kind of cool.
Speaker 1: 7:49
No, it's that iron sharpens, iron mentality and just exposure to new ideas and operations and things like that, and it's something very special and unique that I think you guys are able to offer.
Speaker 2: 8:02
Yeah, it's really cool.
Speaker 1: 8:03
Well, and I know that's one of the highlights when you go to these shows or go to a service nation event to get to see members from your A-B group. Sometimes, when you meet with them weekly, you might see this person five states away more frequently than you'd see your best friend who lives in your own town. So it's a special relationship.
Speaker 2: 8:22
Yeah, it's really cool to see some of these folks and they actually they sit down and have lunches together or you know, they break bread, as they say. They sit down and break bread together and they've got this bond with this person they've met with online for so long and they get to have these great one on one conversations that go a little bit deeper, because they heard something at an event, they heard something in a training, right, and so now it's something they bring back to their A-B group and now they're having a discussion with everybody and saying, hey, here's what I learned, here's what I got to hear. What do you guys think about this? What do you guys think about that? Right, and it becomes this to your point iron sharpening, iron, right.
Speaker 1: 9:00
Yeah. So speaking of events and them getting being able to get together and stuff, there is a service nation event happening very soon in Reno. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the Reno event and maybe how it's different from some previous events?
Speaker 2: 9:14
Sure, well, I'm excited about it because I got the opportunity to put together the content and I talked with trainers and what we did. This time it's a little bit different than most events. Most events you go to you've got a 60 minute breakout and it may or may not be a commercial right, and I say that in all love. Sometimes you go into an event and you listen to a 30 minute, 45 minute, maybe an hour long presentation and it's a commercial, to be honest, about how wonderful this company is. Right, what we did with this. We made a 90 minute session. That is about 45 minutes to 60 minutes of pure teaching. Here's some things that can help you, whether it's marketing or sales or finances or operations. There are things that we can help you with. That's 45 to 60 minutes, and we're not gonna stop there. We've got another 45 to 30 minutes of now. Let's take the next steps. Who needs to be involved? What do you do when you get home? We're not waiting until you get home to go. Oh my gosh, I'm overwhelmed. I've had 20 things to do. No, no, no. Here's step number one, maybe even step number two. But who needs to be involved? How much is it gonna cost you? What are the resources do you need to bring in and what's the timing of this? What is it gonna take to make you, help you move from one step to the next, wherever you wanna go on your journey? So the cool thing about this and the thing I'm really looking forward to hearing because we had a similar event not too long ago in Charlotte, but now it's in Reno, and now we get to do it and see it all over again where people get the opportunity to come together and hear real practical applications that they can use before they even leave the building. Right, they can start right then and right there, and that's what I love about this event. There's plenty of time to meet with vendor partners. There's plenty of time to sit and mingle and have these deeper conversations and really focus on what you do. The other thing that I see that happened or is gonna happen again in Reno is people are not just coming by themselves. It's not just the owner, it's not just a manager. It's the owner and his top two or three, her top two or three people, and you're seeing multiple people from one company come in and show up and now what are they doing? Now they're starting to come up with an action plan. One person goes to this class, another goes to this class and they come back and they say now what makes more sense for us to do? Where do we go and how do we make this happen? So it's really kind of cool to see people taking advantage of this opportunity to really bring multiple people in. Because we're regional right, because we decided to go west coast, east coast. Now we've got an opportunity for it to be closer to your backyard. I know it's not ideal for everybody, but it's closer to your backyard so it's not as costly to go to this event and you can bring more people and that way you can get more out of it.
Speaker 1: 12:00
No for sure. So, lemon Seed, we had a table in Charlotte and we had to fly, but there were several people that were within driving distance that it was very easy and accessible for them to join. And you mentioned them bringing like numerous team members and I saw a good chunk of bringing young team members who are like the potential future leadership of the company, just so that they can start to have that exposure and rub shoulders with these other people who are doing similar things. And I was like what a gift to these young men and women who are here just soaking it all up and it's just setting the tone and the goals, the vision of what could happen for these young people. I thought that's really special.
Speaker 2: 12:42
Yeah, it's really cool when the visionaries, the leaders of these companies, these owners, get that vision in their head where they go. Wait, why don't I bring one of the younger generation, why don't I bring the next level leader or potential leader, like you said, to this event and get them to start seeing the things that I'm seeing, the experience of the things that I'm experiencing, because nothing can replace that experience. You can explain it all you want, but it's really difficult for them to feel that experience and really touch the weight of it. And it's not a bad thing, right, it's really just bringing them into the fold.
Speaker 1: 13:18
Sure, and I think that's another unique thing by having all of the workshops actually be led and taught by other contractors, sometimes those other team members are able to receive it differently when it comes from someone else, versus having to come from you, the owner, all the time, or something like that. They're able to receive it more, but then they can take ownership and help make that actual game plan, and it's with someone who is very like-minded. Hey, I'm walking in your same shoes along here with you. I've been here, I've done that. Here's how we can move forward together.
Speaker 2: 13:50
Yeah, and you brought up a really good point, emily. All of our trainers for these workshops are people that are in the industry and have been there done that, right. So it's not a we're no offense to our vendor partners we love our vendor partners but this particular event, we want people who are in the industry, premier coaches that we work with and utilize on a regular basis, or other contractors that have been there, done that and, as a result, we're seeing to your point. We're seeing people go. Oh wait a minute. I've heard about this person, right. I've heard about Emily and what she does. I've heard about Colleen. I've heard about right. I've heard about these different people and what they've done. Now I get to see it firsthand and it's really cool to see that.
Speaker 1: 14:32
No, for sure. So tell us a little bit like who are gonna be some of the workshop leaders or speakers here in Reno. Give us a little teaser, if you will.
Speaker 2: 14:45
Well, we've got the usual suspects.
Speaker 1: 14:47
Yeah, we've got the usual suspects.
Speaker 2: 14:50
I get to help out. This is one of the first events I'll be speaking at and I'll be doing a program on disc. And what does the disc assessment mean? We offer that to our Alliance members at no charge, by the way to come and get a disc assessment for their entire team. We've got Jim Henshaw We've got talking about sales. We've got Joe Cunningham talking about implementation management. We've got Tom Peregrino, obviously, talking about the next steps. What do we do for the next steps? How do we move our company to the next places that we wanna go? We've got this incredible AI speaker named Anna Adams, and she's from outside the industry, but she's coming to talk about AI and the importance of AI in our business. What does it mean to us? And so we won't even have her PowerPoint until like the week of, or the week before, because it's that relevant. She's on top of it right then. And there Colleen Keysworth is gonna be doing a or Keyworth, sorry, colleen will be doing a class on marketing and AI, and how does that affect us? And so, really, some great people Stephanie Postel oh gosh, they're all escaping me Joey and Alyssa Rogers. Lou Habike is gonna be there talking about sales. We've got Aaron Ruddick will be there talking about operations, processes and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: 16:11
So that should be it, I think.
Speaker 2: 16:14
Roy is here. Is that Roy? Roy is here.
Speaker 1: 16:16
Yep, I sat in on one of his sessions in Reno and like I really loved your disc assessment. So, like one of the first things, you're like you know who's taking disc. And I raised my hand and you know who knows how to read the reports. I was like, raise my hand, yeah, I know. But then, like you did a much deeper dive. I was like I had no idea that's what that report meant and it was just a different way to look and analyze it. And so Crystal and I left like, okay, we gotta go redo disc for our whole team now and like now we can understand it, because it's like a 70 page report, it's so deep, but we were able to break it down a lot easier for us and like ways to actually implement it. And I talked to a few people who are like, yeah, that was my favorite session. So I know a lot of people can be looking forward to that in Reno as well.
Speaker 2: 17:00
Well, the cool thing about the again, the classes that we're doing are almost a precursor to the trainings that we have throughout the year, right. So if you want to learn more about disc, we've got a couple of two day classes. If you want to learn more about leadership, we've got a couple of two day classes. If you want to learn more about finances, we've got a couple of two day classes. Right, we've got these things that are on the horizon, that are, if you will, a continuation of what we're showing you at the events, and so that's kind of my vision, for it is that it takes on this. It's not. Here's a teaser, right, here's the one hour hour and a half teaser. You want to learn more? You want a deeper dive? Great. Here let's take this to the next level. Let's go to the next class and let's find out as we dive a little bit deeper into each one of these things.
Speaker 1: 17:47
Well, and I love what you're talking about, how you spend the last 30, 45 minutes like actually developing a game plan, a plan of action, and like the way you're describing it. This sounds very smart, goal oriented, or like course of action, like you know, is what time frame are we going to put into it and is this measurable and what resources do we need? And so is that kind of the how it was developed, maybe, maybe a little bit.
Speaker 2: 18:09
I didn't have that in mind, but I've done enough training classes on smart and smarter. If you haven't heard of smarter goals, right, but there's. The next steps are then making sure you're rewarding properly, and there's all kinds of good stuff behind that, but yeah, I'm sure in the back of my mind it was that was part of it was hey, don't forget, we've got to have implementation, and I think that's where a lot of people and us as contractors that we probably fail is we've got these great ideas and we want to go and do this and do that, and I want to make this happen and make that happen, and what we fail to do is implementation, and we miss that step of how do I go where I need to go? Right, the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and we've got to take that first step and too often we've got the great idea, we've got the journey, we've got the goal in mind, but we don't know how to take those next steps, and that's part of what this has been centered around really when I was putting all this together.
Speaker 1: 19:08
Well and honestly, being realistic about what to implement, because, like you'll go to one thing and be like, yes, I'm so recharged and motivated I'm gonna implement everything, and that's unrealistic. But yeah, defining one, maybe two things, getting that implement, and that'll have a huge impact than halfway implementing tons of things.
Speaker 2: 19:29
Right, yeah, and again, that's what we I think we all fall short. Most of us fall short is we don't know how to implement. And so I really want, in the trainings that I try to do and I try to facilitate, is hey, what's your next step? What do we do next? What's most important? You come to a boot camp and I'm gonna ask you every single day, every morning and every afternoon hey, what are you doing? What's most important today, what's most important now? You've heard this, right Now, what's most important? Right, and it's important to kind of come back to that every single day and evaluate where you're at, because, hey, this may have taken precedence. This was really good. Right, we need to do the disc profiles, we need to do marketing, we need to do right, we need to do, we need to do, we need to do. But what's most important today, what's gonna move the needle the most for you Right here, right now, and what are those steps that I need to take? Because if you don't do that to your point, I'm gonna be all over the map and next year you're gonna come back and you're gonna hear the same things and you're gonna be like, oh, this is really cool, let me try and implement everything again. Yeah, for sure, you just get frustrated.
Speaker 1: 20:34
Now that is all fantastic. I know there's gonna be so many great sessions and, yeah, you do need to bring a few people from your teams that you can divide and conquer from all the sessions and get some real course of action to implement for your company. So, chris, how can someone find out the exact dates and details and actually register for Reno? Where can they find that information?
Speaker 2: 20:57
Well, there's. Obviously you can go to our page, servicenationcom, and it's gonna be plastered all over the front there. But there's also a temporary webpage that we've created, right, a landing page, if you will and I believe it is westernregionsummitcom and again, just go to service nation. We can take care of it there. But the dates are gonna be April 16, 17, and 18 in Reno. And we have a special going on through the end of March. So if you sign up before the end of March, you'll go to the landing page. You'll see it, but there's a special deal so that when you bring more than one person, it's gonna be beneficial. Check it out.
Speaker 1: 21:41
No, that's awesome, and we will link that show and the special deal down here in the show notes. Limancy will be there at Reno, we will have a table set up, and we love service nation events. About 40% of our clientele are service nation members, and so, yeah, one thing that was really special when we were at Charlotte just a few weeks ago is one of our clients won three awards, yeah, for transitioning into like a next level. They had the highest revenue growth in their category and the biggest innovator, I think, was what they won as a personal award. And so for us as Limancy, we're not successful if our clients aren't successful, and so we like to think that we played a part, but also know service nation has played a part in their growth and their success, and so to be able to get to celebrate with them is very special. I don't know you guys feel the same as well.
Speaker 2: 22:36
Absolutely. It's watching when your kids grow up right and they go and they participate and they do something. And can I say that I had something to do with it? Maybe, but it's not about me, it's not and you guys do a fantastic job helping these folks to get on the right track and know what to do and where to go, and you give them tried and true information and feedback and it's really cool to watch them to grow and succeed. And when they do, you're just it's just a. It's kind of like a proud parent moment. It really is, and you wanna be happy as all get out for them and it has little to do with you, but you're so proud of them because they were the ones who implemented, they were the ones who went out and did the work. And we can come up with all the great ideas we want, right, but if they're not gonna do the work, then it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: 23:25
For sure. Well, chris, I'm super excited about Reno and what is gonna be happening and I just wanna encourage all the Lemonheads, all the listeners out there if you are not part of Service Nation, you really need to be to find a community, to find a support group, to get inspired, get new ideas, new actual resources, and if you are a Service Nation member, we better be seeing you over in Reno. Lemonc will be there just look for the ladies in yellow and there will be tons of fun things happening and very meaningful and impactful things that you can relate to and take back and implement into your business.
Speaker 2: 23:57
So, chris, those are really. Yeah real quick, I'm sorry, real quick. One last thing I just thought of. You just mentioned it. You know we've got vendor partners that show up to these events and they do an amazing job and we've got it at these events where they're gonna be in the room, so you're not gonna miss out on seeing any one of them and just take the time to go over and say hi and hey, what do you do and how do you help people and what can you do for me? Right, they're there for a reason and people like LemonC do an amazing job and we really appreciate all the support that you guys give us for these events.
Speaker 1: 24:31
Oh no, yeah, we're definitely in those rooms together and it's a much more sometimes I feel like approachable aspect, Like you don't have to come to this big old booth and like sign up through all these different things. It's like just sitting down next to someone like, hey, can I ask you about this? It's like, well, yeah, sure, so, yeah, so, yeah, great vendor partners LemonC will be there, but also lots of other partners, so be looking for them out in Reno, okay, yeah. Well, thank you guys for listening to another episode. We have enjoyed having Chris on here so much and if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review, follow us on all the social media channels. It helps us keep going and spread the word about all the things for the home service industry. So thanks for listening.
