Community Roots & New Growth: Leo of BCI on Expanding Services and Strengthening Local Ties
0:00
The Power of Surrounding Yourself
10:05
Building Community Engagement Through Strategic Vision
21:08
Celebrating Community Engagement and Growth
25:35
Creating Cohesive Cross-Training Teams
35:41
Encouraging Growth Through Selfless Leadership
Welcome to another engaging episode of "From the Yellow Chair," where we sit down with Leo Morales, the inspiring co-owner of BCI Plumbing, Heating, and Flowing from Denton, Texas. What if the secret to thriving in business and life lies in the people you surround yourself with? Leo's riveting journey across 34 relocations and diverse industries reveals just that. Through life-altering experiences, he has embraced the importance of personal growth and the transformative power of aligning team strengths, a philosophy that has proven crucial in his business ventures.
Our conversation with Leo takes us into the heart of community engagement and strategic vision. Drawing inspiration from storytelling business experts like Patrick Lencioni, we uncover how aligning team members with roles that resonate with their strengths can ignite productivity and foster a profound sense of shared purpose. Leo shares the success story of an innovative vehicle system that dramatically cut down supply run times, demonstrating the impact of patience and strategic planning. Additionally, we explore how local involvement and supporting charities can elevate both a business's standing and its connectedness to the community fabric.
In the final segment, we explore the art of selfless leadership and the enduring impact of a cohesive, cross-trained team. Leo emphasizes the humility required to transition from trade mastery to business ownership, highlighting the importance of learning from mistakes in a supportive culture. By investing in team bonding activities and embracing a dynamic brand refresh, Leo's company not only strengthened its internal culture but also became a community landmark. Join us for an episode filled with invaluable lessons on leadership, adaptability, and the power of nurturing potential within both individuals and organizations.
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Speaker 1: 0:00
What's up, lemonheads? Welcome back to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I'm Emily and I have a very special guest with me here today in the actual lemonade stand, not the virtual lemonade stand and he came in yesterday. He's a client of ours and was hanging out with us a little bit, got to enjoy the cigar lounge last night and someone asked him hey, why did you come into talent, what are you doing here? And he said well, they asked me to record a podcast, podcast, and I just really love to connect with people. So I made the trip down, just so we could do this and not have to do it virtually. And so we're going to get to dive into his experiences and his philosophies with how connecting with people and surrounding yourself with the right people will really change the trajectory of your company. So, without further ado, let's sip some lemonade, all right. So here in the lemonade stand with me I have Leo Morales, one of the owners of BCI Plumbing, heating and Flowing out of Denton, texas, and Leo welcome.
Speaker 2: 1:06
Well, thank you, it's an honor to be here. You know, I love your team, I love your brand and I'm just excited to be part of this.
Speaker 1: 1:13
Awesome. Well, this is kind of a loaded question. So I'm gonna say tell me a little bit about yourself. But I know you have such a diverse background and come from a lot of different walks of life and experiences and stuff. But I think that's what really contributes to how you're leading the organization and pouring into your people. So tell our listeners a little bit about your background and how you got to being here at BCI.
Speaker 2: 1:35
You're right, it's a little bit of diverse. I have through many reasons in life. I've actually relocated 34 times 34 times.
Speaker 1: 1:44
That sounds terrible.
Speaker 2: 1:46
Well, it can be and it has its pros and cons for sure. But I've had the opportunity to experience multiple industries, from retail, wholesale manufacturing to export, import and coaching, and I got an opportunity to come into this industry from the vendor side and the longer I was in it, the more I fell in love with the people. I fell in love with, I want to say, the spirit of who is doing this kind of work and I learned to appreciate and I just had an opportunity to open up, to be part of the team at BCI. At that point they were 35 years in business. We celebrated our 40th this year.
Speaker 1: 2:29
Congratulations.
Speaker 2: 2:31
Thank you. It was definitely fun. We did a lot of crazy stuff to celebrate that. But as far as how that influenced everything, to be honest with you, you get a really good sampling of what not to do. Hey, that's uh, you know, you always had that situation when you're like I would never be like that boss and I promise you you are that one point another, because that's what you know. But you, when you change so many scenarios, you get to sample the good, the bad and the ugly. And then you get to start making a decision of hey, someday, if I have this opportunity, I really want to emulate this or I really want to not emulate that, and I need to figure out I'm not to do that. Uh.
Speaker 2: 3:13
And then over time you realize, uh, there's a saying that says you're the average of the five people you spend time right right, and you know a different story for a different day, but I've I should have been dead about three or four times already, and just different motorcycle accidents and things like that. And I remember waking up from a blood clot from my ankle to my heart oh my gosh, it was. It was a situation where I had about 18 chance of living and I realized at that moment that I was going to make it past, that I had to change mindset.
Speaker 2: 3:47
I had to change my approach, and so when I came out of that scenario, I started reading, I started working out, I started surrounding myself with smarter people than me, which you know, if you're doing the scale, that's a lot of people above, so this is easy to pick those smarter people. But I started to appreciate the individuals and understand that we all have a worth, but if we don't have value ourselves, how can we add value to anything or anything? And so breaking apart the individual is is through a lot of different books that I read. Uh, I mean, I love one thing that I know that you guys do it here.
Speaker 2: 4:26
You have your bookshelf and then everybody can read the things that you have read. And so I just, I know, kind of just start tumbling down through books about things that I wanted to learn a mindset, the idea that I want to try harder so that I can be better, that I'm not just going to sit in here, say this is what I am, this is who I am, and I'm just going to accept it and be this for the rest of my life. And I realized, no, I can change. If I look at the mirror hard enough, I can accept my flaws and I can surround myself with people that will help me with them. And that's a little bit of what we've done with our teams. We have celebrated their success, we celebrate their strengths.
Speaker 2: 5:10
Book Strength Finders helps you understand what your core competencies are as a leader. And so we took our management team in and started showing each other who we were. And then we emphasize okay, this is how you flow, this is how you operate, let's make you successful, let's give you the training, let's give you the authority, but let's give you the support and then run with it, run with it and then, every time that we put those people in the right place, to be honest with you, emily. They run circles around. Anything I could.
Speaker 1: 5:43
Well, it just shows the right people in the right seats can make the world a difference. And you know, I think you're so wise because so many people, like you said I'm looking to surround myself with people that are smarter than me, and you were jokingly saying, like there's you know a whole ton more than there are below you, but like I don't believe that's true, because I think so many people are unwilling to accept that they aren't the smartest person in the room or that they need help. And so to me, that's so wise to realize that you still have things that you can learn from everybody, and everyone does bring a different experience and work ethic and value that they can contribute, and so being wise enough to put ego and pride aside so that you can learn and absorb that, I think that's tremendously wise.
Speaker 2: 6:26
I appreciate it. I mean from outside the industry. I don't have a leg to stand on on the HVAC conversation and you don't want me to change your your toilet flange. Are you going to mess it up? And again, I've been on the field. I've done a lot of stuff. I probably know more than I'm letting out, but you have to be humble.
Speaker 1: 6:46
Correct, yes.
Speaker 2: 6:51
And the one thing that I've seen in the industry and this is not specific to just the industry, this is actually generational, I think is there is this unspoken need that if you're the owner or if you're the manager, you have to know all be all, and then everything has to be you. So you have to be the head of marketing, you have to be the head of HR, you have to be the discipline, you have to be accounting.
Speaker 1: 7:09
Accounting yeah.
Speaker 2: 7:11
It's just you can't right.
Speaker 1: 7:14
Or you'll hit a cap and you'll never get anything beyond that.
Speaker 2: 7:18
And the problem is because we created this culture having to be like I have to have everything. We then thwart our growth by not allowing people that and sometimes we will feel threatened by you know, my partners very smart very incredibly smart.
Speaker 2: 7:36
They I cannot, would not be able to compete with them, because they have a career plumbers and HVAC techs and and a career development in new construction, cause we have all aspects of the residential, commercial, industrial and new construction. And so for what? For that knowledge too, I will spend a lifetime chasing them. I still wouldn't be able to, so wouldn't be able to accept that and say, but that's not my role, correct, and I am so glad that I have these people and those roles because I wouldn't want anybody else there. So then I am going to support them, I'm going to make sure that they know I appreciate it. I want to make sure that they know that we rely on that and then we celebrate each other's success.
Speaker 1: 8:22
That's great. One of my favorite sayings is you deserve what you tolerate, you get what you reiterate, but you keep what you celebrate. And so those qualities that you do want, you'll keep those. If you celebrate them, don't let it go unnoticed or make someone that feels like, don't make them feel unappreciated for what they're bringing to the table. But when you celebrate that, celebrate your wins, celebrate your diversities. That's what you'll keep and that's how you'll rise above.
Speaker 2: 8:48
Yeah, and a lot of times you know our teams they're not aware of what they're capable of. You know, and you know I have this thing in life and I've seen it happen to me a lot of times. But if you have to thwart somebody's success so that you can be successful, you're doing it wrong.
Speaker 1: 9:07
Absolutely.
Speaker 2: 9:08
And if you have to block somebody from achieving their goals so that you can get ahead and that happens a lot you're doing it wrong. And so we focus on what is their lane, what does success look like for them and what is that success for the overall picture? And then we talk about those things. We've been going through a book called Death by Meeting.
Speaker 1: 9:33
Gosh, this meeting could have been an email. They're beating it to death or overthink it, overanalyze it.
Speaker 2: 9:38
Well, it's funny because that was the initial reaction we got with it, but it actually it almost. When you read the book and I don't want to give away, you know I guess we're in a podcast, you can't fast forward. The premise of it is is you should have more meetings, but these meetings are specific for a way that you conduct them and so and they break it down. It's a really good book to follow because it's a story, so it's very engaging.
Speaker 1: 10:05
Who who is the author? Is it patrick linceoni? Yes, I sound right okay because I read another. You're talking about the right people in the right seats and he has like the six working personalities or six working type, but it's written in a story manner to where it's like very easy to fall, like it's not like so self-help driven this way, but it teaches the principles through. So it's a very different approach to a lot of leadership books. So I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: 10:29
It's like if you would have read the script of friends. You know you're watching their life develop and you see the challenges and you're going. That's happened to me. I know that feeling and so the messages that stay better. But we've actually started going to a point where our meetings are so effective. Yeah, we may have what it seems feels like more, but you're actually accomplishing things, because when a meeting parameter is breached, we take that topic and say well, I'm sorry, this goes to this meeting and this is top, keeping it super constant.
Speaker 2: 10:57
Hey, we have this to work, and so you know the team themselves. They're becoming so efficient.
Speaker 1: 11:04
Which is great.
Speaker 2: 11:04
We've um, the In war they always talk about. You really want to know what's going on and go to the front lines, right Like they actually know what's going on. And so what was it? January of 2023, I don't know. Maybe I just blurbed my mouse and shouldn't have said it, but I announced that we were going to go to an all packout vehicle, we were going to figure out how to increase our efficiencies and it sounds great. It took 18 months 18 months for one.
Speaker 2: 11:38
For anybody that is watching that have tried it, there is every combination until Sunday, that you can do for Milwaukee and it's really hard to figure out how it fits the vans, all the dimensions and the curves, and we spent 18 months and it took specific people on the team to take care of their, their role and responsibility in the development.
Speaker 2: 12:01
Then, when it came together, we even had a, an executive from milwaukee, to come over and look at it and he was like, okay, I've seen the majority of the ones in the uS and this was, for sure, the best one that I've seen. And so we started now. The goal at that point is we discovered that our team was spending 40 plus hours a month at the supply houses, and that was not including driving time, and so, with every individual that took ownership of it, we started doing calculations, figure out how to do it, talking to vendors, working with them for solutions. But it wasn't. I guess the point I'm trying to make is it wasn't all me. I casted a vision and it took for our team to own that vision.
Speaker 1: 12:45
Well, but also the vision and the patience to allow it to come. So, like you said, it took 18 months and you know that was probably those team members are working on. That was not revenue producing at that moment. You know it's overhead expense at that point I'm sure you probably tried lots of things like we just bought that. Now that's not going to work, but it took that investment. But for the long term vision of how this is going to long term improve our efficiency, save more time. We're going to be able to service more customers in the same amount of time because we're not at the parts warehouse or on the road going to the parts warehouse. So it took that visionary and that patience to get it right versus well, we've been doing it. There's no other way to fix this. Like we've tried this for six months how much more are we going to go at it? But having that diligence to make it come through. And so I'm sure you've seen tremendous efficiency and improvements since it's been implemented.
Speaker 2: 13:33
We've cut down. I mean, now there's a process not to bore you with details, but if you go to a job site and you have everything in your van, they use the stuff in your van. If you don't, don't touch anything in your van, you're already going to supply house Get everything, because nine times out of 10, there's something you forgot. So we want to make sure you have your inventory available. And then we have vendors that we worked out where we supply. We scan a book and then send the order in every day and by the next day we have all of our things. So it created efficiency.
Speaker 2: 14:02
We uh, we brought the vehicle to a car show in denton and the community response to it was really impressive.
Speaker 2: 14:10
Like people were like okay, I want you to service us Technicians from not even our industry locksmith and mechanics they're like we need this, you know. And so the team took such a pride to it. And then that was part of us engaging with the community events, which is a big thing for us, right, that was at the auto show. Then we went to a festival. That was at the auto show. Then we went to a festival jazz festival, it was three days and then we did a bunch of trunk-a-treats, so the team is involved in giving back to the community. We once a year select charities and do a little voting competition and they get to hear the stories about hey, this is what's happening in your community and as a business we need to make sure that the community knows that we are also part of the community, and so the team has seen stories of how their work has had an influence on a life and how it was impacted either an elderly or a single mother.
Speaker 2: 15:13
There's just so many good causes out there, so our goal is for us to remember and to show the community hey, we're still here, we're part of this, we're giving back, and that, I think, has changed the community's perspective on who we are.
Speaker 1: 15:32
Well, and again, that's another, I think, visionary type thing, because I'm sure you didn't go to this trunk or street and because you did that, you sold five new systems right there from that event. No, but it's. It's that long-term marathon strategy of building relationships Like, hey, this is our community, we live here too, we play here too, like we're your neighbor. We happen to do heating and air conditioning and plumbing, but we live here and we're people first. You know and we care about people. And so I know you're personally invested in being very involved in the community through some boards that you serve on.
Speaker 1: 16:03
But also BCI's approach to being involved in the community. I know you know we help. You order lots of swag items and different things to just give out. You know it literally makes you no money. You're spending money to just give it away. But I'm sure you've seen some positive reinforcements from that. And again, that takes a growth mindset because we get contract oh, no one will go to I can't get anyone on my team to go to that or like it's just a waste of money. Or like I did a giveaway and we gave it to a guy and then he didn't even buy a new system from us. He bought it from our competitor. I was like, okay, that was one person, but who are the other 200 people that you met and got to talk to?
Speaker 2: 16:44
So I have pretty amazing partners. One is in the board of.
Speaker 2: 16:46
Jazz Fest, their board of plumbing and then Coats for Kids. So this is not something I started. This has been the heart of the core of the leadership since the beginning. But we've never aired our laundry. We never told people about it. The coolest part of it was they're right, the people that are telling you nobody wants to go. They're right, we watched a competitor this last Jazz Fest chasing somebody I'm not trying to sell you something, you know and we were like, oh that's harsh, right, like you don't want that kind of interaction. So our focus has been let's go and have fun and let's go and meet our customers when nothing is broken.
Speaker 1: 17:31
That's right.
Speaker 2: 17:32
Let's go meet them when everything is fine and let's go do something that they're not expecting and so. Well, you know, first year we went out there we had bubbles for the kids that's fun we had glow sticks for the nighttime, we had beach balls, we had glasses, we had I mean, it was it. It was crazy. We had our koozies right, and I'm sure nobody liked us because everybody was selling them for $2 and we were just giving them away and so anywhere you walked in that whole thing for three days, it was just a sea of teal and BCI logo everywhere.
Speaker 1: 18:10
Well, and then you never throw away a koozie, so they're going to put that in their drawer at home and when they need a koozie, you know, pull it back out, and it's just that top of mind awareness, brand reinforcements, where whenever they do, need you. So it wasn't right then at that festival.
Speaker 2: 18:23
And all they had to do is the kids would come over and spin the wheel, and so the kids had a blast.
Speaker 1: 18:27
And I remember you, I remember I gave the kids koozies with a beer in it. I'm kidding Ranchwater.
Speaker 2: 18:33
Anyways. But no, there was. We even had some $10 gift cards from Amazon. I still remember the first person that ever hit it, because we made it really hard. It was like a half a sleeve and it was like a 16 year old kid. And he goes oh, I guess I don't get that. I said, well, did you spin the wheel? He goes yeah, so here's your $10. And so their faces lit up. They told all their friends about it and then people were coming over with their kids and then eventually they'd back up for a second and look around and go what do you guys?
Speaker 1: 19:01
do yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: 19:03
And those were the most honest conversation. Our customers were coming over and going this is really cool, what are you doing? We're just giving away. Really cool, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: 19:13
We're just giving away. We're just giving away, that's all we're doing. And it breaks down a barrier that people you know people never want to be sold to or, like you know, it's a painful thing when they do have to actually call you because they have a plumbing problem or HVAC problem. But you're removing that barrier by going to where the people are going out, to this community, these events, things like that. You're going through that and you're breaking down those barriers, making yourself more approachable, humanizing yourself and the brand, and you've witnessed the benefits of it.
Speaker 2: 19:39
It is, and a lot of times the contractors and I guess I get it. We're busy, right, like we're absolutely busy, and when we're not we think we are. We create our own busyness. But taking the time to engage with the chamber, you know I I go there and I do the monthly things. I go to some of the ribbon cuttings. I don't ever bring my cards. I build relationships with them. So when the time came that we were doing our 40th anniversary party, we decided, okay, it's 40 years, I mean that's a big, that's a big deal.
Speaker 2: 20:13
I know 50 is going to be bigger, but that's 10 years from now. So so we were here, right, this is a marker. And we decided to put a tent up in the middle of the hottest time of the year it's like 98 degrees in Texas, you know with the sun beating and um we uh, painted our wall. We put a giant sign. We painted our wall, we put a giant sign, which is a beautiful sign, and one of our, I guess our bank donated the food, so they brought this giant trailer with barbecue.
Speaker 2: 20:43
Oh, that's awesome, and we asked our vendors we're going to celebrate with the community Would you consider supporting us by providing something that we can give away? There was no expectation of any kind. We weren't looking for anything in particularly, but the party got a little expensive and we still wanted to impact the community. And so, lo and behold, we had 320, 325 people that showed up to the event, and this was community leaders, customers, mayors, representatives of the state. That's awesome.
Speaker 2: 21:21
It was just really really cool. We had photographers and we gave away somewhere between $12,000 and $15,000 of things that were donated for the cause between $12,000 and $15,000 of things that were donated for the cause. So after we, my partners, got to share their heart, which some of the stories were really really cool and it was really touching. We had people in there that were originally with the company when they first were there, and they were retired.
Speaker 1: 21:47
How special.
Speaker 2: 21:47
So they came with their spouses and so some of these people my partner had not seen in years, and it was a really beautiful moment. And so some of these people my partner had not seen in years, and it was a really beautiful moment. And then we spent almost an hour just calling numbers, like it was so fast, Like who's got this? Okay, you win Because it was just so much stuff.
Speaker 2: 22:03
It was a table full of of everything from gift cards to we had an air compressors, camping equipment, we had tools, we have I mean cool, yeah, we had uh uh tickets to the rangers and so everybody got to to really have a fun time in there. Some of our people won because they were there and they had a ticket. So we had a um a time with our team before that where we also did some of that with them you know, and so it's.
Speaker 2: 22:32
We're trying to just be mindful of the overall picture. We're all trying, the community is trying, the times were hard. The team is trying they're feeling it just like the rest of us, and to be able to pause and celebrate and say, hey, be proud of what we accomplished as a team, because once you get to a certain point, there's just there's no one person doing everything it's. I have to trust that every person that is in every role knows to raise their hand and ask for help when needed. And if you're not raising your hand, then it's not that I'm ignoring you, but that means that, hey, you got this and I trust you.
Speaker 1: 23:15
You got this, yeah. So community involvement and engaging, that has been pivotal for your company. What are some other things that have been, you know, really moved the needle or really changed the trajectory of your company?
Speaker 2: 23:27
There's probably two things that I would say, uh, that we do. One in particular is we are, uh, in the plumbing side of things. You need to get licenses. If you have no intention of getting a license, if you're not there to actually further yourself, then that's okay, we'll find somewhere else for you to go, but we need you to be constantly doing that. So our philosophy has changed. Where there's a lot of training, we do. We do 52 trainings a year. We meet once a week for training, for sure, but we meet multiple times a week and we try to bring content to it.
Speaker 2: 24:04
Obviously, what we're doing for the vehicles is made them just look forward to going. I want that vehicle, I want that to have the pride of opening that and saying, hey, this is cool and I'm in charge of it. And so we've encouraged people to go get certifications and licenses that are hard to get, and we back them up by simply saying, hey, once you pass all of this, bring your receipts, we'll reimburse you, simply saying, hey, once you pass all of this, bring your receipts, we'll reimburse you. We want you to pursue it for yourself, because you need to want things, and then we'll reward you for accomplishing it. So that's one aspect of it is training, training, training, and then the branding would be the second aspect of it and that is we went to a trunk of treat aspect of it and that is, we went to a trunk of treat and I, we, we set, we set up a booth and this lady walks over he goes.
Speaker 2: 24:59
I've been meaning to talk to you guys since, just since you did your rebrand and I gotta tell you re and it's not rebranding, it was refreshing the brand, right, yes, uh, our name had mechanical on it. Most people have no idea what that means Correct, and so so now we have BCI plumbing, heating and air, and now you have a better picture of what it is. But also our brand was, was as she put it. She goes. I just want to tell you you guys did an amazing job with your brand. You know you were unknown before. Now you're a landmark In our eyes. We didn brand. You know you were unknown before, you're now you're a landmark in our eyes.
Speaker 2: 25:34
We didn't feel like we were known. We have vehicles everywhere, right? Right but they also kind of look like the city vehicles because it's just red, white and blue and it's a little logo, and why not? And so we went through the rebrand process, uh, to the point that we even had, uh marketing professors at the local college saying, hey, that's one of the greatest things that's happened to this town in a long time.
Speaker 2: 25:56
And we got some great compliments about it, and so now, no matter where you turn, you're half a mile away. I can tell the vehicles, absolutely, and it's just a reminder to everybody. Hey, we're here and we're part of this community.
Speaker 1: 26:08
That's right.
Speaker 2: 26:09
And it's been the pride that the team took in. You know cause we got new uniforms and we got new hats and we got new everything.
Speaker 2: 26:19
Yeah, it was. It's an expensive process. The advice that we have is trust your marketing professionals. Trust that they know how the colors make people feel, that they know how the lines work Absolutely. And then that's one of the things that I've done with Lemon Seed is, when I met with my team the first time, I told them I said, okay, here's how it's going to work. I'm just going to let you run free. If there's something, for some reason, that doesn't add up, line up, I'll comment then. But I brought you in to do what you do best and then I get to navigate through it. Sometimes we're going to have conversations and I'm still going to make an executive decision. Other times you're going to tell me things I don't know, and that's why I have you yeah.
Speaker 2: 27:06
You know, and the proof is in the pudding. We had an incredible, incredible rebranding experience.
Speaker 1: 27:13
That's great and I'll preface this Lemon Seed did not do your rebrand. This was before us. Kick Charge did it. But Kick Charge does phenomenal work and you know, you can testify to that and you know you mentioned seeing the teal koozies and stuff.
Speaker 1: 27:24
But that's what having a disruptive brand and even if it's just a color, it's like you guys don't have a character or anything like that Like a lot of people can say like, oh, you can't do that or I hate characters Well, you can still have a really professional looking brand. So that's still going to be disruptive, turn heads, catch eyes and it really make a difference. And your guys' brand is a true testament of that. But you're right, it is an investment. And again, don't, don't fix what's not broken. And sometimes, when you're in love with your baby, this brand of how it looks like and well, this is how it's always been Sometimes you got to kill that ugly baby and it can hurt and be painful. But if you can trust the process, trust the experts, let them do their thing. Don't nitpick it to death and insert your own opinions or objections that may not really even matter or really be a thing. That's when magic can happen. Well, the lemonade, as we like to say, you know.
Speaker 2: 28:21
I had this in my pocket, and I honestly didn't put it in my pocket for the podcast, but I did have it in here. So one of the things that we did when we did our anniversary party is we put together this challenge coin, and so what it has is our original logo on one side and then the current logo on the other side.
Speaker 1: 28:39
Such an improvement.
Speaker 2: 28:41
And the funny part about this and this is something if you've ever read the poem the dash and I've told people is when you look at this coin, the crazy part about this is is the edge. That is the most important thing and the reason why is that's what's between this logo and this logo, and it represents 40 years of learning what not to do Wow. Or learning that something that used to work doesn't work anymore and that's okay. And learning that, hey, we need somebody that can do this, and it's not me. And learning that we have to rely on each other. So, like you know, people, there's a challenge when you have commercial and residential in one place, but when you have commercial, residential, industrial and new construction, that's a very diverse and not a lot of people will tackle all four of those almost different verticals, if you will.
Speaker 2: 29:30
They are. And we toyed with the idea of hey, what happens if we just go residential? What we toyed with the idea of, hey, what happens if we just go residential? What happens if we cut this off? And at the end of the day we realized, wait a second, we have expertise, we have knowledge, we know how to do this.
Speaker 2: 29:44
So what we lack is cohesiveness with the team. So how do we accomplish that? And so it took first. You know, everything starts with leadership, and whether you think that the triangle goes down or up, right, if leadership is at the bottom, you have to serve to be able to get it. And so we started realizing okay, if new construction is busy and service is slow, we're going to sub out our service team into construction. They're going to go do a rough-in, they're going to go do a top-out, they're going to go learn all this stuff.
Speaker 2: 30:19
When service is extremely busy and new construction is in between projects, then their team comes in and does what we do. They watch us talk to the customers. They realize we do things a little bit more than just show up to a job. They have the same job for six months and just take the next thing. And the next thing you have to assess, you have to be able to procure parts, you have to talk to the customer about pricing you had. There's just so much more and we've had is, is, is, uh, an understanding and a respect for each other in a different way. We even bring plumbers to hvac, hvac to plumbing.
Speaker 2: 30:52
We just cross-train, cross-train, cross-train and, uh, we primarily just focus on on young technicians that that, uh, have a mechanical aptitude, but they have a great attitude and they're teachable, and so all of our techs are cross-training for package units all the way to. You know, we even teach them chillers. So we were, we're just cross training across the whole thing. Why? Because then you're not settling one thing and you get to see all the aspects of what the industry truly is.
Speaker 1: 31:24
Knowledge is power, like the more you know. Even if that's not what you do every single day, at least having some frame of reference and a starting point to at least be able to know the right questions to ask. I think it just sets your team up for success and allows you to, when you need to kind of push and pull in those different verticals or you might be a little bit slower in this department, but like we're killing it over here, it's like we're just going to shift you temporarily over here, having that instead of being like, oh my gosh, no one knows how to do anything else except this team here. So it allows you to kind of push and pull a lot more fluidly. I'd say when everyone does have more of that cross training.
Speaker 2: 31:59
Well, think about it from efficiency point for everybody watching this. If Emily is the only person that I have that can do chillers and we see a lot of chillers and not saying, you know, it could be package units or anything else you know how much time we waste when everybody shows up and say, oh, we got to call Emily and now we got to wait. Right Now our team has been exposed so much to everything that they, even with the help over the phone, they can start the diagnosis and they can look at certain things and they're no longer afraid of the panels and not afraid of anything necessarily like they used to. You know, like when people go to see mini splits and they're deer in the headlights, I don't know what to do. Like when people go to see mini splits and they're deer in the headlights, I don't know what to do.
Speaker 2: 32:41
So we train on that across the board and say you may not be able to fully diagnose, depending on the problem, but HVAC is refrigerant, it's airflow and it's electrical. The same is true for a package unit, the same is true for a split homosystem. Now they work slightly different, they're bigger, you know there's different features about them. But in essence, go back and, as my partner says this, just go back to your roots.
Speaker 1: 33:05
What do you know?
Speaker 2: 33:06
And then we remove that fear, we encourage them and then they get on the phone and the manager that we have in there, he's extremely knowledgeable and he's done a great job at coaching and teaching and empowering and making them believe in themselves. So now, things that we would have had to postpone for a second trip that you normally don't charge for, because you can't just keep charging, because you didn't have the right person.
Speaker 2: 33:29
Now they're solving problems that we didn't have to waste that time and our efficiency is going up and the ability of serving the customer in a timely manner is is now something that we see every day. Versus oh sorry, he's not available till Friday or next week.
Speaker 1: 33:45
Yeah, cause that's the only guy that we have for that and that's super frustrating to the customer and that's not the brand image or the service that you want to provide to them. So, yeah, well, that's awesome.
Speaker 2: 33:56
Yeah. So it's been a great journey. Um, again, learning to appreciate what everybody brings to the table and, more importantly, you know, knowing who you are for me is knowing whose I am, you know, and that is you know I give. I give praise to God for everything that he's done and then the more that I I understand who I am in him, the more that I'm actually able to celebrate where people are better than me at other things and be okay with it, because that was, that's what they're created to be, that's, that's, that's their roles and that's the reason why they're even in our lives, right? So, oh, if I was, uh, if I.
Speaker 2: 34:39
There's a book called who, not how. It's an incredible book. And I put it in a situation like this if we're going to go be running track or or you know, running 100 dash or or whatnot, and we're going up and realize, hey, I may be the captain, but I can only run it in 10 seconds flat and emily can run it at seven, why would I put myself in? Because I have to go run distance. And if I go do your race, which I know I won't win, I'm going to take energy from my race, which I know that. That's what my strength is, yeah, and so celebrating and knowing there is no, there's no like anybody's taking your job is I'm, I'm, I'm purposely telling my team I need you here because this is your, this is where you fit, this is where you excel and I trust what you're doing here. And people take an autonomy, take an ownership of that, and and then when you start creating that kind of culture in your team, then everybody starts celebrating each other and you take correction better too.
Speaker 1: 35:41
For sure and I think some of it also is like we have some team members that we have to tell them like hey, I know you were trying to be helpful, I know you were trying to take it off of other people's plates, but in reality it's actually doing them a disservice because they never get the opportunity to try to do something or to learn and to rise up to this occasion in your pure well good intentions of just trying to help them. But you actually learn and can grow and do so much more by doing the hard things or having some perceived failures when we're out. It's not a failure, it's, you know, did you learn from it? You know what did you learn from it and stuff. And so sometimes by we need to let them struggle, sometimes for the sake for them to rise above, you know, and not always removing that opportunity for them.
Speaker 2: 36:26
You have to. I learned this years ago. Let people err on the little things you know. It might cost you some money. That's okay, that's right, that's okay. You know you go to college. You pay for people to teach you what you know, what the blind spots are, what the knowledge you don't have.
Speaker 2: 36:49
We don't have the luxury in here. We have to sometimes just kind of, you know, oh, that's not how you wire the motor, get another motor them just simply ask okay, what did we learn? Because when they learn those lessons, you will save yourself so many more motors, so many more errors, so many more things. And when they're afraid that you're going to come down on them every time, fear has a way to create more errors. That's right. Then the security comes to know that somebody's got my back. You know, if I did the right things, thought through it correctly and I still deliver wrong, somebody still got my back, and that's the kind of culture that we're trying to create.
Speaker 2: 37:19
Plus, the other thing is always be working yourself out of a job. That's right. And so you know, I came in, I took a role and I brought somebody with me and I said I'm going to have you shadow me for three years, because in three years you're going to take over this role. And they're like what are you talking about? And I said and not only that, I promise you something. You're going to run circles around me. What you will accomplish in this role will be a lot more than I ever will.
Speaker 2: 37:50
But I had to explain something to them and that's this we spend our careers climbing the ladder to the next step and the next step and the next step right in this case, let's say plumbing I'm gonna go get my, my journey man's or my tradesman's journey man, and then I'm gonna go get my master's. And then we get to the master's and we think, well, awesome, I'm gonna open a company. Hold on one second, you just climbed the ladder of plumbing career, but now you're gonna jump over to a different ladder is going to be business ownership. So just because you just took this last step off the career of plumbing does not mean that you're any higher in the business side and you have to humble yourself to say, ok, this is a new ladder, what do I need to learn? Who do I surround myself? Because there's so much I don't know. And for any entrepreneur that is watching this, they know that that the first year is brutal.
Speaker 1: 38:43
Oh yeah, why did I do this?
Speaker 2: 38:46
And you get to appreciate. Well, now I know what my boss used to charge this. Now I know, because you know we went and did this $10,000 job and the customer doesn't want to pay. Yeah, that does happen. And so the people that have done this in our company, they've excelled.
Speaker 2: 39:00
And now what I'm doing is challenging and say okay, who do you have behind you that you're training to take over? Because at some point, not everybody's going to climb any further and that's okay. You climb as far as you can, you want to and you're able to. But when you're coaching and mentoring somebody else, you become better. That's right, because it's a selfless act. You're literally telling me I'm coaching you to do what I do, but that means you're developing a whole new set of skills as leader and you can see a bigger picture than you did before. And so, for the most part, part, some of these people are going to move up to the next level.
Speaker 2: 39:37
If you grow vertically is one thing, but if you grow horizontally, what you're doing is they're training other small pockets of leaders so that we can actually carry more crews and have have a network of uh, interconnected leadership where your you're all rowing in the same direction. You have the same desires. Your culture is the same thing, and so that's part of the reason why we're so selective in who we bring on board, because our culture would dictate whether or not you're going to make it. If you understand who we are and how we operate and that is, we support and celebrate each other, and then we figure out how to have fun while we're doing it you know and one last story we have two of our leaders that once a month they bring out the flat iron and they come out 6am and they're making some crazy recipes. You know, like they literally put the ground beef onto the pancakes with the chocolate chips, and then, you know, you make a big taco of it, things like that.
Speaker 2: 40:39
And the guys love it. But they make some amazing breakfast and that was their initiative, that was their way to serve and they have a blast and they come for two, two and a half hours of cooking because you know, we got 60 people that run through there. So there's a lot of food that they have to make, but the team appreciates it. You know, the team really enjoys it. Uh, we even our christmas parties we started um, including the family and and okay, we've all had maybe this is irrelevant to the conversation, but we've all had the boring parties where, even when you bring the family, you're like, okay, this was, this was, you know, this was.
Speaker 1: 41:19
Might everyone endure through this.
Speaker 2: 41:21
Yeah, exactly. And so what we, what we've done, is we've we started experimenting with venues and say, okay, what if we just brought people in to enjoy themselves and not to have a conversation or have a timeframe and trickling through, eventually right now, this year will be a second year going to Six Flags, Cool Fun. So it's simple Go up when you want, leave where you want. If you want food there's. There's a period of time where we have a pavilion and we have food and we may say some words, but really what it is is thanking your families for every time that your kids needed their dad and he wasn't available because he was with us, you know, and every time that he'd come home late or tired or covering who knows what you know. And so the families have really, really enjoyed that. They get to celebrate.
Speaker 1: 42:10
And it's important for you know spouses or children or stuff to see, hey, what my parent or my spouse is doing is important. They're valued. The company that they're doing these long hours for extra work, they are valued and appreciated, and so sometimes just them being able to witness that firsthand is crucial and game-changing, and so providing that opportunity I helps them have a happy home, yeah, and I want to share it.
Speaker 2: 42:39
So. So the biggest, one of the biggest challenges for everybody who's looking at saying you know, I've tried the new things but I just can't get by it. There's something that one of my partners does that he's really good at, and that is is he starts plowing the ground ahead of time of the decision, but he starts working through the ground ahead of time of the decision but he starts working through, kind of talking about it and then getting their heartbeat, then addressing their fears, and then he's got an analogy that is really good, and it's just an analogy of the old shoes versus the new shoes. Right, like you could have a really nice pair of tennis shoes that you wore for the last year or two. They're broken in, they're comfortable. You didn't have to untie them your feet, you just slide right in. You know, hopefully you haven't broken the back of them, it's just, it's just perfect.
Speaker 1: 43:23
But the way it is, you actually afraid to untie them because, if you do, they'll never fit the same.
Speaker 2: 43:28
Yes, and then you get a new pair of shoes. Yeah, sure, the new pair of shoes is exciting, but they don't fit the same way, and when you walk it's just not like the old shoes. And the problem is is your old shoes are not going to take you as far as your new shoes were going to, and so we just have to understand that there is a period of breaking in the new shoes, which will take you further than the old shoes, and so we created that culture. I say we, but it was really he spearheaded this whole thing, and it's been something that we talked about. Hey, remember the old shoes and new shoes. You know when people are rumbling from changes, you know, and so that's. That's probably the best advice I can give when you're working towards that is, help plant the seed of the growth mindset into your team by using, you know, analogies like this one and saying I know it's going to be uncomfortable, the new CRM is going to be a little bit difficult at first, but it's going to make a difference.
Speaker 1: 44:33
That's right.
Speaker 2: 44:33
That's right the new, you know, widget or training or whatever it is. You know, sure, it might feel a little bit different, but once you got it pat down, it's meant to do a world of difference for you and um, you see them encouraging each other, you see them talking about the old shoes and new shoes and for a second you're really proud of your team because they get it and, more importantly, they trust that the leadership is vetting things in a way that we're also taking them into account prior to rolling things out. Doesn't mean that it's easy. It doesn't mean that they don't complain, or sometimes, you know, we have a couple weeks of grumbling, sure, sure, but we sink our teeth in as leaders and we listen, and then we navigate it through, and sometimes we have to make changes and sometimes, no, this decision is still good. You know, let's keep going. And then you see your team grow.
Speaker 1: 45:31
That's awesome. Well, leo, thank you so much for your time here and sharing all your insights and wealth of knowledge and perspectives that you have, and I know you genuinely care about pouring into people. So if anyone wanted to reach out to you or just pick your brain, how could someone get in contact with you?
Speaker 2: 45:53
Oh, I didn't know. I guess you can go ahead and shoot me an email and then you can even put in the subject Lemon Seed Podcast, so that I actually know.
Speaker 1: 46:05
Actually look at it. Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 2: 46:08
Well, we're all guilty. We get about a thousand emails a day and there's just something we never open, you know.
Speaker 1: 46:23
There's just something we never opened, you know. So L Morales, so L-M-O-R-A-L-E-S at BCIMechanicalcom and we'll put that down in the show notes. So put Lemon Seed Podcast in the title and Leo will answer you and pour into you. I know as much, just because he is a wealth of knowledge here and does value pouring into people. Just because he is a wealth of knowledge here and does value pouring into people. So, leo, thank you for sharing all this and making the drive from Denton to come sit with here in the real lemonade stand. I really appreciate this conversation and thank you for being here.
Speaker 2: 46:45
It was an honor. Thank you so much and I hope it's a benefit to people.
Speaker 1: 46:50
So if you, have questions, just let me know. I'll do what I can, absolutely. So if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. Follow us on all the social medias. Follow BCI on their social media. Is a great company doing amazing things. So thanks so much for listening. We'll see you next time.
