87 | Building Relationships: The Power of Networking and Collaboration in Service Industries: Rory Krueger

Hey, welcome back to another episode of Freedom Blueprint podcast. We have a friend joining us again. This is the second time you have joined us. So welcome Rory Krueger. And I'm going to say the whole name from Krueger Heating, Air Conditioning, and Geothermal.

Thank you, sir. Glad to be back, man. It's one of the honored few, I think, that have been on a couple times. So, no new in Kristen.

Yeah, we've had a couple

people that have been on a few times, but you were episode number two.

Wow. Well, you know, number two can be a good thing.

if you're in the plumbing business.

No pun intended.

That's awesome.

And I appreciate you coming back and hanging out. And I wanted to pick your brain on a on a couple of things about busy season and how to get ready for it. But before we get into that, I know you just got back from the Boston Summit with Service Nation. And for anybody who hasn't who doesn't know Rory's story, go back and listen to episode two. We talk about how he got in the business and you know what what that process has looked like.

And Rory and I actually met through Service Nation years ago. ⁓ We've been good friends ever since. So anytime I call him, like, hey, let's jump on. He's reluctantly willing.

Well, don't talk to my team or my wife because she'll tell you I'll talk more than anybody wants to listen. ⁓ but volunteer useless information. That's my, that's my strump suit. So anyway.

No, you're good, man. You're good. I know

I call you a lot to pick your brain on stuff and I've always appreciated that. So tell us a little bit about the summit, man, in Boston. Boston's one of my favorite towns.

Yeah, so the ⁓ regional summits, Service Nation, ⁓ for those of us who've been around for more than a decade or so, remember them as the spring round tables from Service Nation. What they did is ⁓ they changed the format a little bit. You know, we've all been to seminars, quote, where you set in a 45-minute ⁓ almost sales pitch sometimes from a vendor. And so what they did last year was they changed it to the summits and an educational side of summit.

It was a 90 minute session with some actionable content. you're kind of, know, some really good coaches coming in. In this case, they're using Service Nation Premier Coaches to be able to go on and put in an actionable thing. So when you walk out of the room, you knew if you actually accomplished a task. You one of the ones who did was with the infamous Jen Shue, who was a

Mm-hmm.

who was a powerhouse in industry and she was developing SOPs. Hers one was around yard sign marketing, which is a really good low cost, high visual awareness for a smaller contractor to be able to gain a lot of visual impact at a low investment. But she wrote it all out and said, this is how you're going to do this process. So the summit is usually a couple, three days.

Usually pick awesome locations. This year it was in Boston. Never been to Boston. I had actually reached out to Justin to ask you, hey, we're going to Boston, what do we need to do? ⁓ And man, it's just, it's so much stuff. I never thought I'd want to get back on a plane for four and a half or five hours, but we've already said we need to go back. ⁓ Cause there's just so much to see and do in cultural history.

For me as an avid runner, I was there like literally the week before the Boston Marathon. That was yesterday on the 21st. So it was cool to see all that getting set up and in that. So anyway.

Did

you get to run the freedom trail or even even walk the freedom trail?

wait, I, I,

we walked part of it. ⁓ side note is, is the freedom trail is not in Google maps nor in Apple maps. So there is no way to do a self-guided walking tour. There are a host of tour companies. ⁓ while we were in Boston, we experienced rain. We experienced gusts in the 30 mile an hour range and temperatures in the thirties, none of which are real conducive to, ⁓ let's go for a scenic walk. Right. Let's go walk outside.

Let's go walk outside.

⁓ We did do a bus tour ⁓ and that kind of hop on and off trolleys, which is informational. We did set out on our own one day to try and do the Freedom Trail and again, finding no great, ⁓ hey, self-guided tours, but we did see some of the highlights and that was good. ⁓ I'm a kid from the 70s and 80s, date myself here. We did get to stop by the historic Cheers Bar.

Those are always like the hop on and off ones. Yeah.

So that's kind of cool. But again, we did some stuff that was there, North Point Church ⁓ or North Church and that. So again, that's just where it becomes cultural overload and history overload. Typically when my wife is at day six or night six on a trip like this, she's already been ready to get home for two days and she was ready to literally stay for the weekend.

Yeah.

That's just how much culture there was there. So again really good event ⁓ You know the events a smaller scale. We've all been to big events where you get you know, maybe a thousand plus participants ⁓ Some of people have been to service world you've been to ACA you've been to Ashrie you've been to some of those events where they're just overwhelmingly large That's something that's really nice with the regional summit educational summits is there a smaller venue? Are there a smaller thing? They're a closer

Thanks.

group of people a lot better time networking. ⁓ And that was probably one of my big takeaways from this event was to be able to set elbow to elbow with contractors who were a little bit above where I'm at total gross revenue wise and really pull some nuggets from them and what's yielded their success, but not feel like, I had to get to the next thing or the next meeting ⁓ and feel like I was just one of a thousand people.

Yeah, and it's nice to be able to have a little bit of time to process. know, a lot of times you'll go from from breakout to breakout to breakout and you've got notebooks of stuff and you're like, great. Now what in those 90 minutes in those longer sessions, what's nice is you have time to really kind of think in. Okay, so how do I implement? And it sounds like Jen did a really good job of a deliverable of take this thing and go, go implement it. Like here's the thing, go implement it. So that's fan. That's fantastic.

Yeah, and she even gave us the worksheets. I mean, instead here, here's the worksheets. You work through them in class, in the room, and then it's here. Here's all my contact information. Shoot me an email. I'll email you this document so you can continue on with a livable document.

because know, I'm not saying, nothing I'm saying is new. Everything I'm saying or repeating is, I'm repeating it. Because somebody else has probably said it before I've said it. And that's the big thing with conferences and trade shows is we go, we have great after hours events, we do all this stuff, we rub elbows with all the buddies we see twice a year, you know, and then we go back and we do what?

It all goes on a shelf and we run our business and it's implementation. And I think the famous Lou Hobica said less than 1 % of stuff gathered at conferences and trade shows ever really actually gets implemented. If it did, we'd all exited within the last 24 months because we'd all had stupid mid eight figure businesses and seven figure, eight figure payouts.

But anyway, so yeah, was a good event. Really, and again, whether it's the summits, whether it's a Service Nation event, whether it's ACCA, no matter what event it is, ⁓ do your research and ask your friends. What events have you gone to? What have you gotten out of it? But that would be one of my first nuggets to your audiences. Pick an event, doesn't have to be far away, and go, and elbow, and be social. Introduce yourself, take a fistful of business cards, write your personal

Very cool.

Mm-hmm.

cell phone number on and down. Ask people to call you for help because you might be able to help somebody who's just got a question. ⁓ As simple as it might seem or as silly as it might seem, that's one of the best ways I've ever learned is by process of R &D or osmosis and I mean R &D Robin duplicate. So anyway.

Repurpose,

repurpose, repurpose. I love it.

It's all been done. That's the funny thing. It's, you know, can't build, get...

Yeah, the technology

of the how a lot of times can can make a little bit of a shift. But I know like for me, a lot of times I talk about leadership and some of the best leadership books that I love reading are 100 years old. And it's because the principles haven't changed. Now, the widgets and how you do it and the technology obviously is has changed. But from the human perspective, a lot of that stuff is it's just the same and it hasn't changed.

Yeah,

Rockefeller habits, think and grow rich. There's so many that are 100 years old and they haven't changed. ⁓ You know, I'm guilty, I'm probably as guilty as you can possibly imagine in being the typical visionary. ⁓ Most HVAC, plumbing, trades people, technician types are visionaries. They see...

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

They see the great stuff, right? And they can run through how to run a service call and everything else. They're just not implementers. I don't know that I've ever met, maybe you have, I don't know that I've ever met somebody who is a visionary and a phenomenal implementer. They're one and maybe some of the other or just one. ⁓ For me, I'm a phenomenal visionary. But that was one of my takeaways coming back from this event specifically. And my team was immediately shocked yesterday when I went, I need you to handle that task. And they were like, wait a minute.

that's something you've normally done or you've wanted to do. And I said, yeah, and I historically have failed at it ⁓ because I try and put it on my desk, but that's a that's an action of our customer satisfaction delivery system. And I'm trying to be involved in that. the net result is, is our customers aren't getting satisfactory service because I'm trying to be in the middle of it and it's just not happening. So I needed to I needed to sidestep that. You did that at Paradise is you got to put managers in place. You got to put

Yeah.

team leads in place ⁓ and then let go give them the SOP ⁓ and make sure it happens. There's a chicken sandwich restaurant. I'm drawing a blank on the name of Chick-fil-A. That's right. Yeah. That. Yeah, that's it. I'm not drawing a blank on I'm pulling your leg. It's a process right?

clearly you're not from the south sir

⁓ It's a process and I asked the people the question have you ever had bad service at Chick-fil-a? Have you ever had a product that's not consistent at Chick-fil-a? Guess what? It was probably delivered by an 18 year old young adult. They didn't go to college or school and nothing against secondary education. They didn't do any of that. They were given a system and process that Dan Cathy put together and said here you go. This is what

This is it. This is how we're going to deliver phenomenal product and a phenomenal customer service experience again and again and again and again.

I was just talking about that with one of our head ATCs here ⁓ at Kruger ⁓ and we don't call them CSRs or ATCs or air traffic controllers because nobody goes anywhere without their direction. ⁓ Ours is Crystal. We've affectionately called her Crystal Ball because she knows everything. ⁓ But it's, was joking with her about it and she's just like, yeah, no. She goes, I'll go through there every morning and get a chicken sandwich or a biscuit or whatever it is. And the price is irrelevant. It's the service, the product's consistent.

They take amazing care of me. They now know me by name. ⁓ And so it's like, welcome back, Chris. Good morning. How are you doing? You know, how's your dog?

and amazing chicken

sandwiches. So ⁓ I was just having a conversation with somebody the other day about ⁓ Chick-fil-A and they were telling me a story about, and I want to say this was probably early 90s. know, Chick-fil-A started out in ⁓ a ⁓ mall. Like I can remember in the 80s, they were just in the malls and they started growing and started having these open, you know, freestanding concepts.

And this is about the time Boston markets started to really make a push and they, they had venture capital money and they were really starting to grow and scale. And, ⁓ the story goes that in the boardroom, the board members were, were telling Truett, Kathy, the original founder about, know, we, we've got to, we've got to grow, we've got to grow, we've got to grow. And, ⁓ you know, Kathy Truett was known to kind of be even kill. He was a very faith-based man, but he lost it and like slammed his hands on the desk and he's like,

our customers will demand when we grow. it's crazy because they followed that and I couldn't tell you last time I saw Boston Market. I don't even know if they still exist anymore. So let's talk about the, we'll shift gears a little bit. Let's talk about ⁓ at the time of recording, we're late April. ⁓

Well, they don't exist. don't think... I think they're done. Yeah, I think they're done. So, but anyway. Yeah.

May's right around the corner, which is obviously the busy season for the HVAC side of the house. A lot of times when we talk about how to get ready for the busy season, the plumbers and the electricians and some of the other home service businesses, sometimes tune out. Here's my challenge. If you're not in the HVAC business or the industry, stick around because the things we're going to talk about are going to apply to any business. It's just a matter of they're kind of amplified when you're in the HVAC business.

⁓ Rory, here's my question to you. What do you think is the best tip that you can give to somebody about getting ready for the busy season?

friend of mine ⁓ lost him a couple years ago. ⁓ lot of good conversations with him. Wrote a phenomenal book called HVAC Spells Wealth and that man was Mr. Ron Smith. The beginning of the book Justin said start with the way you answer the phone ⁓ because nothing happens in a service-based business until the phone rings and we unfortunately so often

don't have that process down amazingly well. What is your customer intake delivery system like? What is the intake of information that you need to provide over-the-top service to your customer? Right? Name, address, telephone number, those are all the basics, but do we have a form that I can hand out that 18-year-old person? Again, think back what we just discussing. Do I have a system that I can hand

somebody who knows nothing about our industry, nothing about customer service and go, here's a system that if you do this, step one, step two, step three, step four, step five, that you will have assured that customer that you're going to take care of them or that the company is going to take care of them, that you showed them empathy and sympathy, that you've related to.

Not that I understand, but I can relate to their issue or problem and we're gonna take care of them. But we don't have that. We just put somebody on the phone and it's, hey, thanks for calling ABC, plumbing. Yeah, okay, yeah, not a problem. Hold on a minute. I'll call you back. We love that one, right? Let's develop that standard operating procedure on how we answer the phone. ⁓ And I would bet Justin that most of the... ⁓

Most of the ⁓ grown men in our industry who've been at it more than a year or two, probably get all gruff and pushbacky on that. I don't need to that. And they'd probably say this, that's the girls up front. Well, I'm gonna let the girls up front take care of that. Right? Well.

How many times have you called somebody yourself and asked for, you needed good customer service and you're disappointed. You call, you ask for an appointment, an estimate. I have one of those going on right now in my life per se actually is I called our tree company who's taking care of our trees and stuff in our house. We live in a house in a city that has ⁓ lots of lots of trees, ⁓ lots of old growth stuff. And I called, I had a concern. What did I do yesterday? I called them and I got a voicemail. I didn't get a live person on the end of the phone.

⁓ I haven't gotten a phone call back and it's been 24 hours. Now, have we had severe storms in southwest Missouri? Absolutely. But I'm already in that mindset of going, wow, a voicemail?

In the day and age of answering services, I know people think those are old school. wait a minute, I was just at a summit. There are multiple AI operated customer service agents, some of which are super hard to distinguish on whether or not they're AI and a relatively low investment. ⁓

Hmm.

So again, it all goes back to how are you dealing with your phones? What is your call intake process like? And do those people feel like they're one of one? They're your only concern for the entire day. There's nothing else going on. And then the second step to that is how are we triaging those calls?

Are those the calls that are new customers? Are those the calls of the customers that have been with you for 20 years except in your CRM, you have no record of how long they've been with you except you as the owner, you know, because you've taken care of them. Now, the person answering the phone has no clue who Mrs. Smith is and that she's been a lifelong customer and she's referred her entire family to you and you have no records or tracking or any of that. So you can't go, you know what, I really appreciate that. Or yeah, I see you've been a long time customer in our system here.

yes, we will move you to the VIP list or you're already a VIP. And so you want to want to be treated like that. We've all had those experiences that have made us feel special. ⁓ Whether it be airline check in, whether it be a hotel you've been to more than once, whether it's a restaurant you favor. mean, you know, I know everybody's been. ⁓

Everybody's been to a restaurant where they know you. You you've been back once or twice and they maybe know your name ⁓ and you feel like a welcome guest, right? So why don't we do that in the home service businesses? Start with waiting answer the phone. ⁓

Well,

and you kind of touched on this briefly, but as you go back to Crystal's explanation of her Chick-fil-A experience, it was about how she felt. Like it was about how they made her feel, heard, seen, cared about, valued as a customer. Like all those things came first before the delicious chicken sandwich or whatever it is. it's, it's, it's, it's actually refreshing to hear you say that now.

Mm-hmm.

for anybody listening to the podcast or even if you're watching this on YouTube, Rory and I didn't talk about this beforehand, right? So this wasn't a planned conversation and really I knew I was gonna ask this question but I didn't know what his answer was gonna be. And I did not expect it to be the answer the phone, which is such a great answer because to your point and to Bron Smith is legendary. The guys was just such a innovator in our industry.

It's about answering the phone is the first cell that happens. Technicians don't have anything to do, managers don't have anything to manage, installers don't have anything to install until that call is answered correctly and that call is booked.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, exactly. You know, here at Kruger, we schedule visits with people ⁓ because you schedule a visit with what grandma? You schedule a visit with mom and dad. Nothing against the word book, Justin, but if I'm being booked or you're being booked, ⁓ it's probably not a good thing. Maybe it involves a bail bondsman. I don't know. ⁓ we schedule a visit. ⁓

I think it's a great point. Yeah, no, think it's a great point.

The words we choose to use matter more than we can ever possibly think. And so that's just one of the ones, one of the examples from us. That comes from, again, training I've attended in the past. So it's not new to me. I'm repeating something I've heard before. But I schedule a visit, and so it is. ⁓ But you know, it's answering the phone because when we answer the phone, and we just had an actual training seminar on a training meeting in the office this morning about answering the phone, because what does that do?

The way I take that phone call also transitions to the way the technician in the home is going to be able to do their in-home process. Because that would be my next step would be what is your in-call home process like to be able to deliver for us Kruger Concier level service. So Crystal sets the stage for us on that or sets the table for us on that incoming call, because then the technician goes and he already knows what's happened when the table's been set.

So knows what Crystal's talked about. He knows the questions have been answered. They've been put in input to our CRM or they've been input on a paper form that a picture's been taken of. Again, you don't have to be flashy and fancy with lots of flash to be able to have this type of system. But then the technician is continuing that setting of the table. So you showed up, the maitre d opened the door for you. Oh yes, welcome Mr. and Mrs. Smith, our table's ready. The maitre d takes you to the table, seats you down. Here, this is your reservations.

See, you've dined with us before and your favorite wine is, you know, or your favorite food is, we're gonna have liberty of putting something on the table for you. But that all process whole flows to providing that exceptional experience because you have to remember and people forget that when a customer calls, two things are going on, right? And we focus on one of them historically and we focus on it really, really badly. And that is we have a broken something. We have a clogged drain.

We have an air conditioner that's not working. We have a furnace that's not working. We have a GSI that's tripping all the time in the kitchen. We have something that's broken and we go to fixing the problem. Now as visionaries and as technicians, that's part of our DNA. I love disc profiles. If you take a disc profile, you'll see that exact thing in your disc profile, which is I'm going to fix it. I'm going to fix the thing, the inanimate object. What we teach here at Kruger and have trained on indefinitely has been or continuously is

We also have a broken homeowner because the homeowner woke up this morning to a kitchen sink that was stopped up that the garbage disposal wasn't working. They weren't expecting that. didn't, Mrs. Smith did not wake up going, I want to fix my garbage disposal today. Or I want my air conditioner to burst into flames or I feel, no, exactly. And that's just it. So there's no financial preparedness in this. I know they statistically say that everybody's one.

Yeah.

or been saving up for it either.

one or two paychecks away from being physically broke and maybe not homeless as some people would say, but broke. ⁓ And so what we coach on is or train on is we have two things happen. We have a broken homeowner, that's our important person because the broken thing is an inanimate object. It really, has no feelings, it does not care. ⁓ We need to do mechanical thingies to be able to make it operational again or replace it or whatever that is.

But I got to take care of the homeowner first. And when the homeowner goes, wow, I just had pressure relieved off you. ⁓ For those of you who had the unfortunate times of going into emergency rooms in trauma or having an ambulance show up at a home, ⁓ that person that greeted you or took care of you, we got you taken care of. We got you, it's okay, calm down. We're gonna take care of you. We'll get you assessed. They're there to calm and soothe and warm through you.

But we've all been to that medical place where the bedside matter wasn't warm and fuzzy. And it's just kind of like, man, this is really uncomfortable. I don't feel like I'm being heard. I don't feel like I'm being listened to. I don't feel like my concerns are being listened to. it's so, as opposed to it being a presentation, it needs to be a conversation. So hold a conversation with your homeowner. You've already scheduled a visit. Why not hold a conversation? So.

So

I'm gonna back up just a hair for anybody listening, that was all great information. But I think a lot of times people go, I just don't have time for that. I don't have time for it. So here's what I wanna go back to. The phone call happens, it gets answered. And really the CSR, really what you're talking about is setting the stage for the technician to be able to better serve the customer when they show up. So it's not like,

why am I here again? And they're repeating the same thing they told the CSR. Now here's my question. Based on what you said versus traditionally how the phone is answered. Hey, thanks for calling ABC, HVAC. How can I help you? Sure. Yeah. Two weeks we can get out there. Like how much more time does it take your team to give that support, care, compassion than it does the other?

⁓ Crystal can go through her incoming call process in less than 90 seconds. But it's a process that she's rehearsed again and again and again and again and again. She's new to us, she's not new to the industry. ⁓ Interesting story is when I saw her resume come through amongst the other 83.

One of her first jobs that she held was a 911 dispatcher in a small rural Tennessee County. It's where she was also 911 operator and dispatch.

So not only was she dealing with the panicked person, she was also directing the people to help said panic people or hurt or injured people. ⁓ And that very much that profile came through, but she can do it in 90 seconds or less. And I think that comes from the processing. What is the average call time? Our call time is two to five minutes. ⁓ But she's following a process. So if the phone goes, bring, bring, and we know we're a ⁓ two ring company, two rings, if somebody hears the phone, two rings, somebody else better pick the phone up.

⁓ Everybody here in our organization spends some days on the phone and that can be an installation technician because they need to know how the phone comes in because then when they go out to a homeowners house they're doing the same process. They've heard the process, they've run the process. ⁓

But she can take that from 90 seconds to five minutes. If she's got five minutes to spend and visit with somebody and set that and set that visit up, great. If she's got to shorten that down to two and a half minutes, she can shorten it down to two and a half minutes. But she's collected all the relevant information she needs to help make an informed decision within the first 90 seconds of the call. Does that answer that question for you?

Yeah, the absolute

yes, 100 % it did. It was a great answer. ⁓ I'm going to give the short an answer for the listeners. ⁓ Basically, it takes no more time. Now where it take more time is it takes more time because you're training, you're being intentional, you're doing some practicing, i.e. role playing, to make sure that they're comfortable with what's going on. But the short answer is from every call, it really doesn't take any additional time.

in order to make that wow of that customer than it did to just answer the phone and be bothered. Not that any CSR has ever been bothered by a customer calling, but you get what I'm saying?

you

just it. it you know call recording is not expensive anymore. It used to be difficult and hard and hard to manage. It is not difficult and it is not ⁓ it is not a large and it is a good investment. I won't say it's not a large investment. It's a good investment. ⁓ Once you start listening to your incoming calls as a man, general, I'll speak general manager, ⁓ whoever it might be, listen to your incoming calls. ⁓

Right.

Yeah.

Be prepared to have some cringe-worthy stuff. ⁓ is, listen to it. Have your team listen to them. ⁓ I know, you know, we do it ⁓ and I listen to them. I try to listen to every, some of it weekly. I listen to something weekly, I should say. Do I listen to all of them? Absolutely not. Do I sporadically pick them? Yes, I sporadically pick them. I pick them by time.

Man.

Yes.

When's the busy time? I'm going to pick an 8 o'clock. I'm going to pick an 8 o'clock call time frame, right? Because I know the phones are going, boom, boom, boom, boom. I'm going to pick a Monday. Boom, boom, boom, right? So I'm going to look at those times when they're busy and listen to them. And then we're going to train on it. Because that's the big thing is we don't want, we call it correction of errors here. What do we get right? OK, yay, woo, celebrate yays, right? We celebrate the successes. What did we get wrong? Where did we fail?

Yeah.

⁓ cause I can guarantee you after the Kansas city chiefs went back for the third time in three years and lost a football game, I guarantee you, they looked at game footage and went, where did we lose this fricking football game? They didn't look at where they didn't, they didn't go, well we won all these games all year long. Yeah. Great. Well guess when it mattered, we lost and why did we lose? Right.

Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yeah.

So, so for anybody listening, ⁓ a hundred percent, you got, you got to have your calls recorded. And even more importantly than that, somebody's got to be listening to them. And if, and if you don't have time to listen to them, there are companies that, power selling pros has been on here a couple of times. ⁓ we've used Brigham in the past and his team, they do great. There's lots of companies that like use someone to do it. Your CSRs they deserve and they, they should demand they need training.

They need training just like technicians and so many business owners focus on the technician side of it and not just and not the CSR side of it. Man, nothing happens until that phone is answered and that call is booked.

The statistical average right now, think, at least that I've tracked is $485 for a new customer to call. $485. I've heard numbers as high as $1,500 to $2,000 to get a new customer who's never used you before to pick up a phone and call. Not talking about referrals, not talking about grandma's friends, somebody who's never used you. They just go to the web.

They just are driving around and going, am going to call an HVAC company. I'm going call a plumbing company. Oh, I saw a billboard. Whatever reason they call, it costs $485, again, up to about $1,500. So new customers are what, guys? A insanely large investment. Because how long does it take for us to earn $500 to $1,500 in operating profits to be able to go get a new customer? Why wouldn't we want to get and keep new customers?

let's get them and if they're treated like gold when the phone first rings, then the rest of it's up to us in the field. So, next.

Yep. Raven fans

will tell all their, all their besties about you and who you got to use. Everybody wants a guy. Yeah. Yeah. Be that guy.

They do want a guy, so be that guy. Promote. Hey,

I'm your guy. You always want a guy on the trades. I'm your guy. So.

Killer man, well, any closing thoughts as we wrap up here on any tips or advice you've got for the listeners?

Um, you know, one of the things that again, I pulled away from the summit was the power of, of networking. Um, you know, again, it goes back to Ron Smith and it's funny as this, guys, when I talk about Ron Smith, this is in the sixties. So for some of you, weren't even alive. Um,

And he would attend his local building trades meetings. He would attend meetings with the contractors groups. And the reason I think he gave, know, everybody gets in the same room. got a whole bunch of HVC guys in the same net market. They're all in the same room and they're all just talking smack about each other, right? ⁓ Versus going, you know, we're all, we all should be actually friendly competitors because if we rising tides lift all boats, lowering tides lower all boats. So what do I want to do? I want to raise the tide.

Yep.

or raise the level of our entire industry. So how do I do that? I network and I shake hands with other contractors and I go, I'm an open book. If there is something I can do to help you ⁓ or something you've got a question on, give me a call. I have no less than six of those within Southwest Missouri who will not hesitate in a second to pick up a phone and go, hey Rory, got a question? I got one friend of mine. I will call him a friend easily.

who will refer work to us and because he just simply doesn't do it. We do a lot of hydronic and boiler what we call wet work. He does none of it. ⁓ He knows that when he sends a boiler customer to me, I'm going to do what? I'm going to take care of their air conditioning and he takes care of air conditioners, but he knows he can't take care of their whole home. So now what does the agreement is? We're not a full service plumber. We're not going to take his plumbing business away from that customer, so we're going to make sure we do that. So my closing nugget was. ⁓

Yeah.

Network guys reach out find the best trade practices group. Find a mixed group. ACCA is really good. Service Nation is really good. There are a host of others out there. There are some out there in the social media world. So reach out. Obviously, you know there's the two of us. I'm not hard to find. Justin's not hard to find, so give us a call. You got a question, you know.

I'll have an answer. It may not be the answer, but it'll certainly be an answer or I'll guide you to somebody who does. So.

Yeah, fantastic.

Rory, as always, man, thank you. And listen, let's not make it so long till you're back on here again. I can't believe we haven't had you on since episode two, man. were, listen, first of all, thank you for doing that. And that's not easy to be on. It's not easy to be on a podcast in general, right? But then it's a new podcast and you're like, I don't know what to expect. But I, appreciate it.

That's all right. Again,

I'm super flattered that you've had me on. I'm super flattered and humbled to be invited.

really appreciate it and more importantly I appreciate you and Kristen's friendship.

Absolutely,

man. Can't wait to see you here shortly. But Rory again, thank you so much for coming and hanging out,

No problem. Have an awesome day, sir. Talk to you later.