Welcome to Close it now, the podcast that's revolutionizing the H Vac and home improvement trades industries.

Get ready to dive deep into the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

We're turning up the heat on industry standards and cooling down misconceptions.

And we're not just talking about fixing vents and adjusting thermostats.

It's about the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of H Vac and home improvement.

We're the driving force, inspiring top performers who crave excellence not only in their professional endeavors, but also in fitness, nutrition, relationships and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all.

This is Close it now, where excellence meets excitement.

Let's get to work now.

Your host, Sam Wakefield.

Well, right on.

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

This is Sam Wakefield with Close It Now.

Today, my special guest is a gentleman that has been in the industry for a good long time.

In fact, since he was a teenager.

We'll let him tell you some of his story.

But it's really fun when you talk to somebody that's been around the trades for a good while because we've seen so many of the elements of the trades, the rise and the fall and the industry going up and the industry going down and exploding and everybody's freaking out and we're over here going, well, this is just normal.

It happens every few years.

And so everybody take a breath.

It's okay.

The heat is going to come back.

Business is going to come back.

You don't have to sweat it right now.

Except we have to do.

We have to adjust accordingly.

So one of those things that, what that means is you have to be a great leader in your organization.

And I'm really excited to have this guest on.

So this is Chris Morin.

He's written the H Vac Pro blog for 12 years, 12 plus years.

If you've ever read that blog.

That is his blog.

And so happy to have him on.

And today we're actually going to be talking about his new book, which is Leadership in H Vac.

So super excited to have you on the show, man.

Thanks, Sam.

I'm really excited to be on here, obviously, longtime listener and great to have an opportunity to chat with you and your audience.

100% man.

Well, give us a highlight, highlight rail.

You were talking to me a little bit about before we hopped on the recording here about your history and it's super intriguing.

And so as you know, with all, all of our guests, we give everybody opportunity to, you know, tell everybody why you're in the seat here.

Give us your journey.

Yeah, it's been a journey, man.

So I started like you said when I was a teenager.

When I was 16, I got my first job in H Vac.

I actually went to trade school in my first semester.

I thought I was going to be a cook, right.

So I aced was okay for a semester.

And then I realized cooking vats of food is not for me in a restaurant.

And then I decided to make a change and it was pretty simple.

My father just got into H Vac.

At the time I was pretty interested in it.

It was a little bit of everything.

I remember going through the trade loop, right.

And a couple of my friends happened to pick hvac as well.

So it was an easy transition for me.

So yeah, I got my first co op job at 16 riding in a van helping the.

And I wouldn't say I was hooked because I tried to get out of it.

So when I graduated high school, a lot of my friends went to college and you know, we didn't have the money and I didn't, I didn't have the know how and how things worked for that.

So my plan was I was going to join the Marine Corps and I was going to be an electrician.

I was going to get my hours to transfer, right.

That was the plan.

Unfortunately, the way it works in the Marine Corps, it's really the needs of the Corps as far as what your job is going to be.

And somebody somewhere along the line knew I was good at H Vac I guess.

So they made me a refrigeration mechanic.

So yeah, I did four.

Well, signed up for four, did about five and a half, did a couple tours in Iraq.

I was there for the invasion in oh 3 second trip was actually ramping up for Fallujah and their first elections where I got my hands on my first Mitsubishi ductless system.

Actually we did 250 of them.

Intense.

Wow.

No gauges, no vacuum pumps.

It was an interesting combination.

I can tell you they worked pretty well.

The seven months out was there in the desert and when I came back, obviously I made a choice to get out of the Marine Corps at that point.

Two trips was enough for me and I was a service tech, then service manager.

I finished my business degree at night when I was working full time and got my first training job working for the utility program in Massachusetts.

So that's where I met a lot of technicians and I realized I had more to share than just what I was able to teach that day.

So I started the blog around that time.

And it really took off when I left there.

I spent the next almost 10 years at Mitsubishi Electric as I left there as a business development manager for the Northeast.

But I was on the sales team, so I was an area sales manager, a regional sales manager working with distributors and contractors.

And I found a much more interesting path when it came to sales and leadership and pricing and all the fun stuff that goes into leading an organization.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, you know, I found that a lot of our business owners in the Northeast were amazing technicians or awesome installers, but not good salesmen and not good business people.

So.

And nevermind, it's widespread too.

It's not just the Northeast.

It's everywhere I go.

I've run into the exact same thing.

Yeah.

So I found, you know, and obviously you mentioned the book already.

The book actually Leadership in H Vac is.

Is like, it was so obvious to me regarding these skills that everybody was lacking, that I would meet them and they'd be frustrated and not understand why they can't keep employees or why they can't hire the right guys or why they always have this problem when it gets hot outside.

Right.

They just were never taught leadership.

And I was fortunate when I was taught when I was 19, you know, and there was specific leadership traits we were taught.

And it really transfers so well into our industry.

So, you know, you're.

You're so right there.

That's one of the interesting things that, you know, our company here in Austin, before, while I was still in the field, while I was with the company, before the owner sold it, we were the highest number of, highest percentage of all the HVA companies in all of Central Texas for hiring veterans.

And that very intentionally because they all.

Everyone is taught leadership skills.

Everyone's punctual.

Everyone will follow a system like, here's our SOP for this process.

And veterans don't understand that this is how it needs to go.

And we don't deviate from the path.

This is the path, right?

It's like, okay, we're going there.

Get there, and we get there.

And so it was awesome to have a culture of just like everybody understood each other at a different level.

And because of that, we were able to grow so quickly.

And it was just a.

It was a really cool organization because of that.

You know, nobody showed up late and we didn't have any disciplinary problems.

It was just more of a.

We ran internally almost a similar structure.

And so I 100% commend you for the, you know, bringing those traits to the trades because it's needed so, so badly.

It really is.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, if you want to grow and you want to hire good people.

Right.

I think that's the key.

Sure, sure.

And who does it?

I mean, at the end of the day, even the guys that are, you know, that outside perspective would say that and.

And everybody out there gives.

Give everybody some grace.

You know, there's even the guys that other people would consider the truck and the trucks, they're doing the best they know how as well.

You know, we have to give everyone.

I'm all about giving everyone the benefit of the doubt that they're truly not intentionally doing things to harm people.

For the most part.

Are there some deadbeats out there?

Yes, but for the most part, people are good.

People are wholesome.

They're doing the best that they know how.

But we just need to train them how to do better.

Exactly.

It's just a lack of know how is, I think, more of what's missing in our industry than it is, you know, people intentionally, you know, going out there just to not do things right or just to take advantage.

Yeah, I think that's.

It's interesting in our trade because those guys are so busy.

Right.

And they don't necessarily go and look for that knowledge.

Sometimes they just kind of fall into it after mistake.

Mistakes and stuff.

And I think, you know, everybody that's worked for me or myself, the approach I take is when the person's ready to learn, you want to be there and be ready.

Right.

So I think there's an old thing about, you know, when the.

When the.

Students ready, the master will appear.

Students ready.

Yeah.

Master will appear.

Yeah, exactly.

So as long as you're prepared to teach them, you don't have to force it down the throat.

Teach the people that want to learn.

Right.

And that's the way I've learned.

And I really do feel like, hopefully people that are listening today and as many people I can reach, that if they want to learn leadership, there's a way to do this.

You know, it's not YouTube videos forever.

Right.

There is processes.

I love this.

And so, and everybody out there right now, most people are in Drive Time University right now, so shout out to all of you that are doing the dang thing in between appointments.

We know what this life is like, but let's get started.

Give us a little bit of a crash course when you say that there's a process to learning leadership and there's a system to it.

Take us through just a kind of a high level.

Actually.

Let's do the other side of the coin first.

I'd love for you to take us through maybe two or three signs of poor leadership, maybe give us some bad examples, and then let's maybe convert over to a handful of, you know, tips to help the guys out right now to immediately be able to think differently about leadership.

Yeah.

So, you know, there's.

And obviously, I walk through a lot of this in the book, but there's.

In the Marine Corps, there's 14 leadership traits.

Right.

And there's an acronym we use in order to remember all of them.

So it's JJ did tie buckle.

Right.

And every.

Every letter actually said.

So this is like in Parris island boot camp.

They teach you what each letter is.

Right.

So justice, judgment, decisiveness, integrity.

I won't go through all of them here, but I brought it.

If you would just go ahead and just list them all.

Yeah, let's see if I can get them all.

All right, now you got me on the spot.

I'll put you on the spot, too.

Yeah.

So justice, judgment, decisiveness, integrity, dependability.

Right.

Tact, initiative, enthusiasm, bearing, unselfishness.

I'm sorry.

Unselfishness.

Courage, knowledge, loyalty, and endurance.

Oh, that's 14.

Yeah.

We go.

All right, so good job.

I did write the book, so.

But they're not my traits.

Okay?

So.

So, yeah, so obviously there's a chapter for each.

I have stories around each of them.

Not just personal stories, but I've interviewed people in the trade.

Right.

And former veterans that are now in H vac.

And the best way as far as if you're ready to do this, obviously you have to know what these traits are.

Right.

And there's examples of things you can do in the book.

So the way this is written is more of a.

A workbook, like, you can always come back to.

Right.

Okay.

So it's not a.

Read it.

Check the box.

Now I'm a leader.

Right.

It's.

This is what, you know, if you want to work on this particular trait this week, let's flip to that trait and try instituting some of these things.

Okay?

So at the end of the book, there's actually a little survey that we ask you to fill out and rate yourself 1 through 5 for each of these traits.

That way, it gives you a focus on which to work on first.

Okay.

And depending on your role, some things are more prevalent than others.

Obviously, you know, very rarely do you have all 14 leadership traits nailed down.

I think especially if you work for yourself, you realize you don't as soon as you as soon as you hire that first hire or you hire a new person, you realize, oh man, I need to learn how to do some things here.

I think if anybody that feels like they have all 14 nailed down would be reason to believe that they absolutely don't.

It's a journey.

It's not like it's a total.

A destination.

You get there, oh, I made 100 on this quiz.

Now I'm a great leader.

Yeah, yeah.

You don't just earn a diploma in leadership, that's for sure.

So, yeah, it's a constant learning thing.

And you know what, the trade changes.

People change, generations change.

So, you know, you find how you handle and how you were a leader with somebody that's maybe older on your team is not like the person that's coming out of high school today.

Right.

They don't learn the same way, they don't react the same way.

So sometimes some of those skills you need to shift over to a different trait in order to.

To strengthen that relationship with that person.

Yeah, no doubt.

So, yeah, So I would say learning those traits and then rating yourself, being honest, so you can focus on one a week or one a month and start to implement that into your everyday process.

Of course, this works better when you have somebody to lead.

If you don't, then you're working on it with yourself and you can consider customers and vendors and stuff as a way to still be a leader, still have bearing, still still learn knowledge.

Right.

There's.

You can still be loyal in our trade.

Right.

There's other things you can do without having somebody reporting to you.

Yeah, no doubt.

You know, I heard it.

I love that you talk about yourself versus having others to lead because there's.

Honestly, I think we have to start there, you know, with our self discipline, you know, because there's an expression I heard years ago, leader of one, leader of many.

If I can't lead one, I can't lead any.

Yeah, there you go.

Which means if I need to lead somebody in nutrition and fitness, I had better exemplify that.

Otherwise I'm out of integrity with the core values that I'm trying to lead.

So in that same kind of ideas and principles, I think it's just as important to be able to lead yourself with the self discipline and those determination factors.

Yeah.

What's interesting is there's other core values that are not a leadership trait.

Right.

So personally, one of the core values that comes up every time I work on anything or work with somebody, it's consistency.

So consistency is not a leadership Trait.

It's not in the book, but when you start talking about leading yourself, I think consistency is probably the number one thing that you can do in order to build that confidence and become a leader.

Even though you don't have someone working for you.

Mm, yeah, no doubt.

You know, and as you, as you become that.

So this is actually a really good principle for recruiting, you know, and I love when people are trying to hire, I instantly have.

Have the conversation with them about, okay, this is not hiring where you have to be a recruiter, not a hire.

And so when you're recruiting, you have to be the person that everybody's like, oh, how do I, how do I recruit better?

How do I hire more better people?

So we'll one, create a culture where they want to be there, but two, make a list of all of the traits and the characteristics that you want in your ideal person that you would hire and then rate yourself against that.

And if you don't stack up in that list, go to work there first, because somebody that is a, you know, an A player is not going to work for you if you're a B player.

Yeah, yeah.

I think we always think outside first.

And I've worked and talked to plenty of contractors that know what their ideal customer is, but they've never even thought about their ideal employee or fit themselves into that box.

It's a big deal because that's a huge first step to creating KPIs and other items in order to make sure that, hey, if we're going to hire someone and we're going to promote them and we're going to train them, they meet these minimums.

Right.

Never mind advancement.

So what are some of the maybe two or three biggest gaps you see in leadership as you've, you've interviewed plenty of leaders and owners and worked in plenty of companies across the years.

You know, what are some of the big thing big gaps you see that are, I guess, the lowest hanging fruit that people can, you know, really start to work on.

Yeah.

Oh, boy, this is gonna be tough to be on, just flat out honest.

Right.

So I don't want to.

Ironic.

Let's frame this a little bit.

This is a podcast, so you can speak in generalities, so feel free to be as direct and, and as you need to.

And if it's a mass, you know, we're slapping people in the face.

If the shoe fits, wear it.

Yeah, sounds good.

And I.

This is one I've personally had to work on over the years.

And, and I would say tact is probably One of the first leadership, in order to, you know, deliver the truth effectively.

So there's a common thing with a service team member.

Let's say maybe not having tact in the home, talking to customers, talking to the service manager, talking to the person.

That's scheduling, you know, depending on how your organization's set up.

And for some reason, you know, especially when it gets hot, you know, or really cold in the Northeast, that's when tact is extremely valuable.

Right.

In order to, you know, let's say, train salespeople or trained service people in how to handle a customer that thinks they know everything or how to deliver the bad news in a way that they're able to move forward.

Right, right.

You know, I've been on plenty of job sites.

I was a service manager.

I've been on plenty of job sites as a sales manager working with a service.

And it's one of those things where as soon as you hear it, you know, that person didn't use tact and we are screwed.

Yep.

So I think that's probably went from.

A level 5 to a level 10 atomic in a matter of five words, if we say them incorrectly.

Yeah.

And a lot of new businesses, there's.

There's service service guys that realize they want to put that stake out and start their own company.

And if they don't develop tact and be able to develop that other part of the business outside of just service, they're going to struggle, you know, they're going to struggle in sales, they're going to struggle in other items of their business.

Yeah, no doubt.

Give us a.

For everybody that's listening, give us a quick maybe definition and example of tact.

Yeah.

So I would say it's not avoiding the truth, but it's delivering it effectively.

I think that's.

That's kind of what tact is.

So, you know, talking to a homeowner and not talking down.

Down to them, not being too blunt, but working them through your process in order for them to.

To see what's right.

Right.

So, like, I've talked to salespeople, and we talk about what's called the bridge method.

Right.

When you're.

I don't know if you've talked about this, Sam.

I don't think I stole it from you.

No.

All right.

So you.

Basically, you would acknowledge what the customer.

Knows, even if I have the.

You know, there's people listening to different episodes.

Oh, there you go.

There you go.

Yeah.

I'm willing to bet if you don't, you call it something different.

Because everybody's probably used this, right?

So you acknowledge what the customer and then you bridge to additional considerations so you can guide them to a better solution.

Right.

You just don't say you don't want.

I'll be your home and a real play with me.

Yeah.

Oh, geez.

Yeah, here we go.

So, you know, I know you're gonna.

Be on the spot if I, if you're.

Yeah.

So if we weren't using tact and you wanted to install, let's say, ductless systems and it just doesn't make sense for your house.

They're small cut up rooms, you know, but you insist, hey, this is the most efficient system because I've done all the, all the stuff in the Internet, you know, all the way.

I'll tell you what, I read the, I read this thing called the H Vac Pro blog and it talks about how mini splits are the most efficient thing.

And then I saw it on this Old House.

So Bob Vila said, I need those.

So that's what I want.

Yeah, they're great for certain applications and I'm so glad you know about them, Sam, because in the right application they're extremely efficient.

But if we don't put that product in the right situation, not only is it not going to be as efficient as you want, but it's not going to be very comfortable.

So in order to get a product that works the best in your home, I think we need to start to explore other options besides just ductless.

Because I can get a system as efficient and as comfortable as what you're looking at now.

Right.

Maybe that's ducted, maybe it's mixed.

But let me show you what I have.

So that way we can actually get to what you're looking for.

Comfort and efficiency.

Okay, great.

So, and then hopefully I can then help you see some of the other options.

Right.

So it's not discounting what they've learned and all the effort they've put in, it's delivering the truth effectively and not avoiding it.

Right.

Yeah.

It's not just saying, hey, that would be a dumb idea for your house.

Yeah, you don't want to do that.

Those things suck.

You know how many times I put those in?

Right.

And I always had these callbacks and like, or even worse, saying it, saying that about somebody else that does that.

Right.

Because that was the last.

That's even worse.

Right.

So yeah, there's ways of no matter what role you're in delivering that, I mean, it could be a condenser that's down.

That Just needs a capacitor or something, and you can walk in instead of.

You know, when somebody says, wow, it's.

It's going to cost me 250 for a capacitor.

I can get that for $20 online.

I've seen technicians take the wrong approach and be like, go ahead, buy it yourself.

You know, I'm leaving.

Right.

What are you doing?

You know, like, you have to explain, like, the value and, like, there's a warranty and there's a higher quality, and there's other things with that capacitor that you're selling that you think you can get just for $20 online.

Yeah.

You got to build the value 100%.

I love it.

And if anybody's charging $250 for capacitor, raise your price.

Yeah, that's not enough.

That's probably a trip charge now, right?

Yeah.

As you can tell, I haven't been in service for about 15, 20 years.

Yeah, that's.

That's what.

In fact, it's.

You definitely don't call it a trip charge.

Yeah, no.

Good.

I'm giving you a hard time.

So beyond tact, what's another one that you see that is a big missing piece in a lot of leadership in companies.

Yeah.

I think the next one, I would say, is initiative.

And that goes both ways.

Not just your employee, but also yourself.

Right.

Because I'm a big proponent of leading by example.

Like we talked about, you have to look inward first.

Right.

And if you're not taking the initiative and you're not displaying that, then that's going to be mirrored by your employees.

Right.

That becomes the standard in your organization.

So, actually, there's a great story in my book.

A gentleman I used to work with is Mike Gamberone.

He's actually at Mitsubishi.

He's a sales manager there for the Northeast now.

And in that book, he tells me the story about when he was in the Navy and he actually got his first duty on a ship.

And the first night he was on the ship, he wanted to figure out what the piping runs were and the layout of the refrigeration system, because he was responsible for it.

And if something went down, he wanted to be able to fix it quick.

So he jumped up in the ceiling and started tracing all the piping.

And then, sure enough, one of the.

One of the officers came by and like, what the hell are you doing in the ceiling, son?

You know?

So he explained it to him, and immediately the response was rewarding that initiative.

Like, that is the best thing I've Heard, keep doing what you're doing.

Right.

And then, you know, I don't want to age, Mike.

This is probably 30 or 40 years ago.

He's still telling the story because it meant that much to him about his manager.

You know, identifying initiative and rewarding the initiative just with a simply good job.

You know, he didn't give him anything.

Just out of boys.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And.

But you think about the other side.

That officer could have just been sitting in his office, not doing anything.

He was.

He was making his rounds.

He was going to see what his guys were doing.

Right.

He was being involved.

And that translates really well to H vac and job sites and service teams and stuff like that.

Yeah.

There's a.

Let's see.

It was Herb Keller.

Keller, the Southwest.

Oh, yeah.

In his book, one of the things that he talked about so much is management by walking around.

Yeah.

And he's like, just walk through and talk to your people.

Yeah.

I would say ask questions.

Never know what you'll learn.

Yeah, Just ask questions.

Hey, what are you doing?

How do you do that?

It's amazing.

And then, you know, you might have an opportunity to help them do it quicker or easier, you know, because you have that knowledge.

You've been there forever, right?

Yeah.

One way or the other, it could be.

You could help them where.

Wow.

I see what you're doing, man.

This.

Did you develop this method yourself?

This looks so much easier and quicker than what, the way we used to do it.

Yeah.

Let's document and teach the whole team.

Yeah.

It could be one way or the other.

Like, wow, can we share this with Everybody else?

Yeah, 100%.

I love this, man.

This is good stuff.

So, you know, going through this, what are the.

When someone starts to get into leadership, you know, and say they.

They pick up your book and they start working on this, you know, what type of a.

Well, there's.

There's lots of different questions we could ask here.

What.

I guess one of the big things is.

What I found is just like we were talking about earlier, is people don't know what they don't know.

So how does someone.

I guess the question I'm trying to get to here, now that I've formulated my thoughts, is for everybody listening, if they feel like they're a decent leader, but from the outside, if somebody has a lot more leadership skill, would look at them and say, man, they need some work.

How would they know they need to get to work on better leadership?

That's interesting.

I think there's a.

There's some indicators I think, you know, most likely a leader is not going to tell somebody, hey, you need to be a better leader.

Right.

Like we were talking about when the student's ready.

Right.

But if you were to come to me and say, hey, I want to be a better leader, I could say, you know what?

I've noticed a couple things I think I can help you with.

Right.

So having some self awareness and, you know, being honest with yourself and rating yourself and asking for help would be the, the key there.

Right.

So it's really hard to look just like at the external and say you're not a, that person's not a good leader or they are.

Right.

I can't just walk on a job one day and say you need some work on leadership.

But if you're complaining about always losing employees for a dollar or two an hour, not being able to find the right people to hire like you talked about.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was going to ask you, let's do this differently.

Looking at an organization, what are signs of.

Yeah.

Thanks for teeing that up.

Yeah.

Sam, that's.

Yeah.

So high turnover, you know, I would say consistent, consistent times where the team boils over in argument.

Right.

Not being aligned and, you know, not being consistent in your choices.

So we talked about consistency earlier, but I would say, you know, not always going with your gut, but actually having a documented process and when somebody does this, this is the result.

This is what we do.

Right.

So I think a good leader will have that nailed down.

Those items where, you know, it's hard.

Like I said, I can't walk on a job one day and see that that leader doesn't do that because it's, it's a cumulative over six months in a season, let's say.

So you know, I would think about your organization and think what happens when it's hot and humid out.

Are we all on the same page moving everything in the right direction or is there always friction, always arguments, always complaining, always.

Am I always putting out fires?

Right.

Or are we actually doing something good for customers?

Like if I can, at the end of the day, if I know our team is fixing equipment and installing high quality jobs and there's not all of this noise around it, I'm probably doing a good job as a leader.

Nice.

Yeah, I like that.

Yeah, that's really.

I feel like leadership is one of those skills that.

But it's so tangible and at the same time it's so hard to see.

Yeah.

At the same time it's like a total dichotomy there because Everyone knows a great leader when they meet him.

Yeah, well, yeah, I think if you work for them, you know, a great leader.

Yeah.

I think somebody command can command a room and maybe not necessarily be the best leader because they don't make good choices outside that room.

Right.

So where, you know, sometimes.

Sometimes you don't know they're a good leader until you talk to their employees and you realize all the stuff they've done for them and their families and, you know, help them grow as a person or as in their trade.

You don't see that unless you speak with them.

Right.

So sometimes there's really quiet leaders that are really good.

They don't have to be loud.

They don't have to hold the stage.

Yep.

Yeah, 100%.

There's some of the best leaders I found.

Not.

Not all of them, of course, you know, plenty are loud, big personalities as well the drivers.

But interestingly enough, there's been a couple leaders in my life that I've come across that were the quiet, reserved, observant ones.

Yeah.

Didn't really say a whole lot, but the moment that they spoke, the room got silent because it carried so much weight because of what they had to say.

Everyone wanted to listen.

There's so many different types of leaders, too.

Yeah.

I think in that instance, that was probably built up with credibility over decades.

Most likely because if you're soft spoken right out the gate, it's tough to gain that sort of, you know, as soon as I talk, everybody listens sort of situation.

But, you know, if you're consistently delivering that value for decades, people are going to listen no matter how quiet you are, you know.

Yeah, no doubt.

Yeah.

Those were rooms I remember everybody would give of, you know, bounce back and forth their ideas and thoughts and opinions.

And then once it died down, everyone would turn to these people and then wait for, okay, now that we've said everything we had to say, what do you really think?

Yeah.

And then whatever they said is what everybody was doing anyway.

Yeah.

Oh, it was always the best idea.

Yeah.

I mean, that's.

That means you had the right people in the room, right?

Yeah.

So you were in the right room.

You know, I also too, I think even if you're allowed or a leader or not, if people want to go to work for your company, then that shows that the people that are working at your company are talking about it and do.

And saying good things.

Because there's not, there's not going to be an influx of resumes when you're not hiring if people don't want to work there.

And people don't.

That work there, don't love it because you're a great leader.

Right.

So.

And it's not usually about money.

It's usually about everything else that we were talking about today.

It's not just what's my hourly wage.

Yeah.

It's not just, you know, having a pizza party on Friday afternoon and, you know.

Okay, okay.

Yes.

But also, that's not what makes culture.

I've heard so many different things out there.

I've heard.

I've heard guys that bring in a barber, you know, they expect their team to have a haircut because they're.

They want to be presentable, but they never think to bring the barber in to do it for them on work time.

You know, that's how you know it's going to get done.

You know, I think there's.

So there's a handful of things like that I've heard they bring in, you know, based on callback rate and things like that.

They'll actually spin a wheel and there's prizes.

Sometimes it's time off, sometimes it's new boots, Sometimes it's a Dunkin Donuts gift card, you know, I mean, and depending on how, what.

Whatever level you were at, you get one or two spins, you know, so there's some really cool things that companies are doing out there that really build a culture.

But it starts.

You can't build a culture if you're not a good leader.

Right.

So, you know, it's interesting.

Yeah.

You mentioned the new boots.

I was just last week in Chicago.

Well, actually Rockford, Illinois, at a company called Perfect, Perfect Attempt.

And Dave.

Dave Fernetti up there, he does.

He buys his.

He does lots of things.

He's a massively giving person.

He's a great leader.

Everybody there, like, absolutely is there because they want to follow him.

They see the vision, you know, and one of the things he does, he was telling me he buys them all new boots every year.

That's awesome.

You know, they're the.

And he doesn't cut expense either.

I think they're.

I forget the brand, but they're like, you know, 300, 350 for a pair of boots is just builds in his bedroom.

Everybody needs new shoes.

We need new, clean shoes to be safe and productive.

And, you know, just one of the things as well as, you know, a tool account and that type of deal.

Because.

But I think it's 500 a year or something like that for tools and all these things.

And it's like just those little Things that make such a difference, if I can.

So leadership is interesting.

You mentioned Michael Gerber, which I love because he's titan in the industry.

I saw him years ago at an ACA convention.

And one of the things that I loved in the E Myth was about leadership.

And as the leader owner, your job is to work on the business.

As your machine, the business is your product.

The business's product is to install heating and air conditioning or plumbing or garage doors or electrical or whatever your business does.

But as the leader, as the owner, your job, your business is making everyone in that organization's life smoother and easier to do whatever it is that the business does.

And having that layer of distinction and knowing that that leader is the leader's job is to make their life better and easier and smoother.

Sometimes that doesn't always mean the positive stuff.

Sometimes it means the negative stuff, which actually, I'm teeing up a question about leadership when it comes to things that are more difficult, like confrontation and discipline.

Because I'm sure you probably.

I haven't read it yet and I'm excited to, but I'm sure you probably have a section in here about when those types of things come around.

So when that's the case, what's a great way for people to approach those types of topics, those subjects?

Yeah, I think so.

The best leadership shape to decide to fit into that would be justice.

Right.

And I really think that focuses on fairness and consistency.

So, you know, it is tough.

So as an example, let's say your.

Your top performer breaks one of your golden rules, whatever it is, I won't even start listing them because I'm sure we've all seen them.

Right.

So let's take a.

One of the basic.

Since this is set, close it.

Now let's take one of the basic rules of sales.

Never lie, cheater, steal.

Let's say it's one of those.

There you go.

Never lie.

So you really can't make an exception, even if it's your star, Right.

This is an important part of your business because if you do make an exception just because they're your best performer, then everyone knows that your rules are conditional.

Right?

So transparency is really important there.

And, you know, explaining the reasoning, especially when decisions are tough, using tact and delivering that message is really important and keeping track of those decisions, you know, it's.

This sounds so elementary, but like, like a decision log or something, something to write down.

So that way if it happens again, then the resulting training or whatever it is that you're going to be providing that person or discipline is going to be consistent no matter what their role is.

So having justice and focusing on fairness and consistency is probably the best way to address that part of leadership.

For sure.

Yeah.

I love that you answered it with, with, with justice and, and fairness.

Because context matters in a lot of, a lot of times, a lot of situations.

I remember years ago, you know, I had sold a job and it was in a horribly disgusting house.

What everybody would call it, your typical hoarder house.

You know, the one that you can smell from the street before you ever get like almost before you get out of the car.

Yeah, we've all been there and.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

And.

But when I got there for the sales appointment, you know, the family was there.

It was the brother of these two sisters that lived in this house and he was a ton of mental health issues.

He could barely live on his own, but he was doing it not very effectively and they were taking over his guardianship so that it was on their mission to clean the house up and help him out.

And so I was on board with that because, you know, a heart of service.

I was like, absolutely.

They're like, oh, thank God.

We called 10 other companies.

10, 10 companies had stepped foot on the property and walked right back off and they wouldn't take the project.

Yeah.

And I said, we're here to help.

So of course sold the project.

And then I didn't clearly communicate the whole context over to the install crews, so I'll own that for sure.

And then they get there and then the owner hears about it, calls me into his office, full written write up about it.

And I was like, hey man, man, let's talk about the rest of what's going on here.

Yeah, it was one of those situations.

I almost got fired for it, but it was okay, let's really back up and look at the context of what's happening here.

Right.

It's like, oh, okay, yeah, look back down off of.

I still got the written write up because it was my.

Because I owned not communicating properly.

And so I think of that example and it carries through so many times as you know, we have to take radical responsibility for everything in our lives, but also when we do that, we get the ability to clearly communicate without false barriers and stuff.

So, okay, here's the real big picture of what's happening.

I feel like that back and forth with leadership is so important as leaders to make sure that people feel comfortable enough to tell you the truth sometimes as a leader.

And because when you establish that clear Communication that's so crucial.

So, so talk to us about communication back and forth there because that's, I mean, clearly one of the big print.

Most leaders lack better communication skills.

It's true.

And you know, it has to start with you.

Right.

You have to be the person initiating that communication because communications takes two people here.

Right.

Otherwise it's just one way and you know, that's a direction that's different.

So if your employees are consistently coming to you not necessari with gripes and problems, but like questions or ideas to make things better, you probably have good communication in your business.

If you're the one that's like, you feel like they're all teenagers and you're trying to squeeze out.

I have a 15 year old daughter.

So you know, usually.

How was school?

It was good.

Right.

What would you do?

Nothing.

Right.

You know, what'd you learn?

I don't remember.

Yeah, yeah.

So that, that if you're getting that from your employees probably need to kick up the communication skill.

Right.

So that might be, you know, a lot at once to start out and then you can spread it out over time.

So, you know, when I, when I had worked at a big organization, we used to do weekly check ins.

It was a weekly meeting with any person that worked for you.

So I just had a recurring weekly meeting.

Sometimes it was 10 minutes, sometimes it was 45 minutes, you know, but I made sure I accommodated enough time for them in order to understand what their frustrations were, where their barriers are, try to clear those roadblocks like we talked about Michael Gerber talking about.

Right.

So you have to have that opportunity and create that communication.

Otherwise if you're just sitting inside that office, that door closes.

Everybody says, oh, I have an open door.

Unless you're initiating it, there's not really an open door.

Yeah.

You know, I think you need, you need to establish that openness.

Now the other side is, is as the employee, you need to feel comfortable sharing and asking and trying to promote that stuff without griping.

You know, if you're gonna come, if you're gonna come with a gripe, you should also be able to provide what a solution could be.

Yeah, right.

Don't just go for one.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's important.

And actually I, as a service manager, you know, I always had the situation where a service team member didn't see eye to eye with the homeowner.

Service service manager had to go out to the house and I had to call the owner to find out what the resolution could be.

Right.

And the owner that I worked for at the time always had this example in his head that there's three stories or three sides.

Right.

There's the service manager story, the homeowner story, and the real one is somewhere in between.

Right.

And that's his job to figure out what is in between, what is fair.

Right.

And what, what meets that justice trait we were talking about.

So, you know, sometimes people take the approach that the customer is always right and then they address it with their employees afterwards.

As far as training goes, I don't recommend that because I feel like you abandon your team out there.

I think taking that approach for the guy I worked for really works well in finding something where they both have buy in on that solution and that cuts across service, installs everything.

Sure, yeah.

I mean, that's straight all the way into your CSRs and office and books anyone in your.

In, in your care.

Yeah, I like to, I like to say it more like that.

It's like not anyone in your employment, anyone in your care.

You're shepherding these people in a way.

And if we're truly leader, then leaders, leaders are at the front, you know, they're following behind.

We're not the boss at the back with the whip going, okay, here's the direction we're headed.

Right.

It's easier to pull and put super.

Famous meme that has passed around for years and years and years.

There's the example of the one pulling the front of the, of the everything with the leaders and then the one that's sitting on the sled that the people are carrying with the whip.

And it's just so clearly apparent the times that you see the difference there.

It's a great visual for sure.

I think, you know, when we're talking about communication stuff too, that really might lead into making sure you're not micromanaging.

So there's a difference between teaching somebody and guiding them and letting them make a mistake.

Not an expensive mistake, but letting them make a mistake and learn versus micromanaging somebody.

Right.

So you have to be very careful there, you know, and, and you know, they always say people leave managers, they don't leave companies.

It's not always true, but the majority of time it is.

Right.

So if they feel they're being micromanaged or there's no communication, that opens the door for them to find somebody that will communicate with them and offer them a job.

Yeah, so, yeah, no doubt.

So earlier you mentioned the KPIs of leadership.

I'd love for you to break that apart because for this type of a topic, this leans more towards what would be considered more of a soft skill.

And so it's hard a lot of times to establish specific KPIs.

It's not like we're, oh, the average ticket went up.

Oh, here's your close rate.

Things that are just measurable by numbers.

What are some KPIs of leadership and how do we start to.

To define them and classify them here and then measure them.

Yeah.

So I really think you can use those 14 traits as the KPIs and, you know, have some grace with yourself as far as improvement goes.

It takes time, and I would consider time seasons in your trade.

So depending on where you are in the United States, there's sometimes multiple seasons.

Sometimes it just feels like one long season, depending on what you're working.

Right.

So I would say first part of.

Texas, it's mostly like one long summer with a little.

Exactly, exactly.

And every February, I wish I was there.

Yeah.

I live in Massachusetts, so.

No doubt.

Yeah.

It certainly would feel a lot better than the cold, wet rain we get sometimes.

But.

Yeah.

So there's 14 leadership traits, and I would first rate yourself one to five for each trait.

Right.

And we're going to develop some KPIs based on that.

So I think, you know, being realistic with your expectation, understanding time and working on, we'll say the worst one.

The worst one you rated yourself first.

I would try to implement one or two things out of the book for that trait and, you know, give yourself 30 to 60 days to see an improvement, a measurable improvement.

Now, unfortunately, it's not like the same for every trait.

Right.

Justice versus knowledge is not the same.

But, you know, traits, you have to, you know, the opportunities have to come up to exemplify those traits because they're not daily because of, for whatever reasons.

Right.

But I'm willing to bet if you write yourself a one on it, it comes up more often than some of the ones you write yourself a five on.

Right.

There's a correlation there.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I would say 30, 60 days for improvement, but really for sustainable, like transformation, six to 12 months of consistent effort on these things is going to be needed to, to improve your leadership.

Right.

And you know, sometimes that means you recognize that employee isn't right for that job or you need to fill a different position because you, you can't do it as good as somebody else can.

You know, there's some things that start to, you know, bubble up because, you know, looking at yourself and looking at your Leadership's traits and skills, you realize there's a better way to do it.

Sure.

And that usually turns into process development or organization development, things like that.

You know, I love that what you just said and it makes me think so there's an idea that I want to submit to you and I would love to get your opinion and your take on it.

There's a line between confidence and cockiness, which is part of this conversation.

And the other part of it it is a leader has to be able to set their e.

Check their ego at the door in a lot of ways.

And I'd love to hear.

So when you like those two ideas kind of married together, I'd love to hear your expound on both of those.

In leadership, a lot of times, recognition between confidence and cockiness is tact.

Right.

So tact tends to be the number one thing that, that, that obviously displays one or the other.

All right.

So you can, you can deliver something with confidence, not be a jerk about it.

If you're a jerk about it, you don't have much tack.

That's what you need to work on.

Right.

And you'll get typically immediate feedback if you, if you're cocky.

Right.

Especially so there's that, I guess that's a positive.

You'll know right away.

Right?

Sure.

But the other side of it, I think, and just to be sure here, I think working on that aspect of leadership, you know, it's one of those things where you're.

If you're losing a lot of people or you're having a lot of arguments, you're going to end up, you should end up knowing that you have a problem.

Right.

Look for the common denominators.

Right?

Yeah, exactly.

You're the common denominator in that equation.

Right.

I think it's hard to, to have that self realization and, and know where you stand and be honest with yourself.

If you can, then now you're able to improve it.

Right now you have the ability to know where you are and what you need to do to improve.

And if you're not ready to improve, there's, you know, you're just going to keep on in that cycle.

Yeah.

So sorry if I didn't answer your question directly.

No, no, that's good.

This is great.

I mean, this is a conversation, you know, the, that the whole ego thing, you perfectly answered it without even, you know it.

That's where so many, the tact part of it, it tends toward being a jerk to people.

When there's ego involved, then that means you know better than everyone else.

All the time.

Yeah.

Which, as we know, is never the case for a single person on the planet.

Right.

I will happily admit all the time that I don't know at all.

I just.

Yeah.

I know some things that I'm learning all the time.

Sometimes my.

My wife and daughter say that I know everything, and then I just tell them, no, No, I just say it with confidence.

So I might be completely wrong, but I'll tell you with confidence that that's what the sky is.

Red.

Yeah.

No, it's not.

I'm like, it absolutely is.

You know, so of course, that's probably a little cocky the way it comes across, because you know it's not true.

Right.

But I'm sticking by it.

But it is twice a day.

It is.

See?

Yeah.

So there you go.

So, yeah, I'm gonna spin it a little bit.

There you go.

Yeah, you gotta find the.

You gotta find a little truth.

Right.

So.

Yeah.

You know, I think.

I think there's.

There's certainly the ability of everybody improving, but if you find yourself in that cycle and you need help, I think it doesn't hurt to read a book, and it certainly doesn't hurt to find someone that you want to be like, because I'm willing to bet there they'll offer to help you if you're honest with yourself and you tell them what you want to work on.

There's so many organizations in our trade in every state where there's people willing to give back and try to help people not make the same mistakes that they made.

No doubt.

So just.

Just ask.

Somebody will show up.

Oh, 100%.

Yeah.

The.

That we said earlier, when the student's ready, the master will appear.

And when you're truly seeking to improve, those people just.

They do show up.

This last year has been the most incredible thing in my life.

I've had three or four people out of the blue from one that I knew 15 years ago and the others that I just met just completely at random that all of a sudden have become mentors in my life, that I could not have just reached out to him directly if it had to happen serendipitously like that.

So it's just a living testament that this happens all the time.

And.

Yeah.

And for everybody listening, when you decide that you want to improve, have the courage, don't be afraid to reach out to people that you respect and you.

You admire and you want to be people that have gone before you, that are successful in doing the things that you want to be successful in, because I'll tell you the number of times that I've given my email and my phone number in almost 250 episodes across six years on this show, over 70 countries.

I think I can count on less than one hand the number of people that have actually used it that reached out and said, hey, I need.

Can you, can you answer this question for me?

Yeah, it's very rare.

I have my.

You can always grab 15 minutes on my schedule.

There's a link direct to my calendar that usually my assistant sends out every time there's a question.

And the number of people that actually just book 15 minutes to talk to me.

It's so minor, you know, and those are the ones I want to talk to.

I want to help you.

Right.

That is my business model helping you, you know, just like you, Sam.

Yeah.

So if you're not calling and you're not asking, that means I'm looking for you, right?

So, yeah, it's, it's crazy out there.

I wish more people would be willing to, to learn how to be a better leader or learn a better sales process, things like that.

You know, it's really important for our trade in order to.

It's interesting how it ties together.

So I want to camp on this for a second before we.

I definitely will give you here in a minute.

I want you to talk about the book a little more in depth.

But you know, there.

I just did a series recently.

It was a nine part series.

It was on the energy of an appointment.

How do we control the energy of appointment?

But the theme that carried through a lot of it was we are the calm in their chaos.

We have to be the leader in the appointment.

So leadership applies when we're talking about the organizational level, like most of the conversation today has been, but at the same time when we're the leader of our own life.

But in our, in our appointments, you know, we're, we're leading truly do sales or service, like at the highest level, we are the leader of that appointment.

And those homeowners line up behind us and follow us right to the destination if it's done properly.

So I really feel like it marries together really in every single thing we do.

There's element.

Every single one of these characteristics can apply in every conversation.

Yeah, it definitely can.

I 100% agree with you.

And actually in the book there's, there's some recommendations if you're an owner, if you're a salesperson, if you're an office manager.

Right.

So there's, there's recommendation no matter what your role is.

It's not, you know, it's not one of those things where you have to be the owner to be a leader.

Being a leader is not tied to a title.

Right.

I, I can say I, I think, and people that I used to work with in the past will probably laugh and chuckle, but there was a time where I was not a leader when I worked at a big corporation and then I recognized where my, my pitfalls were, you know, things like tact and things like that.

And I worked on it and I think I became a better leader, you know, and actually one of the best things I ever did was be certified as a professional coach because I really had to look inward and understand how to talk to other people depending on their personality and things like that, which makes a huge difference intact.

Right.

Because now I know where they're coming from and their direction and what they're trying to do and see.

So working on that, I think was probably the biggest transformation for me as a leader outside of learning the leadership traits when I was 19.

Now just learning them doesn't make you a leader.

Right.

It takes the experience of the next 25 years, hopefully to be a leader.

Right.

Right now I just age 100%.

I love this.

So earlier you mentioned.

So your new book is Leadership in Hvac and you mentioned there's a longer subtitle.

Tell us more about the subtitle and give us a quick highlight reel of the book.

Take us on a.

Take us on a virtual book tour.

Yeah, you got it.

Thanks.

So the subtitle Applying Marine Corps Leadership traits to Residential Contracting.

So obviously that's what we were talking about the last hour or so here.

And the book breaks down where there's an intro and I tell my experience and why it's important not just in the Marine Corps, but also our trade.

And each chapter is one of those traits.

And typically each chapter not just includes a definition.

Right.

But it includes a personal example.

I tried to, you know, I interviewed, I think, 10 out of the 14 traits I got interviews for with veterans that are now in H Vac at different roles and what their experience was a story around one of those traits.

Right.

And how, and I tie it back to H Vac, obviously.

And then, you know, there's some recommendations in there on, depending on your role, what you can implement today or what you can work on today, if this is the trait you need to work on.

And then of course, that, that five step process at the end of rating yourself one through five and, and working on each so it's not a long read.

And I have it right here.

It's.

It's probably 170 pages or so, but like I said, it's.

It's made to be a resource that you keep going back to.

To work on something.

It's not.

Read it, check the box, put it on your.

Put it on your.

Your mantle or whatever.

I have plenty of books like that.

They're.

They're great design books that I need to go reference every once in a while.

And then there's ones like I wish I never had to pick up, like code books that get you more.

Right.

So I also have a whole shelf of books that I read, you know, two thirds of the way through and didn't like it.

Right.

And, you know, I don't even want to hand it off to somebody.

So what I would say is pull.

Out the nuggets, you know, chew up the meat and spit out the bones.

Exactly, exactly.

So I would say if you do purchase a copy, this is on Amazon only, so Amazon.com if you go and get a copy, I think you're going to find you want to keep it.

It.

Don't give your copy to somebody else.

Maybe buy two if you wanted to.

Or just tell them everybody.

Yeah, please.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind that.

Right.

So trust me, you don't get, as you probably know as an author, you don't get much on royalties for books, but it's one of those really expensive business cards.

The point of the book is not to make money.

The point of the book.

Exactly.

The glorified business card.

That's what it is.

That's what it is.

And I think it really was a way for me to make that connection of the early part of my journey in the trade and what I see out there every day, which seems like common sense, but that's because I was taught when I was 19, and a lot of these guys have been only in the trade since they were 19.

There's no H VAC leadership course out there.

Maybe that's my next step.

I don't know.

But let's talk about that.

Yeah, right.

I like that idea a lot.

Yeah, I think there's an opportunity there for sure.

Because, you know, once you get to a certain level, you feel like, okay, I need to take more business classes and I need to understand my pricing.

I need to understand how I structure my business.

But nobody's teaching you how to actually be a leader in that situation.

Yeah, no doubt.

Yeah.

No, this is totally fine.

I actually, I have Plans for a owners slash principal leaders master circle with a full on mastermind and course for that.

That.

So we need to talk more.

Yeah, absolutely.

Actively putting together for to.

To release here in the future.

So how does the what, what all do you offer for everybody and how do they get a hold of you?

Yeah, I do more than expensive business cards.

Right.

So I actually teach in the northeast in person system design training.

I'm an Akka EPIC instructor.

I've been teaching that for about 15 years.

So that's a big part of my business.

And I realize not everybody's going to fly to New England in order to learn this stuff and they can't wait for an ACA instructor to fly to them.

So I actually have a master course, master class that I teach.

It's a four week master class that covers manuals.

J, S, D and Z R for zoning.

Okay.

If you're asking what any of Those letters are, grab 15.

Yeah, you should definitely take a class.

Maybe not the master class.

There might be some free stuff that we can get.

I love this.

I had a coaching client call this morning thing and he's really, he was in mortgage trades and we've had like one session so far and he's, you know, initially gets on the phone, he's like, okay, so I did the load calculation and it was 400 square foot per ton.

I was like, I'm gonna stop you right there.

Yeah, you're wrong.

Yeah.

And here's why.

Yeah.

And so.

And then I just gave him a super high level crash course.

I was like, all right, you got your manual, J.

You got your manual.

D.

You got your manual.

S.

We're not even going to talk about the zoning manual right now.

In fact, you don't need to know about S right now.

Eventually you'll learn D next.

But let's focus on J right now.

That's the order we want to go in.

Let's get your lowest hanging fruit here.

I love that you teach all that.

Because while I tell everybody they don't have to have it to start in cells, don't stay there there.

Learn it over time.

Only make you better, higher quality, higher value systems.

And that starts around the design process.

Just so you guys know, if you're not familiar with those manuals, there's a little bit of a joke here.

When I teach those manuals, it's in an order.

Okay.

There's an order that's recommended and if you grew up in the 90s, you're probably going to get this acronym.

Pretty good.

So the order is J, Z std.

So it's an easy way to remember the order of the design manuals.

So it's always load calcul, zoning, equipment selection, terminal selection, which would be where you put your outlets and registers.

Then duct design.

You can't do it in any order you want.

Right, Right.

So jzstd.

I love it.

That's hilarious.

Hopefully your video doesn't get flagged on, on YouTube now.

No, no, I think we're good.

Context.

Context matters.

Yeah, there you go.

Unless an AI bot grabs it.

Because I have a.

For everybody.

Listen, if you, if you're.

When you're daily grateful, it changes everything.

I have a gratitude chat thread that started out of my Facebook group two days ago.

I was putting in my daily gratitude moment and I'm so grateful for, you know, just a couple different things and they shut me down.

They blocked me from my own chat thread because they thought I was trying to spam people and sell something.

Unbelievable.

Oh, come on.

AI can be used for good things too, but unfortunately there's picks up some stuff.

It's funny.

So it's funny you say that.

So not a big part of my business, but I do some coaching with contractors and one of the things I always get pulled into, which I like to do is developing processes and helping with processes in their business.

Right.

So about 10 years ago, maybe five years ago, somewhere in that range, I couldn't find a daily planner that worked for me very well.

So I tried them all and the closest one I got was similar to, I don't know if you know, Michael Hyatt, he had a daily planner that was pretty good.

So I was using that, but there was a lot of pages I wasn't using.

It didn't pertain to H Vac very well and stuff as far as like being on a sales team.

Right.

So and, and it totally left out some aspects that I was looking for.

So I actually created my own daily planner.

Really?

Yeah.

So I teach a process around that too.

Usually it's around November, December time frame because everybody's looking to create goals and track that sort of thing and stuff.

So yeah, I have that.

It's a small, small aspect of what I do.

But I think I'm such a process driven person and people see it and they ask how you're able to get all these things done, how you're able to follow up on everybody and all.

It's having a process.

Right.

And sticking to it and being consistent.

So therefore I help people and teach a process if they don't have one.

Right.

And what I tell them is like, take this process and make it your own.

If there's something that doesn't work, change it, man.

It's going to work for you, for you to follow it and be consistent.

So yeah, so I do sell the.

Planner or is there some more?

I do.

It's on Amazon.

Yeah.

So it's the H Vac Pro Planner.

So I don't sell very many of them.

It's small cost.

They're like three month planners.

I'm looking for mine.

I.

Oh, I'm taking notes in it so it looks like this.

So it's actually everybody on notice.

You get, actually get to see it.

Yeah.

So if you're new, sorry, I forget, like and subscribe.

The.

It matches the trousers from my Marine Corps uniform in the back.

So it's, it's got the, you know, that's where it came from.

Oh, very cool.

Yeah, so it's pretty good.

You know, it's, it's undated so you can pick it up and use it anytime.

Typically, most people buy the three month version.

You can get it in softer hardcover, depending on what your preference is.

But yeah, I burn through one of these every three months and I don't forget much because I write it down.

Don't get me wrong, I use technology and I have a digital calendar and all that stuff.

But each week I'm walking through and creating that plan and not missing anything, everything.

And I plan things that are the most important to me first, which happens to be my daughter's theater and that sort of stuff too.

It's a big aspect of your life.

You can't just focus on work.

You got to do everything.

I love that you mentioned that they there's for everybody.

If you want to turn your attention more to your family and your kids and those types of things and the really important stuff, go back and listen to the Roots and Wings series.

I did a four part series on that for everybody that's listening.

And if you say you're a family man and the reason you do this is your family, but you look at your calendar and those things aren't on there, first you're lying to yourself.

If you look at your library and you see 150 or 200 business and sales books and there's no, or maybe one book on how to be a better family person, how to better raise better children, those types of things, you're lying to yourself, yourself because it's just not true.

Because your actions will prove it.

Out.

So choose to be a family man with a business, not a businessman with a family.

There you go.

I can't second that any, any more than how you said it.

I call them non negotiables.

Right.

You start with that.

That goes in the calendar, and you work yourself around that.

Unfortunately, over the years, I haven't had the gym as a non negotiable, and that just made it back into my calendar recently, so working on it.

So that's it.

You know, the thing is, it's.

Gosh, I love this because I'm in the middle right now.

There's one more episode coming out talking about perfection and how it's the, it's crippling us, you know, and progress is so much better than perfection.

Nobody cares that, that if we didn't.

Because, you know, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.

The second best time is today.

So as long as we start today and make progress.

You're lapping everybody on the couch.

Who cares?

Yeah.

What's the first best step that you can take?

You don't have to, like, hit your goal today.

Right.

So some of the toughest ones to hit are like, I'm gonna floss every day this year.

Yeah, right.

Because you can't just, like, okay, the second day of the year I was out and I didn't have my flossers and that.

You don't give up the third day.

You do it right.

Like, yeah, so what?

It's not every day.

That's not a good goal, by the way.

Don't, don't say you're gonna do that every day.

Like, there's, there's better goals and better ways to measure things.

Yeah.

So.

Well, and he's not saying don't plus either, so don't take that.

Of course.

Don't hear what we're not saying.

Yeah.

So we've got leadership in H Vac.

We've got your pro.

What was the planner.

Yeah.

So H Vac Pro Planner.

Pro planner.

And then is that, Is that everything or what else?

Yeah, so I wrote a book a.

While ago up in the Northeast.

Yeah.

So I wrote a book a little while ago called opportunities in H Vac.

It's short, it's on, it's on Amazon.

Was 2019 or so right before COVID kind of squashed it, unfortunately.

So that's available out there.

But I, you know, not into selling books.

You know, I, I, I will have.

All these links in the show notes for everybody listening.

Go in, grab this, grab the links, or order Chris's books.

I'm sure that they're quality.

I will definitely be getting some as well.

I appreciate to read these.

I.

I fully plan to.

For everybody listening, we have restarted the the Close It Now Book club.

So if you hear this episode before, let's see, date of recording is.

In fact, I'm going to move some stuff around and we're going to release this one today because I really, really have enjoyed this conversation.

Thanks, bud.

This is Friday the 13th.

Friday, June 13th.

Today, the date of recording.

If you hear this episode before Friday, June 20, 2025, the book club this month is Go for no the Sequel, which is a really great short book.

Incredible book.

If you know anything about me, every single one of my coaching clients required reading is Go for no.

Now that we're reading the Sequel, it might shift to the new one.

But here's why I'm saying this.

The book club meeting is going to be at 1 o' clock on the 20th, 1 o' clock central time in my Zoom room.

And the authors, Andrea Waltz and Richard Fitton are going to be sitting in on the book club meeting, which is really exciting.

So if you're anybody that's a fan of Go for no, join the book club.

Let's fill this room for them.

And it's not often that you get to have the authors of a really famous book like that that's changed the face of industries get to sit in and have a conversation with them about the thoughts and ideas and concepts that they presented in the book.

So it's going to be an open discussion, everybody.

So make sure to hop onto that session because it could be a lot of fun.

Yeah, sounds awesome.

That's a great option.

With that being said, Leadership in H Vac is going to be next month's book.

Oh man, thanks.

Absolutely.

Of course.

You never even told me.

That's a great announcement.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, I know.

I wanted to surprise you.

So when we have that session, would you be open to sitting in and.

Yeah, let's work out the calendar.

Absolutely.

We'll time it.

So you heard it here first, everybody.

That's the Leadership in H Vac will be next month's book and Chris Morin, the author, will sit in.

We'll coordinate the schedule so it can work out and we can sit in and have a great discussion around that for everybody that's read the book.

So it may probably won't be able to do that with all of the authors of all the books we'll read.

But as often as I Can.

I'm working on getting the authors in because I feel like it just adds so much value and really sets this book club apart from others.

Yeah, that's for sure.

All right, man.

Well, how does everybody get a hold of you?

So if they want to track you down for the course, if they want to get in touch with you directly to talk leadership, all of these things, how do they do it, man?

Yeah, easiest.

Where do they find the H vac?

Oh yeah.

So H vacproblog.com really easy.

Yeah, super easy.

Right.

So if you go there and you click in the top right, if you don't have show notes because you're driving or whatever you can.

Don't click on when you're driving.

Right.

But top right is where you can find the book.

Also there's a, there's a button.

You can join our newsletter, which is once or twice a week I'll send out some written or video content.

I do have a YouTube channel.

I just haven't been able to post a lot because I did the book and doing a bunch of podcasts and stuff with people that I like.

So.

And then on there, on most of those pages you'll find services about all those pages have a contact form.

You can fill out the contact form.

You can schedule 15 minutes on my calendar and I would love to talk about where you think I might be able to help.

You know, I think that's one of those things.

In 15 minutes I can really understand what your problem is and see if I have a resource I can help you with.

Sometimes it's free, sometimes it's a long term thing and you know, or sometimes maybe Sam's better fit, you know, so I don't mind sending people to the right person.

Just, just ask.

That's what I'm asking you to do.

Just reach out now.

I love it.

So here's a question.

Have you ever thought about putting your, your trainings online for the different, for all the different manuals you take everybody through?

Yeah, I do.

So we have.

Yeah, so we have.

So the virtual masterclass, it's all recorded sessions over four weeks, but I do a live Q and A each Friday during that month.

So I don't do it in the summertime because guys are a little busy, can't get a good audience.

So we're going to kick that back off again in September.

Number.

It's fairly low cost for what it is because we are able to get quite a few people.

It typically averages 20 to 30 people and believe it or not, Only a handful join live, but the ones that do, it's almost, I almost feel like it's one on one consulting sometimes.

Sure.

So they're able to get job specific questions and all that sort of thing in where like if all 30 people joined, we wouldn't be able to go that level.

So.

But each, each week we address any questions for that manual and then each Monday we release the content for the next manual.

So.

Yeah, so that's probably the, the, the most popular of my virtual classes.

Obviously I have the, the system process sales goal sort of class that I teach that's later in the year, typically November time frame.

That's virtual as well.

And I actually teach code classes, which is fun in one aspect, but also concerning in some other aspects.

Right.

Because it's amazing the questions you get.

Which actually opens the door.

I get to talk to building officials.

I'm teaching a whole session next Tuesday in Grafton.

It's the next town.

Over half of the state is going to.

Building officials are going to be there learning about residential system design.

Thank goodness.

I know, right?

Yeah.

And trust me, I'm telling them the right things.

So.

So I do for contractors, I teach.

It's like an hour or 2, 20, 21 code cycle and I usually kick that off again probably around September.

Virtual class join online and then you can watch the replay for a month.

Beautiful, man.

Well, I love it.

Well, thanks for being on the show, man.

It's time to land this plane and I'm so glad that we were able to connect about this and I'm excited about this.

Next month we'll be going through leadership in H Vac and really be able to talk a lot more in depth in our session about all of the characteristics and traits of leadership and how it applies to, to family and life and business and all the things.

So thanks for being on, man.

Any parting words, last remarks, quotes, quips or insights that you'd like to leave everybody with before we go?

No, I'm not that smart.

I think I want to say thanks for what you're doing for everybody too, Sam.

Providing this content, particularly the value you're bringing for free, is amazing.

So keep it up.

I'm a listener myself and you know, if you're listening to Sam, I think you might like my content too.

Reach out.

I think if we can all deliver all of the things that are needed at a reasonable cost in order to have money for the mission, then we're able to do what our, our life goals are.

So please keep it up.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I You know, I know all the technical stuff.

I just don't like to train it.

So that's why I send people to.

To people like you.

There you go.

That's why I got into sales, because the rest of it was just like, I can fix it.

I just don't want to.

I'll just sell them a new one.

There you go.

Sometimes you can fix it, but there are also technicians that will only fix it.

They won't sell you a new one.

So this is the other side of the coin, too.

It's got to be a good balance in there.

It has to be the right thing for the homeowner.

And sometimes the right thing for them is not always the right thing for you or what you think it should be.

And so learning that, that difference.

So.

Well, man, thanks for being on.

Well, definitely there's some things that.

Some ideas I had while we're just talking today.

I'd love to.

To visit with you about.

And yeah, man, this has been a great conversation.

I like jumping out of some of the.

The Giselle specific stuff for a minute and like, really looking at things from a different perspective.

Perspectives help us all grow because sometimes it just smacks us in the face with our own reality.

And when we take that radical responsibility for our lives, we are able to grow and become better people, which is what we're all about here at Close It Now.

So thanks for joining us and for everybody out there, you know how we end this.

You work to go be someone worth buying from.

You've been listening to the Close it now podcast, our passion, Our mission is to dive headfirst into the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of H Vac and home improvement and at the same time, covering fitness, nutrition, relationships and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all.

We hope you've enjoyed the show.

If you did, make sure to like, rate and review.

We'll be back soon, but in the meantime, find the website at Close close it now.net find us on Instagram at thereal.

Close it now and on Facebook at Close It Now.

See you next time.