Growth Strategies: Coaching, Delegation, and Personal Care | Podcast Ep 215 | Toolbox for the Trades

Foreign. You are the president and owner of Tony Lamartina Plumbing in St. Louis. Welcome back to Toolbox for the Trades and even more. Welcome to Toolbox for the Trades live at Pantheon.

Thank you. It's good to be here. I love it.

I am so excited to chat with you again. Your first episode with us was so memorable. Folks haven't listened to it. I definitely recommend that you check it out. Tell me what's going on with your company. You're moving into a new space. You opened up a new division. What's going on?

Yeah. So last time we spoke, we were in a ridiculously small office space, 715 square feet, which is for how many employees? Seven.

Okay.

So seven office staff. That doesn't include like the other, you know, 19 field staff members that are out and about. But it made it really difficult. It was basically like a hotel room here at the Marriott Hotel.

So basically every member of the office staff had 100 square feet that they had for themselves.

Yes. And there's a bathroom in there as well.

Sure, sure, sure.

So we're getting ready to upgrade to a new office space. It's going to be 2,500 square feet. It's right around the corner from where we're currently at, so we don't have to do a whole lot of moving. Really excited to kind of spread our wings and grow into this new space, which I think hopefully will be there for the next few years at least.

Got it. And so what prompted is the team just getting way too big for 700 square feet?

We are growing so quickly. I think when I looked at my year over year, we grew 45% compared to the last fiscal year. We joined Nexstar back in May of 23, which I think we talked about on the last episode. Having an organization like nexstar has been hugely helpful to get our systems aligned, to get our team aligned, and to really kind of grow into a professional home services organization.

Amazing. Nexstar is one of the people, one of the organizations that's been doing this forever. And I know so many contractors come into this booth virtually and in person and tell me how helpful they've been to their business. Was there a particular system or process that just really like clicked for you guys when they came on?

I think it really was the call center coaching that we got early on. Earlier this year, we had an on site visit with, with one of their call center coaches and he really helped us kind of get aligned with scripting and understanding inbound calls and the flow of that. So that was really helpful. I know a lot of members use the service system, which is on the field side where they engage with customers. We did the same thing, and it's been absolutely awesome to have that type of coaching. And then we continue to coach our plumbers weekly. You know, just short little bits of maybe our meetings that they'll have with service system coaches to kind of reiterate and go over again kind of some of the core benefits of what the service system does. But I think it really has allowed us to focus on the basic and the fundamentals of just how to run a home services business, which is get the lead, book the call, get the right plumber on the right job, convert the call, and, you know, boost your average ticket.

Yeah, this has been an interesting theme. Sometimes when you do interviews like this, back to back to back, there's some common themes bubble up. And one theme that has bubbled up in my short time doing all these interviews has been training the importance of training. And I feel like it's something that folks tend to oversee, especially if things are running smoothly, especially if things are still looking up. But it sounds like even for your guys's company, just really honing in on this. Training on both the CSR side and the service side is just really elevated, you guys.

I mean, there's still gaps in the process, and I think we can always do better. But that continuous improvement and the continuous training that not just like our csrs and our field techs, but myself, my leadership team, like we all are sort of in this constant state of learning, and I think that's. That's the only way that we're going to continue to grow and scale to new levels.

Amazing. Well, speaking of way of unlocking new levels and reaching new levels, you also opened a new division.

Yeah, so late last year, we started to do drain cleaning and what we call underground work. We started bringing that in house. Prior to that, we were always subcontracting that out to local drain cleaners. It was difficult for us because we couldn't really control the quality. We couldn't control, like, you know, how we were engaging with the customers and felt that we could do better. And so by bringing this in house, we can do a much better job at aligning our current plumbing services that we've been doing since 1982 with now our drain services. So now it's that same type of expectation that you're going to receive when you call Tony lamartina Plumbing and a plumber comes to your house, whether it's a service plumber an install plumber, a drain technician, or one of members of our underground install team. They're going to be uniformed, they're going to look the same way, they're going to engage with you the same way. And I think that's been something that we were lacking up until late 2023. And now that we've brought that in house, it's really done wonders just for what we can offer our customers in terms of a more robust suite of plumbing services.

Yeah, well, it's more of an end to end service. You don't got to bring in a sub who. I'm sure your subs were great, but, you know, every once in a while you have someone who's not aligned with the culture.

They were terrible. They were terrible. I mean, oh, my God, over the years, I can tell you horror stories about they would send over a drain tech. This is years and years ago. We no longer do this. Just to be very clear.

Okay, sure.

But, you know, he would show up in flip flops. Okay. Like, like flip flops. And would be cabling out your, your drains without gloves. And then to write up the ticket, he would go ahead and sit at your kitchen table. I got so many calls from customers that would say this was disgusting. This was absolutely a disgusting experience. And it's like, we should have changed this, this years ago. Luckily we have, but we learned from that. And, and you know, it was not something that we look back on fondly, but sure that that experience no longer is. Is out there.

Thank you for sharing that. That hopefully, yes. That is disgusting. You know what else is disgusting? Doing any type of plumbing work. Open toe.

Right? Open toed. Open toed. No gloves. Yeah. Wow.

Well, I'm glad that that experience has improved for your customer and probably resolved quite a few headaches for yourself.

That it has for sure.

So you're hiring a lot of people, obviously. So the last time we chatted, you were working with local legislation to change some apprentice laws. I know that's still going. That's still trucking along. Politics goes slow. Right. So where are you finding these folks? How are you staffing up with these new roles? And as the company's growing, so we've.

Got a really unique situation in St. Louis with how technicians are licensed. It's very much like a one to one ratio, one journeyman to one apprentice. And that's been really difficult. And one of the things that we talked about in our last podcast was sort of what has happened to the skilled trades over the years. You know, in 2013, 2014. The average age of a plumber was like 56 years old. That hadn't changed a whole lot. And then once Covid hit, you had a lot of these older plumbers that were like, I'm done. Like, I don't want to have to deal with this. I'm going to retire. And so a lot of those excellent journeymen plumbers left the market, leaving a lot of apprentices who are now excited to get into skilled trades because of all the things that, you know, shops like us have done to educate the technical trade schools in St. Louis, like Rankin Tech or Hoffman Brothers or any of these other companies that are in St. Louis that are talking about how great of a career option the skilled trades are, that got a lot of interest in plumbing and in H Vac. And those kids all went to school and they got these great degrees from the technical trade schools. But then they come out and they're faced with a weird environment where employers are saying, I've got so much work here, I can't hire you because I don't have the journeyman on staff to get you properly licensed. Which is kind of odd because you look at markets like Nashville, Tennessee, and you see where you can have maybe one mechanical license or one contractor license and hire 100 plumbers underneath that license in St. Louis City, in St. Louis County. It's. That's. That's really different. So we are continuing to commit to any apprentice that wants to join our company that we will absolutely provide you with training and skills so that you can excel in residential service plumbing, and we'll keep you busy. Like we. We need help. We want to make sure that we're serving our customers and providing them with timely service. And to do that, we've just continued to hire and also work with, you know, local government leaders to try to change and update some of this antiquated legislation that's out there.

Amazing. Amazing. So I can't actually remember when our last episode aired. Safe to say it's been about at least maybe a year, year and a half, maybe two years. What has changed about you in that time as a leader, as an operator? What have you learned that has really transformed yourself or your business, even in a small way?

I need to delegate more. I need to get out of the details. I need to hire people that love the details more than I do and know that they're able to dig into those details and own those details. I love it because it's my baby and it's my dad's company. And like, plumbing is in our blood, being able to bring people on that can, that I can delegate to and feel confident that they've got it, like they can do this and feeling confident in that team. So I think this is, this has become one of these realizations, especially as I went to a meeting last week in Orlando, the nexstar super meeting, and now this week here in Pantheon. Learning from leaders that have scaled their business, but done so in a way that they've been able to develop leaders in their organization. I am the biggest impediment to my own growth and I need to delegate to people so that they can help us scale to the next level.

Preach. That's a reminder that I need all of the time, you know, because it's so nice to do things that you know how to do and oh, I do it a very specific way. I feel like relinquishing that control is such a big part of preaching personal and professional growth. And I feel like a lot of the times I've talked to folks that get stuck in there for a while. So I'm glad to hear that that's something that you're embracing.

It's scary.

So scary. Because what if they screw up?

Yeah.

And they will, they will screw up. But that's the only way that they're going to learn, right?

Absolutely. And it's providing that coaching and that constant contact and those weekly one to one meetings and those, you know, every other week we'll have a leadership meeting. It's those types of meetings and that kind of communication that I think will help us grow and scale as an organization and help all of us develop as individual leaders in the organization.

So you were at nexstar super meeting last week, your pantheon this week. What are you thinking about as you go back home to St. Louis? Is there. Do you have a wish list of stuff you want to try to accomplish or is it all still jumbled up in your brain and you got to do some journaling?

So my wife is here with me. We're going to actually leave here and we're going to go to Vero Beach a few days and decompress. And I've got a notebook of things that I know that I want to look at and go over, but I want to take it really slow. I look at all these beautiful shiny objects that are at these conferences and I want to implement all of them and I know that I need to be really intentional with what's going to help me do better at just the basics of running a home services company. What's going to help me book calls better, convert calls calls better. What's going to help me put the right plumber on the right job. If I can have products that help me achieve those core fundamental things, that's what I'm going to go after first.

All right. It sounds like a plan.

Yeah.

I've been asking everyone this question. It's a bit of a tall ask, but I think you got. I think you're up to it. If you could impart one nugget of wisdom, one piece of advice to our listeners from your experience, what would it be?

Personal care. Giving yourself the space to decompress. And I this is really hard for me because if I'm not constantly moving, I get really anxious. And if I'm not trying to accomplish something, if I'm not constantly working on something, I feel really anxious. But I also feel like if I'm able to sit down and relax and kind of reflect on what happened today or take some time, like in the morning to relax and understand things, it helps me become a better person. So I. I cycle a lot. So I rented a bike here in Orlando.

Oh, nice.

From Kyle's Bike Shop. Shout out to Kyle's Bike Shop. Excellent bike, Kyle. So I rented it. And so I've been riding my bike every single morning as I would in St. Louis, and I'll ride it for about an hour. And I listen to podcasts and I listen to other home services companies that are talking about what they're doing, and I listen to pest control podcasts. And, you know, all these things help me sort of become and think about my business in different ways. And so take time for yourself and just kind of reflect on business.

Yeah, I mean, exercise certainly helps getting that anxiety out, too.

Oh, does. I would be climbing if I was not biking every day. I would be scratching at the walls of my hotel to get out. Like, I knew knew what I was getting up. Like, I've been in Orlando for two weeks. When I cycle in the morning, it's literally like cycling in an aquarium. It's so humid and the drivers in Orlando. You guys are terrible. No one respects cyclists at all. So just so all of you know that you need to do a better job with cyclists.

I cannot wait to read the comments. If there's any Floridians listening to this who want to clap back at Matt's thing. Here, have that come out. He's ready for it. Matt, thanks so much for taking time out of your insanely busy week to chat with me a little bit. I am so happy to hear about all the great things that are happening at Tony lamartina Plumbing. And I can't wait to see where you're going to be next year. Great.

Thanks, Jackie.