Staying True to Community in a Dynamic Industry | Podcast Ep. 116 | Toolbox for the Trades

Laura Thornton, you are the GM of TNT Home Services in Firestone, Colorado. I am so excited to have you on the podcast. Welcome.

Thank you. It's great to be here, Jackie.

I have a lot of things I want to talk to you about today, but I'm going to start this podcast the way I do every single one, which is how did you get into the trades?

Yeah. So I had been in education higher ed for 20 years. I had an opportunity to manage a call center for a plumbing, heating, cooling and electrical company eight years ago and jumped right in and have have been in ever since.

Oh, my goodness. What kind of higher education in colleges and universities? What did that look like?

Yeah. I was a director of admissions for trade schools. Different trade schools around the country. Yeah. So I got to go and give presentations to parents and educators and students all across the US And I had some clients internationally as well.

All right, I did not know this before we jumped on this call, but I have to ask you, what was the sales pitch you would give to potential students about getting in the trades?

Oh, my gosh, it was funny. I was passionate about it before I even worked in that industry, about how, you know, non traditional careers are the way to go and that college is. There's a college for everybody, but college isn't for everybody and that there is a school for everybody. So. Yeah, I could. We could go off on a long tangent on that. It's something I'm very passionate about.

All right, noted. We're going to put a pin on it and I'm promising our listeners we're going to get back to this because I heard everyone's ears peek up in the future when they're listening to this because obviously that's a big thing that I talk about all the time on the show.

Yes.

But I'm really fascinated to learn about the trajectory of your business. You're still the GM of TNT Home Services, but you started with your husband, you said about eight years ago, Right. Or six years ago.

We started six years ago. Yeah, we met eight years ago. We started six years ago.

Amazing. So when we first kind of spoke about what it was like for you to run a home service business, you mentioned that you believe that you have to be dynamic when you own a trade business. Right. You believe that the second you go stagnant is the second you close your doors. So how have you and your husband. Ronnie is his name, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

How have you and Ronnie had to pivot and adapt in running the business the last six years?

Oh, my gosh. You know, if I back into it with the acquisition, that that decision was because we wanted to remain dynamic, and we knew that we wanted to give our technicians the best opportunity to make the most impact with our clients. You know, friends, family, neighbors, but also for their personal lives. It didn't get lost on us that we were responsible for the lives of 20 other people and their families. And so we knew that in order for us to continue to grow, we wanted to partner with somebody who had an incredible vision, just like we did. And so over the past six years, we've been through a pandemic. When we first started, it was Ronnie booking, scheduling, running his own calls. It's almost hysterical to think about now because he was doing it on pen and paper. And we ran the business out of our home. And at one point, I finally said to him, all right, look, we started 2020 with three technicians. We finished 2020 with 21 technicians. If I have one more technician show up at my house to drop off a check while I am trying to feed my children, I'm going to lose my mind. And so then shortly after, we began looking for an office, and we expanded our service lines twice. So 2020, we went from just plumbing to plumbing and H vac. In 2022, we went over and offered electrical. So now we offer all three of those lines and we have our office. And those days of Ronnie taking calls and running them himself are long gone.

Oh, my goodness. So you really did a lot of change in just a compacted six years. Most of the time when I talk to owners, they talk about adding service lines, expanding into new offices, investing in software, partnering with pe. That happens over at least a decade, maybe even more. So when you are talking to your peers in the industry, are they like, oh, my God, you did that in such a short amount of time. Is that their reaction?

Yes, and I think they question my sanity. And actually, I question my sanity every day as well, because it's like how, like, it's almost comical at this point. We've been so blessed and we're so grateful, but some of the trials and tribulations that we've been through, it's humorous to say the least. But you know what? I would tell you that with being dynamic, consumers are more savvy than ever. When we first started going into homes platforms like nextdoor, we're just getting started. And now we see folks going on to TikTok to learn how to find their shutoff valve. What, Like, I never would have predicted this eight years ago when I was in the industry. Right. So we're finding that we have to be chameleons. We're always having to reinvent ourselves to ensure that our clients have the best resources available.

That's awesome. TikTok's actually come up quite a bit on the show already. I spoke to Armando Ramos a few episodes ago. I want to say he's like episode 96 or something. He actually went completely viral on TikTok with his plumbing how to videos. And then I had Leslie Harpole on a few episodes ago as well and she talks about how she leverages TikTok. So is that a channel that you guys are interested in at TNT as well?

Stay tuned. We actually just started posting on TikTok. We have an office cat, Tortuga, who I predict will become TikTok famous for sure. He's, he, he's a best friend of the technicians here in the office staff. But yeah, I mean, it is, look, the generations that are on TikTok, I mean, it spans from, you know, my mother who sends me TikToks almost daily, all the way down to like my 13 year old. So it really is hitting everybody in between.

Yeah. And it has this search function. Like for me, obviously I don't run a service business, but I'm really interested in like how to do my hair and how to makeup and so I'll always ask for those tutorials. So I'm thinking just right now as we're talking, how what an opportunity for folks in the service industry to build trust with consumers and show that you know what you're doing with like simple at home fixes.

Yes. But to show that you're human too. Yes. Right. A lot of times calling a plumber back to my mom in Florida last night called us because she had a burst pipe in her house and was phoning a plumber. Right. There's nothing we could do when we were right there. But calling home services business is something that most folks don't expect to have to happen. And so it can bring some anxiety. And so I think making us real, making us relatable, making us, you know, folks who aren't out there to, to con you. Home services oftentimes gets a bad rap. You've talked about it before. Like, I want everybody to be able to relate to us. And so that's, that's just one more channel to do, so.

Got it. Yeah. 100 agree. I'm also going to need a photo of Tortuga, by the way, to post on the podcast page when this goes live. So Just FYI. Just putting that, that little nugget into your brain.

Yeah, well, you know, he caught on fire a week and a half ago. He's okay, I do want to tell you that. But the office cat caught on fire at the office, actually, while my CSR was booking a call and she booked the call, stayed calm, my service manager went over, put him out. Very long story, but he's okay. No damage to Tortuga. He has, he has survived, yes.

Oh, my God. How did that even happen? Completely off the topic. How did that even happen? Was there a candle or something?

Lesson, lesson learned. Our new CSR knows that candles are not okay to have at our desks anymore. We're going to go down to the melt to the warmers. But she had a very long wick and she was over here booking the call and the cat jumped up to get some cuddles in the morning and caught on fire. So he's a long haired cat now. One side, he's a short hair cat, but no animal like abuse or anything like that. He's a very happy, healthy cat. He loves it here. He's a survivor.

All right. And cats are curious. Moving on. So going back to dynamic and like pivoting and being lean and being able to shapeshift into all the things that you need. Did you go into starting the business with Ronnie with this mindset in mind?

I don't, I don't really know that. We had a vision, a plan, an idea of what we started six years ago turning into what it is now. So I'd be lying if I said yes. We literally sat down one night on our couch. We had ideas for the name of the business, we drew a logo, we had a family text chat trying to come up with like confirming our, our motto. And my husband said to me, I don't want to be one of those massive service companies that never, that loses touch with their technicians, that never relates to their technicians anymore. That was like the one thing that we knew we want it to be. And we've stayed true to that. But I think that as we grew, we realized we had to leverage technology that was just something we had to do to, to not only keep up, but to thrive. Because there are so many amazing plumbers in our community, right? There's enough business to go around and then some. But what makes you different? What makes that connection between you and the plumber next door? What makes you different? And so we had to jump into using things like Service Titan. Right? We've been with Service Titan two Years now. Never would have thought we would be using such a robust platform when we started six years ago.

And I know that Ronnie's a master plumber. And now that I know about your higher ed background, working as a representative of trade schools, giving the technicians that type of security, those benefits that was probably always embedded in your personal DNA.

In addition to the company's right 100%. You know, it's funny, timing of this is great. Last night I was at an innovation center for my 13 year old who's going into high school and he gets to be, he gets this option to be bused every day to this innovation center, a school where he can learn a hands on trade, come out with certifications like this is what I have been championing, championing for years. And they're making it happen in the high schools. And so one of the things I've been pushing for is to get plumbing, heating, cooling in the high schools, to have a partnership with local school, local businesses like ours so that we can give students an option at an earlier age to consider careers like this. And so yeah, I mean it's, it's just amazing to me how far we've come because I was, you know, told go to college, go to college, go to college. And I did. My husband was in the military and grew up plumbing. Now there's another option for students out there. Hey, you can go into the trades and it's cool and you're going to make a great living and great money doing so. So huge opportunity.

That's awesome. I love that your son has that opportunity within the innovation center to just go in and learn stuff. And I love the idea of exposing them even younger to what heating, plumbing and cooling can look like. Because I think, I feel like a lot of, correct me if I'm wrong, this is my assumption, so it could very well not be true. But I feel like a lot of the times when I'm talking with folks about getting high schoolers interested, they're talking about kids who are maybe 16, 17 years old, but 13, you kind of still have that malleable mind. I feel like that's when maybe a lot of kids pick up instruments or you know, kind of start discovering their personality. So even like as young as 13, I think that could be really rewarding.

Yes. Look, this is when the kids are investigating and they're taking things apart. You know, my other son takes apart his remote control vehicles, like he wants to know how things work. You know, I would love to see a wet lab here at our office. Where we can bring in kids from local schools to come in and learn how to take apart a furnace, of course, put it back together, learn how to diagnose, you know, get them kind of filling up that need that they have to learn. And to be, you know, tactile learners.

At that young age, I think that's super cool. So kind of going back to this like dynamic shape shifting mentality, which is like 100 going to be the theme of this episode. You've also, you mentioned before that you adopted Service Titan, but technology has played a big role in how you run tnt. So I would love to know, you know, what tools are invaluable to you as you run TNT now.

Oh yeah. So it's been kind of cool because I, I've gotten to work with Service Titan for two years. Every day I learn something different and I've been able to share those things with other companies. Like when we first started, I think we were just using maybe PriceBook Pro, which by the way, amazing. Before we came on to Service Titan, we actually paid a company to do a price study for us to go and like see what our market was charging for different services. And they charged us a lot of money to do it. And that's a stagnant survey, right? It's a one time deal. You go out there, you find out, well, since then, look what's happened with the economy, right? That was done in 2019. A little bit of a different world. Our vendors are, you know, raising their prices seems like quarterly right now. With electrical, you know, it's changing weekly. And so for us to have something like the, the dynamic pricing in the system, like to have access real time of what other folks in our area are charging makes us so much more competitive. I'm not waiting on a survey to be done. I'm not relying on stagnant results that may or may not be accurate. So things like that. And you know, things like our acp, for example, we, gosh, we came on with Schedule Engine long before they ever partnered with Service Titan. I want to say a year and a half ago maybe. Oh, wow. And yeah, so we've actually been using Schedule Engine for some time and for us it was just about making us that much more competitive. I'll never forget the first time I had a client call in who was so excited because she read the bio of our technician and it mentioned that he was from Florida and she was so excited because she's from Florida and she loved the fact that she saw his picture, his background read a Little bit about what he likes to do in his spare time. Again, like what? Like this is. This is an amazing tool out there. So I love the fact that we're going to continue to grow with that. Our technicians are out there using their iPads and making the most of every feature that they're learning.

That's great. You just name dropped a bunch of different features. So I'm just going to do a little translation for anyone who's not involved in Service Titan is like, what the heck is she talking about? You're talking about Pricing Insights, which basically gives you data onto how you should be adjusting your pricing based on vendor data and also, I believe, also from geographical data. Correct?

Yep, exactly.

And then ACP is Adjustable Capacity Planning, which is essentially like, I do such a bad. I've worked for Service Titan for six and a half years. Can you explain Adjustable capacity plan?

I can, yes. So ACP allows us to put in what technicians are available based off of a schedule and to kind of indicate to Service Titan how full we want that schedule to be so that folks who are online looking to schedule service that it ensures that we're never overbooked and that we're staying away from being under booked. Case in point, we had a snowstorm here a couple days ago. We left some more availability for no heats. Right. Because we knew it was going to be like a high of 20 degrees, something crazy like that. And so we made sure that online folks were only able to see a certain number of appointments because we wanted to have room for the emergency clients next day. So that's acp, and it just allows you to make sure that you've always got that room for what you need.

Nice. And you mentioned Schedule Engine, which is an online scheduling tool that now partners with Service Titan and it enables folks to book right on your website, which is always great because as we know, customers do not like to pick up the phone ever, ever, ever. Myself included.

Yes. And actually I said dynamic pricing, too, which. Dynamic pricing is also a feature that we love, which that's a whole other podcast, I think, which is pretty amazing. But that too allows us to ebb and flow as our vendors are changing their material prices on us and make sure that we're not losing any of our margins.

That's awesome. I'm so happy to hear that you've again been able to adapt and be dynamic and pivot to all of these things. Like, you took technology and you realized what it could do for you, and then you just went full hog on it and you're like, okay, I'm going to use this to run my business in the most efficient way I can. Which, like, going back to how you've done so much in short amount of time. A short amount of time. Like adopting all of those technology features, like, that takes so much brain power. And I just want to credit you for it.

Oh, thank you. Well, I'm a tech nerd and I oftentimes feel like I maybe should have gone into something with tech because if there's like a new tech toy out there, I want to try it. Right? That's, that's my jam. Whereas my husband, you know, comes from the very traditional background of plumbing, where, you know, all the new technology was. Was kind of mind blowing for him, and now he's embraced it and just like, you know, all of our technicians have. So I love it. Why not use it? You know, let's. Let's work with it and not against it. Just like technology in the schools. A whole other conversation.

Yeah, for sure. All right, so we're going to move on to one of my absolute favorite things to talk about in the trades, which is you are a woman in the trades. You are also an owner. Well, now you were an owner. Now you're the GM of tnt. So I would love to know how being a woman in the trades has affected your life both personally and professionally.

Yeah, that's. This is something that doesn't get lost on me. I recently spoke to a group of middle schoolers about my career, and I remember one of the young men in the class who actually happened to be. I coached cross country, and he actually happened to be one of my athletes. And I think he finally realized what I did for a living. And he goes, wait, so like, you run the whole thing, like, everybody reports to you, like you're in charge? And I said, yeah. And he goes, but you're not a plumber. And so it blew my mind. Like, yeah, this is, this is what the kiddos see. This is like perception versus reality. And so I've tried to be outspoken as much as I can go into career days, you know, volunteer so that folks can see an opportunity in the trades is not just being a plumber, even though I happen to be married to one. Isn't, you know, being an electrician necessarily. No, you can come in and you can do marketing. I have a fantastic office manager. You know, I have a great marketing team that I get to work with. There's so many opportunities. And so I've tried to, you know, open minds to that and I think that being a woman in the trades is a really, really powerful, powerful thing that we should be proud of and we should share what we're doing and we should share the impact we're making. You know, to me, every single morning when I get here, I make an attempt to go back and chat with the guys, you know, back in the tech area, have conversations like listen to what they're. And I say, guys, we don't have any women technicians just yet, but if you're looking, we're always hiring. But you know, we go back there and chat and I get to know them and like the things that to me gender doesn't really change is I still want to get to know my technicians, I want to know about their lives. I, I want to know how I can support them. I want to know the funny thing that happened to them over the weekend. One of my Texas dog is sick. Like to me, I just want to get to know them. And I think that that really breeds loyalty. And so to me, I just get out there and talk about it as much as possible. Just think outside the box and that, you know, as, as a woman, there's literally nothing that you can't do. We have a four year old daughter who, when you ask her whose company TNT is, she says it's hers. Great. You know, I hope that one day, whether she decides that she's going to stay in the family business, right, or she's going to be President of the United States, do what you believe is going to make you the happiest, is going to give you purpose, is going to impact others in a way. And I'll tell you, to me, that's at the end of the day, that's what it's about. Like the impact that we've been able to make on this community in six years, that's just, I pinch myself because we, we have served so many clients, we've helped them in days. That could be very, very tricky, you know, calling. You have a flood in your house, right? You have no heat, you have an elderly person who's. Doesn't matter. Man, woman, color, ethnicity, it does not matter. Just make sure that whatever you're doing that you are making the most of it.

Yeah, I love that. I love how you're tying this all back to how you've impacted the community at Firestone. I think that's wonderful. I'm going to throw you for a bit of a loop because in the last few minutes I've just been blown away by how composed you are and What a great story speaker you are. And I can hear someone listening to this episode and thinking, oh, my goodness, that woman Laura has her entire everything figured out. And I know you mentioned in the beginning, you know, there was moments where you're feeding your baby and a technox on your door and they're giving you a check, and you're like, what do I even do with this? So I was wondering if you could share with me something that happened in the history of TNT that was really challenging that you overcame.

Oh, my gosh. And now you're gonna make me cry. See, this I did not expect. Jackie, I'm so sorry.

It is. It is a safe space. It is a safe and vulnerable space.

No, In March of 2021, we'd actually gone out the night before with a couple technicians, their wives, some folks from our office, and for a bowling night, a bowling. And Ronnie had, a couple years before that, had been in a car accident on the job, actually. Somebody came, he was stopped at a red light, somebody rear ended him, and all the tools came flying into the van. So he. He'd still been getting some treatment for his back. But the night after bowling, Ronnie collapsed and couldn't walk. And I found him about an hour and a half after he went down and called, you know, 911 because I. I couldn't move him. And before the ambulances got there, my service manager, Michael, was on scene, on site. My CSR dispatcher was on scene on site ready to help us to make sure that we were okay, to find out who could help us with the kids so that, you know, I could be focused on Ronnie. I don't have family here. Ronnie doesn't have family here. They're in different states. And so for us having this community there to help us right away. Well, make a very long story short, Ronnie ended up needing emergency spinal surgery. And during COVID this was actually considered to be an elective surgery. And so surgery centers were shut down. So the doctors were able to get a surgery center opened up so that he could walk. And I'll tell you, the company didn't miss a beat. The service manager, Michael, came in and just made sure that things were running smoothly. The technicians were coming over to keep Ronnie's mind busy, because after he had the surgery, you know, he had some recovery and actually ended up having to spend time in the emergency room. It was a long, crazy thing. And then exactly a month later, I ended up having emergency surgery. And, yeah, so I had a crazy hernia that was in my lungs, and it Was. It was crazy. So the team stepped up, supported us, and that's really. There's something to say. Yeah, we're all family here, right? He's a family. But that's a family when you've got folks who are willing to drop everything and make sure you've got meals and help to entertain Ronnie, because he's not a guy who likes to sit in the chair. Right. He wants to be out with his technicians coming over to check on him and visit him. We owe a lot to those people. We owe a lot to those people, for sure. And, in fact, the CSR who was there, who I'd mentioned, he had left us for some time. He actually became a firefighter himself. He just came back to us this week. He came back to the TNT family after being gone for about a year. And that means a lot. Yeah, means a lot. That we made enough of an impact on somebody who. Who made that impact on us that he wants to come back and work with us again.

Oh, my goodness. Someone must be cutting an onion in my kitchen, which is odd because I live alone, so. It's a ghost. It's a ghost cutting an onion. I was not expecting that answer, but I want to really thank you for sharing that. That is really beautiful. And it's very clear to me that you and Ronnie have built something incredibly special.

And.

Yeah, I just. Well done. Bravo. Like, I.

There's an onion here in my office, too, so thank you for that. There's definitely the irony of all this, and the part that we can laugh about is that Michael, our service manager, he. At the time, we actually had two repurposed ambulances in our TNT fleet digital camo. They were beautiful. And Michael happened to be one of the drivers of one of the ambulances, so his ambulance made it to our house before the real ambulance did, which was good. Yeah, it's great.

Oh, my God. All right. Well, I mean, I don't know where else we're going to go from there, honestly, but I would love to know, you know, what's next for tnt and how are you and Ronnie gonna. I know you're still at the business. So what's next for you guys? What are you planning to do next?

Yeah, so we are, you know, in the. In the transition phase right now of learning the new processes to help support us. The fact that we have people. I'm still not used to having people say, hey, do you want me to help set up technology for your new hires? What? Like, I've never had help doing this? I've just done it for six years, you know. So for us, I think we are taking it one day at a time. We, our intention is to continue, continue to grow and continue to have our strong presence here in the community. But we know that there's more of an impact we can make. We really want to refine our service lines. Make sure, for example, that our electrical line, which has been a little trickier than the others, make sure that we've got that down. Make sure that we've got the best technicians out there. And the way that we're going to do that is by showing them, you know, that we're using the best technology, we've got the best benefits, we've got the best time off policy, you know, all of that. And so we're not going anywhere. We were, we're hanging out, we're going to be here for a while. That's our plan. This is our plan. This is our retirement plan. This is, you know, our children's college fund plan. This is all of that. Right. And so for us, TNT is our number one focus. And we just really at this point are soaking up the resources we're getting and trying to pass along as much as we can to our techs.

I love that. And I just remembered, you have to tell me a little bit more about when you were in higher ed for trade schools. Like, tell me one or two things, especially the folks who are contractors listening who are like, how do I get more technicians? How do I solve this hiring crisis? How do I get more people interested in the trade? So just all of that I just word vomited at you. What are some things that people should be considering?

Call up your local high schools. Just start one high school at a time. Find out where the career centers are, if they have an innovation center or a workforce development center. I know that, you know, it's different, it's called something different in every market. But contact them and let them know that, hey, look, we're, we're looking to recruit at an early age for these trades. Can we come in and give career day presentations? You know, I used to go in and do personality tests with the students so they could help kind of see what personality style they had and what careers might match and how much money they might be able to make. Right? Start there. Start one high school at a time. Once you've got a great group under your belt, go to the school district, look for partnerships, partner with them and show up at things like college nights, because college isn't necessarily going to be a Fit for everybody. But for that kiddo who may feel like, gosh, I don't feel like I belong here, but, man, I sure love to take things apart, put things back together and design things. That's the kid that you want, right? So start early, start often, get out there, do these career fairs. That's my best, best recommendation.

I love the idea of them going to a college night and then just having like a big banner that says, like, tuition $0, career guaranteed.

Yeah, why not? You know, ultimately, and all the educators and I mean, in 20 years of higher ed, right. I. I don't even know. Thousands of educators, every single one of them has something in common, and that is that they want their students to succeed. What that success looks like isn't going to be the same, and they don't expect that it is. You know, I think that again, maybe, you know, when I was in school, maybe the direction was, yeah, what percentage of your kids are you going to get to go to college? It's not that way anymore. And so I think that if we can bring to these schools the opportunity to partner with local businesses to be feeder programs. We had an intern earlier this year out of the county. The county paid a good portion of their wages for them to come work for us to get hands on experience as an electrician. Like, there are these resources out there that they're begging for folks to use. You just have to know where to find them.

That's awesome. All right, we are going to end this incredibly dynamic conversation sticking on brand with my favorite question of all time. If you had to choose a song to be the soundtrack of your life, Laura, what would it be?

Oh, all right. Gotta go. Gotta go with my girl, Kelly Clarkson. Kelly, if you're listening, I love you. Broken and Beautiful by Kelly Clarkson. We have a young lady who has kind of taught herself, has learned the lessons on her own terms, has worked incredibly hard, has made mistakes falling on her face. At the end of the day, though, she's done it her own way. She's bigger, better, stronger than she was when she, when she first started. And I'd like to think I've got a little bit of that in me.

Beautiful, beautiful answer. Laura, thank you so much for taking time out of your very busy day and joining me on Toolbox for the trades.

Oh, my gosh, Jackie, so nice to be here. Thank you again for the invite.