Ep22 - P Nathan Thornberry

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What is the roadmap to defeat self sabotage, negative thinking and learned helplessness in these unprecedented times? You must get connected, Get Growing, get certain and Get Attitude. The Get Attitude Podcast. And welcome to the Gap. The Get Attitude Podcast. This is the podcast where you go to find out how to become the person you want to become and how to get a roadmap on on where you want to go. My name is Glenn Bill, international best selling author and host of the Get Attitude Podcast. And today we have a unbelievable entrepreneur. An entrepreneur that came literally from nothing, started a business at 18 years old, now has 250 employees, tens of millions of dollars in revenue, and he is the president of Residential Warranty Services, one of the most influential people in the home warranty space and America. P. Nathan Thornberry is a part of 10% of all real estate transactions that happen in the United States of America. That is a huge freaking number. It is awesome to have you with us. P. Nathan, what's up? Welcome to the Get Attitude podcast.

Good morning, Glenn. Although it could be afternoon for you watching, so good afternoon, Glenn.

Wait, it could be evening.

Good evening, Glenn.

Right, thank you. Good morning, good evening and good afternoon, Nathan. Thanks for coming. Coming in here, we are focused in season two on innovators and influencers. I want to talk to you about Attitude, but one thing when I watch what you do is I do believe that you are somewhat of an innovator and I'd like to know what is your thought about innovation? What does it mean to you and perhaps maybe what's like the most innovative thing that you've done in your business life.

Most innovative thing? Well, I think it's hard to be truly original these days because the Simpsons already did it. There's nothing particularly innovative, I don't think from the last 10 years what really came out that changed our lives? The cell phone? No. The computer? No. The pen? No. What did we innovate? Now innovation has turned into how do you make processes better? In 2007 we started down the process of launching this product called Recall Check. And at the time there was nobody really checking for recalls functionally. So that was an Efficiency thing. How do you get information to the person at the right time in an actionable way? That's what I think most innovation focuses on today.

If you are a real estate agent out there, I know you've seen recall check. I see it every freaking home that I do. And I'm sure everybody sees an innovative product. What was the biggest challenge when you said, number one, how did you get the idea we should really check warranties on appliances and everything that's possible? But how did you take that from an idea to now probably one of the most widely sought out products in the warranty and inspection services industry? Like, what was the process? What was the attitude? How did it work?

Well, I bought a house that I shouldn't have. It was large. And my father's a home inspector. And of course, as an inspector of high end homes, often he recognizes that none of them are maintained very well. The bigger the house, the worse you're going to be at that. So anyway, I bought this big house and the first thing I did as a 22 year old, or 20. 20. Yeah, 21 year old was I bought all these plasma televisions. That was a big thing at the time. You know, big plasma. They were giant. They were 42 inches. You know, that was giant for. And a plasma and plasmas would last forever. And so that was one thing that I wanted, but the other thing I really wanted, that I had always wanted. I know, you know, at 21, you've wanted something all your life. But it was a Bosch dishwasher. So I bought this Bosch dishwasher and I went to that HH Greg Fine Lines, which was like our local expensive appliance place. And I got my Bosch dishwasher and it was cool and it was sexy. And I put it into this old Carmel house, this giant McMansion with big wood garage doors and a basement that would eventually flood three times. One morning I wake up and my father, the home inspector who keeps up on on these things, says, hey, what's the model number of that dishwasher? I read it off to him. He said, well, it's been recalled and here's the reason, here's how you get the free repair. And I'm like, how did you know that? As it turns out, my old man had been collecting recall data for a long time, but it wasn't really in a functional way to use it. He just happened to know that I had a Bosch dishwasher. Nobody else notified me. The manufacturer didn't notify me. Right. The account rep at HH Greg Fine Lines, who we bought countless appliances from. And as a warranty company, we bought thousands of appliances a year from this company. No notification, no nothing. And as it turns out, nobody was being notified of these free repairs of fire hazards, of things that are public record. You know, they're known.

Right.

And there was a lot of reasons that they couldn't do that. And it had a lot to do with how their database is formatted and what their search function looks like. So we solved the problem.

Yeah, that's cool. And so back to an innovation thing, I think. Gappers, as we listen to this and as we delve into Nathan, what he just explained was the process that each and every one of you should be thinking, what is the obvious problem that has not been solved? And then make it your business. Matt LeBlanc, you probably have no idea. I think that's.

I think he was on Friends, right? Yeah.

Was it. Well. Or Duke?

No, no, there was a. There was a Blanc, but he was Joey. No, that was Matt LeBlanc, right?

Yeah, it was Matt LeBlanc. Gosh darn, I forget his name. Here's the point. There was a goalie that invented the goalie mask. The goalie mask in hockey was not invented until 83 years into the sport. Now, wouldn't you think that after being hit in the face with a puck, somebody would have said, we need to invent a goalie mask? Wouldn't you think when it comes to home inspection services or appliances. Appliances have been around for 80 years, 90 years, that somebody would have said, we probably should create a system that's automated, that gets recall check. And that's what you did, which is very, very cool. And it's a fantastic service for us Realtors and for me as a real estate salesperson, let's get into this thing called attitude. What is your definition of attitude? And who was your best attitude coach or your first attitude coach?

Oh, man. I'm like, I'm the worst guy for your podcast.

I think that's okay.

Oh. Because, you know, and, you know, I'm a big fan. I've had you come and talk to our leadership at our leadership Day. And a lot of people need certain levels of attitude coaching. Like, hey, what is in the way of you getting shit done today?

Right.

I've never had that.

Okay.

And so for me, it's just always been mathematical. Like, I don't let sentiment get in the way of what I'm going to accomplish by the end of the day. And I think so many people do. I Think. I think that holds a lot of people back.

That's good. And so, you know, Nathan, not everybody's like me. Not everybody in our audience is gonna high hard, personal, personal development, yada yada. A lot of people like you that are listening to this. And so when you say, I'm not sure you should be on here, well, here's the. I got plenty of motivational speakers and marketing guys. And so you are important to our podcast because you know what? There's a lot of people that are just like you, I'm sure, that are listening, that go, shit. I don't know the definition of attitude. When you think about your thought process or your attitude, who influenced you most and what did you learn from them?

Well, I know a bad attitude when I see it. It's easy to recognize when it's bad. And when you're having a bad day, you probably need to change something about that day, I suppose. Do something that has a positive outcome for you. If you're beating your head against the wall on a project, just move on to the other one. You know, there's millions and millions of people out there. There's billions of people, but there's hundreds of millions of people in this country. There's lots of opportunity. Whatever you were working on that sucked, you know, you don't need to do that anymore.

Right, Right. So, yeah, move on from the things that are pulling you down and go focus on what you can do and then hire somebody to do those things, probably. What does it feel like to have 250 employees?

Oh, it's grueling. And you called me president of the company. Actually, I'm not the president of the company. I hired somebody to be president of the company.

That's true, David.

Yes. And you know, part of the thing that would drag me down in a day just because of time, this is just a simple matter of bandwidth, is how many people do you talk to in a day and what do you say to them? And then time that.

Right.

Okay. Because, you know, it's easy for people to say when they have, you know, two employees or five employees or 10 employees. Oh, yeah. You know, I know all my people really well and we hang out and we have a beer every once in a while and, you know, I know their families and such. That is so easy to do at 10 people.

Right.

At 100 people, that dynamic has completely changed.

Right.

And at some point you have to go, all right, you know, I can't really be anybody's buddy and I owe them better. So I need to focus on the things where I deliver for them, because what's going to make the biggest impact in their life, it's going to be a good paycheck, a solid company to work for kids that they can pay the fee to send them to college rather than getting loans for that. Those are all things that are going to make a difference to them and then a positive work environment. And if you're somebody like me who doesn't do positivity, who doesn't do motivation, who doesn't focus on things like the definition of attitude, for instance, and just says, would you just do it? Whatever it is, just do it. What's wrong with you? Why are you stopping to think about it? Just do it. If that's you, then you need to put somebody in place that understands that and understands that people need this.

So what is your gift? How did you do what you did? Right? Like, what's your gift? I think one of your gifts is you recognize what maybe you're not great at, and you hire it. Oh, yeah, but is there another gift? Is there another secret sauce that comes to you that you think you go, damn, you know what I mean? With what you've done, there's got to be some secrets. There's got to be some lessons to share with our folks who are out there wanting to start their own business, grow their own business. What's your one or two rules that you live by?

Okay, one rule that I live by is I don't lie. And there's a difference between selling and lying. Like, hey, you can focus on the positives, but if you're out there lying about yourself, your product, your company, your people, whatever it is, then you now have to devote a certain amount of brain power to that lie. So if you don't lie, you always tell the truth, even if it is punishing to you all the time. You know, you just don't have to commit any brain power to remembering.

Yeah, that's like, freaking huge, Jason. I almost wonder if we shouldn't make that an attitude booster. Don't lie. Because when you talk about lying, I mean, never really even thought about that. When you talk about brain power, what does it take to cover up a lie? I mean, holy crap.

To live it and live it.

And a lot of people live in a lie 24 7.

Absolutely.

So, Gappers, the question is this, what are you lying about? What are you lying to yourself about? What are you lying to your people about? And are you living in a lie? In my opinion, might be the best Part of this podcast. I know that we don't think about it. People don't go, oh, yeah, I'm lying. But take the time gappers right now to think about, shit. Am I lying to myself? And what does that look like? What does it sound like? All right, give me some more stuff. Give me another one.

So, you know, I generally know that I've been brutally honest the last time I talked to you.

Yes.

So when you ask me a question, I give you a brutally honest answer. Again, they line up, right. If they've changed at all, it's because the facts have changed. But I also know that I didn't say no. Okay? Now, it doesn't mean I say yes. But if I never say no, and somebody comes to me and says, you know, you caused this problem and I asked you to fix it and you said no, I'm like horseshit, right? That did not happen because I don't say no. Right?

Right.

Now, I'm not saying I didn't tell you what you wanted to hear that day, but, you know, let's have a conversation about it where we're not accusatory because that certainly was not my intent to say no.

And so this is Nathan P. P. Nathan Thornberry's entrepreneurial list. I love it. Don't lie. We can also make that a positive and say, always tell the truth. Don't say no. We can always say, well, I don't know how, because you say, I don't always say yes, which I find interesting. But you don't say no. You don't practice that. Is there one other nugget that you can give us when it comes to entrepreneurialism that you think is important?

If you don't have enough information to make a decision, then get more information. If you have enough information to make a decision, what the shit are you waiting for? Right?

You know, then make it.

Make the decision.

And then what do you say? Now, how does somebody know if they have enough information? Because there are plenty of entrepreneurs that go, I don't need information. I'm going, right, let's find the win. Yeah, how do you.

Well, and that may be enough information, by the way. You may know your. You may know your market really well. You may know your business really well. I've certainly had somebody ask me a question, go, well, what's the answer to this? I give them the answer, go, how do you know that? I'm like, because I do. You know, like, if you want somebody with less knowledge, go talk to them in times of.

And look it. You've been running a business for 30 years. Rider 25, number one, has it ever gotten tough?

Did you ever go on 21, 23.

23 years.

Yeah, 23.

And did you ever, as you were building, go, oh, crap, this may not work, I may want to close the doors? Or did that never cross your mind when you were building, what you were building?

Well, let's define what, what I was building. There's been things that didn't work out right. You know, I, I had a construction company that I had to take through bankruptcy in 0809. You know, like, there's no two ways about it. There was no financing, there was no construction going on. It was, it was done for. And so, you know, that was, that was a failure. That, that hurts, by the way, when you start realizing, oh, crap, this isn't working out.

Wow.

And here's these people that I'm going to let go of. And here's, you know, this corporate bankruptcy, which I kind of felt bad about.

That's an attitude dumpster, not an attitude booster.

But it's a thing that's available in this country and it's not available in all other countries. It actually helps our capitalism. You know, the first thing that happens to people after they go through a bankruptcy, and I've never done a personal bankruptcy or had been in that position, luckily. But if you go through a bankruptcy, personal or corporate, mm. First thing that happens, the first piece of mail you get, you know what it is?

I do not.

Credit card offers. You're back at it.

No kidding.

Oh, yeah.

So you go through bankruptcy and then the banks line up and go, let's go.

Yes.

Because this guy will borrow as much as he possibly can.

Well, they, I guess they know you're a consumer of it, but now you're, you know, you're definitely in a different position. You're gonna pay a little bit higher interest.

But, you know, you are a real estate investor. You have holdings, I believe, in several different states. Number one, I want to know what's your thought on building wealth through real estate? Number two, this is fun. What's the biggest loan you ever signed for?

Ooh, biggest loan. Well, I've been debt free for a long time, you know, other than a mortgage on a couple of properties. So, yeah, there's only two. I have two mortgages left. One on a commercial building, and that's about a one and a half million on a, on a $3.2 million building. So that's, you know, good loan to value under, under 50% LTV. Not bad at 40. And then my house, about 30% LTV at this point. Not terrible.

I didn't. I know you've. You've invested in large commercial projects.

I did some development a long time ago and I was not particularly good at it. Yes. I lost money on. Speaking of some. Some money into it. Yeah.

Right.

Ended up with. I had a piece of land still that it took me 10 years to sell after 2008.

Yeah. That's brutal. And you paid on it for 10 years?

Yes.

120 payments?

Well, I didn't have any payments, but yeah, I had equity tied up. I had equity tied up. I had insurance and taxes.

Yeah. What's the biggest mistake you see entrepreneurs make?

Well, if they don't have anything proprietary, they try to suggest that they have something proprietary. They're kind of lying to their clients about it. They use keywords to do it, and people are so over it. And those keywords would be, oh, things like value.

Right.

Yeah.

Game changer.

Oh, yes. Oh, they're interrupting or they're. What's the disruptor? Disrupting, yes. Oh, check out this disruptive thing. It's like, no, you're not disrupting anything.

So when you say they don't have something proprietary, what does proprietary really mean?

Okay. Well, it has to be something that most of the market can't say not, won't say not. You think that you're better at something and you saying it makes it true because it's just. It doesn't.

Right.

You know, like, oh, I'm better at this, so, you know, and I care more and I'm going to answer my phone. That part actually, that, that one's something. Right? Now, answering your phone, communicating with clients counts. And the more you do that, the more you are available for that, the less you make excuses like, oh, it's family time.

Yeah.

I mean, seriously?

Really? Right.

Well, there are a lot of people that are talking that will talk to you about work, life, balance. And you know, the easiest thing for a consultant to tell you to do is, oh, raise your prices, charge what you're worth, take time off. You're paying for that shit. That should not be the.

That is not what you pay for.

Right.

That is not proprietary.

No, not at all.

When you think about your value prop to the real estate community, what is your proprietary?

Well, we're involved in a lot of transactions, as you mentioned.

Yeah. How Many is that? 10%. How many transactions occur in America? Roughly?

Last month we did about 160,000 transactions. Yeah.

So there was probably 1.6 million transactions going on.

No, that's our piece. Right. Overall number of transactions this year, I think we're going to probably end the year at six, six and a half.

Right.

These are residential transactions.

Your proprietary mantra or slogan is we're involved in one out of every 10 transactions?

No, we would. We. We never advertise that.

Right.

What's proprietary about what we do is that we can deliver a real estate transaction where your client doesn't have the risk of moving in and having a sewer line collapse and having to pay for it.

Right.

So if. If you are sloppy as a real estate agent and you refer just anybody or you refer a guy because you like him.

Got me drunk last night.

We drink at the same bar. We belong to the Kiwanis Club. If you handle the professionals in your real estate transaction like you hope people handle you, they're referring you because you're close, because you have something in common. Sphere marketing is definitely something that has worked in real estate. I'm not bashing it. I'm just saying that with your vendors, you should not have that mentality when it comes to the actual results for your people. No. So, you know, we set up things where, you know, about one in every, about 15% now, probably 15% of home inspectors throughout the U.S. offer a sewer line policy that we underwrite that solves for this issue. So when your client moves in and they have this problem, they're not out thousands of dollars.

Yes, I sell a lot of older homes, a lot of them 100 a year, roughly, or more. And my past five transactions, because, you know, it's all about sewer line now. Everybody's gotten smart and they're getting sewer cams and, you know, now we got an offset, but the water still flows. And this isn't a big deal. Literally, Sewer guard has saved my sellers $5,000 of unnecessary repairs because of what you provide. And I am your customer. And for any realtor out there listening, for any homeowner out there listening, you should go to residential warranty services website. You should. Hell, sewer guard's free, by the way, to my clients. So to me, innovative product to me, lessens risk. To me saves my sellers money. To me, makes me money because it helps me close deals.

And we're changing the conversation around those sewer lines now. So it was, okay, let's get the sewer camera inspection. Well, now we got to talk about whether that little thing that we see is something that we ask the seller to fix. And if the seller is being told by their Experts, their professionals, that it's not something that needs to be fixed right now. Well, now it's just an argument point. If you have a professional saying that and you have inspection by the right guy, it's no longer an argument. Go to close.

Go get your money. Let's talk. I pretty sure you're a student. I'd love to know, like, entrepreneurial wise, business wise, or even just in your personal life, like, who are your mentors? Who are the. I don't want to say idols, but who are the people that you. You look to and learn from, you know, whether it's a Steve Jobs or Richard Branson, whatever. And what did you learn from them?

Well, you have to give Patty and Phil Thornberry credit first, right?

Yeah.

But beyond them, I would say anybody who's made enormous mistakes, just those are the ones that you should look to so you can learn a little bit. And if you, I will not say, take a deeper dive, because that's another thing people. You should never say. But if you were to look into the history of some of these folks, you would find that the reason they make so many mistakes is because they try so many things.

Yeah, right. So Phil and Patty are your parents. I'd love to just know, what's the attitude lesson that Phil's given you and the attitude lesson that Patty's given you?

Well, two very different mentalities. Right. I mean, Phil's the nice guy, and he's gonna bring the parties together and have him talk it out, and Patty's gonna tell him, get back to work. What the hell are we even talking about here?

Right? Yeah. So the lessons would be, hey, you can negotiate things or you can work through things, maybe from both of them. One of the questions that we get into with a lot of our guests are because I think there are great lessons to be learned from grandparents. Did you know your grandparents? If you did, I'd love to know what they did. And maybe what was the greatest lesson you learned from one of the four or two of the four. And I want to know their names. This is something that we get into. And, God, the lessons that come from people's grandparents are amazing.

I knew my grandfather on my mother's side for a short time. He died when I was pretty young. My mother's mother, I don't know her name. I've never met her.

Wow.

My grandmother on my father's side, she's deceased now. She was just a wonderful lady, loved art and had a house with cool stuff in it, cool books and whatever she Was a classic lady. Then there was my grandfather, and that was the entrepreneur that, you know, I would hang out with occasionally who, you know, had a steakhouse. Had three different steakhouses.

Did he? In Indy or.

In Indy? Yeah.

Would I know who, what they were?

Well, there was the Bonanza on Keystone.

Oh, my gosh. He owned the Bonanza on Keystone.

The Bonanza on Keystone. There was another. There was another something somewhere along the lines. And then there was Don Thornberry Steak Place.

I remember that.

Which is where the Cancun is now on Rangeline Road.

Right?

Yeah, Right. Which is where my parents met. But later on in life, he became a real estate agent and one that sold a lot of real estate.

What was his name?

Don Thornberry.

Don Thornberry. And he was a realtor.

He was.

So any lessons that he. I mean, I would have to think owning a restaurant has got to be one of the worst business decisions or careers ever. Any good stories about owning a restaurant or any lesson that you learned about owning a restaurant?

We didn't talk about that stuff nearly as much as we talked about real estate.

Yeah.

Cool.

What's the best real estate advice he ever gave you or the best sales advice he ever gave you?

Well, you know, we'll bring up a major brand in real estate, ReMax. Okay. He was a ReMax agent from.

Oh, I totally remember that. Yeah.

From the time he left our local brand, FC Tucker, to the time he died, he was a ReMax agent at one point as a 18 year old with a chip on my shoulder that just got his real estate license. Because that's what you do as a Thornberry. I ask him, you do $30 million a year in sales in 1980. That was in 2000. 2002. Now, these were generally broad listing packages with builders and that sort of thing. Sure. But I said, why do you do this with ReMax? Like, why not start your own thing? You know, just Don Thornberry's whatever, real estate palace, Whatever. Right. And he said, you know, that, that ReMax name, it makes a difference. And you know, at this point, I don't really want to run anything here. And. And at the time it was, it was Tom Lazera. That was his broker.

Oh, yeah.

And then, and then he ended up working with, with Judy Cohen and Mitchell Cox. Right. 10315 North Allisonville Road. Office.

Right.

With ReMax preferred. And then that, that, that didn't work out. And then I think that was gone pretty quick.

Yeah. Randy Keys was in that office, if I remember.

I think Franny Keys was In that office a long time ago.

Before.

Way before. Yeah, he left. But yeah, so I definitely spent some time with Don and going by title companies and golfing and also enjoying life a little bit.

You what I see. And again, I stand back and watch what you do. Covid hit definitely changed the paradigm. But you're kind of, you, you run some pretty big ass events, some awesome events. You know how to do it. What's your thought? Are you gonna go back to what you did? Are you gonna modify and what's your whole thought on how do we emerge from the pandemic?

Well, okay, so I'm sure that some people read my social media posts and think I'm, you know, a Trump thumper or whatever.

Right.

But I'm really not. Here's what you notice when you have hundreds of employees. You notice which ones are sick, which ones have been affected, how they've been affected. And there's no doubt that people have experienced death in this country. There's no doubt that that's sad every single time. As far as having direct access to people's lives as an employer, we just didn't see anything that was over the top. I mean, we didn't have. Luckily, maybe, luckily, maybe just. It was statistically a huge exception to have tragedy, but we didn't have any. We didn't have people getting sick with any regularity. We did not stop holding events. We got people traveling. We even had. In 2020, we had hundreds of people come to Indianapolis for an event. Now we had to do it differently. We had hotels telling us that we couldn't hold an event like we wanted to, that we would have to limit number of people in a room and all of those sorts of things. And again, it's not like we're trying to kill anybody. There are clients. It's definitely not in our best interest to kill them. And by the way, at this particular event, most of them were home inspectors. Home inspectors are not spring chickens generally.

Right. So, you know, there was some risk, but you did it.

There was a thought, right? Like maybe this wouldn't go great, but you know, we gave people the option, wear a mask. You know, here's hand sanitizers everywhere, but we rented out the entire hotel so that we didn't have, you know, all of the, you know, overbearing rules and regulations and things that just don't make sense, you know, And I don't think that there's anybody in this country that thinks that every rule and regulation around this makes sense.

Right. What's your thought? For business owners on emerging from the pandemic. Right. I mean, there's. People get caught up in it. And I have a feeling I may know your answer. But we got business owners and we got entrepreneurs listening to you. What's your advice to them as we get out of this thing? What's the best business advice you could give them?

Let's assume that nobody in the billionaire class is listening to this podcast right now.

Right?

All right, let's just start with that.

But we know that's not true. Billionaires was up. Go ahead.

Well, we've interviewed a few. I mean, I don't know what your. What your policy is on language on this show. Is this show. Okay.

Yeah.

So if you're a billionaire, if you own your market, if you are, you know, the giant in your market space, you've done well, but from here on, you might be a little fucked.

And that is because of why.

Well, okay, so let me just dig from my perspective. In a little niche we've carved out for ourselves in the home service contract and home warranty space, we're like 2%, 3% of the market.

Right.

If the number of transactions in our industry, real estate, goes down by 20 or 30%, well, that could hit us none at all. All we have to do is go from 3% of the market to 5% of the market.

Yes.

And not only are we good, we've grown a little bit. And when the market comes screaming back, as it always does, we're well positioned.

Yeah. Well, you got 2% more market share now.

Right? Right. But if I was front door and American home shield, and I have, you know, 25% of the market. Right. Well, there's nowhere to go from there. You know, you've been losing the real estate market over time, and now you're focused on this direct to consumer market. I think that runs out. I think that that Runway is getting.

Shorter by the day in all businesses, really.

In some. When. When you're the Goliath, you got to be really innovative now. You got to figure out what else do you offer people not just to be, you know, a salesperson for something else. What else do you offer that can expand your revenue opportunities? Because at some point, you just don't have any anywhere else to go in terms of number of clients. But for most entrepreneurs, myself included, we're the little guy. I'm still the little guy at 3% of the market. On the home service contract side, the warranties we sell at closing, 10% of the real estate market in some facet there's so much opportunity. We got 90 to 97% of the.

Market left to come and get. I think Nathan's message is, even though you may feel small and even though you're not a billionaire, the opportunity really is now more than ever the position for you to grow the scalability through the Internet, through technology, through innovation. Advertising is free now. I mean, like, it's crazy if you are just, if you are a social media person. Do I get into social media? Do I not? Guys, social media is free. How do you not do it? Do you have a social media strategy for your company?

Well, we do. I think everybody does the normal, here's our Merry Christmas post, that sort of stuff. But we get very involved. We have people, including myself, who are responding directly to clients every single day, who are responding to people in our industry, real estate, home inspection, etc. And we're in those groups. We're not only following those groups, we are involved. We're writing messages within them, being a part of the conversation.

I went through your call center and I was like, jaw drop.

Wow.

There may be people that run call centers that work in call centers or thinking about starting a call center. Give me the business philosophy of a call center from maybe all three of those perspectives. Guys, when I started my call center, big mistake. The biggest mistake she made. What's our philosophy in the call center? How do you manage it? How do you train it? Let's just delve into that quick business facet.

So our call center, I would put in the same category as our design and print services. The only reason a call center makes sense from our business is because of all the other things that we do. If we didn't have those things, we wouldn't be in the call center business and we wouldn't be profitable in the call center business either by working with a bunch of clients that all have in common.

The same request, I guess.

Same kind of request, same kind of business model. So we, we deal with an inspector in Charleston, South Carolina who has the same package of warranties that sewer guard coverage, the five year roof leak protection, all the things that you're experiencing here in Indianapolis, we have somebody in Charleston doing that as well. When we take both companies and we say, all right, you answer your phones most of the time, but we'll take your rollover calls so that you don't miss one. It's so that we can make sure that they're getting more business. So it's a support of our clients thing, but it's also really Easy for us to do because we only have to teach the folks on the phone one message. They have one script for how to deal with client requests for what makes us different as a home inspection company. It's one script, so we're able to do it very efficiently and keep a call center alive here in the US and they are getting more difficult to run for most. Again, it wouldn't make sense for us if it wasn't a support of our core business.

Interesting.

And support of our clients.

Did you ever make a big mistake with the call center?

Oh, man, so many. It took me 10 years to find a manager that was decent. And so many of our clients lived through that pain.

Yes.

I mean, we did fine. You know, the whole time. People would still rather their phones be answered than not. Sure. They'd rather get in order than not. But the training level, the responsiveness from those managers, we didn't get that really down until a guy named Aaron hall took over the call center.

Okay.

He actually came from sales department. We sell an abundant number of home alarm systems. And so he moved from that department over to run the call center and really got it into shape and then put in place management, and then he went on to another department. There you go.

So the biggest mistake is hiring the wrong person to run your call center, and the biggest success is finding the right person to run your call center.

Pretty much, yeah. Pretty much.

Pretty easy advice. So we're going to go ahead and conclude our gap. Nathan, you've been great. I appreciate all the insight, all the lessons. I think you've given people a lot to think about. But as we do on every podcast, we're going to do this thing called knowledge through the decades.

Okay.

I know this could be maybe terribly hard for you, but you know what? We can edit it.

Is it a decade that I was alive?

So here's the thing. We just want you to speak from your head, from your heart, off the top. And what we do is we ask what the attitude lesson is from zero. From birth, which you may or may not remember. But what is the attitude lesson of birth? Or beginning. Get out of there, baby. That's good. We haven't had that answer. I actually kind of like that one.

What's your escape plan?

What is your escape plan? I love that. You know what? I'm going to let that stand because that possibly is one of the better answers we've ever had when it comes to the attitude lesson of birth. Get out of there. And what is your escape plan?

All right, so what's the next.

So that's good. So, gappers, I want you to just reflect and think about this, because this is so good. What is it that you need to get out of? What is it that you need to escape from? We've asked several great questions during this podcast, but perhaps this might actually be one of the best ones. What's holding you back? What's holding you down?

It's a uterus.

It's a uterus.

Uterine wall. It's between. Between you and the rest of the world.

All right, I like it. Jason's laughing. I love this. All right, so the next thing is 10 years old. I want you to think about when you were 10, and what was the attitude lesson for you at 10? Maybe, you know. Well, I don't know. I think you can probably come up with it. You were third or fourth grade. What do you remember about it that maybe shaped you? Was there a story, an incident, whatever?

Well, that was when I moved. I moved from Carmel to Noblesville. So there was certainly a forced learning, a new place, forced making new friends, etc.

Right.

So I would say at 10, being. Being open to the possibilities.

Yeah. The attitude lesson. And that's a lot for a young guy.

Right.

When you think about being 10 and being forced to move, being displaced from comfort into. From certainty to uncertainty, what's your advice for people? Because, you know, there's people that are 40 that are changing careers, changing jobs. What's the best way to cope with moving from certainty to uncertainty or going somewhere that you haven't been before? What would your advice be?

Well, just remember that everybody there, they're largely locals. Right. Most people don't move. Most people don't go from one environment to another.

Right.

So when you're the one that. That has been displaced, well, you know, all eyes are on you, so take advantage of that and go with it.

Interesting. All right, so then you turn 20. You're two years into the entrepreneurial game.

Right.

I think you started your business at 18, if I remember.

Took it over, but yes.

Okay, took it over. So what's your attitude lesson for the people when you were 20?

Look around you. There are a lot of idiots, and you don't want to be one of them.

I love it.

So I didn't wear jeans until I was 26. I didn't enjoy a cocktail until I was probably 25 or 20. 26.

Wow.

And then it was like, you know, tonic and vodka tonic or something. You know, just a little play drink. Like a kitty drink.

Right?

Yeah, right. But it was because I was always working, right. You know, I wasn't hanging out with people and you know, like, I never did beer pong. It looks like a stupid game to me.

Right.

But people seem to enjoy it. I feel like they don't have a lot going on in their lives.

Right.

Anyway, so stay away from that focus because what you do from 20 to 30, love this, is going to that the other that nobody else is willing to do, you know, that's gonna have a huge return for you. And you know, so if you're listening to this and you're like 40 and you're just now figuring it out, that sucks.

Sorry.

I don't know how you catch up. You just don't. You just don't buy a lottery ticket. It might work out.

And man, what an important lesson that is because we have millennials that are listening to it. Thank God my sons and my daughter pushed this out to their group. But the gains from 20 to 30, if you're focused, if you stay away from the idiots, are the returns are incredible. As I was. As you were. We started, we Both started at 18, 19, 20, and I think about what I did in that decade and I probably played a lot more than you, but gosh, I'm still reaping rewards 30 years later from that. So, guys, if you're in your 20s, get off your ass and get going. Me and Nathan did it and you can too.

Well, and if you look serious from 20 to 30, not just look serious. If you are serious and you deliver the kind of people that you're going to be hanging out with, the kind of people that are to going, are going to be relying on, you are people that are 10 and 15 years older than you, that have money. They're not kids that just graduated from college, have nothing. And those are going to become long term business relationships. Those people have arrived and they have a business that works. They can pay their bills. They're only going to get bigger and better with time. So there are people that I met at when they were 35 that today are 50, and they're the big dogs in their market. They're doing millions and millions of dollars as local service companies and they still know who they can rely on.

You're killing it. You're just killing knowledge through the decades. I love this. Speaking of people who are big dogs now or what, I know you've hired famous people. I know that you probably run around some. Who's like the most famous person you met? Was there a lesson learned or who was the person? You were in awe. Just looking for a story of where you're like, God dang, I can't believe I just freaking interacted with this person.

By the way, was the hockey player you mentioned earlier? Were you trying to say Lemieux?

No, it wasn't Martin Lemieux. I forget. Jason can Google it.

Who invented the hockey mask?

Right there. Jock plant. There you go. I love you, Jason. Very good. 1959. Invented it in 1959, mind you, that hockey, I believe, started, like, in 1900. So for 60 years, people were getting smacked in the face with a hockey puck. Right. This is Jeffrey Gittermer's thing that he likes to talk about. Ladies and gentlemen, there are obvious things going on in our life and in our world and in our markets today. All we need to do is find the obvious, look around, find the obvious, capitalize on it. And that's what Jock did. He said, jock plumped a goalie mask. What a novel idea. I won't get smacked in my face anymore and break my nose. Jason, awesome job on the production end. All right, let's go to 30.

Sure.

Where were you at 30? Do you remember your 30th birthday? And what was the attitude lesson for you at 30?

I don't do birthdays, so. No, there was no.

Every time we ask you questions, you always come up with answers that I never hear, so that's good. All right, cool. You don't do birthdays, but 30, what was your.

I don't do dates in general. I know what's happening in the next two days, and that's it. Anything beyond that has to be like, maybe we're planning an event or whatnot. But I don't see it on the schedule until, you know, really nearby. And I certainly do not want my birthday on there. One time somebody had a birthday, you know, twice. Twice somebody had a birthday party for me. I said, no, no, it's just awkward. You know, it's like. It's like you feel like a cancer patient.

Yeah.

You know, like, I don't want that. That, like, they're bringing you gifts, like, oh, sorry, you're older. You're almost dead now. No, don't do that.

All right, well, let's get.

So. So at 30, I think there was.

Think about. Yeah, just think about, you know what?

In. In. In your 30s, if. If you did, you know, if you procreated.

Right.

I'd say your mindset shifts a lot in your 30s, because now your kids, they're not just, you know, cute kids. Yeah, you know, they're accomplishing things, and so now you get to start living your life through them a little bit.

Yeah, that's cool. So procreation's a great attitude lesson for parents out there. I met your two sons. Great guys. Really enjoyed meeting them. They're very, very cool.

So from like 30 to 35, maybe even 40, depending on when you started down that path, they go from cute to okay, these are your kids. This is the future. And then at some point they get horrible. If they're boys and they're teenagers, I don't think there's an exception to that. I think I might have been a little bit of one, but you'd have to ask my parents.

I think Patty would definitely say that would be the case. But she loved you, and that's what love's all about. So now I know you're not 50.

No.

But you might be knocking on the door, I'm 40. You are 40. So good. We can finish it up with 40. Tell us what the attitude lesson is of your now. Right, you're 40. What's the attitude lesson of the present? And what's your hope? What advice will you give the people that are sitting there that have been kind enough to listen to us for the past 43 minutes? What's the message you want to give to the people about attitude lesson of 40 and about hope for the future and. And what they can learn from P. Nathan Thornberry.

At 40, you're at an intersection where there are people 20 years older than you that you can see yourself as. And there are 20 people 20 years younger than you that you can see yourself as.

Wow.

Right? I mean, this is the time where you can connect with those two probably better than any other time in your life.

Awesome. Yeah, that's good. Any message of hope or anything, just personal thing that you'd want to talk to the person on the other end of the speaker. When it comes to attitude or your belief in them or just any message, like, here's what I'd want to know. In times of great stress and in times of decision making, what great decision when big decisions need to be made, do you ask yourself a question, and what is it?

What does the other person think? What do they perceive? I mean, that makes a difference. I like it. So, like, for instance, in your mission, and we kind of start with the mission of pay for shit like get a nice car or get a house or whatever, then your mission turns into paying for your kids stuff. Maybe your mission, if you're an entrepreneur, is to start a business, to own something, to have something that is truly yours. Then it turns into the mission of hiring and employing people and providing for them. Then maybe your mission turns into moving a market or influencing some things. Hopefully you get to that point because you're lucky Then.

Or changing the world one attitude at a time, which is what we're doing. I want to thank you, Nathan Thornberry, for helping me and our Gappers and Jason change the world one attitude at a time. This was fun. I hope you had a good time.

Indeed.

Fantastic. All right, guys. Well, P. Nathan Thorn Bear. You need to check him out. Follow him on Twitter. What's your Twitter handle?

Oh, I don't know.

Okay, well, you can probably look him up. You got some pretty funny Twitter stuff. Oh, look, there he is right there.

There I am.

There he is. Is that your Twitter account?

No, this looks like Facebook.

Facebook, Cool. All right, we'll follow him. If you are looking for a job, Nathan's a pretty damn good employer. Go to Residential warranty services. They are looking for talented people. Rwscareers.com rwscareers.com let's get some guys with some attitude knocking on his door. Let's get him some unreal employees. If you're looking for a job, guys, I'm telling you, all you got to do is look them up. This is Glenn Bill signing off on the Get Attitude podcast. This podcast is a part of the C Suite radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit C suiteradio. Com.