Building a Culture That Actually Drives Growth, Retention, and Profitability

cool, like anything that you have coming out or anything you want me to like tee you up?

I just, you know, if you'll tell them that I'm at vibrantculture.com and that I have a podcast as well, I'm going to do that for you as well. And then let them know that, you know, what I mean? I don't know if— as far as a bio. So I started in the restaurant business, which is a lot like home services business as far as I'm concerned. It's a hustle, 24/7 thing. And then I got into property management. So I understand fixing houses and apartments. I totally get it. I did it for 14 years. So, so, you know, I just— it's— I think I can relate. So I think maybe sometimes somebody might look at a guest like me and go, what does she know? Yeah. Okay.

Be sure to hit on that right away. So it's good.

Okay.

All right. I'm going to count us down. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Welcome back to the show. I'm your host, Phil Risher. And on today's episode, we're talking about Building a Culture That Actually Drives Growth, Retention, and Profitability with Nicole Greer. Thanks so much for joining us today, Nicole.

Oh, I'm so glad to be here, Phil. Thanks for the invitation.

Yeah, for sure. You have a really unique background. We were just talking a little bit before the show, and I'm excited because it's going to resonate significantly with the home service space and something that I care a lot about, which is culture. So with that, Nicole, could you give us a quick, you know, 2-minute bio, how you got here, what you do?

Yeah, absolutely. So I have a little company called Build a Vibrant Culture, and what I do is I help leaders get mind wrapped around the fact that the people do the work. We have work that needs to be done inside of organizations, but you've got to work on the people in order to work on the business. So I help everybody get lit. So what that means is that I want people to lead with clarity, I want them to integrate integrity, and I want them to transform what is ordinary into the extraordinary. That'll get you the profitability, the growth, and the retention that you're looking for.

I love it. So culture in the home service space is like, hey, I bring donuts and get coffee, you know, with my guys in the morning and they clock in. I kind of razz them a little bit and joke with them and then they're off to their routes or something along those lines.

Right, right.

So as far as like how you work with companies, you mentioned like integrity, ordinary, extraordinary. Like what are some of those core principles that you would work with a company to be like, hey, you need to make sure this is in line to build a good culture, I guess.

Okay. Well, I do believe in donuts and I do believe in a good laugh in the morning. So I think we're off to, we're off to a good start. So it's not like what you're doing is wrong or something, right? We just want to add to it. So here, here's what I think about a business that's profitable is that we want to have performance coming out of our people. And so in order to have performance coming out of our people, we have to lead with clarity, like I said. So that means that everybody that works for me knows exactly how their position funnels into what we're trying to achieve. I'm also a big believer, if we're going to talk about profitability, in open book management, meaning that people understand how the money works in this business. You don't have to reveal everything, like, you know, everybody's salaries or something, even though that's a whole thing out there right now is transparency in salaries. But we want to show people like, hey, here's how much money we brought in this month. Here were our expenses and here is our NOI or our net operating income. And then here's what I'm doing with that money. You know, I'm hiring people, I'm buying new trucks, I'm getting us all new, you know, bandsaws or whatever we need to buy. And so people really start to understand, whoa, this is a business, it's about money, and my leader knows what he or she is doing in terms of, you know, costing things out and getting things going the right way. And everybody, I think at some level understands if the company doesn't make money, None of us are going to get a paycheck on Friday. So this transparency on how the money works. And here's what I know. All the people that ever worked for me, when they were given a budget and they made choices, they made better choices instead of like, you know, we're rolling in the dough around here. You know, like they knew we weren't rolling in the dough. So I think, I think that's a big, big part of it. So that's what I mean with lead by clarity. The other thing is too, it's like, is the leader needs to make up a story about the future. And the thing about being on entrepreneurial, and we all know this, is you have to make it up. You have to make up the future. We have to make it up and make it happen. Like, that's a— I'm gonna get t-shirts made that say, make it up and make it happen. Yeah. And, and so you have to kind of cast a vision for people. I feel like, you know, people think, oh, well, you know, right now I'm riding alongside Phil Risher in the truck and we're going to fix the air conditioning unit, or, you know, go install the lighting in this house or whatever we're doing today. But someday I'm gonna get my own truck and I'm gonna have a guy in the seat next to me or a gal in the seat next to me. And we're, we're gonna go out and, you know, I'll make more money. I can support my family. I can send my kids to college. So people want to know there's a bigger, better, brighter future. And so leaders have to cast that vision. So really, lead with clarity is all about that piece.

I love it. So I was at a $3 million home service business and I can already hear the owner saying, Are you kidding me? I'm not gonna tell them that we did $300,000 last month because they're gonna come to me and say that $2 raise that I want is nothing. We made $300,000. And I'm not saying that's what you're saying, but how do you build that culture so that way when you share those things, it's not just dropping a bomb on the people, but they actually like, you know, start in the entire culture of like, you, you get what I'm saying, right?

I do. I do. And that is the number one concern of almost every leader when I talk about open book management.

Exactly.

Is that like, you know, wait, they're gonna all be coming to me for a raise. So One of the other things about leading with clarity is that along my journey, I was always operations. I was always doing those kind of things. But in the businesses I was in, I was in the restaurant business and I was in the property management business. So property management, I can relate to all the things that you all do because I used to call y'all and say, come fix the air conditioner, come work on the pool, come do, you know, all the things, right? And here is the thing, we have to get very dialed in on what is the work worth, what is the value of the job or the position that the person holds. And so, uh, as I was in the business, I always— everybody was like, get Nicole to do the HR stuff because she's the chick, she's the girl, so let her do that. And that was fine. I learned so much about human resources. And so one of the things that we need to realize is that certain positions, um, pay a certain amount, right? So we categorize, um, and we put into place, like, if you do this role This is the range. Okay, if you want to make more than what's in this range, you have to have more competencies. And so that is one of the things that you like— you have to hold yourself up on a Saturday morning with a big pot of coffee, you know, next to a warm fireplace or something, or if it's summer, outside on the back deck. And you've got to think about like, what is this job worth? And if I wanted to pay them $2 more an hour, What would I ask them to do? So I don't ever believe in just giving people raises because, you know, I, you know, they're saying I deserve it or whatever. In fact, I'll share this. If somebody comes to you and says, I want a raise, I think our natural reaction is like, oh, this is going to cost me. But instead, I want you to think like this. You do? Fantastic. Let's see what else I can have you do on top of what you're already doing that justifies me giving you $2 more an hour because I've got this whole plate of stuff I have to do myself. What would you like that's on my plate?

I love it, right?

And you do that and then you are more valuable to me. But if we say, you know, this is how much a level 1, um, electrician, low voltage, whatever makes No, to go to the next level, you got to go to school. You got to learn to do the other side of the electrician stuff, right? You've got to manage people. You know, you've got to be in charge of inventory. I mean, just whatever it is. But yeah, I'm all about— I mean, I would love to give you a raise if you want to work harder. Hallelujah. Let's do it.

Yeah. I think a big thing from what I'm hearing from you is like the leading with clarity. It's not just clarity of like, hey guys, here's our numbers. It's like from the start and it's like Here's a roadmap to growth inside of our company. The first customer service representative is gonna make anywhere from $18 to $22 an hour. There might be some performance pay where you can make a little bit more, but then once you do this for a couple years, then you can move up to this. And like having that clarity of role position inside of the company of where you're actually going.

Yes.

When you make it up kind of, but then you make it happen with them along the way.

Oh yes.

Kind of all builds into the culture of what you're saying, start to finish, I would imagine.

Yes, absolutely. And, and when I say a vibrant culture, what I mean is like people— that's the lit thing, right? Like, they are lit. They're like, I know what we're doing. I know how to make this place more profitable. I know that my leader will reward me if we become more profitable, um, and, uh, there will be a bigger, better future for all of us. You know, like, we could take our, um, HVAC company, and we're only in— I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina, so we're only in Charlotte, North Carolina. But buddy, we're going to Winston-Salem, Greensboro next. And he's going to rent some building and put me in there. I'm going to start hiring people. Wow. If you're doing that, you are so valuable, valuable to me. Of course I'm paying you more money to do that. Right? So it, it's the scaling that we're talking about. So, you know, if you, anything you ever read about businesses, like you got to scale and there's a couple of places you can scale. One place is on your products. One place is on your services. And the most important thing you can scale are your humans. Better humans, better products, better services, better everything. It's all linchpin is the, is the human part of it. Yeah.

Yeah. I love that. Um, you mentioned about integrity in general, and I think integrity—

Oh, I love talking about this.

You know, I would say integrity is maybe like doing what you, doing what you say you're going to do. And following through, but maybe there's some other layers to integrity inside of a leadership role. What, what does that look like that you coach people?

Yeah. So, you know, Phil, integrity is the weirdest thing. Every human I talk to, you know, like if I, if I had an audience of 80,000 people and I said, are you all men and women of integrity? All of them would be like, yes, I am. You know? And so like, hey everybody, we're delusional. Yeah, don't— and don't get offended. Don't turn off the podcast because here's the truth about integrity. I hate to tell you, it's true about Nicole Greer. Integrity comes and it goes. All right. So one day I'm on my game. I'm in a good mood. I'm happy. I'm working hard. I'm getting stuff done. I'm kind to everybody I meet. I say— do what I say I'm going to do. And I do the right thing when nobody's looking. But there are other days that I am tired.

Yeah.

I, I'm mad and I'm sad and I'm unglad and, you know, all these other things.

You just got a 1-star review. Your employee wrecked the truck and you're like, leave me alone.

Right, right. So we're not whole all the time. We're, we're seriously flawed, right? We're humans. Okay. Now I have this tool that I use with so many organizations and it so helps people to get their head in the game around This very important question, Phil. So I'm gonna— let me go slow because I love this question. I want everybody to capture it. There's this question every human inside every organization needs to ask, most importantly the leader, because the leader must lead by example. But here's the question: what is it like to experience you? Okay, so the leader has to go first. They have, you know, the experience of the leader has to be fantastic. And, you know, if you just think back, like, in your career, all the all the jobs you have. I don't know.

I don't know.

What was your first job, Phil?

I worked at Ruby Tuesday's restaurant.

Oh my God, I love that about you. All right, everybody should have to do the restaurant business, in my opinion, right? So I worked, I worked at the Baskin-Robbins. Oh yes, I worked at the Burger King. I worked at the Shoney's, you know, and then I worked at the illustrious Applebee's. Okay, so I worked at all of these places. And you know what I learned, like, very young, and I bet you, you learned this too, Phil, because you and I have like kind of the same, like, good energy, like, let's do this thing. Uh, so the restaurant business teaches you to hustle and teaches you to be nice. Yeah, be nice and you'll get tips.

You get tips even if, even if the food doesn't come out on time. If you're just a nice, pleasant person and you just tell them like, hey, this is what's going on, they'll be like, oh, that's a nice guy.

Yeah, that's right. And they will tip you. And so I was like, man, all I have to do is be nice to these people and bring them extra butter and crackers or whatever the stuff is, and they're going to give me, you know, instead of a $5 bill, they're going to give me $8 or whatever it was. So what is it like to experience you? So you have to be what I call user-friendly in the workplace. And we've all worked for a leader that we're like, what a jerk. And then we've all worked for somebody that we would work our butts off for. And so when I think about building a vibrant culture, the leader really needs to get their head wrapped around that. Question, and they have to understand there's this thing inside of humans, and it's about integrity, called discretionary effort. Okay, so Nicole Greer goes to work, she works for Phil, and she does not like working for Phil. Phil is condescending, he's short, he's quick, and he picks on her every morning in the staff team meeting, even though he gives her a donut. But like, she's a little bit of a target. So she goes to work because she's got 2 kids to feed, um, and so she's going to work. Um, so she's out on the job and like there's this little weird thing in Nicole Greer's head where she's like, I'm gonna do the job but I ain't doing nothing extra because I think Phil is a jerk. Now if I adore Phil and he is like talking to me every morning, he's like, okay, I want you to learn to do this and I want to help you do that and I want you to do this and how are your kids by the way? And so he asks me all these questions. I'm out on the job and there's a little something extra I can do. I'm doing it.

Yeah.

That's the extra. Because people can't— people are like, I give 110%. It's like, you can't even give that. You don't have it to give. But we run around maybe giving 85%, 80%. Some of them, some people that work for us give 60%. I mean, but I'll give you 100%, you know? So like you go to somebody's home, let's say you go to somebody's home and they're like me. They're 59 years old, and you're there to fix the HVAC, but she says, "You two strong men are here at my house. Could you move this dresser to the other wall in my master bedroom real quick?" And they could say, "No, ma'am, we can't do that." Or they go, "Yes, of course. Don't tell anybody because we're not supposed to, but we're moving the dresser." Okay, so they move the dresser to the other wall, you know, and she becomes a raving fan in her cul-de-sac to everybody about your services. You know what I mean? So, you know, having people fully bring themselves to the work is what I, what I mean by integrity. And then I want to say one more thing about that, if that's okay with you.

Yeah, yeah, please.

Okay, so, um, the, the, the tool that I have that I mentioned earlier is this thing called the TILT, uh, the True TILT Profile. Okay, so it's a profile. Maybe many of you listening have taken one of these profiles in your life before, like a Myers-Briggs or a DISC or the animals or the colors or the jewels or the— I mean, there's 100,000 of them out there. Yeah, so I'm certified in almost all of them, but the one that I love is the True Tilt Profile. Let me tell you why. Because it tells you your little style, and there's usually 4 styles of humans, okay? Like, this goes all the way back to the days of Plato, right? So one style is really driven, strong-minded, get-er-done, results-oriented person, okay? There's usually one that is more quiet, more conscientious, not too flashy, a little bit more moderate-paced, but gets it done. And buddy, it'll be done right. Okay, then you have a third one who is like sweet, supportive, does anything you ask them to, is very into relationships and will make choices based on relationships, not tasks. And then you have a fourth one who's like me, who is got a lot of words, likes to lead, likes to, likes to tell stories, you know, like, likes to, uh, new— do the new thing. Somebody who's innovative, loves sales, loves marketing. You know, you've got 4 styles. Okay, so that's wonderful to learn your style, um, and your style has positives and your style has negatives. So that's the first learning thing, right? So about the integrity of a human, like, don't do the ugly part of your personality, do the good part of your person. Yeah, that's the lesson. Okay. Now you're in integrity. The second part of it though is that the TILT model gives you 48— that's so many— and people are like, Nicole, 48? And it's like, I know it's a lot, but 48 commendable character traits that you can adopt because personality is hardwired but character is developed. So a company that wants to growth, profitability, and retention develops people of character. So I just got a quick story about a gentleman. Can I tell you about William? Okay, so there's this guy that was given to me— like, I get these phone calls from HR directors like, we have a project for you, his name is William. And I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah, so anyway, so I— and I, I believe people can change. If you're a leader, if you're an HR professional, if you are a team lead, if you are a supervisor, You have to believe that you can change people. That's actually your job, is to develop people. So anyways, William, turns out he's a real piece of work, kind of mean-spirited, bullies people around the office. I mean, like, does this exist in your business? Take a survey in your brain right now. Uh, and so this person exists, and so they're like, you know, he's just— he, he does really good work, Nicole, he's a great technician, but he's a pain in the butt. Fix this pain in the butt part. Well, you know what they call that? Soft skills. So, uh, so I say, okay, so I sit down with— I sit down with William and I say to him, I say, William, my very first question for you in our coaching session is, what is it like to experience you? And you can't make this stuff up. He says, I don't really care what people think.

Yeah, of course.

I was—

I was literally— I have technicians that I know exactly like that. They do good work, but they complain to the customer service representatives. And this is like a very common thing. And they don't care. Because like, I do good work. And I take care of our customers. I don't care.

Right? Yeah. And so, so I said, so, you know, I didn't, I didn't take the bait. I said, I said, I said, really? What do you call a guy who doesn't care what other people think? And he says, I don't know, arrogant. And I said, yeah, I think you're right. I think you're arrogant.

Yeah.

And then I said to him, so how's that working for you, being arrogant? And he says, not too good. I'm sitting here talking to you. You know, so it's like you have to help people wake up. Like, why don't you just be nice and do good work? Like, what's the deal here? And so you have to have people explore that. And on the— on this 48 commendable traits, it— what it shows you is that the 48 beautiful traits in the middle, but when that trait is overdone or overused, it gets ugly. Now, but here's the other thing, because for those of us who have a little chutzpah and we're hustlers, when people go slow, we're like, what was— what's with these slow people? You know, then there's this thing where the trait is underdone. And so when I showed it to Philip, I said, well, here's the word arrogant, because like he nailed it. It was right there on my tilt factor sheet. It says arrogant. I said, dude, we need you to dial it back to this. And the word right here is assertive. Because here's what people do. Well, what do you want me to do? Be insecure? You want me to not—

it's just who I am. I can't change that.

Yeah. And I'm like, oh no, no, don't dial it back that far. Dial it right here. Because insecure is the word over here. And it's the same difference. Let's say we have somebody on our team. and it's really busy. And usually he is kind of the sidekick Robin person in the truck, you know, like Batman and Robin. He's Robin. And today it's really busy and we, you know, snowstorms coming through, nobody's heat's working, something like that. And, and so we say to Robin, hey Robin, we're gonna— I need you to get in the other van and I need you to go fix this. Oh, but I don't know how to do that by myself. How am I going to talk to the customer? And he's been riding around with Batman for 7 months and it's like 'Come on, Batman. Come on, Robin, you can do it,' you know. And so, and so, I don't know. And so you would sit down with him and talk to him about his character. But you say, 'Dude, you're hanging in insecure. I need you to pull it into assertive. Pull up some energy from your toenails today and let's be assertive. Smile at the customer. I know you know how to put the Freon in the machine. Let's go.' I love this, you know. So it's a vibrant culture. The, the thing you're doing is, is you're lighting up people's brains so that they can see how they show up and what they're doing. And long term, I think people really appreciate it. Do you, Phil, do you have a human in your life that said, Phil, I care about you deeply, you need to get it together?

Oh yeah.

And you were like, okay, my wife, my wife. There you go. Yeah, the best coach in the world is your spouse, right? You know, because they know all your ugly stuff. That's right. That's right.

I love it. So it sounds like what I'm hearing from you is if you were to get each team member some type of an assessment like this, then you could have one-to-one, you know, conversation with them, maybe weekly, monthly, biweekly, whatever makes sense for you. And then you could coach them to bring out the best of that character trait for them. Which is then going to allow them to build a relationship with you and say, wow, this person, Nicole, really cares so much about me that she wants me to be the best version of myself, and I'm going to go full force.

Absolutely. And, and here's the thing, you know, like, I don't know if this is running around in your, your neck of the woods, but all the, all the older people like me— so I can say that, okay, because I'm an older person, 59, uh, and so all the old people, and I get really irritated at them, I'm like, you need to knock it off. But the old people are like, you know, this young generation They're a real problem. You know, they're on their phones all the time. And I'm like looking over at my 61-year-old husband. Where's— what's he doing? He's like this, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah. They're, you know, and, and here's the thing. All of us were knuckleheads at one point.

Yeah.

I was a total knucklehead when I was 18 years old. Like I wanted to kiss boys and buy new shoes and hope I made my rent, you know, like I had to grow up.

Of course.

And so When we own a business, it's so dangerous. Like, this is totally out of integrity, is to look down on your people and say, these young guys, what a bunch of idiots, or whatever the people are saying. And no, no, no, no, these are your resources. You have to, you have to help them grow up. And, you know, not all of us had parents that, like, sat us down and said, don't do that. Here's why you don't do that. There are consequences to stupidity. You know, they didn't do that for us. And so congratulations, you just hired 3 people and they're 20.

Yeah.

And you're gonna build character in them just like you have character. But you don't, you don't come out of the womb with character. Somebody has to help you build it. Yeah, bottom line. So that's character and integrity. Go together. And the last thing about integrity is, is core values. And so I don't know if— yeah, I bet, I bet, I would bet, I would roll the dice that Phil talks about core values and mission statements and vision statements. But core values— okay, core values. I've got a, I've got a client up in Detroit, and he puts in fancy blind systems. You know, you walk in the room, you're like, blinds up. I mean, it's like very fancy, very fancy houses. His name's Navo Shuresh. And Navo has a core value, which I adore. I'm going to say a bad word, everybody, so cover your ears. His core value, one of his core values is get shit done. But it's so authentic to Navo, right? And so like they have shirts that say get sh and then like an asterisk and an exclamation point and a T, you know? And so they don't show that to the customer, but it's like underneath their nice uniform, you know? But But like, that's really true about him. He's like, just get it done. Quit complaining, quit dragging your feet. Let's go. So a sense of urgency is what we say underneath that core value, but it gets your attention.

Yeah. The biggest thing that landed with me with core values, I was working, we had 50, you know, 50 team members and it was, we were working with an EOS implementer and the woman's like, so what are your core values? Right. And like, and then we were like, ah, you know, and she's like, listen, Even if you don't have words for your core values, your company has core values.

That's right.

And people think that they're all foo-foo, but you, you have core values inside of your company, whether you label them or not. And then it's like, well, what are you actually building with your core values? And that is gonna lead all the way to leading with clarity, making sure that, yeah, all the stuff. And it, I think people just say, oh, core values is foo-foo. It's not. It's like you actually have them in your business already.

Right. And, and the thing— and what— so why have them? Why call them out if they're there already? Like, that— what— that's— there's that too, you know. Because, because, because. This is what you hold people accountable to, right? And so, you know, here, that's the other thing. Accountability is part of integrity.

The hardest thing when it comes to accountability is making sure that your guys are actually doing this stuff. They go out on the job site, they come back. So, like, how do you coach someone on how to keep people accountable?

Yeah, so I have a little formula for that and I'm going to share it with you. It is 3 sentences, so get your pens at the ready. Okay, so the first sentence is like if Phil is my leader and he's sending me out in the truck to go get something done today, he says, Nicole, will you go to the Browns' house and take care of their air conditioning system or their lighting system or whatever? And here's what most people say to their leader: Yeah, no problem. And we let them leave.

Yeah.

Okay. And so you have to slow your jets a second. And so the first question that you ask is, what do you think you will do at the Browns' house? Okay. Or what process will you be doing? Or how will you go about looking at their issue? Right? Because I don't know, I've never fixed an HVAC unit before, but I've had a broken one many times in my lifetime. And there could be several things wrong, you know. And so If I work for Phil, I would say, well, Phil, first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to make sure that, you know, I tell, you know, Miss Brown exactly what I'm up to. I'll greet her at the door and then I'm going to go outside and I'm going to run through our 15-point checklist or whatever our thing is that we have, right? And then I'm going to let you know that I have arrived by sending the text or updating our app or however it all works. And I'm going to take really good care of Mrs. Brown and I'm going to get her fixed if we have the part on the truck or whatever, right? So you're thinking, Nicole, do I really have to go through that with everybody every time? Well, the answer is only if you want to be clear about the standards that you have set, right? And if you've got somebody that's been with you 20 years and they train everybody else, maybe they say no problem and you let them go. But like somebody who's been with you less than 6 months and you, you read the work ticket or the service ticket, however it all works in your business, and you think this is a hairy one. I better slow down and ask him what he's going— or her what she's going to do. So it's a lot about what are you going to do. And, and here's the other thing, if you send somebody out in the truck for the day, um, my, my experience again has been that people go to somewhere at 8 o'clock, somewhere at 11 o'clock, somewhere at 2 o'clock, and somewhere at 4 o'clock. And so, you know, you're running through with them how are you going to go throughout your day, and it's a coaching moment. It's not— some people are like, that sounds like micromanaging, but it's not. It's just like, I'm trying to set expectations with this person about what's going to happen. Plus, if I got a phone call from Mrs. Brown at 2 o'clock, then I kind of have an idea already of what I sent Nicole out to do. All right, so the second question is, when are you going to do it? So again, putting your day in order, using your time management skills, you know, communicating about how you're going to lay out your route or your day. Um, and so I'm going to get it done by 2 o'clock today. She's going to be third on the list. Okay, perfect. And then here's the thing, how will I know it's done? How will I know it's done? Okay, and so I don't know about anybody listening to this, this podcast, but I worry about stuff until I know it's done. Even if I have a highly capable person on the job, I'm just like, I wonder if that got done. Mrs. Brown was, you know, she was mad when she called in here, or she was freezing, or whatever her deal was. So we want to make sure. So what are you going to do? When are you going to do it? And how will I know it's done? Now, software, a lot of our software apps and things that we use will help us kind of keep that organized. But once something kind of falls out of the norm, you know, for example, I'll take— this just happened, Phil, last time we talked. I was— I got my hair done. Doesn't it look nice? Everybody look at how nice my hair looks on YouTube. But anyway, so I got my hair done by Megan, and Megan, the gal that does my hair, told me that her HVAC company had been out to her house 4 times and it was like 20 degrees outside and it was still not fixed. And I said, well, what are they going to do for you? She goes, I have no idea. They say there's a part on order. I said, when did they say the part was on order? And she said, oh, it's supposed— it was supposed to come in today. And it's like 2 o'clock and nobody's called her yet. Right. So the accountability is also so that you can follow through on your accountability to the client. Because if I know what you're going to do, when you're going to do it, and how will I know it's done? Because she's at work. She doesn't know if she's going to be warm tonight or not, right? So it kind of moves through the whole process. So that's my little accountability formula for you.

Yeah, I love it. At my home service business, we had this exact issue, which is like, if you go over the time allotted, like an 11 o'clock slot and you go over, well, where's the accountability? If you're not going to show up to your job at 2 o'clock, is that on the CSR to call them or is that on the technician to communicate this and making sure you have a process? And then this was a big one. Let's say something goes wrong on the job. You mess up the paint, you step through the ceiling, whatever. What happens? Who's accountable for that? Like, do we all freak out and call the owner or do we have a system? Do we have a vendor list that we call to get people in here? It's a whole big mess. But I think having the conversation, like we had guys that were there for 20 years and like it's still, they didn't have the accountability piece of like those things that I just mentioned and plus more. So I love those questions because it at least puts the reframe back on them to figure out what the answer is. And holding them accountable.

Oh, I love what you said. Yeah, because see, I'm, I'm not micromanaging. I'm asking you basically, do you know what you're about to do? Or are you going to go out there and wing it today? You know, because we get kind of, I don't know, apathetic or like easygoing about things. You know, I interview a lot of people, Phil, and if I ask somebody a question, I say, tell, you know, tell me all about yourself. They say, I'm so easygoing. I'm like, oh, you can't work here. We're not easygoing. We're hardgoing. We get her done. We make stuff happen, you know. So we can't have this like, let's just let it unfold kind of mentality. Let's think about everything that could go wrong and have a process in place for it. Yeah. Yeah.

I love it. What are some other things from like building a culture in the home service space that you would say is like pretty crucial?

Yeah. Well, I just want to mention I have this methodology that I want all of your, your business owners to think about. It's called Shine. And, you know, of course I'm all about building a vibrant culture. And what does that mean again? It means like people have a light bulb over their head. Their thinking. See, you, you as the business owner, you can't do all the thinking. You need a team of people who are like, think for me, help me think about what we're doing here, right? So that's what that means, right? Okay, so we have a light bulb over our head. And so how do you get somebody lit? How do you get that light bulb on? So there's 5 things that you want to think about with every human on their team, on the team. One is you want your humans, your human resources, to say What's up with me? What kind of employee am I? And here's the most important thing, especially in such a high customer touch business. Most of these businesses are that are on, they're listening to this podcast. And here's the, here's the, here's the very most important question. I mean, I mean, just think of every human on planet Earth thought about this question every morning when they got in the mirror. What is it like to experience me? That is a really good question. You know, are you user-friendly or are you not user-friendly? You know what I mean? That's the end of the— you know, that's really what I'm trying to say right there. Um, you know, and some people, Phil, will be like, I don't really care what people think. Well, you can't be in service industry if you don't care what people think. That's the whole point, is we're trying to deliver amazing customer service and actually fix all the things we fixed, right? So, so self-assessment. So you're always wanting people to turn the mirror inward. So a great thing to do at the end of the day is say, you know, how did your day go? How did you deliver customer service? How did you live up to our core values that we talked about, all that? Then the H is habit work, right? So habit work is the things I do without even thinking that are a sure thing in my day. And so here's the truth. We have good habits and we have bad habits, right? And so I don't, I suggest you don't work on the bad habits. You just keep putting good habits into your people. So one good habit is a smile. I think all service professionals should smile a lot, even on the phone.

Even on the phone.

Yeah. And can you hear a smile on the phone?

Yes.

Phil is correct. You can, you know, and so there's that. There's greeting the customer. There's checking in. There is, you know, I think overcommunicating is a fantastic thing to do. I'd rather them say you called me too much and checked on me than like I didn't hear from you.

Yes.

Right. So we could get into habits for days. But, but habit work is huge. And whatever you want done, habitually in your business, you need to write it down. These are the non-negotiable habits of how we do business. Okay, very end statement. Like, my pleasure at the Chick-fil-A. Nobody gets away with not saying my pleasure. It's a habit they have, like, put into those little guys and gals that get our chicken nuggets for us. All right, then there's integrity. We already talked about that. And then there's next right steps. So another thing I think is so important in running your business is finding people to do what is next in terms of their career path. So if you don't have— and so maybe we should do a podcast on career pathing one time, but we need a career path for everybody, you know, even the guys or gals that say, oh, I'm real happy right where I am, I don't want anything more. I don't ever settle for that because people are just in their own way. They don't know they can do more. You have to help them develop and grow. And, you know, before you know it, they're in charge of things and they're like, I don't even know how this happened. Nicole didn't let up and now I'm in charge. So, so next right step is really huge in a person's career. Okay. Because Phil is never going to relax and have a real vacation if he doesn't have humans that think like he thinks, has the right habits in place, who is user-friendly, who is in integrity and can do, know and do the things that Phil can do. Right? So you gotta grow your people. So what are the next, what's my next right step with Nicole? What's my next right step with Phil? What's my next right step with Bob and Susan and Karen and on. All right. And the last thing, is energy, right? So energy is a funny thing, Phil. People walk around claiming they don't have it all day long. I don't know if you've heard this. Oh man, I'm burned out. I'm tired. I'm worn out. I'm upset. I'm uptight. I'm out of sight. Whatever they're saying, you know, people complain about energy all the time. Okay, so one of the things you need to do in your culture is talk about energy. And, and kind of, we need to shut down the, I'm so tired, I'm so worn out, we're so busy. This language is an energy depleter just in and of itself. If people in your business are like, good morning, it's Monday, I can't wait till Friday, you've got a culture problem. You got a big culture problem. You need a hot damn, it's Monday kind of attitude. And, uh, and we're gonna kill it all the way to Friday and we're gonna celebrate, right? So we gotta switch the energy up now. Here's the weird thing. There is— there are 6 energies in a human. 6! We only talk about the Energy, which is the big capital E, but there are 6. And here's how you juice people. You get people juiced and excited and their light bulb on over their head. The first thing is intellectual energy. Do my people know what they need to know to be successful. So training, developing, reading articles, um, making people listen to podcasts like this, you know, you say this is required, you know, because see, here's the thing, sometimes we think, oh, they won't listen to that. Well, don't ask them if they want to, tell them they have to.

Yeah, yeah, like book of the month or podcast of the week or send it to them.

Yes, yeah, you say when you're driving around in your car and you're on my clock, I mean, don't say it like this, but you know, I want you to listen to this podcast.

I want you to be the best version of yourself, and I want you to get better. So listen to this because it's gonna—

yes, yes, yes, yes. So you can make it cultural that we learn. Okay, so like, you know, one thing I hate, Phil, is I go places and I'll have this room full of people, and I'll say, oh, what are you most looking forward to today during training? Oh, I don't know, it was mandatory. They told me I had to be here. You know, like, see, so somebody's messaging incorrectly before they even get to me. You know, it should be, I want I want the best version of you, and so I'm going to put you in this training class and I'll be calling you the day after to see what you learned, right? So intellectual, and you know, here's the thing, we wouldn't put people in a training class if we didn't think it would help them. Yeah, doing this as punishment, I mean, silly. All right, so there's intellectual energy. The next one is emotional energy. So emotional energy, geez, it's, it's, this one's important. This one is super duper important because how people feel Matters, you know. So I don't know about you, when I worked, uh, in all the different places where I was the employee and somebody else was the employer, I had people I loved working for and I had people— don't miss this word— I hated working for because they were knuckleheads. And so the leader has to not be a knucklehead, and, and the leader has to be somebody who's fantastic. And that takes me back to the S: what is it like to experience you as a leader? Right? So if, if we love you— I mean, I busted my hump for John Gray. He was the best leader I ever had in my whole life, and he would ask me to do stuff and I would just do it. I would just make rabbits come out of hats. It was crazy. All right, so there's, there's that. There's emotional energy. How do I feel? And so how can you make people feel good about their job? You can give them positive feedback. You can celebrate their wins. You can shout them out in a meeting. You can write them a handwritten note. You can call them on the phone at the end of the day. You can do all sorts of things that will blow their mind that don't cost you penny. All right, the next energy is spiritual. And you're like, Nicole, this is not church. I know, I know, but there's a spiritual energy inside of people. It could be religious, but here's the one I'm talking about. The one I'm talking about is where I'm like, oh my gosh, we're gonna win, we're gonna hit our KPIs, we're gonna get bonus this month, we're gonna make stuff happen, we are the champions, we've got Queen playing in the background. It's that energy. So the leader has to produce kind of this energy where like we're telling people we're winning. So there's a company here in North Carolina called Morris Jenkins. I don't know if anybody's familiar with Morris Jenkins, but they're HVAC. I think they actually do plumbing and electrical now. But I don't, I don't know these people, but I read the book by the owner. Okay, and so you should write a book. Because people will be impressed that their leader can write a book. But they wrote this book and they have the most amazing billboards all over Charlotte, and it's always about how Morris Jenkins is winning. Okay, and so notice their names, it's just two dudes' names. I don't know, Morris and Jenkins. But they have like signs with like, uh, like the poop emoji. Y'all know what I mean by the poop emoji? Okay, and underneath it'll say, you know, 14,333 poop emojis down the drain. Everything's flushed. We're winning. And then the next sign will talk about their Google, and then they'll have a picture of one of their technicians on the billboard, you know, that says, you know, with a big arrow that says winner, you know. So they're telling, they're telling everybody how they win.

Yeah.

And like, who doesn't, who doesn't want to be on the winning team? I mean, yeah. So it's all about like, we, we're winning. We're, we're, we're, we are one with God. Okay. We're awesome. All right, so there's spiritual energy. Then the next energy is physical, and this is a huge, huge deal. So, you know, if any of you all run a plumbing company, I know you are tired of the whole crack thing right now. Here's the thing. Do you know what I'm talking about? The crack thing?

Yeah, Phil Risher.

Yeah, right. Okay. Okay. So, so, you know, unfortunately that was in a sitcom like in 1970-something or something. I don't know. And it stuck. And I'm so sorry that it stuck. Talk, okay? But, uh, talking to your people about their physical energy in a wellness program is no joke, okay? Because here's the thing, I can't get under a sink to get somebody's diamond ring out of the, the trap if I can't get on the floor, right? I can't go out in the 90-degree heat and put Freon in the machine if I, you know, if I'm sweating bullets or whatever and I'm not in good health. So you have to, you have to intentionally, I mean with so much attention and intention, talk about taking care of their body. But I'm gonna tell you a quick story. So I have a guy and he works for a company and they, they x-ray food. It's the craziest business. They're looking for bones and particles and metal that came off a machine, but they're just trying to keep everybody safe. So they— so the guy that I'm talking about, he is big-time nutraceuticals, workout, weightlifting, drinking the water and whatever. So he only has a certain group of people on his team, but you know what he decided to do? He was going to have like this contest just in his area to see, you know, how much weight they could lose and how many steps they could take. And, you know, post what you ate today and I'll post what I ate today. And, and so this is just extra. Now he'll tell you that he did this for his own, own well-being. He's like, I needed an accountability partner, so I decided to take on my whole team. So like together they've lost lost all this weight. And like, they're all like crazy CrossFitters and P90Xers and whatever all the stuff is these days. I mean, they do it. And it's just this one little leader inside this organization. But here's what I know. All those people feel better and they love being together because they have something to hold. Talk about accountability. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, you need to award people for their most steps of the day or just You know, have some kind of contest about that. Okay, the last thing, um, so there's physical. Two more. Social. You need to do things for your, for your team that are social, but like, don't go have beer with everybody. I mean, I like beer. Do you like beer, Phil? I've had a beer before in my life. Yeah, I like beer, but I don't think you should drink with your people. I think you should have other friends that you have beers with. Don't have beers with your people.

Like escape room, or even like, uh, yeah, we used to do like a we get all their family together and have lunch and then soccer out in the field and like hang out, something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, something more wholesome and that kind of thing. Yeah, because once you open that door, there'll always be one person who can't walk through that door without coming out stumbling on the other side. It's just always one of the crowd, and hopefully it won't be you. All right, so, so you need social energy, but the other energy you need is you need to like get up with Phil and what he's doing, because he's creating this energy, this social energy around how to run your business better, right? You need to go to the events that Phil is having or showing or doing or whatever, um, because you need to be partnering with people who do the same thing that just aren't in your market, right? You got to know, like, what tips, tricks, and goodies do you have for me, right? So you need social energy. You need to be on LinkedIn. You need to be active on social media. You need to be, uh, at the Chamber of Commerce. You need, you need to— somebody in your, on your team's got to be out in your community They don't beat in the bushes, as we say. Okay, so you need social energy. And the last energy is the energy of money. Now, if you work on the other 5 energies, you will attract other people and their dollars like a mad— like a mad person. Yeah, because if we go back through the 5, it's like, well, I called Phil Risher's company and they really know what they're doing. There's intellectual energy. And they were so nice to me, they made me feel so good— emotional energy. Yeah. And I feel like I'm working with the number one whatever company, drywall company, painting company there is in my town, and I got a quality job. So now my spirit is lifted, right? And then physical— I didn't have to do a thing. They came when they told me to. I didn't have to get upset. I didn't have to yell, scream, or get mad on the phone with anybody. And then I've got social energy. So now I will always do business with Phil Risher. Yeah, he's my, he's my guy.

Yeah, left a 5-star review maybe.

What? Right, right. You know, and then, I mean, I don't know, I, I've had people come to my house and do a terrible job, and I've had people come to my house and blow my mind.

Oh yeah, you know. Oh yeah. And, and the guys, you can architect it. That's the beautiful thing, right? Not just a guy and a guy. You can build a whole customer experience journey.

Yes.

And when you invest in your people, it's just fuel on the fire on top.

That's right, that's right. My husband is a hunter, and if you go in his office, there are a lot of dead animals hanging on the wall. So I don't know if that's too much information, but I'll have the guys come to do whatever, and they'll go in my husband's office and they'll do like this. I just made my eyes really big, my mouth hang open, and I'm like, are you a hunter? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am, I am. I'm like, really? And so, you know, they gave me such good service. I go out to the magical freezer and I packed them up a little to-go box. I put elk in there and some reindeer— reindeer meat. Phil Risher, yeah. And I put it in there and I send them on their way, right? You know, so there's like a personal reward that can come too, right? You know, and load them up with some Cokes and out the door they go. And I mean, you know, all my, all my guys end up being my friends if they're good to me.

Yeah, they do a good job. I love it.

That's— those are the 6 energies. And I think if your people are energized Man, does that make life easier?

Yeah, I love it. So with your company, do you come in and coach these businesses on how to do this stuff, or do you work with their leadership team, or how does that work?

Yeah, all of those things. So I do basically 4 things for organizations. One is I help with recruiting. So if you have a need to recruit people, I've recruited everything from a CEO to truck drivers to customer service people on the phone, everything in between. And here's the truth. If you have better people to start with, it's easier to work. I mean, it's just that simple. So the, the magic of people is on the hiring side, right? And you— and there are good people out there. See, another cultural thing we do to ourselves, we say, oh, so hard to find people. People, oh, it's hard to find. Hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. And so now you've just convinced yourself it's hard when there are actually fantastic people out there. We just talked about Yeah, so they're out there for sure, and, and they're looking for an opportunity. And don't miss this, the ones that are really good, they're looking for that career path I mentioned earlier. Like, they want to get in with a company where they can, like, maybe, you know, if we're going to do HVAC but now we're going to start doing low voltage wiring or whatever, you know, and put sound systems in or however it all works these days, um, that guy, you know, he wants to get into a position where he might be leading that part that division of your company or something, right? So recruiting. So the other thing I think is really— that I do that I think is really important is I do an HR audit. So I can go through like your employee handbook, I can go through your processes, and I can help you get what you're missing in place. And if you have an HR person on your team, a generalist or a manager, I can help them and I can, I can help them and at the same time not make them feel upset about where things are, because I usually find a lot of things we need to tweak. But I can love on your person and we can love everything into a great place. So HR audit, then training. So I do training around emotional intelligence, change management, project management, the list goes on. And then the last thing I do is one-on-one coaching. So you, you yourself might need a one-on-one coach to talk about about your leadership style, your vision, your strategy, what you want to do. I know Phil does similar things. So, um, that's, that's how I help people. Yeah, I just want you to have what I call a vibrant culture and a vibrant business.

Yeah, I love it. Well, the things that you shared today, I, I mean, I do a lot of interviews. I haven't heard people talk through it like that. And I appreciate the home service-esque as well, because I think there's a lot of opportunity. Culture is not just hanging out, you know, at 6:30, joking with people as they clock in. There's so much more to it.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, I appreciate how you laid that out. So where should people go to learn more about your company or get in touch with you?

Yeah, they just go to www.vibrantculture.com and I'm right there. You can even call me. Here's my cell phone number: 704-502-4953. And I would love to talk to you if I can help you.

Yeah, well, thanks, Nicole. I appreciate you and, uh, appreciate you coming on the show, sharing all the stuff. Yeah, working with me on technical issues as That's for you.

Oh, no problem. This stuff happens.

Yeah. All right. Thanks so much.

See ya. Okay. Bye-bye.