From HVAC Beginnings to Strategic Leadership: Corey Brown’s Journey in Service Logic

This is this is straight straight straight out of Crumpton with your host Greg Crumpton. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of straight out of Crumpton. I'm Gabby Bar, and I'm here with Mr. Greg crumpton. Greg, how are you today? Gabby. I'm doing pretty darn good. I'm a little bit sluggish. I took the old blue shot yesterday. So I'm I'm a little I'm like eighty nine point nine percent. Okay. But, a little bit little bit sluggish, but, really excited to have our guest today. This dude, I've been following him for a while. And over the last, I guess, eighteen months. I've been working with him a little closer. But before that, I just knew of his, aura. So we're going to be able to dive into, the aura and the real version today. So looking forward to having some fun with this one. Fantastic. Well, Today, we are welcoming Corey Brown. He is the vice president of business development at ServiceLogic. Corey, how are you doing today? I'm very good, Gabby. Thank you very much. Happy to be here. Well, Corey, your your, your reputation precedes you in a lot of ways because was thinking about it this morning knowing that we were gonna be talking. And the first thing I re I know that I remember about you is I saw this video of you doing sales training. Either for our people or or you were doing it, your own gig. I can't remember, but I thought, man, what what a crazy guy? I gotta get to know him. So, it's good to be able to work with you a little closer the last couple of years since you moved over to the the corporate team. So before we get going too much, tell us a little bit about you and what you do and where you do it and why you do it. Sure. Yeah. So I don't know how far you want me to start back, but I currently, view business development for our our, specifically catering to our strategic accounts team. So, If people have many buildings across this great nation, we are here to help them pull all that together and execute services in a more effective, efficient, and cost effective manner. So that's what I'm doing today. For the past, I started in the HVAC business, with one of our subsidiaries Piedmont Service Group back then was Piedmont Air Conditioning back in two thousand and four. I entered the HVAC industry. And entered actually on the sales side, is where I kinda started. I've learned a little bit about HVAC over the years, but, I'm still probably most proficient in the in the business development arena. So I I so in North Carolina is where I am born and raised. I live in Greenville, North Carolina. And so I grew up working for Piedmont Service Group in the Greenville office. So I developed sales, and business development for their Eastern Region office out of Greenville So Piedmont, is chalked full of good people. And, I really enjoy the people that I get to interact with, they're Keith, Sammy. And and I think a guy who I'm I'm anxious to hear you talk about H. B. Oh, man. The reason that I'm in this business, actually so tell us a little bit about him and and kind of what he's meant to you and your journey and and -- Yeah. -- like You still work in that office. I think that's where you are now. I do. I do. What, the parts guy, Tony, just he hated climbing stairs. So they just moved my, you know, office to the upstairs. I have a window now, Greg. So that's good. That's good. So, yeah, H. B, when I graduated at Appalachian State University, I did not know really what I wanted to do. And so I got a job at, premier Ford in Rocky Mount at the time. And, I got a little bit of sales experience, in the car dealership world for about a year or so. Thought I was gonna move to Atlanta where I was dating a girl at the time to start my career and that didn't work out. So being back home, the girl, and so I went and get a little move in Atlanta with no one. So, came back home and was like, alright, I gotta start networking. I had quit that job and bought a little Volkswagen Jetta at twenty three years old or whatever it was. And I said, you know, I need to start networking. Let me let me, start calling some folks. And I knew a guy named h b as a family friend, my sister-in-law babysat his kids, She's from Greenville originally. And, I knew H. B only as we they came to the lake with us, you know, when I was in college or something. And I knew him as, like, knowing everybody, which he still people call him the mayor of Greenville, even though he's not the mayor. So I called him and said, each week, let me buy you lunch, brother. Right? I said, I know you know some people, and I'm looking for a job. So I put all my college paraphernalia in in my briefcase and and bought him lunch at the dragonfly restaurant, a little Thai place here in Greenville. I didn't know it, but he was interviewing me the whole time. And at the end, at the kind of end of our meeting, he goes, well, I don't know anybody, but I do have a job that I want you to apply for. Well, there you go. There you go. He had a a rep was gonna go be a stay at home mom. So, he was looking for someone in the coming So that that's how I entered the HVAC business, man. I didn't know what the V stood for in HVAC. I could smart enough to figure out the other ones, but I don't know if Google was around yet as prevalent it is today, so I had to tell me what the v's did for. Well, I I think that you know, you, like me, like so many others that we get to talk to have had these foundational people in their career, you know, that that got them started or maybe took them to the next level or or gave them gave them something. What is it about HP that makes them, a little bit special in your life as far as a, you know, somebody that helped you not only gave gave you a job I know he's kinda done some nurturing along the way as well. Oh, yeah. I mean h h b has been a mentor. You know, back when I started, I was the only sales rep in the office. He had had a couple come through before me that didn't do as stellar as he wanted them to. So he was he was hoping, you know, that this friendship, now business relationship was gonna pan out into something, and we just get along well. I mean, we think the same. We keep our cars clean. The same way. We're kinda organized in the same right. We both love lake Gas and and we're both people people. Right? We we love meeting new folks. So it was a lot of fun, because I didn't know HP all that well until I started working with him. I was a family friend, but until we started working together, that's when we really solidified our awesome friendship because we rode together. I bet he rode everywhere I went for the first six, eight months. And up until, you know, three years into my career, right? He was still I'd be like, hey, man. You wanna go on some first appointments today. Right? We're hitting Rocky Mount. Right? This is some of his old stomping grounds, and I'd take him with me. And we we worked I've gone to meetings with other people where we were stepping all over each other. Right? But me and HP tag teamed really well. He went on surveys with me. I remember, I I took a deal. I had a a friend who, was a senior partner in the EP Marts, right, in, in Eastern North Carolina. And he was like, EP Mart, that sounds familiar and he goes, are those gas stations? I said, yeah. Yeah. They are, but he owns fifteen of them. So we you know, this is three months of my career, we're surveying every little EP Mart in eastern North Carolina. And this is back when you could still smoke, you know, in, in facilities and it they were trained smoking and and, chain smoking in in the EP Mars. So we took a filter out of a unit on top of this place and HV is doing the work. Right? He's pulling out the figures. It looks like tar. Oh, that's the worst thing you've ever seen. You know? So we got a lot of a lot of fun going to business development, events, networking events, chamber commerce, stuff, the the stuff that we were doing to just try to grow the business. We we just had a lot of fun together. I don't think he knew what he was biting off as far as a personality, you know, in hiring me. And what effect I would have on the the common office environment the desk I'm sitting at right now was in his office. And when I got there, yeah, I was twenty three. I was a kid, dude. Right? So I like to care people still in my cribs. It was fun to jump out and make people jump. Well, we had done this about everybody else in the office, and nobody was brave enough to try to, you know, make H. B jump. And I he had walked down the hall. I went and climbed under his desk. This is the middle of the day. Two o'clock. I went and climbed under his desk and was gonna jump out at him when he came back in the office Well, I did exactly that, and he almost lost his mind. The problem was he was on the cell phone where the client That's composure under pressure. I've been getting fired several times because of a good friendship working with my my a manager. So how does that, you know, that was in o four. So nineteen years, you know, Yeah. How has that relationship, not only with HP, but maybe some other people. How is that like, more of three evolved over time. Are you do you see yourself now, Laura of a peer and and you're able to talk a peer to peer? Or how how does that work for you? Yeah. For me, it's probably not changed as much. Maybe it has for for him, now that he's not my direct manager. So it's probably he's probably not glad, you know, that he can have a little bit more peer to peer conversation with me as a as a manager and I'm one of his, you know, subordinates in the office and one of, you know, fifteen, twenty, thirty, you know, if you're talking to technicians as well, Well, you just you you can't open up all the books and open up all the conversations. And so we can certainly today have a little bit more, peer to peer conversation, then we probably, that he was probably able to converse with me in in the past eighteen years. How about that? I love that that different or or the different stages of relationship that you get to go through because I've done it with with several people over time and Yep. You know, like, to your point, maybe you're working for them, and then you're working with them, and then you're working alongside of them. And each one of those has its own little dynamic of of, you know, this, like, you know, I did that with my dad. You know, he was my He was my dad, my boss, my mentor, my instructor, my coworker, and then, it was just really fun to watch those even now to look back and think about the learning moments when you're moving through these these different phases of your relationship, of how cool that is to and, you know, you you get to these little crossroad moments. Like, I wouldn't have done that three years ago, but I can say that now. And that's that's pretty cool when you when you're able to do that. And and that's probably true in any relationship, but, you know, I, you know, thank god for, as I've done a lot of training now in in service logic and over the past, you know, nine, ten years, for our new new sales hires and folks that come in the business, one of the key takeaways that as a organization, I know Shane is is trying to, promote on his side with sales training and and making sure if salespeople get what they need HB willing to kinda go wherever, needed him to go and mentor me, in the beginning was super helpful. It, you know, three months into this gig, Greg, it was, it was actually this weekend, probably nineteen years ago, right before Labor Day weekend, I had called everyone I knew, and nobody went answer the phone. And I walked in his office, and I was like, dude, I I've been doing this for four months. I've called everybody. Nobody wants this. I should probably find something else to do. And he's like, dude, you know, you you're alright. Hey, it's, you know, Friday before Labor Day. You know, just Just keep at it. Right? Nineteen years later. Not again. Excuse me. Yeah. Still there. Right? So I've had some of those conversations where I walked in his office over the years. And, was was whining and cried, and he was able to, support me in a way that was real meaningful. Yeah. So you you mentioned doing the training, Corey. And I know you do that for our what do we call it? The boot camp for for our new new maintenance, sales rep. So When you're doing those courses, I guess, you know, and these are folks from all over the country. So you have a lot of different personality. Have a lot of different cultures from our different companies coming together. How do you how do you And I've been thinking about this a lot because I've got this event coming up, and and I'm having a keynote speaker who's coming to talk about communicating with the different generations in the workplace. Yep. And, how how do you like, tailor your your delivery or your teaching to such a wide audience. How how does that work for you? And you do have a accent that a lot of those people don't have and or understand. Yeah. People from Denver and California asked me to repeat myself a lot. So, most people at least get the Carolinas you know, some people guess Georgia, but you're you're right. I and and to answer your question, Greg, I don't know that I cater it a whole lot, honestly, brother. It is kinda hears the information. I am a very animated person if you hadn't picked up on that so far, in this conversation. And you know me well enough to know that, but I I think over the years, I just try to treat people like I'd want to be treated. Right? So whether that is in a, sales arena, whether I'm training somebody, of how to do this business It's the the why you would do it is more important than, sometimes than than what you are doing at any point in time because if they understand the why you would even approach a situation in a certain way. You will naturally kinda it'll come out of you. Okay. If you understand why you're doing So whether you say all the right words, you know, in these, in these training sessions, everybody's trying to mimic, you know, what what I'm doing or what Shane might be saying, and it takes some repetition and what natural to me either. I look, I I've repeated every story that H. B. Moore told me in in our meetings for the first two years of my life. So that that relationship of hearing those stories over and over is very, very helpful. And then I got to a point where I had my own stories and, you know, nineteen years goes by and, and, you know, people are using my stories, right, because I preach them. So I I think there's a certain, this business, when when if you're in a business development role and you're a new salesperson and about any business, right, probably. There's a certain mantra in and and and how people come to the table is, oh, I gotta sell something. Right? It took to achieve success. Well, That might be true in the moment and you might have some pressure on that. Right? But really, this business is a service business and the more you are able to serve people to help them accomplish their goals, in any business, you you will be more successful. So sometimes it And that resonates with everybody no matter whether they're from Seattle, Washington, or, Greenville, North Carolina, Well, that that's well said. You know, I think that as a salesperson, you take what you learn and then you kinda have to synthesize it for yourself. You know, like, okay. I hear Cory's words, but how how do I do that in in Beaverton, Oregon? You know, how how does that how how do you tweak it? Yeah. That makes sense. I'm I'm reading a pretty cool book right now. It's by Rick Rubin. And, I don't know if you know who Rick Rubin is, but the guys, he He's been, you know, so influential in music and writing and, movies and the the part that I re I read it last night, after I took my flu shot before I felt like crap, but, it was he's talking about when you get in that creative mode and how you kind of personalize that and how do how And for me, that meant, okay, if I know something, how do I communicate that to the person? And for me, it's education because I am not a good salesperson. I'm good at educating people so that when they're ready to buy, they know who to call. You know, that's been that's been my way of making a living. And I I was thinking about it last night. Like, when you get this idea, how do you how do you, like, customize it or or tweak it for the moment or or for that situation. And, you know, thinking about customer meetings and crisis that we've all been through at work or home, you know, just taking that little bit of a pause and, like, how do I do this and how do I make this come out right? Without regurgitating. And, you know, I can see where what do you you do, like, thirty people at the time in these courses. Right? Yeah. Anywhere from, you know, depending on the the season, probably fifteen to fifty is our fifty five was our biggest class. That's a little big, but, it was after COVID, and everybody was screaming for some boot camp. Well, you had a big crowd saw you, a year ago in, in, Charlotte. Oh, Charlotte. Yeah. That was about twenty five -- Yeah. -- twenty eight folks about that. Yeah. That was a good crowd too. But, yeah, I I was just thinking about how you have to really, you know, The and this lady that I I read, and actually we had her on the on the podcast, Kim Scott, She said that, it didn't matter what the word sounded like when it left her mouth. What it matter what mattered was how it hit their ear. That's right. Man, I thought about that so much. Do you remember where you were on there, Gabby, that day, or were you out that day when when we had Kim on but, man, I really thought that was Oh, I was there. Yeah. That was such a cool moment for me to And it's not like anything profound, like, you hadn't thought about that before. But when she said it, it and I don't remember exactly what we were talking about when she said it, but that all plays into reading people and understanding the the you got twenty five sales people How do you, you know, it's like a jellyfish, you know, you squeeze it here and pop it out over here. And I just training people is not easy. Yeah. No. It's it's really not. And and and, you know, you're trying to, you know, the difficult thing is I'm trying to impart what I've done for nineteen years and pack it all into, you know, four day session. Right? And There's a lot to cover, and there's really no replacement for practicing this for years. Right? So because I remember I remember stepping into a couple first meetings when I first got a job in this industry, not knowing what on Earth I was talking about, but I was following my process and taking a lot of pictures of HVAC equipment. And data plates to to to try to go back to the office and say, okay. Help me. Or even with some of the clients, I knew some of the engineers I was you know, facility guys knew a whole lot more than I did. I and so I'd I'd say, if you were the facility guy, Greg, I'd be like, Greg, I'm new to this brother. Can you help me understand your facility? And honestly, those boys would pipe up. Yes, sir. Come on. Let me take you on a tour, and and they loved training a young guy that was interested in in the deal. Right? I totally support that, Corey. You know, in fact, I made a note this morning. I gotta write a article later today, and my my note to myself was no buzz words, be honest about it. And what, for me, that meant, you know, don't try to be us somebody. Just tell them where you're at. You know, if if if you're going to look at a new piece of HVAC equipment when you're three months into the gig, there's a lot of different HVAC equipment out there and you can't possibly learn at all. Right. But just having enough humility to go to somebody and say, hey, I need some help. Right. And I I believe in my my fifty nine years that people genuinely want to help you if you'll just ask, you know, we've got this stupid, big, ego, thing that we carry around like a ball and chain with us. And we're sometimes hesitant to ask for help because of how it's gonna make us look. Right. And that doesn't help a darn thing. You know, my my wife and I talk about this a lot. She's she's working through this, daily bible reading. And it's, like, you you reach some script sure and then you read real life beside it, the kind of how it plays off. And it's, it's pretty amazing how, we as humans are so egotistical about things. We don't even think we're egotistical about until It's like right here in your face. It's like, yes, you moron. You are. So humility works better than ego, one hundred percent of the time. You know, if God almighty said it wrote it down in a book, I I I'm gonna I'm gonna try my best to to run that route. You know, in our business, most of our young technicians, making their way or their caliber You know, they're twenty eight years old. They're out there on their own. They nobody else is coming. They're gonna drive an hour to a job site they've got to have a little bit of edginess to them for their self. They have to know in their heart. I've got this Now being twenty eight year old male in the past, I know that has gone too far because we've become cocky, instead of confident But it's, that it it's so true that that we're like that, you know. And drives me nuts because when you stop and think, like, why am I pissed off about this or that? Most of the time, but it's an internal issue. It's not. That's right. Oh, yeah. Am I gonna look? Am I afraid of something, right? That's right. Absolutely. Yeah. Look, even on the sales side, brother, today. I mean, I've been doing this for nineteen years. Right? But today, if sometimes it can still be, alright, I'm a this phone, but I have no idea what the other line's gonna, you know, who's gonna be on the other line, what they're gonna say, and what I, you know, so So that's where I have learned over the, through a nineteen year process just to be very real with people. You know, we do what we do. Right? And we try our best to help and serve people in this industry. And so, you know, no BS. Just tell them tell them what we can do and what how other people have benefited from it, and if we can help them, great. That's typically. But honestly, that, in and of itself, is what a full day of of our boot camp is is helping people understand that they're not, you know, look, if you're out to serve people and help people, People don't wanna bug people. Right? If I call you too much, if I hit you with an email too much, people think, man, I'm an annoyance to people. Well, Not really. Right? If I can help Greg Crumpton, right, the fact that he's busy and doesn't answer my email the first five times I emailed him or my calling first five times does not mean anything negative against me. It just means that Greg, Greg's busy. Right? And it it just may take me seven times to get him on the phone. It's still the magic number, isn't it? Isn't that the, the testing code? I I was listening to. I can't remember what, I was listening to XM Radio, and they had some guy come on there and talk about sales. And he said, You know, I don't know how you ever validate this, but he said eighty percent of salespeople have never read a sales help book. I I find that kinda crazy, but also find it to be probably true. Because people don't tend to invest in themselves in their career because you know, by the time a lot of people get home, they're like, smoke, they're like, done. Like, I don't want any more market scale or any more service logic. I'm done. I just wanna chill. Sure. You know, I wanna whatever. How did the is part of your program encouraging people to be learners? Do you talk about that when you're doing your sales work? Your your boot camps. You know, we're teaching a lot of stuff during that week. And if they don't practice it, Right? You, you, you're not gonna get better at it. Right? It's like, you know, Greg, if you had a walkie, you know, golf swing and you just can't hit your driver, to save your money. I'm not the best, but I I I have figured I I can teach people how to do things, and I'm not the best golfer, but if your work than I am, I can probably help you improve. So if if I can show you a few things that you say, oh, well, that makes sense. Right? But if you never go home and practice them, you will not get proficient at it, and you will maintain your wonky little, you know, golf swing. Right? So I I think it is absolutely the folks that are self stars and self motivated, they will find ways to learn what they need to learn and grow and develop, my wife will tell you that I'm kind of achiever in everything that I do, whether it's my golf game, a new wakeboarding trick that I wanna land, my business, what what else I wanna do business? Why is right? All of the even our marriage sometimes to her, she's like, Hey, I ain't no business. Right? So, you know, there's there's and it's a lot of hardwiring probably, maybe how my creator made me and maybe how I was developed to to to get this mentality. I do find that, you know, some of the personality profile testing out there is really great today. String finders happens to be just one of my favorites. There's disc profiles also, one of my favorites. I don't think I took one before Piedmont hired me. Right? But they did do that disc profile. Yep. Right? Before, you know, entering the door so that they could make sure that the persona was actually who I was. Well, what's crazy, I still have it. I think it's sitting back here on my shelf, Greg. The they have the disc profile has a actual and adaptive profile, if you're familiar with it. And my actual and adaptive profile were almost the exact same. And so they they at least knew on paper that I wouldn't lie to them and that I was just, you know, showing up, you know, to to be this way for a meeting. So But you were so close because the further apart they are is measured in stress because you're having to compensate Correct. I'm a ninety nine I. Ninety nine I. Okay. I believe that. I believe that. And it adaptive and and, you know, a regular normal, I guess. Well, you and normal may not can live in the same sentence, Corey. I don't know. Let's turn But it is amazing at how accurate those darn tests are. Those or those profiles are. And if you study them, it really helps you become a better communicator, you know, not just in sales, but So my wife and I, we went through this one. It was hosted by a guy named Gary Smolly. And it was on it used animals instead of DIST, and it was a beaver an otter, a lion, and a golden retriever. And, Okay. Which one are you? I am a, a beaver lion. Alright. So, you know, if you take automate that, Gabby, that'd be great. If if you think about those traits to those animals, you know, you can easily correlate that over to to the DISC model. Sure. But what what's fun for me and I think I've said this before on here is it's been fun to watch the development from on myself from when I first started taking these to now. Because this is my forty first summer doing HVAC stuff. Sure. Because nineteen eighty two was my first full time year. Same here. I was partial year in eighty one because I wasn't born yet. See, I find zero humor in that. Hey. Tell me even ask Gabby what year she was born. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. She's like She's a better work than she is. But I don't I don't know. Gotta, you it's a good time to ask you. What when you think about this and, you know, you're around some professionals during the day some some not professional. I know those guys, but some you are around. How do you how do you How do you, like, take in the the the personalities as a young person when you see these older leaders kind of like, doing their thing. Do you ever go, what a ditz bucket? Like, I mean, do you think about leadership style or or or sales style with the people you interact with with sales or and I know you're super non judgmental. I know that about you. I feel like that's kind of a hard question just because, like, as far as, like, sales goes, I really don't have a lot of sales experience or sales knowledge, really. I mean, I guess I did experience a little bit of it when I worked in retail just because, like, you're always doing the selling, but even when I was in retail, it really wasn't something that we had to, like, work hard at, like, we weren't calling people and, like, reaching out to people and stuff in the same way that I feel like I experience sales now. It was more of like, hey, look, this shirt is fifteen percent off. It would look great on you. Buy it. I love it. And so, like, it's kind of a it's this I mean, it's all sales, but it was very it's a very different concept to me now. So I feel like not really with, like, the sales team, And as far as leadership goes, I would say like even not really with leadership, I think that the differences for me is that, like, I've had a lot of really good bosses in my life. I've been really, really lucky and fortunate in that area. Even, you know, prior to market scale, my boss at Justice was, like, a second mom to me. She was awesome. When I worked at the twenty four hour desk, my boss was really great as well. And so I think, like, as far as that goes, there's a lot of different leadership styles that I've seen that I don't necessarily I can't it's hard for me to be like, judgmental towards it just because, like, I don't particularly have that leadership experience, and I think it's really interesting to learn about different leadership styles and things like that. Like, when we were talking to Kim, about her book and everything like that, that stuff's very interesting to me. But as far as like legitimate experience in that area goes, I only know what I've seen from you know, people in the past. So there are definitely I think the most for me is, like, I'll notice different styles and it's not really that I'm, like, Oh, what are they doing? It's more of like, oh, well, like, my previous boss did this, but I can see why she would have done this in this circumstance, whereas this circumstance is different. So I can definitely see why we're doing it this way now. So I would I would say it's more of like a comparison where I kind of see the differences in leadership style, less than like, what are they doing? If that makes sense. Yeah. I think you're you're fortunate because you're mature enough at this age to be able to to discern that. And because when I was your age, I wasn't smart enough to do that yet. I was like, just a goofball. I wish I would have had more skills where I could have learned what different people were were how they were interacting with me. But I just didn't. You know, I just want anything that was important, at that point to to understand, but you know, you said you're not in sales, but you are. Because if you think about what you do, like, sending us the the meeting invite for this, you know, last, whenever you sent Friday, I think. That's sales related because you're being of service and you know that if you do you know, your job beforehand that things are gonna flow. To me, that's sales because you're you're no. You didn't get any money for doing it. But a, it is part of your job, but it also is in the customer service vein. I'm just keeping the grids are the rails greezed. And I I think that that's a big thing. A lot of people don't. I had the I had this thing happen this week. Where I asked a young lady, if so and so was gonna happen and she responded back, no, but I could send it to this other person if you need it. And I'm thinking, why don't you just send it to her and copy me? It would have been a whole lot easier than typing that. So I'm always I'm always thinking about why people do stuff when because to me, it would have just been easy just to send it and say, hey, check out below. Copy me. Everybody's done. Instead of I I don't know. It it's just interesting how how good. Have found the the the the people that are able to think that way. Greg, of, hey, this is probably in they're more intuitive. I guess that's the the word I'm looking for is, hey, I know what this person needs, and here is how I'm gonna respond. The people that are a a little bit better at that intuition of how they can serve the customer best for the that they But some people, I have learned just maybe it's how they're wired or or upbringing or whatnot. It just doesn't quite click sometimes because, you know, sales, Gavin, to your point, is, you know, there's a certain I can go be the guy knocking on a hundred doors. And while I might get into a hundred doors, not everybody's gonna do business with us, right, depending on their situation is. And then once and then we're okay. So we can serve fifty of them. Right? Well, I can I can get them working with us right, and and show them how it works? And then the people, that are sending the meeting requests and doing the work on a daily basis are the people that keep that business. Right? I might, you know, stop by and make sure everything's going well. Right? But the people in everyday operations on our side of the fence as our, account managers right, that are dealing with the service calls and quotes every day, and then the technical team. Right? So the technicians are our biggest salespeople, right, if there's we got customers today that won't won't go away because they love their technician. Or either they got a a liaison, somebody. I I was the glue. I I've left the HVAC business twice in my career. And realized both times when I left that I was the glue to a couple of those accounts, right? Because when something went Haywire, they pick up the phone and call Corey Brown, and Corey Brown could could figure out, you know, what the how to appease them some way, right, or get things moving them. Right? But they had a trusted advocate. So everybody's kinda got that. And if people own that, that relationship, with with clients. Boy, it's a it's a much better situation and a much more fun environment to work in. It makes everybody's job so much easier, you know. And and one of my I got it up on the wall back here. One extra step in everything you do. You know, if you're gonna do ten things on your agenda today, do ten and a half or eleven. You know, just one one I mean, like, I was referring to that email earlier, it was the same number of keystrokes. From how it ended up. It was still forty two keystrokes. It just went to the wrong person or, in my opinion, to the wrong person. You know, I just oh, I'm always thinking about that because I'm an efficiency nut. Hey. You know, I walk around my house and I decide, like, okay. I gotta go to the bedroom. I gotta go to the garage, and I gotta go to the kitchen. I'm I'm freaking trying to figure out my most efficient route to walk around my house. My my wife looks at me like you have completely lost your mind. Greg's house is one hallway. That's just how that's how I'm wired, you know. I'm I'm all thinking about that. And, you know, I don't know. It's just fascinating for sure. So, Corey, you mentioned a while ago technicians. And, part of and, you know, I'm a huge job get for recruiting and retaining and training and all that good stuff. Do y'all talk about that in sales training? Do you talk about the No. The limited number of technicians and how you really have to be focused on getting you know, quote unquote, the right kind of work, or does that ever happen? How how does that play with y'all? Absolutely. Probably more today than ever. Because we're getting, you know, the, the whole industry is is stressed more than ever for the technical help. So I I think it's benefited the quality HVAC providers out there like service logic. We can we can pick and choose, you know, a little bit more of what kind of work we want to do because resources are limited. Right? No. So we don't want to do things that we wanna maximize our time and efficiency with the teams that we have. Right? So where if you're if you're growing a fledgling business, you probably you might remember this from back in the day when you're trying to grow your company, Greg. You might you might have taken something on just because you needed the business. No. That never happened. Payroll was coming. Absolutely. Absolutely. But thankfully, we're at a at a stage in in our, development here where you know, our organizations are, while we want to grow, right, we want to grow in a smart way. And so, yeah, that there's particular you know, I'll have I'll have people showing up from each of our individual contractors from all over the nation from Seattle, Washington, you know, Florida. And so they might be good at I'm I'm always a proponent. You know, you if you're like me and you you'd never don't never heard of HVAC, Right? And now you're you're hired in a HVAC role. Where do you start? Right? So, I did that when I moved to Virginia, even though I had some experience in HVAC business in Eastern, North Carolina, I was moving to major metro, two million people in the Chesapeake Hampton Road, area, and I knew no one. So it was alright, Corey. Where do you start? So I looked at the current business and what they were doing. Alright? And so they had some medical, they had some property management, and they had a lot of, and that we were in the Great Ridge area. So I started with three things. I started with everybody within about a fifteen, twenty mile radius from my office. And I I was after all those commercial businesses because they were close proximity and guess what we're measured on. How fast can you get there when my mess is not working. Right? And then I I started working in those verticals of property management and health care and started growing those, divisions we I came from a manufacturing background, so I I also added manufacturing, which I was just, you know, pushing that on my own. But so it was a place of reference that I could start and and grow from. So so we're trying to pick and choose. I I always promote do what you do well, right? And it'll be more natural for you. Yeah. I think about it. You know, a lot of sales people are just selling. They're they're just selling whatever they can book and not not in our industry specifically, but just overall. Sure. You know, the the trades companies have to be pretty mindful now about what you're selling And to your point, you wanna maximize the the man dollar. So if if if you can do higher quality work for a higher quality customer, you know, you really have to think about that. I was just curious. I never asked you that before, but I'm glad y'all are doing that. And and the the safety aspect, you know, taking care of people because our people on the rooftop salespeople is not PPE is not something that they think about, like, you know, a technician would. And, I know y'all do talk about that. How How does that come over when you've got a a, you know, a twenty three year old young lady that's gotta climb up on her roof? How does that I'm curious of how you crossed that bridge. I know how I did it with my crew, but how do you do it? Yeah. Yeah. I have a video specifically on it, Greg. If you wanna tag that in the show notes, Gabby, I'm in a whole getup with PPE and, you know, glasses goggles. I mean, so, yeah. I mean, we're typically the first one's on the roof, right, evaluating the situation. So, we we we do talk about PPE, to make sure everybody is safely opening up HVAC systems to count filters and look at belts. And I'd love to tell you I did everything completely safe when I was out in the field doing it, but I I I probably made some mistakes and did some stupid things myself. Thanks. I've never gotten hurt, but, you know, as skylights or something that we talk about, hey, look, watch where you're stepping. Sometimes that you really can't, you know, you've got a glossed over skylight that dingy from the the years of where, you you may not see that thing. Re reaching in. We did we I I remember one story of a of a sales rep that tried to stop A belt. He turned off the unit, but the motor was still running. He tried to stop the belt from spinning with his hand. With his finger and his finger, you know, got a little broken on it. He he didn't realize how much centropical Forest that diagonal belt had, and and all of a sudden, he's involved in a pulley too far than what he thought. So we absolutely share some of those stories to make sure people are are electric, you know, safety for electrical, turn the unit off, make sure every all the power's down, If you're opening up a unit, make sure you look, just gloves have have saved me many times from being sliced by sheet metal that was you know, jagged or whatnot. So, again, we're not having to be too invasive on the sales side. If I can get model and serial numbers and age of equipment off the data plate and get my filters. Right? And and maybe take a photo if the customer wants to see then of what that unit looks like and and understand what a belt, size is. I'm good, right, in most cases. And and my operations people, that they'd be so proud. I got it all. They wouldn't know what to do. Well, I I think that, you know, a lot of sales people don't think about stuff like that. Like, okay. I'm gonna go to work for a HVAC company commercial. I'm gonna be climbing. And, you know, that's gloving is not natural to us as humans. You know, that's something that our our animals do, but we don't, like, we got naturally. So I'm glad y'all do talk about that, because My mom probably thought I was a month So it came very naturally to me. However, I have we have had some, over the years, different reps that that were female, and I I have been on plenty of, you know, because when you think about it, it's alright. When when they hired me, they didn't think who's gonna carry that ladder, right, and who's gonna get on that roof. They assumed I would do it. Right? Well, we did hire a twenty two or twenty three year old young lady that, was not planning to carry that ladder and really would would rather not be on that roof because she was scared of heights. Get once your own roof was fine, but getting up to the roof was a problem. So it there certainly are some some challenges, but there's some ladies in our industry that absolutely rock it. I read ladies. If you look at our women on LinkedIn and what they do, I mean, I'll love it. I'll love watching it. Yeah. They're doing great. They're doing great. I'm I'm I am glad y'all talked about the the human. You know, caretaking role of that sales piece because it's important. You know, we wanna make sure everybody's everybody's good to go. But I did And one thing I do promote is that most people, you know, with our world of technology and everybody's carrying a camera in their pocket, you know, I I have seen as a service to the customer, I spent time on surveys, right, because many of our younger generation, what I found, wants to go snap a picture of all the data plates and get get off the roof. Right? And I'll look it up when I get back to the office. Well, what I have found is I don't know what that how that unit's been taken care of until opening it up. Right? You just don't know until you you spend a little time to to see evaporative calls happen to be the most overlooked thing in our industry, which I know you know very well. And it's many times that can be the problem, you know, in a I went to this one plant. They wanted new units. Right? They called me because Corey, we got a service guy coming out here. And we're happy with them, but we don't have enough cooling in this place. I need four or five new units. Come look at it for me. I said, well, okay. Let me let me evaluate first. Well, all their evaporator coils is a key manufacturer in place in Rocky Mount, and they had a, an oil in the air that was misted, right? And so it looked like a black cat had blown up on every single one of those evaporative calls, and they could not breathe. So the the the service to the client was to show them, hey, this is the problem. That next summer after they hired us to clean all coils and take care of the plant, right? They were cooling like they hadn't in fifteen years. Right? They are important. We need to be safe, but they are important to spend a little time up there to after you've taken your selfie. And showing yourself serve servicing, you know, survey and units. Open one up. Well, Corey, we are at the top of the hour hard to believe. Great conversation today, man. I really enjoyed some of the rabbit holes we went down and just the whole human element of how we interact with people in regardless of of whether we're selling or keeping people safe or Gabby trying to figure out who she's working for today. So it's all all good. Well, I got a question for you. How many did you hold? I know you're working with your with your dad some did you were you the primary sales agent for a season or forever in your company? What how did how much did you sell versus having to manage and you know, grow the team and all that. So when I got out of school, I worked in the field as a technician for ten years and then I started selling. And, that worked out well for me because I that's when I adapted this, or adopted the the educational kind of selling because I knew the mechanical side of it so well. That's kinda how how I went, but, I still do that today. You know, when I'm out and about, I'm always talking about educating what's going on with the equipment. Sure. And, you know, two years from now, when they get ready, they'll call. And kind of like you, I I get crazy calls. I hadn't helped my company It's been ten years since I sold our company to service logic, and I still have customers to call and say, Hey, I need help over here on, you know, whatever. Sure. But that's that relationship you build, and that's what it's all about. So I agree. I agree. Thanks for the time day. I appreciate your conversation.