Welcome to "Doing Business with a Servant's Heart," where compassion meets business and life. Join us as we explore the soul of business, guided by the unwavering principle that serving others is not just ethical – it’s transformative.
Hosted by Steve Ramona, a seasoned entrepreneur with a passion for uplifting people and businesses, each episode of our podcast is a deep dive into the stories, insights, and practical strategies of industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and visionaries who have mastered the art of leading with love and empathy. Through heartfelt conversations and inspiring anecdotes, we reveal the practical impact of servant leadership on personal and professional growth.
Discover how to foster a culture of kindness, engage with customers authentically, and build successful businesses that prioritize serving before selling. Whether you're a seasoned business owner, an aspiring entrepreneur, or simply someone seeking to make a positive impact, "Doing Business with a Servant's Heart" offers actionable advice, moral encouragement, and a refreshing perspective on what truly matters in the world of business.
Tune in and join our community of compassionate leaders striving to change the world, one act of service at a time. Because in the end, the heart of business is the business of the heart.
Business Community https://www.skool.com/thebusinessnetwork Newsletter https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
📝Description: In December 2020, Frank Favaro walked away from the most money he'd ever earned — mid-pandemic, with no plan B — because he knew he was meant for more. Today he runs Serve Centric, coaching mechanical trades companies (HVAC, plumbing, electrical) on the customer experience methodology used by Ritz-Carlton and Chick-fil-A.
In this episode, Frank and Steve dig into:
Why Frank quit a thriving business and went seven months without earning a dime before Serve Centric took off
The difference between running a "relational" business and a "transactional" one — and why it starts with knowing your North Star
A real case study: how one Cleveland mechanical contractor raised employee satisfaction 136% in a single year
The Athletes in Trades movement Frank co-founded to address the coming exodus of 75% of the skilled trades workforce
Why former athletes and military veterans make some of the best hires in the trades
PS: Frank's dinner-table answer alone is worth the listen — Zig Ziglar, Elvis Presley, and Jesus, all at a four-top. Stick around for that one.
CTA: Ready to build real relationships with people doing business the right way? Join our free community at skool.com/thebusinessnetwork. And if you run a company that needs help building a customer-first culture, reach out to Frank at frank@servecentric.com or servecentric.com.
🎯 What You’ll Learn: ✅ Relational Beats Transactional Every Time ✅ Employee Experience Drives Customer Experience ✅ Purpose Outlasts Any Paycheck
⏱️Timestamps: [00:02:00] Frank's $0-Income Leap of Faith [00:07:00] Serve Centric: Why the Name Fits [00:12:00] The 136% Case Study Breakdown [00:15:00] Relational vs. Transactional Vision [00:17:00] Athletes in Trades Movement [00:21:00] The Dinner Table With Zig, Elvis & Jesus
Welcome everyone to Doing Business with a Servants Heart Podcast. I'm your host, Steve Ramona. I'm thrilled to have you join us today. The podcast, this podcast, is dedicated to exploring the idea of doing business and living life with a purpose, serving others. And yes, down the road, you're going to achieve success. We were just talking about this in the pre-show, and we're going to learn a lot about this. We believe that when you approach your work and your lives with a servant's heart, you can truly make a difference. And we create this show because we for you, because we want everyone to be motivated, inspired, educated to make an impact in your world. And the key word there is your. Change your world, we all do that. The whole world will be a better place. Hey, whether you're an entrepreneur, a community leader, or simply someone looking to bring more purpose into your daily life, this podcast is here to support and uplift you. So let's dive in. I want to thank today's uh today's episode is brought to you by our amazing sponsor, Pantheon Alliance. Picture yourself joining an elite community of private business owners from a variety of industries all working together to create a powerful referral marketplace. It's an incredible opportunity to expand your network and elevate your business to a new height. Now I talk about impact in my monologue and serving heart is impacting and talking to my guests before the show. This guy blows impact out of the water. He truly is doing that. Hey Frank, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you for having me, Steve. Grateful to be here.
SPEAKER_00
This is gonna be kind of a tough question, but I know you can answer it. What impact are you have you done in the last 10 years that you're so proud of?
SPEAKER_02
Impact over the last 10 years that I'm so proud of. Um, you know, my journey has been a uh a crazy one. It's I've been all over the map. Um, I've been in six different industries in my business. And the last uh four years, I I quit my business in December of 2020, right in the heart of the pandemic. And I I walked away. I walked away from earning more money I'd ever earned in my life. I walked away from um conversations uh of getting into ownership. I walked away from all of it because I was unfulfilled and and I wasn't living uh the life that my spirit, God within me told me I should be going out and doing. I was told I should be making a bigger impact in this world. And I did. I I burned this, burdened the boats, burdened the ships, so to speak. Um, and I went out and I started a coaching, customer experience coaching businesses, uh, working with companies exclusively in the mechanical trades. So this is like HVAC companies, construction companies, plumbers, pipe fitters, electricians, and I help them um and bring the people side into the business, the the the actual service, uh the heart of everything is service. And it's an industry, as most of your listeners and you have probably learned, you know, through the cut construction, and you don't think about customer service, you don't think about uh, you know, people going out of their way to serve with excellence, right? So I was in that industry. I love, love, love the people of the industry, but I didn't love talking about the product, which was the technical side. So I left it and I said, I'm gonna make an impact in this business, in this world. And that's what I've been doing ever since. Um, we we've we've changed businesses, we've changed cultures, we've had uh things permeate into people's personal lives, it's changed uh the dynamic of people's relationships at home. And to me, it's just like that's what makes me feel like I'm I'm doing something, doing it right, and I'm impacting people.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and it's interesting that my dad was a contractor for 40 years. Okay, the industry. So you're right. He was really good because he was customer-centric, but a lot of them aren't. They come and do the job, walk out, and sturdy, or whatever happens. So I'm very experienced. I'm I'm excited because we're gonna talk after the show. There's some things I got for you. Okay, but what's interesting is you gave up a lot of money. Don't even tell, but you gave up money where a lot of people listen, like, I don't know if I could do that to make an impact. Are you successful today?
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, today. I mean, like I probably tripled what I was earning before, you know. But like then I, you know, that was a huge jump. And I went seven months. I didn't just leave my leave and start like killing it, you know. Like I went seven months without earning a dime. Um, and I was this close to going back into the industry because my wife is like, hey, yeah, it's getting a little tight around here. Let's a little dicey, yeah.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. Well, and I appreciate you saying that because the audience, I want you to hear that. One, you can make changes, but it's not always about the money. The impact has tripled your income, which is again a side note, but still it's not your homelessness because a lot of people go, I I serve, I I don't know if I can serve. I got I need money. You can't, trust me. This is proof right here, Frank. Successful and amazing. What I love, your coaching name is serve-centric. How did you come up with it? And what a great fit for this podcast.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you. I came up with it because serve, service. I I look at service is it is the heart, it's the core, it's the center of everything that we do. Um, it's people who outserve win. Uh, I think Martin Luther King said, uh, you don't have to be uh talented to to serve. Anybody could can do it. Anybody can elevate their their service game, right? It just takes the want to, the will to want to serve. And to me, um, you know, I graduated second to last in my class. Um, I I wasn't like uh, you know, I was academically ineligible in college for wrestling and in high school. Um, like I wasn't interested in school. I wasn't it, it wasn't that I didn't do well because I didn't apply myself, but I just did wasn't interested in the subjects. But once I got into the business world, and once I realized that I can make a huge impact in the in the in other people's lives, putting their needs first, and as a byproduct, I'm always going to be successful. And that's kind of just been my my, you know, the secret sauce. Just go out there, take care of people, really understand who they are, build a relationship with them, know them on a personal human being level, figure out what they're after, help them get it. And you know, if the core values are lying, those are the right people. If you enjoy working with them, they're the right people. And as a byproduct, you're always going to be successful. So that's kind of my profile and how I how I've done it.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. And customer service has to flow through the whole company, can't just be the executives, the director, can't be just the phone, you know, the admin answering the phone, right? That has to be a culture part, a part of this as well.
SPEAKER_02
Oh, yeah. Customer service is not a department. It's it's every single person is either serving the customer or serving someone who is serving the customer, right? So and and they all play that that super uh important role. I heard uh customer service guru Shep Heiken talk about uh, he said, you know, the person who works in the the baggage claim at the airport, he's like, you know, that person gets the brunt of everything. No one ever walks into the baggage claim department and says, I think you're doing a great job. You know, like that doesn't happen, right? They walk, people walk in and say, You lost my luggage. And that person didn't lose the luggage, but all the people who serve that person did. They're the ones. So everyone is in the customer service department, 100%.
SPEAKER_00
Fantastic because I was just a baggage claimant, and two weeks ago in Denver, I couldn't find my luggage and I didn't do that. Uh but I and I I'm actually thinking of writing a book. Customers need to be better service people, meaning don't come in and start yelling at the person that's not responsible, but that's a whole different subject. But that's why I love customer service. It's easy, but it's hard, right?
SPEAKER_02
Well, and your habits are your yeah, it's easy, it's simple, but not easy. Uh, you know, and you know, your habits are your habits. So if you go and yell at the baggage claim person, you're probably gonna go yell at your employee, or you're probably gonna go yell at your kid. And like that's not serving from the from the heart, from the core. Um, so you know, uh you can't just turn it on and turn it off, you know. It and you know, so we all need to take a look in the mirror and we can all be better at serving, me included.
SPEAKER_00
Amen. I mean, we're not perfect, we're fallible. You're having a bad day. Sometimes you might take it on that waitress, the grocery clerk, or whoever it may be, and you know, just recover from that and serve somebody else to make up for it. Put a little check mark in. What I read, you have customer experience seminars. I'm a big workshop seminar guy. Talk about those and give us a story of success of one of the people you work with.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, so uh story customer experience seminars. Yeah. So I'm trained and licensed um in the methodology that has been utilized by uh you know world-class companies like Ritz Carlton, uh Chip Filet, uh Harley Davidson, and you know, I go and I work with companies and I work with associations, and I bring people into the room and we start to bring together this. How do you elevate your company? How do you improve margins? How do you well you there's a lot of ways, but the one way that I work one on is that customer experience piece. Um, 86% of customers in the world today, this is a Forbes quote uh stat, but they said that they will pay more money if they will have a better experience. If you could ensure me a better experience, that means save me time, right? Be easy to do business with, right? Be consistent, uh, show empathy, all these things that the consumer we want. If you can do that for me, I will pay you more money. It's a fact. So I go out there and I show companies how to actually do that and then systemize it. So then that way it's consistent across all channels of their company. Because it doesn't matter how good this employee is, right? It's every employee in the organization because you can't just be good at 7:30 on a Monday morning. How good are you at four o'clock on a Friday? Like, you know, from every employee. So, yeah, with customer experience. That's what we do. Now, a case study, uh, just my one that came out last week that I'm really proud of. World-class customer experience doesn't happen until it happens internally first. So you got to have a great employee experience for the employees then to go deliver that experience to the customer, right? So here's the case study. Um, a mechanical contractor here in Cleveland, Ohio, that we worked with, we increased their employee satisfaction working for the company from satisfied to extremely satisfied, 136% in one year. So by having your employees extremely satisfied, you got a group of Navy SEALs that can go out there and run circles around the competition. And that's what we're seeing now in terms of the, you know, how does that you know impact us in our in terms of our ROI and everything else? So it's exciting.
SPEAKER_00
And I love what you do because you have the experience. Because I know I've talked to companies like, okay, you tell me customer service is important. How do I do it? That's where you come in. Oh, energy and build systems and you know, all those SOPs and things like that, right?
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I mean, like I I love it. You know, I love working with companies and getting them to that place because like again, it permeates into their personal life, it permeates into their their you know, professional, personal, it helps them in their community, it just makes us better people, customer experience. If we can give a better experience to people, as a result, we win too, like because I love the quote givers gain, right? When you if I give you a great experience and you feel so good, it makes me feel good. So I'm actually gaining from giving. So yeah, powerful.
SPEAKER_00
And we've talked about Bob Berg, the go givers book. It's a powerful. If you haven't read an audience, I suggest uh I know you work with Bob, and that's fantastic. Uh it's just again, it's it's simple, but it's not easy. And I love that you said that. It's yeah, it just needs to be practiced. Um, what's a piece of advice you give a uh owner, entrepreneur that wants better customer service?
SPEAKER_02
Uh you gotta start with with some sort of vision for for who are you? What do you stand for? What do you stand for? What's your what's your north star? What's guiding you? Yeah, most companies they look at me like I have a third eye when I say that, right? Um, because they don't know. They haven't really taken the time to sit it, sit down and think about it. And if they don't, what happens? What's that mean? They're they're just transactional, like you, like you had mentioned in our our warm-up, right? I I look at it as you're either relational or you're transactional of how you go about doing business. And if you don't have a vision for what you are, who you what you stand for, what are your values, what's your vision, what's your north star, what's your why? If you don't have that, you're just a transactional exchanging dollars for hours with your employees and then exchanging you know dollars for product with with your clients.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. I want to get a little personal. I saw and read uh you're part of the initiatives, uh, like athletes in the trades. Talk about that. I I'm very curious and excited to hear more.
SPEAKER_02
Uh through through my uh last year, I was uh very fortunate to be a graduate. Uh I'm in Ohio, and I was fortunate enough to be in Ohio's premier leadership uh training. It was called Leadership Ohio, and we had to create an impact project for the state. And what we're seeing across uh the United States today, we have 75% of our workforce is retiring in the next seven to 10 years. So 75% of the trades, these are the the people. Do you like clean water, drinking water? Absolutely. Do we like clean air? Well, absolutely. The the you know, HVAC equipment, it cleans our air, it it ventilates our air, it conditions our air, it heats and cools, right? These are, you know, do we elect electricians, right? All this it runs by on electricity, these are uh life essentials. And the folks that work in that industry, we're gonna lose 75% of them uh in the next seven to ten years. So I was walking into contractors and asking them, Steve, I said, what's your biggest challenge, right? What are you up against? What are you really feeling? And it's we can't find more people, we need more people, we need people, people, people. We we could take on all this work, but we just don't have people. And I said, okay, what can we do? How can I make this? How what could I do to help our industry? Now, being a former athlete and former wrestler, when I worked in the trades, working for the contractor, I realized that former military and former athletes were typically successful in the trades because they had worked hard, they'd had some discipline, right? They had to work amongst the team before, they had transferable skills, let's call them, uh, that would make them successful. But what I also realized is the schools out there today are not bringing awareness of all the huge opportunities that are in the trades. So we created the athletes in trades movement, and it was to bring awareness uh and the opportunity to the young folks out there uh in the trades, because we have to have them. And if you want to be an entrepreneur, if your goal is to say, oh, what's the fastest way to be a millionaire today? I would say you go into the trades, you learn the trade, you start your own business, you but you're an entrepreneur, and I it's a the easiest path because it these are essential jobs to our existence, to our quality of life. We got to have them. And the kids just don't know about them. I mean, my high school never told me about trades. Why? Because my guidance counselor was a college graduate. He wouldn't, he they don't want to direct you to the trades, it affects their their scores of college placement and their graduation rates. So that's the movement, that's what we're doing, and we're out there bringing awareness to opportunity.
SPEAKER_00
An audience, I'm gonna speak to you. That's what a servant hearts does. Exactly. There's a problem somewhere. How can we find the fix it? You're not making millions doing that, you're making millions in God's currency. That's what I call it. You knock on that door of heaven, he's gonna go, hey, you did all and legacy is important, and that's not an ego, it's what's your legacy leave. I'm so excited for you. And I want to learn more, and hopefully down the road I can up because I'm a big athlete guy. I played athletes as well. And and I agree with you, military. I talked to a lot of military guys. They are if I had a company right now, you're right. If I had a trade, half my employees would be military ex-military. And you let them go, go do a roof, they're gonna get it done. They don't want to be taught to, they want to be left alone. It's a perfect job for them, for a lot of them, especially dealing with some of the issues they deal with. You got me so excited, but who inspires you? Because you're amazing. Who inspires you know to get doing all this great stuff?
SPEAKER_02
Uh, I mean, my my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, uh, number one, right? God inspires me, and um, I'm just trying to be a better version of myself every day. And uh Bob Berg inspires me. Um, John DeJulius is another mentor of mine. He inspires me, my wife and my kids, and my so fortunate to still have my parents, you know, and you know, and and I read a lot, I listen to a lot, and I'm just constantly trying to be a lifelong learner. And that way, you know, I believe the more you more, you know, the more you can help people and the more connections you have, um, the more value you bring to the marketplace. And, you know, that's you know, I I think we we're all here um for a purpose and and we're all here to make an impact in this world. And the clock's ticking. So, you know, it's how can I help someone today? And look, I I'm a you know, I I grew up a very selfish person because I was a wrestler and you know, having to maintain my weight and my discipline and my eating and my workouts, and it was always me, me, me, me, me. And I realized that that's it can't be about me anymore. How can I help other people? And I think you know, finding God was a big part of that for me.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, amen. God, I love that. And sports is such a good lesson. You don't need to be in sports, you know, surely anything like that when you're with a group. What a lesson for you to learn as a business person. I learned so much football and baseball and you know, all that. It's fantastic. Um, I want to we're getting to the end here, but I want to dive deep into Frank. You ready? Sure. Always ready. So yeah, I know you are. This is why it's an easy question for you. So you're having dinner. Who would be dead or alive and why?
SPEAKER_02
Having dinner, who would be dead or alive? Who would you want at that table? Wow, that's a great question. Um so I'm gonna put at that table uh Zig Ziglar. Zig Ziggler, um, I would like to have Elvis. Elvis Presley. I would like to have um and and obviously, I mean Jesus. I mean that would be yeah, that'd be amazing. But so cool. I would say those three. Um I could keep going, but you're probably gonna ask you.
SPEAKER_00
We have a four-seat table. We just got a four-seat reservation, so that's good. Now, why some of those zig and Jesus and you know these people?
SPEAKER_02
Uh so so Zig Zegler, um, you know, I just I can relate to his story, and I started with nothing, and he started with nothing. Um, you know, and and he's someone who in fact I read his story in his autobiography, and I've studied him, and I just think I'm like, oh my goodness, like he actually had it harder than I did. So and if he can do this, I can do this. So for me, just connecting with him and you know, and his, I think also I'm very um his relationship with with his wife just was so special. And for me, I think it would be I'd be interested in learning more, you know, just marriage advice, you know, from Zig, because he just seemed to have a great marriage, you know, he has they supported his wife and she supported him, and they were just and my wife, I love my wife, she supports me too, but I think we can always improve, right? So Jesus would be just learning uh uh about you know, like more of you know, breaking free of you know the way we're wired at birth, right? Because we're all wired a certain way, we're influenced by the people that were in our early in our lives, and and then with Elvis, I would look at it as just how can I be more uh unique in a in a in a way that allows me to differentiate what I do every single day.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, he definitely does that. That's for sure. That's a heck of a lineup. I'd like to be at that dinner table. And real quick question what kind of food would it be?
SPEAKER_02
What kind of food would it be? Oh man, that's a great uh I I think we would have to start off uh we'd have to have some sort of seafood. Uh, I just feel that seafood would be uh, I don't know, I just feel it would be the best. And then we would have um you know a nice five-course meal, let's say, and have some good coffee at the end. And uh yeah, and just one of those where you just, you know, you walk away feeling like wow, that was one of the greatest dinners I've ever had. And it obviously it probably would be.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you could probably just have water, it'd be a great, great, great meal, right? But you gotta always have to eat. Even Jesus needed to break bread. So that's that's pretty cool. Hey Frank, I want to thank you so much. You've educated, motivated, inspired my audience. I appreciate you taking the time to be on.
SPEAKER_02
Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me, Steve.
SPEAKER_00
Bet don't forget about my TV show, Together We Serve. It's every Friday at 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Eastern. Learn about how, again, a servant's heart as a community, together we can do that. And as always, leave comments on YouTube if you see this on YouTube or on the podcast. If you want to reach out to uh Frank, how can they find you, Frank?
SPEAKER_02
They can find me at my email. It's Frank F-R-A-N-K at serve s e R V E centric, C-E-N-T-R-I-C coaching, C-O-A-C-H-I-N-G dot com, or through my website, serve hyphencentric.com.
SPEAKER_00
And I have all that information in the show notes so you can reach out there, reach out to me, and I'll get you connected with them. This is a guy you want to meet. I'm excited I got to meet him because I see some great things that we're going to do in the future. And that's what it's all about collaboration to make the world a better place. And always, as always, me and Frank, thank you for watching or listening to this podcast. And we'll see you on the next episode of Doing Business with a Servant's Heart. Have a great day.
.png)
