Challenging Traditions: Sarah Hammond's Insights on Diversity, AI, and Women in the Trades Industry

Ready to challenge your assumptions about the trades industry? Our guest today, Sarah Hammond, President of Atlas Electrical Air Conditioning, refrigeration, and Employment Services Incorporated, shares her unique insights as a woman navigating through this male-dominated field. Sarah divulges the pros and cons of being a woman in the industry and stresses the urgent need to amplify diversity. We also uncover the high wages and abundant opportunities that make the trades industry appealing and discuss how AI technology can revolutionize learning and service delivery in the HVAC sector.

In an engaging conversation about the impact of automation, we highlight how AI technology can accelerate efficiency and service speed, offering a compelling alternative to unreliable Google searches. We touch on the allure of technology for the younger generation and how it can help businesses stay organized while attracting new talent. The discussion takes an interesting turn as we delve into the fluctuating landscape of equipment pricing and the need for up-to-date information readily available for technicians.

Lastly, we delve into the personal realm, addressing the challenges of parenting in our digital age and the importance of delineating boundaries with technology. We firmly believe that customer service is the bedrock of any successful business, and we share powerful anecdotes on how to boost customer satisfaction and loyalty. Sarah introduces us to her company's ambassador program, offering mentorship opportunities for women in HVACR, truly personifying the old adage, "Be the change you want to see." Tune in, be enlightened, and join us in celebrating and promoting women in the skilled trades industry!

http://WWW.ATLASRGV.COM

http://linkedin.com/in/sarah-hammond-atlas

http://aiautomationsgroup.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:57

Welcome to the successful life podcast. I'm your host, Corey Berrier, and I'm here with Sarah Hammond. How are you, Sarah?

Speaker 2: 1:05

Doing great Beautiful weather outside today.

Speaker 1: 1:08

Where are you located? Just out of curiosity.

Speaker 2: 1:12

Texas. Everything's bigger in Texas. Down at the lower point, the tip of Texas where it's normal temperature is 90 degrees and today it's a nice 70.

Speaker 1: 1:23

Wow, that's a drastic change from North Carolina. I think we're in the 60s today, so it's not that bad yeah, but we definitely get colder here, that's for sure.

Speaker 2: 1:34

Yeah, this is our cold weather.

Speaker 1: 1:38

So, Sarah, tell everybody a little bit about who you are and a little bit about what you've been doing.

Speaker 2: 1:46

Thank you so much, corey. I'm Sarah Hammond and I am currently the President of Atlas Electrical Air Conditioning, refrigeration and Employment Services Incorporated. We've been in business for over 41 years now, and now my husband does not work for me. We also started a pest company this year. I'm also serve on many community boards. I believe that giving back is part of what is required of us as business owners. I serve on several different boards, and one of them that I serve on is Women in HVACR, which is a national organization where women are the leaders in the HVAC field and tech wholesale distributors, marketers, contractors and business owners.

Speaker 1: 2:31

I would thank you so much for that. I would argue that I would imagine that there are a lot of advantages of being a female in the trades. Would you agree with that?

Speaker 2: 2:49

That's not an argument. That's a testimony. Most definitely, corey. Females. We just have a different outlook on things. Not to say that one is better. Any sex is better than the other. I love my husband. Men are phenomenal. I had some great mentors, but females just have a different eye. Getting a skilled tradesperson in can give you a different outlook. Having the two related together and working together is just the best way to do anything.

Speaker 1: 3:22

So do you find that All right? So let's take the other direction. So what would you say?

Speaker 2: 3:29

the disadvantages of being a female in the trades are the only disadvantage that I can think of is that we are predominantly male In this field. It's about 4% female, and that is a disadvantage one, because the female viewpoint is not seeked out as often, and sometimes they can be pushed to the side. Parents may not feel that it's something that the females should go into, and so there's less marketing, less information, less education to females to become part of this industry, and so there's a big shortage. One of the other big disadvantages is that, because there's such a lack of education, we are at a shortage problem all across the United States. We are gonna be very short in skilled tradespeople by 2027, by 2030. We are gonna have a lack of certified and trained technicians. So right now, your master plumber is 58. Your master electrician, in average, is about 50. Maybe your HVAC tech will be about 42. But those are not good numbers to have, especially with our new generation coming in.

Speaker 1: 4:53

Now if the average age of the plumber in North Carolina is 63, so it's even higher. But I would say also, if you are a business owner or a technician or I'll say technician at this point you're gonna be making a boatload of money here in a few years, more money than you're making now, which is a plenty of good salary. Let's just go ahead and be honest. Like I was shocked I've only been in this industry a little around four years and I was shocked to find out how much money you can make as a service technician or a selling technician or how much money plumber in HVAC companies make period. Like I was shocked.

Speaker 2: 5:34

For those that are going into the skilled trades not for my employees, please don't listen but for those that are out there.

Speaker 2: 5:41

Elon Musk was paying, starting paying $99 an hour for an electrician with a license, and that wasn't even a master electrician, that was just a journeyman. So, yes, there are some great wages out there. The need is huge. We have a lot of maintenance companies that are looking to hire within and bring in skilled people, schools that are looking for trainers and technical field people to go in and train their students. So you can be teaching at a college level without a college degree, just because you know the skilled trades, with all the benefits that come along with that. So there's just so much opportunity that is available if you just listen, open your eyes and as parents, we influence our children to look at more than the typical four-year college, to understand that some of our children need to get their hands, that it's okay to be outside, it's healthy for us, it's good for us to be out in the sun some of that vitamin D. Let's just change the way we market the skilled trades.

Speaker 1: 6:45

Yeah, look, I totally agree with you. I do wonder and I'll ask you, you know, when it comes to you mentioned training and training in trade schools and in colleges what do you think the biggest hiccup is in the current training process? I'm sure you know Joe Cunningham. I'm sure you know that name. You probably know exactly. So Joe has a really fascinating approach to this and you know, I'm sure some people don't agree with it.

Speaker 1: 7:21

And let's just be clear, I'm not a plumber and I'm not a trainer and I'm not a technician. I work with companies on the soft skills side, right? So I help with the communicate, everything that trade schools don't do. So is there? Would you be opposed to fast tracking the way people learn? Here's what I mean. So I also have an automations company and we work a lot with AI. I know when I say that some people are scared to death of AI and some people just don't really wanna look into it, and I'll ask you in a minute what you guys are doing with it or what you're not doing with it.

Speaker 1: 8:07

But we've built out a technician bot that will literally answer any question on the spot. The reason we built it is because and it's for plumbing, hvac, electrical, it doesn't matter. We built for all the trades. The reason we built that is because I've seen time and time again the service manager is called all day long answering phone calls Like that, his whole job pretty much, and lots of times that's self-inflicted, it's I wanna feel important, and I'm not saying that every service technician or not every service manager, but I wanna feel important. I need you to call me 30 times a day before the call, after the call, during the call, like a lot of these things. A lot of these calls, depending on what they are, especially if they're technical, could be answered by typing the information into this software that we built, and so I would argue that that would fast-track the way people learn. What do you think about that? I mean, imagine if you bring somebody in that's outside the industry.

Speaker 2: 9:20

Well, I had to get a notepad because you touched on several different subjects and I want to make sure I'm very clear on all three of them Okay, at least the three that I've written down towards the end because I didn't start taking notes ahead of time. First, you said Joe Cunningham and fast-tracking technicians. I completely agree with his concept. I do believe that they should put in or implement maybe a year training with a company where their school aligns themselves with businesses that are licensed, have workers' compensation, that are completely full-blown businesses One full-blown businesses and align themselves to put those students into those companies so they can get proper training for at least a year and use some of that for their schooling. Number one give them six months, show them the basics. Let them play with AI. This is part two of your question. Let them play with the AI. People are doing it, since they're two years old. Ipads playing games, video games all day long. You can learn to drive a car and have better skill sets. When you're on the road, you can learn rules and regulations. Give them the basics. Let them get out there and do hands-on, because at the end of the day, you don't learn unless you make the mistakes, and I hate to say it like that, but, as a technician, don't step on those spots. Well, what do they do? They step, they go through the ceiling and now you have to ceiling repair damage. You could tell them 50 times in a classroom. They're still not going to get it. You could show them, maybe in an AI game and maybe it would resonate. Wow, I could really get damaged in a fall and crack my head open. Certain things that AI can do for you and build for you.

Speaker 2: 10:58

You also mentioned schooling. How do I feel about schooling, implementing it? As a business owner, I highly encourage any and all of your listeners. If you own an AC business or a skill trade business, get involved with your local technical colleges. They are always looking for an advisory board. Become part of the advisory board. They could have five. They could have 50. The more the merrier. Why? Because any information is good, information that can be filtered. I serve on several advisory boards for the technical schools in my area. One of them that we're doing. We're bringing AI equipment to help reduce the time that the students are out there and to help educate. Plus, you only have so many trainers. While one trainer is with some students, you could have AI teaching modification, giving those technical skill sets to those students, and you can even build faster, quicker communication.

Speaker 2: 11:54

Third, you talked about AI automation that you've been forth.

Speaker 2: 11:57

You talked about AI automation that you're building.

Speaker 2: 12:01

I'm super excited about that. One of the things that I was thinking about not just service technicians or the master technician is that sometimes some of these companies or some of this equipment, you need to call for assistance, technical training, from the actual manufacturer. You could be on the phone for an hour as a business owner. That one hour is a waste of time and depletion of money, because I cannot bill anybody for that. Being able to have service quickly to my technician, where they're not having to Google and read 50 million comments, that they can actually get a certified AI intelligent response, know what your equipment to order, know what to troubleshoot, know what to put in and help them clear up their notes, because one of the biggest things as a technician is you don't like to write a lot of things down. So if you're having the system help you provide that information, you can copy paste, stick it into your work order. Boom, boom, boom. Faster service, faster work, better for the business owner and better for the technician, I'm all for it hands down 100%.

Speaker 1: 13:11

Great job. You clearly don't suffer like a lot of us here in the trades. I'm ADHD, as you can tell. I went through four different things and barely explained any of them. So, for context, don't go to an average attendee course for both plumbing, hvac and maybe even electrical, I don't know. But yeah, great job, that was perfect. Man, I couldn't have done that if you paid me. But you're 100% correct. If a technician can just type in whatever their problem is, what condenser do I need for this carrier unit? It will tell you exactly, step by step, what it is you need to do, or is this the right size or whatever the question is? And it's trained on all the HVAC knowledge on the internet. So, like not what I say, internet that kind of waters it down, but it's the knowledge base of HVAC and it's just the knowledge base of HVAC. So it's not chat GPT. We use chat GPT, right, it's not?

Speaker 2: 14:15

guessing. It's giving you clear, concise information from the actual manufacturer because it's going to go to the source. That's a big difference. Right now, you go to Google and there is no source. It is just what you're going to read, what you're going to verify, and then you have to verify it With an automation system. There is no verification. It goes straight to the source. It brings it back to the information.

Speaker 2: 14:39

Look, at the end of the day, we as humans are not what we used to be. I, when I was growing up, I knew everybody's single phone number. I worked with an attorney for 10 years. I knew every customer's phone number by memory because we didn't have cell phones. Right, I'm dating myself, but we didn't have cell phones that we used at that time. Now I can barely remember my husband's phone number, much less. I just gave phone numbers to my kids. Well, I certainly haven't put that into my brain. So we are just in a different generation.

Speaker 2: 15:07

So much information comes in. Very less is retained. So, as technicians, you're going to continue to have that. They may have skilled trades. They may have understanding. There's so much equipment that is coming out. So many changes in refrigerant as it is. The new laws that happened in 2023 have affecting this massively. So there's just so much more in the HVAC department that needs assistance that we're not getting, and we're not getting that assistance in either our manufacturers. And the longer that we prevent this types of modifications from happening, the more we're going to hurt ourselves and the more the taxpayer and the homeowner is going to pay for it 100%.

Speaker 1: 15:44

So, along the same vein, now I want you to think about. You know these young folks way younger than me or you, I don't even know what generation. I know millennials to below me and I don't know what's below the, I guess Gen Z. But think about the attraction If your company has technology behind it. That's a huge attraction for younger people because they look younger. People are just a different breed, right, they're just a different breed. They're you know, they're not going to pick up the phone and call.

Speaker 2: 16:18

It's not paper, there's no paper trail with the younger generations. So let's just take, for example, the newspaper. Older generations and I want to say maybe 55, maybe 60 and up, for sure, 60 and up want to read the paper. They want tangible, they want to hold it, they want to see it, they feel informed. The younger generation does not want to even condemnatory, you know, because that's what they're looking at, and so they go based on what is happening in the world, and so they will see everything online. Now, if you're a business owner and you don't have things automated, where there's it's paperless, no invoices, where they're having to rewrite everything, write their hours down, have things tracked and just have everything automated, then you're completely lacking out on enticing that younger generation.

Speaker 1: 17:08

Yeah, and you're really missing business because ultimately you know I mean I'll just speak for most people in the trades are not the most organized human beings on the planet Like organization. Most of us didn't get an A in that and so, you know, anything that can help me stay organized is a lifesaver lots of times, I mean if I don't have to think about it's like. I'll give you a great example like Pricebook. I know a lot of people most people still have to update their Pricebook manually. So I understand getting busy as the owner and understand that maybe that slipped through the crack and maybe you just didn't update, or maybe you updated as you go, which is time consuming.

Speaker 2: 17:54

Right Well, corey, right now. On Pricebooks, I would be surprised if anybody still has a Pricebook out there. With the way equipment has been rated since 2023, the new sales you can't sell anything from. That was created in 2022, everything has to be manufactured going forward in 2023. You don't have pricing. Your pricing changes every seven days. Quotes that used to say this is good for 30 days, now it's good for five. So no, the Pricebooks, that's a thing of the past as well. You know. Right now, it is understanding information at your fingertips. Anything that can help generate that. That's what we need to be looking into.

Speaker 1: 18:33

Yeah, I agree. So we've automated that process from the manufacturer, so you never have to look at it again, like you don't even have to think about it, which is a lifesaver, all right, so let's get back on where we started the conversation, which is about women in the trades. So where do you find and I want you just to speak candidly here where have you? Because I know there's areas that women are going to excel at that men don't excel at in this industry. What are some of those things could be?

Speaker 2: 19:07

Just in nature. I think that women pay a little bit more attention to detail. Not that men are not detail oriented, but the women, because they second-guess themselves a lot more men and have this confidence that they just run off their shoulders. Women have to develop the confidence based on the marketing that well, we can go into that subject on another rampage, but we're not going to go down that rabbit hole. Based on the fact that women need more detail for themselves and for what they're putting forward, they will take a little bit more extra time. They will take those extra five to 10 minutes to make sure that their walkways are clear, to make sure that they have all their tools before they get off, to make sure that when they go in that they're presented and they're taken seriously. Especially a woman in the trades coming to a door. Most homeowners don't expect that and so you're not taking us seriously. All she doesn't really understand what she's doing, so you're always having to prove that, and so part of those symptoms also creates better technical services.

Speaker 2: 20:11

As a woman in the business, I've had issues where I was told excuse me, I want to speak to the man in charge, and I was like I am the president of the company. How can I help you? And they were like no, but I want to speak to the man in charge. The man, I know there's a man there that's in charge, not you. I don't want to speak to you. So I have had many different things that have happened to me that I've had to go through and work through and just to build that strength and that communication and the ability to prove that I am understanding what I'm doing and that I'm here to support the community.

Speaker 1: 20:48

You must have a good amount of emotional intelligence by now, because that's tough. I mean, I can't speak for myself, but I bet that's tough.

Speaker 2: 20:58

I had it where my thought? Because my father started this business. There was a gentleman. My father and I were talking and there was a gentleman in the room that was friends of the family and he was standing in there. My dad and I were talking about the business and he turned around and he said in front of me, he tells my father, you're not, you turned it over to her. She's going to fail. Why would you turn it over to your daughter? She doesn't know what she's doing in front of me. And that was back in 2012, 2011. I've had technicians who have come in to apply and when they realize that a female is in charge, they don't come back because they don't want to work for a female. The phrase in Spanish in my area, because we're predominantly Hispanic is my technicians were made fun of at warehouses when they would go in to pick up equipment, and so some of the ways that I added that was I just stopped buying from them and until that changed, man, that's that I would guess I really would.

Speaker 1: 22:02

I would never solve that.

Speaker 2: 22:04

Minimal things, minimal things that we have had to go through as women business owners, which is why I ended up looking online for an organization where women were welcomed in the trades. And that's when I was able to find women in HVAC, which is my heart, my love, my passion, and one of the things that I really wanted to do was to make sure that passion is that we do. We developed a scholarship ability to give out to females at first. When I first came into the board, they were. The organization has been around for 21 years and stopped me when you want to stop me, but it's been around for 21 years and they've been doing scholarships.

Speaker 2: 22:40

You know the $500 scholarships, and then they were doing $1,000. And when I came in we were able to ramp it up to 2000. So we've done it for two years. We've done it for two years in a row and next year or last year we started an endowment fund. So now the monies that we raise, we put them straight into an endowment so it bears interest, so that we will always have scholarship money to give out and we don't have to be hitting up sponsors just to be able to find women to go into the trades.

Speaker 1: 23:08

So I don't know how, I don't know if me and would have thought about that part. I'll be honest. So that's super smart and that's a great example of thinking outside of the box, right? I mean, that's a perfect example, dude, that's great. I didn't mean to call you dude, I call everybody dude.

Speaker 2: 23:27

That's okay, I don't get offended. I'm from Texas. We're used to sweetie honey. You know it's part of our nature in Texas. Now don't talk to somebody in North Carolina like that. That might be different, but Texas, where you.

Speaker 1: 23:39

So I wonder if and I don't know if you have any, I don't know if you've run statistics on this or not, but I wonder, if you gave the homeowner a choice, would you like to have? And I suppose it would depend if it was a man or a woman a homeowner, I suppose. But if they had a choice of having a lady come out or a man come out, I wonder what the choice would be most of the time.

Speaker 2: 24:08

Honestly, I feel that it would still be the favorite would be a male. Just because of how marketing is done. Women are barely beginning to get out there into social media and show what they can do, so it's still not a favorite among the regular, typical homeowner. I've had some female friends of mine call me that are friends of mine, that they're like okay, I'm calling you. My husband has been waiting for his buddy for two, three days to come fix this AC. They haven't done anything.

Speaker 2: 24:38

This is what's happening. I need some help. Can you help me? I'll send you a technician. But I think this is what's happening. I think you should try to do this. Let me know how it works. I think you know, make sure you leave it on. I'll just look a couple of tips. Then they call me back and they're like oh my goodness. But you know, I did what you said. It turned on, it started working and now you're sending the technician over. Can I cancel the call? But you know, just think that you know people that are even friends of mine. It's more. They're more apt to go to the buddy of the husband and wait before they call me first. It's just the nature of the beast, and until we get more women into these fields and we have that, you know, ability and we have the marketing set up to welcome the females, I think it's still going to be a climb up the ladder.

Speaker 1: 25:27

Wow, that makes sense and I could totally see that. But you're changing. You're changing how the industry is looking at it. In fact, roger Wakefield and I just talked about this a few episodes ago, about how we both believe that women are going to do great. We believe that there should be more women in the trades and, quite frankly, he brought up that it was a funny commercial and I made butchered this. I can't remember what the brand was, but he said there was a commercial last year or two years ago where a guy saw it was a plumbing company pulled up in front of the house and a lady got out and then it panned over and showed the guy like the neighbor, not the house they was going to, but the neighbor started shoving stuff in the toilet, right, so they could get right.

Speaker 2: 26:16

I remember that commercial.

Speaker 1: 26:18

I think it's hilarious. Maybe it just kind of makes you think I mean, I don't know that I necessarily have a preference, but I'd be totally fine with that Like it wouldn't discount the service, in my opinion, to have a lady come and do it. Like if it wouldn't matter to me, like I think we would probably do better in school.

Speaker 2: 26:43

Cory, you have to also remember cultures, right. Different cultures have baggage from the past that can prevent development and growth of the female and the trades, For example. I'm just gonna take my heritage, which is the Hispanic heritage. There is still a lot of machismo in this heritage line. So having a female doing man's work is just uncalled for and the last thing that they would wanna do is have a female walk in when they couldn't even fix it themselves. So there is some training that has to change, mindsets that have to be shifted.

Speaker 2: 27:22

I remember when I was growing up my dad would leave with my brother to go do jobs and they would come home filthy, right and sweaty. And they'd come home and I'd be like, oh my God, I wanna go with you tomorrow. It looks like so much fun. I wanna come home dirty with grease and I just wanna go see what you're doing, right? And I would tell them I said I wanna go, I wanna go work with you dad. And he would tell me you stay at home with your mom and helper in the kitchen, and that's in my family generation, right? And so sometimes I laugh when I say the story because I always say, well, look at me now, dad, look at me now, right, but because that's how you're raised, so again, different cultures will have easier grasps to modifications and changes than some other. Cultures may still not encourage or pull back that female in those traits.

Speaker 1: 28:13

It feels like maybe the high schools would also be a great place to start too.

Speaker 2: 28:20

What we're doing is we're going into middle school and high school but technically it's really gotta start young, because the conversations are not there when you're young and you're starting to set up ideas from what you see and what you hear at a younger base period of what you're gonna like. And so if you, we don't hit them when they're younger, by the time we get to seniors, to technical school, they already are looking at something else that they wanna do. And plus, because this is a hard trade, it's still manual labor. A lot of families are putting their kids into the four-year college not to do the manual labor Right. I mean, we're gonna have an influx of so many attorneys that some of the attorneys are gonna have to go learn some manual labor so they can get paid.

Speaker 1: 29:09

You're right and I look, I, if anybody that's in high school right now and they have a choice and this is just my personal opinion of going to a four-year college or going to a trade school and working through that time and making money, you're probably, I would argue you're gonna be ahead of that four-year degree person, because, one, they're probably not gonna be able to find a job. Two, I don't know that they look, and I'm not knocking four-year schools or maybe I am I just don't know what they're teaching you in there. In the real world there's really you don't get real world experience. It's a you're in a box and then they expect you to move into another box and I don't know about you. But that just doesn't sound appealing to me.

Speaker 2: 29:56

Of course, I've flunked out of college, so Remember, not everybody is set for being in an office. You're sitting down for eight hours. You see the same four walls, sometimes you don't even have, you know, windows to look outside of. You're in a cubicle. You're around people all the time. Computer noises is all you hear. You get annoyed already at home by somebody slurping breakfast cereal, right, can you imagine being in a cubicle around this? You know same people all day long, eight hours a day. That can be very mind frustrating, consuming, depleting to people, right, depleting to people. And so we just wanna make sure that we're giving people the opportunity, especially young generations, to express themselves, to understand the work environments and give them those opportunities and options.

Speaker 1: 30:47

Yeah, cause you know you're right, it does start really, really young and, my goodness, you're fighting a real uphill battle, you know, I think, especially with some of the you know, call it conspiracies or whatever you wanna call it there's a lot of garbage out there right. There's a lot of stuff floating around our kids schools right now that I personally don't agree with, and it's like the furthest thing for what you and I are talking about. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 31:18

Yes, I do. I do feel that the generations that we have coming up have different options and opportunities and are open to many different things, and us, as parents, really need to sit down and become more parent parents as opposed to trying to be their best friends or just their friends. One thing my mom always told me is I'm not your friend, I'm your mom, so I'm here to discipline and give you the best guidance that I can, and when you leave, then it's your. You're on your own for your decisions. But as parents, we have to do the hard work at home. But we also have to be educated ourselves, and in order to be educated, we have to be familiar with what's happening. We have to understand the different possibilities that are out there and get to know your kid what's the best thing for them.

Speaker 1: 32:12

Yeah, 100 percent. Parents being parents is. It is pretty mind blowing to me like there has to be a separation. And you know, and I get it like you want the best for your kid, you don't want them to have a hard life, but but really, if you're not, if you're not showing them discipline, if you're not instilling habits, if you're not, you know, showing them the way the world is going to be, they're going to get there, they're going to get out in the real world. And then what the hell they going to do?

Speaker 2: 32:47

One of the things I tell my kids all the time, because I have three daughters. I don't know, I didn't ask you, do you have children?

Speaker 1: 32:53

One daughter.

Speaker 2: 32:55

One daughter. I have three daughters. Ok, we have three daughters, and I tell them all the time I don't know how to parent in this world. I grew up in a different world. I don't didn't have access to what you have access to. My phone use was very minimal. I had to have it attached to the wall and everybody heard my conversations. There was no apps and no fun things and nobody could contact me directly unless I was in a computer, and I only had a computer at school. So I don't know how to parent. I don't know how much time to give you. I don't know what is should be allowed and shouldn't be allowed.

Speaker 2: 33:32

I'm setting rules up as the airplane is in the sky, right, and so, yes, you're going to get frustrated with me as your parent. Yes, you're going to get mad at me. We're going to have screaming matches, we're going to get upset about time frames and time limits. But, understand, I don't know how to be a parent. I'm being a parent as you are a child. We're working together through it. So if you help me with those rules, then we can have a better life together.

Speaker 2: 33:57

But if you don't help me with those rules, we're always going to struggle, and so that has really helped us. Because now when I tell them OK, it's 10 o'clock, it's a school night, I need those phones up. I don't let them have the phones in the room at night, I don't let them have iPads, I don't. You know what I mean. Like I just let's keep that stuff away and separate so you can sleep and you know. And now they obey a lot easier, not because they're obeying me, but because they're understanding I'm struggling with them what rules we should follow. And if they go with me to these rules, then we can work to less stricter rules as they get older, because trust is being built, the relationship is there and communication is always open, but that's a different time to do it.

Speaker 1: 34:39

It is. But you know something I agree with you, and it's hard to even realize my daughter's 14 and a half. Like I don't. I sometimes I just don't know. Like you know, I feel like I should go through her phone and see what she's texting about. At the same time, you know, I've got to be able to trust her, but at what point, do you know, it's a hard line to. That's a, that's a. That's one of the harder things that I've had to wrestle with, so to speak. I just don't know.

Speaker 2: 35:10

So one of the things that I did with my daughters, because the first one I made quite a bit of mistakes on because I tried to be too strict of a parent and tried to control way too much, and so I saw the things that I did wrong and how to change.

Speaker 2: 35:23

Hopefully some of that with, you know, my other children, because my daughter, my older daughter and I, we talk a lot more now, and so with my younger ones, what I try to do is tell them oh, who are you texting, can I see? Who are you playing with? And they like to play on games, right? So I made myself a username on the game and every now and then, maybe one hour out of a weekend, I'll be like can I play on the game with you? And they'll set me up and I'll get into the game and I'll listen to their friends and I'll try to. I die all the time. They always kill me, but I'm in the game for that one hour. Is it something I want to do? No, but it's something as a parent you need to do get involved in what it is that they're doing, because they're not going to get involved in what you're doing. They're not the parent you are.

Speaker 1: 36:06

And guess what? That opens up all kinds of like little conversations because you're interested. It's like going to a customer's house. You got to be interested in what that customer cares about, because they don't really care about you.

Speaker 2: 36:20

They.

Speaker 2: 36:20

You've got to know if they have a dog. If they have a dog, you should know their dog's name. The technician should be writing it down. It should be in the notes in the system so that we win. The office calls are like is is a little feather going to be there today, you know, is he going to be out in the open? Is he going to be at the vet? I know last time you had him at Daddy Daycare then customers feel like, oh wow, you do care about me. They have children. How many children do they have? Those little notes need to be accounted for.

Speaker 2: 36:45

I always tell my staff. They ask me like three times man, what's your gatecode number? I'm like you shouldn't be asking me for my gatecode number. It should already be in the system. Anytime anybody asks me two times to repeat myself. I'm already frustrated as a customer because of my nature. So if I'm already frustrated and you're my company and you can't even keep notes on me, what makes you think I'm going to want to go back to you? I'm going to price check, I'm going to find somebody else because, anyways, I'm just anybody else to you. But make me feel special, make me feel important, tell me. You know, hey, I have your gatecode. We're going to be there at this time. You already know what I like. I'm not going to want to switch one. I don't want to deal with another headache. I don't want to have to train anybody else.

Speaker 2: 37:25

You know what I mean. And you have to listen to your customer, customer, customer base, and customer listening is key. I had a customer this just this past week that we had an issue on a billing section and we had to go back to do a job. And my office was like well, he's just frustrated, he's mad, there's communication. And I said, well, let's communicate in a better way. Got him on the phone, put him on speaker, had my staff in the room and I said what can I do to help you? What seems to be the problem? And he's like well, this is the problem.

Speaker 2: 37:53

We went through it and I said I can understand that. You said one, you said two, you said three. This is what we did for one, this is what we did for two, this is what we did for three. Are we clear? Are we in agreement on at least those points? And he was like you are correct Now, when you say it like that, yes, I completely understand and agree with your staff. And then I said, okay, if we're here now, what can we do to get past this hump and move forward? And great conversation, we're meeting next week, we're going to get the job done. He wants us to do all his systems. It's just a matter of that broad, open communication.

Speaker 1: 38:33

Yeah, people just want their problem fixed. You know, do they complain about price? Maybe do they complain that they'd like a discount, because but if you're just cool with them, you're probably not going to have to worry about any of that. They just want their stuff fixed Every day to leave.

Speaker 2: 38:48

Right. We have to understand we're all human, right? My technicians are not going to be perfect. They may have had a bad day, they may have made a mistake. Nobody is human. So when you can agree to that with a customer and you can say, yeah, you're right, maybe he should have said hello to you in a better way. I apologize that he didn't have that conversation. Let me reach out, let me have that conversation with him, but that's not who we are. How can we take care of you? What can we do for you? Ask them today, moving forward, reach the mistakes that human error has and then provide the best customer service the next day. That is how we have to live, right? That's what community means.

Speaker 1: 39:25

Totally 100%. So I'm glad you mentioned community. I am curious. You know it's getting ready to be Thanksgiving and I'm curious what you guys do. Do you? Are you involved in the community? I would imagine you definitely do stuff in the community. What? I'm just curious, what maybe some of those things are? What do you feel like you give back to the community?

Speaker 2: 39:50

Well, first, I serve on several boards. I serve on a Valley wide chamber One because I think chambers are commerce, are extremely important, and every state, your chambers of commerce are your small business. They help you with tips, rules, regulations. They can keep you on know. So I serve on a Rio Grande Valley one. I also serve on a partnership which brings in legislative understanding, state laws, federal law, information and helps educate and grow our community in that manner. And I also serve on the Better Business Bureau.

Speaker 2: 40:24

I truly believe that the Better Business Bureau, it's a hundred year old system. It's not an Angie's list, nothing to say about any of those. It's not a Yelp, it's not a review. It is a true business that will fight for you. It's an accreditation One. You have to be accepted. You don't just get to apply and you get in. You don't just make a payment because they don't accept it. You have to be accredited. You have to have an A plus rating. You have to respond to complaints, which means you have to be a business that is involved with the consumer. So if you're going through all these different points, you're serving ethically in your business, then the Better Business Bureau is the best way to go, and they have an arbitration. So instead of going into, I'm going to sue you, you're going to sue me. Hey, let's arbitrate it. Let's get in a group that is morally, ethically guided, and they can help us resolve this problem that apparently we can't because we don't know how to communicate together. So there's just so many different opportunities out there in some of those chambers that are Business Bureau opportunities organizations and, of course, the women in HVAC giving away scholarships.

Speaker 2: 41:26

I serve on the school advisory for technical colleges. You have to get involved so that you can see what it is that your customer is looking for. The best way to do that is to hear from everybody else to bring changes and input into your own company. Soft skills is extremely important. That what you're doing and training to these different technical fields. It is extremely necessary, not only in the technician side but also in the office side. I called for some services. We needed some sewer service. I would call and the person would be like I'm busy and they would hang up on me. They wouldn't even take my phone number, they wouldn't take my address. They'd be like call me in a week. I was like and you're in business. I mean, there's so much lack in the technical training soft skill program that people can learn from and adapt and bring to their business.

Speaker 1: 42:18

Yeah, it makes their life easier. It makes everybody happier. If you can communicate, you make more money, you have an easier day at work, you don't get as frustrated, the business owner makes more money. Everybody wins. But when you have poor communication or one of the things that I know how pet peeves is when people use technical jargon I'm a customer. I don't know what the hell that means. You're not going to sell me something that I can't even pronounce, right?

Speaker 2: 42:44

I like to reference an AC unit to a vehicle, because men know vehicles and so, especially when I'm talking to a man, I like to say okay, you're AC unit, you have an air hander and you have a condenser. What does that mean? You have a transmission and you have a motor. Just because I fixed the motor doesn't mean I touched the transmission Right. And in order for you to have a running car, I need to touch both of them to make sure that they're operating up to car. Now I fixed the motor, I've got to fix the transmission, so I might fix the condenser, but I still got to fix the air handler.

Speaker 2: 43:19

And then, now that I've got all that fixed, your ducts are like your tires. Your car ain't going anywhere if it's flat. The air flow is going nowhere if there's no air in the proper distribution setting. So I have to check out the distribution of air. Ac cooling is one thing, ac airflow air flow is something totally different. Let's get those tires checked. We've got to get them clean, you've got to get them maintained. You know, I've got to take care of you so you can be functioning totally. And I'm going to tell you, as a vehicle owner your vehicle sits parked at night while you sleep, and it sits parked in front of your office while you work. For the most part, unless you're a driving salesman, your AC unit works all day long and works while you sleep. If you think maintenance on a car is important, you better think again. Your AC requires double the love. Let's do those maintenance agreements. Let's get you hooked up two times a year.

Speaker 1: 44:19

That makes so much sense. I don't think I've ever heard anybody explain it like that. That's so good, makes total sense. Right, I never thought about it and I had never in all this time, I had never thought about the fact you're right. I mean, the car's AC runs what? An hour a day, two hours a day at most, and the AC unit runs 24-7.

Speaker 2: 44:39

Wow, Female perspective Corey telling you.

Speaker 1: 44:44

You killed it. I love that. That was good. I'm probably going to steal that. I'm not going to lie to you.

Speaker 2: 44:50

That's probably the 45 minutes right.

Speaker 1: 44:54

It is getting close. So if there's a lady listening to this and they want to find out more about how to get into the trades, where would you recommend them go? And then, if there's a business owner, if there's an employee or whoever that wants to reach out to you for more information or to I don't want to say, pick your brain. I hate that.

Speaker 2: 45:15

I would love conversation. I'm here to help Through women and HVAC. It's wwwwomeninhvacrorg. Look for us. We have an ambassador program. We are looking for people to help us apply men or female, to come in and speak to the different schools. We provide the information, the education packet for you. You don't even have to create it just so that you can go in to talk about the skill trades to our younger generation. We have mentor mentee programs where we sign up. You sign yourself up and you say I want to be mentored. Or you say I have great information and knowledge, I want to be a mentee to somebody. We even take men. Come on in, let's educate, let's teach, let's trade. Whatever it is that we can do to give back should be our priority. So look for us.

Speaker 2: 46:03

On women in HVACR, if you're looking for a scholarship, we have $5,000. We've got six of them every single year and we hope to increase them, so just follow us and apply. We have 37 applicants at one time, so we're excited that we're getting more females in. And, just to let you know, my master plumber is a female. I've had a journey electrician for three years in my company and I'm still looking for an HVAC technician, so we're always open. Look for me online atlasrgbcom. On our website. Look for me on Instagram Sarah underscore atlasrgbcom. Or look for me under LinkedIn Sarah Hammond. So we're here for you and thank you for this opportunity, corey.

Speaker 1: 46:46

This was fantastic. I really appreciate you, Appreciate what you're doing. Thank you, so so so much. This was great.

Speaker 2: 46:54

Thank you.