Uptime Industrial - The Importance of Relationships for Growth

On this episode, we discuss the exciting story of Uptime Industrial and the amazing growth the business has experienced over the past couple of years.  From a specialized contractor to one of BC’s largest and most integrated mechanical companies, Uptime has been growing and scaling as a leader in the sector. We speak with Reza about the history of the firm and how culture and relationships have driven their success. We dig into the different services Uptime provides the market and how their focus on the customer has been key to their expansion. Reza shares some details about Uptime’s culture and team approach and how this aligns with his personal values and drive. This is a great episode to learn from a leader in an organization that is growing the right way with the correct customers, employees, and culture. 

About Uptime Industrial: 

Install. Maintain. Repair. Upgrade. Uptime Industrial is a full-service mechanical contractor servicing Western Canada. From electrical to mechanical, refrigeration to HVAC and automation to General Contracting Uptime is a one-stop-shop that delivers quality, innovation, and service. 

https://www.uptimeindustrial.com/ 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to the Site Visit Podcast. Leadership in construction with perspective from the job site. With your host, Andrew Hansen, James Faulkner, and Christian Hammond. Let's get down to it. Okay, hello guys. How's it going? What is happening? COVID still.

SPEAKER_04 0:29

This is crazy. Well, I mean, it's starting to get better. We're gonna hear today, especially that uh, you know, all these all the states and provinces here in North America are doing their openings and all whatever their plans are. So we'll we'll hear ours here on the west coast of Canada today.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Yeah. I mean it's it is crazy to think that it's May um already. And I know uh for our team it's been a couple weeks, obviously, work remotely as well. And it's just yeah, it's it's it's crazy to think the May's here and we're moving forward.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

It's weird, but like walking through uh I've been to the office a couple of times and walking through Vancouver, all the manholes and like um electrical coverings and the sidewalks, all the all the service little things that are in the concrete, they all say C O V on them for city of Vancouver, and I always think, hey, COVID. It's like this is like a reminder, right? Yeah, it's weird.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

So anyway. Strange observation, but anyway. So yeah, we um we had uh Reza on from Uptime Industrial. God, that guy was awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:38

Yeah, yeah, solid dude came out of industry, um, out of uh the construction industry as in, not from the construction industry, and now into it. Super relevant though, like awesome background and uh and input into what's currently happening with their business in during COVID and beyond.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Yeah, I loved it. I think it was such a good combination between talking about culture, talking about growth, expansion, and he uh did such a good job explaining their story and in his personal story too. I loved the flow of it, and I think it was a it's a great episode for people that are growing, their companies are experiencing growth. And um always asking that question about people and culture. I think it was it was a really good balance of that.

SPEAKER_03 2:24

You can tell, like um, when we have, we've had a few MBAs on the podcast. You can tell how like clear they think. I don't know. Maybe it's the result of doing an MBA, but man, do they ever just you know they just snap right into it's almost like the charisma and the everything's kind of dialed in there. It's kind of weird, eh?

SPEAKER_02 2:42

Yeah. This is great because we did uh obviously we're all remote still, but having the video component to our podcast, so I know people listening can't see the video, but for us, we're all on screen, we can see each other, we can engage. We still have that connection, which I guess I think is great and it adds it adds to some of the uh chats that we have.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

Well, some of the the we kind of have had to adjust to not having people in studio. I mean, that's been a kind of a you know, we really enjoyed that time. You know, we would always uh in the mornings, uh we what did we have that the sunrise and sunset uh different uh sessions that we would do? And you know, on the we've had everything from wine to tequila to fireball in the morning.

SPEAKER_04 3:21

So we've had I kind of missed that part, but uh well, we're kind of doing a sunset one, we're doing another one later today. Um we are, yeah. There'll be some there'll be some beers enjoyed, I'm sure, on uh the opposite ends of this thing, but it's actually been pretty enjoyable, I think. Um these times, like obviously we want to keep improving what we're doing here um as a construction podcast. Um, we want to bring on guests that are super relevant, also want to bring on guests that are um uh more international or at least across North America and doing what we're doing. We were just talking about this, uh, you know, we just wrapped up with Reza. And um this is gonna allow us to be way more flexible uh to bring in guests that are abroad, and which is good, it's what we always wanted to do. And um James has made this kick-ass like package that goes out to all of our guests and and keeps the experience super tight. There's like a mic and a whole podcast thing in a box. So uh I think you did a pretty good job of that, man. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

Yeah, and it was it's it's been pretty cool. I mean, a shout out to Squadcast is the uh the software we use, which is online and basically invite people and like even doing this intro right now, we're all in different places, we're all on video right now, even though we don't have a video component. It's really cool. It gives you that sense of body language. Like even when we're going through the podcast, we tend to uh have the exact very similar experience anyway to being in person so we're not stepping on each other's words. So, you know, that's that's critical to have the video working. So do a good job.

SPEAKER_04 4:59

Totally pretty system. So Reza, uptime. Talked a little bit about it. Um, these guys are up and coming. Well, not up and coming, they're they're well on their way. Um full service. Yeah, no doubt. They've scaled fast. And um Reza joined them uh a couple years ago, year and year ago. And um, man, just great experience from where he was coming from. And just as that lends to his explanation of their culture and how it's building and growing and how they've dealt with this crisis and everything, super relevant. And I think uh I think everyone's really gonna enjoy it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:36

Yeah, from robots to uh chicken parts falling on his head was quite the episode.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah, yeah. And uh, we'll share some more detail about Uptime in the show notes. Their brand is is pretty unique and and what they're doing is special as well, too. So yeah, we loved having Reza on and hearing the Uptime story and excited to share it with you. Let's get to it.

SPEAKER_04 5:57

Here we are, first podcast in May. Um yeah, I know this year is flying. Um, but we've got um James and Andrew and myself, Christian, and we are joined by Reza Nazarena. Thank you. Close, yes, got it. Yeah, nailed it. Boom. With uh he's the um VP of business development for Uptime full name, Uptime Industrial, but everyone knows them as Uptime. And Andrew, you and Reza are connected or have been uh connected here for a little bit. Why don't you guys uh kick us off here and dig into this a little bit more?

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Yeah, I'm excited to have Reza on the show and learn more about the Uptime story. But yeah, we I think we tried to connect probably for like the last year. And as everyone's schedules work, um, month after month it kind of went by. And then um yeah, we just connected and said, Hey, let's get you on the podcast in May. And uh here we are, and we're excited to kind of hear your story, learn about your background, learn about uptime. And I think you guys are unique too, as we are still in that COVID time and the concept of essential service, what does that look like? How do companies adapt? You guys are really in the heart of that in the work that you guys do, and so unpacking that's gonna be great too. But yeah, we're excited. So I'll pass it over to you, Reza. Maybe just give a quick overview on who is uptime, and uh we'll get started.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Fantastic. First of all, thanks uh for having me on the podcast. Um Yeah, so who is Uptime? Uptime is um a group of individuals that came together to want to make a difference. So in we we're we're seeing as a one-stop shop. Uh, we have in-house electrical, mechanical, HVAC refrigeration, we do building automation, robotics. Um, and the whole idea and concept behind Uptime was to be a premium brand that partners uh with our clientele. So I mean, we have a situation where uh our customers will stop by uh even when we're not dealing with them just to say hello and then see how we're doing. So that uh partnership and being a resource for them is very important for us, and I think that's what really sets us apart. So we don't get called in to just take care of uh a certain issue uh with a piece of equipment or an upgrade or an install. Uh, we're actually looked at consultants. So it will get brought in to to bring in efficiencies or or deal with things that are out of the box.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

That's awesome. And then area of operation for people listening, um, mostly BC. Obviously, you guys can do work out of province, and then maybe just size a team and kind of head operation.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Yeah, so we're so we're in our uh sixth year, we're about uh 100 uh people just shy of 100 people. Uh we've got close to 70 techs. Uh we've got about 65 trucks on the road. We do work primarily from all of BC. I mean, you're you're looking from from uh hope all the way down to to squamish. We've done uh certain projects in in the interior. So we do travel, we've done stuff down the states uh as well, given our our niche um expertise in in certain areas. So we do kind of go where uh we're demanded, but basically we are uh from from hope to squamish is what we cover.

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Well, is is there a certain uh focus of the types of work that you you guys do that is uh like a concentration? Like is there a certain percentage of your work that's kind of in the same category?

SPEAKER_00 9:19

What's interesting with us is is we're across uh a different, a large array of different businesses. It's more of a fit with that business in our business model. I wouldn't say we're specific to to one industry, uh, but we've it's a type of clientele that we're able to partner with.

SPEAKER_03 9:37

But just looking at your your website under your services, you know, you have refrigeration, automation, all the things that you that you um that you were talking about earlier, is there it is the uh a significant part of your revenue in any of those or any of them hot spots?

SPEAKER_00 9:52

It it's we're spread across pretty evenly. I couldn't tell you this is what we do in the world. All right, got it. And to be honest, that's something that's been a saving grace for us, right?

SPEAKER_03 10:02

Yeah, diversified, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Exactly. So I mean if you look at uh our business, you would think, okay, if it was just HVAC, it'd be seasonal. Well, that's offset with with electrical. Um so when you have peaks in in some uh trades, you you you you have valleys in others, and that offsets it. So that's why we have that continual stream.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

Is that an intentional thing that you guys strategically did for the company? That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Yeah, that's awesome. That's all. And then kind of put you on the spot, what would be a typical project? I mean, that's probably the same answer as diversified, many different types, but maybe just giving a snapshot for people listening, what would you do?

SPEAKER_00 10:37

It's interesting. So, I mean, if you look at um, like I'll give you uh based on on uh size of projects, we do project from 15,000 to close to$4 million. So if you think about what would be required to have that level of diversity, because it if you can imagine$15,000 project is much different than uh close to$4 million project. That the PMing that you have to have, project management, the the structure that you have to have, the organization, how you're gonna roll it out, um, would be very different. So that's something we have in-house is being adaptable um to that. So that gives you an idea of uh the array of stuff we do.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

And I I think James and I chat a bit about this too, but I love the brand. I love the name. Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

It's yeah, a lot of a lot of thought went into that, and it's interesting. Like we'll be in meetings where uh people will say, you know, we can't afford to have downtime. It's like, well, you can't afford not to have uptime. So it plays into it nicely.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

That's that's a that's the natural one for sure. It's got awesome. Um, and you came into the journey with uptime how long ago?

SPEAKER_00 11:44

So my story's uh interesting. I've been here um a bit over a year now, and the way I got into uptime was uh the the president, uh Alan Fitzsimmons, we call Fitz, him and I did our uh MBA together. And uh in talking about what he wanted to do with with the business and kind of my skill set, uh, we courted for about uh close to two years of going back and forth uh as we were finishing the MBA, and it was just a natural progression of uh coming and working uptime. So it wasn't it wasn't him saying, hey, come work with me, or be me being like, hey, I want to work with you. It was just kind of this natural thing that was just like, hey, this makes sense uh to where you want to take the company and and the skill set I bring to be able to uh have that partnership.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

So it says on the website here that you uh marketing and operations for Fortune 500 companies. Uh, can you give us uh some of those that you've worked with?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Absolutely. So I mean, so uh recently I came over from Allergan. So Allergan is is uh Botox and Fillers Juvederm. Um so I was the uh Western.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Yeah, use them all the time, can't you tell? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

It's interesting, you'd be surprised how many people uh actually use uh those products. And uh we actually did a uh before I left, we did the the it was called Botox was the campaign. So it was it was Botox for for men. So a lot of a lot of users out there. So I have actually a diverse background. So I started uh at Syntos, uh, which was facility services, fresh, fresh out of school. And from there I went into medical devices, dental, and then medical devices, uh, eye care, um, pharmaceutical. Uh so what's interesting about these different industries is that although they're different products, I've had success because it's it comes down to people, and that's what it is at the end of the day, is it's finding um what people want and satisfying that need. And that's the the common theme across uh different different industries.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

How have you seen it? Everyone in our industry in construction always talks about we're relationship business, we're relationship business. And I believe that's true. From you having that different sector experience, how would you say construction is a little bit different than the medical field or facility services, et cetera?

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Well, what I love about this industry is is uh you you you get what you see, right? So there's no um cunning or or or being told one thing. It's very different uh in that aspect of it. So it's so it's it's uh you're dealing with good people, right? And and the relationship, you're absolutely right, it is it is all about relationship. But uh what a lot of people forget is those relationships have to come naturally. And with any relationship, it has to be give and take. Um, and you have to work at it. So it isn't something that just happens overnight, it's something that you have to prove yourself and and and form that relationship. Um, I think far too often people might be given um certain projects just based on a relationship, but the relationship you got to work at it, right? So just because you have a relationship doesn't mean uh you should be given that uh project or or um the things that you're doing. It's you you should be tested and you should step up. Um so I think it's it's gotta go both ways for the for the relationship.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Well, Christian can probably uh speak to this, but uh you know, from being in the PM game, but um I remember when when we were starting uh our company Sitemax, uh, you know, I I didn't come from construction. When we start to understand the people in construction, really started to understand that the um the sort of basis that trust people have is is uh formed by the fact that you know, each time the minute a general contractor's uh contract is signed for whatever structure, whatever building, whatever renovation is the second it changed. Because people's timelines change, and that means that people's plans change and everyone has to adjust. So it takes the characters of the relationships to hold it together.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 15:45

And that's kind that's kind of why everyone has to be straightforward because if they don't, things just don't get done.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Well, it's I mean, it's I'm big on analysis, but if you look at it, it's almost like a marriage, right? If you're if you're putting your best foot forward, but that's not who you are, you're gonna have issues once you're you're living in the same house.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Yeah, yeah, totally. That's good.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

At home for five weeks.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Yeah, exactly. That's awesome. Yeah, I think your words, I like what you said of just um people are real. And that's something we talk about in this podcast a lot too, the people we bring on board and they say it as it is, and there's kind of no surprises. Absolutely. And and that's it's refreshing the work that we do. Um, on that note of relationships, I think I always like to talk about culture, and you guys are unique being about six years old and then scaling to you know around 100 employees. That's pretty significant growth. And so, I mean, you've been in with with the group for about a year, so you've you've seen it, you've had the experience with syntas and other groups, you've seen Fortune 500 and other groups. How could you explain the culture of uptime and that massive growth? And when you hire that many people, what does that look like?

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Absolutely, that's a that's a great question. And that's something we we pride ourselves with is the culture of uptime and maintaining that that culture as you grow, because as you know, it's it's it's very difficult. Uh having 10 good guys is a lot easier than trying to find a hundred good guys or a thousand good guys. Um, so we this actually came up in one of our town halls where we were discussing about our culture and how it can't just be something that you step back and talk about, right? You you can't say, oh, this is uptime's culture. You need to be a part of it. And if you're a part of it, then you need to be responsible for ensuring that that culture is disseminated through throughout the masses, right? So that everybody coming on board understands, look, this is who we are, this is what we're about, this is what's accepted, this is what's not accepted, right? We we often talk about championship teams. So when you have a championship team that that operates at that caliber, when someone comes in, they'll quickly understand, okay, you know what, I got to get to this level right away, or I'm not gonna fit in here. And that's that's kind of what what we've tried to foster here.

SPEAKER_04 17:56

Do you guys follow any framework for that? Um, not to go on a tangent too much, but um like traction in the OS or like scaling up or anything like that, or is that something that you've built internally? It we've built it internally.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

To be honest, it's been very organic. Um we we've attracted that that caliber of people. Like, I mean, we have people that come to uh our open houses, and and as you know, these industries they're they're very small. I mean, as large as they are, they're the top people kind of all know each other. Um, and for example, like our refrigeration, we have some of the top techs, and it's through hey, you guys have so-and-so there, I want to be a part of that. And then you'll they'll come in and we'll have a discussion. It's just like, oh wow, this is what a great place to be, what a great uh team to be a part of.

SPEAKER_04 18:38

That is the best way to grow and bring other people on your team in. Absolutely. Yeah, they're gonna bring A-players with them alongside them, and they're gonna catch this all from the outside and then come in, and onboarding is just easier and exactly. Oh man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

They do. When when when when you talk about culture, it's it's kind of weird. Like uh when people try and um uh pinpoint it on a a thing that you do, uh, or a thing that if you go into a company and say, you know, what's our culture? Well, it's the sum of all its parts, it's how you guys operate. Absolutely. It's it's it's um how the company as a whole deals with something difficult, or or how you uh deal with um celebrations from great contracts you've got, or you know, uh when someone's not doing well, how you support them. Um if someone is not happy at the company, how you deal with that from an HR point of view, it's you know how your customer stuff happens, it's it's the sum of how the company as a whole behaves.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

That's a great point.

SPEAKER_03 19:43

And it's something that you either have control of or influence, or you don't at all. And the culture just defines itself. You can't even you have a people say, Oh, yeah, we haven't done the culture thing. It's like, well, the fact that you just said that means you're doing it right now.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Right, right, right, right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 20:01

It's pretty cool that you guys um see it from that vantage point of uh understanding the you know, like it's pretty, pretty cool to listen to uh, you know, your perspective on it. So um are there any any things that you do? You said you have a a town hall, and Christian was saying, you know, is there any sort of framework? Um so with that town hall, do you guys go through some sort of a a process every time?

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Absolutely. So we have four of them uh a year where we uh go through uh financials so so that everybody understands where where we at, how are we doing as a company, uh who you who you associate with? So I mean it's one thing to say, hey, look, it's about our people and we're all inclusive, and then leave them out.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

Um this is open book financials?

SPEAKER_00 20:42

This is open book, right? So it's like, hey, here's how we did. Um so there's no surprises. So everyone, everyone sees that. Then we'll go through the different departments and they'll share successes they've had, challenges they've had. We'll get the new hires to come up, we'll we'll introduce them, um, welcome them to make sure everyone knows who they are. So it's a very inclusive uh part of it. And um I'll tell you a funny story about uh my first town hall, and and I going back to talking about uh people being real. So public speaking, I mean, that's uh business development sales, that's my thing. So I'm very comfortable uh in that situation. We were doing uh my very first town hall, and I had uh my slides ready to go. And uh so sure enough, I'm up there in front of everybody and I and I go to present, and my slides are all coming up strange. This this isn't what I'd put up and it isn't what I had practiced. So you're gonna remember, like I've done presentations in front of like six, seven hundred doctors and haven't had issues, and now I'm in front of these guys, and I'm getting nervous. Like, this isn't what I was gonna present. So, what they'd done is switch my slides around. Uh, but it's just funny, and I told them I was like, This is you know, the this is the first time I've been rattled. Um, and and speaking to Fitz, the the president, he was saying, you know, this is these guys welcoming you in, they're accepting you. Oh, so that's that was a genus as a joke. Yeah, it was a beautiful, beautiful setup, right? So it was it was part of a An introduction, I mean, someone coming from out of industry. I was talking about who I am, what I bring, what I'm about, and uh they had switched it up to like, oh, this guy likes to go for for lunches, he generally enjoys eating. So it was stuff like that, which was but it was it was uh camaraderie of it, right? So we all had a good laugh, and it was kind of like uh long walks in the wall.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Wow, that is pretty good. I could just see your face up there. I mean that just shows the culture too, like James is saying, like you can laugh at yourself, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

But uh, but I as I said, like I'm I'm usually very comfortable, and I was like, wow, you guys rattled me. That was interesting because I thought I was prepared and and uh didn't see that one coming.

SPEAKER_03 22:39

So we had um Christian and I went to uh 1-800, got junks, we were invited to their um what's that what's it's not a town hall, what was the huddle, just the huddle, yeah. Yeah, which was kind of interesting because they they went through numbers as well, right? Um, so I also have a question is it let's say you've got a new employee, for instance, that's coming on, so like they're in there for the first week. Are they knowing numbers? Like, do you have an NDA? Like, how does that all work?

SPEAKER_00 23:03

The um it's some that we're looking at, and it's interesting you bring that up because it's as you grow, it's kind of like, hey, we should think about this, we should, you know, roll this out. We haven't had that. Maybe now we should. Uh, maybe we shouldn't divulge certain things. Um, so going back to what I said about who we're bringing on and how we're bringing them on, we've been good so far, knock on wood, but um absolutely, I think you you will reach a certain point where it's kind of like okay, well, certain information should be shared, certain information shouldn't be shared. Um, but this is where we have that can do attitude, right? There's this I've never heard anybody keep saying that isn't my job here, right? Uh and that comes from the top down. I mean, I can tell you, um, I've heard stories of of Fitz having a suit on and uh going to a job site and jumping on the tools because he had to do it because we couldn't get someone in there in time. So when the president of the company's got a suit on, jumping on the tools to do something, that sends the message of who we are and what we're about and attracting that uh caliber of individual. Yeah. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 24:11

Okay, so you guys clearly have a pretty solid culture, buy-in from team. Um should we talk about COVID a little bit here? And maybe how yeah, and maybe how that kind of thing with that setup and that framework and that foundation can help in times of crisis.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

Absolutely. I mean, we were very uh proactive with COVID. So as soon as we heard it, heard about it, we we went into kind of uh an attack mode of figuring out okay, what's our scenarios look like? Let's come up with some scenarios of how do we how do we run this thing? Like let's go from worst-case scenario to business as usual and and several scenarios in between. Um part of the the setup here has been from the start, fits at the idea of everybody being able to work remotely. Uh so we were already set up for that. So that was one one uh thing that really helped us. That it wasn't a situation, okay, well, how do we go remote now? Um uh like I was telling uh James yesterday, we we use uh Microsoft Services here as opposed to to the laptops. So they're they're really versatile, they do the same things as a as a laptop, but you're able to take it with you. So that was the first thing, figuring out okay, let's make sure we we do this social distancing and and keep people apart, um, but still maintaining the day-to-day uh business needs. So that was the first thing that we rolled out, and it was it was uh accepted well. Then it was figuring, okay, the the vitals of the business, how how do we move forward with this? What does it look like? Um I've gone through the recession in 2008, I remember that. Uh what's different about this one, and and speaking to a lot of people, they see it the same way, is it isn't just one sector, one country. Um, it's all encompassing. And the problem is, I remember in 2008, it's like, hey, look, it's stressful, the sales numbers aren't there, but you go to the park, you know, you could you could that there's some outlets, and the issue with this one is you've got the financial crunch essentially, and I think we'll go into a rest recession once we come out of this, but then you don't have those outlets, right? You can't go have a beer with the buddies at a pub and talk about how tough it is. Um, so I think that's another layer that that's affecting a lot of people um that we've had to make sure that we look out for. So I mean, uh, we've got services here that we're able to, if anyone's got any issues they want to talk about, we've got those hotlines they can phone and take advantage of of stuff like that. Um that's very important as well, is is the mental health of it. So it's not just the financial part of it, it's also the the mental health. Sorry, so I rambled on there for a bit.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

No, that's awesome. When you um I thought I found that in early, early March, like the first week of March, um there was two camps of people that I would talk to and they would say, yeah, you know, that that COVID thing's kind of kind of getting crazy. And they're like, oh no, it's just the flu and it's blah, blah, that hole. There was other people who went, yeah, this could be a problem. And there's other people who listen to like a you know, 30-second soundbite on their favorite, you know, whatever whatever news feed has been following them or curating the same message over and over again. Um and so what I find interesting is that companies like yours, you know, you get 100 people. Um, did you have the same different camps of when people are like, hey, why are we, you know, why are we having to go home? Is like what was was there was there different um uh points of view that were brought into the conversation as you guys were making company decisions?

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Absolutely. There were different um viewpoints, but I mean at the end of the day, we we're fact-based, right? So what what are we seeing? What's happening? What's the reality of this thing? I mean, I always tell people if you you can watch Fox News or you can watch CNN and you've got two different worlds of the same story. And that's you see that on a smaller scale, but uh Canada's the same way. You you've got the, as you said, the different camps. Um, we were all aligned with this thing of look, this is this is real, this is happening, uh, and we need to plan and figure out how we move forward, or else we'll we'll we'll get hit, right? Yeah, which uh, as I said, being proactive and and doing things right away, we were able to kind of get by without a lot of the negative um impacts right away.

SPEAKER_02 28:23

Yeah, and it and it comes to your culture too, like you talked about earlier about the championship team, the A players, um, you know, the concept of fits, having a suit and getting to the job site, like that kind of championship quality probably aided you guys through this. Absolutely, absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:42

What's kind of cool is because you guys have prepared for it and and built up everything, it's almost like hitting play when the crisis hits, instead of like pause, oh no, reaction, freak out, whatever, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:55

And exactly to be honest, part of it is also is it was having those plans, but we've also looked at this situation of everything's on pause, right? So, and the growth that we've had, double-digit growth over six years, um, huge, huge success. You haven't had time to say, okay, let's let's pause, step back, and analyze the business, right? It's been always okay, how do how do we grow? How do we maintain? Where now it's kind of like, hey, the world's on pause. Let's take this time and look at our business. Where can we find efficiencies? Where can we come out of this better? Um, and I think that's what a lot of companies should do, uh, but not everybody has that opportunity to be able to do it. And we have, and so we've taken that time to say, okay, hey, let's let's look at this, let's put those MBA hats on and really analyze this business. And where can we make tweaks and how can we be poised and ready to come out of this to be better than we went into it?

SPEAKER_04 29:52

Totally. And I mean, what's the case with a lot of companies is it is a bit of the panic mode, right? And they don't have that margin to even uh embrace the pause and to adapt and change and build and then grow on the other side of it. So um to see that um coming out of uptime, that's really cool. Uh, not every company has that luxury, but it requires planning and preparation and not, you know, normally these things come, but there is always anticipation of something.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah, we've been hard to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

Yeah. Cause it is hard talking. I mean, the construction industry in itself is always most of the time long-term thinking. Projects are 24 plus months. Um, partnerships take a while to build. So you have that ability to plan for the long term and think strategically. Right. And but other industries, it's hard to plan. You don't know what tomorrow brings to you.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Exactly. And that's that and that's been the biggest thing I I find with our clients and speaking to them is that uncertainty, right? We don't know how long is this gonna last for? What does it look like? Um, I mean, when it first came out, they're like, oh, it's it's it's it's only old people that are getting it. Then you hear about younger people getting it, and it's and some kids getting it. So it's okay, well, we're gonna be affected by this. How long is it gonna last for? Um, I listened to a a um conference call uh from one of the top guys at CIBC, and it was interesting. They were saying, look, we know what the end is with this. It's about a year, year and a half. It's you got to have the vaccine. So even though they're gonna open things up and and and let people out, you're gonna have a second wave until there is this vaccine. So what's interesting is to see what the US does with this, right? So uh I don't know if you guys saw the numbers coming out of Texas, but they're crazy numbers uh with what they're doing over there. Like I think it was like a thousand plus per day um uh of infection. So again, it'll be interesting to see what happens, but you gotta also have plans in place to to how you move forward with it.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

What what would you say, kind of going from the corporate side to you personally? I can't remember if it was a conversation that you and I had over email or if it was a LinkedIn post that you did. Um, but you just kind of talked about obviously work from home is a challenge, and you have, I think, young kids, and you talked about your routine, and you kind of just I could see the culture uptime kind of coming out of that post about how you I think it was like you get up at 5 a.m., you do this, and you get kids, and then you do this, and then it's like the routine bringing into this new normal.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Absolutely. And and I think I think routine is very important. Um, and especially dealing with the unknowns, having a certain routine of, okay, I I know I'm gonna do these things, I think sets them the mind at ease. Uh, what I talked about was uh I've got a five-year-old and a and a four-year-old, my son and daughter, and having structure for them, so it's not just our lives that are affected, it's them as well, right? So they're they're used to going to preschool, well, they're not anymore. Um, it's finding stuff out for it, isn't that they can go to the park or the swimming pool and helping them understand with it, but having a routine really helps. So getting off a five, getting a workout in, and then having breakfast with the kids. So what I talked about was look, yes, we're working from home, but then now it's no longer nine to five, which it's never nine to five, but um it's no longer nine to five. You have other times during the day where you can get your work done and it's setting the the priority, right? So family is a priority and making sure that that we're there for them. So, and we've been accommodating for our staff, uh, as I'm sure a lot of other companies have been, of understanding, okay, look, it might not get done nine to five, but you're not just caught in that nine to five. There's other times that you can do other things. So I talked about, you know, you can get a couple hours in, get the kids set up, get a couple hours of work in, have lunch with the kids, get them set up again, get a couple more hours in, put them to bed. Younger kids are generally asleep uh seven, eight o'clock. So now you've got three, four, five hours to be able to do stuff uh at the tail end of it. So it's just it's keeping that balance um and your mindset was what I tried to get across on that uh link.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

When you when you talk about the um the the family part of it of you know, family with most, if not like high, high 90s, 90% of good people anyway is number one priority. Right. Um the weird part about is is when um pre-COVID you would go to work and it doesn't mean that you your family wasn't a priority, but there was a blackout time where you daddy or mommy can't deal with family right now because they're at work. Yes. But now that's gone. So it's now like okay, yes, honey, family is number one priority. However, I do have a deadline, right? I do still have stuff I've got to get done. So and and the the vantage point of what priorities are is very complicated for families right now.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

Absolutely, absolutely. But uh what's interesting is I think there's there's different family dynamics, and I think people need to look within and figure, okay, well, what are what are what resources do we have that we can use, right? If it's a husband and wife at home, uh I've seen a lot of people do the they'll do sharing, right? So the husband's got the kids, the wife's doing her work stuff for a couple hours, and then they'll rotate. Here, now you take the kids, now I got to do it. So are we gonna be as efficient of uh, like you're saying, having that blackout period where you go into the office and uh you shut your door and you're you're you're down to getting your work done. Maybe not that good, but can we get 80%, 75% with trying to make things work? Hopefully.

SPEAKER_03 35:28

So the so the uh the the suggestion of honey, imagine I'm not here doesn't work very well.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

Yeah, no, that never works. Um one thing we I'm always curious to ask, and I'm not sure if you have the answer to this too, but you mentioned before uh this challenge, uptime was ready to work remotely. And I think that kind of comes to your culture of um kind of forward thinking, ability to have some flex time and just get productive work from your teams. We when I when at least our company chats with a lot of industrial and construction clients talking about how this has fast-forwarded a lot of technology adoption. So we look at groups that maybe didn't work remotely or didn't have tools, didn't have software elements like that, or now adopt them faster and and quicker. Has there been any new technology that your teams introduced, or is there has there been any new culture, structure, elements you've added in in light of this time?

SPEAKER_00 36:22

I mean, it worked out well because we had just transitioned over to Microsoft 360. Um so having teams, it just it it I think was a bit a bit of a uh lucky move on our part where that got implemented and then this happened. So using Microsoft Teams was just a a natural progression. Um, so I I wouldn't say we've had any new technologies, but having that mindset of we should be able to work remotely uh played in our favor. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 36:49

Is that gonna spill over to um after COVID? Because let's say a year from now, you guys gonna still use that? I mean, what we find is kind of interesting. Like we're looking at um at our office, uh, everyone has gone home. All our engineers at SiteMax, they're all working from home. And now we are bringing on a new person, and I have to ask someone if they can if they want to come in to help train the new guy. So it's like, what? I mean, how how's it hard to even keep going? I mean, so I don't know. I mean, are you guys dealing with that?

SPEAKER_00 37:26

You're asking you're asking a great question. I think I think you you kind of uh hit the nail on the head there. Um we're actually looking at that because we went from having uh our our building here, we had unit A1, then we expanded to A2. We just got A3 about six months ago uh or five months ago. So we had all these offices, we'd expanded, and then now it's kind of like well, do we really need all these offices? Do we do we need this if everyone's able to get things done from home? Um and the the challenge right now, as we said earlier, is you've got the kids at home right now. But when this opens up and they're going back to school, then you will have that blackout time where you don't have the kids and you can work on your you know home office. And is that something we look at? So I I think a lot of companies are looking at that right now. Do you do we need this physical space and what what gets accomplished out of it?

SPEAKER_03 38:20

Well, it's also um Christian mentioned this to me the other day. Um, is that you know, we're gonna have to uh revise our uh sick policies. Right. As in, you know, if someone has, I mean, it sucked before when someone, let's look at a year ago, when someone would come with a cold and be like, can you can you just go home? Because I don't want to get this.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Right.

SPEAKER_03 38:40

Right. But now, you know, with who knows what's gonna happen with the mutation of this thing and how it's gonna have different strains and if there's gonna be a second wave, that whole paradigm is gonna be taken to a whole new level.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

And we we take that very seriously. So I mean we Gary, our safety officer, uh, is all over that, right? So you're not feeling well, you're you're home. Two weeks, quarantine two weeks. Um we've sent people home, they're like, oh no, this is I'm I it's just I haven't slept. It's uh uh I just need to sleep and I'll be fine. It's like, no, you're quarantined two weeks.

SPEAKER_03 39:10

Yeah, my toe hurts. Yeah, go home two weeks.

SPEAKER_00 39:12

Yeah, it's it's something we you gotta do, but uh you gotta take it seriously, right? Because I think that's uh what'll pay off uh in the long run. If if you don't take it seriously, I think it will it will come back to but when it comes to sorry, sorry, Andrew, just one second.

SPEAKER_03 39:26

When you when you come to when it comes to going back to the office personnel, though, it seems like there is gonna be if you're able to do this from your home currently and do a good job, revenues similar. I mean, obviously revenue might be down a little bit just because of the situation, but in terms of output from an employee uh being able to do their duties, if they can do that at home, and now you guys are saying, okay, well, it's we're all back, and someone comes back, oh great, I get to hang out with people for the next for the first couple of weeks, then once that um human interaction uh honeymoon phase is over, they're gonna go, God, I kind of like that working at home thing. You think I could work at home next week? And you're like, no. They're gonna go, well, yeah. So it the question is, is is it our job as leaders to now be flexible and be like, yeah, sure, you could work at home?

SPEAKER_00 40:20

Absolutely. I mean, it it's going back to that uh championship team. I mean, how do you get the best out of an athlete, right? But put them in an environment that they can thrive in. So if someone can give you the same level of output or or or better working from home, I'm all for that. I think that's something we could absolutely roll up. Totally.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

And when you have eight players, like they, you know, not to categorize this, but they love to work hard and produce results. Right. That's true. And that's what drives them. And so they're working from home, if they're drive, you know, if they're driving, if they have spare time, they're just they're optimized and they're moving forward. And I think we're starting to see that new kind of type of entrepreneur and entrepreneur as well. So and James, the only thing I was gonna add was just even on your comment for essential, essential work. I mean, like uptime is an essential service. So it's not just can we work from home? You know, how do we adapt? But you guys have customers that you need to care for and you have, you know, buildings you need to maintain and projects and materials that are moving. So you guys have this, um, and I would assume you have this desire to protect your culture and your team, but also to protect your clients and to keep them moving safely too.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

Absolutely. That goes back to what we talked about, the partnership, right? So we're we're not only essential service, we're an essential partner for a lot of these guys, right? So I mean, you look at the refrigeration uh in the food and beverage industry right now, that they're essential. They go down and and you're gonna take uh a bit of a blow. So being there for them, make sure our guys have uh all the uh PPE that that's uh required. The changes in terms of the safety standards that we have, the things that we do in the office. I mean, we got guys two, three times a day, they're going out and wiping down everything for people coming in and out that need to, and and we've limited that as well, right? So it's like don't don't come into the office unless it's it's a must, and then let us know and we'll we'll get uh the stuff that you need from here. But um you're absolutely right. That having that essential service is essential, and and we're part of that, so so we got to make sure that we're there for for our customers.

SPEAKER_02 42:24

Has there been a sense of pride at all in your team of just like the essential service component, keeping things up and running?

SPEAKER_00 42:30

It's interesting you say that there is, right? It's it's kind of like hey, we're we're on the front lines, we're we're we're here for for our customers and and our partners. So absolutely that's there. And I think going back to what I was saying earlier, I think we'll see a bit of a change as well. So Trump kind of started pushing this uh before COVID um with the kind of shrinking down of this global economy and making it more of a nationalistic uh approach. But now you're seeing that where supply chains, where you're having issues getting things. So I think coming out of this, most countries will will re-evaluate that their supply chain. And it's okay, well, hold on a second, why do we need to wait to get parts from from another place to be able to do stuff in-house and locally? So I think that'll be uh an interesting uh shift as well. Yeah, totally agree with that.

SPEAKER_03 43:19

The um when you were talking about the people having pride uh at your company, it's um, you know, we're we're doing some hires around uh right now, and you know, we always look at and Christian, you can speak to this a little bit, you know, but when we bring people on and we interview people, um uh we we look at uh character and capability almost as an even. Right. Because because what we notice is is that as we've had to send everyone home, we have had like zero touch wood, but zero issues with people feeling like they're gaming this or whatever. Like it's the character we don't have that at our company.

unknown 43:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

And and so when you when it becomes an A, the A player, the A player has different boxes that you are considered an A player in. One of them is being honest and being straightforward and being a good person. If you're an A player at that, and then you're good at what you do from a technical point of view, or a you know, in your case, you know, having an MBA, et cetera. Um, those those things are you know just as important as each other because it helps you get through stuff like this.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

Right. So I I always look at here's my thing. I I I'm a true believer in we all have our own brand, right? So we might work for companies, but Reza's got a brand, Andrew's got a brand, James has a brand, Chris has got a brand. You got your own brand. And it's times like this and your actions that that really highlight what your band brand represents, right? So you can you can speak to anybody and be like, oh, yeah, this is this is a guy you can rely on during hard times. Yeah, they go above and beyond. Um, so I think that's very important is is to make sure that that you're looking out for your own brand. And you get that from A players, right? I mean, certain things I remember when I first went from sales into management, the toughest thing for me was understanding D players. I I didn't get it. Um, and it was it was learning, okay, well, hold on a second, not everyone's an A player, and you got some B's and C's, but figuring out the the D's uh and what you need to do with them. It's it's it's different, not everyone's made the same, but um understanding uh what an A player is is is important.

SPEAKER_03 45:27

Yeah, maybe they're A's, maybe the weird thing is about some of the some of the D players, they're not all D. They're just seem D in terms of maybe hey, you know, it's 5.0 or 459, I'm out of here. Some of us will consider like, hey, I mean, can't you just like hang out till 515? Seriously. Like are you on the clock? If you're thinking you're gonna leave at 459, you're already getting ready to leave in your head at 430.

SPEAKER_00 45:53

Right.

SPEAKER_03 45:54

So and that and that's the that whole is that a D player mentality, or is it the fact that they go, actually, when I get home, do you know how much I have to deal with? I've got credit cards coming out, my yin yang, I've got uh my wife that just got laid off, I've got four kids, I've got a kid from another marriage. I have as soon as I'm out, I've got another whole thing I'm dealing with.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:18

So it doesn't necessarily mean that they are uh a D player in terms of their purview of having, hey, I'm gonna be out of here at five slash a minute before. Right. It's more of the fact that you as a company are providing them some security to be able to deal with that other whole personal career they had to deal with.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

Absolutely. On that note, though, you'd be hard pressed to find an A player who who gets it in the the work environment, is on top of their game, and their home life is suffering. So usually the the D players, they're D player at work because they're a D player at home. And I mean, I don't want to uh take a paintbrush across everybody, but what I mean by that, what I was gonna say when you were talking about that D player and leaving at five o'clock, that also has to do with who are they working for? How's that company treating them? Is that are they just a number to that company? And and that's where you'll get that. You going back to what we started this conversation with about relationships, I think it's not just relationships with your customers, it's also a relationship with your personnel. So if they feel you're invested in them, they'll be invested in you, right? Yeah. So I think there's a bit of that as well. And you're absolutely right, everybody has issues at at uh at home and life, and there's ups and downs. I mean, that's the the beauty of life. I think if we're always winning and always successful and always happy, we tricking trucks, right?

SPEAKER_02 47:38

Because the highs, the highs aren't high.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

You gotta have the lows to enjoy the highs. So uh you're absolutely right. There are issues at home, and and people do have things that they got to deal with in their personal lives, but it's it takes a certain personality to be able to put those in different folders, right? I'm dealing with the work folder now, then I'm gonna deal with with the home folder and try to get get those things uh resolved. And that's going back to what I was talking about, the culture, that's something we have in in place, right? So helping people, we have uh services that you, you know, what you mental health issues, you want to talk about personal issues, you want to talk about financial issues, you want to talk about. We've invested in that for our people going back to the culture that we want to foster.

SPEAKER_03 48:19

Cool. Do you have so do you have uh specific programs for those people, or is it these conversations, or are they bringing consultants?

SPEAKER_00 48:26

There's actually a program we have where they it's it's like a perks where they phone in um and they can get access to to financial advice, uh counseling, um uh lawyers and things like that. That we're that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 48:39

Um, kind of switching the conversation a little bit where you look at COVID today, and obviously we don't know how long this will go for, and we everyone's got their opinions, and obviously you can plan and you can prepare for it. But it's interesting. I I would ask you, I mean, you guys are unique. You're an industrial trades business and you have two MBAs on your core senior leadership team. I think that's unique, and that says a lot about your culture. But knowing that you have two MBAs, and you just mentioned uh earlier in a conversation, you guys are in planning phase. Where what do the next 12, 24 months look like for uptime? Obviously, it's a bit different and there's a lot of unknowns, but growth plans, exciting um expansion. You talked about your offices are growing. Uh, I know when I met Fitz a couple years ago, he was in one office. I know now you guys have expanded. So just curious on what the next 12, 24 months look like on and maybe what you can share.

SPEAKER_00 49:29

Yeah, so I mean, so uh our philosophy is is expansion, right? Expansion through um getting different clientele. If we got to make acquisitions, we can we can do that as well. But I think coming out of COVID, and and part of what we're trying to do now is understanding what's the need of our of our customers, right? Where can we shift or pivot to be able to satisfy that need. Um and it's interesting, like my title is business development. I've always done sales, but I've never sold anything in my life, right? It's it's it's finding out what people need, uh, and they they'll buy from me because I'm able to provide that solution. And and that's what's interesting now. So I've got our our uh we've kind of got two different teams that we put together. One is is uh the the health and safety, figuring out okay, what's the latest news that we're getting out there? What are we getting to make sure we decipher through um fact and getting the actual facts uh out to our people? And the other one is the the team we've got is this customer service team, essentially finding out what are our customers, what's their challenges, right? Are we able to do something or have access to something that they need um that they can't get that we have access to? So I mean we had we've had situations where we've made some introductions where we were able to get some hand sanitizer. One of our uh clients was making hand sanitizer, we don't know that were in need of it. So we got them in touch. Um, so this is what I was talking about earlier that we're not just a simple, hey, I'm gonna come in and fix this one thing. It's that partnership of what do you need and how can we help you with that? So I think that's really gonna be our our next 12 to 18 month strategy is figuring out, okay, how can we best support our customers?

SPEAKER_02 51:07

That's awesome. And it kind of guides to the new normal of where people are thinking. And you mentioned a really good point of bringing that domestic focus to manufacturing, to supply chains. That's obviously gonna bring a whole conversation about new projects and how you handle materials and this new age of um logistics and stuff like that. I'm sure you guys are well positioned for that too.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

Yes. And and also with robotics. I mean, it's it's it's interesting. So so being in robotics, I think you're gonna see a lot of people looking at the ROI on a robot now differently, right? If you if you're not able to get people in to do a certain work. So look at look at some of these uh poultries uh that have had outbreaks. What of those could be automated, right? And it's it's it's a tough thing to look at, but it's also how do we keep the supply going, right? If you get enough of these uh poultries shutting down, well, now you're you're having issues for having chicken, right? Um so it's looking at those and and taking that into account.

SPEAKER_03 52:06

Do you think that the uh the nice thing about robots is they could actually stroke the chicken before they kill the just to make it have a nice ending. And then yeah, it's like, hey, yeah, this is this is the stroke 2000. Uh yeah, it would make the yeah, make your chickens feel a lot better.

SPEAKER_02 52:26

Exactly. No, that's exciting growth. And I think 200 people in six years, you guys are just well on your way and building infrastructure to now service and do things differently.

SPEAKER_00 52:38

It's exciting to see. I I appreciate that. And to be honest, like I feel we're just getting started. We're we're just getting us started. Um, I think it's it's tough times right now with going through COVID, but as I said, we've we've tried to capitalize on the situation and see, okay, where where can we have efficiencies? Where can we improve? How do we pivot? Um, and and what's next? So that that part of it is exciting.

SPEAKER_04 53:02

We always like to uh get to know our guests a little bit more um towards the end of our time together by doing our rapid fire around, which we'll get to. Hang on, Reza. Um but uh just on that last note, um, is there anything that you'd want to say to um anyone who will be looking to um bring on uptime for their services as a partner, or for anyone that we'd be looking to work for as an employee, a future employee of Uptime, your chance to pump, pump uptime and uh give a little plug.

SPEAKER_01 53:35

Uh more than that.

SPEAKER_00 53:37

You know, it's we're we're different, right? So it's all I would ask for is the opportunity. Allow us to come to the table and have a discussion with you. Uh we haven't had any customers where we will do a project for them and they're not highly satisfied. And that's something going back to having A players and having that mind frame of just give us the opportunity and uh you'll be more than satisfied with what we're able to provide. And for people coming to to join us, as I said, it's we we've got some of the top techs in the industry across uh the different trades. And if you spend a couple hours with these guys, you'll see what a good group of people. And I mean, a lot of companies will say, hey, we're about our people. You you really see that here. You you do. Um, as I said, people going above and beyond and having that sense of ownership, having that sense of family, right? Where going through this, I've seen that even more. People being like, Hey, is there anything I can do for you? Do you need anything? Um, which is going above and beyond the the norm. So that's what I would share.

SPEAKER_02 54:39

And for those that are listening on the podcast, we have the advantage of being on video. And so as Reza's saying this, he's smiling ear to ear. So we can tell it's authentic. And I think that's it's uh it's it's exciting, it draws you in, and and it's clear to see that you guys have a lot of momentum. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_04 54:58

Um anything else uh that anybody anything we didn't dig into? Anything we're no, I I loved it. Yeah. No, I and I think uh to add to Andrew's point there, um, you know, all of our guests uh, you know, we somewhat, you know, hand pick or they come through relationships or whatever through, you know, that are relevant to what's going on out there in the world right now and everything like that. And we'll bring in people that you know they're leading well in their in their areas and everything like that. So I'd say a lot of our guests um do have something quite special about them. But I think just through sharing everything you shared, there is that authenticity through it all. So um, I think that came out quite a bit. I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, of course. And now we get to put you on the spot just a little bit more. Hope that's okay. Did you get a chance? Did you get a chance to go through these a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 55:53

I did. I I did look at the questions. So let's see. Let's see what you guys got.

SPEAKER_02 55:57

We're gonna we're gonna pull an uptime and we're gonna switch the questions up. Perfect. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:04

Dang it, that would have been so good, actually. You know what?

SPEAKER_02 56:06

Send them the questions.

SPEAKER_04 56:08

No, I don't know. We'll we'll make you look uh we'll make you look like a star here. But um Reza, I think these are gonna be just based on their conversation, these are gonna be some good responses. So, but we'll start with one that goes deep. Okay. Okay. Reza, what inspires you?

SPEAKER_00 56:22

What inspires me? This is interesting. So, I mean, uh a lot of people will say family, which absolutely it's, I mean, that we do what we do for for our family. Um, I I kind of look at this question of what's your why, right? My my whole belief in things, I want to leave people in situations better than I found them. Uh, I want people to say, hey, you know what? That was a good interaction with that person. He he brought value, whether it's uh a coworker, a family member, whether I'm on a podcast, um, it's that that's my that's what inspires me is is to leave people in situations better than than uh I went into it.

SPEAKER_04 56:56

Okay, Tuesday, I'm writing this all down.

SPEAKER_00 56:58

Okay. There's some good notes. What you say can will be used against you.

SPEAKER_04 57:04

No, no, no, no. This is really good. Um, are you a reader or audiobook listener or avid podcast listener?

SPEAKER_00 57:10

I was a big reader, and then I got into audiobooks. So I find uh just listening in my car as I as I drive. Um, so a lot of audiobooks recently. Cool. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_04 57:22

Okay. Sorry, go ahead. No, no, book. Um, I was gonna say, what is your uh what is your favorite audiobook then of 2020 or that you uh listened to last year?

SPEAKER_00 57:31

I read before, um, and then I got the audiobook uh recently, which I'm listening to, um, which I listened to uh recently, and it's the uh the five levels of leadership by John C. Maxwell. And I like how he goes through it, and it's and it's interesting because as he goes through the different examples, different leaders come to mind. It's like, oh yeah, that person's a level one, and that person's a level two.

SPEAKER_02 57:54

Um does he actually narrate himself, or is it?

SPEAKER_00 57:58

Yes, okay. Some of them it's like okay, stick to writing the books, don't read them.

SPEAKER_04 58:07

Totally. Yeah, that is a uh that's a fantastic book. Um what is something that you believe in that others think is insane?

SPEAKER_00 58:17

People think is insane. So here's my belief. My belief is I believe, right? I believe in in when you want to do something and you put your mind to it, you you can do it, whatever it is. Um, and I've done that throughout my life. But the difference is, I'm not talking about like the book The Secret, kind of sit there and just think good things and good things will happen to you. I think there's a missing part of that. Yes, you want to think good things, yes, you want to be positive, yes, you want to believe, but then you also got to execute. And I think that's the biggest disconnect is people will have the the good thoughts and the belief, but they fail to execute. And I think if you believe in yourself, if you believe in what you're doing and you execute to the best of your ability, good things happen. So you'd say your execution is pretty insane? Uh, I I try to execute at a high level. Well, it's and it's interesting, like uh when I came here, like my word was believe. Like we hey, believe we can have a good year, believe, believe. And it got to a point where people in the hallway would be like, Oh, I believe, I believe. So it's confused.

SPEAKER_04 59:18

Here, here, drink this. Yeah, no, no, no, no, that's cool. I love it. Um, what is the most important piece of your background, and this could be interesting, um, that contributes to success at uptime.

SPEAKER_00 59:32

Well you know what? It's I wouldn't say it wouldn't be just one thing, but it's getting those different experiences across different uh industries at different levels uh that have kind of all layered on top of each other, and it's created who I am today. Um, I remember uh I was younger, but I remember I had an interview and it was an interesting question. The uh general manager asked me, he said, uh, if you go back and change anything, what would you change about yourself? And I said, to be honest, I wouldn't change anything because if you change anything, then I wouldn't be the Reza I am today. And he he was fascinated by the answer. He said, Oh, but I've no one's ever given me an answer. And I'm and that's the same thing I would say today. Um, it's the trials and tribulations and experiences that I've had out through my entire life has led me to this point where I'm able to make a difference. That answers your question.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:24

That answers that question, and it answers one of our other questions coming up here too, but that's good. Um what is the most challenging part of working in the construction industry? What is the most challenging?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:38

I think there what's kind of changed, and I mean I I'm not uh that tenured to to say what I'm gonna say, but I'm gonna say it anyway. I think what's changed is the the pride and ownership that that people took in the work that they did has changed. I think it's going towards the bottom line, how can I make a quick buck versus what can I deliver, right? What how can I provide the highest quality product? How can I provide the highest quality service?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:10

Um, and I think that's where we're seeing um that's and I think we all agree, and and having been in construction for some time, um I I would definitely uh agree with that sentiment, especially over the last few years for sure. Perfect. Uh yeah. What uh okay, here's this one that the answer might be nothing. What do you know now that you wish you would have known before you started at uptime?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:36

Um what to be honest, like as I said, the the courting period was was a long time. So I kind of knew exactly what I was getting into, and especially going from, as I said, dealing with with uh doctors and models at uh with Botox to deal with construction to make sure, okay, is this the right right move? But it got to a point where like I'd gone to the Christmas party at uptime before I was at uh the um part of uptime, I was at the open house. It got to the point where people were like, hey, what do you do at uptime? So I got shots for you guys. So I kind of knew what I was getting into uh before coming over.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:09

Awesome. Now, this one might be kind of interesting, puts you on the spot. Newer to the construction industry, what is your most memorable moment or story from the job site?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:19

Well, what was interesting was um I always like to when I when I start something new, become become the expert at it, right? You gotta you want to know the best, you want to be a resource for your people, for your customers. And I remember I think it was about a week or two that I just started, and we were um bidding on a project, uh, a couple million dollar project, and I was invited to go as the vice president of business development. So it's me and a couple of engineers sitting there, and I'm thinking, this is gonna be embarrassing. Like if something comes up, I don't know what they're talking about. Um what what was interesting when it turned out to I was talking the most because I was able to build rapport with with the customers and asking them certain questions that it was it was as if I'd been doing this for for many, many years. And it was it was right then when I thought, you know what, this understanding of I understand people, and it doesn't matter what industry it is, I'll have that success because I'll have that rapport and understanding what it is they're looking for. So that was very interesting for me, and and I'm happy that it happened uh right away when I when I first started. So I found that interesting.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:22

Dang, that's that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:24

I like that.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:25

Thank you. We always we we always expect that we're gonna hear some like wildly hilarious, like bizarre story from the job site, but almost like if it doesn't tell me, I'll tell you a funny one.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:35

So go on the poultry um uh plant. Uh when I first started, so I show up. So imagine I'm showing up in a suit, I got a suit on, thinking we're gonna go into the offices, and we were doing a plant tour. So they give me this, you know, I'm wearing the the the uh coveralls and and the head uh covering and whatnot, and we're going through there, and I'm getting things like spill on me, and I'm like, oh, what you look up and it's like, oh, chicken, this is the juices of the chickens being watched, and then you see these chickens going through, and so there's it's the kill plant. So if they don't get killed, they come out, and there's actually someone there who the ones that aren't killed will actually do the killing. So that's where we can uh what James was saying, we can do the robot that that puts them in there and uh lulls them to sleep. But that was uh uh an eye-opening situation for me.

unknown 1:04:19

Nice.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:20

Oh man, there you go. Um, Reza, this has been like a fantastic conversation. Um, and I love that, you know, what are the tagline of this podcast is leadership in construction with perspective from the job site. And uh this was this was good on all levels. Um, and the leadership side, um, definitely great. And no better time than now to go through all those things and to hear about them from your perspective and through um your lens at Uptime. So thank you very much for everything you've shared.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:52

Thank you guys for having me and and uh allowing me this opportunity to speak with you guys. It's been an absolute pleasure.

unknown 1:04:58

Cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:58

Well, we look forward to staying in touch, and uh we always like doing catch-up stuff down the road. So we look forward to seeing where you guys go here through 2020, 2021. Definitely. Awesome. Thanks for the thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:10

Thanks for listening to The Psychist, a podcast dedicated to leadership and construction with perspective from the job site. If you like the show, please subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play. To learn more, check us out online at the psychedest.com