Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Well, good day, everyone, and welcome to the Cutting edge install podcast brought to you by Omni Cubed, where innovation meets installation and literally could be anything in between. I'm your host, Merv Campbell, and it's an absolute pleasure to have you with us. This podcast is about celebrating pros, it's about celebrating installers, it's about celebrating experts and game changers and man alive, do we have a mover and a shaker and a game changer on today. It's an exciting podcast for me. We're going to dive into stories, we're going to share insights, we are going to have fun. This is not going to be a laborious, boring podcast. The Irish know how to have fun. And being 100% Irish, we're going to knock it up a few levels. So whether you're on the job, whether you're on the road, or you're just looking to stay sharp, you have fun. Found the right place. So let's get cracking. It's an absolute pleasure for me to have Keith on the show today. Great to have you with us.
Let's maybe get to know who you are. Give us a quick version, Take as long as you want. And let's hear about you and your story, Keith.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Well, first of all, what an introduction. I love the voice, your tonality, it's perfect and I appreciate it.
My name is Keith Daubman. I'm one of the owners of a company called My Architectural Glass. I'm probably in the industry a little bit more known for our sister company called My Shower Door, which happens to be about 20ft from where I'm standing.
We started here family business in Naples, Florida in 2003. But if I may, I heard on some of your previous podcasts he asked how did you get into the industry? And anytime I have the opportunity to share this story real quickly, I love to please do. I'm, I'm the oldest brother of two. It's myself, my younger brother Douglas Doman, our parents, Bill and Donna Doman, when I was 12 years old. I'm now 47, but at 12 years old, my mother was a neighborhood beautician. My father was blue collar alarm installer, did some hockey, refereeing, moonlighting at night. I was diagnosed with with Hodgkin's non lymphoma cancer.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: And it was a true blessing in disguise. I tell people all the time, me getting cancer was the best thing that ever happened to myself and my family because they didn't have insurance and it forced them to start a business to end up acquiring enough money to put me in the Boston Children's Hospital to go into remission. And they did. At 12 years old. They leveraged their house, they started a service oriented business, was able to get me in the hospital. Five years later, I'm in remission. So now, 30 something years later.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Wow. Wow.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: And so we all talk about blessings and God. I know what a true blessing in disguise is and I'm very grateful for it. Now you fast forward many years later. We ended up relocating here in Naples, Florida, and my brother and I kind of repackaged what we learned in our younger years. Kind of luckily growing up in this entrepreneurial experience.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: And we kind of put our spin on what we learned over the years and what we thought would be a very interesting business. Which happens to be the glass business.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: So we've been now open for 22 years down here in southwest Florida along the west coast.
We have 11 brick and mortar stores.
We went vertical about 10 years ago, have our own manufacturing and of course we do installation. That's how I started.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: Actually, truth be told, that's what I really love to do. Although I've taken a new love to this whole social media thing, it's got its hooks in me.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: I'm an installer at heart. I still enjoy going out to the jobs and helping in any way I can. But that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Wow. What a story, man. It's funny how you come on these podcasts and you think you know someone and then you get wham.
Dude, that's an outstanding story. What parents you had to do that and just drive and determination. Wow. That's inspiring. If no one, if somebody wants to turn off right now, just take that and run with it. That is legit good stuff.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: I owe it all to them. I have two kids now. They're 16 and 17. And I couldn't imagine, like, there's been times during this business where my hair was falling out because of the stress when we were going vertical.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: But none of that was even compared to knowing that one of your children is thinking about children being diagnosed and you're talking back in the late 80s, we didn't have the information and know how an education regarding the health and the diagnosis that we have now. So just imagine starting a business while your kid is going through all that.
Extremely stressful.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: So totally.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: They're my hero. My parents are my heroes.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: And it really brought us close together as a family and business partner. So a lot of People ask, you know, how do you work with your family? Brother. Oh my God. Does it drive you crazy? I couldn't imagine doing it with anybody else.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Absolutely, yeah. Family. One of the previous guests, you know, and we asked him, what keeps you going? And he says, my faith and my family. And he said, my family, it's putting bread on the table at night. It's providing for them. It's what puts wind in my sails and it's what makes us who we are. Like family orientated. And in the glass industry, that is a huge benefit.
That's.
You can't even compare it to anything else. The know how, the help, the family vibes, even within companies. Wow, that is impressive stuff.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Business owner. I've heard people say this and it's. You're being a business owner, you almost have to be partially a little crazy to begin with because of all these ups and downs.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: And having people in your corner to be able to help release some of the stress or voice their opinions or, you know, just have a confidence to be able to talk to and kind of travel together down that pathway totally is extremely important.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Yep. Very, very important.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: I'm grateful for it.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: That's awesome. That's so cool. So you've had a career, it's expanding right now. It's like you said, the social aspect of things, you like the hands on, clearly helping people out. But what's one thing throughout your illustrious career thus far that it just sticks with you? And like any job that you're on, any decision you make, those memories kind of come flooding in and help kind of project in the way that you're going to move forward?
[00:06:57] Speaker B: I don't really. You're going to kill me. Can you rephrase the question?
[00:07:02] Speaker A: So you go to a job site or you have a customer comes in, is there any sort of things in the past that you can pull upon to help make a decision?
To help it be a good decision or to go, you know what? I don't think this customer's for me. Let's move on.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: Okay, now I understand the question.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: That's the Irish. We have funny way with words. And it's the accent. I.
I love the accent, by the way. Come on, it's awesome. There you go.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: One thing that I've learned over the years now down here, being in installation and in sales and just interacting with customers every day early on in my career and I still am extremely ambitious and passionate about what we do.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: But a lot of times in the beginning that would come off to the Customer, I'd be very excited. I was so quick to show them how much I knew and how I could help this situation that it almost caused anxiety in some people because of how vocal I was. And almost they couldn't keep up with my excitement. And it almost hurt. Hurt me even though my intentions were coming from a good spot.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: I was able to realize this when I started filming myself.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: And a couple other people that I trust and would rely on some of their advice. I asked them about this and they said absolutely. And so I was able to really start to dial back my tonality and. And be a better listener. You know, a good salesperson. The top level salespeople really only talk about 30% of the time.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: I had other people say, you know, God gave you two ears and one mouth, so you should be listening twice as much.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Twice as much. There you go.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: And. And so I really lean on that now because.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: There's an old saying that really resonates with me is seek first to understand in order to be understood.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: And so if you want a new opportunity to eventually listen to what you have to say, whether it's with price or implementation, they're never going to truly listen to you unless they felt they've been heard first.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: So for me, on the sales side, just trying to slow things down a little bit.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: A calming voice also can project to the other customer to really help their anxiety, lower their defense mechanisms and be in a more collaborative state.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: So I don't know if that answers your question directly, but that's one thing. Over the years, dealing with a lot of these customers, that has really stood out to me, and over the last five years has helped elevate my ability to not only collaborate, but qualify.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: Certain opportunities. Because in the past, I was so quick to answer every question, jump at the opportunity to. That I found myself spending a lot of time with customers that really never were going to do business with us in the first place because they were just maybe validating another bid that they got from somewhere else.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: You know, we're in a very transient area where people. These are second homes down here.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: After my hour and a half long dissertation, I said, oh, bad, you're not in Dubuque, Iowa. You know, we're not thinking, what is going on? Yeah. And that was my fault because I wasn't listening.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Yep. Totally.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: And so that's one of the biggest lessons that I've learned.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: There you go. So any. Any aspiring young people out there, Listen with your ears. We Kind of live in a generation where people want everything instant. It's gotta be like right now, I want it right now. But there is something to be said for someone who walks into a room who will sit down very calm, very collected and would listen more than they talk. That's actually very empowering. And for other people, it's very inspirational. The fact of when this person speaks, it's of value.
So let's listen.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Curiosity is a massive hack that I think is overly overlooked. Yeah, massively overlooked.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: So a curious person, you know, listening, paying attention to body language, Paying attention can unlock a lot of information that could help you achieve what you're trying to do.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: Absolutely, totally.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: We want to collaborate with people that are like minded, that want to build a relationship, not only for the current opportunity, but for any future opportunities. And I think it's imperative to acquire that intel to find out if that's somebody you know. Just as much as they're trying to.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Qualify us, we're trying to qualify them exactly 100%. So you talk a little bit there about the future and you are, you're a leader in this industry. Like people look to you, they watch all your videos, they tune in.
When Keith speaks, people tend to listen.
What is, like, what do you have as your approach to leadership? Perhaps especially with like maybe that next generation of installers or people that are just entering into the trade.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Okay. This is probably my favorite question. I don't know all the questions you're gonna ask, but I have a feeling this is probably gonna be my favorite one.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: I just wanna set a little context to this. The number one thing I believe in, not only being a good leader or collaborator, sales individual or even installer.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Is going to be empathy.
And to just go back a little bit. When we started my shower door and we were building, building, and then we started our manufacturing, I would work during the day in our showrooms and then at night my brother and I would do all of our manufacturing.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: And one day our controller, after about six months into this learning curve of manufacturing, because we had never been in the space.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: The controller says to my brother and I, hey, I know I'm going to sound like Debbie Downer, but we're based on projections. We're about three months away from not having enough cash for any of the businesses, like everything is going to fold. And my brother and I are pulling our hair out. How is this possible? The orders are coming in and what it was, was turnover.
Our culture and our factory was horrendous and that had everything to do with my brother and myself not being good leaders because we had our heads so focused under the hood that we weren't actually leading a. With empathy and communicating and teaching and spending the necessary time with these individuals. They were just getting burned out and quitting. And the amount of money that was spent on training and trying to find people to hire and their learning curve in the space was crushing us. And so we had all this overtime, this wasted money, bad product.
And after, we kind of were humbled, you know, because at first we're like, no, there's no way this is true.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: It can't be us. It's.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not me.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Somebody else.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like, who is it?
[00:14:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
Put our ego aside. Your ego's not your amigo. When we finally did that, I ended up getting some coaching for someone. And empathy.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:14:33] Speaker B: Being able to see the world through someone's eyes.
You know, I think a lot of people think empathy and sympathy are the same, and they're really not. My definition of empathy is being able to articulate to someone the way they see the world through their eyes. Now, that doesn't mean you have to. You can have empathy for the worst person on the planet. You don't have to like them.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: No.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: You don't even have to agree with them.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: But if you can showcase empathy, it really unlocks this kind of collaborative mindset between both parties.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: And so when we figured that out, which wasn't much long after, you know, being humbled with our cfo, we had made a hire with an individual that had never been in the glass space, never been in manufacturing, actually came from the golf industry and came into our factory. We kind of pulled ourselves away and he became the kind of general manager with zero experience, but what he was good at was with people.
And it literally almost turned the culture in our factory overnight. Changed everything.
To this day, we are in the low single digit turnover percentage in the manufacturing space.
If you know anything about manufacturing, it's usually in the 20 to 30 percentile range.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: Is it? We're not even close to that. And it has everything to do with just being able to communicate, you know, caring, you know? Yeah, part of my French. But giving a shit about the human beings that work beside you, you know?
[00:16:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Our teammates are the most important. I know customers are supposed to be number one, but our teammates are number one because without them, we are not able to service our customers at a high level.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: Exactly. Totally.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: So it was a little long winded answer.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: But no, that's. That's so good. It's empathy and it's. It's over there on the east coast. It's here on the west coast in California. Like just recently we tried to hire a position in this company and nightmare, absolute nightmare, even trying to get someone in through the doors and then trying to hold on to them. We do have, I have to say, in this company, not to brag, but I will. We have an amazing company culture and that comes from our owners down.
But it takes a lot of work.
And the minute you kind of move your focus and you're not really on it, things begin to slip and you've got to. It's like a daily battle. It's like, hey, Jimmy, who's beside you? How you doing? How's it going? Is there anything you need help with?
Not that they take advantage, but you're there to help.
They joke at me. I'm kind of like the psychiatrist of this building where people come to me, they talk to me. I love people. I absolutely love people. I love talking with people. And if they've got issues, just listening, because I know a problem shared is a problem halved, so they say.
And just listening to people is so, so good.
And then sometimes you go, actually, buddy, you need to just pull up your big boy pants and let's get on with this. And there's other times they need that arm around the shoulder and hey, it's going to be okay. We're going to get through this. Let's knuckle down together. But, yeah, that's such an important thing. And that next generation, obviously your parents and then you.
Are your children looking to come up into the business?
Are they like dabbling their fingers at that stuff? Are they getting into the glass industry, so to speak.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Okay, so they've obviously grown up watching dad and his grandparents and uncle immersed in this business.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: About three weeks ago, during their summer break, they've started. Matter of fact, my son's here today. They started coming in to work with me for awesome.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: That's so cool.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: I'm praying that they will want to get into this business, but I'm not forced. You know, they're still 16, 17. They have some other jobs, but they've been doing a lot of social media with me and they're amazing at it.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: That's so cool.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: I don't think they understand how good they are and how good they are at it.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: But it's been the best three weeks, really, of my career being able to work alongside my Children.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: So awesome.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: I hope that they understand that one day again, we've been shooting videos all day long and while I'm still doing our day to day things. Yes, I hope that they will want to get into the business. But again, you know, they're at a point where pretty soon they're gonna have to make their own decisions and I don't want to push them away by trying to force them to do something that they just don't have a passion for.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: It's important.
If you're going to be really good at something, you gotta love it. And to love it you really have to be.
You have to have that mindset that you want to be involved. It's going to take a long time and they're just at such an early age they're probably going to want to try a bunch of different things. But my guess is at least one of them hopefully will kind of find their way into the business.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: That's so cool. That's awesome. So while you have them there, are there any like lessons or values that you're like passing down to them to get to kind of put the hook, as it were, in their mouth and have them like come stay there? Anything that you would want to like even share with some younger people who maybe are thinking, is this the industry for me? You know, even people in your area see your business and are like, I wonder what they do, Should I go work for them?
[00:20:07] Speaker B: Yeah. That's interesting. The one thing that I would share and I share with my kids every day, I mean, I harp on this and I would harp on this to any young person because they've grown up in a different generation with the electronics and tablets and it almost seems like the person to person communication is not the way it was when I grew up. Like I didn't have that. So if I wanted to do something, I need to talk to another human being.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: So I really harp on the soft skills, almost the emotional intelligence.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Being situationally or manners, you know, not just if two people are standing there, husband and wife, you're not just looking at one of the individuals, you don't have your back to one.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:20:49] Speaker B: Really, I go over a lot of the basic stuff that not only would help them if they were here, but help them in their career no matter where they are.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: And I think soft skills, again, the empathy is something that is not talked about and it's really not deliver day to day from them because it's such a perishable skill because we get ingrained in Our brain from a very early age to talk in these didactic ways.
[00:21:18] Speaker A: Yeah, totally.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: It doesn't have to be that way.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: No, it doesn't.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: The best people only talk 30% of time. So it's not a didactic conversation.
[00:21:26] Speaker A: Definitely not.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: So I try and give them some of the tools that I've learned that help keep the conversation going and innocuously building rapport, which is the quickest way to trust.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:21:39] Speaker B: That's where you start to collaborate. So those are lessons I'm really trying to push on them.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: Those are so good. And I got three kids, and I can attest those are some just life skills that you want to pour into them at an early age.
Simple thing. Open a door for someone that's coming behind you.
Might sound like that's kind of stupid. It's actually not. The days that we live in, it's really sad to see that next generation and how, like, un. Kind of mannerly they are. Can I talk about that?
[00:22:11] Speaker B: Because.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Yes, please do.
[00:22:13] Speaker B: Two days ago, I brought my son to Longhorn.
It's a chain, big box, chain restaurant. But the one here has a set of doors on the outside of the building, and then there's like a little vestibule and there's another set of doors on the inside. And.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: And so I said to my son, listen, when we're on our way up there, we're going to wait for another couple and we're going to run in front of them. And I was trying to teach them about reciprocity.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Reciprocity is a human dynamic that's almost like breathing. Unavoidable.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: And so I'm trying to explain to him. So I said, I'm going to show you one version of reciprocity, and then I'm going to explain to you how I use social media to trigger reciprocity.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:22:50] Speaker B: He says, okay. So I says, we see another couple. We run up in front of them, and I say, I want you to hold this door for them. Which he does anyway. He holds the door.
I walk through. They walk through.
And what do you think? The first thing the other couple did? It was a husband and wife. My son opens the door, they walk through. What do you think happened next?
[00:23:10] Speaker A: They probably went, wow, what a very mannerly young man you are.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: Right. But then the husband opened that second door.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: There you go.
There you go.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: Ask that. It was just almost like, that's reciprocity.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: And so when I was teaching them with the social media the other day, you know, when I'M trying to acquire a new builder or architect. One of the things I use in my platform is I will. I'm driving by a job site. I see the builder that I wanted to work for is building a new house. I will do a post has nothing to do with me, but everything to do with that builder. Maybe it's a clean job site, something that I can.
That's worth talking about.
[00:23:50] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Tag them in the post and I'll post it. And more often than not, I'll get a phone call or an inbound message like, I can't believe you were willing to do this.
[00:24:00] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: To do this. We don't have people in our own company doing this. You know, I got a set of plans. Would you mind bidding?
[00:24:07] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: And you're like, would you mind bidding on this? I used to have to beg for the opportunity.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: So I was teaching him how reciprocity can be triggered in many different ways and you should use it to your advantage.
[00:24:20] Speaker A: Totally, 100%. I want to ask you one question. It's not on my sheet, but eye contact.
One thing that I try to teach my kids as much as possible is like eye contact. Like if someone's talking to you, look them in the eyes. It means an awful lot because in today's society all we see is this because they're constantly. Yep. They're constantly on their phones. And it's, it's actually like there's so many people at times going for jobs and a lot of times when they walk in, their heads down, they don't know what they're doing. A simple looking up and looking at someone and saying, hello, how are you doing?
Like nowadays in today's society is like, whoa, this person's really special. When I was growing up, if I didn't do that, my father would have took me outside and said, hey boy, we need to have a little chat here. So even, even in that simple thing, it's like, it seems so simple, but yet it's like massive and so.
[00:25:21] Speaker B: But in this hyper environment of now, now, now those basic things are almost overlooked when in reality the most important tools in collaborating in today's hyper moving fast environment is those soft skills.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: You know, looking them in the eye, you know, totally listening to, letting them finish a sentence, holding a door for them. Those little things go a long way. Especially these older generations. They're dying to tip somebody for good reason. You know, we're exactly.
We are almost extorted to tip on service. Stuff that has no business being tipped. No but it's not that people don't want to tip. They just don't want to tip when they don't get service. But when you do these little soft skill things, you almost hear it all the time like, oh, wow, finally somebody in this younger generation that actually knows how to treat another human being.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: Those skills go a long way.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Goes a long way and bring that into the workplace. And now you have an employee who you can train, who's willing to listen because they've listened till a generation before.
It's kind of like a win win situation. So no. Awesome. But yes. Okay. So you've got a big network, Social media is your thing. But who is someone who inspires you, who helps shape your work? Who would you say that would be okay?
[00:26:45] Speaker B: Outside of the obvious? My mother and father.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: I love watching Gary Vee.
Gary Vaynerchuk, I believe is somebody that's got his heart in the right place, cares about his people, cares about the customers.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: Another individual that I lean on a lot for, not that I know him, but for guidance. And I watch a lot of his stuff. His name is Chris Voss.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:27:10] Speaker B: Chris Voss is an emotional intelligence specialist. That's really where I learned a lot about the empathy and the tactical deployment of it to help build long lasting relationships.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: So those would be two individuals that I really enjoy consuming their content and engaging in. It's helped me in our business immensely.
[00:27:33] Speaker A: Yes. Awesome. So on that note, maybe you're doing social posts, you're getting a lot of stuff out there and perhaps that's a hard day. Maybe hit resistance.
How does Keith keep going day to day to day?
[00:27:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Your mindset has everything to do that there. You know, being in business is a collection of failures and problems with an occasional big win every now and then. And so setting your reasonable expectations.
I know there's going to be bad days, but I also know that if I don't give up, I'm able to turn that around pretty quickly. And I will also say some of the biggest problems I had that I thought were going to be debilitating and put me out of business ended up being the best thing. And I have many versions, like just the reason we got in business alone.
My parents realized their first child's got cancer.
Instead of letting that cripple them, it almost propelled them. And now look where we are now. We got 190 employees, award winning company.
This is the best thing that's ever happened to us. So I've almost come to the point where if there's Something very bad happened. And I'm not saying I get excited, but I know right on the backside of this, if I can just get through it, something really good is going to happen.
[00:28:55] Speaker A: Yep, totally.
[00:28:57] Speaker B: And I truly believe that's happened many times in this business.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And I tell people that, you know, we're either in the middle of a trial or we're coming out the other side and things are good, but after the good, there's another trial perhaps coming through. And so there's this. It's like a circle. It never ends. And so you've just gotta. You gotta just go with it and just grab everything with both hands and see failure as something to grow. Like, we have core values here. Never quit, never give up. We have core values, and we see mistakes as opportunities for future success. And you take it. We are human. We are not robots. We will make mistakes.
[00:29:36] Speaker B: We.
[00:29:37] Speaker A: But how do we learn from them? It's so, so important. So important.
So you're very intentional with branding. Obviously, it's right behind you. It's on your shirt.
But I noticed in a post recently that for you, building a strong brand is more than a nice logo or a catchy name.
Is there any advice that you would give someone in the glass industry who's trying to promote their business, trying to build a brand that's not just the flashy logo or the neum and give them even some help or tidbits?
[00:30:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
So I talk about a local guy that I refer all the time. His name's Matt. He owns a tint company called Naples Tint. And one thing that I just love about Matt is every single time I've called this guy on his cell phone, he's always.
Now, he might not be able to talk to me, but he'll answer. Can I call you?
10 years of doing business with this guy, he's never missed a phone call. I would say his brand is strong in the way of customer service. So anybody that's building a brand, first, you need to know. It takes a long time. If you're not in it for a long time, you're never going to be able to build a brand. Doesn't happen overnight.
[00:30:50] Speaker A: Yeah, totally.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: Took Nike two decades before they became, like, a household name.
[00:30:54] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:30:55] Speaker B: But whatever you do, you have to be guided by a certain set of principles. You got to be morals. You need to be doing things the right way, ethically good by your customer.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:31:06] Speaker B: Sometimes that means taking a haircut and eating, you know, a bad job and losing money on it. And again, a Lot of people's pride get in the way of making that decision.
[00:31:17] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:31:18] Speaker B: When the pride does get in the way, it damages the brand.
[00:31:21] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: So it's more, you know, building your brand has everything to do with how you conduct yourself and showcase your business to the free market.
[00:31:32] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:31:32] Speaker B: And so just have reasonable expectations that your brand will become whatever it is you want it. You know, you have to have a vision for that. Vision drives decision.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: But again, you have to be patient and just constantly be doing the right thing by your customers and your teammates.
[00:31:51] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:31:52] Speaker B: You know, because your teammates are an extension of you and the company.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: Every decision that we make has to evolve around being what's best for the company. And sometimes that means making hard decisions.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: Yes, it does.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: So they're not always going to be liked by everybody.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: Nope.
[00:32:11] Speaker B: But you know, in your gut that what needs to be done, so.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:32:16] Speaker B: I would never take advice from somebody I wouldn't switch places with either. That was one thing I learned.
[00:32:20] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:32:22] Speaker B: You know, sometimes it's even a family member. They might not have any business. You know, Keith, you shouldn't be doing that. That's gonna be so hard. And a lot of times advice comes with good intentions, but they really don't have any knowledge in the thing that you're trying to chase.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: Never take advice from someone you wouldn't switch places with in that specific thing.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: There you go. You've heard that quote here today, so take it to the bank and use it. Kind of. Last question, wrapping things up here.
You're a phenomenal business owner. You're a phenomenal man on social media.
Is there anything in business or whatever that's made you a better person all around? Like, you've rubbed shoulders with someone and, you know, that has made you into, like, a better person or even some difficult decision that you've had to make in your company that you now look back and go, if I could go back 20 years and tell the young Keith that, I would. And it would make him a better person.
[00:33:23] Speaker B: 100%.
And it's my father.
[00:33:26] Speaker A: There you go, Keith.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: Especially the first, now 22 years in business here. The first 11, 10, 11 years.
Keith was a very prideful person and had no problem drawing lines in the sand. My father never did that.
You know the old saying, cut off your nose to spread your face. I didn't have a problem doing that.
I felt like maybe if somebody was trying to do us dirty, it was a bully move. It triggered me, and my logic would be skewed and so the older Keith would tell the younger Keith, now starting over, don't be so sure of drawing a line in the sand. You never know what the other side's going through in that moment. It might seem like they're trying to attack you. But again, I wasn't listening enough to find out where this was coming from.
[00:34:16] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: And so I would have no problem alienating myself from future opportunities because of whatever happened in that moment. Yes, I would be. The younger Keith would be a better listener, be way more empathetic, and I wouldn't be so quick to draw a line in the sand. I think that might have hindered our growth in the beginning because I was just so prideful and, yeah, just felt like I needed to get my pound of flesh. And that just doesn't bode well for long term success.
[00:34:47] Speaker A: No, it doesn't. And it's very hard because we live in days where being that more humble person is actually seen as weakness, when actually it's not. It's a strength.
[00:34:57] Speaker B: It's a superpower.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: It's a superpower.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: It gives me chills hearing you say that. Actually, it's true.
[00:35:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Being a. Being a humble person, it's not soft or weak. It's actually, you're a better person for it. And in the end, Ron, it'll actually put you in good stead. So, young people, if you're listening, which I hope you are, take heed from two older gents who've been through a lot, have done a lot, don't be proud or arrogant. Listen, and if someone knows, like, for me, I'm 42, I'm constantly learning and you have to learn and you gotta grow.
And I'm constantly being reminded that, wow, I actually don't know everything.
Wow. Okay, so let's learn and grow. Well, Keith, it's been an absolute pleasure, my friend. It's been so good to have you on this podcast and I thank you so much for your time.
Any final comments you want to say?
[00:35:52] Speaker B: Yeah. I appreciate the opportunity to be on your podcast. You sound like an amazing steward for your business and in the podcast industry as a whole. So, again, I really appreciate this opportunity and I'm looking forward to maybe doing some business here in the near future.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: There you go, collaborating more. Well, folks, that's a wrap on this episode of the Cutting Edge Installs. If you've enjoyed it, be sure to follow us, subscribe, leave a quick review. If you've got any questions that you would like me to ask any of these fantastic people, just shoot me an email or whatever. If you want to find out more about omnicube.com, go on our website. I just said it www.omnicube.com we provide tools for installers to help make them safe to do their job and to have longevity in this business. And until I see and hear you all again, cheerio. Have a wonderful day and take care. All the best.
