Mike Loeffler: Surround Yourself With the Right People.

INTRODUCTION:
“Today our guest is Mike Loeffler, Senior Vice President/General Manager with VDA Vertical Transportation Consulting. Mike started in the industry working in the field and loved it from the very beginning. He values that early learning as being key to his success and continues to learn everyday even well into his career. Mike enjoys working as a consultant and loves being able to assist both clients and contractors in finding mutually beneficial solutions to projects and / or issues and help foster relationships; his only regret is that wishes he found consulting sooner.”

SUMMARY:
Mike Loeffler’s career paths and industry insights

– Mike Loeffler regrets not surrounding himself with more knowledgeable people earlier in his career
– Mike Loeffler values early learning as key to success in the elevator industry
– Mike Loeffler’s mechanical skills from motocross and carpentry helped him in his elevator job

Mike Loeffler’s career path and mentorship in the elevator industry

– Mike Loeffler describes his 44-year career in the elevator industry, mentioning the various roles he’s held and the camaraderie he’s experienced
– Mike Loeffler highlights the competitive aspect of his work, citing the need to work harder to complete projects faster when other teams were involved
– Mike Loeffler describes his career journey, including working as a construction foreman, Operations Manager, and consultant
– Mike Loeffler highlights mentors who invested in him, such as his first manager and Arian Steve Bailey, and discusses his motivation for taking an opportunity in North Dakota

Challenges and conflicts in the elevator industry

– Mike Loeffler worked on modernizing space shuttle launch pads at Cape Canaveral, which became a 15-month project with $1.5 million in change orders
– Mike Loeffler found it interesting to learn about what goes on outside of the elevator story at the f8, despite having no qualms about spending money
– Mike Loeffler describes conflicting issues within his previous company, leading to a decision to become a consultant
– Mike Loeffler finds fulfillment in finding common ground with clients and elevator companies, despite initial frustration

Contractor agreements and maintenance services

– Challenging negotiations arise when clients want new components or changes to existing agreements, and contractors must justify the costs and benefits
– Mike Loeffler describes common scenarios where clients call for help mid-project, such as elevator issues or maintenance agreements not being met
– Mike Loeffler explains that some companies prioritize consulting services over maintenance agreements, which can lead to higher costs in the long run
– Mike Loeffler highlights the importance of having a comprehensive maintenance agreement that covers most aspects of elevator maintenance, rather than a basic oil and grease contract

Challenges in construction management, including client resistance and team collaboration

– Mike Loeffler discusses challenges of working with condominium boards, including resistance to recommended solutions and changing board members
– Mike Loeffler reflects on his 44-year career, suggesting he has learned from every situation but may not change anything if given the chance
– Mike Loeffler emphasizes the importance of having the right people on the team, with the right skills and expertise
– Mike Loeffler regrets not surrounding himself with more knowledgeable people earlier in his career

Career development, relationships, and work ethic in the elevator industry

– Mike Loeffler values integrity and hard work over promotions, prioritizing learning and being the best before seeking new roles
– Mike Loeffler misses working directly with clients but enjoys consulting and helping team members advance their skills
– Relationships are key in the elevator industry, both internally and externally
– Experienced professionals may make frequent job changes due to unsettled career goals

Career development and industry insights in the elevator industry

– Mike Loeffler’s career highlights include developing new products and training field staff
– Mike Loeffler emphasizes patience, learning, and relationship-building in elevator industry career

TRANSCRIPT:
Mike Loeffler 0:00
I don’t know that I will change anything. Quite honestly, I think I’ve learned from every situation that I’ve been, if you asked me if I change something now, if I had that knowledge back then sure, absolutely right. I think the only thing that I would probably change is I would put myself in the company of more people that knew more than I did. I wasn’t good at that. When I was young. I was kind of cocky and thought I knew everything right, a longer I’ve gotten into the into my career more, I’ve learned that you need to surround yourself with the right people.

Matthew Allred 0:32
Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast sponsored by the Allred group. I am your host, Matt Allred. In this podcast, we talk to the people whose lives and careers are dedicated to the vertical transportation industry to inform and share lessons learned, building upon the foundation of those who have gone before to inspire the next generation of elevator careers. Today, our guest is Mike Loeffler, Senior Vice President and General Manager with VDA vertical transportation consulting, Mike started in the industry working in the field and loved it from the very beginning. He values that early learning as being key to his success, and he continues to learn every day even well into his career. Mike enjoys working as a consultant and loves being able to assist both clients and contractors in finding mutually beneficial solutions to projects and or issues and to help foster relationships. His only regret is that he wishes he had found consulting sooner. Mike, welcome to the show.

Mike Loeffler 1:30
Thanks for having me, sir. You and I’ve talked several times. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to do this or appreciate it was fun to get together.

Matthew Allred 1:37
Yeah, no, I’m excited. It’s it’s a lot of fun. I always enjoy our conversations. And I’m excited to be able to talk a little bit more about your career and some of the things you’ve learned and and so I’m curious what led you to the elevator industry in the first place?

Mike Loeffler 1:53
It was a bit by happenstance, you know, the elevator industry is is a pretty large family a lot. A lot of family members are genuine. It’s generational in many cases. I’m not I’m the first one of my my family to get into trade I was when I was a teenager I used to race motocross up into into my 20s and one of my best friend’s father was a construction manager for Miami elevator in South Florida and he saw something in me and when I graduated high school I went to work for him the next day.

Matthew Allred 2:27
So you said race motocross. Did you also were you like a mechanic like like building your own bikes and all that?

Mike Loeffler 2:32
I’ve always been fairly mechanical. I think the first time I remember my father getting really mad at me was I was three or four years old. I took as long more important. Oh, so I’ve always worked on stuff. So yeah, and I was racing motocross you’re, you’re working on your own motorcycles. I build a trailer for myself because I didn’t have the money to go buy new ones. So I was kind of I was self funded. My father wouldn’t give me a penny. He supported me all the way through, but he wouldn’t give me better to do it because he’s more like it. And that’s kind of what we’re while he saw me was in that setting.

Matthew Allred 3:09
Yeah, no, I mean

Mike Loeffler 3:10
I mean, before I shouldn’t say that. Before I came to work in the elevator tonight. I was building houses. In my spare time after school.

Matthew Allred 3:18
Right right. So pretty handy. Sounds like yeah, motorcycles and lawn mowers too. And

Mike Loeffler 3:27
yeah, my first love. I actually went to trade school to learn carpentry in Canada. So I was I was. I was I still do that a lot.

Matthew Allred 3:39
Yeah. How have those skills served you after getting to elevators?

Mike Loeffler 3:44
I think they served me very well. I mean, as you know, an elevator mechanic has to know a lot of different traits right there. There’s their electricians or carpenters or iron workers. The old saying was the roofers Carter covered everything. Right. But we did more than the roofers. So it I thought it complemented that industry very well. At least a little bit that I mechanically that I knew, right.

Matthew Allred 4:10
Yeah, absolutely. So, so So started right out of high school. I mean, that’s, I’m just curious when when did you realize this is cool. I’m gonna do this the rest of my life.

Mike Loeffler 4:24
Probably a year, year and a half, and it wasn’t long when I got in the business because it was good money. Right. Back then, I think we started in trade it was I was making 13 or 14 bucks and ours a 50% helper and, and that was more than I was ever going to make build houses or or, you know, washing cars or whatever. So once I got into it, I started learning the business there. And I think that’s really what drives me to this day. I’m in the business for 44 years now and I’m still learning right so if So I’m always of the opinion that if you’re not learning or expanding, whatever you’re out to do, it’s the you’re kind of naive, right? It’s like growing your diet. So that’s really, I think, what drove me into really pursuing it. And I’m a very competitive guy anyway. So if anybody, there was another team next was building an elevator and they were doing it faster, I felt we had to work harder to get it done faster. So it was it turned into a game, right? So and we had great relationships with most of the people, almost all the people that I ever worked with. And that kind of drove me so it was fun, great camaraderie. It’s a good thing. It’s a great industry to be in. The elevator industry is pretty small, but it’s it’s a lot of camaraderie, a lot of family. circumstances. So that was a lot of fun to come up to trade for 14 years, I think, work in the field. Started with Miami elevator in 1978. And worked for them for into 91. I think I still technically work for them. But I moved to North Dakota. That’s when I kind of got into management. I was a construction foreman, which back then you were still paid hourly. But you are running the show. And that lasted about a year up there. And I became Operations Manager for North and South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. And I spent three years doing that a lot of travel. But it was very interesting to me to be a different part of the world and see different aspects of how you build elevators, especially in the freezing cold, right? So imagine, I learned I still I lasted three years being a Florida get in North Dakota and then left there and moved to Atlanta, Georgia. And that’s when I went to work for Rose what two years without us in various positions, and then became a consultant in 2014.

Matthew Allred 7:05
yeah, who were some of the mentors that really, you felt like, invested in you that maybe got you through some of the hard hard times?

Mike Loeffler 7:15
I there was a couple. First manager I mentioned that actually got me in the trade. He was a good mentor of mine. He pushed us hard, but I would say he was my first mentor. And as I got more comfortable in the trade and the new owners of Miami elevator Arian Steve Bailey were very instrumental, I think, in my advancement, they weren’t necessarily hands on, but they were they were always there, you know, when you when you saw them, they were always able to talk about the business and give you hints on what to do better, and what their focus was. And I learned a lot from them about business and and especially in Gary’s cases, a lot about business and how to have fun while you’re doing so. Right.

Matthew Allred 8:00
Right. What was it that motivated you to take the opportunity in North Dakota? You’re right, that’s a long way from from Florida.

Mike Loeffler 8:08
Well, I’m not gonna tell you it wasn’t about money. It was, it was also about that, but it was as much to me about the challenge of trying something completely outside my comfort zone. I felt that I knew enough about elevators that I could teach other people to do that. And I wanted to be the type of person that can help others grow and succeed. And that’s really what my focus has been a sense, it’s not so much looking for that next promotion. It’s really just working with people and not in my current position as a consultant helping our clients, you know, find their spot find solutions that are probably getting the most value for their buck.

Matthew Allred 8:45
Right. Right. You’ve in previous conversations, you told me about some interesting projects, what are what are some of the most fascinating ones you’ve had the chance to work on?

Mike Loeffler 8:59
Several, I would say they would there was not a river when I was working in the in the field in Florida, I would say was that a huge project there was it was more I kind of got the oddball stuff on there was a stage lift. As I mentioned, before stage, this university floor that was for an orchestra puzzle. It was in hindsight, it was fairly simple, but I’d never seen it before. But we were there for probably six weeks, but then a huge platform and had four I know like cylinders pushing that up and down all synchronize and that was pretty cool. Working on one of the most challenging and interesting projects, like I’d say probably was the most challenging and interesting project I ever did was working on a modernization at the space shuttle launch pads at Cape Canaveral.

Matthew Allred 9:47
That sounds amazing.

Mike Loeffler 9:48
Yeah, it was initially supposed to be a fairly simple mod. We’re gonna replace travel cables on both cars and a cab on one This duplex in each and each launch pad and replace the rails and one out there. Well, I think it was supposed to be a three month project for 300 and something $1,000. And by the time we left there it was 15 months later, and with the change orders was almost 1.5 million. So my gosh, we’re working 24/7 Trying to get it done before the launch was scheduled. So it was it was demanding, I would say that was one of the most stressful times in my career trying to get that project done. We didn’t get it mostly done that we had to boot us out of there before we got the final adjustments done because the shovel or the watch within three days, and they had their we were 99.9% done

Matthew Allred 10:39
He just said it’s close enough, right where

Mike Loeffler 10:42
they got their own on site folks that that went through and you know, did the final, we gave him a list of what needs to be done. So we just couldn’t be on site because of the top secret stuff that was going on in when at launch. But they didn’t know how much and we moved over the other Launchpad and did something similar. But that was much easier going because it was a little newer than the only one. But those were after working there for a year and a half. Or I guess it was two years between the two of them. I have no question about where our tax dollars go today. No, no qualms about spending money. But it was, it was an interesting thing to learn about what goes on outside of the elevator story at the f8 was a lot a lot of fun, too. So we learned a lot of stuff.

Matthew Allred 11:34
That’s very cool. That’s very good. So So what was it that that led you to consulting when you decided to finally do that,

Mike Loeffler 11:42
um, several things, I think the biggest thing was if I tried to put this nicely, there was a little conflicting in then I had conflicting issues within and I say that because how the elevator companies that I work company that I worked for at the time was doing business versus what I thought we should do for our clients. So any large corporation, you know, got shareholders expect them to make X number of profit. But if when a few tell the client, you’re going to do something you should follow through. And it’s a lot of cases that wasn’t happening anymore. So to me, I felt I’d be better off going on the other side of the table and helping our clients make sure that the other companies were

Matthew Allred 12:36
do you feel like that has resolved that conflict for you?

Mike Loeffler 12:40
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We talked about it every day with with our team. Some people are more passionate about it. And others. I mean, I’ve been doing this for a long time. So I’m probably not as though doesn’t hit me as hard as somebody just coming in, right, or just leaving that same situation. I’ve learned to you know, elevator companies and the people that work for them need to make a living, they are their own business, we don’t expect them to do it for free. Just don’t expect them to get rich on every job. I mean, we are we work very hard to maintain relationships with the with the elevator companies, and I mean, not contractors independent in and OEMs. It’s a, it’s a fine, fine line that you have to walk there. Because you know, if a client has, you know, they’ve signed an agreement and they they feel like they shouldn’t have to do something or there’s a part that we want to argue about whether it’s obsolete or not. Those are the kinds of conversations now to me are fun. Because we were in the end we’re going to find common ground. But when I first started, they were it was frustrating because you know, you’ve got some people that are pretty steadfast in their thought process. And, and I can be pretty hard headed. So there was a lot of head butting going up. But we’ve learned over the years, I’ve learned to see both sides of the fence and it’s just pretty rewarding.

Matthew Allred 14:07
What would you say is the the most big individ the biggest challenge as a consultant, what’s the most difficult thing about that?

Mike Loeffler 14:17
Probably balancing that I mean, it the you can’t fit it’s very, it’s even more difficult if you’re walking into the middle of a project. And like for instance, if a client has hired a contractor, they have an agreement. And and that contractor in the clients mind may or may not be performing right. But in the clients mind or not. So we go into doing the evaluation and look at the agreement that they have. And sometimes you have to tell the client Well, that’s what you bought. Right? And even though that’s not what they wanted, but they didn’t know enough at the front end to know any better. So they were foldability As that may or may not have been completely advantageous for their project. So it’s much easier for it on the front end, because then everybody knows the expectation. We’re very clear on what’s what’s specified, and what’s going into that. So if there’s if there’s a problem throughout that project, it’s usually because somebody doesn’t understand what the grid, and that’s typically pretty easy to work through.

Matthew Allred 15:23
Yeah, How often does it happen that a client will call call you kind of halfway through disaster and say, Hey, came, come clean this up for me, whatever they say,

Mike Loeffler 15:33
not as often as it used to, when I say a prop or from a project, whether you’re talking about construction or large modernization, where somebody’s already contracted the company to do that, and then they go, Oh, crap, they’re not doing the right thing thing. It’s more commonly now where we’re getting into situations where you have a larger building has a water, for instance, in their elevators, they have to get their elevators up and running quickly. And that typically happens pretty quickly may not get them all running, but at least they’re getting people moving through the building again. And then they get this massive proposal for components that may or may not have gotten what right. So those are the more challenging ones, or you have a client that is contracted a long term maintenance agreement with a company and they’re not performing. It now though, that’s very situational, where you may have a certain type of equipment that really is best suited for that company that’s maintaining it. But you have to work into agreement with them. That’s challenging times. But it’s it’s a, I’m going through one right now. And I rice done in Miami, or they have a 10 year agreement in place, and are four years into it. And we’re trying to negotiate a deal with the company or the contractors defense. What’s in it for me, right? Why should I call some tack on all this new stuff to my agreement? And have to deal with that now, why don’t expect you to do it for free? But you know, it’s worked out. So those are the more challenging negotiations. But if we get out on the front of a project, usually we set the expectation that’s communicated very well. And those typically go much smoother than something where we’re coming in.

Matthew Allred 17:24
Sure Yeah, and I would, I’m sure, there’s some, you know, there’s some companies, some contractors that that know, right at the get go, Hey, we really want a partner to walk us through this, because we may not know what this looks like. And

Mike Loeffler 17:41
The companies that have been in business for a time, right, I’ll say, you know, been in the business for, you know, 1015 20 years, understand that the consulting side of the business is needed. And as long as you have a decent relationship, and we’re treating them fairly, it goes very smoothly. I can tell you on the service side of the business, especially talk to the folks in the field, they actually prefer a maintenance agreement that is very descript, how often you need to be in the building, how much time you need to spend on preventative maintenance, they like that, because they know they’re actually gonna be able to do something for the client, rather than the standard, but we’ll call it oil grease contract where yeah, they have to be there every periodically, it may not be monthly, maybe quarterly, or maybe at their discretion, but regardless, any other thing that they’re doing there was being charged the client, right, so in those cases, the client thinks they’re saving money on their monthly quarterly maintenance, but in the long run, they’re spending a lot more because they get charged. So those are the kinds of things we try to educate our clients and in almost every case, if we if we prescribe a full maintenance contract that covers excuse me, most everything under that elevator, they’re paying less on an annual total costs interesting and then something that’s maybe half the price monthly but they’re getting charged on unbudgeted items that they’re not it’s not covered

Matthew Allred 19:11
it’s interesting yeah, I guess I not being you know, working in the industry I wouldn’t have known that but I can see the appeal to to take the cheaper what do they call it lube, oil, grease, whatever lube oil filter is what I wanted to say but I know that’s the wrong term, but what do you call it when it’s just kind of the bare bones

Mike Loeffler 19:30
it’s commonly known in industries oil and grease companies coming in and looking at me, they may or may not lubricate anything, but they’re making sure things are working okay, if there’s a problem it’s as simple they may take the bolster or grease of bearing for the most part, anything outside of that there. You know, for instance, a door operator arm is getting ready to fall off or needs a new chain or, or the door detector is not working properly. Like, you’re gonna walk off the job, send a proposal and then what I call a pint size of six. So it’s not, it’s not. And then if that’s the way the agreements written, I’m not gonna argue that, but it’s not. It’s not to the benefit of the client when he has something that’s ready to break or has broken, and they gotta wait for the proposal process to get signed before they do it. So it could be days, weeks, cases, months, depending on the severity of prepared.

Matthew Allred 20:26
Right, right. How often do you get clients that don’t want to do what you recommend?

Mike Loeffler 20:33
More often than I like to say, if I had to guess a percentage, it’s, there’s, there’s always some negotiation there, right. We’ve walked in, I walked into a condominium meeting a condo board meetings, and they have the residents there. And we’ve gone through the bid process, and we make our recommendation. And we present that to the board in their residence. And there’s always somebody there that has, you know, engineering background or construction background, when we’re while we’re doing that, if we do this, or my elevator, and my other building in New York and 30 years old, and we haven’t done anything to that, which may or may not be true, but regardless, that’s their opinion. And so we explain why we’re making that recommendation and why we think it’s the best value to do x y&z and after that it’s up to them to it’s their contract when we’re not. So it’s their money, they’re signing the contract. We’ll explain to them why we don’t think it’s a good idea. But ultimately, it’s their decision. But I would say, how often does that happen? 10%. Maybe

Matthew Allred 21:39
it’s never come crawling back saying, oh, man, I wish.

Mike Loeffler 21:45
Well, they don’t. This happens commonly in residential, where we’ll work through that with a with a board. And eight months later, the board changes. And then we have problems. And I’ll and they’ll come to me and say, well, VDA told us to do this. Actually, we did. But that’s not what you did. But so that gets a little challenging. Sometimes when you when you’re in the world, we’ve had pride month working on the project. Now I was just talking to one of our consultants, six years old, we’ve been through four boards and six project managers out in six years. So nobody wants one and doesn’t know what the elements doing. So we’re constantly trying to make them understand where we are in the project and what was included and what wasn’t included. And here’s why etc, etc. So those are the challenges, challenging parts that’s other kind of hire us and you guys are the experts, you just tell us what we need to do. Which is nice. Right? They trust us to do that. But there’s usually somewhere in the middle of that one or the other right of that.

Matthew Allred 22:54
Yeah. So if you if you had your career to do over again, you said 44 years, right? So if you had to do it over again, what would you do different?

Mike Loeffler 23:02
You know, you talk a little bit about the last conversation that I thought about art. I don’t know that I will change anything. Quite honestly, I think I’ve learned from every situation that I’ve been, if you asked me if I change something now, if I had that knowledge back then sure. Absolutely. Right. I think the only thing that I would probably change is I would put myself in the company of more people that knew more than I did. I wasn’t good at that. When I was young, I was kind of cocky and thought I knew everything. Right? The longer I’ve gotten into the, into my career, the more and more you need to surround yourself with the right people. I didn’t do that. So that’s one, one, that’s probably the only thing that I would

Matthew Allred 23:44
in that same thing is surrounded with some of those people, but you got to be willing to absorb all that they’re willing to teach you because you know, if you aren’t aren’t open to the suggestions and the coaching mentoring the teaching they have then yeah, it’s gonna go anywhere.

Mike Loeffler 24:03
i’m going to use a line of Nick Saban because I’ve used this in a couple meetings of ours. High achievers don’t like mediocre people and vice versa. So if you put yourself in a three year insert into a team where those two are on the same team, they’re not going to have the same ideology they’re not going to push as hard during you’re going to have that the other part of that same speed from it’s even when you need to get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus right. Put them in the right seats and and I was just looking at something on the internet this afternoon on LinkedIn and hit that speech with Nick Saban talking popped up again. So I’m reminded of that quite uncomfortable, but it is a great message and it has to be and that’s that’s the fun part of what I do today because I’m more on the management side of business. is getting the right people in on the team that where it’s needed. I mean, we have offices that are, that have a pretty high volume of people in New York offices 40 plus people in it. Miami office has, I think we have seven people in that office. And then I have offices around the country where it’s just one person. And those are the those are the more challenging positions, because they have to sell it, they have to perform it, they have to fill it, and they have to collect it. Well, I shouldn’t say the medical, we got admin support remote for them. Regardless, they’re not doing everything themselves. But regardless, it’s if the phone rings, it’s their duty to handle that start to finish. We’re in other offices, we can specialize, right, we can have people that are doing the field work and somebody else great at specifying the job and working through that with the client. And so it’s, it’s not a one size fits all. No,

Matthew Allred 25:58
no, not at all. And so from your perspective, that that is a huge piece of what you do is in the right players, like you say on the right bus, or on the right seat, on the bus and making sure that the whole ship can can sail.

Mike Loeffler 26:11
Right It’s it’s probably the most rewarding thing that I that I do today is make trying to make everybody that works for us successful. Ultimately, that’s my that’s the bottom. Yeah, yeah,

Matthew Allred 26:25
that’s a lot of success.

Mike Loeffler 26:28
I have in my previous life. The other thing I struggled with was, I worked with a lot of people,

you know, the higher up in any corporation, you get, that were more concerned about the next promotion than they were about doing the right thing to the company.

And that drove me absolutely crazy. It was more positioning than than performing, in my opinion that that is absolutely the wrong, you may get to a certain point in that corporation. But you’re not going to get where you want to be. And I think having the integrity to know that I’m not as good as that guy, I need to learn more before I can take that position is much more rewarding than than trying to push your way into it. When you’re not ready. I it took me a better part of 20 years into my career before I figure it out, I just need to know I need to be better than the guy that’s in the position I want if I really want right first of all, and then I need to work harder and learn more and know more and be more productive, the details and eventually it will come it’s not worried. Don’t worry about the next promotion worry about learning and the best you can be and that will come

Matthew Allred 27:51
absolutely lead even if it’s not that particular job right. There may be some other company that needs your skills, but you’ve got to develop the skills before you can expect to be using skills you haven’t got.

Mike Loeffler 28:05
Yeah, I mean I didn’t take a job with VDA to be the senior vice president gentlemen I enjoy consulting and I do a little bit more but I do like working with the team and then you know helping them advance and learn their their craft and that’s rewarding but I do I do miss working directly with clients is not as I may still do to a point but not as much as they used to.

Matthew Allred 28:32
Yep, what what would you say is the single biggest lesson you learn throughout your career

Mike Loeffler 28:41
relationships are more important than you think. both internally and externally. My father used to provide my parents would always instilled in me treat others like you want to be treated and that never clicked until I was probably 30 Because when I worked in the field I was screaming and ranting and raving and I was yelling at people all day long you need to work faster and harder with Elliott Wave Organ network for a little while and eventually everybody around me including myself got worn out because you’re someone tensile right so that goes back to the work smarter not harder. But relationships with your clients you need to maintain them if they trust you, they’re not going to talk to anybody else. And they’re gonna call you if especially if you help them fix your problem their problem it’s it’s rewarding when the when the phone rings and or they’re calling you only you to to help them with their problem and you have to deliver it so often times you’re dropping what you think you should be doing to go help them in that in that moment. It’s a win Bit of a juggling act. But if you maintain those relationships and your clients and the people that work around you trust you, your life is a lot easier than if you’re fighting, fighting the whole way through.

Matthew Allred 30:10
Yeah, I mean, some some people, seemingly and I don’t, I don’t hear people saying it as much, but it just seems like there’s a lot of, and maybe it’s more outside the the elevator industry, but a lot of emphasis is on you know, it’s all about price. It’s not so much about relationships. How does that mean, in this industry? What do you what do you think

Mike Loeffler 30:32
I’m, this is coming from a baby boomer, so I have to be careful. But I see it in people that have been in the business for 30 or 40 years where they have, they have a job for, you know, 1520 years and and then you look at the resume, and they make a move every two years. And there’s probably there’s reasons for that in many cases, I think, but it’s it’s more of their unsettled and not really understanding what they want out of their career. At least that’s what I found that kind of tell you that from a personal perspective I one of my positions was when I was with Otis elevators, I was in charge of Field Operations, but they called the field support. But I also worked with the engineering group to develop new products to help them make an installation friendly. And that was, that’s really where I learned to juggle a lot of balls in the air. And I say that because I, I had to maintain a relationship with the engineering department. So they trusted me that I wasn’t just trying to shove stuff down their throat. And on the other hand, my job was to support the field, giving them all the documentation and training and all that stuff. Microsoft buys wasn’t just me, but I did a lot of those guys to develop training, get the training to them, and make them as productive as they can in the field. And object free engineering things make that product as cost effective as possible. But the fun part for me was making them understand, okay, it may cost $10 less to modify that part. But it may cost you $100 in the field to install it because you took one part make four. So so that was between, I would say in my whole entire career working in the field, building new things and learning how to how to make things better. And then on that side of it, other than what I’m doing now as a consultant are my two most rewarding positions, I truly did work, enjoy working in the field, I just kind of got bored with it. You know, in my mind, I had installed everything that was ever made the escalators in high rise, low price, you’re going to come in and mastered at least in my mind, my boss would probably tell you something different. But that was the fun part of that. And then once I got into consulting telling people, ultimately, it’s all about when people work, you know, work solutions to the issues that happen and make them successful. That’s the bottom line. That’s what I enjoyed most.

Matthew Allred 33:28
Right. Right, right. So as we wrap up today, a final question I got for you is what advice would you give to someone who’s just starting out a brand new career in the elevator industry.

Mike Loeffler 33:43
Be patient. Learn as much as you can, from the business from the people around you may not all be good leads to learn what not to do, right? And build and build relationships both internally and externally, I think and then lastly, don’t get complacent. You may get to a level where you think you’re comfortable now and and I can relax a little bit and do what I’m doing. There’s four people behind you want your position, right. So always strive to be the best they can as much as you can. And, and continue to work. I mean, it’s I got because I run the operation for VDI. I got an email today or somebody says hey, I got this board and you know where I can get repaired or get a replacement for it. You sent me a couple pictures and I’ve never seen it before 44 years. But it’s been a controller that I’m very familiar with was actually no one’s control. But it’s you’re learning something every day. So I just keep keep an open mind and there’s always things you can do better. Doesn’t mean you have to work harder. Just keep that open mind and maintain those relationships with your clients. And internally

Matthew Allred 35:04
awesome. Mike, thank you so much for being with me today. I appreciate your time and your your wisdom.

Mike Loeffler 35:11
Again, didn’t get together with you get the stuff.

Matthew Allred 35:14
Thanks again and wish you the best. You too bad. Thanks. Thank you for listening to the elevator careers podcast sponsored by the Allred group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting. You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net Please subscribe and until next time, stay safe

Transcribed by https://otter.ai