Nathan Hall: You Gotta Know Your Numbers.

INTRODUCTION:
Nathan Hall is the Chief Elevator Enthusiast at Vasile Elevator, a designer, manufacturer, and installer of premium commercial elevator interiors, cab shells, entrances and doors. Vasile Elevator was started with old-world grit, determination and an absolute dedication to quality. Nathan Joined Vasile 13 years ago, and with his background in the hospitality industry, he has brought passion, enthusiasm and an ever present desire to learn and improve.

SUMMARY:
Nathan Hall and Matthew Allred shared their experiences and insights on navigating the elevator industry. Hall discussed his 13-year journey at Vasile Elevator, emphasizing the importance of dedication, quality, and passion. Allred highlighted the growth and maturity of Vasile Elevator, crediting its success to its ability to understand the industry tapestry and provide consultative services. Both speakers emphasized the importance of passion and expertise in serving clients, particularly in the high-end condo market. They also discussed the challenges of balancing work and personal life and shared personal stories of immigration and success. Finally, they offered practical advice for entrepreneurs looking to establish themselves in the audio production industry, including the importance of personal branding and knowing one’s numbers.

TRANSCRIPT:
Nathan Hall 0:00
I think uh, you know, the one thing that’s stuck out to me and let’s circle this completely back to your podcast is, you know, the first one that I listened to was Don Gelestino. But I remember when he closed his interview with you, he talked about knowing your numbers, if you’re running a team or running a company, if you’re an entrepreneur, and, you know, he was talking about getting a job, and you know, he figured out the cost and throw 30% on top of it 35% win the job and he’s winning jobs, winning jobs, and then didn’t realize he was digging himself into a hole until a CPA pointed it out. And he talked about the importance of truly knowing your numbers. I remember that hit home with me. And so I would, I would reiterate what Don said, that is probably the most ironclad advice for any entrepreneur that we can give.

Thank you, thank you, I’m thrilled to finally be here. It’s been a been a lot.You know, it’s about the journey, they say. And it’s been a journey for you and I but I’m excited. Thanks for having me.

Matthew Allred 1:47
Ya know, it’s it’s it’s a lot of fun. So obviously, we’ve seen each other at some of these conferences, I think it was in Louisville. Was that a year and a half ago or something? And we talked about doing this? And and I think we’d even try? Yeah, we tried before and it’s like, life gets busy. It’s a lot going on.

Nathan Hall 2:06
It is it isn’t it seems like, you know, we’re always juggling. And for some reason, it feels like if something’s further out on the horizon, you know, it’s it seems more plausible, right. And then the day approach gets there and all the realities that you felt every time you tried to schedule something, just just hit you again. So but now we’re here now and it’s good to talk. I enjoy your show so much. So many great interviews. It’s incredible how many you’ve done already since I first learned about your show. And since we first talked about this episode, so thanks for that.

Matthew Allred 2:36
Thank you. It’s a lot of fun. I mean, I was I was thinking, as I was waiting for this to start, I was like, I just like doing this, this is a lot of fun. I get to know a lot of people. And it’s something I’ve always just love to do. So maybe it’s just an excuse to do what I love, which is get to know people.

Nathan Hall 2:53
That’s great. Listen, if you can find excuses to do what you love, and put yourself in that place where you’re doing it more frequently. You’re doing something right. I think enough of us know that as we get further in our careers. And that’s important.

Speaker 1 3:05
And

Nathan Hall 3:06
so,

Matthew Allred 3:07
yeah, absolutely. So let’s let’s talk for a minute about 25 years, I saw that a few weeks ago, maybe was a month or so ago. Vasile elevator 25 years.

Nathan Hall 3:18
Tell me about that 25 year mark. That’s that’s big. Sure. It really is. And it’s kind of surreal for us, I came to this industry. And this business about 13 years ago joined the company. And at that time, we were 12 years in business. And we we looked at other companies who had been in business for 20-30 years as kind of giants to us, right? They’ve been so long in business. So for us to be at that quarter century mark is really incredible. We think about, you know how long ago that was when Vasile started this business with just a dream and truly a seed back in 99. And it’s really neat to see how far we’ve come as a team and how large our operation has grown. But as you always notice, even though you’re growing, how much more there is that you can do or that you want to achieve, that you never feel fully satisfied. But to us, it’s pretty exciting. It really is. We feel like we’re certainly much more mature as a team and as an operation. We also just last week had Employee Appreciation Day, that’s a national holiday. And as a fun thing, we decided to take all of our team members and put them on a chart, and then put a blank space next to each person that you could fill in how many years they’ve been there and come up with what’s the total years of experience that the Vasile elevator team has at Vasile elevator not in our careers just here at this company. And so with about 35 people on that chart, I was pleasantly surprised to see we had 201 years collectively as a team. And we’ve got a number of people who are new on the team who’ve just been here, you know, they’re just in sort of inside their first year here.So to see that we were still, that many years aggregate, the average is pretty high. So it’s, it’s a mature feeling. That’s what I’m getting at, we feel a lot more mature than we, than we ever did before in this industry, which is nice. It’s nice.

Matthew Allred 5:16
Yeah. A lot of what are they called tribal knowledge, right? Just just knowledge of things that happen here, the, you know, between each other, between the business and customers and everything that’s going on. So that’s awesome.

Nathan Hall 5:30
Correct, yeah, you start to feel like every industry, if it’s a new industry can feel a little overwhelming, and you feel a little lost. In the beginning, I joined this company in this industry. So it was something completely new. I had been in hospitality for 10 years, just prior to coming into this industry with a two year break to do my Global MBA. And so I didn’t like a lot of stories that I hear people didn’t plan to be in this industry, they kind of found themselves in this industry. And, and so I had to learn it all from from zero and from scratch. And after having been in my previous industry in Korea for a decade, I felt very knowledgeable, where I was at and it wasn’t much, you could ask me that I didn’t have an answer for it right away where to find it. And so start over from zero was a little bit daunting. But you know, now down the road and having the team around me, because most of the people here at the company, this is also their first place in the elevator industry, with also here. So to see that we have the answer so often, and that we know where to look. And you kind of feel a little bit like a mini consultant in what you do. Because even if it’s not related to our segment of the industry with elevator cabs, we still know so much. And we have the good fortune to interact with so many people, customers, vendors, through the different organizations and many projects we’re on. You really, you know, the industry tapestry, so well that it feels actually it’s more exciting. You know, it was exciting in the beginning. When we, you know, when we started, like so many companies, and you’re on that roller coaster, that early roller coaster. And that’s where we came up with the coined term elevator enthusiast

Matthew Allred 7:07
Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that.

Nathan Hall 7:09
Right? So so the segue there. So yeah, so when I came into this business, and started working with Vasile and his daughter, Iona, my partner, I really was trying to understand exactly what is this company do? And why do we exist in the elevator market? Why doesn’t Otis and at the time ThyssnKrupp now, TKE and these other OEMs why don’t they just do the elevator cabs themselves? And, and so little by little, I started to see and understand that the elevator cab interiors like the one behind me that I’m sitting in right now. Yeah, thank you. They’re, they’re kind of their own animal. It’s not, you know, it’s something that the elevator industry has, but it’s really more much more interior design, especially if you’re going to work in the condo market down here in South Florida. condo market, a lot of high end condos, a lot of high expectations. People want to design things that are bespoke, and really fit their building and their standards and their aspirations. And so that’s not the sweet spot for an elevator contractor who’s focusing on new equipment installations, and modernizations and service and repair. And I started to understand why they depend on really knowledgeable, capable vendors to do this work. And, but we also support the things that they need for elevator, cab, shell replacements, entrances, doors, things that are mostly sheet metal fabricated items. And when I was trying to just get my head wrapped around the scope of everything we do at the beginning, when I would ask Iona what is Vasile, you know, they would say, oh, everything, everything, we do everything, you know, and I thought, wow, that’s that sounds a lot like a lot. That’s been overwhelming. But I could tell that whenever somebody came to them with something new that they hadn’t done, or, or that they hadn’t done it a long time, they were always very excited about it. They loved the challenge. They were really enthusiastic about this market and anything that a customer could bring to them, because they just they understood innately that you solve your customers needs, you’ll always be in demand and in favor with them. And so I thought, Wow, you guys are just really enthusiastic about this elevator industry. Even if you can’t articulate to me everything that we do. And so it just seemed to make sense in the beginning that, that, that as I spoke to other people, other vendors, sometimes, you know, like certain markets that are mechanically oriented, you feel like people are just kind of, sometimes they’re just kind of there. And they don’t, they don’t have the same passion for what they do. You know, they’re, they’re just, you know, things are things are technical for them. And this, the passion was clear, and I thought that that suits us, it suits my personality, it would be a good trademark for us to have. There were no other elevator enthusiasts that I could find or who were released. Were using that term in my quick exploration 13 years ago. So it’s certainly stuck for us and and now it’s, it’s a core value for the people here on the team. And it’s part of who we are and our brands.

Matthew Allred 10:10
So clarify that little bit because I have seen your your title as chief elevator enthusiast, but kind of like kind of like Subway has sandwich artists, your whole team is enthusiast. Is that correct?

Nathan Hall 10:22
That’s correct. Yeah, the whole team. I mean, we don’t, you know, we don’t wear it on our sleeve, so to speak, it’s not in our signatures beyond myself. It’s, it’s, you know, I do use that, I guess it’s a bit of personal branding, as well. But when I can tell you right now that when we when we interview, and screen, and we hire, we do talk about that. And when we welcome people to the team, we welcome them as a fellow elevator enthusiast, to the team that’s in the welcome emails that’s in the language. Beyond that, once they’re on board, we don’t we don’t beat people over the head with it, we’re not trying to be, you know, too corny about it or, you know, too, too catchy, like, we have to have a catch line all the time work, but but it is, it is a relatively sincere thing that we want to make sure people understand when they come here is that we’re passionate about what we do. And as cliche as that sounds still very important. Because if you truly can find that passion, and you can give it to other people on the team, that the days that they don’t have it, it makes a difference. It really does its customer see it, it feels like they can really tell so sure, sure.

Matthew Allred 11:28
Well, and you’ve you’re obviously in a you know, a niche of the industry that the customers do see, they do interact, they don’t they don’t see the machine room, they don’t see, you know, like, like me, I don’t know, MRL, other than somebody explaining it to me, because I don’t, I never go to the machine room, and I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t even know where to look for it. And yet, the the feeling of stepping in to that elevator, cab is is obviously very different than than some of the others that I’ve been in. So you’ve kind of found that place where customers do get excited, and then you can kind of share that with them is what I’m hearing.

Correct?

Nathan Hall 12:05
Correct, Yeah, especially related to this work this interior work exactly. We hope that, you know, even when we connect with an elevator contractor who’s somewhere else in the US, they might not be a local contractor, and they’re just reaching out about some doors they need and are still that they need that the profile wasn’t the most standard thing and, and our guys jump on it right away, and they ask the right questions, and they can see, okay, these guys are on top of it, they really seem to care, they’re really into it. They’re not just shoving a bunch of forms at me and saying fill this out. And then you know, we’ll have engineering look at it when you send it in, and then we’ll get back to you. They’re engaged and in the q&a, because they, we kind of, I think what we really share that passion for is that problem solving passion, it’s we understand that, if anybody comes to us, it’s because they have a need. And, and again, that can sound cliche, and it’s true for so many businesses, but it’s a, it can be a scary thing when your team doesn’t understand that or doesn’t lead with that desire to make my customers needs be met in the most simple and direct way possible or even anticipate their needs. That’s something we did a lot in hospitality before I got to here and my hospitality background certainly served me well, in this industry is trying to anticipate, you know, we would say anticipate your guests needs, you know, people are checking in at your resort. And, you know, what is it they need? What is it that they’re not saying that, that you can be ahead of them and know that they already need that or try to present that. And so it’s the same thing here. And of course, again, you know, as we grow, as we mature, we have more resources, and we’re better organized for that. But we’ve thought that way for a long time, and it does seep into what we do. And so I think that the term is really accurate for us. And we found a number of customers who they kind of get excited about it, because if you work with a board, and they’ve been tasked with the, you know, remodeling the elevators, it hasn’t happened in 20-30 years. And now we’re finally doing it, the money set aside, it’s approved. And you’ve got either a committee or a few people on the board. And this is their job. And now they’re going to spend the next usually three months working with you on this that’s about, you know, common for the higher end projects with the with the larger budgets that are our design build projects, they become elevator enthusiast, because all of a sudden, they start looking at every elevator everywhere they go, and the customers but I still have a few projects that I’ll handle personally, from from the beginning and into and through the design phase. And they all have my cell phone number everybody This industry has my cell phone number, they’ll get excited and they’ll text me a photo at 830 at night and they’ll say Hey, I just saw these elevators of this building did you guys do those? Or do you know these are What do think about this floor? Love it. I still love it to this day

Matthew Allred 14:41
Send you pictures right? What about this color? Does it go well with our carpet?

Nathan Hall 14:45
Sure, right and you know, they you know whatever the you know it’s it’s good to have boundaries. I definitely preach and live a life work balance. I don’t say work life anymore because I realized life has to come first and So, yeah, we, that is definitely another core value here at this company, it’s, and it’s interesting because I think at some businesses, people get scared that if you if you have this, if you tell your employees and you tell your team that, you know, a work life balance is important, or as we say it a life work balance is important. They get worried that people might get too comfortable, they think works, not work is not important. And it’s quite the contrary. Because if you respect the life work balance, and you understand that we want to be flexible, everybody has a life outside of work, and we spend more hours at work. But you know, what we do outside of work, people who are near and dear to us are more important in the bigger picture, what we find is that we want to spend time with our families and be present outside of work. So the time we spend at work has to be more productive, we have to put more value, the time that we’re here, and be smarter and do things better, and get to the root of problems faster, and create solutions more efficiently and eloquently, you know, year after year, and as we go, and if we can do that, then we can have the lifework balance, and we can still meet the needs of our customers and the people who come to us and be there for our families. And I think that’s, that’s, that’s really key. But when I give my phone number out, and people text me at night, I tell him, don’t worry about it, right. Because if I’m with my family, and I’m with my kids, I’m with my kids my phone somewhere else. But as soon as I see it, I’m responding, I’m gonna be excited with you about that. That photo that you sent up somewhere, and if I don’t see it, we get through the morning, that’s fine, too. But we draw people in and they become elevator enthusiast with us on these projects. Because it is, you know, if you’re doing it once every 20-30 years, which is kind of what the rhythm is like, then it is a big deal. We’ve we’ve had customers, and it’s a little bit morbid, but we’ve been sitting in meetings, they say, these are the last elevators I’m ever going to see, you know, I retired here, I’m gonna die here, I want them to be good, because elevator interior probably, you know, in this lifetime, and when they put that on you you’re like, gosh,this is this is kind of a big deal, right? It’s for you, it might just feel a little bit like another project, but to somebody else, it’s their home, it’s what they step in and out of every day.

Matthew Allred 17:10
It’s gonna be their legacy on that on that committee.

Nathan Hall 17:13
It’s that’s also true, right? These you’re, you’re, you’re helping these committee members, and these board members be successful. And understanding that early was important, right? I’m, I’m not just trying to deliver a beautiful elevator interior that meets the building’s needs, I’m trying to help these people that I’m work with, who are representing a larger population in their building, be as successful as they can be. And almost always, it’s their first time doing a project like this. It’s rare that we work with somebody who already went through a previous elevator, I mean, a property manager, yes. But you know, they’re not the ones making the hard decisions. They’re just coordinating. The board members are the ones you know, I talked a lot about condos, when it comes to working directly with owners office buildings, office properties, we get a lot of repeat business. That’s different. And that’s fun, because they do one project, maybe two, they know how you operate, they just put everything in our hands after that, we just get rinse and repeat on their properties. And that’s exciting, too. Because when you have that, you know Business at the Speed of Trust, kind of feeling. It really works well for everybody. And, and that’s why people like to work with the vendors they like, as long as the performance stays there, because you’re in a relationship where you know what to expect from one another. And I think that’s a I think that’s a good thing that has a lot of merit.

Matthew Allred 18:32
Oh, absolutely. I mean, and with the way I kind of view it, I don’t I’ve never thought of myself as a as a designer or very artistic and so there’s some anxiety that comes up for me just thinking of oh my gosh, what would I do if I were in that position? And so just having someone like you and your firm to, like could call and say, Yeah, needs to look good. And I’m not even sure what that means. And it better not clashed with the carpet because I don’t, I wouldn’t be a good judge of that. So just kind of hand that off.

That’s

Nathan Hall 19:03
That’s and that’s the that is definitely the maybe the one of the biggest value adds and distinguishing factors of our company specifically not just in the market segment that we’re in, but in the way we operate and how we bring resources to the customer. Our you know, our first position even though we’re an elevator contractor is really more like interior designer, and I own a school for interior design in Chicago for four years, came her passion. She came home in 2006 to be back where family was and kind of fell into this business as people often do in this industry. And then fell in love with it right away. I thought wow, I can take my passion for interior design. I can apply it apply it to elevators, and as she started interfacing with Java, you know, project opportunities, especially in Miami, Miami Beach, especially around hospitality, hotels, condos, people had ideas of what they wanted, and they would speak to her that Oh, wow, she gets it. You know It’s like, seeing the movie like, Oh, she speaks product, you know, like she spoke, interior design and elevator design right away. And, and that that is very helpful for people because, again, the larger constituency of clients don’t have that experience, they don’t have that ability. It’s not like trying to pick out a nice throw pillow for your sofa, right, there’s a bit more to it than this, it has to really check a lot of boxes, it has to work inside of the elevator equipment in the building, which may be, which may be changing, because a lot of the work we do is in the modernization segment. So the equipment that’s there is going to be different. And so you can’t hang your hat on what’s already been in the building for 30 years, you have to know what’s going in and understand what the new equipment is like and what limitations are there and have some collaboration and coordination with the elevator contractor if you’re not coming in through them. So when we bring a new person into our team, and they’re working in sales or estimating or design, there’s a lot to understand, because from the outside, it might seem like Man, what’s the big deal? It’s like this little box. There’s there’s not much space here, like how much design savvy could a person need to be successful with this. And I can see why. It could easily be underestimated and over simplified, because I felt that way when I started here, having been in the business for a long time. And I’m sure if there are any other people who work at the elevator cab companies watching this, they’re nodding their heads right now and going oh, yeah, as soon as you start seeing what can go wrong, you’ll understand what the challenges are around designing and installing elevator interiors. Absolutely. Yeah. Most companies I know won’t even do flooring. Like any elevator contractor who subcontracts won’t touch flooring won’t let their subs do flooring, because that thing alone, right there is so fraught with challenges and the success rate feels so low for most companies. It’s interesting, right? If you again, it’s easy on paper to see it and say why. So sort of small little box, why can’t you put a floor easily and successfully in an elevator and have it perform well, but there’s a lot of reasons why.

Yeah, it’s a pretty neat story because it is one of these American success stories. European immigrant, decides he wants a business. Vasile Burca is my father in law. So our company name comes from his first name. And so he’s a Romanian immigrant. He came to the United States in the late 80s, actually, on October 31, Halloween 1988

Matthew Allred 22:38
That was a bad time in Romania, if I’m not mistaken

Nathan Hall 22:42
It was, The reason He came is because like so many people who come from different places around the world, you know, it was a communist country at the time, opportunities for the outlook was really, really bleak. And for what your family could expect. They’ve been under communism at that time for a very long time. And so he escaped from Romania, and one of the better life made it to the US left his wife and his two kids behind until he could send for them and in the year and a half, before he got them here is when the Berlin Wall fell, the Eastern Bloc of the USSR crumble, Romania had their revolution, they executed their president and his wife on national television on Christmas Day, in 1989.

Matthew Allred 23:25
He was a tough, tough dude, as I understand, I mean, just just not a lot of friendly leaders, as I recall,

So yeah, yeah. Well, let’s Let’s talk a minute about, obviously, 25 years. Tell me, tell me about your one. How did facility elevator? Get off the ground? What was that like?

Nathan Hall 23:45
no, no, he, right. The he wasn’t revered by his people, at least. And so, you know, there’s still some sentiment towards communism among people in Eastern Europe, because what they look back on is, you know, the things at least, were predictable, and everybody had a job. And there’s been a lot of inflation and other challenges in certain parts of Eastern Europe since then, but he got here to the States got established. And in the beginning, he had nothing when he came here, he stayed with a friend, he worked around construction, he had been a crane operator in Romania and hoped to do that year wasn’t possible didn’t have a license to operate a crane here, you know, English language skills were okay, but not great heavy accent. So he just hung around construction, realized I need a new career. He was 38 when he arrived here in the US, so it’s, you know, you’re kind of that midway point in life where you got to pick something else now and stick with it. And he went to work for an elevator company here in South Florida. In their shop very much like this, that company that did build cabs and installed interiors, and you’ve worked in the shop in the beginning. Eventually, they had nobody in the field and they they desperately needed to install an interior so a manager grabbed him one day and you know, you work with tools in the shop, you must be able to do this, let’s go install this elevator interior. You know, what do we need these tools, you know, we need to bring tools, we need a way to get the tools in the job. Let’s go do it, you know, and so they did it and he was he was great. And they all you can do this and so he started installing the interiors and over 10 years he worked for two different companies down here, Bryce Southern, and the other one who worked for Interlift. And then he realized they struggled to find anybody who can, who can install interiors the way I can. And he had a lot of talent. He was really fast, really good problem solver. We didn’t have experience doing it. But when you grew up in a communist country where resources were really limited, and you had to improvise all the time, he was a master of that school. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. very resourceful. And so he determined that he could do this himself, but he wanted to do it himself. It was his American dream, to have his own business to work for himself. And so after 10 years, he struck out on his own, and he registered his company. And, I mean, he really, to be honest, he really had no idea how to get the business. He knew how to do the work. He wasn’t sure. I mean, he had an idea of where the work comes from, you know, he understood, elevator contractors will subcontract for this. And so actually, Iona was in her senior year of high school. And he made the leap of faith to go out on his own and all sudden, he kind of did it without a true plan of having a customer base. And he realized after like six weeks, he hadn’t had a job hadn’t had a lead, strong. He’s the breadwinner for his family, his wife’s at home taking care of the kids. And so he gave the Yellow Pages to Iowa, and I put the phone book in front of her and he said, Call to every elevator company and make me an introduction, you know, ask for the manager make me an introduction? Wow. I don’t want to do this, you know, he’s like, No, I need you. You know, he had she has the best English, you know, it’s hard to say no to her. She’s very pleasant. And, and so she didn’t want to do it. And she’s like, this is your problem. This isn’t my problem, you know, because a lot of kids we don’t feel that way. But she did she she called around and you know, I can’t imagine calling up TKE and Miami, a big operation and just asking 17/18 year old I like, hey, you know, what department? Do you want new equipment, do a modernization, you know, on prepare what manager you know, but, but she did, and, and somehow, Vasile got an opportunity. And it’s nice to even be aware of some of the early people are who, who worked with him that are still in the industry today who, who gave him a chance and who worked with him. And then who quickly found favor with him. Because, you know, his style was very refreshing for anybody who was responsible for contracting work and getting work done. Because he made it very easy. It was like, really no risk. You didn’t have to give him a deposit, he would buy everything he would install it is he would tell you almost like the motto, he would say, Look, if there’s one thing you don’t like, I’ll rip it all out, do it over, you know, and if he wanted to make it low risk for his customers to try him in the beginning. And then as soon as you know, they got hooked on that incredible response time that he had. I mean, he would when I started there. In 2011, we were still getting a couple customers faxing us their orders, if you can imagine that things were coming in by fax. And I remember we had one local customer here and he would fax over to Vasile, it was a one page document was all handwritten. And there’ll be a sketch just a plan view of a cab with some some generic dimensions and a generic scope of work, hey, I want a ceiling with six lights. I want this laminate, you know, seven panels and, you know, rubber floor and one handrail in the rear wall round. And then he would say like, you know, can you do it for $4,000? At the time, something like that, right? Vasile would get the facts, and he would look at it, and he would read through it. And then he would cross out the price and right, no $4100 And he would fax it back. And then he would go right into the shop and just start working on it. Like that was order acknowledged. Materials already moving, you know, and we’re rolling, right? And if and if you didn’t have that job ready for him to install within a week, he was kind of upset and perturbed, like, Hey, that was him. He would jump he was ready to go. So it was a it was a bad thing. If you contracted him for a job that was three, four months out. Because he would get antsy. He’s he’s ready to do it. He’s a man of action. Always not a man of words. Not a man of paperwork. He just likes to jump in and do it.

Matthew Allred 29:06
So tell me tell us about you had mentioned his first invoice. Tell us a little bit about how that went.

Nathan Hall 29:13
Right. So So when he said when he did this first job for somebody, and and he installed the elevator interior. And then a couple days later, they gave him a call. Hey Vasile, great job. Everything looks fantastic, thanks. We’ve got another one for you right away, send me over an invoice. I’m gonna close this one out and get you paid. And then I’ve got another one for you. Maybe next week, I want to get get the information over to you. And so Vasile hung up the phone and, you know, he he didn’t know what an invoice was and instead of asking, he just didn’t do anything. And then a day or two later that customer calls him back and he said, Hey Vasile, you know, please, you know, send me over an invoice. I got another job. I want to close this one out. And then you know, he, he had to say hey, I’m sorry. You know, what, what is it? What is invoice? You know, and they’re like a bill, you know, and they’re like, You know what, I’m gonna send you over something, you just sign it. And so We can pay you, and then we want to have you do this other job. And it’s incredible to think of somebody starting a business, and the 2000s, you know, here in the United States, and not really knowing what an invoice was, and really what that means about the type of determination that he had, and just fearlessness,

Matthew Allred 30:18
absolute confidence that this is going to work out, right, we’re just going to do a great job, we’re going to do the work, and, and things will happen. Right?

Nathan Hall 30:27
He’s told me what we’ve always spoken about, anytime we spoke about growth, or, you know, especially in the early days, when I worked with him, he told me, he’s like, Look, I’ve never had to wait for work or look for work. Because like I’ve always had, once he started, you know, once he started, he’s always had work, because, you know, his, he believed, if you do good work for people, they’re always going to come back to you, right? Even if, you know, you didn’t have all the polish of some other companies, they’re gonna come back to you, because the work is solid, you did what you said, You delivered every time. And he’s right. And but of course, as you grow, you want to add resources to what you do presentation to what you do. That was a challenge between he and I, early on, he did not like most marketing related things that were happening when I started, because at the time, the business didn’t have a website, they didn’t have logos on their vehicles. You know, there was there were a lot of just the normal trappings of marketing, and not even advertising, but just, you know, validating who you are as a company when people interface with you and you pull up at their building. And he wasn’t a big fan of that, for whatever reason, and I had to explain to him is that you have this great reputation, people in the elevator industry, you already know who you are, and you do great work, but I could start a company tomorrow, go to a print shop, get somebody who makes a nice logo, it makes me nice brochure sets up a website for me, go talk to a few property managers, and they’d look at my stuff, and then they’d look at you, you don’t have anything to just show them you have bell south email address and no website and your pull up these white unmarked vans. You know what, you know, what’s a property manager gonna think, you know, down here said, you know, it’s, it’s gonna be tough, it’s not fair, right? Because the other person might not know anything, and you’re way more knowledgeable. But we live in an age where people evaluate things based on what they’re used to what they can see online. And so you can’t, you know, you don’t have to fall over yourself about it, but you can’t ignore it. You can’t discredit that we’re, you know, and we’re shallow, right? We’re gonna only just scroll for a second, and we’re just gonna look for two or three things that tell our brain like, Okay, this is legitimate. And then we’re gonna write, but if they don’t find, if we don’t find those two or three things, right, when you pull up a restaurant

Matthew Allred 32:28
anymore, yeah, website is kind of one of those things that do they exist? And if there’s no websites, like they don’t, they don’t exist. They I mean, wasn’t that way 30-40 years ago, right. But as time has changed, it’s I know you, that’s how you show that you are in business pretty much.

Nathan Hall 32:45
Right, And it’s kind of like, it’s like having a storefront. Right. It’s sort of so to speak. I don’t think people are spending in our industry lots of time on website on other vendors, websites, suppliers, websites, I could be wrong. I think it’s more of just a validation thing. You know, or if you can find quickly, what you’re looking for, you’ll go back more often. Again, we were, we’re used to doing everything fast and getting answers fast today, thanks to AI now things are getting even easier and faster for the people who are already using this tool. And so you don’t have again, I don’t think you have to get carried away with it. But there’s certain things that need to be there for a customer to just feel secure about you and to feel safe when they when they interact with.

Matthew Allred 33:27
Absolutely, absolutely. So. So you said you’ve been there what, say 13 years, you kind of came halfway through? What what is one of the biggest things that you’ve learned over this time? I mean, it’s obviously it was a career shift for you?

Nathan Hall 33:43
Yeah, that’s a great

There been a lot of things that I learned, I think one of the neat things that I’ve been I’ve learned, it’s not something job specific, how much people love this industry who are in this industry. I came from a completely different industry, hospitality and hospitality is kind of like a party industry. You know, whether you’re on the restaurant side or hotel side, it’s kind of that vibe, people get burned out really a lot. And then they people do stay at it quite a bit. But in this industry, there’s so many owner operators, so many family companies, people who work for the OEMs. And larger companies rarely leave, they just they, they shift around, they build their career in this industry. And there’s so much respect that people give one another when you’re in this industry, you know, early on I kind of expected though if you work for Otis, you don’t like the mechanic from Thyssn or vice versa, right? Not true at all. Really. I’ve seen almost none of that it’s people are so supportive. It’s a brotherhood and sisterhood. And you know, once you’re in this industry and you start to meet other people, you know, even even competitors like so many people that we have on paper our competitors of ours I have great relationships with and I think the world of and I would go out of my way to help them out. And it’s neat to see that that’s truly what the industry is. It’s not superficial, it’s something very real. And and I hope it doesn’t change because there’s a lot of m&a activity over the last few years, that’s a hot topic, right? There’s so much private equity coming into the elevator industry, I get all sorts of solicitations to talk to people on a regular basis. And it’s just what it is today. But that was one of the neat things that I learned is that you could pick up the phone and talk to somebody else. And if they’re an elevated person, if they’re in this industry, you don’t have to be in the same room breathing the same air because you’re already, you know, you’re dealing with a lot of the same challenges. And you have a mutual respect. Once you’re once you’re in this industry. So that was that was really cool to find out, didn’t realize that on day one. Right, that came after being here for a few years.

Matthew Allred 35:45
Absolutely. Yeah. And honestly, that’s one of the things that really drew me to this industry, having worked in other industries having recruited in other industries. And then to when I started working with elevator people, it’s 12 years ago, just realizing that there was something very different in the culture and the respect the camaraderie because the companies I had worked for before, it was kind of like, oh, that’s the competitor, and we just hate them. And everybody, you know, they’re just the bad guy. And we’re, of course, the good guy. And so that was kind of the, you know, the culture that was bred. And it’s like, I don’t see that either. I mean, there’s, to your point and healthy respect, that, hey, we were in this together, in a sense, even though we competed against each other.

Nathan Hall 36:26
Sure. Right. And I mean, of course, there’s still competition. And that’s a good thing. And that’s a healthy thing. But it’s right. It’s not like some other industries. It’s not doesn’t ever feel cutthroat or there’s animosity, we have really been industry associations, at state level at the national level. And there’s a there’s such a right good genuine camaraderie among people in this industry. And I get to see it firsthand. I’m a, I’m a golfer, and I play a lot of golf. And I get to play golf with a lot of people in Florida and around the US. And I’d love to see how the groups mix up. And you get people who are elevator contractors who are maybe, you know, even competitors, in a sense, and they prepare, they love to get out and hang out together and talk shop, and we’d like to talk about what we do, and you get somebody else who understands, and you can talk to them and commiserate a little bit, then I think our human nature kicks in. And we just we want that. So

Matthew Allred 37:17
yeah, yeah, I do think that’s, that’s part of just the deep connection that’s created is almost like comrades in arms that hey, we, you know, we’ve been there, we’ve been in the pit. We’ve, we’ve we’ve done these things. And, and not that many other people can even comprehend what that’s like.

Nathan Hall 37:35
That’s true, right? That’s true. Yeah, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t put it quite as high up as if you work in like, you know, if you’re in the armed forces, or if you’re a police officer, something because then you know, lives are on the line, and you can’t share. But if you just come down a notch or two from that, I think you’re right, you know, if you’ve been on top of an elevator, if you’ve been in a pit, you know, I know sometimes there can be a little bit of, you know, like, Oh, if you haven’t turned a wrench, you know, it’s we can’t relate to one another, right? Because there’s people in this industry who, you know, they’ve been on the management side, or, you know, on the sales side, and but they’ve been in unrounded. Enough, you know, most people, they had some kind of sales internship, they had a little bit of field training, they still have to know about it. And I think that there’s, you know, there’s definitely a brotherhood out there. So,

Speaker 1 38:17
yeah,

Matthew Allred 38:18
yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So as we, as we get close to our time here, I wanted to just ask, you know, what, what kind of advice would you give to somebody who’s maybe just coming, you know, new to this industry, maybe like you, they’ve been in another industry for for 10 years? And they’re just like, oh, my gosh, here’s, here’s this opportunity? Or maybe they’re coming right out of college or starting with the union? Or what would you say to them?

Nathan Hall 38:43
Sure, yeah. For a young person who’s looking to get into this industry, or who’s looking at opportunities, I think similar to many industries that you could go into this is a, it’s a very strong industry, but you look at the company, if you can, you know, do your diligence, try to find out what type of reputation the company has, maybe if you can determine what type of trajectory they have, don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you get an interview opportunity, you know, how do you invest in your operation? Right? You know, are you a growing company? Just because you have a couple more customers every year or, you know, are you increasing your capacity in your capabilities, like, trying to understand, if you’re career minded, if you’re growth minded, then you want to be on a team that’s that way. And so that you understand that opportunities will, you know, pave the way out in front of you, because the company is doing that. That was important to me, throughout my career, and it has been here and I would certainly say don’t be shy to to try to ascertain that for anybody that you might be interviewing with, that this industry is strong. It’s a great industry, you know, we we have to keep building up, you know, here like anywhere else, it’s just going to be the nature of things. And so I don’t think, you know, the industry will have some fluctuations and ebbs and flows, like many industries do, but overall this is I didn’t consider it actually When I was in college, you tried to find what were the bullet proof industries, and you thought about health care and others, and I had no interest in those. And I didn’t even consider this. And so it was neat to find out how strong it is. But I think the due diligence is the main thing, I would tell a young person who’s looking at it, like, try to make sure you’re on a great team. And then once you get on a team, you know, don’t forget about your personal branding, right? Like your personal branding, it’s you it’s your career, LinkedIn, you mentioned such a strong tool, right? Such a strong tool, your LinkedIn pages, your page, like you’re on a team. And when you’re on that team, you advocate for that team, you beat the drum of that team, you know, you, you make sure you’re a strong player, wherever your role is on that team. But don’t forget, this is also your career. And hopefully, if things work out, well, you’ll be on that team for a long time. But if not, you want to make sure that people understand who you are, and they see what your strengths are. And you don’t have to prove it all over again to somebody else, if you start over, because the people who stand out, people are looking around the industry all the time, and people are knocking on their door. And maybe they stay where they are, but they’re not going to have a hard time. Like if you’re in this industry, you’re good at what you do. You don’t ever worry about your job, right? You just try to be the best where you are. Because if you’re not making it on this team, because it’s not right for you, the next team is waiting to pick you up here that standout person.

Matthew Allred 41:20
Absolutely, yeah. Anything else you want to share with our viewers before we

Nathan Hall 41:26
I think, you know, the one thing that’s stuck out to me, and let’s circle this completely back to your podcast is, you know, the first one that I listened to was Don Gelestino. And what a great guy to listen to, of course, that New York accent draws us all in and feel like you’re watching some Hollywood actor be interviewed when he’s speaking. But I remember when he closed his interview with you. He talked about knowing your numbers as far as advice that he would give to somebody who might be up and coming in business, so so maybe not that person just coming out of college who’s getting on a team, but somebody who’s running a team, if you’re running a team or running a company, if you’re an entrepreneur, and you know, he was talking about getting a job, and you know, he figured out the cost and throw 30% on top of it 35% win the job, and he’s winning jobs winning jobs, and then didn’t realize he was digging himself into a hole until a CPA pointed out because the overhead wasn’t being factored in. And, you know, maybe some miscellaneous things weren’t being accounted for. And he talked about the importance of truly knowing your numbers. I remember that hit home with me that was hard to believe that’s almost two years ago now. But that hit home with me. And I thought, you know, you’re right. Because when I came into this business, it was a family run company. Like a lot of family run companies, the the numbers are is their cash in the bank. And, you know, are we making payroll, and reporting wasn’t really a thing. And, and, you know, when you have owner operators, the owners are contributing so much, they have other income, sometimes Vasile rented out bays in the building that had income coming in. So the business overhead, felt much lower, and then II work 80 hours a week, and you know, Iona was there. So you didn’t realize like it, it felt easier in that time, right? To be really profitable. And what can happen is you can get a little you can get comfortable. And then when you expand add resources, insurance goes up and overhead goes up. And if you didn’t know how to calculate those in and then year to year, look at them, all of a sudden you look around and feel a profit. Now it seemed like it was better when we were smaller, and you’re trying to figure out why. A lot of times, it’s because you don’t know your numbers. You’re not really sure or diligent about how you sell your work. And so I would, I would reiterate what Don said, that is probably the most ironclad advice for any entrepreneur that we can give is, if you don’t know them, and I mean, know them, like you should be able to rattle them off. And I’ll be honest, like I there’s still things today in our numbers that I don’t know. And I realized that, gosh, you know, I’d have to go look that up. I’d have to go put more attention on that. But I’ve become more concerned when I feel that way to try to do something about it because it’s easy to get comfortable and complacent. And that’s where things sneak in and it gets it sneaks up on you really is what happens. So that’s my advice.

Matthew Allred 44:10
Beautiful Thank you. Thank you, Nathan, I appreciate you being here. And like say it took a little bit of doing but, but we’re here and I think you’ve been great.

Here’s

Nathan Hall 44:19
Here’s Matt, thank you very much. Enjoy very much. Hope to keep watching this for years to come.

Matthew Allred 44:24
Alright, thanks. Have a great day. You too. Bye. 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

Hello, and welcome to the elevator careers podcast sponsored by the Allred group. I am your host, Matt Allred. In this podcast, we talked 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 Nathan Hall, the chief elevator enthusiast at Vasile elevator, a designer, manufacturer and installer of premium commercial elevator interiors, cab shells, entrances and doors. Vasile elevator was started with old world grit, determination and an absolute dedication to quality. Nathan joined Vasile 13 years ago, and with his background in the hospitality industry, his passion, enthusiasm and an ever present desire to learn and improve. Nathan, Welcome to the show.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai