Mike Frangias: Put in Good Practices and Trust Your People

Michael Frangias is the CEO of New York/New Jersey Elevator Company.
Mike literally grew up in the industry, with his father taking him on the job at an early age. He didn’t like school, but he learned quickly while in the trade and came to love elevators. Mike has worked for several different companies, both large and small, and has gained many valuable insights over the years. Mike believes in employees, even those in Gen Z; he trusts that if he tells them what he expects, they will come through.

Show Notes with Time Stamps for Mike Frangias Full Video Interview Podcast:

0:00:00 – Introduction to Mike Frangias’ career in elevators and how he got started in the industry at a young age with his father
0:01:29 – Matthew Allred welcomes Mike Frangias to the podcast
0:01:31 – Mike expresses his appreciation for the podcast
0:01:38 – Matthew discusses his love for learning people’s elevator career stories
0:02:07 – Mike describes how his father first started bringing him to work in the early 1980s
0:03:13 – Mike talks about working construction and unloading trucks as a teenager
0:04:10 – Mike returns to working in elevators at age 18
0:05:39 – Mike discusses working at various elevator companies and becoming a foreman
0:06:17 – Mike gets injured on the job and has to recover for six months
0:07:20 – Mike pushes himself to get back to work at a high level after his injury
0:08:13 – Matthew asks about Mike’s biggest mentors besides his father
0:09:58 – Mike discusses more mentors he had after certain life events like his parents passing away
0:11:09 – Mike is impressed by a company he witnessed in St. Louis and their employee culture
0:12:25 – Matthew asks what created that positive company culture in St. Louis
0:12:37 – Mike discusses the owner’s role in building trust and respect with employees
0:14:10 – Mike continues building businesses and learning from mentors over the years
0:15:20 – Mike discusses a period of consulting for different elevator companies around the country
0:16:17 – Mike talks about starting his own company 360 Elevator and buying Statewide Elevator in New Jersey
0:17:20 – Mike’s management company goes bankrupt leaving him with 250 cars
0:18:13 – Mike meets mentor Dan Wren who helps him through the next phase of his career
0:19:58 – Mike discusses learning from Dan Wren about trusting people and allowing mistakes
0:21:38 – Matthew asks what’s driving client movement between companies
0:22:50 – Mike says clients want someone they can easily communicate with
0:24:48 – Matthew comments on Mike’s growth being a good problem to have
0:25:12 – Mike discusses almost having to change his sale price weekly due to new business
0:27:24 – Matthew asks about challenges for clients during company transitions
0:28:20 – Mike discusses the importance of communicating with clients during transitions
0:31:29 – Matthew asks about Mike’s biggest lessons learned over his career
0:32:13 – Mike emphasizes the importance of treating people like people
0:35:10 – Mike discusses setting clear expectations for employees
0:36:45 – Matthew’s final question about advice for new business owners and industry newcomers
0:40:01 – Mike provides his advice and the interview concludes

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Mike Frangias 0:00
I’ve learned if you teach younger generation or anyone, as soon as they come into your shop, this is what I expect when you do a maintenance step one, greet, greet the, you know, the director or whoever’s at the building step to go here. If you lay it all out exactly how you want to do something, then you can expect them to do their job. But if you never tell them what you expect, how can you you know, yell in person? Oh, you didn’t do this? Well, you never told me to do this. Exactly. So it falls back on you. And with anyone, millennials, anyone, as long as you explain nine times out of 10 Those people area gonna grab the ball and run with it.

Matthew Allred 0:36
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 Michael frangis, CEO of New York, New Jersey Elevator Company, Mike literally grew up in the industry with his father taking him on the job at a very early age. He didn’t like school, but he learned quickly while in this trade, and came to love elevators. Mike has worked for several different companies both large and small, and has gained many insights over the years. Mike believes in employees, even those in Gen Z, he trust that if he tells them what he expects, they will come through.

So Mike, welcome to the show.

Mike Frangias 1:31
Appreciate. Thanks for having me, a fan. I look forward to your episodes in my truck ride home every day.

Matthew Allred 1:38
Thank you, I appreciate it. It’s it’s a lot of fun for me, to be able to interview people, you hear the different stories and just just really feel the passion of the elevator industry. And I think it’s it’s a remarkable industry. In my experience. That’s part of the reason I love doing these so much. So just love and learn. I love learning how how each person gets into their career and then find what they love. So tell me, tell me your story. What what really brought you into the elevator industry?

Mike Frangias 2:07
Well, absolutely, like you said, I had to find what part of it I was good at and what part I fit in and love the best. And the last 10 years brought me to that. But in the beginning, it started out in the early 80s with the basically my father wasn’t Mia good kid, or I wasn’t even a bad kid, I was just a very energetic kid. And when your father is six foot three 280 pounds, long hair, and he has hands the size of baseball mitts, you kind of quiet, be quiet and do whatever He tells you to do. And that’s it not in a scary way just in like a you know, a confident way. I’m secure. I don’t have to worry about anything. I’m with the big guy and his his presence kind of promoted that just all positivity, he was a very respectful person. So a lot everyone very, very polite. I never gossiped never would tell stories about this one or that one around the cooler never felt bad about women or any other thing. It was just one of those people where I’ve never met a person like that ever. You know, even

Matthew Allred 3:13
So he started taking you to work early on. Is that Is that what you’re like?

Mike Frangias 3:17
Yeah, as a child. So it started out because I wasn’t great or very energetic, it would be go to work with your father. And it would be more than once a month, it would be a couple of times a month and would be alright, Mike isn’t doing too good in spelling this week. So my father would know that going into it and kind of stencil out the motor room with Westinghouse or Otis. And when I when I came in, he would make me paint it and learn Westinghouse W E S, or is O T is and then the next week if my numbers weren’t good, you’d stencil out the machines and the controls and the selectors number one card number two car. Alright, so I five cars here. How much is that? And I used to call it Sesame Street. And I would learn stuff that I wasn’t interested in, in a different way.

was

Matthew Allred 4:10
It’s probably a lot more intriguing as a kid, you know, just just just such a different setting. Right? You don’t have 20 other classmates trying to distract you throwing paper airplanes at you, but but to have that one on one attention with your father. And then yeah, again, such a different setting. And so it’s like okay, what is this Westinghouse thing that I’m I’m looking at and I love that approach to to homeschool and essentially,

Mike Frangias 4:34
yeah, so yeah, so once I you know, it was all educational in that part. And then it was funny games like there was little four foot overheads that I used to play. We used to shut the elevator. I didn’t know what it was at that point, but I was learning Reese that should have he can meet grease gun oil that tell me what the oil What is this? This is a governor. I’m thinking a governor like Governor mayor I didn’t know and he explained what it did. I’m thinking of a guy with a monocle when he said Governor, I don’t know. But I started to put the pieces together early of what elevators were. And then in 96 or 97, you know, I was still doing it up until my teens and even when I wasn’t supposed to be I was working, working in industry. And then the strikes came around, and my father was out of work. So I went to work at my uncle’s in construction to cheat rock during the day, plastered, you know, frame outs, and he was pretty good with that stuff. And then at nighttime, I would unload the Wendy’s restaurants in the box stocks, they used to come in a lot

Matthew Allred 5:39
How old were you at the time?

Mike Frangias 5:41
16 to 18 was when I was doing it. Okay. And then when I became 18, and construction slowed down, I went back to my father and said, You know, I want to do anything, I don’t care what it is, I just want to work. I want to make money. I’ll do anything but plumbing. I don’t like the smell. And he goes, would you want to come back to elevators? And I said, Yeah, absolutely. I was actually waiting for him to suggest it. But like any good parent, he wasn’t going to push it. He wasn’t going to say this is what your job is you need to make money this way.

He basically let me find myself and let me come back in and ask him the question. So then we went to a company, while he was already working at Slate, and I learned a lot from Slade, it started out like a lot of companies do. 200 cars everyone knows each other 10 mechanics are all family, everyone’s helping everyone. And it grew from them. You know, I did that for several years, learned my craft I was I was a foreman, basically adjusting cars for mods. And then then I got hurt. My hands were kinda crushed in a machine, six of them got ripped off. And you know, it’s a lonely spot, you don’t know, if you’re gonna work again, you don’t know if you’re going to be in elevators. And then six months after physical therapy, I started walking back to elevators, I want to better where I was before. And when I got hurt, I probably got hurt because I was going 1000 miles an hour, I was working 60 hours a week, I had three brand new cars, I had a pickup truck, I had a new car and like a blazer, this was the date card.

Matthew Allred 7:20
And trying ot pay all the bills.

Mike Frangias 7:22
Exactly. And I was very ambitious in that part. But I needed to prove it to myself and to others that I could do the job again at that high level. And once I reached a certain point, I decided you know what, maybe let’s try the best of the best or what was perceived at that time to be the best. And it was Nouveau Elevator. And what I liked about nouveau was they had the motto of we’re going to do whatever it takes to get this all very running right away. If we have to recruit here at night to do a mod, we’ll put a crew here tonight, we’ll worry about the money later. As long as you’re willing to pay, we’re gonna get your elevator running. And it was and I proved myself over there, I you know, overtime at night was you never went home. And that was a very, very educational period in my life. And then

Matthew Allred 8:13
who were some of your biggest mentors, obviously your father was was huge, you know, through coming throughout, but who were some of the other big mentors that really made a big impact on you?

Mike Frangias 8:25
Well, I had a lot of mentors and I’ll bring them up as I go through in my early years was my father. And then I met some more interesting more mentors. Really after Nouveau and forward and I’ll bring them along you know along the way when each each one toward me, I’m still mean methods today.

But I’d left nouveau over a car something stupid and went over slate again because that was my comfort and my father was dying. So I want to take care of that. And then when he died I I kind of had to deal with the mortgages, the house and everything like that. So I just kind of put my nose down did what I was supposed to do worked. And then elevation was formed when Slade kind of went over to Schindler I didn’t feel I’d fit in in that type of big corporate atmosphere. So I tried my hand at elevation for a couple of years and my mother passed away. So after my mother passed away, that’s when I hit another arc in my my career where what do I do now? Do I even want to do elevators anymore? I you know, I kind of clicked all the boxes. I want to have elevators in New York City and these buildings, whatever else do I want to go to Florida or do I want to go to Texas? And I had wiped out every cent I had from the Union at that point. So I had no 401k plan; I had no annuities. I had everything because that all went to my mother’s health care and whatever else.

So I was really penniless. and kind of what am I going to do? And I was able, was offered an opportunity to go around the country.

The idea was for me to go, and kind of teach certain companies how to work on certain equipment. And that kind of rolled into a consultant role of Hey, Mike, what do you think about this, we’re having an issue with this. And I was very good with with kind of common sense stuff, I can sit there for a day or two, no one know what I was doing there and pick up on, you know, the ethos of the company what was going on? So look, I recommend this, or maybe we should do this. And that kind of really pushed me to the next level, my career, where I came back to New York. And, you know, I was very lucky to witness a company in St. Louis. Midwest, I think was Midwest elevator. And I was blown back by when I when I went there, it was a company with a waiting list of people, which was unheard of in New York, not only did they have a waiting list of people, these people were will take a pay cut.

Matthew Allred 11:09
So are talking about mechanics in particular that they were lining up to work for them, essentially, is that correct?

Mike Frangias 11:16
100%. And when I was told that by the mechanics, I was like, really. And then they took me to machinery rooms, every machine room, every motor was pristine. I mean, no dust at all, well maintained and said, How do you guys keep up with this? While when a guy’s on vacation, or when he takes off, we step in to make sure the maintenance is done, to keep it up the same level that we want the same guy to take care of our stuff. When we go on vacation. These guys went as far as what shocked me, they all ate lunch together. But it wasn’t even the fact that these elevator guys ate lunch together. All blue collar workers ate lunch together. It was a buffet style, every restaurant, every little place that we went to in St. Louis, it was the HVAC guy, it was your alarm guy. It was your elevator guy. And they all knew each other from all different trades, and they sit there and make bread. And hey, we’re gonna do that fire alarm over at that job, we’re going to do the test over at that job. And everyone knew everyone, it was very family type of atmosphere, which just just blew me back. And I said, if these guys could do what they’re doing here at this top level, and be so well respected. I would like to see that New York a little bit.

Matthew Allred 12:25
What do you think that helped create that was it? I mean, obviously the company played into it. I mean, it sounds like the culture, the community, there are a lot of pieces. What were the key factors you think?

Mike Frangias 12:37
So the culture, absolutely, like I said, did play a big part of it, but ultimately came down to the owner, you don’t work someplace where you’re not treated fairly. And the hoarder respected everyone, he was respected, because he wouldn’t make you do anything he wouldn’t do himself. If there was a cable job. And the guys complaining about this, well, the owner would get in his truck and go do the cable job with them. Even at the high level that they were, it wasn’t no one at egos. It was just this is how we do the job. If you’re worried about doing this job, let me show you how to do it. And let’s get this done. And that, that drawing a lot of respect from the guys, turning up people that know what you’re going through and can relate to it on a daily basis, even outside of the elevator industry, you know, on a personal level, all these guys are dealing with family problems. All right, well, let’s try to help them this way. This guy can’t afford whatever for his daughter, let’s try to pitch together and been a company holiday party where we donate some money to this. And it was on that level, where he knew about everyone’s family, every mechanic. And that’s the type of place where you really want to work. And it’s the type of place I strive to develop in New York and said, Alright, these guys are doing here. Let’s try to build something and I started 360 elevator, I started picking up a lot of work and doing very well in the first year or two. And we were able to buy a small company in New Jersey statewide elevator. Again, new to the business, I didn’t know a lot of things, you know, just coming into it just running into a let me start know about a company. So when I bought statewide, they had a lot of government contracts that we were doing mods for but in the contracts, you don’t get paid until 90 days after the job. So you got to front all the material costs. You got to front all the labor, you got front everything. So that was one below. And then my management company that I started 360 with kind of went bankrupt and went out of business. So it was 250 cars. So it was back to the drawing board again. What do I do? Do I try to continue what I’m doing and get rid of a few people? Or Or what do I have to go out there and knock on doors. And at that point, I met a gentleman called Dan Wren; who would be another mentor. In next phase of my life where, you know, he came down from Boston, he was doing very well in Boston, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont. Excellent. And the Connecticut line is where a lot of companies struggle, I struggled going into Connecticut. He was struggling going past Connecticut into New York. And he made several attempts, and he had a couple of clients in New York, where, you know, we would take care of his elevators. And it was more of, you know, the boots on the ground type of thing you guys are here, you boots on the ground, you’re respected. Maybe let’s work out a deal. And I go to him and say, I have X amount of elevators, I have this many service vehicles, I have this much tools, here’s my value and trying to blow myself up, where he just took me, you know, on the street, corner him and said, I don’t care, I don’t care about any of that stuff. That That means nothing. To me. It’s just the number. I want you I want your team. I’m investing in you your talents and your team’s talents. And that’s what I want to buy ultimately, not your contracts. You can lose all them tomorrow. And that kind of struck me all right. Wow, this guy is a people first type of guy. That’s what my values aligned with his. As long as he trusts me, and I trust him, we’re going to build a relationship. And you know, we did. And like I said, he was a mentor on the fact where I learned a lot that he trusted a lot of people, he allowed you to make your mistakes. But the difference here, and we made a lot of mistakes in the beginning. But we also he invested in talented people award he brought in Danny D’Angeles, who helped me who was a big name out there. He worked for every company you can imagine, brought in Jimmy Jean, he brought in, you know, Francine, and he brought in all these people that knew their craft, and would allow them to make mistakes. You know, you bid this job, and we’re losing 250,000 on it, you should have been at more, where we’re going to make up this money, come up with a plan to make it back up. And he will allow you make that mistake, as long as you corrected it. And that stuck with me till today. Recently, I made a huge mistake. But I had to sit down say Alright, how we’re going to recuperate that. So trusting your people goes far in any company. And that’s what I learned from him. And we were able my team and I, it wasn’t me, it was a team that was you know. A teamwork place where we started really bonding where the guys would come in, we need offices, they build them on the Saturday; no charge, they just do it. The service vehicles down this one needs breaks is when he’s all changed, they come into the office. And as long as we supply the box, they put them in the vans and got them running for Monday. And so with that type of bonding, we were able to do a lot of jobs that might not be in a regular elevator scope of work, we do the Verrazano Bridge four elevators, we did you know con s and the first one to put the big gearless Imperial motors in there. We redesigned the Kone cars to work with GAL we did West Point. So we’re really hitting our stride and clicking all the boxes and growing at a fairly decent rate. And you know, COVID hit and we battled to guide them once we came out of COVID. Like a lot of companies now, Eagle got offered 10 times their value. So what do you do? You own a company for 20 years, we can’t you’re never gonna see this money again. You got to do what you got to do. So they ultimately sold. I wasn’t mad at them. I was little, you know, little hurt that what we built is going away. But that’s just life. And I felt that Excel and 3Phase the company has not bought them. We’re already in great position. Don’t worry, we’re doing great work. And I feel there’s anything that I can offer to that I was more of when we built it up. When we fix your problems, not your running. Let me just be a guy in office helping you run it. So I spoke to a lot of companies spoke to Don at champion. Chamption again, they are you doing great work, they’re already well established. They don’t need someone like me, they’re clicking every box that you can, and a bunch of other companies. And then Mark from AEG had just bought half a dozen companies in New York. And with those purchases, a lot of the owners retired or went their own ways. And Mark was like, would you want to be a president of one of these companies and and try to take over where the owner left. And ultimately I did and it was it was one of the better decisions that I made because we kind of aligned with each other and I fell into what I do best we were able to build up a company, get it going being profitable, we show growth and, you know, again, just business happens and then we’re going a different direction, which was awesome. But I felt my job was done there. And I should maybe do what I do best and build another company. And my sister and a friend John had already done New York/New Jersey elevator and they were, you know, they had their own accounts from family and clients, but maybe a dozen cars on service, but they had a my job or two, and they were doing fine. But they were never going to get to that next level. Right, and they were in the union. So the costs were high. So I came aboard, and, and a year later, you know, our plan was to get out of everyone’s way, we didn’t want to be with the big boys in New York City, we didn’t want any problems with non competes or anything like that, even though I didn’t have anything signed, we just didn’t want that, like Mike was going into this area. So we did Westchester, Rockland County, New Jersey. I spoke to you a week ago, just to show you our growth from last time I spoke to we picked up 32 cars. So the cars are just coming in. And, and that anyone can say that it that really doesn’t matter. What matters to me is the companies that can hold those cars. So I have two years now, if I’m growing at a, you know, a fairly healthy rate, that’s a good sign that we’re doing our job, a lot of companies pick up 100 elevators, but next year, they might lose 100. elevators. So that’s really

What do you think, is kind of driving. It sounds like there’s a lot of movement with clients, is it that they’re looking for better services that they’re looking for more attention? What would you say is that behind that?

90% of the customers want someone to talk to. They don’t want to shoot an email to get an email back, or they don’t want a random estimate on their desk of just pay this and will make all your problems go away. They want someone they can call at nine o’clock at night or even during business hours and say, Hey, I’m concerned, this is what’s going on with this elevator? Can you help me? Can you just help me or make me feel better that I know that you’re doing what you said you do. And as long as you talk to them, say, Hey, I know we have a guy coming tomorrow, this is our plan, we have parts coming, we’re gonna take care of this and walk them through it, they feel a part of the human connection, which your employee should feel as well. And that goes a long way. Once one guy sees that you’re communicating with him, you’re doing right by him, there’s no sales pitch, there’s no nothing like that. And you do what you say you don’t lie to him, he tells the next person when he tells the next person, therefore advertising, you don’t need to advertise, you know, the people in that circle that you want to reach are being reached by the guy in the middle of it. And that’s really what was helped us, especially in the northern part of New York and Jersey area where that might not be the priority of other companies. It’s our priority.

Matthew Allred 22:50
So So Is that what’s really driving your growth? I mean, I don’t know if you’re out there knocking doors selling but But ultimately, it sounds like it’s coming down to Can I call this guy and he’ll respond and and, and even do what he says,

Mike Frangias 23:02
Yeah, every phone call I get starts with a frustrated person, just irate, angry, whether it’s at their own or at a company or whether they called four elevator companies and still get the hurt from any of them. It’s a frustrating thing. If you own a home, and your heat goes out in the wintertime, you want your heater guy there to fix you either. Same thing with elevators, I got three elevators, one elevator down and carries an old lady upstairs. I want that elevator running. And so to walk. So you want someone that’s gonna say, we’ll be there or even if they can’t be there that day. Look, we’re going to be there on Monday. And here’s why is that, okay? Just that comfort knowing that someone’s coming, or someone’s communicating with you, you know what’s going on leaps and bounds. A lot of the, you know, the bigger companies or more modern companies don’t even want a service calls called in anymore. They want them on emails, they want them texts, dispatcher makes it easier to flow it out or whatever. And, you know, a 70 year old guy or an eight year old guy that owned this building for 20 years, isn’t gonna take out his phone or email the shoot out a service call, he just wants to call up and say, Hey, could you come fix my elevator? Right? And that that’s really, you know, really what drew our growth to a point where I was nervous six months ago, we were at that, that balance beam off, you know, where a union shop or paying union scale, but we don’t have the cars or the cash flow to compensate for that. So I was going to sell, met a couple of people, but ultimately, since the growth has been so, so good, we’re in a very good place today. And that speaks a lot for I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it’s just the nature of where the industry is right now.

Matthew Allred 24:48
Yeah, I mean, sounds like it’s a great thing for you. And certainly as you’re, as you’re doing what people want, what they what they’re asking for. It sounds like they’re they’re responding to that. I mean, you had mentioned some time ago that As you were kind of in thinking about selling, you’d call almost have to call every week and kind of change your price, because you’re getting more and more business, which I think is a, good problem to have

Mike Frangias 25:12
100%. And that brings up, you know, one of the more recent mentors is Don from champion, you know, I take his playbook and go by it, you know, to a good degree, and Don was one of the people that was able to sit down with me and make me a real reasonable offer. But I would be calling him every week. I just picked up 30 More of those coming justice Don and picked up there’s not as like . Mike calm down a little bit, how about you wait a couple of months and see where we’re at, let let things relax, and then we’ll give you a real number. And, you know, I respect that if he didn’t do that, I wouldn’t be where I am right now. So it was just a matter of another person saying, just calm down, it’s gonna, you know, not even to say it’s gonna be okay, but you meant it’s going to be okay, just let’s see where it falls, if you want to make another decision, six months from now, you’re going to be better placed for it. And ultimately, he’d be a better place for it, because we’d be, you know, selling a bigger company. But Don has also went as far as changing things that that happens when you do acquire a company compared to private equity. He puts together teams of people that go out to the clients, and it’s their job just to say have 100 clients and check in with them? Hey, I’m Bob, from Champion Elevator, we just bought So and So Elevator Company? Is there anything I can help you with? Is there anything you need to be done? Let’s say point bringing a cup of coffee next month. And then the next point, you know, not really a sales, aggravating roll buddy bringing in voice you know, you’d have two or three invoices here, I don’t care about them, I just want to bring them with me. So you’re aware that these bills are here? How can I help you. And that, that really spoke to me because that really is the only way to make the customers that you’re buying know who you are a lot of private equity. They you know, they don’t even know that they’re sold until the third, third or fourth month where they’re getting a bill from So and So Elevator company. So, and that kind of, you know, doesn’t put the customer in best of moods. Wait a minute; I thought I had this company, but I just could not say nothing. And you know, to communicate once again. They’re cool, kind of annoyed with you. So it was just,

Matthew Allred 27:24
Especially when they have a problem. Right? When somebody something’s going on. It’s like, who do I call? And that’s got to be a hard spot to be in.

Mike Frangias 27:31
Yeah, and there’s all transition period where, you know, one company is still not technically sold yet, but they are kind of sold yet. So are you gonna fix my problems? Or is this person gonna fix my problems? And if you mitigate that, or if you help that it goes a long way. And retainage like I said, a lot of these companies have bought and bought and bought maybe 1000 cars here 1000 cars there, because cars there, but where are they now? You know, where are those cars that shows how good a company really is? You’ve always been excellent and a champion has been excellent with retainage. And growth, growth is the key want to companies that don’t show growth, but you know, are picking up a lot of cause while you have to kind of circle back? What’s going on? How should they fix it? Or, you know, whatever else? Or at least from my opinion, that’s how I see it.

Matthew Allred 28:20
Yeah, yeah. And obviously, you you’ve worked at a lot of companies, I mean, even that period, where you were traveling the country and consulting, and it sounds like you really got to see a lot of best practices and some not so great practices along the way, and decide which ones to to keep which ones not to keep. I am curious, you know, what, what are some of the biggest lessons, if you could kind of distill them into, you know, some key points? What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned?

Mike Frangias 28:50
The biggest lesson, ultimately, is you got to treat people like people, you can’t treat them, like employee number 107. You have to have that, that relationship, that bond with them. And it starts from your office, if your office is distant from your, your people, your employees, that ultimately those employees feel distant and they’ll feel part of your company. So just an example. A lot of offices now are completely automated are going that way where they’ll send out automated service tickets directly to the employees 6am employees know where to go, what to do. answer those calls. The day they close out their tickets, they go home. So at what point did they communicate with Elevator Company? At what point does Bob the supervisor and elevator company know what’s going on with him? Or if he fixed this problem or how we fix this problem? If the call comes in next day. Once again, it’s just automated calls and again, calls in again, and there’s no safety there’s no connection Between him in the shop and the cup, and the employee basically is working like, you know, his own little individual consultant or private contractor, so to speak. In olden days or not even that old maybe 1015 years ago, the mechanic would call up in the morning, talk to Donna or wherever the dispatcher is Bob, and Bob, or dialer or Friday would be like, Hey, how was your weekend? Is everything all right? All right, well, it’s kind of quiet this weekend, or maybe it was kind of busy this weekend. You got four calls, and you want me to call George? And maybe George can help you as well. It will mean you took a team up, do it together? Yeah, no, that sounds like good idea. We’ll do this. By the way, let Tony the supervisor know that this is our plan. So now Tony knows what’s going on. The dispatcher knows what’s going on the office knows what’s going on. The accountant, know, the room just heard that you gave this call in that you’re hanging to it. So she’s ready to fill out the bill once you finish the call. So now everyone is in that ethos, and everyone’s communicating. And now you’re, you’re part of an elevator company. And now that employee is proud to work with Joe Schmo elevator, and he’s gonna express that to his people, he’s the forefront of your company in the face, and he’s in a good mood, because he’s been comforted, or, or knows that someone else has his back, or it’s a group efforts, not just him on his own anymore. You know, some people like that, but most cases, the employees want to be part of something. So now he’s part of something. And he’s building something, he’s working to grow something and takes take pride in what he does. That’s one of the core things, it’s not rocket science, it’s not a college spreadsheet, it’s common sense. Treat people the way you want people treated, use common sense how, you know, think about the problems that you have, and how to fix them, and how don’t bring egos into the picture, you know, just offer, hey, I maybe should do it this way. Or maybe this and people have been receptive to that. If you come in and say, just do this, they’re not gonna be receptive. So I learned a lot of that, and not how to handle people just just how to communicate or interact with people was a big part of my lessons coming from Nvidia.

Matthew Allred 32:13
Yeah, those are those are great, I think, I think what you’re describing, certainly, as part of, you know, just modern culture in general. And certainly, as you get bigger, and companies get bigger and bigger, bigger, it’s, you do, you do seem to lose the human elephant element. And I think sometimes even about, you know, not saying social media is a bad thing. But if, if the only friends I have are the, the 250 friends on Facebook, then I then I don’t really have any friends, if I’m not really interacting, if I if I don’t have somebody that can talk to or go give them a hug when they’re down or, you know, it’s like, you know, there’s gotta be a human aspect. And that’s kind of what I hear you describing is just

Mike Frangias 32:50
the Great point. Great point, I’ve 200 LinkedIn friends, all right. I mean, really friends, because a kid or whatever. And the other side of fence that I’ve learned is, like I said, once you reach a certain point of elevators, it’s very hard to control it, say, 2000. Elevators, it’s a lot. And when you have 100 employees and 2000 cars, it’s a lot to control. And that’s why a lot of these companies pika to 3000 calls, and that’s as far as ever get. But if you put in good practices, if you if you trust your people, and don’t micromanage them, trust Bob to do Bob’s job, and Bob has a problem, your job is to help fix that problem, or support him or give them the tools to do his job. And once you put that, that into place and into practice with people that you trust around you, your team while working together, you can have a million cars, because you have a bot that you trust, or that you trust or whatever. And you know, that goes a long way. And, you know, one last thing as far as stuff that I’ve learned, I’ve learned as far as the younger millennials are or people, you know, everyone talks negatively about them or whatever else. But I’ve learned if you teach the younger generation or anyone, as soon as they come into your shop, this is what to expect when you do a maintenance step one greet, greet the, you know, the director or whoever’s at the building step to go here. If you lay it all out exactly how you want to do something, then you can expect them to do that job. But if you never tell them what you expect, how can you you know, yell in person? Oh, you didn’t do this? Well, you never told me to do this. Exactly. So it falls back on you. And with anyone, millennials, anyone, as long as you explain nine times out of 10 Those people I’m gonna grab the ball and run with it. And once they reach a certain level of, Oh, I know how to do this part of the job. I know do my maintenance great. And you’ll help with troubleshooting. You help them and educate them or put them with people that can help them grow to the next level. And ultimately you get that unicorn which is someone that does maintenance great and also conviction elevated. Great. And that’s the kinda mechanic that this industry really is craving for. And that’s a type that you could actually create within your own office, your own company, as long as you do it right.

Matthew Allred 35:10
What I hear you saying is, is, you know, especially you mentioned the millennials. Man, I think there are differences from generation to generation. But But I hear you say, as long as you set proper expectations, you take the time to teach him, you, you, here’s what I expect from you every single time, then, you know, they’ll do it. For the most part.

Mike Frangias 35:28
Yeah, as long as you explain, this is what I expect from you. It’s up to them to either say, Yeah, okay, this is what I could do. This is my job, I accepted grading goal, you know, or offer his own opinions. I have no problem with anyone telling me maybe we should do it this way. And the younger generation really does a good job with that, compared to when I was starting. I’m dare not say anything to mechanic, I’d be quiet. And, you know, did that help me? Yeah, I did learn a little bit. But yeah, maybe I could have put some input to save a job two hours if I knew something. So Well, that’s very valuable. But it’s up to the individual. I don’t even want to classify millennial or this one. They have their own traits and tendencies. And we’re all different. We’re all come with different generation different stresses. But ultimately, if you say, This is what I expect for you, this is the job you show them what you want, and they pick up the ball roll with it. There’s no problem.

Matthew Allred 36:19
Yeah, that’s awesome. I appreciate that. So last question for you, as we as we wrap up here. What? Like, I guess it’s a two part question. But what advice would you give first two, to business, small business owners, you know, that are maybe just starting now. Maybe it’s a husband, wife, team, whatever. And then also to, to new people in the industry, and maybe just kids coming out of college and just starting out? What What advice would you give.

Mike Frangias 36:45
So I really want multiple pop shops, who are unquote, to do well, or pick up because I’m at a point in my career, where 10 years ago, I can call Bob elevator and ask for help, you want to go halfsies on a bid with me, that might be a little bit too big to me, or you want to support this, or I’m having problems with this. And a lot of those mom and pop or independents are no longer around, they’ve all been purchased by private equity. So I encourage anyone that that isn’t scared of hard work, and can go through it, give it a year, it’s going to be a tough year, just like in any business, you’re gonna have a lot of a lot of hard falls, you know, real business devices, I wouldn’t go union the first year, I’d save up your money, build a war chest, because you can have a huge expenses insurance and you don’t need annuities and everything else from the union. Especially if you’re a guy or two partners and pickup truck going around. You don’t need to be union right now. Your wages, the money’s going to come if you stick with it. And be honest with your customers and be honest with your employees. And don’t lie to them. Once you lie, you lose those relationships with the customers and employees. So long as you stick to the rule of I’m going to work every day to do the best job that I possibly can. You’re going to find you’re going to see in three, four years that everything’s going to pay off. But stick with it. Be honest. Talk to your customers, employees, honestly. And you’ll be fine. Everything else, you know, you could bring in a financial expert to go through your books and tell you what you’re doing wrong. But just on basic practices, stick with those those little items and you’ll be just fine for someone new. I always say no matter what industry you’re in, try to strive to do the best job that you possibly can. That’s how you’re going to rise up the ladder. If you’re in McDonald’s or Wendy’s and you’re the fry guy will be the best fry guide you can take pride in your work, clean up your station, wipe down the oil, salt your fries the right way. Same thing in elevators, if you’re a maintenance helper, always be it was a role. But now I’m seeing a kind of decline always be trying to do something trying to clean up a section clean up your mechanics tools that, you know when a supervisor comes to the job and she’s to help or having a cup of coffee on his phone. It doesn’t translate visually well to him. Not saying be a slave driver. Yes, Master, whatever I’m saying, take pride in what you do. If you clean that pit, make sure it’s clean. And you know, ask questions. And don’t be afraid to say look, maybe maybe this isn’t for me because it isn’t for a lot of guys. But if you say those those words, this isn’t for me one, it takes a lot to say. But to me there’s an area in this industry that so vast that you could fit in. And maybe supervisors will say well, maybe this isn’t for you, but you went to code compliance or you went to drafting what what really makes you happy and maybe we’ll find a place for you. But if you don’t say those words and just are just nasty within walk out and give up, you know, the door kind of closes and you’re done. This is a great group of people in this industry that are willing to help you with anything. So ask for it. Kind of be humble. You’ll do just fine.

Matthew Allred 40:01
Right Mike, thank you so much for being here to appreciate your your time and your your words of advice. We’re always appreciate that have a good one. So, thank you for listening to the elevator careers podcast sponsored by the all red group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting. You can check us out online at elevator careers.net Please subscribe and until next time, stay safe

Transcribed by https://otter.ai