Discipline, Leadership & Building a 100-Year Company

00;00;00;00 – 00;00;15;10
Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh, hey.

00;00;15;10 – 00;00;24;29
Speaker 1
Welcome to the Blue Collar Start up, the podcast where hard work meets big ideas. This is your home for real talk, real stories and real strategies from the frontlines. Life and the business of the trades.

00;00;25;02 – 00;00;45;19
Speaker 1
I’m one of your hosts, Mike Nelson from Five Towers Media. Doing the show solo today. If you watched last week’s episode, which would be Bill Tansey from the op shop, I think if that’s order. We were actually recording two episodes today. I’m doing a Bulls solo because, he’s out having a baby. So, baby number three for Derek.

00;00;45;19 – 00;01;07;27
Speaker 1
We’re really excited for him. And, and, congratulations to everybody. I got a note from with a picture of the baby. So sounds like everybody’s happy and healthy and, you know, we’re we’re super excited for those guys. So, so I’ll just be rolling through the episode today. So no witty banter for Derek and I to start off the episode, but I do want to talk a little bit real quick about a couple things.

00;01;07;27 – 00;01;26;00
Speaker 1
One, if you’re, haven’t listened in a while, but listening to the show the last few years, you know, we just rolled out some new, episode formats at the beginning of this year. Today we’re doing an interviews from the field, which is where we’re talking to men and women that are working directly in the trades in the field every day.

00;01;26;03 – 00;01;45;02
Speaker 1
Sometimes their business owners, sometimes their managers, sometimes are foremen, project managers, you name it. We’re trying to make sure we get a little bit from everybody out there. We also have our women’s in the trades episodes with guest host Stacey Spector from Catamount Consulting. That actually got one of those coming up next week. Pretty excited about that.

00;01;45;04 – 00;02;09;07
Speaker 1
We also, bring the team in from Catamount Consulting, do a little roundtable discussion on some different, some different things, whether that be growth mindset stuff, leadership, safety training, all the things that they kind of operate in. And, really fortunate for them to be able to spend some time with us, doing that. And then, of course, last but not least, we’ve got the lab.

00;02;09;07 – 00;02;28;09
Speaker 1
Lab, we’ve got the let’s ask Bill six, episode that we’ve been putting together and that’s with Bill Tansey from the optics shop. You know, Bill’s, been gracious enough to spend some time with us here and kind of give us some of the inside baseball as far as how he works with companies and some of the tips and tricks and things that he does to help companies grow and scale.

00;02;28;09 – 00;02;54;22
Speaker 1
So, really enjoy all of our formats. And, you know, I, I laugh about Bill’s episodes because I feel like I’m getting a bunch of free consulting from him, but, some free coaching, but so check those out. And, and of course, you know, each episode we’re doing, roughly a 30 minute main episode. And then for our Patreon subscribers, which there will be a link in the show notes, you can jump on over and check out what we’ve got going on Patreon.

00;02;54;29 – 00;03;17;03
Speaker 1
You know, that side of the program really is, we try to get usable, actionable information for our people in the trades, whether they’re, trying to be successful in the role, they’re trying to build and grow and scale, blue collar business, you know, that that Patreon side is really where we’re getting into some of the finer points of the things that we talk about here on the main episode.

00;03;17;03 – 00;03;41;18
Speaker 1
So check it out, please. You know, join membership. It’s a whopping $5 a month. Well worth the kind of content and stuff that we’re putting in there. So please jump on over there. And of course, we’ve got sponsorship opportunities available. You know, if you are one of the people listening, you know, that we raise money to help donate to both of these programs, HVC that we call the, you know, the blue collar college.

00;03;41;18 – 00;04;05;23
Speaker 1
They’ve got a bunch of great trade programs. And one of the things we do in the show is to raise money for those programs to help kids with tools and tuition. So, you know, we we’ve got some amazing sponsors that I’m going to list out here in a minute. But if you know, you’d like to get involved and like to help to get some of that support out there for these kids, you know, reach out to us, I’ll make sure Taylor puts the, the email address in the show notes as well.

00;04;05;23 – 00;04;26;24
Speaker 1
So, and speaking of sponsors, you know, got to give, just a quick shout out to our sponsors. We’ve got, Nick and the the crew over at people’s, Martin Electric, MLB construction, Pinocchio Construction, Michaels Group, Catamount Consulting, of course. Scott Stacy. As I mentioned, they do so much to help the show. The northeast Construction Trades Workforce coalition.

00;04;26;24 – 00;04;47;03
Speaker 1
Pam and Doug over there doing some amazing work on getting kids, interested in the trades and trying to make that happen earlier. Then, then later. And, of course, Derek’s team over at Daigle Cleaning Systems and my team over Five Towers Media, appreciate everybody’s support for all the different things that you do, not just the monetary support, but the connections and introductions.

00;04;47;03 – 00;05;00;16
Speaker 1
And it’s just amazing. And, you know, teamwork makes the dream work. So thanks, everybody. All right. And without further ado, here, let’s let’s get our guest on here. Rick. How are we, man?

00;05;00;18 – 00;05;03;27
Speaker 2
Real good. I appreciate you having me on and, excited to do.

00;05;03;27 – 00;05;22;26
Speaker 1
This. Yeah, yeah. Me too. I, you know, of course, I’ll have you introduce yourself, but, you know, it’s Beckham’s one of those companies. I mean, you guys are all over the place, and, I, you know, I, I think it’s hard pressed for people, at least locally. Anyway, that that haven’t heard of Beckham. So, Rick, why don’t you just go ahead and tell us who you are?

00;05;22;27 – 00;05;25;28
Speaker 1
Tell us a little bit about Peckham and, what you guys are up to.

00;05;26;01 – 00;05;45;27
Speaker 2
Yeah, sure. No problem. So my name is Rick Engelhart. I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. My whole life, went to college at Youngstown State University for industrial engineering and mechanical engineering. Started working for General Electric early on in my career. And that helped, I think got a great, base for me and a foundation.

00;05;45;29 – 00;06;01;26
Speaker 2
I had found myself, at some point in time in Ohio, the lighting business closing down, and wanted something I thought would be a little bit, you know, around for a while and that I wouldn’t have to switch jobs back and forth. Closing plant, closing plant. So I got, into GE aviation, and Rutland, Vermont.

00;06;01;27 – 00;06;33;19
Speaker 2
And that’s what brought me up here. And then, during Covid, I ended up, leaving GE and, coming to Peckham Industries. As far as Beckham’s concern, Peckham operates in five New England states Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and New York, pretty much from cradle to grave. Right. So from quarries in the land that we that we manage all the way to finish projects road construction, parking garages in my case, you know, aggregates is a huge part of our business.

00;06;33;19 – 00;06;51;15
Speaker 2
We own somewhere in the lines of 45 or 50 quarries. I’m pretty sure at the current time frame. So front, it’s a vertically integrated company. So from the quarries all the way through to finished products, you know, we can help control our destiny. Cost, quality, and and center culture and the direction that we that we prefer.

00;06;51;17 – 00;06;55;01
Speaker 2
And, I think that’s a big piece of who we are as a company.

00;06;55;03 – 00;07;03;10
Speaker 1
Yeah. And I noticed, you guys celebrated your 100 year anniversary a couple of years ago in 2024, if I’m not mistaken.

00;07;03;12 – 00;07;04;27
Speaker 2
Yes, sir. We did.

00;07;04;29 – 00;07;06;22
Speaker 1
That is wild. 100 years.

00;07;06;25 – 00;07;26;24
Speaker 2
Yeah. Not not too many companies, but 100 years. I think it’s a testament to Beckhams and yeah, they built and, you know, they have you know, a thing in Peckham where, you know, we want to be in control of our destiny. We do that through growing, whether that’s organic growth or whether it’s acquisitions. But we were always looking to grow, and continuously trying to improve.

00;07;26;24 – 00;07;34;19
Speaker 2
So that’s part of who we are and our identity. And, I think it’s been a great success. In a great corner of the success of the company.

00;07;34;21 – 00;07;54;09
Speaker 1
Yeah, it’s, it’s wild because when I was, doing some prep, getting ready for the show and, and looking at Peckham as an organization and not just the geographic footprint and like you say, you know, like the 40, quarries that they own, but the, just the whole system, like, the whole way that they do their business.

00;07;54;09 – 00;08;15;27
Speaker 1
And I love the whole, you know, going from, you know, as you said, cradle to grave. Right? Like going from the quarry all the way to you’re putting it down on the, on the roads or or using it in projects. I’m just owning every step of that process is just wild to me. So I hope that all of that stuff put together really excited to get into some of this stuff.

00;08;15;27 – 00;08;21;18
Speaker 1
And, Rick, real quick, what, what’s your role inside of Peckham? So I am the,

00;08;21;20 – 00;08;52;28
Speaker 2
Plant manager Daily precast. We’re focused on parking garages. So we make, you know, we’ve done in the past, you know, bridge beams and and Rico panels and stuff. But the core of our business, where we really, you know, can can bring the most value to the with the company. Peckham. The umbrella of the park and company is, is really parking garages for us and enables us to get a lot of volume in and, keep the status quo as far as, the amount of people we have employed and covering the overhead that we need to.

00;08;53;00 – 00;08;57;14
Speaker 1
Now, is that company wide that you guys focus a lot on parking garages? No. So like I.

00;08;57;14 – 00;09;23;04
Speaker 2
Said, we’re we’re actually like the, the I would say the smaller 10% part of the business. Most of what industries does is the quarrying aggregates, and road construction. Yeah. And hot mix asphalt. So we’re not the main focus of, of the business. But nevertheless we, we operate 365 days a year. So I think they like to have that diversity in the company, you know, that, you know, pays the bills when everything else isn’t.

00;09;23;04 – 00;09;23;22
Speaker 2
So.

00;09;23;24 – 00;09;37;25
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it’s, it’s funny because you start saying that I was like, holy moly. I’m like, they operate that larger footprint just on parking garages. Like, I had no idea that there was that many opportunities for building parking garages mostly.

00;09;37;26 – 00;09;49;29
Speaker 2
Or focuses along the coast, obviously, where you don’t have room to build to the left, them to the right. Yeah, go up. So, so that that’s where a lot of our focus is that, obviously some inner city places, you know.

00;09;50;12 – 00;09;59;24
Speaker 2
Any of the Springfield, mass. Or Syracuse and whatnot and any of those areas in the, in the inner city, areas is where most of these garage look gonna do.

00;09;59;27 – 00;10;16;02
Speaker 1
I and I know this is a little off topic, but I’m just I’m just so interested in this. I have you noticed that there’s been a an increase in demand for parking garages over the last decade? Because I just and maybe it’s just because of what I see locally, but parking just seems to be at a premium wherever you go.

00;10;16;02 – 00;10;35;16
Speaker 1
And I feel like I see more and more and more parking garages going up. And, you know, it used to be something we’d see in mostly more metropolitan areas, but now we see them. We see them in Glens Falls, New York, you know, we see them in Saratoga. We see them in communities that are a lot smarter, smaller than I ever, remember seeing them before.

00;10;35;18 – 00;11;05;25
Speaker 2
Yeah. And there’s a lot of, an architectural look that they like to put behind them. Nobody wants to put up something that looks like section eight housing, essentially, you know, or. And so, you’re getting a lot of these now with nice brick finishes. They’re really trying to match.

00;11;05;27 – 00;11;07;02
Speaker 2
I lose you at all.

00;11;07;04 – 00;11;12;26
Speaker 1
Yeah. You froze up, right? When you’re saying, What? Right when you got into the nice brick finishes. We lost you there. Yeah.

00;11;12;26 – 00;11;13;05
Speaker 2
So?

00;11;13;10 – 00;11;13;29
Speaker 1
So, the.

00;11;13;29 – 00;11;33;12
Speaker 2
Architects nowadays are trying to, you know, challenge the status quo. They want to match the environments around where these garages are at. Yeah. So whether it’s us doing brick work, you know, they’re they’re they’re really trying to push the status quo for that. So we do do architectural precast. I’m sorry, structural precast, but with an architectural finish on it.

00;11;33;12 – 00;12;00;17
Speaker 2
So I’m not going to work. When you go down the highway. It is very impressive looking. As far as the demand, I can’t really speak to it because I’ve only been, in the industry for about five years. Okay. And I focus hasn’t been on the business end of it. But I would say that, you know, the last couple of years have been a little slower for us, but I would say what you’re talking about as far as, parking garages being more of, it’s a commodity, but a as necessary commodity to some impact back.

00;12;00;17 – 00;12;17;02
Speaker 2
Right? You know, it’s is these areas along the coast or growing, you know, like I said, you got to go up. So that’s much of what we, what we’re, we’re here to do is to, like I said, stay focused on the parking garages. And, and it allows us to operate, optimally for us.

00;12;17;04 – 00;12;30;28
Speaker 1
Yeah. And so as, as a plant manager and specializing in the parking garages, what is that typical day to day look like for you? Like what kinds of things are you working on or what does your job entail? A.

00;12;30;28 – 00;12;49;18
Speaker 2
Lot of it’s people management. So, you know, being a manager of managers, you’re trying to, you know, forge a strategic plan, and then you got to break that down to what is everybody’s part in that. So, you know, I start my day typically with production meeting, I pulse, you know, what happened from the time I left the day before?

00;12;49;20 – 00;13;14;18
Speaker 2
We hear pieces overnight and strip out a former. So largely, what was the quality of the of of the pieces getting pulled out of the forms, reviewing that, any safety issues? Safety is one of the core values or values of Peckham Industries. So that’s that’s a large focus on a daily basis for me. So make sure you know, everything we pick up here is heavy, large equipment.

00;13;14;18 – 00;13;32;01
Speaker 2
And, you know, safety is at a premium. You can’t be you can’t achieve your goals if you’re sending anybody home, to their not to their family’s not in perfect shape. Right? So it’s just something we keep a constant focus on. I’m really happy to see, in this company, we we have a we call Peckham engagement program.

00;13;32;01 – 00;13;50;03
Speaker 2
It’s a VBS based system. Behavior based safety. Where you it gives people a platform and the ability to have conversations where if you just walked up to somebody, you may not feel so comfortable giving them a suggestion, especially if you’re new or younger and you see something that maybe looks a little risky, it gives you a platform to work off of.

00;13;50;06 – 00;14;07;20
Speaker 2
That’s supported by management by the company. And so we try to get as many of our frontline leaders this year. I have a big push with our managers to try to get frontline leaders more involved, and to, to really have the courage to speak up. And that kind of comes into to Scott and Stacy’s message up above the line.

00;14;07;22 – 00;14;27;24
Speaker 2
You know, a lot of these conversations, you know, maybe with somebody who doesn’t always see your perspective the way that you do. But I always try to tell people if you can remain calm, cool, collective, transparent, respectful, you know, all the words that you would use to resemble what good communication looks like, right? Good healthy communication. That’s what we’re really aiming to do.

00;14;27;25 – 00;14;46;27
Speaker 2
We’re aiming to have healthy conversations to people to improve our stance as far as safety. So, so, that’s a large focus of mine, during the day is to make sure that we’re building that culture, building that environment of good leaders that have a good head on their shoulders, that can stay calm and tense situations and help guide people in the right direction.

00;14;46;29 – 00;14;49;00
Speaker 1
Interesting. And so, so,

00;14;49;05 – 00;15;04;21
Speaker 2
But getting on with, with the rest of the day, so, so typically start my day with that meeting. Usually after that, you know, I got a lot of meetings nowadays I’m finding it’s my schedule. I used to never have to work off of an outlook schedule. I would be lost without it. Now. I would never remember thinking on this today.

00;15;04;21 – 00;15;05;19
Speaker 2
Right.

00;15;05;21 – 00;15;06;26
Speaker 1
So, yeah, I got.

00;15;06;28 – 00;15;35;15
Speaker 2
I am constantly on the outlook schedule. I do quite a bit with Peckham and, Peckham away tour that we do, which is essentially saying, hey, here’s where we come from, here’s where we’re trying to go. This isn’t anything new for us. We’ve been growing from 1924 all the way to 2026. And we’re going to and our path forward is to continue to grow to, to continue to be, in charge of our destiny, in charge of our costs, you know, having having quality be in control.

00;15;35;18 – 00;15;54;29
Speaker 2
These are all the things that, you know, growing and not letting somebody else take you over, enable you to do, but still being genuine to yourself. Peckham was acquired a lot of small businesses, and we still want them to be, you know, have a lot of pride in their individual business unit. But still feel a family of Peckham too.

00;15;54;29 – 00;16;15;18
Speaker 2
And I think they’ve done a really good job. I think that’s a really hard spot for a lot of companies to hit. And, I think they found the magic formula. And it really just comes from a genuineness of good leadership. And I think that we have a ton of really great leaders there that are really good people, leaders and understand this message, and really just trying to cascade it down and get everybody else, you know, the buy in and get involved.

00;16;15;18 – 00;16;29;11
Speaker 2
And really it’s all about engagement, right? You can plan all you want, but at some point you got to act and you got to do. And being a leader, that means getting out there and getting in front of people and talking to them and let them know what the expectations are and how they’re doing compared to those expectations.

00;16;29;11 – 00;16;48;29
Speaker 2
So, you know, getting out there in the day, I keep on going my day here, I get a little sidetracked. So we talk, but, but typically, you know, trying to after some, a couple other meetings, probably they’re scheduled through the day, later on the day I have, we have a poor schedule meeting. That’s where we’re really trying to set the pace of, okay, we’re going to have everything set up by it’s time I start pouring concrete.

00;16;48;29 – 00;17;15;11
Speaker 2
That’s going to give us optimally around, you know, 8 to 10 hours where we want to see our concrete, caring, we, we run up and seek concrete, the self consolidating. So it has the characteristics of more flow ability, to it, but also accelerated caring as well too. So work here in panels and stripping amount of forms, and anywhere between 8 to 12, but preferably 8 to 10 hours.

00;17;15;14 – 00;17;39;02
Speaker 2
So we’re, we’re pulling them out of formwork and whatnot. So I still do that for schedule meeting right around after lunch. Then typically after that, it’s follow up on on other topics I really run off of, Stephen Covey’s, I call it Covey’s Cup, where in my day I have the big important things that are going in the cup first, then, you know, then I’m filling in with stone and then I’m filling with sand at the end.

00;17;39;04 – 00;17;54;02
Speaker 2
I really want to make sure that I’m mission focused and I’m setting our team up for success. At this point, it’s not so much about what I’m individually doing as a contributor, but how am I setting my team up for success? So I try to keep that focus on that. And, and it’s been working well.

00;17;54;02 – 00;18;17;04
Speaker 2
And I’m really proud of what we built here and, been showing off the plant the last couple of weeks and our efforts towards good fives, good housekeeping, and just what good leadership looks like. And what you see in the plant and bring customers in here. I want them to be able to see that the the attention that you want to the product quality and safety out on a jobsite when they’re erecting your you’re going to see that same safety in our plant.

00;18;17;04 – 00;18;39;12
Speaker 2
And I feel like it’s a good sales pitch when people walk through and they see the mock ups that we do, which is essentially a small sample that shows a ton of different features on one piece of what you’re going to get final product. And that’s our opportunity to show them who we are and who they’re doing business with, and that we’re a disciplined workforce that is consistent in their practices, and has standards that they try to meet, every day that we work.

00;18;39;12 – 00;19;09;28
Speaker 2
So that’s a large part of what I’m trying to do and build a team that can be successful, long after I’m gone. So, that’s kind of what my day looks like in general. Of course. You know, every day gets a little hectic. Things happen. Hopefully no safety injuries, though. And that’s really, that’s really what I keep a large focus on is making sure that, you know, if something’s happening, that we’re reporting it timely, that if there’s breakdowns with machinery, that we’re on top of it, trying to make sure that we can still be productive and working with our leaders to to grow themselves to and take on a lot of these

00;19;09;28 – 00;19;11;16
Speaker 2
tasks.

00;19;11;18 – 00;19;36;08
Speaker 1
So I know you’ve got an engineering background. You sound very regimented and very disciplined. And maybe it’s the engineering you write that like, likes a good process. Is that have you always been that way, or is that something that you have learned over time as far as being structured and disciplined and, you know, I never.

00;19;36;11 – 00;19;49;24
Speaker 2
Knew it was like a highlight lever of mine in life. You know, I, I’m kind of, you know, I never think of myself as anything great. You know, my boss, you know, tells me all the time, you know, you’re a great leader. And I’m like, you know, I’m.

00;19;49;24 – 00;19;51;03
Speaker 1
I’m okay.

00;19;51;06 – 00;20;03;03
Speaker 2
I try to stay humble. I think it’s just the way I was raised. I am aware that it’s probably a strong point of mine, but, what was your question one more time? I want to make sure I. On the point.

00;20;03;04 – 00;20;21;27
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah, a little tangential here. I think that’s all right. No, you’re fine. I, I just, you know, as we’re talking and you’re just the language you’re using and talking about your day, like, you sound like you’re very regimented and focused. And I’m just wondering if that’s like, you know, I know a few engineers and a lot of them are like that, because they just they’re built that way.

00;20;21;27 – 00;20;34;19
Speaker 1
And then I know some that, they kind of just because they’re engineers had to learn to be that way all the time. And I’m just I’m just wondering if that was, something you learned at Peckham or if that’s just something that’s, you know, through your career or that.

00;20;34;19 – 00;21;01;27
Speaker 2
Discipline, I think has been with me always. That’s year I was trying to get to is, is I think it’s always been with me. I’ve never knew that it was there. Like I think I’m aware nowadays that it’s there. But I always believe that, like there’s two words that kind of you can’t really separate and that’s discipline. And consistency because I, I have a hard time saying that you’re disciplined if you can’t.

00;21;02;00 – 00;21;19;09
Speaker 2
Consistently discipline. So for me, for my father, to be quite honest, I was really blessed to have great parents growing up that really, put a lot of attention to raising their sons to, to have good integrity and good attributes in a professional career. So, you know, I was pushed, I was challenged. The bar was always held high.

00;21;19;09 – 00;21;24;22
Speaker 2
And I can remember times when I would tell my dad things like, how can it feels like my friends, fathers.

00;21;24;25 – 00;21;25;19
Speaker 1
Are.

00;21;25;21 – 00;21;44;24
Speaker 2
Escaping know and, and and he always just simply said, like Ricky, it’s lonely on top of the hill. You know, you’re going to find that things that you should be doing, not everybody’s going to be doing. But staying disciplined and consistent, I don’t know, it’s just in my blood. It’s just, I’m a I’m a I’m a habit of repetition.

00;21;44;26 – 00;22;02;16
Speaker 2
I like to be doing the same things. You know, I do. I do my laundry on the weekends, I get home from work, I do the same things every day. And, sometimes it feels boring, and but I when I. As I’ve grown, I’ve learned that, boring is the least of my problems. And have all. You got to worry about being bored sometimes.

00;22;02;19 – 00;22;23;15
Speaker 2
Yeah. That’s not a bad thing. That that comes with being disciplined and consistent, and you just gotta you just gotta, you know, keep your keep your attitude positive and your outlook on your horizon positive. And, Yeah, that’s all I have to say about that. I could probably go on and on and on, but, I don’t I don’t necessarily know what the formula is there for my success with it.

00;22;23;23 – 00;22;42;17
Speaker 2
I just I wake up and I do my thing every day. I make sure I get to work. And they said that Covey’s cup thing of like, I make sure I put the important things first and prioritize those first, and everything else falls after. And if I can get some extra things done, great. But I try to make sure I’m hitting the big three every day and keep my focus more narrow.

00;22;42;24 – 00;22;59;18
Speaker 2
There was a mantra I had at one point in time. They had told me, you know, I’d rather see you focus, a mile deep and an inch wide than a mile wide and an inch deep across. And that really stuck with me forever. You know, and that you really make progress when you stay focused on something.

00;22;59;18 – 00;23;19;03
Speaker 2
I’m not a believer in multitasking. You may have many things going on in a period of time. But you’re probably being focused on 1 or 2 of those at any point in time and more than likely just one. And, yeah, you might, you know, jump off line with one, get into another. And I think people call that multitasking.

00;23;19;05 – 00;23;20;12
Speaker 1
Right.

00;23;20;14 – 00;23;44;09
Speaker 2
But a lot of times what I find is the best work I get done is intense blasts with extreme focus. And that’s where I get my best work done. And that’s when I’m getting, you know, the mass majority of my responsibilities off my plate. And complete for the day or whatever range I’m looking at. And I’ve noticed that as well, too, that my range being the role that I’m at now, you know, you use I used to think day to day, maybe week to week.

00;23;44;11 – 00;24;00;06
Speaker 2
Now I think in the past of what’s still lingering that needs to be complete and into the future. About a month to set us up for success, sometimes even longer than that, to set us up for success, depending on what we have on the plate. You know, we’ve recently, in the last couple of years, had some really big, capital expense projects.

00;24;00;14 – 00;24;08;18
Speaker 2
And there was, you know, a year’s worth of planning ahead of time to make those successful, with no injuries, because you had to be with no injuries to be successful.

00;24;08;21 – 00;24;35;04
Speaker 1
So it’s, Oh, I should say to it for for our listeners, if you’re not familiar with Stephen Covey, the author, he’s written a bunch of great books. And I’m very familiar with the Cup story that you’re talking about, and I won’t try to tell it because I’m sure I’ll mess it up. But I’m sure there’s a YouTube video out there somewhere, that if you if you Google Stephen Stephen Covey Cup story, I’m sure it’ll pop up.

00;24;35;04 – 00;24;48;29
Speaker 1
And, I do love that as a process or system on how to look at things and what you should be working on first. And, it definitely is. I mean, Stephen Covey is he’s just brilliant. Yeah. He’s awesome. Amazing, amazing stuff.

00;24;49;01 – 00;25;00;02
Speaker 2
And then, Napoleon Hill or two of the folks that I got an hour long drive to work. So I put it on, and I start doing that self-improvement and listening to it. And I can’t tell you how much that helped me in so many different ways.

00;25;00;05 – 00;25;17;29
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, I, I believe that we’ve talked a lot, talked about thinking Grow Rich a couple times on this show. I, you know, it’s funny that you bring them up to you because I always think about the three more feet, that he talks about with as far as, like, digging for diamonds. And, I always think about that when I’m.

00;25;17;29 – 00;25;28;29
Speaker 1
I’m meeting with resistance or obstacles in my business. I think about. I just got to dig three more feet, man, and and see what, see what we can see and never get. What’s that?

00;25;29;02 – 00;25;29;22
Speaker 2
Never quit.

00;25;29;28 – 00;25;58;10
Speaker 1
Never quit, never quit. That’s, you know, I, I don’t I think I’m just so stubborn. I think I get lucky from that standpoint is no matter how bad things get, I just keep moving because I’m so stubborn. But, I don’t know if it’s good or bad in all situations, but, so you know, I wanted to, you had mentioned some stuff before we started recording, and I and I, I thought it was valuable to touch on it, and it is something that we’ve been talking a bit about in recent episodes on the show.

00;25;58;13 – 00;26;16;20
Speaker 1
I, you know, this morning with Bill Tansey from the op shop, we were talking about it obviously with Stacy and Scott, a lot of conversations with those guys. So you had mentioned and not to turn this into a commercial for Stacy and Scott, but I do love those guys and I love what they do. You mentioned Stacy.

00;26;16;20 – 00;26;17;03
Speaker 1
Those guys.

00;26;17;03 – 00;26;18;17
Speaker 2
Are back. It’s okay.

00;26;18;20 – 00;26;19;07
Speaker 1
What’s that?

00;26;19;10 – 00;26;20;20
Speaker 2
Is there a little kick back? It’s okay.

00;26;20;20 – 00;26;49;26
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, you guys send me some checks. But, you know, you talked about them coming in and doing leadership, and you talked about a few different leadership things that you’re doing. Inside of Peckham, and I guess so I’ve got a few questions on that. And one of the questions I had for you was, I assume that’s something that Peckham sponsors or they, they’re, they have they do a lot of training for you guys with with people like Stacy and Scott.

00;26;49;28 – 00;26;51;17
Speaker 1
They do

00;26;51;20 – 00;27;09;04
Speaker 2
Really it’s it’s up to us at the plant, you know, of what? We we got them engaged. That was not a Peckham thing. As much as their local to us here in the Bennington, southern Vermont area. So we didn’t really have any Peckham engagement to bring them in. I they may do work with other Peckham sites.

00;27;09;04 – 00;27;25;00
Speaker 2
I’m not quite sure about that. Maybe Scott has mentioned it and I just not recollecting. Yeah, but but yeah. No, we brought them in and the message for us was like, hey, I’ve been kind of like I said, saying this, you know, we can have any conversation that we want, but we got to stay respectful while we’re doing it.

00;27;25;00 – 00;27;44;27
Speaker 2
We got to have prompt conversations. We we had to use candor in the way that we speak with each other. And we got to have connections, engagement with with the people around us. So, you know, once we brought them in, we had, we had some crew leader trainings that we were doing. And one of the modules is going to be to have them come in, because really, that’s what really wraps everything that we’re trying to do together.

00;27;44;27 – 00;28;05;16
Speaker 2
Right? We want to give them some information on air and legal stuff and how to manage through projects. And, you know, all the different things that build a really good leader. But one of the most important ones is how to communicate, how to be engaged with people and how to be influential. Because as a leader, your biggest role is to be influential to others and show them what good looks like and then get them on the path and on the track.

00;28;05;16 – 00;28;07;03
Speaker 2
Being it themselves.

00;28;07;06 – 00;28;21;01
Speaker 1
So it is that that drive for, you know, really personal and professional development is that, that that’s coming from you as the plant manager that you want to see your people grow, you want to see your team grow.

00;28;21;03 – 00;28;44;00
Speaker 2
But I don’t want to discount Peckham, to any degree. It just this specific case, you know, we were the we didn’t have a link with Peckham to get to Scott and Stacey, but, they put a lot of different, they, they have, we have, managers, development program, emerging leaders program. We we have a, executive leadership right now that I’m doing with we have some, some of our board of directors.

00;28;44;00 – 00;29;11;12
Speaker 2
Do, an executive leadership through the Dutch, Chamber of Commerce. So there’s, there’s that, that they promote as well to, really a lot of leadership trainings, a lot of safety training. So they’re involved with a ton of it. I would say, though, when it comes to this message, this was probably a lot of me and how I prefer to run a plant or I prefer the culture to be is, you know, I want a plant that has good people with good attitudes, have great intentions, good integrity.

00;29;11;18 – 00;29;35;20
Speaker 2
They show up to work. They want to work as a team. They want to continuously improve themselves and their environment and the people around them. And, I’ve just found that through my years working with General Electric and working with, you know, Peckham, as far as I have that, really, if you can create a really good team that gets synergies going, that ball, when it gets rolling, it makes a huge impact on the bottom line.

00;29;35;23 – 00;29;51;20
Speaker 2
And, you know, I think that we do a great job, as a company for strategic planning from the top all the way down. And it starts with big. I come in at the board and the CEO and they say, you know, here’s the path that we’re on. So we call that the Peckham 300 for us.

00;29;51;20 – 00;30;15;18
Speaker 2
So, that’s getting to $300 million in Ebit by 2030, I believe it is. And I think we’re like 160 currently, maybe a little bit more than that. So, you know, they do a great job of saying, hey, these are our goals. And then that cascades down to the business unit and then that cascades from my boss, the general manager, down to myself and the other managers that report into him.

00;30;15;20 – 00;30;36;14
Speaker 2
And it just creates this good alignment of strategic planning. And then what do we have to do to put our piece of the pie in and to add value to the big company goal? And I think that’s extremely important. That you set goals as an organization and you cascade from top down. You know, like many things, it starts at the top.

00;30;36;14 – 00;31;01;22
Speaker 2
And if it fizzles its way out, by the time it gets to you, then you’re probably not implementing it down at my level. So I think it’s a great thing that they, that they have this foresight of what, you know, really makes you achieve your goals. And a lot of that for us is, you know, for is the individual is setting yearly goals, challenging the people around you, working as on teams to create these synergies, to do things that would be hard to do on your own.

00;31;01;22 – 00;31;15;08
Speaker 2
But as a team, you can achieve together and keep an a really positive attitude along the way. And, you know, keeping your head high and keeping your goals high and try to actually strive to reach something. You know, I don’t want to set goals that you can roll out of bed and get over, get over the bar.

00;31;15;11 – 00;31;28;01
Speaker 2
You know, I want to set goals that, you know, you got to put a little energy into it, you know? And, and at the end of the day, I think everyone would agree that those are when you meet goals that you have to put a little extra into. The outcome at the end, feels amazing.

00;31;28;01 – 00;31;32;02
Speaker 2
Not just for you, for the team, for the company, for everybody. So yeah.

00;31;32;04 – 00;31;54;11
Speaker 1
I well, and, you know, one of the reasons why I wanted to take us down this, especially after our pre-show conversation, is I just think that and I think that while Peckham sounds like they are really, embodying this message is that if businesses really want to grow, they need to educate themselves and their people and personally and professionally.

00;31;54;11 – 00;32;01;18
Speaker 1
Right. And, and and you said it too, like that. Education has a direct impact on the bottom line. Right.

00;32;01;18 – 00;32;18;05
Speaker 2
And we do the, the Peckham Way tour, I think. I, I don’t know if I touched on this a little bit earlier, but it’s essentially bringing folks in and telling them, you know, like I said, this is where we started and this is how we got to where we’re at. This is where we’re going. And it’s all the same game plan.

00;32;18;05 – 00;32;24;03
Speaker 2
It’s it’s growth. It’s having this mindset of continuous improvement. So I think I may have interrupted you there though. I’ll let.

00;32;24;03 – 00;33;05;26
Speaker 1
You go. No, not at all. I that’s what I was probably talking more than I should have got the but that’s you know, one of the things, I would love to help our listeners understand, and it’s one of the reasons why we’re doing some roundtable episodes with Scott and Stacy at Catamount Consulting is because the the value of leadership training and what the skills that it gives people and other personal and professional development that’s out there, whether it’s growth, mindset, leadership, all of it I it it’s a to me, having been a bit of a geek of that for it for the last 20 years, it’s just so valuable and trying to help our

00;33;05;26 – 00;33;25;10
Speaker 1
listeners understand that. Like, regardless of what size or organization you are, obviously, you know someone that’s listening can easily say like, well, Beckham’s got some pretty deep pockets. Look at how big they are. They got, you know, and it’s understandable. Yes, I get it right. They have the means probably more than say a 5 or 6 person operation.

00;33;25;12 – 00;33;43;02
Speaker 1
But I don’t think that that discounts the need for that 5 to 6 person operation to at least start getting into some sort of this, some of this education and some of that. I mean, there’s so many opportunities out there. There’s a reason why there’s a ton of training out there available, right? Because it there’s a real need.

00;33;43;05 – 00;34;09;02
Speaker 2
Everything that we do is trying to affect a couple of different groups of people, right? We’re trying to affect the people that are potential employees to us and future employees, our communities, our customers, and to do a good job for our for with our products. Right. So everything that we do and all the training that we put in, everything is really at the end of the day to serve those groups of people and our end product, which speaks to us as a company.

00;34;09;04 – 00;34;28;25
Speaker 1
Absolutely, absolutely. And, you know, the training as we’ve kind of comes back to the the old, saying and I’m going to mess it up. So I apologize, but it’s, people say that they, they can’t afford to train their people. And the answer is always like, how can you afford not to? Great. Like you want to grow as an organization.

00;34;28;25 – 00;34;36;26
Speaker 1
You need people, skill sets to grow. And most people aren’t. It’s not going to just happen by dumb luck or, you know, osmosis.

00;34;36;29 – 00;34;58;11
Speaker 2
You take a look. I talk about, you know, lean manufacturing and, and, and finesse and all that good stuff. But the forms of waste to me and, you know, untapped talent that that’s of skills. Yeah. You can’t leave. You can’t leave that bucket untouched. You got to invest into your people. You got to you got to promote the right people.

00;34;58;11 – 00;35;33;12
Speaker 2
You have to have an eye out for who has that leadership trait in them. And, and who’s willing to have the courage to explore that and really take it, because I, I have to say, I don’t think it’s for everybody. Not everybody wants to be in this type of a role, and that’s understandable. It’s okay to want to do a good job and be a master at what your discipline is and and to grow in ways in which you’re creating mastery, which is one of our, you know, one of our key words that we try to use a lot in here is it’s creating mastery within the individual’s role.

00;35;33;15 – 00;35;57;19
Speaker 2
And for a lot of people, that is the focus is just create that mastery. But for others, it’s being a leader stepping up the plate and trying to be influential to others to try to get the the most out of the, the, the leverage that we can get. So yeah, I would I would say that the investment that they put into our training, you know, I worked for General Electric for ten years before this and, you know, they have deeper pockets.

00;35;57;21 – 00;36;19;07
Speaker 2
But there was not the attention to the individual training that you receive working for them industry. So I tell people all the time that I really, truly feel this is one of those diamond in the rough companies. You don’t just see a ton where, you know, I used to have the Sunday ICS coming to work when I worked for other companies in the past, and, I just don’t really get them here because I enjoy what I do.

00;36;19;12 – 00;36;48;16
Speaker 2
I know they support us. I know that they do everything they can to to promote our own individual growth while they grow themselves. And it really feels like, you know, there’s no one out there. Perfect. But it feels like the balance that I’ve always been looking for. And, and I think that, you know, the grass, you know, sometimes people think the grass is greener on the other side, but, I’m, I’ve told my, my mother plenty of times, like, I don’t know if I’ll be moving back to Ohio anytime soon, because I don’t know that I’ll find an employer like as much as this one.

00;36;48;18 – 00;37;07;14
Speaker 2
So I, I think it just is a testament just to, you know, I’ve been around, I’ve seen a lot of what there is to offer and, and, and really does, you know, when I say, I always say that a lot of companies flash words on, on your computer screen in front of you, you know, integrity and, you know, dedication and these types of things, but they truly live it here.

00;37;07;14 – 00;37;27;07
Speaker 2
And, you see it just through the way they invest into us at a plant level. The capital expense projects that we’ve done through the last five years of me being here, it’s amazing to see all the new equipment wired, and that when they say safety, they really they they really promote it. But they really, you know, they they walk the walk.

00;37;27;08 – 00;37;41;26
Speaker 2
They talk the talk as well too. So like, I, I can’t tell you how many different projects I’ve done where I’m like, I can’t believe that, you know, this is what the the fifth overhead crane that I’ve put into this facility, I, you know, would think that maybe 1 or 2 of those in a whole career would be a lot of five years.

00;37;41;26 – 00;38;04;24
Speaker 2
We’ve we’ve nearly put in five overhead new cranes, new hot water tanks. We’ve upgraded our boiler system. We’ve put in a new mixer for our plant, you know, in our fabrication shop, new cranes, new new gantry cranes outside in our yards, for picking up the pieces and traveling around the yards. I mean, the amount of investment they put into it really makes me feel like they believe in us.

00;38;04;29 – 00;38;10;07
Speaker 2
Is one of the subsidiaries of of like I said, large spectrum. And being under the umbrella.

00;38;10;09 – 00;38;26;26
Speaker 1
Yeah. So I know we’ve got to, transition over to the, the Patreon side of things. And I went a little off script on you there because I want to talk about some leadership. That’s I guess. Yeah, it it I listen, I’m, I’m such a geek for that stuff. I could talk about it all day, and I and I do have a couple.

00;38;26;26 – 00;38;48;20
Speaker 1
I’m probably going to ignore the question unless I sit in and get a little deeper into that when we go over to the Patreon side. But I’m just curious, you know, when you’re talking earlier, you know, and what prompted me to say how regimented you were and disciplined. And I love to hear about any strategies you have, because obviously every single day there and you mentioned it to there’s curveballs.

00;38;48;20 – 00;39;10;08
Speaker 1
There’s things you weren’t expecting there, trying to steal your time, steal your attention, pull you down a different direction with your day. And especially for the small business owners, it it’s it it’s nonstop. Right. And so I’m just curious, when you roll into a day and you’ve got to plan for that day and things start to happen that are pulling you away from that plan.

00;39;10;10 – 00;39;21;03
Speaker 1
How do you how do you deal with that? Do you have strategies that help you get back to your plan, or do you just leave the rest of the plan to the next day? Like, what does that look like for you?

00;39;21;05 – 00;39;41;13
Speaker 2
So as I mentioned before, I do a keep an outlook calendar for myself that I try to keep very detailed. It is my, you know, every hour I take a look at it to make sure what’s next. But in general, my answer to this would be is I’m a big believer in leadership, standard work. So that’s, an agreement between you and whoever you’re subordinate to, right.

00;39;41;15 – 00;40;03;15
Speaker 2
You know, and so I have a bunch of different managers that report into me and we have a leader standard work for all those, and it shouldn’t be overwhelming. And this is not supposed to be some homework task, but what this is, is it’s an agreement between you and a supervisor of what are the critical things that I need to be paying attention to on my day to day, week to week, month, quarterly, whatever those timeframes are that work the best to be able to spell this all out for you.

00;40;03;17 – 00;40;25;15
Speaker 2
But what are the things that we’re agreeing upon? Or are the priorities and focus areas for me? And, you know, between my day to day schedule and what good leader standard work looks like for myself and for the others that report into me. That’s how I keep us on task. It’s really important to me that, like I said this back to this for the third time.

00;40;25;15 – 00;40;43;24
Speaker 2
Cubbies cooperate that you’re you’re prioritizing the things that are important. Maybe not the most urgent, but are setting you up for future success all the time. And I think that’s really important for managers to be is to really understand what our priorities, you know, a safe, you know, somebody, you know, God forbid something happens safety wise. Right.

00;40;43;24 – 00;40;59;00
Speaker 2
Well, that’s going to become number one priority, taking care of our people, and making sure that we’re documenting the incident appropriately, getting it in, reporting it in through our company. We have certain channels that we go through here. But, you know, if it’s, you know, somebody just saying, hey, I have a problem and I want to talk about it.

00;40;59;00 – 00;41;13;12
Speaker 2
And my first thing is, are you okay? Are you safe or are you in a good headspace? If the answer is, yeah, I just need, you know, something that I had, I thought maybe we could deal with better. Okay. I try to fit it into a time. Take a look at my schedule. I got about a half an hour, maybe around 230, 3:00 in the day, or you’re going to be around then.

00;41;13;12 – 00;41;33;18
Speaker 2
Okay, let’s meet up then and try to face it. It’s okay to say no. It’s okay to say I have an agenda today. I cannot fit that in. But it’s it’s not okay to to to perceive being busy just to keep things away from you. And I’m supposed to be somebody that people feel comfortable coming to and that does make time for them.

00;41;33;20 – 00;41;49;09
Speaker 2
So I try to make sure that I’m doing that at all points in time. Like I said, I’m here to serve a bunch of people that work in this facility, that have their own concerns. Right? And they have their own narrow focus. And I need to make sure that that I’m showing them that I do care about them and their focus areas, too.

00;41;49;09 – 00;42;07;14
Speaker 2
So I have my own. And I just like I said, between that daily schedule and a good standard or leader standard work format, I know what are the important things that are non-negotiable for me. And I know the areas where I could say, hey, I could probably push that tomorrow, or I could push that to next month. You know, and I just try to stay structured with that.

00;42;07;14 – 00;42;26;18
Speaker 2
And, I think a lot of that just comes from being, you know, speaking very clearly to people, being kind, being respectful person, a lot of it just that the way that you come through in your attitude, who you are as a person and like, I don’t think that anyone thinks I’m lying to them if I tell them, hey, I’m busy, you know, for this today, let’s hey guys, I got this podcast going on.

00;42;26;18 – 00;42;44;09
Speaker 2
I really want to stay focused on it. I want to take an hour beforehand, prep through all the questions that I answered. You know, refamiliarize myself with what you guys had put in front of me, and make sure that this is a focus for an hour for me. So, that’s my secret sauce. I don’t think it’s anything special.

00;42;44;16 – 00;43;08;10
Speaker 2
I just, you know, it’s just it’s what I do, and, and being positive person, I can’t. I can’t tell you how much I think being a positive person and having a good attitude is important in this life. I know it’s not something that people and maybe the HR world like to not measure, and it can get kind of touchy feely, but and just just being a pleasant person to be around, really does wonders for you as a manager, as a laborer.

00;43;08;10 – 00;43;25;11
Speaker 2
It’s any any role out there in society. Being a pleasant person to be around just makes it so much easier. And I honestly think that’s a big part of it. One thing I did want to talk about here, too, is I had this connection point. I actually for this, I was going to tell people it’s called the sessions, and we called The Power of Food.

00;43;25;13 – 00;43;45;20
Speaker 2
But I kind of have this thing where, you know, kind of Anthony Bourdain I used to watch a show on TV all the time when I was younger, and I’ve always, I cook my mother and my grandmother were amazing cooks, and I always found that utilizing food to make connection points with people, I’ve broke some of the toughest barriers in relationships.

00;43;45;23 – 00;44;00;14
Speaker 2
With food. There’s a gentleman that I worked with when I was working at General Electric in Dover, Ohio, Ohio, and, molybdenum wire drying plant. And this gentleman is a tough cookie to crack. I would say it was about a year and, and and he still just would not really seem to give me the time of day.

00;44;00;17 – 00;44;16;24
Speaker 2
And but I knew that he, you know, had a Polish background, Polish, Hungarian background. And one day I was talking about to the other guys in our morning meeting about, bringing some food and whatnot. And I asked him, I said, you know, do you like Colucci? And he said, I love Lucci’s, like one of my favorite meals.

00;44;16;24 – 00;44;36;22
Speaker 2
But my grandmother used to make was Lucia, you know, so I’m bringing some in, so I’ll make sure there’s some for you. And I hand-delivered him a bowl of it and I’ll tell you just that. Right there was enough that, like, we started having conversations and like, we started connecting a little bit more person to person, right. And over time, you know, and that wasn’t the first time or last time I fed him after that either.

00;44;36;22 – 00;44;53;14
Speaker 2
And, and you know, so I kept I was like, hey, this work, I’m going to do it again. So a month later we cooked something else or whatever and brought it in. And I used to make a big, big, huge pots of meatballs and, and bring them in and do, meatball sliders. I’d crush them up and pretty proud of my meatball recipe.

00;44;53;14 – 00;44;54;20
Speaker 1
But just that.

00;44;54;21 – 00;45;12;13
Speaker 2
That connection with food helps break down that sometimes those barriers that are there, you know, I always tell people like, they’d be like, oh, right, write it off, you know, put it on the company credit card. I want people to know it’s from me, this is from me. I cook it at my home. I put my heart and my passion into it, and I want to share it with you.

00;45;12;15 – 00;45;33;07
Speaker 2
And just that. And then the conversations that you get to have with people. I’ve had so many relationships that you know, you started out is, you know, somebody disgruntled or I’ve worked a couple of union plants or whatnot, and I’ve broken so many barriers by the use of connecting with people over food. And then yet you get you start flourishing these great relationships with people.

00;45;33;09 – 00;45;51;06
Speaker 2
And, I just think that it’s something that, you know, my first manager, I work for the MSO, the shop is tell me all the time, go across the street and go buy like 500 fish dinners. And I would go and I would have to go get the orders of everybody. And maybe they wanted chicken wings or fish dinner or whatever, and then I’d have to go hand-deliver it to them, too.

00;45;51;07 – 00;46;10;27
Speaker 2
He made that be my task. But it got me to know people, intimately. Right. What do you like? You know? And you know, what’s your background? And, like, these conversations would start happening, and it was one of the best things that subliminally, somebody ever gave me. Advice is like, feed the people. It’ll help you. And, and I’ve leveraged that everywhere I’ve went.

00;46;10;27 – 00;46;25;17
Speaker 2
And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve, I’ve, like I said, 100 times at this point is I’m breaking these barriers down and then you really can start getting to the meat and potatoes of what are your objectives and what’s what. How’s this relationship and what do you what do you want to do moving forward to improve all this stuff?

00;46;25;17 – 00;46;27;28
Speaker 2
So yeah.

00;46;28;00 – 00;46;47;20
Speaker 1
That’s amazing. I love that man. Absolutely love it. I know we’re going to jump over to the Patreon side here to talk a little leadership stuff and, maybe actually ask you some questions off of the outline. But before we do that, Rick, if people want to learn more about Peckham, they want to learn more about opportunities that you guys have, whether it’s at your plant or somewhere else.

00;46;47;23 – 00;46;49;14
Speaker 1
How do they find you guys?

00;46;49;17 – 00;47;08;12
Speaker 2
So, yeah. So Peckham does have a Facebook and I’d say it’s a great, area to to get to see the wide breadth of, services that we provide for our communities for and for customers. So, check us out on Facebook. I am on LinkedIn as well too. So anybody that wants to jump on there, Richard T Englehart.

00;47;08;14 – 00;47;25;23
Speaker 2
And, you’ll find me on there. And, yeah, more than willing to connect. And, you know, anybody that, you know, would need anything, any advice or anything like that in their leadership career? You know, I have a short story to share with me as well to help me learn. I’m, I’m, I’m really into networking and connecting with people.

00;47;25;23 – 00;47;30;24
Speaker 2
So, yeah, that’s that’s where they can find me and that’s where they can learn a little bit more about Peckham Industries and Daily Precast.

00;47;30;24 – 00;47;47;11
Speaker 1
I love it, love it. Well, thanks again for jumping on the time. Don’t go anywhere. We’re gonna jump over to the Patreon side. And of course, everybody, thanks so much for listening. We really appreciate, your listenership, your viewership, the support you give us. And, you’ll hear from us next week. Thanks, everybody.

00;47;47;13 – 00;47;48;10
Speaker 2
Appreciate your time.

00;47;48;10 – 00;48;16;13
Speaker 1
And that wraps up another episode of Blue Collar Startup. A big thank you to our sponsors, Five Towers Media, Daigle Cleaning Systems, Daigle Fire Solutions, The Michaels Group, Martin Electric, MLB construction, Pinocchio Construction People, and Catamount Consulting for making this podcast possible. And thank you for tuning in. If you learned something or felt inspired. Connect with us on our website at Blue Collar Startup Bio or email us at hardhat Dot CSU at gmail.com.

00;48;16;13 – 00;48;28;22
Speaker 1
We’d love to hear your questions and topic ideas. Help us spread the word by sharing the show and following us on social media for updates. Until next time, keep on building. Keep on dreaming and keep hustling like your future depends on it.

00;48;28;22 – 00;48;44;02
Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh, hey.

00;52;29;21 – 00;52;45;01
Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh, hey.

00;52;45;01 – 00;53;05;23
Speaker 1
Rick, we’ve been talking about a host of stuff, and, and, you know, as we discussed in the main episode, really interested in, in the leadership side of things. And, you know, it’s it’s really interesting to me because I ask a lot of people this question and it can seem a little nebulous sometimes.

00;53;05;23 – 00;53;18;29
Speaker 1
And so I guess, so I want to ask you in your mind, what do you feel is a great leader? Like what are the characteristics of of great leadership? It’s a good question.

00;53;19;01 – 00;53;22;03
Speaker 2
For me, and I’m just spitballing here. I don’t have a list of them down.

00;53;22;06 – 00;53;25;27
Speaker 1
I know this is this is completely cold. I didn’t even forewarn you. I was going to ask you that.

00;53;25;27 – 00;53;51;10
Speaker 2
So that’s that’s fine. This is right now my knowledge, though, I would say, like I said, discipline and consistency. Somebody who can be influential to others, somebody who has courage, somebody who has courage, good integrity, somebody that’s dedicated to being an empathetic leader and really understanding the needs of others and how to put that very complicated puzzle together for a team.

00;53;51;12 – 00;54;17;08
Speaker 2
I’d say those are some of the main trait traits, somebody that has a bit of subject knowledge, particular to whatever industry they’re in or what their role in that industry may be. Right? You know, if your background is automation, so expect that you have quite a bit of automation experience whatnot. But so being a leader of a bunch of an automation team, like probably pretty good to have a background of knowing what you’re tasking people with.

00;54;17;10 – 00;54;41;09
Speaker 2
So I would say those are some of the main ones. And along the lines of courage is the willingness to engage. I have to say, nowadays I am not the biggest fan of work from home. I don’t think that that’s how you get the optimal, value out of a team. But there’s also the correct time to work from home, in, in roles like I have.

00;54;41;09 – 00;55;01;28
Speaker 2
And many others, in similar situations to myself. But I think it’s something that you got to be cautious about and that you have to understand the relationship with your team and understand when’s the right time to maybe get some work done where you need some dedicated time to get something done? Right? I, I do performance reviews, and I have to manage this huge spreadsheet and whatnot.

00;55;01;28 – 00;55;22;05
Speaker 2
And there’s that point in time for me is like, I need a day or two where I can just be focused on that, and I don’t really want to be bothered. I want to get that work done. But for the most part, I’m pretty flexible with my time and whatnot. So yeah, I would say, another one is just staying calm in tough situations.

00;55;22;07 – 00;55;40;13
Speaker 2
And having the soft skills to be able to communicate and get through the day as well, too. You know, I can’t tell you how important staying calm is. I have been the calm leader at times, and I can tell you I was approached by a gentleman that was an electrician and his name was. And he would not mind me mentioning this.

00;55;40;13 – 00;55;58;17
Speaker 2
And I hope that Terry. Terry Glass from Dover, Ohio. But, Terry one day told me, Cedric, I want to talk to you about something so that you’re you’re a young leader. And, you know, sometimes an old guy like me is going to give you a little bit of advice, so just listen up. I don’t really expect you to have much to say after this, but you got to stay calm when things get hot.

00;55;58;18 – 00;56;12;21
Speaker 2
You know, you are the guy that we’re all looking to for the direction of. What do you want us to do? How do you want us to manage this situation? And it was the first time I ever had anybody tell me that. And, I never forgot it. And I was kind of a shame that I didn’t already know this, to be honest with you.

00;56;12;24 – 00;56;34;04
Speaker 2
I was humble enough to say, yes, sir. Yes, sir. And, And you’re right. And, and being calm when you know, you’re thrown into the frying pan, and just working through it and being systematic and just like one step at a time, you’re left foot in front of you, right? You’re right in front of your left.

00;56;34;07 – 00;56;48;24
Speaker 2
Just attacking problems that way. And staying cool. Having a plan, executing to your plan? I think those are a lot of the main attributes that make a great leader in my book.

00;56;48;25 – 00;57;12;09
Speaker 1
Yeah. It’s interesting. Derek, can I talk about it, too? You know, because we’re we’re a little older in our careers now, and but when we were younger in our careers, for sure, and both owning our own businesses, you know, like late 20s, early 30s, we both and again, not together, but just coincidentally, both had the, propensity to be a little hot, you know, some hot heads.

00;57;12;09 – 00;57;16;18
Speaker 1
And, so it sounds like you think. What’s that?

00;57;16;20 – 00;57;18;27
Speaker 2
That sounds like the cool thing.

00;57;18;29 – 00;57;39;07
Speaker 1
It’s not, though. Not. It’s, And that’s, you know, it’s it’s interesting looking back out on it now where it’s like, it’s not the cool thing at all. It does not do anything to help the situation whatsoever. And now I look at it when things are going down the wrong path, I’m like, I can’t believe. Kind of similar to what you’re saying, right?

00;57;39;07 – 00;57;51;07
Speaker 1
Like, I can’t believe that was ever a strategy I employed when things got rough. Is that the first thing I’m gonna start doing is yelling at my team that I need to help fix it. Where’s the right? And then the pull out the stick.

00;57;51;14 – 00;57;54;25
Speaker 2
It is, it is not very often.

00;57;54;27 – 00;57;55;29
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;57;56;01 – 00;58;34;01
Speaker 2
There are certain situations that you have to address head on with candor, and and there’s no bullshitting about it. But most of the time, the, you know, honey catches more flies and vinegar, right? And being able to calmly explain to somebody maybe where they went awry. And the plan, and helping them get back on the track and not being, you know, you know, as long as nothing totally crazy happened and like, completely out of line with integrity or, you know, you can’t hit an employee or something and think that you’re going to just get a little it’s okay, don’t do that next time.

00;58;34;04 – 00;58;52;08
Speaker 2
But most things are pretty forgivable and teachable situations. Nobody’s perfect. I’m not perfect. I’ve been doing this for quite a while now, which is crazy to think. But most things are coachable situations, and you just have conversation about somebody and you say, hey, you got a little off track here. This is what I need to do to get back on track.

00;58;52;08 – 00;59;07;09
Speaker 2
Remember, this is the goal and this is how we want to get there. Remember your your position in this organization and what you need other people do look to you as the leader, as the experienced person. You don’t even have to be a leader. A lot of times some of the guys have been working here for the longest time.

00;59;07;12 – 00;59;24;27
Speaker 2
It’s like you get to remind them every once in a while. You know, people look up to you. You may not notice it, but I notice it, I see it, and, yeah, just being aware of that. There’s always eyes on you and the people are looking to you for what? Good looks like. I think that’s.

00;59;24;28 – 00;59;28;20
Speaker 2
I think it’s incredibly important to keep in mind. Is leader all the time.

00;59;28;22 – 00;59;44;05
Speaker 1
Absolutely. All right, one more question for you about leadership. What do you think the biggest and maybe we just answered this question. And if so, I can ask another one. But what do you think the biggest mistakes people make in leadership are?

00;59;44;07 – 01;00;11;07
Speaker 2
I think we hit it a little bit. But I can I can answer another question even after that for me. And I’m like, I’m for, I would say not involving, you know, the key players in any decision, you know, keeping keeping people involved, in the process, keeping people growing, having the next plan all the time for somebody, what is their growth path?

01;00;11;10 – 01;00;33;28
Speaker 2
People that are part of a team want to feel like they’re being invested in, and they’re also part of investing into something, I think. And it’s important to balance that equation. It’s important to have I think, you know, it’s always the, performance review. Right? Being honest with people and being able to speak with candor, I think is somewhere where a lot of people struggle with.

01;00;33;28 – 01;01;03;15
Speaker 2
Right. Is having a really honest conversations with somebody about performance, and having a conversation where it’s still not a Debbie Downer, but an uplifting conversation of you know, yeah, you’re a little off track and this is where you need to go to make it. Right. But figuring out how to put those words in an order in which it’s not breaking somebody down, but helping build them up is, I think, a lot of where people go wrong.

01;01;03;18 – 01;01;19;26
Speaker 2
And yeah, I don’t know, I, I try to keep a positive attitude and I try to see people’s strengths more than I see their weaknesses anyways, but try not to let that affect, an honest conversation. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen in my career where somebody, you know, face to face, they tell you you’re doing great.

01;01;19;26 – 01;01;39;04
Speaker 2
All of a sudden, what they write on paper doesn’t match up to to it. And, it’s like that. That really makes for a really bad toxic environment where you, you’re not even being honest with me, right? You’re telling me I’m doing good, but then you’re not grading me as if I’m doing good. Is as a leader, it’s one of those things that I’m very cautious about.

01;01;39;04 – 01;01;55;28
Speaker 2
And the people around me, I try to make them cautious about of what you’re going to put on paper at the end of the year and, and the dollar value that that means to them as far as a merit increase or a raise or promotion, it really has got to match, what you say, as well too.

01;01;55;28 – 01;02;01;22
Speaker 2
And I think a lot of people struggle is that their leadership positions 100%.

01;02;01;24 – 01;02;28;06
Speaker 1
What? All right, last question. And if you were going to point someone in the right direction, they’ve done no formal leadership training, but they’re a leader in their organization. They’re looking to become better. They’re looking to do better. Where would you tell them to start off or where would you tell them to start? As far as learning how to be a great leader.

01;02;28;08 – 01;02;47;25
Speaker 2
Well, like I said, I was blessed. I had really my parents. I can’t speak highly enough about them, to be quite honest with you. I was blessed to have really good people in my life that said that way. That way is the North Star. And then kind of walked me along and then kind of let me do it on my own.

01;02;47;28 – 01;03;03;13
Speaker 2
Had touch points with me along the way of where I could be doing better at. So for me, it started in the home. And I think that anybody that’s got good parents and good relatives and good poor people in their life, or you’re starting out with an advantage because there’s a lot of people out there. I’m learning through life.

01;03;03;13 – 01;03;20;19
Speaker 2
My father passed away a couple of years ago, and as I was going through, I’d hear people say things like, yeah, I don’t. I didn’t have that relationship. I didn’t have somebody like that. And it really made me realize how grateful I was to have somebody like that early into my life, throughout my career and help guide me.

01;03;20;22 – 01;03;40;20
Speaker 2
But as far as, you know, leadership, I would say start with looking at the people around you that are successful and that have earned the respect of others and start trying to emulate what are they doing? How do they act? How do they communicate, how do they attack their role? And how do they get things done?

01;03;40;23 – 01;04;01;13
Speaker 2
I think that’s a great place to look. I think nowadays nobody likes to say, like, it feels like, like you’re pointing out a weakness to say I have a mentor. And it wasn’t honestly, within the last year that I honestly was like that to. I don’t need a mentor. That’s a waste of time. A mentor is something you should be proud to have.

01;04;01;13 – 01;04;25;04
Speaker 2
A mentor is somebody that can help you mentor. Somebody that shows you what good looks like and a future version of yourself. So I would start there. I would start for looking at those people, leveraging whatever, maybe upsides you had through growing up in your household. Those, those lessons learned, doing a little review of, like, you know what what who is it?

01;04;25;04 – 01;04;45;09
Speaker 2
What does a good person like? It starts with being a good person. Being good leader starts with being a good person and having good having a want to do well for others. And, and getting to the stage where I’m at finally in my career where I’m like, you know, I just said this to a group of kids from southern Vermont, Technical Center is, you know, where are you guys are at in your career?

01;04;45;09 – 01;05;01;06
Speaker 2
And so it really, truly is all about you. You’re trying to build a really strong version of yourself. I’m finally starting to get to that point now where I’m like, what am I giving back? What am I doing? That’s why I’m on here, is to try to help people and guide them a little bit and tell them what’s been part of my success story.

01;05;01;08 – 01;05;19;17
Speaker 2
But I think a large part of that is, is finding a mentor and, and then understanding that learning is something that you never get to table and put on a shelf and then say, look at that. It’s perfect. And I’m just that is, I’m done. All right. It’s not really how it works. Learning is a continuous thing that you’ll do until the day you die.

01;05;19;17 – 01;05;40;08
Speaker 2
I’ve realized, and continuous improvement on your self as a leader, I think, falls right into that mode as well too. So that that that would be my, if I can give a suggestion as look towards the people that emulate what good looks like to you and start looking up to them in a mentorship way, and like, it’s not a problem to tell somebody like, hey, I’m looking for a mentor.

01;05;40;08 – 01;06;01;03
Speaker 2
Would you mind spending some time with me? You. How much courage that takes? Most people don’t have enough courage to say that. Simple line. You know how that shows humbleness and dedication to somebody. And if they’re truly somebody that has real value and has real lessons to be learned from, they understand the impact of what you’re doing and, and how heavy that is for you to come out and ask something like that.

01;06;01;05 – 01;06;15;18
Speaker 2
It’s just like when you make a mistake, right? Admit up to your mistakes, you know, be humble enough to say, I think I made I think I made the wrong decision there. I think this was not the outcome that we’re looking for. I think that’s one of the best lessons to learn as a leader, as a human being in life, too.

01;06;15;18 – 01;06;36;26
Speaker 2
I had a gentleman that I worked with at General Electric. Its name was Felix will land it up. He’s he’s in Poland way back, you know, or two or whatever it was. And he had told me, I said one of the best lessons that you can learn in life is to admit when you’re wrong. And that when things are going astray, we are say, hey, I think I need some help.

01;06;36;29 – 01;06;38;22
Speaker 2
My advice.

01;06;38;24 – 01;06;57;14
Speaker 1
Love it. Rick, I really appreciate you spending time with us and a little extra time here. And, appreciate your insights and appreciate your grace and me basically throwing out the whole outline that I sent you, they prepared for and asking questions that were completely not on it. It was that was great. I really, you know, grateful for your, you think.

01;06;57;17 – 01;07;20;03
Speaker 2
This is how it was supposed to go anyways? This this felt good. And now I gotta I have we have a Peckham podcast that we do, wrapped a lot around safety culture and promoting, you know, our culture of safety here at Peckham and, and, Mr. Steve Bannon texted me last night and I told them all I’m doing one today, and, it should be good preparation for the one I’m going to do with them here within the next couple of weeks, too.

01;07;20;03 – 01;07;27;08
Speaker 2
So nice. He told me, you’re moonlight man. You got a second career going here.

01;07;27;10 – 01;07;28;16
Speaker 1
Appreciate the opportunity.

01;07;28;16 – 01;07;46;17
Speaker 2
It’s been really, good to get to meet you and to to, to break that barrier for me. I don’t do this all the time. It’s the first podcast I’ve ever done, so I appreciate you guys inviting me. You made a very great format for me to be able to, try to get, you know, what I feel like is good for young professionals to hear.

01;07;46;19 – 01;07;53;10
Speaker 2
And, thank you enough. You guys have been very inviting through this process, and, it hasn’t been a pain in the ass or anything to do it.

01;07;53;12 – 01;08;09;28
Speaker 1
Oh, good. Good. I’m glad to hear that. Thank you for saying. And, and again, thanks again for coming out. And, of course, everybody that’s, listening to this episode. Thank you so much for being on the Patreon side of what we do. More great content coming your way next week. And, we’ll see you there.

01;08;09;28 – 01;08;37;29
Speaker 1
And that wraps up another episode of Blue Collar Startup. A big thank you to our sponsors, Five Towers Media, Daigle Cleaning Systems, Daigle Fire Solutions, The Michaels Group, Martin Electric, MLB construction, Pinocchio Construction People, and Catamount Consulting for making this podcast possible. And thank you for tuning in. If you learned something or felt inspired. Connect with us on our website at Blue Collar Startup Bio or email us at hardhat Dot CSU at gmail.com.

01;08;37;29 – 01;08;50;08
Speaker 1
We’d love to hear your questions and topic ideas. Help us spread the word by sharing the show and following us on social media for updates. Until next time, keep on building. Keep on dreaming and keep hustling like your future depends on it.

01;08;50;08 – 01;09;05;20
Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh, hey.