Fourth Annual Symposium Some pretty cool people showed up this year's special treat. First time at the Symposium Andy Holt Yes Excited to have you here. Very excited! So tell us what you do and why you came to Symposium. Came to Symposium because Brian Orr's heart for training the industry and I uh everybody here is volunteer.

There's no compensation and that just fits the bill for me. I Just wanted to continue and be a part of giving back. Yeah, so it's been a great event. Okay, all right, be back next year.

Good I'd love to hear it so talk about yourself. Um, third generation contractor. My granddad started our company in Columbus Georgia in 1956. my dad retired out of the Navy and then after being a pilot for 21 years and then he he retired his dad and then when he got out of the Navy we moved back to Columbus Georgia and I worked in the family business for 10 more years and then ultimately they sold the business and started my own little training and Consulting business.

Small, Real small. Yeah, as in here we are. as in here we are, that's right, or university. that's right.

So uh, what is outdoor University outdoor University is a byproduct of a lesson my dad gave me. He told me uh, when I was a young shaver, try to combine more than one thing that you love in life and I love training HVAC and I love the outdoors and so that's where those two cross. That's awesome. So been doing it 17 years.

Yeah, we uh, it's a two-day class. It's a soft skills communications class. Okay, and I deal with a variety of subjects, but it's really all about the student, not just professionally, but personally as well. Yeah, so um, there's a little phrase that I've kind of invented called the 24-hour Man and we talk about that, how the work-life balance and how it affects not only the boss and co-workers but when we come home.

Yeah, so it's real important to me that those be as balanced as possible. Yeah, Happy wife at home, happy life. You know that story. And if we got a great, uh culture we're working in challenged every day at our heating and air business, those things and you'll see growth.

Yeah, with a guy like that. and the key to that is not like, uh, perfectly balancing your hours or getting paid more or less or not taking on hard jobs that make you feel stressed. The key to that is what you're working on here. When people show up, it's people actually learning how to overcome personal obstacles.

Yeah, and learning how to actually improve and grow as a person. That's the key to where you start finding that full 24-hour man. It is. it is.

and it builds a confidence. Uh, in in a technician and what I found is no matter what age, young, 22 year old technician or a you know crusty 48 year old technician, everybody can benefit from improving their Communications Okay, and it really, um, it's there's a term I use I didn't invent it, but it's called psychic Income. Yeah, and Bert it's the feeling you get when you when you go do a job and the customer truly appreciates what you done. Yeah, and you're riding home and you just kind of, you know, got that Garfield grin on you? You're you know you just know you're in the right place, doing the right thing.

Yeah, and you go home and hug the wife and then everything's good that day. Yeah, so that's that's what we're all about I Love it. I Love it. That's what we're all about.

So um, a couple of things like I Noticed you have a Blue Vac set up here. So um, it's not just soft skills training apparently. Well excuse me the So the soft Skills class. They're typically in the spring and in the fall.

Okay, okay, because um, you're not going to. First of all, camping in the summertime in the south is not even fun. Yeah, Brutal. Yeah.

So and you're busy? Yeah, so it's It's ridiculous to even offer. So I've augmented my soft skills training with just like basic vacuum training. yeah, get people going back in there. Uh.

I Also do very entry-level measure quick training. Yeah, uh. started some of that. um, but the the you know Jim and Valerie and Emma up in Ohio with their school have really kind of I send everybody up there right now.

That's awesome. You know, until until they can't handle them. They're doing such a great job. So I'm happy to be where I'm at with them.

A big supporter of it. Love technology and uh, my phrase for technology is don't buy it just because it's technical or it's cool. buy it for the good it can do you. Yeah, because that's that's the only way.

the selling way it's going to work. Yeah, so the other thing we're doing I'm sorry is go ahead is a piece of software called Silver Bullet and this is a retail price proposal system. It's uh, it's really quick for either a selling Tech or a full-time salesman to literally after they're done walking the house and seeing what they need new plenum or new disconnect or whatever. When your estimator goes through, you push a button and you get four prices immediately.

With financing and everything, it's a really, really great tool. Okay, it's the anti-salesman's tool. Okay, and what I mean by that and I got a little sample is when you show your customer the sheet, you could just say I'll answer any questions you have rather than pointing to the most expensive one yeah, you know and saying that's the one you need because we don't know what they need. Yeah, which is great.

So that's that's what we do. And um, but the joy of my life is outdoor University that's what. if I could do that full-time I would. Yeah, but right now it's uh and for the last 17 years it's been spring and fall in.

West Georgia I've got a class coming up. two classes coming up March 21, 22, March 22 23. or 2021 22 23 and uh, love to have anybody that can come I would love to hear that there's this uh, crazy looking tree brain knot thing you got over here. All right.

What is that? What in the world? What in the world? what are you trying to do around here? Well what I'm doing is this is a kind of like a a demonstrator and uh, it's just a piece of all thread rod with with a nut on it. Okay, and it's demonstrating. Uh, this is demonstrating a good relationship where we've got communication both ways. Okay, okay and then I made up these to kind of demonstrate different personality types like this one's real bent and this is for the technician that just is so strong-willed he will not give in, he will not give up and he's going to push the issue.

and sometimes you can push it so hard that you've limited. Now your relationship. This this nut will not will not move. There's another, uh, personality type that this would represent.

Maybe a relationship. A long-term relationship. You see all the scars. Yeah, okay, this is long term, but we still have movement, right? We still have movement So that tells us that it's you're not done yet.

Yeah, but golly knows that doesn't look good, does it? Yeah. And we need some work. So so there's that one. and then the uh, the last one is for the Hot Heads Okay, this is when you say something so catastrophic that it literally Burns a hole and there's no movement.

You're done. And sometimes that happens if uh, if we say something incorrect to a customer, they can turn us off like that. Yeah, um, so it's related to, um, dealing with people and the people I'm talking about are customers I'm talking about co-workers and I'm talking about your family and people you meet in restaurants. just just people.

Yeah, so um, yeah. I Always tell people when they come to my class that we're not in the air conditioning business. we're in the people business. We just happen to turn wrenches on air conditioning.

Yeah, that's good. good phrase and that's a good phrase to describe you. I mean I I Just met you for the first time myself, personally here and very quickly that could see that you cared about me and you made that connection. and uh, and then you bring something like this and put it on a table.

It's like, all right, let's talk about people. Yeah, yeah, let's get an object lesson out here to talk about people. Well, think about this book. You've been a technician for a long time, right? How many customer letters sounded like this? Dear Brian Thanks for sending Bert to my house Today when he pulled out that field piece meter I was blown away.

Yeah, yeah. Bluetooth Probes so accurate so you know Frasier Loss is so small. They never say that his knowledge of the customers always come and I learned this from Ron Smith Customers always compliment how we made them feel. Yeah, not what we did.

It's how you make a customer feel while you're being technical. Yeah, they're not impressed with technical. That's that's good. That's uh, sometimes a cold glass of water and because we? what are we doing here at this? Symposium Technical And we know the value of technical.

Yeah. But if we can't communicate our technical diagnosis to a consumer, that's a that's not good Yeah, yeah. I I Do tell my technician technicians often that your customer has no idea how good you are like. They have no idea how much you know and how well of job you did on their AC the detail you put into it, the care, all the training that went into it.

All they know is did he pay attention to me at all? Did he care about my house? Did he clean up his mess when he was done? respectful to my pets? He was respectful to my pets or my family. Yep. And so it is. It is literally so much of what we do.

Come straight back to that. So on that note, you've already shared some good like tips that you guys can take home and think about. but give me some a question I'm asking people are coming here and speaking. You are not only here supporting what we do, but you're also volunteering to speak and to share with the group.

But what's some tips that you have for technicians? Maybe top three? Top two? Okay, put me on the spot. Yeah well I would say on a personal level. um the thing I've seen impact a technician most is the technicians that have children at home. Okay, okay and we all I've got three daughters I remember when they were coming up and when you get out of the truck and they're coming running out the door and Daddy hey Daddy you know what a great moment right? yeah and and in class I will um I will tell people uh that story and they're all the guys that have kids are like oh yeah man this is great and and I immediately change and I say stop doing that, never ever hug your kid again.

How am I gonna what before you hug your wife Okay, always right. You always hug your wife before your kids. Why yeah, why is that? Well, the reason is, if you do your job right, you and your wife, you're going to be together again and the kids are gone. Okay, the other thing is the kids see what a solid relationship look like.

There's no gap between you two. Yeah, so that'd be. that'd be probably one of the top tips. I Could give somebody that has kids so much of their security is wrapped up in how much do I care about mama? How much do we care about each other? well and if and if you have and we don't mean to get into Dr Phil family time here.

but but you can't you can have. it's really good. You can have, uh, diss, similar parenting Styles yeah and that could confuse the heck out of the kids. So when the parents are tight helps Mom helps dad and the kids understand that hey, these two are married and they love each other and they might even love themselves more than us.

All right So what about that? That's great. and I I've had so many actually discussions and conversations here which is one of the great things about here. but people coming up and asking me hey I heard your Work-life Balance podcast with Brian Like such a struggle for me to figure out like who I'm supposed to be at home and so I appreciate that advice like yeah, those little things that you can do that send that message about what you value and what you care about. well and the other thing is as technicians, we spend a lot of time alone don't we? yeah in the truck and that self-talk is so important and a lot of guys don't don't take advantage of that.

Um, a little psychology lesson. The Mind cannot differentiate between what is real and what's vividly imagined. Did you know that I didn't know that? That's correct? Um, there's all kind of proof you can have your grandma. You should say, hey, you're going to worry yourself to death to death.

You're going to worry yourself sick. I've seen personal examples where people had panic attacks and they broke out in hives. Yeah, you know, nobody. It's just their mental condition.

Um, there's several other examples where the mind can control. So what would you talk of when you're saying self-talk in the van? Then give me a demonstration of what you're talking about. Well, I mean obviously it's going to depend on either it's either call Related or home related generally okay. or you know, uh, work for a Hammerhead boss or something.

Yeah, it could be any of those. But basically what you try to do is to put live in what I call realville In other words, if you can try to analyze the conflict with no emotion and then the other thing is always try to play if you're in the right place and you're in the right office and you're working for the right guys and today just happens to kind of suck right? Come on man. get through it. Yeah, work yourself through it.

See if it was. It made your whole life about this moment right and and then and then. The idea is another trait that a lot of people don't have. Just learn to forgive people.

Yeah, you know forgiveness is, is, is is is voluntary and people who are unforgiving people tend to be harsh and they're um, they're cold and they tend to distrust and things like that. So if if things don't go right with a customer, you don't know that customer. Let It Go Let It Go For you know, forgive them if you will. Don't carry it with you.

Same thing with your boss, your boss. You have no idea what he did, what kind of pressure was under that day and maybe he snapped and maybe he shouldn't have. Yeah, whatever. But forgiveness is a good thing.

It's the grease between the gears. It's good. It's good. I Recently had a technician and I'll ask your advice on how to answer this.

just talk to me about I've been just sick of customers now like I don't want to talk to people I don't care about them I had I had said this thing like if you actually care, they're going to notice it. they're going to tell you're not going to be able to fake it and I had made this statement about action caring and then he came up and he was like how do I care because I just don't and I'm sick of people and I and I I got to put on this show and what would you have? advice for technicians to feel burnt out on people? Commercial industrial work I Like this, that is true I mean that's uh. honestly generally one of the first answers you guys have that opportunity here. We actually have both.

Yeah, yeah, so so um. but we're gonna find people in commercial industrial too. but it's just we don't have to um, tuck in our shirt and form our hair as much so. But if one thing I will say if you find yourself where people are are always the problem, um generally, um, it's your reaction that's causing you the problem, not them.

It's how you react to them. So everywhere you go you have an angry customer. I Don't have any of those angry customers? Yeah no. and and you find that some technicians always have the same thing they always.

you know the customer, this or they, you know they're always against the customer and the only thing common between all those service calls is you the technician and how come you have problems and the other guys don't Yeah so and one of the tips I'll give a technician is make sure you you read your customer correctly so you can communicate If you have one communication style that's going to work for a very narrow set of people and um, you need to. You need to learn to read people and and be a people person and again, you just happen to turn wrenches on air conditioning and you'll have a great career because it when you combine the uh, the variety of the work that we do, the travel we get to do the you know, all the different places we go and with a different variety of people I Mean to me that's like a that's like a great salad you know I mean I just there's so much good stuff in it. Yeah, but if if people are your problem, then um, you're probably not. You're not.

Do you need to do a little bit more work so you can deal with those people or choose another career? Yeah, you know there's other things in HVAC They're not people focused. Yeah, so well. and then there's things like outdoor University that you can Actually if what you need is a reset, If what you need is maybe that next level with interacting with people or understanding yourself, you have to realize oh wait, you know what. I am the problem everywhere I Go I'm getting the same response.

What do I do about that outdoor University Something like this: Yeah, somebody might be able to help you and spend some time looking in and understanding yourself a little bit and growing. So yeah, and it's not. uh um, it's it's a work camp. We don't allow alcohol.

It's not a party. Um, it is. Uh, it's two days of it is fun. It's a good experience but I've had compliments I've got.

There's four people, four students that have been here yeah that are here today that have been through the camp and just really helping me over here. Talk to people, what is this all about and you know Brian asked me to bring a tent. so yeah, we got a tent right here. I brought my going off like there's a dedication.

Yeah, so that's what's up. It's the only trade show I've ever been to I brought a tent I Love it I Love it. This is our home turf. You can set up a tent.

oh I love it. it's all yours. Yeah yeah Brian said you're gonna bring your tent, you're gonna stay in and I said sure awesome That's great I love me some Kalos Man yeah well I appreciate you coming out and giving back and volunteering and then going beyond that actually giving back and helping support this event happens I'm glad I made it and uh thank you all so much for the invitation. Yeah, hope you come back.

Yeah, we'll be there. Cool all right guys. Check them out. check out what he talked about here with the silver bullet and uh yeah, next year.

show up, see them yourself or give us a call if you need anything. All right. Thanks for watching our video if you enjoyed it and got something out of it, if you wouldn't mind hitting the thumbs up button to like the video, subscribe to the channel and click the notifications Bell to be notified when new videos come out. HVAC School is far more than a YouTube channel.

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