How Managing Stress Delivers Sustainable Results with Tony Scott

In the final episode of season two of the Restoration Playbook Podcast Leighton Healey sits down with Tony Scott, forty-year industry veteran and CEO of Pro-Claim Group, a member of the GUS network, to discuss building a team that can withstand the industry's stresses. Discover how curiosity, care, and commitment can transform your team and help staff thrive in restoration.

Read more about Tony Scott and his approach on R&R by clicking here.

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Episode Transcription

Tony Scott: We require difficulty in order to grow. You know, it's not a bad thing. It's a bad thing because we make it bad.

It's a bad thing when we overdo it. It's a bad thing when we don't recognize that they're going to be worn out and we let them keep working. There, those are bad, but the growing and difficulties are not bad. They're actually one of the most key things. If you're going to grow in your own life, we grow from experiences.

Leighton Healey: Welcome to the Restoration Playbook Podcast. I'm Leighton Healey. This season, we've been talking through the tactics restoration leaders are using to attract and retain top talent. And today we're wrapping up this season with Tony Scott, a 40 year industry veteran, who's here to talk about how him and his team navigate such a stressful industry, the strategies that they use on their team to help their team eliminate stress, and a whole bunch of things he's learned along the way.

I've also got some exciting news to share. We're going to have Tony Scott back again next season to talk about skilling up the next generation of restoration leaders. So stay tuned for another high impact season of this podcast. If you haven't already subscribed, hit the follow button, hit the subscription button so you don't miss out on any episodes. Or if you haven't yet subscribed to our newsletter to stay in the know, go to tryknowhow.com/podcast. But today, before we jump in, here's a quick word about KnowHow.

Paul Silliman: KnowHow is an intuitive, mobile first application designed to rapidly onboard new hires, upskill staff, and provide on demand, expert guidance for whatever task is next. Home to your company's proven methods, KnowHow ensures everyone has the skills they need. to get the job done right. With time saving features that make it a breeze for management to build, maintain, and translate standard operating procedures.

It's time to ditch your outdated operation binders and dated, difficult to search systems. With KnowHow in their pocket, your staff have the how to they need wherever the day takes them.

Leighton Healey: All right, now over to Tony Scott.

Tony Scott: My name is Tony Scott and I am the CEO of the Pro-Claim Group. And, we're a group of companies based out of Vancouver, Canada, but in multiple cities in Western Canada,

Leighton Healey: Excellent. And how long have you been doing this? Because I mean, you've been at this for a few years.

Tony Scott: A few years. Yeah. I think longer than most, anybody that's going to be listening to this. I think I've been 40 years full time in restoration. I worked in restoration before that, but part time in summer.

I've seen everything.

Leighton Healey: So today, what we're going to talk about, and you're going to be, you're perfectly positioned for this because, you've seen fads come and go, you know, you've seen leadership crazes and books and you've seen it all. And so I think the through thread of all of it is what are some of the things that work, right?

I think that's what people want to know. We wrote a book called Winning with Workers and in it, we outline these eight principles.

You know, we've done, we do lots of studies. Everything we do reveals the same consistent theme. The workforce remains the biggest challenge. How do you attract them? How do you retain them? But, ultimately, how do you help them see longevity in your company. And one of the things that's a deterrent that we've found is just some of the, let's call it just the characteristic stress that comes along with this industry. And so you just think about the lack of sleep that's associated with this industry, the hours, sometimes the urgency, the heightened emotions around a claim the, maybe some of the friction between, people struggling to meet a deadline or an adjuster, right?

Who just doesn't seem to want to go your way. And then, all of that, you know, perhaps causes us to miss expectations with loved ones and that stress. And then, you know, we don't always see to our health and that stress, a lot of stress, Tony, right?

Tony Scott: 40 years of it, I'll tell you.

Leighton Healey: But you look good. I mean, so you must be doing something right. Right. It's like that Vancouver air, I suppose.

Tony Scott: Yeah, we're built different out here. We spend a lot more time outdoors, I think.

That's for sure.

Leighton Healey: So let me ask you this question. Your journey is unique in that you have deep roots in this industry, but you've also had, as I've come to learn, um, some pivotal moments where you started to think about really the sustainability of what you do and how you do it.

So for those that haven't heard that story, Tony bring us up to speed.

Tony Scott: I started off like most people I fell into restoration. Mostly my stepdad was involved in restoration, uh, which was completely different then. It was construction. We didn't involve even like small repairs or nothing like that. There was no drying, there was no dehumidifiers, that hadn't even happened yet. So if something got wet, you took it out, threw it, took it apart and threw it out. And construction guys would come in and fix it. We mostly just did jobs that were like a hundred thousand dollars plus. And so we're talking about this early seventies. So yeah, it was just a different world. We've seen a lot of changes over the years. Um, I did see the introduction of dehumidifiers and fans, initially it was just fans, and, that seemed like a fad to my stepdad at the time, and so it was a new thing that somebody was trying, and, and, uh, well, it stuck, so, uh, you know, you never know, uh, how things are gonna go, so, uh, I stayed working for the, for that company my dad sold, and I worked for them for a little bit, and then I felt like they weren't going in the same direction.

I could see there was different things happening in the industry, starting to change, and I wanted to get out there and do stuff and the new owner wasn't into it. So I went to work for somebody else. I answered an ad in the newspaper that said, earn up to 60K a year. And I, and I can remember thinking, holy smokes, that's a lot of money. And so, I went and met this guy who I like to think of as the used car salesman of restoration. And I went from doing, running million dollar jobs and at a very young age I went to this guy and he specialized in break ins and, um, you know, broken windows, small bits of damage and some water damage, which is really what I wanted to learn about. And, uh, it was a hard sell. It was all small jobs. It was a very, very different world, a lot of lunches, uh, back in those days. But I enjoyed the process and, and, uh, I was on commission, I got a thousand dollars a month base salary and the rest was commission. And so the first year I made 120, 000 and, uh, I was on top of the world.

I just thought that this is, this is the best thing ever. I like meeting people. I've always been, I've always liked people and I love hearing their stories. And you see a story every time you walk into somebody's house, right?

It's like, you see their books, you see their pictures, you kind of get to know them. You talk to a little bit, you learn a lot about them. So I really enjoyed that process. Um, but the guys I was working with didn't really care about that. They were, how much money can we charge? Um, and not the way we should run things, and I didn't love it.

It was like, how many pages can you make a broken door and that on your estimate? Uh, because he said the more lines you had, this was well before Xactimate, and the more lines you could put on there, the more you could charge, was his theory. So I lasted there for two years, and I decided that was, not what I wanted to do, and I thought I knew everything. And so I started my own company and, thinking now that was pretty foolish. I think I was 26 years old. Of course I'd already learned everything there was to learn and, started my own company and, but I was determined right off the bat to do it differently and, I really wanted to focus on the part that I liked, which was, helping people and trying to do a good job for them, but I just liked that idea that we could chat and talk to them I knew enough to make things better. And so that was the way I built the company. So it's always been that, that point that's it, you know, life gets in the way, you learn that it's not that easy to run a business. Uh, the first year was great and things got hard after, uh, up and down and, you know, making mistakes, uh, the hard learning, the hard ways we got bigger and bigger jobs.

And yeah, there was definitely points that, that happened, um, where I had to re examine what we were doing and lost our way a few times. I think the first big thing that happened was I, you know, I had, uh, had three kids in the meantime. I had one child when I opened up the company and then I had three kids, but, you know, 10 years later, I really focused a lot on trying to build a good business, but I was starting to learn about parenting at the same time. And so we got into this idea of studying, uh, psychology. I'd always been into psychology and the things that go on there and how we, why we do what we do and why we think the way we think and, and how most of the time when we don't even realize what's running us. Um, but when I got into parenting, it was like this whole new world.

It was, it was, uh, you know, now you really see yourself in your children. And, uh, I was from... Fairly early, I was a single parent with three kids, so full time custody of my kids. I'm learning so fast about these things. So that really got me focused on why we do that.

I took an interest in parent child psychology, especially, um, and I had a partner who was a parent child psychology specialist. So, uh, she, we worked together and we, I really realized that in some ways it's not that different, right? It's, uh, there are certain principles in there that I really loved that I felt really applied to the work and the team and how you want to raise your kids might be similar to how you want to raise employees and do the best for them and see them succeed.

And that really informed me, and how I wanted to do things. And so that was instrumental in changing things. I ended up writing a. A tomb, not a tomb, but I mean, it was a long thing about, uh, sort of sat down and disappeared for two days and came out with this, how we manage a PPCR. And, and, uh, and that was the beginning of the bigger, big changes.

Leighton Healey: super fun, super interesting. What? Hey, PPCR. What does it stand for?

Tony Scott: So initially we were a Pro-Claim, uh, things have changed that we were Pro-Claim Restoration. Uh, we sort of merged and then bought out, uh, my partner, uh, who was Platinum Restoration. And so because we were so creative, we came up with Platinum Pro-Claim Restoration. Uh, PPCR, um, it's a mouthful but yes, that's how that came about. And so we've grown a lot since then, but, PC Group now is the parent company and the Vancouver office did Platinum Pro-Claim.

Leighton Healey: Interesting. Yeah. I'm sure that, uh, when you start ordering t shirts, you're, it gets interesting.

Tony Scott: Yeah. I got to say Trevor, uh, our marketing guy, he's amazing. He's, he's made it work. We work in a lot of high rises downtown and somebody had the idea to, why don't we put it on the roof of the vehicle? So when people look out the window of their apartment building, they can see it. Um, and so that was brilliant. People, uh, people comment all the time. So we have very distinctive marketing stuff,

despite the long name.

Leighton Healey: I like it. I like it. Well, what I'm hearing is, a common thread that I see from what you described. is number one, a curiosity. I see that in, a curiosity to, to venture beyond what your stepfather was doing, a curiosity to dabble through the pages of a newspaper, you know, for an opportunity, the curiosity to say, you know what, I will look past some of these antics because I really want to learn what I think is an emerging industry of mitigation. You know, a curiosity of, you know, what's on these people's shelves, from a sense of like, there's lives that are being lived in these homes between these walls.

Um, so, you And then a curiosity around child psychology. We're going to talk a lot about, uh, you know, some, some different ways to approach employment creation and employment facilitation. And I think some of that has probably been rooted in, I'm suspecting, a curiosity that you have, um, tell me about that.

Tony Scott: Well, yeah, you know, definitely. What we've been curious, uh, combined with, not really realizing what I can't do. I just never thought about the fact of whether I could or couldn't. I just assumed I could. And that led to jumping into a lot of things. My curiosity really was, I started reading at a very young age.

Uh, I was an avid reader at like six years old. Uh, I like to joke around. My parents joined the Book of the Month Club and, uh, I started reading the books. Uh, they didn't. It was a strange way to read. I read some pretty inappropriate books at a very young age and talked about them at school, which nobody appreciated. But it really fostered that in me. And I would also say that my grandmother, she passed away and she left me her book collection. And she was just a wonderful intelligent person from a time when people didn't, when one wasn't normally the strong intelligent person or outwardly. And, uh, and she was just a very knowledgeable, but she was also curious and thirsty for knowledge. And so that book collection really fostered most of what I had. There was books about psychology and politics and, I mean, all kinds of fascinating things. And so I got into reading and, and, it just really piqued my curiosity even more. And, and as I got into business, it was just this endless stream of, of new things and new ideas and anything was possible. Um, and I just love that idea that you can make it up, right? As you go, you can, I could take all that information I'd collected and start applying it to something real life. It's like doing a test. You know, you can, you can say, well, this says this. And if that's true, then, then we should be able to manage people this way.

Are we, you know, this is going to impact the world this way. Um, and it really was that curiosity that probably has kept us going and it's still the same. I'm always thinking about if there's a problem, how can we fix it? And it's never, the answer is never going to be to keep doing what we do. The answer is always to change, you know, change it, change the game if you have to, and sometimes that's what's required. Um, and I love doing those things that, uh, you know, it, to me, that's what keeps me excited about what I do. And the fact that it comes together with, with helping people every day and my interest in, in curiosity about humans, right? It's to me, those are, those are what fuels everything that we do. And, And, I think it attracts a lot of like minded people.

Leighton Healey: You know, Tony, I think you'd agree that, property restoration uniquely, is uniquely stress producing and one of the things that, we've seen in our research, other people's research is that, you know, unhealthy stress, if it's not addressed over long periods of time, it can corrode a person.

You know, you see it, like you see it in their, you see it on their face, you see it in their conduct, you see it in the habits that they pick up along the way. Um, how, I mean, how have you seen stress show up in your workforce over the years? And, um, what, what have been indicators that there may be some dangerous levels of, of stress or just workplace disharmony?

Like, you know, give us some examples. And then, um, what are the kind of, uh, you know, the, the canary in the coal mine kind of moments for a company?

Tony Scott: Yeah. I mean, there's so many different aspects to that. It's hard to even begin. Um, you know, first off, stress is, uh, is a weird thing. Um, we're much more aware of it now than we were 30 years ago. Um, I think it was still there, but nobody talked about it. And so just the fact that we talked about it on a regular basis now is, is it normalizes it, which is great.

And that's what we want. But it is an interesting business that we all, we respond to emergencies. We're, we're, we like to call ourselves second responders. So like a fireman or a policeman, they're first, we're, but we're right behind. Um, and so by its very nature, we have similar stresses, um, to somebody who, who responds to something on the spur of a moment and it changes everything. So I think that we, you know, we have to be very aware of that. I think, but we also need to understand about this as I like the question, What's unavoidable and what is avoidable? And I almost want to say almost everything is avoidable. I mean, other than the unavoidable things are, we're in a business where we respond to emergencies and that's going to give you an adrenaline boost no matter what happens. Um, you know, all of a sudden, you know, just on the weekend, you know, just last weekend, You know, we're finishing up something on Friday night and, uh, and we, we generally do a lot of business in the Vancouver area, but we got a new claim in that was like 80 units have flooded in a building, Sprinkler Burst, 18th floor.

So it's like, Oh my God, you know, that adrenaline burst comes immediately. And I know that my staff are feeling the same thing. And then it's a scramble to sort of get the right amount of people and put it all together. There's that moment where everything's on high alert and then, you know, You know, when you can to get to the end of the night, there's that moment when it, when it kind of settles down. Um, and I think part of that is how you manage those moments, right? At the beginning, you, you were definitely having those things. You need to put some structure into that moment to kind of get you off of the total high and just start putting the pieces in place. Uh, that's very hard to do and it doesn't help maybe the team, especially the new people that are racing out. Um, so I think that, you know, avoiding those things, um, um, Giving as much structure, but what is unavoidable is, is those moments. So I like to make the best out of those moments. And I think that's something, uh, to be honest, it's been something much, but I reflected back to my early days when I would go to the claim too. And, uh, and I love the feeling of teamwork on the job site. And, and my favorite part was at the end of the night, you know, he's sitting on your, you know, in your car, your truck. And, uh, kind of feeling that feeling afterwards. And I think that's something that we lost later in our company. As we got bigger, people were losing it. But at that point where we were talking, you know, that feeling was great. We were like, man, we've really killed it. We really rocked that. Uh, and you know, we, we got everything set for them so they can get all these things done and we're ready to go the next day. And, and I think reflecting on that moment became really important. I realized it was very important. And so when we lose that time to reflect afterwards, um, we lose something really important. And now I look at that as we, we completely have changed or trying to change how we view those moments. And instead of saying, Hey, great job, um, way to go, um, try to switch it to, to say, you know, well, how does it, how do you feel right now?

How does that feel? And if you can get people to connect with the feeling, And, and just feel that good feeling. You know, that's what it's what you take with you. What do you remember the next day? And if you don't touch that spot, you, you're the next day, you're remembering that you went out at night and it was late when you got home and you forget all about the good feeling.

And, and I think we can't miss that. And, and I think the reason I think this is important when we talk about stress. It's because how we handle those feelings and the emotions that come around them become very important to what is stressful and what is not stressful. And so the unavoidable stresses are part of that process. And so when we experience them, we're going to experience them. There is an element here, uh, that also I would say that not everybody's built for that. And I know this touches into some weird areas, but you know, if, if you're not motivated by a team thing and making something happen, and especially by helping other people, we always talk about that idea that if you don't get as more satisfaction out of helping somebody and a good feeling when they're happy and you've made it happen for them.

And I like to think about people, somebody getting back in their house in time for Easter dinner with their family or Thanksgiving or whatever it is. You know, that's a great feeling, and you have to get more out of the joy out of that feeling than you do with some of the parts that aren't so good. When somebody's not very appreciative and they're just unhappy that everything's wrecked and their houses, and they have a very bad reaction. And, uh, you know, they might be hard to work with in that first couple days, especially. Um, and you have to see your way through it. But if you don't get enough joy out of the moments that you, at the end, when everybody's happy and you feel that feeling, if you don't get enough out of that, then you're probably not going to last in the business.

Leighton Healey: Right.

Tony Scott: so I don't like to focus on who isn't going to make it because I've seen lots of people come in that seem like they, they don't get there, but, and then they do so, but I do think it's important to assess that and say, If you can't take the unavoidables and we can help you. And if you can't learn from our help, um, then maybe it's just not going to be the thing for you, but it's a surprising amount of people that get a lot of joy out of helping people and love, you know, everybody loves winning, right?

It's that feeling that you get at the end of the night. Um, so yeah, that's the unavoidable stuff for us. Um, And that's the ones that we, we tend to focus in on and try to make better for our staff. We can't change it. So how do we make it better?

Leighton Healey: And I just want to make sure that we don't miss something that I think is very, I think it's very interesting that you're sharing here is, We can be very flippant and very, um, even unconsciously, just when somebody comes in from a job or we check in on a crew, or we stop by a job site and we simply say something like this, How's it going?

Right? Or how'd that thing go? Or how'd the job wrap up? Right? And, uh, and what you're saying is there's going to be difficulty and there's going to be unpredictability in this. And so very, something very simple you can do is to ask your staff at the end of a job, um, to be able to reflect on. The climate of how they're feeling, because, um, the ability for them to appreciate and probably even solidify that the end of difficulty on the other side of discomfort, there is a sense of satisfaction.

There is a sense of fulfillment and for them to kind of dwell on that a little bit, um, can, can in a sense, anchor them, um, you know, as they can, as they, as they move into. What will most likely be, uh, a high predictability of unpredictable events.

Tony Scott: Yeah, there's no end to that. Yeah,

Um, but you're right. It is that connection. Um, it's to focus on some positive connection in there, but I think it's also in your example, uh, if somebody's on a job site and you go by and you know, Hey, how's it going? I think it's different to say, Hey, how's it going? And then, Hey, you know, how's that going?

What, you know, what, how are you doing with this? Uh, how did that go? How was it? You know, ask them the real questions, right? Um, and I think those are the things that I try to really focus on and try to get our team and managers to focus on as well. Um, you know, we, we have all kinds of different terms that we use sometimes, but we call it, you know, connect before you direct.

Um, you're going to say something to them, you're going to talk to them, connect. Hey, how's your day going? How is, you know, is there good lunch spots around here or, you know, whatever it is. Uh, how was the lay to you this morning? Um, you know, just anything that you, you know, get to know how their day is actually going. And then you can kind of get into what isn't going well and, and, or, you know, touch into something that feels good. But again, it gets them connected to themselves a bit and their own feelings.

I'm fascinated by how humans react to these things. Um, it, it's. My own experience, but it's also what I've experienced in 40 years of managing. And, um, yeah, it's just endlessly fascinating and the science behind it and the amount - I'm shocked - to find out how many studies have been done on, on people and stresses and what makes them think and, and, you know, money.

And I mean, there's a million studies on these things. And with the internet now, it's like, you don't have to look at all of them books. You know, I can. I can get studies from all kinds of universities. I can find studies on studies. Um, we're trying to look at how people responded to money. And, and there was this one study that I started looking at.

Um, it said, well, people are irrational around money. You know, when they, when they It was an interesting study, but then I thought, well, that's, you know, okay, there did like studies all over the world. That's fascinating, including the Amazon. And then I thought, well, does that back up anywhere else? So what else can I find about that?

So you can, I looked up and get into the, uh, I don't know. Into the educational stuff and their studies in there. So sure enough, there was a study that looked at 32 different other studies. And so it summarized those 32, looked at all the different factors that they would give, take away a bit and add a bit. And so they came up with conclusion from those 32 studies of what they all meant. And, and at the end of the day, yes, people are illogical when, when faced with decisions around money. Um, and so that helped me understand how people work. And again, money is a stressor, so that's why we want to know. Um, everything we can know about what money does and how it affects your, your psyche and. Makes you feel stressed makes you feel unhappy or makes you feel elated because you've made a lot of money. Those aren't all necessarily good or bad things, but it's how we deal with them. So, yeah. So I know I wander ahead when I talk, but it's, uh, uh, I have a lot of things going on up

Leighton Healey: I'm, I'm, I'm tracking with you, Tony. So, so let me ask you a follow up question then. So one of the things that I have some insight into your business is that the way that you compensate your staff is a little bit different than some companies. I mean, I, my understanding is that you don't, um, take what's called the traditional variable compensation side to, to a lot of your roles.

And so I wonder, um, one, can you, can you speak briefly to some of your approaches to staff compensation? And then I wonder, is there any, I'm, I'm suspecting that, that some of your learning around let's call it avoidable sources of stress might be rooted in how you've decided to compensate your team.

Is that fair?

Tony Scott: Absolutely. Um, one of the things I've learned is that, there's very few things for anybody, that are harder to deal with and not having money, especially if it means not having money to pay the bills. Uh, not having money to make your rent. I mean, those are the most, buy food. Those are the, those are the hardest, most stressful things you're ever going to deal with. And so what, how does that happen? So we think that we're motivating people and some people are motivated this way. And I don't want to sound like I'm saying everybody's doing it wrong. Cause I know a lot of people do this, but for us, it was wanting to take away something and, and which was a stressor about money.

So when we look at that, we thought, well, people, when they, when they They're likely to do what it was in studies about people that are more likely to do something, uh, unethical, um, that they wouldn't do, um, normally, uh, if it was a matter of them feeding themselves and, and that kind of thing, which ultimately means money for us in, in North America. So I took that and I said, well, if I could take that away and make sure that everybody's not fighting every month to make sure they're making enough money, um, and the other part of that was, well, how do I make sure they feel like they're properly compensated. So this comes down to what motivates them, right? So motivation is the key in this whole equation. We use money to motivate people to do a better job or to be more incentivized to, to do more sales, basically, is a lot of it, or to do a better job at what they're doing. And there's an effectiveness to that in some ways, but there's also the downside, which is if you. If you're motivated solely by that, you're not motivated by that inner feeling that I just described at the end of the job, right? You're thinking about, um, you know, what, how much am I making from this? So my first hand experience with this was when I did, was getting into trouble at the four years and I did go back out on the job site. Um, and so I'd go out to a flood just, it was all money. And, um, and so I would go out there and I, It would work and I'd get these things and in my head, I was thinking, yeah, if we're going to make this much money on this job, if all this goes like this, that was in my head and it took my joy away. I just totally lost, like I was so focused on that. So that was my first realization that, okay, I got to get back to just enjoying this. And then I realized with my staff, it was the same thing. Sometimes people will do a really wrong thing for a reason that makes sense, especially if it's around making sure they eat and have a home. And so we wanted to make sure we pay our, in this, we want to make sure we pay our staff really well, you know, what we like to call top of the industry. Um, and that gets really hard to calculate when you're comparing yourselves who don't do bonuses and we don't do commission especially. Um, But, you know, we, we really felt it was important.

So there has to be other factors. So that's the one part of our company. We don't think we are necessarily top of the industry, but there's no up and down. And we like to think that they're well compensated. And we've done, you know, much to everybody's surprise who I've ever said this to and lots of my competitors, um, they're like, how the hell do you keep these people?

Like, uh, and, you know, we very, very rarely lose project managers. Um, and, uh, up until COVID, I think, you know, we had gone like 10 years with one person who left.

Um, everybody comes up from the bottom in our company. They start off in the warehouse or whatever. It's, uh. We take great pride in that. So anyway, we, we have these people that stay and they're quite happy too.

They feel well compensated. And then the other parts of the job, it reduces the stress. It's not a chase every day. And we think that they act. You know, I lose that danger of maybe having somebody who could be unethical and overcharged. Um, you know, we can't afford to have that reputation, right? So, um, you know, we, believe me, we, we believe in making a good dollar, um, but we, not an unfair dollar, right? Those are all things that factor in for me, why we pay differently. Um, and I know that Very, very few people are going to agree with what I just said. Um, and I, like I said, I'm not taking anything away from, from what they do and what's effective for them. But for me, you know, part of this is personal. It's my own experience and my own understanding.

And we built this on our own culture around it and it works for us. Uh, it would be very difficult to go the other way. I get that. For us, it's just worked and I'm happy that we did what we did. And, um, it would be very difficult to change it for them, but also for us to try to all of a sudden adapt our entire culture, um, to having a slightly different motivation. Um, that would be hard.

Leighton Healey: But I think it underscores, Tony, like, what do we base our changes on or our perspectives on? I mean when you, you know, you made a comment that I think it was a fair comment. You said, hey, I think a lot of people listening to this will probably disagree, like, no, no variable compensation, like, you know, or no this or no that.

And then I think that if we, but if we tug at the thread and we kind of follow it back... you know, to the root of where that concept is nestled in our, I don't know, our playbook of our mind. Many times in business we're rather trying to avoid being like something that we deemed distasteful at some stage in our business or something that, you know, we just took for granted as, Oh yeah, that's just the way you do it.

But we don't really necessarily, you know, I've got young kids. Uh, you know, I'm at the why phase with one of my kids and, uh, you know, uh, five why's in, you know, I'm explaining existential reality, you know, and it's been a sobering exercise for me to think about, well, what, what is underneath some of these concrete perspectives?

And, um, what I see from your story is, you know, you got into the industry seeing examples of what worked and what didn't work. You, you, you saw examples of what you thought was honest business and not honest business. And then dove in to, let's call it what people might call tangential areas of, you know, pockets of knowledge from child psychology to broader psychology.

And, uh, and then you found ways to integrate. And so, um, I've got, you know, I've got a whole whack of questions here. I'd love to put to you, but I wonder if you could answer this question. You've been in business for a while, Tony, and you're an idea guy. So here's the question. And it's got two sides of the coin.

Um, How do you introduce change into your team? And how do you know when it's the right time to introduce change? Because I bet you have more ideas than you introduce into your team.

Tony Scott: Uh, yeah. Um, or, you know, there's the other side of that, which would be, um, how many ideas do I try to introduce to the team that get rejected? Um, you know, I like to call it protecting me from myself. Um, people joke that if I kind of joke, but in a real way, you know, whenever I come back from taking a week off or something, um, I come back with like 10 new ideas and so everybody kind of, they're happy to have me back, but on the other hand, they. They're just holding tight to see what's coming. So I've had to learn to temper that and temper what I, what I do, um, and how I do it, but it is a source of, uh, it's hard when you, the ship becomes bigger and it's harder to move, you know, it used to be, you know, if I had 20 or 30 people, it was not so, you know, I could get everybody fired up and then as it got bigger and bigger, it got harder and harder and to the point where. I realized at some point that my ideas weren't hitting anymore and I can't do it myself. I need people to buy in and to want to change. And so I probably had two different, definite two different times when that happened. Um, the first time was when, right, not long after I'd merged with the other company and we had kind of different cultures. Um, but we were working together and trying to make it effective and I'm struggling a bit to find what made us. The same, and maybe who we were, I'd never done a merge before. So I'm figuring it out as I go. Um, and so I think in that time, the new ideas weren't possible, right? We just, um, and I really felt, um, like it was a very difficult time for me because I need to keep changing.

I need to keep evolving and what I had to actually do was try to collect what we had and put it together somehow so we could facilitate moving forward again later. And I really struggled with that. I found it very hard not to change things and come up. And basically it was like an idea ban for a little while, um, which I didn't deal well with.

It was one of the bigger struggles. Um, and then recently, you know, it really COVID, post COVID, it was, um, coming out of there, people's ideas and attitudes, especially towards change. I think everybody was just ready to chill, right? Um, so really just coming out of this where I realized that, you know, all of a sudden one day I was like, man, I'm, I don't know how to change my own company.

I don't know how to get everybody fired up about these ideas. And I've got a lot of them, right? It's, uh, you know, there's so many, and especially because it's such an exciting time, right? This is, I've never seen so much change before. Like, you know, And I just want to jump into it all and be the best at it and, and, be the first people to adopt this in a real way and figure out how to work it with the insurance companies.

And so I'm booking meetings with, with senior people at insurance companies and property managers and big brokers and I'm full of excitement, but I realized that I looked behind me and it's like, my team's not there. And that was a really, really frustrating experience. Um, you know, I really lost myself for about three or four months. Um, I was so frustrated. And I finally had to sit down and say to myself, you know, um, this isn't me, you know, I think the biggest thing was I went back and I read my, my original 2008 and then I had an edited version of 2015 of how we're supposed to be the PPCR way and all those things. And I looked at it and I go, Oh my God, I'm not that person today. What the hell happened? Um, So that's how frustrating it can be. Um, what I've learned from that is you, you have to, again, it was the same lesson really as the first time I had to rebuild what we had and get the confidence going with everybody and get them ready to be ready to change and to change the world.

If you want to change everything, you know, you have to have the team. And so I spent. The last six months kind of refocusing the team and getting back on. And now we're ready to, to go again and they're ready to start catching up. And, and, you know, we're jumping right into, you know, we've been jumping in, but the whole team is behind it now where we're getting more into, you know. We love the Applied Structural Drying stuff. There's so many good things about that and the technology, the AI that's coming, that's going to help calculate how our drawing is going and how we can share that with other people. And, you know, I was just so anxious to get into that. And so now we're, we're flying into it and the team is back, but it, um, you know, those things are moments for me that because of the way I am built, um, that was some of the most difficult times.

It was, uh, I experienced a level of frustration I've never felt in my life.

Leighton Healey: Yeah.

Tony Scott: So there's a good side and a bad side to these things.

Leighton Healey: I think your story is very inspirational, Tony. I think your story is inspirational for a lot of reasons. One is you've been very successful, but two, um, is that, um, you know, it is not, it has not just been a straight path.

Like there has been some zigs and some zags. And into the question of how do you introduce change to your team? I think that, it's very sobering to say, sometimes it doesn't work, right?

There's a, there's an old saying, which is, if you think you're leading and no one's following, you're just going for a walk. Right? And, uh, I think it was Mark Twain who said that, but it was, I'm curious, one of the advantages of you being in the industry for as long as you have, is that you're, I think you're very well equipped to speak to the generational question.

So Gen Z, right? These are these workers that, it's basically workers that are like 24 or younger. And we, hear lots of, opinions and perspectives on this workforce. But on the topic of how do we create a work experience that is more sustainable, right?

More sustainable. You know, what we hear often, and from this young workforce, is that they, they hear these kind of, let's call it, mighty glory stories of, of complete imbalance and, you know, destructive, um, you know, stress induced, um, work paces. And, and they, they're not received as these, like, kind of victorious, um, glory years.

They're actually a repellent sometimes to this incoming workforce. And so what's your approach to working with this young workforce. And what's your advice for being able to, let's call it honestly set expectations for the reality of these unavoidable, stressful elements of this work environment.

And yet what have you adapted in your workforce and your work, in your employment, um, to be able to ensure that you attract young people.

Tony Scott: I think, I don't want to oversimplify it, but I feel like it is pretty simple for us. We have a very clear vision of what we're doing and why. We are, as you probably know, we're huge on recycling and caring about the planet. We are in our community, we do big things all the time, we clean up the river. We're about a lot of stuff that are really good. And it happens that the younger generation, especially Gen Z and millennials as well, they, you know, they, they all come in and they love that. They, that's why they come to work here. Um, our problem was before we didn't even talk about it. Um, we just did it.

Uh, that was my way. Uh, and I mentioned Trevor before, but yeah, he, he said, hey, you got to talk about this. Um, but we started then putting it in our, our ads for people. And, um, and all these people started coming. Uh, we talked about what we stood for. And what we were trying to do in the world. And, uh, you know, we, we always did well with employees.

Like we've never been difficult, um, for us, but we, we just got, we had way too many people applying and great people that people really bought in already to what we were trying to do. And, uh, you know, we, we ended up having group meetings, like group hires, like, uh, we'd have eight people come in and all at the same time and all interview together, right.

So just to save time, um, and sort of weed through. But, um, Yeah, we have no problem with that because we have very clear ideas of what we stand for. And that is extremely attractive. And I always think too that people sometimes say, Oh, they want to, they think they should own the company. You know, um, they want to be CEO after working here for a month. And, uh, we always just think, you know, awesome. How do I, how do I hold them back a little bit, but without taking away their enthusiasm, I mean, these people want to make a difference. And so we just got to get rid of our old thinking that somebody can't move up fast. You know, I can remember, um, somebody saying a long time ago, Oh, you know, it takes 10 years to be a good project manager. Well, that's it, right? I mean, that's a made up number, right? That, uh, uh, if somebody wants to apply themselves and do it. So we, we take that to everything. If you're a carpenter or if you're a laborer and you want to be a carpenter, we'll give you that every six months, you're going to get checked in. We have a process.

You can see what skills you're learning, um, and then, and what you're mastering. So you learn, we cover the LPE, learning, practicing, excelling. And, and once you hit those things, you, you become proficient at it. Then you get onto the schedule to do those things and also automatically triggers, triggers an increase in pay.

You don't have to ask for it. This was one of those things that was critical early on is that we said, you know, we don't, we want to take money off the table, right? We knew money was stressful. So somebody doesn't have to ask for a raise. They don't have to say well Why did Bob get a raise and I didn't get a raise? It's it's all laid out for them so they can see the path, they know exactly what they need to do to get there And then it was the overall vision for the company that we're trying, I mean, sounds cliche, but we're trying to make the world a better place. We're figuring out different ways to do that, but we're always focused there. And so from that, we've got the recycling, we've got electric vehicle fleets, one of the biggest in Canada. And so we just do all these things that get them excited. And it makes them, when they get to go home too, they want to be able to talk to their friends about it. And they want their friends to go, Oh, you got, you, you work at that company. I saw them on YouTube the other day. I saw them, um, you know, on social media. So those things really all come together to say that. And I would always say that. They are not the kind of people that just want to be told what to do. Um, you have to give them the big picture. Uh, for us, we call it, give them the kingdom.

Don't give them the task, give them the kingdom. So I learned that from my stepdad is he, you know, I had to mow the lawn. We had a very big lawn and it's, you know, I didn't like mowing the lawn. And anyway, so he came up with this idea. He says, okay, so this whole yard is yours. It's the whole thing. So whatever you do, whether it looks good or looks bad, it's totally up to you, but you could choose it. To make it look great. And, uh, and so I got excited a bit about that and yeah, I started doing mowing the lawn and making patterns and, and then I put in a brick patio thing in the middle of the backyard where the furniture could go and I painted the fence and it was mine and that always struck with me and we try to get that same thing to our staff is give them the kingdom and not just a task. People are going to never be happy if they feel like they're just, you know, Doing something because they're told to, and they don't even know what the outcome is going to be. So we also tie them to the outcome and we love them. The millennials are, are probably the backbone of our company at this point. Um, and they're fantastic and they're, you know, they love engaging with people and, and, uh, they like people, they're motivated by helping, and they're also in line with our values, which are very clear to them. We, we lay it out very clearly. And they like the idea, I think this is appealing that we're not just about money, right?

We're a social purpose company. We have very specific things that we're about and we lay that out right from the beginning. So that to me is, you know, how we get them. Somebody said, how do you get them to dig a ditch? And it's like, you don't give them, you know, don't tell them to dig, you know, just start digging. Uh, you explain how drainage works, explain all the facets that go with it and what's going to be hard and what's going to be easy and they learn something and, you know, at the end of the day, they know that water's flowing the right way, right? So it. Sounds funny that way, but, and I'm not saying that's going to work for a year, but if it's, uh, you only need them to do it for two months or something.

Yeah, it works. They master this.

Leighton Healey: And, and, uh, and so, and I just want to, um, like so much good advice and I want to just highlight a couple of components that I think I want to make sure don't get missed is, um, number one is because you, you've really worked hard, what I'm hearing you say, Tony, is because you've worked so hard to, to, to be clear on who you are, like who your company is and what you stand for.

Um, it sounds like just at the mouth of the river, meaning people applying, it's allowed for some self selection. Yeah,

Tony Scott: the staff knows whether that person fits or not. Right? And they know if they come into this place and it's weird to them, um, you know, something they don't like, um, then they know that right away this is different. And, uh, I love the, the chapter that, uh, in the book there about being weird. Um, say that we have, if you looked at our website, www.ppcr.ca um, we have a video in there, uh, that, uh, we did. It was one of the first things that, uh, that we did as sort of changing things when Trevor came in, but, uh, it is, I'm just going to say this. It is absolutely weird. Um, there's a Sasquatch in there.

There's, there's all kinds of this crazy, crazy things. Uh, and when we first did it and it came out, I'm like, Oh my God, that's our video. Like, um, but it was that idea that we wanted to convey who we were. Right. And. And what we were really wasn't me. It was all the team. And this is something that appealed to our very young team. Um, and so we, we sent it out and now it's like, uh, five, six years later. Uh, I think, uh, about six years later. Um, yeah. And now it's still effective and people still talk about it and people still say, yeah, I saw your video. It's a, it's a new employee. So when we onboard people, it's a, it's a process, but they learn all about our culture.

What we do, they see the video and they train about what we believe in and why, and then they work in multiple jobs in the company and work with our staff and all different departments. Uh, so the whole process is three to five days, uh, before they even go to do anything themselves. And so that really keeps it going, but it is culture is everything in that moment, and we overuse the word culture sometimes, cause it's really just kind of who we become as a group together. And the group kind of decides. What they think is funny and what they think is good, but they are centrally, it is about what you believe and your values and what you're trying to achieve and accomplish in the world.

Leighton Healey: Well said.

Tony Scott: Ambitious guy,

Leighton Healey: yeah,

Tony Scott: not necessarily, but I want to change the world, right? I want to make it better. And we believe we are.

Leighton Healey: yeah, and I think it's very common that when I talk to, you know, people in property restoration, especially people who've made a career of it. Um, they'll say something to the extent of like some version of, um, if, you know, like it's like that common adage, if you had asked me 15 years ago or 30 years ago, if this, you know, I would have said no.

Right. And, uh, and yet, um, and that, you know, I'm still here. And I think a big part of it is because they've, they've found it to be just this unique outlet for them to be able to experience and achieve things that matter to them. One of the things that, you know, has come up over and over for, for me over the years, and even just the different teams I've built is that the ability for you to send a worker home and, and really prepare them for, I think one of the most important questions in employment, which is when they walk through a door and a loved one says, so how was your day?

To be able to influence what comes out of their mouth to say, um, you know, it was a, I think it's okay if they say it was a challenging day, but I think you want them to say, it was interesting or was challenging or, you know, or there's something I'm working on and I, and, and I need to get back tomorrow early to get it done because, you know, I, because to your set, like, because I've been given responsibility for it.

And, uh, those things, uh, I think, I think that you've, you, you know, you've found a kind of a bit of a timeless recipe here, Tony. So let me put you through kind of what I like to call like this rocket fire round.

We, we titled the chapter how do you create a net zero stress work environment, which is really a way of saying how do you create a work environment that, um, addresses the fact that work is challenging? And so you need to find a way to make it rewarding and fulfilling.

And you need to be able to create a work environment where people, um, uh, can move through challenges together. And, uh, and do so in a way that's sustainable. Uh, and, and, and there's some intrinsic motivation that I think you've tapped into. There's the ability to attract the right type of people. And then there's clearly some strong, um, you know, call it tribal elements that you've tapped into here, but, but if someone wanted to create a work environment, that's more like what you've built, what, what is an example of something they should just stop doing?

You know, just based on your experience in the industry, you could just tell them, stop doing this.

Tony Scott: You know, I think the first thing that comes to mind is, you know, stop thinking about how difficult it is. Stop thinking about how you, you know, and about stressing and how difficult the job is. You know, we require difficulty in order to grow. You know, it's not a bad thing. It's a bad thing because we make it bad.

It's a bad thing when we overdo it. It's a bad thing when we don't recognize that they're going to be worn out and we let them keep working. There, those are bad, but the growing and difficulties are not bad. They're actually one of the most key things. If you're going to grow in your own life, we grow from experiences.

Nobody would be happy about winning the Stanley Cup if it didn't take a bunch of effort and pain and, you know, stress and all those things. It's great when you win it because it was hard, right? It's hard. It's not bad. It's, it's what makes it great. So I think stop thinking about it that way. Uh, make sure you're doing all the things to, to identify when it's not good, but, but don't, you know, what it should be is we should work with that and understand that some people are going to enjoy certain things and try to make it great, like, enjoyable, it is fun, and that's reflecting on it. And so I like to say that, and don't focus on, you know, this generation or what this generation is doing or that. I mean, they're all just people and, you know, those are the people that are doing the work now, so. Get used to it. It's a, you know, get used to it, figure out how you can, you know, work with that and change how you manage them, right?

Managing them is everything, and you can have some of the best employees. They are our best employees. Our under 30s are amazing. Um, you know, they are, you know, we have at least two or three that are full, are some of our best project managers. Um, and so at, at 30, right. So, um, that was unheard of before. So stop looking at it that way.

Go with it a little bit, give them the opportunity and see what they can do with it. But don't try to micromanage them or task them to death. It's, that's going to kill it. And they hate just having tasks nothing to look at. How does it, how does this change the world, right? How am I helping things be better? You know, they want to see that. So that was, I stopped treating people like that. And, uh, and stop thinking of it as how do I get stress away, but how do I make the stress more bearable? How do I make it more fun? Or how do I make sure that they're growing out of it? And yes, absolutely. You have to identify when there's, when it's too much.

We have, we've had guys that, you know, work, but we'll work 140 hour a week if you let them. And, you know, it's like, you can't do that. You can't have somebody work all night and then go to work the next morning. That's not okay. But those are things you have to, Balance it right. And, and stop them, uh, for their own health.

But, um, but other than that, we, we don't wanna shy away from, it's not terrible to work hard. It's not terrible to, to, to accomplish something big and feel great about it. It's, that's what we wanna do.

Leighton Healey: One of our, um, one of our stated values at KnowHow and, uh, and, and really the roots of it, uh, is because I've, I've built things in the past where, um, it was not sustainable. Right. And, uh, you know, and it impacted our ability to attract future leaders. Right. And, uh, but the value is, we value hard work that's in alignment with where we're going, while maintaining harmony with your personal life. And, uh, Yeah. And we've, we've found that, uh, you know, yeah, like we value hard work. Like we think that actually good things come from toil and struggle. Um, but we also believe that, uh, you know, yeah, it's nice that you worked up a sweat shoveling all that gravel, but, um, we've actually, we're actually over here, you know, like, you know, like I'm, and so we don't actually value all types of hard work at, at, you know, for example, at KnowHow.

And, uh, and then we've also learned that harmony. Harmony is, uh, and you know, we could get, you know, pretty deep into some of the, the, let's call it some of the popular, um, workforce, uh, uh, let's call it, um, you know, flavors of the day. And, and one is really that topic around, um, you know, equity and whatnot.

And, and I think that at the surface, I mean, it sounds great, except I really believe that, um, things like fairness and even harmony, oftentimes they differ between people. And a person who's a, you know, like you said, kind of, let's, let's call it like a young gun who's, um, doesn't have much responsibility outside of work.

And it's just at a period of their life where they just want to grind away versus someone who, um, you know, it might be very creative, but very shy or someone who has kids or someone who's a single parent. I mean, those are very different scenarios, right? And harmony for those individuals, in my experience, um, is different.

And, and I think that, uh, um, I think that it's easy to say. Everyone gets brushed with the same, you know, anyone with the same, you know, HR brush. But I think that, uh, people are complicated, right? And, uh, and business is complicated and heck that's what makes business and people interesting in my opinion, right?

Sounds like, I think we may have that in common.

Tony Scott: Absolutely. I mean, we, we need to make it work for a lot of different kinds of people. And, and sometimes that takes a lot of creativity and making sure that you recognize who people are and then finding the right place. And not everybody's going to be, you know, the same and that it's again, learning to value it as opposed to. Um, trying to change everybody into one mold.

Leighton Healey: Yeah. Well said.

Tony Scott: Guys,

Leighton Healey: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I made a lot of mistakes, you know, and so, oh, you know, in the, I just look in the rearview mirror and I'm just like, ah, you know, but it's, um, but that's how you learn it. Okay, let me ask you another question. You know, You've mentioned one of the largest electrified fleets.

You've mentioned recycling. I, I know some of your business in that, you know, you really think about, you know, there's a massive loss and, and how do we actually not just put this place back together, but actually also do it in a way that just doesn't send, you know, 11 metric tons, the landfill, and, uh, and then you got time to go clean the river.

And then at the same time, you know, you've got a time for, for, for team culture. So there's so many layers to what you've built, Tony. So what's an example of just something. Um, tangible that someone could do, uh, who maybe isn't making much progress, uh, to just create a more harmonious work experience for their staff.

What's, what would you say is something tangible? Where can they start?

Tony Scott: I think I go back to the basics, right? The basics for me are really just care for your people and not, you know, I'm doing this to make a better business way. Actually care for them, right? Actually get to know them, understand what they want to do with their life. Uh, take an interest in it. And stop thinking about what you can get from them entirely, right?

Uh, that seems to a lot of people, they, they, what do you mean? Like, of course they're supposed to work for me, but they will, but you, you need to focus on, you know, them and what do they want to do with their life and what can they gain and what are they, you know, and now you're mentoring them through. And I like to think of it as, think of it like your own children, right?

What would you want for your son? If he was working there, you'd want the best for him. You'd want them to achieve the things that they want to do. And you'd want them to learn from their mistakes. Uh, you know, you'd want to redirect them when he's doing something really wrong. You know, we call that discipline, which sounds so nasty, but really what you're doing is you're trying to steer them back in the right direction. And so I think if you think of it like a good parent, Um, and again, I'm not calling my staff children because they're not, they're anything but. Um, but, you know, they are more adult than most adults. Um, but the, the point is, is that your attitude towards your staff will determine whether you're going to have people that are going to help you get there and take that load off of you as well because they're going to be better than you. And they're not going to get better than you by doing a bunch of tasks. They're going to get better if you try to help them do and be in the place that they want. Not because they happen to be really good at a particular thing, but more what is satisfying to them and what will help them. Sometimes that means they leave and they go somewhere else because your company isn't the one, the thing that's going to do it for them. And then sometimes they come back, but you have to have that attitude where you want the best for them because they feel it. And the best way I can explain that would be COVID. You know, You know, understanding that these were like my kids and my family, and they're all, you know, been with us mostly, a lot of people for a long time.

COVID hits. And all of a sudden, our work in condo buildings, and they just dried right up. Um, and which is about half of our business. Um, everybody was impacted and I know that, but everybody's panicking. What are they thinking about? Money. I don't know how I'm going to pay the rent. I don't know how I'm going to do all these things. And I thought about it. It's like, you know, do we mean our values or not? What would I do for my own child? What did I do for my own child, for that matter? You know? So we immediately came out and said, we addressed the thing that was on their mind. We said, you know, everybody here will get the same amount of pay. Uh, the same on time, deposit it in the bank, the same as it always is. Nothing will change. Period. Um, just take that off of your radar. Nothing's changing. And, uh, I think now if I hadn't known what was going to happen, I don't know if I would've been that courageous. It's that idea that they, you know, you do it for your kids, right?

And as a parent, I know a lot of parents feel this, right? You're going to do what you've got to do to make sure your kids get the things they need to succeed. And so it's easier to make those decisions, but having those principles that guide you, we always say, well, do what's best for the employee in a parent kind of way, not in do whatever you want, you don't let them eat candy for breakfast, but, um, you know, those kinds of attitudes I think will help you grow the team and they're going to, you're going to be able to watch and experience them becoming great things.

And that's nothing better. Same, same as your children. Um, but it's same with your staff. If you see them becoming great and doing a great job, you're going to With things and excelling and changing the company and making it better and maybe changing the world, uh, making it better. Um, you couldn't want more for, for your staff and you couldn't want more for your own kids.

And, uh, so I think those are the things that, you know, it's in us, it's in most parents, right? Um, even people that aren't parents, they get the idea, they still want to grow, you know, help somebody else grow. And so that would be my advice, start doing that, start looking at them that way, and you'll be amazed at what can come out of

Leighton Healey: Yeah. And I think it's fair to say, it's well said, that a business leader or business leaders who think about their staff with that level of, let's call it intentionality, that level of commitment, it also influences your selection process. You know, and so sometimes if people apply what you just said, you know, to someone who actually might be a bad hire and they're thinking like, what this, you know, but I think that when you, when you, when you live that out and you're clear on who you are, like you talked about earlier, you're clear on who you are. Okay, last question. And then, um, Tony, um, I've kept you longer than I promised.

So long term investments, right? At the end of the day, um, if you had to place a bet, you know, put your, put your chips on here and, in your experience, it'll pay off, you know, what are some, what's an example of a long term investment that a company could make that has potential, high potential to, you know, to lead to a more vibrant, more sustainable or resilient workforce in your experience.

Tony Scott: Yeah, I think a lot of the things I've spoken about are long term. There's

Leighton Healey: a hundred percent.

Tony Scott: overnight, um, but I think there's a couple really practical things that you know are important to invest in because it's an investment and I'll say the same thing a lot of people do as training, but I think onboarding, like, uh, it is something that I missed for a long time.

And when we started doing, you know, better, uh, it changed everything, but it really got the team in line and it did vet a lot of things early on. Um, but the change in how we do it and the change of how we advertise. Um, so I, I know it weird to say, but onboarding, um, the bigger thing is, is know, know what you believe yourself, right? Know what you care about and what you do. Stop thinking just about the money. Invest in your own person and decide who you are, what you want to do, what makes you happy, what makes you feel fulfilled. How do you want to do things in your life? And then your job is to go, how does that apply to my business? And how do I create a business that reflects that? And then the next part is how do I make sure I hire people that are in line with that? And that makes everything easier in the long run. You have to be aligned on why you want to do this. And as I've said, I don't care if other people see it differently, good for them.

They're, they need that because you know what, there's a bunch of people that want and should work for them. And there's, it's allowed to be wide, but it is about ultimately the leadership that the top person has, and it has to be him. It has to be who that person is and their values, and they, you know, explore them, live them out, and then apply that. And then you can have people that understand it and follow it. And then there's some people that aren't as sure what they're following, what they want to follow. But if it's strong leadership that way, they're coming, they're coming.

Leighton Healey: Yeah. Well said. And, and, and you're saying that on the other end of a fruitful career and, um, And I don't think you're slowing down, right? I think, your business continues to, to get you up in the morning. So Tony, man, I, man, we could keep this conversation going.

And, uh, and I'd love to have you back for another conversation. I think that we just scratched the surface here, but, um, I think that, uh, what you're doing there in the beautiful West coast of Canada is, uh, is impressive. I think it's, uh, it's a great, I think you're a role model in the industry and I've learned a lot from you and thanks for sharing generously with our audience.

I know that, uh, that your advice is going to have a big impact. So, so thanks for sharing that.

Tony Scott: Thanks for having me on. I really enjoy listening to the other leaders when they were talking, I was inspired. I love what you guys are doing.

And of course I love the data to back up what we do and give us more information. It's amazing to have a company that's investing in us that way. I'm super excited about the, uh, the next thing, which is the release of the survey.

Leighton Healey: Yeah. Yeah. Cost of Doing Business. Yeah.

Tony Scott: think you'd be a lot of people very surprised by that.

Leighton Healey: Well, I will tell you, I went into it wondering if we're going to have a, you know, like, you know, sometimes say, yeah, there's a meat on that bone. There's like a, you know, there's like a real T bone in all that data. Well, we came out of this one.

We're like, there's like 7 T bones. Like there's like, there's a lot of meat on that bone. And so, Um, it's, uh, it's, it's, it's, uh, there's going to be, um, there's gonna be a lot of value there. We're gonna make sure we get, we get a copy of that in your hands when it comes out here in just a couple weeks.

Tony Scott: yeah, well, I love what you guys are doing and, uh, have a ton of respect for that and thank you for bringing it to the industry..

Leighton Healey: All right, friends, that is a wrap for this season of the Restoration Playbook Podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Subscribe to KnowHow wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss out on even more road tested, practical, actionable advice from top operators. You can read more about Tony and his advice on R&R.

Just head to randrmagonline.com or check the show notes for a link. Okay, we will talk to kickoff next season of the Restoration Playbook Podcast.

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