EP: 238 Chris Michel w/ Service Nation -Leadership Secrets and Business Growth Tips

Excited to announce the latest episode of the HVAC Revealed podcast featuring the insightful Chris Michel from Service Nation. This episode is packed with valuable insights on business growth, leadership, and mental health. 

Episode Highlights:

• Chris Michel dives deep into the comprehensive support offered by Service Nation across marketing, sales, leadership, and HR.
• The importance of being proactive in adopting change and seeking help to grow your business.
• A heartfelt discussion on mental health and the impacts of the pandemic, urging individuals to seek support and be vulnerable.

3 Key Takeaways for You:

- Consistent Marketing & Training: Chris emphasizes the necessity of viewing marketing and training as investments, not expenses, especially during uncertain times. Consistency is key to navigating through market fluctuations and maintaining business growth.

- Leadership Development: The episode underscores the critical need for developing soft and managerial skills before promoting top performers to leadership positions. Continuous self-improvement and mentorship are essential for effective leadership.

- Mental Health Awareness: Both Chris and Thaddeus share personal stories highlighting the importance of discussing mental health openly. It's a powerful reminder that it's okay not to be okay, and seeking help is a sign of strength.

Tune in to uncover more wisdom and practical advice that can transform how you approach your business and personal growth.

#HVACRevealed #Leadership #BusinessGrowth #MentalHealthMatters #ServiceNation #Podcast

Find Chris:

On The Web: www.servicenation.com
Via Email: cmichel@servicenation.com

Join Our Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hvacrevealed
Presented By On Purpose Media: https://www.onpurposemedia.ca/
For HVAC Internet Marketing reach out to us at info@onpurposemedia.ca or 888-428-0662



Sponsored By: 

Chiirp: https://chiirp.com/hssr
Elite Call: https://elitecall.net
Service World Expo: https://www.serviceworldexpo.com/
On Purpose Media: https://onpurposemedia.ca

Transcript

Chris Michel: 0:01

The first law of leadership is the law of the lead. And if we don't, if we don't raise our lead, how in the world can we help other people to lead

Thaddeus Tondu: 0:14

Hey, welcome back to another episode of HVAC Success Secrets Revealed, or as I call it, HVAC Success Secrets Revealed. So with Thaddeus and Evan but it's just me. So Evan is currently helping his his significant other pack up their stuff and move across the country. So welcome back. Exciting times for him and having the ability to be able to do that. But today we have on Chris Michel from Service Nation. I'm excited to have him on. In fact, we were chatting for a little bit late cause we're getting a little bit into some of our conversations before we got going. When I asked him what he, his official title as a training director, I'm like, he's like, well, I am the training department he handles a lot of the training in terms of that, but he's had a fascinating journey through the trades. He came from in from residential sales, then to a sales manager, then to an operations manager, then to general manager, went over to the match manufacturing side as a TSM for a couple of years. So there's an own sort of his own consulting business before finally moving in to service nation just over a year ago, a year and a half ago in May, 2023. He's also a he's done stand up comedy in the past, so let's try not to put him on the spot with any jokes that we have. But, when I was chatting with him before, I think one topic that I really want to get into, and we're coming up to an election cycle in the US, it's gonna be a big thing and consumer sentiment and how does it play into this along with, the big R word that people keep throwing around and saying, there's no recession, but there is a recession. And we don't actually know in diving into the consumer sentiment about that, to be able to unpack some of that. It's going to be a fun episode looking forward to it. But of course, today's podcast possible without our sponsors. We have in no particular order, On Purpose Media, Elite Call, Chiirp Service World Expo, but let's start off with Service World Expo because they're part of Service Nation Alliance and you want to join us for the most magical contract experience at the Service World Expo in Orlando, Florida from October 15th to 17th. So you can enjoy keynotes, breakout sessions, four hour workshops, social mixers, an exhibit hall with industry leading products and podcasts. Like ours, we'll be there podcasting on their podcast stage. You want to network with other residential contractors and hear from some amazing keynotes, all designed to help contractors like you elevate your business register now and use promo code secrets, 100 for 100 off visit service world expo treasures today. And we'll see you there. Transform your home service business with Chiirp, the ultimate automation toolbox. Capture more leads, connect instantly and skyrocket your sales. Chiirp integrates seamlessly with platforms like ServiceTitan and Housecall Pro, offering automated text messages, emails, ringless voicemails. You can boost your Google reviews and your customer loyalty with their proven rehash program. Schedule your demo today and get an exclusive 25 percent off your first three months visit chiirp.com/hssr to start boosting your revenue today and if you've ever thought about, okay I've got these text messages and ringless voicemails down. How about calling my database to fill my dispatch boards, especially as we're coming into shoulder season? You can also boost your memberships with Elite Call, a U. S. based call center that does just that. For over 20 years, their dedicated teams don't just make calls, they CRM and fill your dispatch boards. Don't let your competition get ahead let Elite Call connect with your customers first visit elitecall.net to learn more in last, but certainly not least is on purpose media, and you can enhance your online presence with the go to home service marketing expert for everything, web design, SEO, and PPC. Guess what? We build stunning user friendly websites built to convert. We also give you enhanced visibility on Google with effective pay per click ad spends or ads, minimizing wasted ad spend. So let's turn your. Online president to lead generating powerhouse visit onpurposemedia.ca today to start your transformation in the digital world. Thank you, Chris, for taking the time out to chat with us.

Chris Michel: 3:59

Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Thaddeus.

Thaddeus Tondu: 4:01

Yeah, appreciate it and appreciate your team at Service Nation for help lining it up. I believe Jasmine, shout out to her for for getting her done and getting across the goal line. Let's start off. I mean, I I already read the little bit of the journey, the residential sales manager, operations manager, general manager, but et cetera. But one thing that is not in there is how you got started into the actual industry itself. So let's start there.

Chris Michel: 4:23

Yeah, actually, I was working in the food processing industry and a buddy of mine, I was traveling all the time and a buddy of mine was like, Hey, do you want to stay home? And I had younger kids at the time. So I was like sure, I'd love to do that and he said we probably have an opening in our sales department. So I went and interviewed and started right after Easter in 2004. And that was as, as they say, the beginning of the end and where I got involved and started getting hooked. And Just couldn't get out, right? And I think too often, some of us, we go, Oh, I'm just going to do this for so many years and then I'm going to get out. And so here we are 20 years later, and I'm still enjoying it. I'm just, I've gone through so many different phases. As you said, I've been on the sales side and management side. And one of the things that I got to do over and over again was I got to train people and I got to see them to be successful and see them really give those aha moments. And I just kept moving closer and closer towards doing that and so now here I am, and I get to work with contractors on a regular basis and help them have those aha moments. And see them be successful on a consistent basis.

Thaddeus Tondu: 5:33

You think about that when you come from sales to manager and doing those things is having those aha moments and seeing people succeed. But oftentimes I think a lot of people have that tough transition from going in the field, doing the work into management, What was that experience like? And if you're talking to somebody that might be going through that or an owner who is. Promoting somebody from the field into management. What are some of the things that you're going to want them to look out for?

Chris Michel: 5:57

Boy, that's a great question because a lot of times we think that if you're successful in the field or you're successful as a CSR, then maybe your next level is to supervise or to manage. And what we don't realize sometimes is they're not built for that and they don't have the temperament for that, or they don't have the skills for that and some people don't want to do anything more than be the best at what they do and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. But as owners, sometimes we get disillusioned and we think, Oh, I've got to make this work. I've got to give this person a promotion. You're creating a scenario that may not be best for a lot of people. Not the least of which is when I became a manager, I had to move locations because being a manager in the current location meant now I'm going to be the manager over the people that I was just peers with. And so they know that during the down and dirty secrets, we used to have the conversations in the parking lots, right? The meetings after the meetings. And so I think a lot of times we forget as owners or managers, we forget that. It is it's a difficult transition to make from technician or CSR or customer service rep to a a supervisory or even a managerial position and so I was lucky I had a great mentor with working with me when I made that transition. I moved from Atlanta to Memphis to run a business and I got the opportunity over there to do some things and he really held my hand and helped me to understand how to not just be a leader, but then how to produce other leaders. And I think that's the other piece that we don't think about or do very well is we don't know how to lead other people into leadership and we don't know how to bring them from where they are to developing them and their soft skills and their managerial or leadership skills and so there's a lot of things that, that go into that, that we can very easily skip over just because we go, Oh, I've got a need. I just need to put somebody in this position we forget all the soft skills.

Thaddeus Tondu: 7:53

In any oftentimes the best performing person in the field or the CSR or any type of role isn't always the best candidate for management or for leadership. Just because they're good at what they do doesn't mean that they can lead people. And I think that's a big misnomer it's Oh, you're the best. I'm going to put you in there. No, that's actually not actually factually correct. One thing that, produce other leaders, and I think there's different nuances and pivot points in business where, you're zero to two, zero to 3 million in each phase. It's not so much about. Developing leaders, it's just developing the system, still developing the development features. Now, when you want to pivot and go from three to five to six, now it's okay. How do we produce and develop leaders in the business to be able to lead with that initiative? And then of course, when you get past that, now those leaders, developing leaders, and it's, just becomes a cyclical thing. So I always like to put on the hat of I'm a business owner two, 3 million 1 million, whatever the number is. Now I need to actually produce leaders, but I don't know how to even begin or what do we even do or what even to look at. I think there's a starting point right there and so when you look at that part of a business journey in that aspect of things, what's something that you would tell a business owner who is in that particular seat?

Chris Michel: 9:00

So again, this is where it gets challenging because some of the business owners have never been taught leadership skills. They turned a wrench for so many years and they naturally became the leader because what they got tired of. Running the truck by themselves and so they added one more person and one more person and they were friends. And yeah, they're leading them, but they're not really leading them. And so how do you develop, right? How do you do the things that need to be done so that you can be a better leader? One of the things that I. learned and I continue to learn is you have to improve yourself. You and I talked about this, but I just became Maxwell leadership certified. And it's a very interesting process because you're learning a lot about leadership. And one of the things that John Maxwell talks in any, preaches on it a lot is there's the the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. The first law of leadership is the law of the lid. if we don't raise our lid, how in the world can we help other people to lead, right? So if I'm on a scale of one to 10, if I'm only a five, I can't lead anybody more than a four. More three or two or one. I will not be able to sustainably lead a seven or an eight, and they probably won't be attracted to me as a five. If I'm a seven or an eight, okay, now I can lead a six or a five or a four. I can lift up the people that are leading below me because of the things that I do. It may come to pass that maybe I'm teaching somebody that has now I'm a seven and I bring them up to a seven and now I'm, I can't do any more with them. And so I have to pass them on to somebody else, right? So somebody, they continue to grow. And so they surpassed me. And so now They get to be better, do better. And a lot of that comes down to training. It comes down to number one, self reflection and being able to observe and learn and mentors and, people around us that are obviously above us or ahead of us in this journey. And as we learn to learn from them, we get to grow in our abilities to lead and to lead others.

Thaddeus Tondu: 10:53

The reason you live, the law of the lid is such an impactful thing. It's actually funny. I had our Q3 state of the company address for clients that are for our team. And I was like Q3 in September. It's just, we run it on the EOS calendar and the EOS calendar isn't necessarily always an EOS entrepreneurs operating system for those that are for our marketing company. And was like the quote that I said, if you ain't growing, you're dying. Because really, what got you here won't get you there. And there's no such thing as the perfect employee or the perfect team member for two years. There's perfect person for right now, but in order to be able to come to that person, perfect. And by the way, you can insert this into your relationship, your personal life, your friends, whatever. Perfect person for two years, for 12 months from now, for two years from now, for three years from now, yeah, perfect person has to grow and change with the times. And if you're not growing and changing and adapting and learning and evolving you're never going to get past that right now. Enter in obviously I'll do a shameless plug for you. Service nation probably has a bunch of has leadership training to be able to help people on that.

Chris Michel: 11:48

But we have a few classes. Yeah. Yeah.

Thaddeus Tondu: 11:50

You got a few classes, right? And look There's tons of resources out there. Shit, go get a membership and listen to books, right? And that's the thing. That's a start, up leveling yourself. People like I don't read I'm not a big reader, but I listen to books. I consume books. I consume short articles. And so that's then be amenable to that change. No, fascinating stuff. And so one of the things coming up to you is you look at, okay how do I raise my lid? How do I pivot? How do I adapt? How do I become, improving myself? And naturally, by the way, before I get into the next question, when somebody does that to when you are looking at, Raising your own lid, you're going to make mistakes in leadership. You're going to make mistakes in management. You're going to make mistakes with people. Then that's okay. As long as you learn from the mistakes and try not to repeat them. When you talk about, pivoting and raising the lid in, in, in understanding nuances and people and obviously how to lead people, we're coming up to, controversial time for some, pretty much for all, let's be real. It's an election year, right? Yeah. Coming up to the fall election and when it hits its head and in a couple of months, it's going to be a wild time for a lot of people. It's, I'm not going to get into the divisive nature of us politics because we're in Canada and we're just as divisive. And look, there's no, I'm not here to debate the right or wrong on this. No. There's going to be people that are going to be, consumer sentiment is off. You're looking at increased ad spends for marketing because the election is coming on there. You're looking at the big R word in the recession and you read like the U. S. dollar and when it's going to have a collapse next year and all these things that are hitting everybody. Hesitancy from consumer standpoint, how does the business adapt to that? What do they need to be putting in place today to be able to prepare themselves for the fall?

Chris Michel: 13:22

You got some really good questions there, Thaddeus. at least for me, the thing that I see. time again is if we're not preparing for the future it's a Maxwellism, right? If you're not prepared when the opportunity arises, it's too late because you can't prep in the moment. Now, can I prepare for the future and when these things happen? Absolutely. And I think a lot of times we think we're more reactive than proactive as contractors. And so all of a sudden our marketing dries up and the phone stopped ringing and we're going, Oh my gosh, now what do I do? And you should have been right three months ago, two months ago, two weeks ago, you should have been looking at the future and going, okay, school's going to start. We're going to see some slow times. Oh, by the way, we've also got this thing called the fall coming up and we drop into the sixties and 70 degrees temperatures and people just back off. And then, oh, by the way, we're also going to have this election coming up and on top of that, we're going to change refrigerants and right. There's just so many things that are going on and it does. It causes fear in the eyes of the consumer. And when they're afraid. if we don't do a proper job of educating them and helping them to understand what there really is to be afraid of and what there isn't, you're a heater dying in the middle of winter on a Christmas day or a boxing day is you got 30 friends over and your system quits. That's a problem, right? Now you have to have somebody come out. What if we can prevent that? What if we can do repairs or replacement or what are we doing to help out plumbing? Same concept, right? Are we doing things to be preventative? And are we working our plan year round for marketing? Are we training our people year round and not just when it's convenient, not just when it's slow, but are we doing these things on a consistent basis? Consistency is what will drive out fear, and that's what also drives out the inconsistency in our business too, right? If you wanna be consistent in your business, consistently work on it, consistently, work at it, consistently do the things that and you and I are in a business where we're the first two things to go, right? When things get hard, what do they do? Let's throw out marketing, let's throw out training. It's Hey guys, these are the two things that are gonna help your business grow more than anything else. Short of putting a new person in a truck or in a, behind a desk that there, these are the two things that really can help your business grow and flourish more than anything else. But you have to be consistent.

Thaddeus Tondu: 15:37

And people look at it as a line item and not the investment into their business and their people. And that's a big switch. That's always an uphill battle. I would think that marketing is probably the first one to go and training's the second one to go. But it's so counterintuitive. And that's the part that always gets me. It's okay I'm going to cut marketing. I'm like okay. Like why? Because it's going down.

Chris Michel: 15:55

I think, yeah, I think this is the problem. That's not the problem. The problem is you didn't plan for it. And now all of a sudden you're in a situation where you're not holding the marketing team accountable for what they're, for what they're doing and how you're spending and all that. If we know these things and we're doing it properly, guess what? Preparation meets opportunity. It's called luck. I think.

Thaddeus Tondu: 16:15

Now, do you got to be good to be lucky? You're lucky to be good.

Chris Michel: 16:18

Exactly. Both.

Thaddeus Tondu: 16:21

You mentioned something at the very end there, holding your marketing team accountable and I'm sure that in your previous roles, you've done some of that. As well as working with a marketing company, working with a marketing team. What are some of the ways that you've utilized it in the past? And what are some of the ways that you educate contractors on to be able to work with the marketing team and hold them accountable?

Chris Michel: 16:38

I think the biggest thing is to understand where you're spending and what the return is on it. If you can get real information and it's not, we don't have to wait six months to figure out whether or not this is working. What we can do is we can monitor this stuff on a consistent basis and say, yes, this is making sense. Now, if I start something today, it doesn't mean that tomorrow my phones are going to ring. It doesn't mean the next Monday my phones are going to ring. It may take a week or two for you to build up that brand or build up that marketing for people to go, Oh, now these are the guys I need to call. You should always be working on your brand, right? You should always be out there in your community and giving and working and helping develop the brand that is your company in your community and if you're doing those things on top of the marketing and understanding where you're spending money and what kind of return it's giving you, and don't be like everybody else. I was working for a company one time and there was a new person in charge of marketing and they said, Hey, we're going to do it this way. And I, and we were a boutique type of HVAC company and so we were very clear on who our market was, and it wasn't like everybody else and there was one company in town, two companies in town that were just all over the map and they were throwing money everywhere and they were just spend on just we'll do it for 99. We were not that company. And so our marketing person came to me as the sales manager and they said, Oh, we're going to do this. And I said, why? That doesn't make any sense. That doesn't speak to who we are. And so we don't understand who we are. We don't understand our culture. We don't understand why we don't understand who we are as a business. And we go out and we spend money like everybody else is spending money. You're probably shooting yourself in the foot. So that's where I talk about accountability and understanding. What does that mean? And what does that look like? And does it speak to who you are? Are you attracting the clients that you want? Not necessarily that you need, because the ones you think you need aren't the ones that are going to be good for you and your business.

Thaddeus Tondu: 18:30

And that's such a key point because like marketing companies and like we are one. We are not in your business daily on a day by day basis. I don't, we don't know your brand, your lexicon, your culture. We can get a pretty good understanding by having questions, but at the end of the day, it's okay to push back on some of the ideas but if your marketing company also isn't bringing some of those things over, obviously that's part of it, right? We meet with our clients monthly and some of our programs, some of our programs get quarterly. And so we have these, conversations about planning for it which is it, which is an important thing. But the one thing you mentioned there was branding and community and involvement in there. And now as you come in, and so there's these ebbs and flows in terms of the digital side of marketing right now, obviously coming into shoulder season, demand is a little bit lower. People aren't searching as much. Depending on where you're at, obviously, as we're transitioning into Canada like Canada right now, my furnace runs in the morning and my AC runs in at night, like it's wild. Yeah. I love coming into fall. The court colors are gorgeous. We're still hitting, we're still hitting like low 80s Fahrenheit, but we're getting down to like 50s at night. So we don't actually have to run our furnaces. We can just usually, it's just the AC in the afternoon, but there's really not as much demand, right? Because people are like, my AC runs like 45 minutes in a day. And that's it. And then you, but you look in the Southern states and so you're coming into This pivotal time where you say, okay I can actually potentially reduce some of my expenditures on Google ads or the Facebook sides. And where you're increasing that, I would never recommend, by the way, reducing SEO over the winter time because that doesn't make any sense because you're positioning for next year, right? But you can reduce some of that spend there and that will reinvest that back into branding and community. It's a longer term play then when you do the branding and community when it comes back to your busy season again, depending on what part of the North America you're in you can ramp up some of your digital and do some of that branding and community that you keep it consistent in terms of the budget that you're spending. And it works out longer than it works out better in the long run. So love that stuff. I want to transition into our random question. January is probably one of my favorite parts of the show, because it's a question that has absolutely nothing to do with me. to do with what we're talking about. But it is also brought to you by the lovely folks at On Purpose Media. Hey, that's us, where you can get a second opinion on your marketing efforts. So if this marketing conversation is like, Hey, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, we'll reach outonpurposemedia.ca/second-opinion and we'll be happy to have a call and give you a second opinion. No obligations, by the way, on what you got on the go. So the random questioner, there's three questions that I got on my screen. You don't get to know what the questions are, Chris, you just get to choose. You want question one, you Two or three. I actually don't even, I haven't even read 'em this time, so I'm gonna go with all right. With exactly what you say. I'm not gonna gate this and give you some random one that I think is gonna be funnier.

Chris Michel: 21:02

Three. Yeah., Thaddeus Tondu: This one's funny. What's your go-to dance move when you're alone? Oh gosh I am such I have serious white man syndrome when it comes to dancing and dance moves bite the lower lip and the, the hands move back and forth.

Thaddeus Tondu: 21:19

No hip movement whatsoever.

Chris Michel: 21:22

Very little. Yeah. I might hurt something if I do. So I have to throw you back out. I'm at an age now where that's real. That's those are real problems.

Thaddeus Tondu: 21:31

You are a bestselling author. I'm going to call it a bestselling author. So red chair experience and I was looking at some of the things daily inspiration for success in life and business. And I know that you said some people don't like to talk about the topic about the book, but I think it's a relevant and important topic to talk about on the book. experience. Tell us about the book.

Chris Michel: 21:50

Yeah, in my heart it is a bestseller. Let's just go with that. So we'll leave it at that. But came about as a result of in 2019, my brother died by suicide and six months later we hit the pandemic. And a buddy of mine sent me a meme and said, if during this time you're not working on your side hustle, doing something to improve yourself, it's not that you didn't have the time, but you're wasting time. You've wasted it. And I just, that really hit home for me. And when you have somebody that is close to you and dies, that it sets your mind in this really interesting spot where you start to question a lot of things and you start to go, what am I doing this for? And why am I doing that? And what's, am I doing the things that I really love to do? And. I always thought that I wanted to write a book. I just didn't know about what, and I was reading these daily inspirations and I thought, you know what, that's what it is. And so I just started writing and learned that it was therapeutic and cathartic for me to do such to help me to work through the grief that I was encountering between my brother. And then as I was writing the book, my dad died and I got COVID pneumonia and all these things. And then my grandson was born and right. There are some positive things that came, but. There was a lot of transition, a lot of life events that came about, and the red chair is, it is actually, the book on the cover, or the chair on the cover of the book, is my red chair. It's a red leather recliner that sits In my en suite and it's where I go to sit and meditate and feel feelings and pray or read or just do that. You know that personal time in the morning when I like to just sit and contemplate what's going on and what do I need to do for the day or the week or the month and that's where that came from. And that's because he was one of the previous owners. My brother was but yeah, and obviously we're having this conversation in September and September is suicide prevention awareness month. And so it is, it's very interesting, very timely. And I think a lot of times we. Especially as men we don't think that we want to talk about that stuff. But when we realize that there are other people just like us, there are other people that have had these thoughts or these conversations, or maybe they're feeling less than talk to your friends, talk to your neighbors, talk to somebody that, You can relate to because you'll find out that you're not that different. And we all have similar struggles and it's okay and that we were talking earlier about how man there's this fine line between genius, right? These comedic geniuses. Depression and what does that look like? And it's really interesting when you start to look at some of these people like Robin Williams Chris Farley or John Belushi or right you start to look at these some of these comedic greats and you go man What happened? where were they out of what was going on and you start to realize what that fine line really is and My daughter asked me a really interesting question. And I say, it's interesting. It was really actually it was heartbreaking that she would even feel the need to ask me this. But at 19, when my brother died, she was 19 years old. And she said, dad, do you think you could do that? And I was like, I was heartbroken when she's, when she asked me that. And I had to think I had to pause for a second and I didn't want to lie to her, but I wanted to be honest and real. And I said I think we're all capable of it. If we don't talk. If we don't have the conversations and we don't talk about the things that are going on and bothering us. And I'm not saying that the end all be all, but that's certainly one thing that can help us move forward in getting the help that we need.

Thaddeus Tondu: 25:14

And certainly, especially in 2024 and I think the last, four years, five years of navigating that COVID world, where people just weren't okay. And there was a lot of, mental anguish that folks were facing. You need to talk about it. Actually you sparked a memory for me and one of the conversations I had, I don't remember my age, 10, 11, 12, somewhere around there. We had a cousin that had committed suicide as well. And I didn't know him very distant. And I remember my dad sitting down and we grew up in a gun household. And so we had firearms and, it was, Mind a long rifle, not handgun. And so it's still possible. And yeah, I remember having that conversation. Yeah, we have access to that. He's they're just, is there's nothing so bad in life that you need to resort to that. If there is anything, you just, you need to reach out. You need to have a conversation. You need to ask for help because at the end of the day, if you ask for help on something, nobody's ever going to get mad at you for asking for help. And I remember now, it's a common means smart man but that really, the really essence of that is that. It's okay to not be okay and it's okay to reach out for help. And by the way, if you are ever feeling like you need to reach out to somebody, obviously you can hit me up. If you're watching this on whatever platform, send us a message. You can find me personally on my Facebook page and send me a message and you can send Chris a message as well. Maybe you want to email him C Michel cmichel@servicenation.com. I'll put that on our show notes as well. And and just know that there's better support mechanisms that are out there for you. And especially as men, we don't have to, do that. We don't have to resort to that and that you can have confidence in others itself. Appreciate you, you sharing that. I actually want to get a copy of this book because I like, when I was reading, daily inspirations, motivations, and meditations, the one part that I like to meditate and feel feelings the EOS world, we talk about clarity breaks. And how do we have this decompression to be able to think through our thoughts? If somebody is, Never heard this concept before of just sitting there and meditating and feeling feelings and not necessarily meditating. It's okay, breathe in four seconds to your nose, hold it for four seconds, out eight seconds through your mouth. Like you don't need to necessarily do that to have a meditation to be able to feel things. Just let your body be. But if somebody is new to this concept and they're hearing meditation sounds hippy dippy to me sitting there feeling my feelings, you know What do you say to that type of a person? How do you be able to get this in place for them? Because it's huge. It's important.

Chris Michel: 27:27

It is. And I grew up in a single parent household with my dad and my two brothers. So there's a little twist for you, right? I didn't grow up in a traditional single parent household with a mother. And we grew up in this house. It was all guys. And I am seriously joking that the three emotions that we knew were anger, bitterness, and rage. And there wasn't a lot of warm, fuzzy, let's share our feelings and let's talk about it. And I had to learn through reading, through talking, through getting with other people and experiencing some things. There's a book it's called Un F Your Brain and it's a fantastic book and one of the things I learned from that is that Faith Harper, Dr. Faith Harper talks about emotions in that book. And the one thing she says is. That emotions are designed to only last 90 seconds. And if you think about that, the problem is that we run the replay over and over and over again. That's the problem. It's not that we didn't sometimes we stop the emotion, and when we block the emotion, we don't let it run its course. And when we don't, that becomes problematic. If we allow it to run its course we sit in the feelings. I feel angry. I feel sad. I feel depressed. I feel happy. I feel whatever, right? I feel bitter. I feel envious, right? I feel jealous. Whatever that is, it's okay to feel the feelings. It's okay to sit in that for a moment. 60, 90 seconds. Understand that this too shall pass, right? There's a reason for that saying. And that part of that passing is the emotion itself. When you do that, you come into this moment of clarity. You come into this, okay, now I can see, right? But you hear about people who get so angry. They their eyes turn black, right? Or they see red. They see they see red or black. And because they've built it up so much and they don't know how to release it. And the only way they know how to release it is through anger, bitterness, or rage, right? And they rage out on people and and it's difficult to do that if, to your point, if you've never done that before, you have to learn to be able to just All right. What is that? What's that wave? What's going on? I share it like this. If, when you take a shower and the water hits your head, and for me, that's it. It hits my head and then it's gone.

Thaddeus Tondu: 29:37

I got massaged into my hair.

Chris Michel: 29:39

But when the water hits your head, there's an opportunity for it to flow down your body. Imagine if you put a couple of buckets here and you held the water that hit your head and now is going into the buckets. Imagine what that's doing to you. Emotionally, that's what we do when we shut off our feelings, right? And. It becomes this burden and we don't understand why is this so heavy and why do I feel this way and right? And we don't work through that. We don't allow the water to continue to flow. If we allow the water to continue to flow, a. k. a. the emotions, it's amazing that you don't have that weight on your shoulders. You won't have that, that deep aching feeling resentment or bitterness or rage and you can actually work through these emotions.

Thaddeus Tondu: 30:22

I wish you could tell my toddler that emotions only last for 90 seconds. But no, you are right. And again, you got to process, you got to let it go. And this is really like the part of what, the whole clarity aspect of just sitting there and thinking and laying it. Letting it go through and letting it happen because when you can do that now, again, on the other side of your emotions is your clarity break, right? And that's where you can get really diving into that. Thank you for sharing that piece. As we start to wrap up on our time limit, obviously we haven't even really talked much about Service Nation and what it can do and I appreciate the non plugging nature of it because again, it's leading with clarity. value. Of course Chris is with Service Nation, servicenation.com. Walk us through a little bit about what you have on the go with Service Nation and why somebody should look at, seriously, joining the organization.

Chris Michel: 31:00

Actually, we are a best practices group for the trades and we help contractors live better lives. We help you to realize the freedom that is waiting on the other side of whatever it is that's holding you back. And so we have different things that can help you to do that. We can help you with relationships, building relationships with other contractors who either are in the same shoes that you're in or have been in the same shoes that you've been in, and they can help you through those things. We have coaching, we have training. We've got, you guys can't see the detail here, but there's over a hundred classes that we're doing next year. This is 2025 and we've got over a hundred classes that we're going to be sharing with people. And they're based on our pillars that we found over the last 20 plus years are really the core for what contractors do for being successful, right? And it's in marketing, it's in sales, it's in leadership, it's in operations, it's in HR. It's all these little things. And it's not that we've got a corner in the market. There's a, there's other best practices groups out there, but there's none that I've seen like us. And we help with the relationships. We help with mentorships. We've got mentoring groups that we help you out with. And, but it all comes back to you. and this is another Maxwellism, are you willing to get the help that you need because you're only going to change when you want to? And it hurts so bad that you need to when you learned enough that it's that you're like, okay, I can do this or you're inspired to. And so if you're willing to make a change, if you're frustrated with, Hey, I'm, I don't want to be a million dollar company anymore. I want to be a two or three or five, or I'm tired of not making any money, even though we're a 3 million company okay we've got some things that can help you. And we've got partners that we work with marketing and right. All of these things that can help you to get better at what you do. Again, we don't have all the answers, but we've got a lot of really good people who know all the answers.

Thaddeus Tondu: 32:54

And that's the part about the best practice and I'm glad you mentioned the part about, the maximalisms is that you got to reach out and you got to seek the help. Oftentimes best practice groups or get, can get a, It's okay did you put it in the work? No matter what best practice group you joined, you're never going to get the success from it because you didn't put it in the work. And I love that aspect of adding that in there. Hey, look, Evan's actually watching right now. I can't wait for Service World Expo. I would like to have a lot of fun with what we do if you can't tell. As we wrap up, of course, if you want to get in touch with Chris. Chris I already mentioned his email earlier cmichelle@servicenation.com of course, we have the serviceworldexpo.com use this code, by the way, secrets100 to get a hundred dollars off servicenation.com is their website. Of course, you wanna hit 'em up on LinkedIn. It's linkedin.com/ in/coachchris84. But Chris, I just don't end it there. I've got one final question here for you. Uhoh, what is one question that you wished people would ask you more? But don't.

Chris Michel: 33:51

Gosh I think that it really comes back to our willingness to get help. And I think when people realize that there are people out there, and it's not just me, it's, I don't think I hear this enough from people is, hey, how can I support you? And I ask that question of a lot of people because when I had my own consulting business, that was the one thing I wanted to do was I'm not here to change your life. Unless you want me to, right? I'm not here to give you all these things unless you want it. You have to want it more than I have to want it. And how can I support you is, man, that, that question is a barn burner, right? That's just going to stop you down your tracks and you go, wow, support me? What is, what do you mean by support me? Exactly that. What can I do to support you? Because it's your business. It's your life. What kind of freedom do you want? ServiceWorldExpo is a great example, right? We've got a number of vendor partners that are going to be there that can help you if you want the help. We've got a number of classes that are workshops for you to come and learn if you want to. And there's all kinds of things that are available to you. If you want it, so how can I support you is a great question. And if more people learn how to use that in the right way, and they're going to go, they're just going to skyrocket.

Thaddeus Tondu: 35:06

That's exactly it. And you gotta be, you gotta be a little bit vulnerable at times to be able to ask that question and it goes back to the, to what we're talking about, the, in a sense of it's okay not to be okay, but you also have to ask for help, right? No matter what it is, life, business, et cetera. Marriage, relationship, kids, like somewhere somewhere in life, somebody has been there, done that, and they got the t shirt, right? They already have went through that particular situation or one that is. You're really similar to it. And why not stand on the shoulders of somebody else who has done that to be able to help you get over it, right? You're not alone in this situation, this scenario. So I love that aspect of things. Chris, thank you for coming on taking the time out of your day to come on and chat with with us. Sorry to disappoint that it was just me and not Evan and me, but I think it was arguably a pretty good show. Definitely enjoy sometimes when it is so low. Obviously mystical host aspect of things, but I thank you for taking the time to come on and I look forward to to shaking your hand at service world expo coming up here in no month and a half.

Chris Michel: 36:04

Absolutely. We'll see you very soon. Thank you, Thaddeus I appreciate it.

Thaddeus Tondu: 36:07

Thanks everybody. Until next time. Cheers. Well, That's a wrap on another episode of HVAC success secrets revealed. Before you go two quick things. First off, join our Facebook group, facebook.com/groups/hvacrevealed. The other thing. If you took one tiny bit of information out of this show, no matter how big, no matter how small, all we ask is for you to introduce this to one person in your contacts list. That's it. That's all one person. So they too can unleash the ultimate HVAC business. Until next time. Cheers.