TL;DR: In this episode of the Service Business Mastery podcast, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch interview Brigham Dickinson, founder of PowerSeal and Pros. They discuss the importance of resilience, overcoming stress and anxiety in service businesses. Brigham shares his experiences in hiring and training customer service representatives (CSRs) and the impact of providing exceptional customer experiences. He also emphasizes the need for leaders to find fulfillment in giving, serving, and sharing, rather than constantly focusing on proving themselves. The episode highlights the techniques and mindset required to achieve freedom over income, time, and anxiety in service businesses.
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INTRODUCTION
Welcome to another insightful episode of the Service Business Mastery podcast. In this episode, hosts Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch are joined by Brigham Dickinson, founder of PowerSeal and Pros. They dive deep into the topic of resilience and explore strategies to overcome stress and anxiety that often plague service businesses. Let’s delve into the key takeaways from this episode.
HIRING EXCEPTIONAL CSRs
– Brigham shares his experience of hiring a CSR named Connor without any prior industry knowledge but with an exceptional personality.
– The initial concerns about hiring spouses are addressed by establishing clear boundaries and separating work from personal issues.
– Despite lacking experience, Connor’s success as a CSR highlights the importance of personality traits and a positive attitude.
FINDING INSPIRATION FROM UNLIKELY PLACES
– To deliver exceptional customer experiences, Brigham emphasizes the need to learn from other industries.
– He shares a personal anecdote about visiting Nordstrom and feeling supported and comfortable, highlighting the importance of replicating similar experiences in the service industry.
– Technicians should focus on providing a phenomenal customer experience rather than acting as salespeople.
OVERCOMING MOTIVATIONAL CHALLENGES
– Brigham reflects on his transition from working for a paycheck to achieving financial freedom, which led to a lack of motivation and bouts of depression.
– He emphasized the importance of finding fulfillment in giving, serving, and sharing, rather than continuously proving oneself.
– Being present in the current moment and positively impacting others is key to combating stress and anxiety.
SUCCESS THROUGH EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMER SERVICE
– Brigham shares his journey of training call center teams in booking calls effectively, leading to increased conversions.
– He highlights the importance of smiling, being present, and recognizing opportunities for positive impact.
– By fostering curiosity and offering options, technicians can transform small jobs into larger opportunities.
CSR TRAINING AND IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES
– Brigham discusses the importance of coaching and training CSRs like Connor for better customer interactions.
– He brings in Julie to assist Connor when needed and utilises recorded conversations to provide constructive feedback.
– The challenge lies in balancing kindness with authority, and Brigham shares how coaching and feedback help address this concern.
ENCOURAGING FREEDOM OVER INCOME AND TIME
– The episode revolves around the idea of achieving freedom over income, time, anxiety, and depression.
– Brigham encourages service business owners to focus on providing exceptional customer experiences and finding fulfillment in leadership roles.
– Technicians should shift their focus from selling to safety, comfort, and fun while contributing positively to customers’ lives.
CONCLUSION
In this episode, Tersh Blissett, Josh Crouch, and Brigham Dickinson uncover valuable insights for service business owners to unleash resilience and overcome stress and anxiety. By hiring exceptional CSRs, learning from other industries, and focusing on customer service, service business owners can find fulfillment, achieve freedom, and deliver remarkable experiences to their customers.
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Resources & People Mentioned:
This episode is kindly sponsored by:
- Sera (visit their website)
- UpFrog (visit their website)
- Copeland (visit their website)
- CompanyCam (visit their website)
- Visit www.companycam.com/SBM and use code SBM for a free 2-week trial, 1:1 training and account setup, and 50% off your first two months!
Watch Next:
8 Ways to Create a “WOW” Customer Service Experience w/ Zac Garside
Are Your CSRs Empowered to Be the Voice of Your Company w/ Zac Garside
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Meet the Guest:
Brigham Dickinson is the owner and founder of Power Selling Pros, the company that powers your customer experience with call handling training and coaching for thousands of companies in the home service industry. He is also an owner of Booked, a night answering service for hundreds of companies in the home service industry. Additionally, Brigham is an owner of Athlecare, a sports recovery company for athletes. Brigham continues to personally consult and train companies throughout the home service industry as long as they are within a reasonable driving distance from his home.
Visit Brigham’s website & Pre-order “Something to Give”: https://www.brighamdickinson.com/hero-page1676928646975
Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brigham-dickinson
This episode was produced by Reignite Media and promoted by Relentless Digital.
Tersh Blissett [00:00:03]:
Hello, everyone out everyone out there in podcast world. I hope you’re having a wonderful day. You’re listening to her watching the service business Tersh podcast. I’m one of your host, Tersh Blissett, sitting virtually next to my co host, Joshua Crouch. And for those of you who don’t know about this podcast, It’s a podcast focused on service business owners, managers, and technicians, who are considering becoming business owners themselves and our target and our goal with this show is to help answer some unasked questions. Today’s episode is no different with that. We are we have Brigham Dickinson on the show today. He’s a great guy. Very, very smart guy. I’ve known him for years years. We met at different events and conferences. And, he actually has a company called PowerSeal And Pros, and while they’re not a sponsor of the podcast, you probably hear us talk about it all the time because we act at service info, we use power selling pros and they help our, team, our office team communicate better over the phone. And, so Connor. I’ll tell you a short story about Connor. She’s a wonderful, wonderful, CSR of ours, and she is the first person that everybody meets whenever they meet a service emperor. And whenever we first hired Connor, it was one of those situations where I had an amazing installation technician, and he just I mean, he loved our culture. He loved everything about service emperor. He just lived and died and and just breathed service Emperor, everything. And, you know, we had a a new technician come on, and that guy was kinda screwing up a little Blissett. And and Corey’s like, no. That’s not service him for her way, and he just would call him on it. And so I love that. And he came to me one day and said, hey. My wife, she’s not happy where she’s at, and she wants to make a career change. And I’m like, oh, here we go. I don’t know about this. Hiring spouses. I don’t think this is a good idea. And, Josh and I even spoke about it a little Blissett. And, it was one of those things where I was like, alright. Let me meet her. Let’s have a conversation, and I wanna make sure that we understand if we have spousal drama, spousal drama stays at home. And, they promised they both that we have a very open and and and honest conversation about it. And they they were like, yeah, 100%. And and to this day, I’ve never had any issues, and that’s been, like, 2 years ago, I think. But one of the things about Connor is that she was never in our industry, even though Corey has been in their industry forever, She was never in our industry, and she didn’t know the lingo. She didn’t she didn’t even have a background in answering the phones. She was actually a hostess at, a local restaurant in Savannah. And so she but she had a great personality, but she was very young. Then she came on board. And I was like, man, I don’t know. Like, I’m struggling with this because Julie, my wife, she’s great on the phone. She’s gone through all the classes. She went through power selling prose courses and stuff, and and she just picked up on it and it was natural for her because she’s also a nurse, and she has that empathy. And I don’t I don’t I mean, we’ve determined that I I don’t either. I’m not empathetic. I try.
Josh Crouch [00:03:19]:
If we need to handle a customer that’s a little angry, I don’t handle it. I Britney Britney does.
Tersh Blissett [00:03:27]:
I’m I need to be able to do it. I know that’s something I need to work on as a person, but that’s just not me. And Julie, that is Julie. And so whenever Connor needed help, I was like, I don’t I’m not the person to help you because I I don’t know the right answer to those what’s going on. And so We reached out the power stone froze and brought in brought them into the team and, yeah, Ali. Like, you can like, our technicians, they Blissett to the calls, before they go on a service call. They’ll listen to the recorded conversation between the client and, Conner. And you can just listen to the guys that have been here for a long time and they from the time Connor started until the way the the way she speaks now. Oh my gosh. Like, it’s Crouch. The difference, And there was times when I’m like, Connor, I love you as a person, but I don’t know if this is gonna work because you’re just too kind and you’re just, I I we gotta get some of these objections handled before you just pass off the buck to somebody else, you know, to to a manager or something else. You you need to be able to take authority with this conversation and stuff like that. And all I did was mention that one time to her coach and then all of a sudden, I’m getting these emails where they’ve gone through these in the coaching sessions, and I’m listening to recorded calls. And I don’t know. This isn’t an ad for power Sunpros. I just wanna say that that’s the experience that I’ve had since using Power Sunpros over the past 2 or 3 years. However, long I think it’s been 2 years now that we’ve been using them, but today, we’re actually we’re not talking about CSRs, really. We’re talking about business owners. So, if you have questions about CSRs. I I’m sure we’ll get into a little bit, but, don’t hesitate to reach out to the to the team over there at Power Sun Prairie, but we’re gonna talk about freedom over income, freedom over time, and freedom over anxiety and depression as a business owner. We deal with this. We And
Josh Crouch [00:05:27]:
how how to get through those 3 things.
Tersh Blissett [00:05:31]:
Right. It’s not just the
Josh Crouch [00:05:32]:
end goal of the podcast.
Tersh Blissett [00:05:33]:
Yeah. Not theory. That’s I I I love talking to people who have theories about things. But to actually talk about how to do implement these things. Like, that’s where it’s like, I watch a TikTok and they’re like, this is what you need to do. I’m like, oh, yeah. That’s great. We all do. We need to do that. But how? How are we gonna do that? Anyways, Brigham has 5 points. He’s got a new book out, something to give, a journey to become a leader worth following. That’s really true. And and we were talk we’ve been talking for probably 30 minutes before we even started recording. I know this is gonna be a great episode and just stick stick with us. If you have any questions and you’re watching this live, don’t hesitate to to ask those questions, and we will try and get in there as quick as possible. Our goal with the show is going to be to reach all 5 of the key points If we’re not not able to do that, then we’ll might have to have a part 2 of this this episode, but, I’m gonna do my best not to ask too many questions because I know that that can go into a rabbit hole there. But Josh, do you wanna add anything to that?
Josh Crouch [00:06:33]:
No. I I every time we’ve hung up with power selling pros and every member of the organization, I’ve ever interacted has always been fantastic, which says a lot about the leadership. So I think there’s gonna be a lot of really good lessons that that, I mean, Briggs and his other books have done really well as
Tersh Blissett [00:06:49]:
By the way, I have a, actually, I have a stack of of his book.
Josh Crouch [00:06:52]:
As I said, there’s, like, his, yeah, this is, like, his third 3rd book? Yeah. He’s straight inside.
Brigham Dickenson [00:06:58]:
Yes. 3rd.
Josh Crouch [00:06:59]:
So definitely something to give here, which is the title of the book. And I think just based on our pre conversation. I think you guys will get a lot of value from this episode.
Tersh Blissett [00:07:08]:
Yeah. 100%. Cool. Well, let’s get started with the show.
Podcast Announcer [00:07:16]:
Are you looking for Newmark? Do you want actionable tips to properly navigate through every business challenge you encounter along the way? Let Tersh your guide in getting you to the top here at Service Business Tersh. Tune in as they sit down with world renowned authors in business leadership and personal growth who share valuable insights about management, marketing, pricing, human resources, and so
Brigham Dickenson [00:07:43]:
much more. Let their nuggets of
Podcast Announcer [00:07:47]:
wisdom will guide you in owning a thriving, profitable, and ever growing business. Here are your hosts.
Tersh Blissett [00:08:03]:
Hey, buddy.
Brigham Dickenson [00:08:04]:
Hey. How’s it going?
Tersh Blissett [00:08:06]:
How are you?
Brigham Dickenson [00:08:07]:
Good. Thanks for having me on you guys.
Tersh Blissett [00:08:09]:
Yeah. Absolutely. So for people who don’t know who you are, can you do a quick introduction of yourself?
Brigham Dickenson [00:08:15]:
Yeah. So my name’s Brendan Dickinson. Owner of power Silling Pros. Power Silling Pros has been around for almost 15 years. It started when I was broke in 2009. Just off off of a failed business and and, I was Sleeping on a clot in my brother in law’s basement and, drew the first version of the pattern for excellence. Right? That’s the 8 principles we teach to help CSRs book calls while customers and and, basically, make sure that the they’re the only ones going out to the customer’s home. And, I didn’t know if that’s what it was when I first drew it, but, had a had a client named Troy Neerings. Neerings Plumbing and Heating here in Salt Lake City, Utah. And,
Podcast Announcer [00:09:07]:
I was helping him out with
Brigham Dickenson [00:09:08]:
some advertising. He said, bring him your leads are no good. Even my leads are no good. He says, oh, I just want a ballpark price. There’s one of those Crouch around. I just wanna talk to a technician. We can’t book these leads. And I said, wait a minute. They’re not calling because they want to. Yeah. They’re called because they have to. They they they need your help. They just don’t know the difference between the next guy’s salary price. And so whose job is to help them feel differently? And then he realized, oh, wow. What’s mine? I said, exactly. Let’s train them. And I happen to have this Crouch, really, I just drew up. And I can teach your team on how to book those calls. And so We increased his call conversions by 20% almost overnight, with his calling on the team. And then he referred me to a guy by the name of Tom Robichotte in Boulder Colorado Precision Plumbing Heating there. And, he said that he would pay me to train this team. He didn’t want me to do his marketing form at all. He said, hey, but I’ll trade. I’ll pay you to train my team. And so I was like, cool. Let’s do it. And so, those two guys got together and, within about 2 months, they they called me and and got me on this call together and I said, hey, Bridgette, you’re really good at what you do. And we don’t think anybody does this in the history. And we’d like to get you in touch with a guy by the name of Mikea Googlero at Gold Medal. And so the next thing I know I’m working with Mike, and he’s referring me to everybody left and right. Next thing you know, I’m hiring all my friends and you guys. I don’t have a lot of friends. They’re all working with you. Right? And so we’re all, you know, we we all started pushing the envelope with with CSR training. We’ve been doing doing ever since. Today, we have 1000 trainees in our program over, you know, I’d say almost 400 contractors nationwide that we work with, regularly to help them book calls and allow customers in their call center.
Josh Crouch [00:10:39]:
I was reading that on your LinkedIn because I I couldn’t figure out what to put for, like, this episode on Facebook because I didn’t know exactly what we’re gonna talk about. I went to your LinkedIn and I saw your about, and I saw the story like how you were doing advertising and end up teaching, them how to book more calls. So I thought that was really interesting because it’s funny because that was 15 ish years ago.
Tersh Blissett [00:10:58]:
Mhmm.
Josh Crouch [00:10:59]:
And the industry as a whole today still has a massive issue here.
Tersh Blissett [00:11:03]:
Yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [00:11:03]:
It’s yeah.
Josh Crouch [00:11:04]:
Even though there’s been there’s a lot more CSR coaching out there now, but there’s still a massive hole in our industry for being better in this arena.
Tersh Blissett [00:11:14]:
It’s funny. You mentioned Micah. That’s actually how we connected was originally. That’s how I I started using Parcel Unpros was through Micah. And, he was like, you need to check these these guys out.
Brigham Dickenson [00:11:25]:
How about that?
Tersh Blissett [00:11:27]:
How about that small world?
Brigham Dickenson [00:11:29]:
Appreciate your business. Appreciate that you guys are working with us and and all the support.
Tersh Blissett [00:11:33]:
Yeah. I mean, honestly, I’m one of those type people where I’ll try a lot of things. Like, Josh jokes about it. If you wanna sell me something, just come on the podcast, because I’ll buy into it, but I’ll also I’ll cancel that thing too. Like, if it’s if it’s junk, and then I’ll I’ll say, hey, look. This is junk. Like, I I tried it, and maybe it’s worked for somebody, but it don’t work for me. And this is definitely one of those things that that has stuck with it. And it’s one of those one of those things whenever I was a service manager, I would sit back and I would listen to the dispatchers, and they were always frazzled. Everybody was frazzled. They they get phone calls constantly. They were not happy people because they were getting screamed at. And I just remember having to when I was coaching them myself, how exhausting it was for me to coach them, whenever I found out about power sumpers, I was like, oh, yeah. And I don’t have to do it. I need up.
Brigham Dickenson [00:12:28]:
That’s the thing. You know, that’s the funny thing that we were last to is that whenever a business owner goes to a class or a training, they’re giving all these cool things that they need to do.
Tersh Blissett [00:12:38]:
Yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [00:12:38]:
Well, good luck with that. Because even if it’s a good idea, they’re so bombarded. The last thing they want is one more thing to do. And so let me realize.
Tersh Blissett [00:12:46]:
Fire hydrant of just information coming at you.
Brigham Dickenson [00:12:49]:
Yeah. So when you offer to them something that they don’t have to do, they tend to jump on that.
Tersh Blissett [00:12:55]:
This right here, I will tell you. I mean, this has nothing to do with our show today. But this right here is what has saved me from that. These little optimization strategy optimization cards When I go to an event like that, I just write down this this the strategy, and then I’ll I have them. I literally have like, hundreds of them over here. And I’ll just that way, I don’t get overwhelmed with with all of that fire hydrant. But, anyways, let’s go. It’s gonna it’s
Brigham Dickenson [00:13:22]:
gonna blow your mind, Tersh. See.
Tersh Blissett [00:13:25]:
There you go. Right there.
Brigham Dickenson [00:13:27]:
Like months. Like minded people. Hey. That’s all. Okay. So Let let’s talk first about why I wrote the book. Yeah. I realized, let me take a step back. So last year, I put a a CEO in place, Parcelain Pros, to run that to run that organization.
Tersh Blissett [00:13:48]:
Mhmm.
Brigham Dickenson [00:13:49]:
And, and and side note Zach Zachar’s side is a phenomenal leader.
Tersh Blissett [00:13:56]:
Yeah, we’ve had him on the show a couple times, actually.
Brigham Dickenson [00:13:59]:
Yeah. Doing a great job.
Tersh Blissett [00:14:01]:
Yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [00:14:03]:
And and he’s certainly a visionary as well. Right? He’s got ambitions of his own and in fact, he’s he’s he’s, well on his way to starting his own business storytelling. So It’s something that
Tersh Blissett [00:14:17]:
That’s cool.
Brigham Dickenson [00:14:18]:
Yeah. Yeah. Something I’m really, really excited about for him.
Josh Crouch [00:14:21]:
I’m one of his clients.
Brigham Dickenson [00:14:23]:
Is that right? Super talented individual.
Josh Crouch [00:14:28]:
He is. He’s very good.
Brigham Dickenson [00:14:30]:
And, glad to have his influence on on on Parcelain Pros and and and a couple of side companies that I’m working on as well. So, it’s just good to to surround yourself with with good people. But when I put him in place, I essentially delegated every one of my responsibilities after Zach and, was put was put in in that position. And I found myself the day afterwards looking at the wall in my office.
Tersh Blissett [00:15:02]:
Yep.
Brigham Dickenson [00:15:02]:
You know, I went from crazy busy to tricks. Yeah. Crickets. And and, you know, this for the last 20 years, what have I been doing? I’ve been hustling, man. I’ve been working my tail off. There was no such thing as 40 hours a week. It was whatever it took. Right? It was as a mat as many hours as it took. To to do what I need to do. I remember one time when I went to an event. I think it was a a manufacturer event and, Buddy Smith, Russell’s Heating and Cooling. Saw me there in and he and I have become good friends over the years. And and he says, break it. Oh my gosh. You are everywhere. And that’s true. That’s totally true, except for home. Was never home. Right? I was constantly moving constantly shaking to to get this thing going and that’s obviously what you’ve gotta do in the beginning. But I was constantly proving myself proving myself to everybody and then I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. It’s a funny thing. Anyone in this business or in business in general, that’s what they’re doing is they’re proving themselves constantly proving themselves. But then I got to the point where I didn’t have to prove my stuff at all. Right? In other words, I had freedom over, my income. I had freedom over, my time. And I thought that’s what I wanted, and I wanted it for about 48 hours before, I started feeling syncression and anxiety. Exactly.
Tersh Blissett [00:16:37]:
Yeah. Exactly.
Brigham Dickenson [00:16:39]:
And, I realized that when you become a leader, it’s less and less about something to prove, because the problem with something to prove that mindset is that you’re constantly having to prove something. Well, if you’re the one being the hero all the time inside your organization, guess what? Your team is always gonna have to lean on you. To get work done. They’re always gonna come to you to get things done. Great. You’re the hero. Right? You’re the guy that solves all the problems or the gal that solves all the problems. But in the meantime, you have talented individuals that are never given the opportunity to step in and do the work themselves. So instead of pooping yourself, you’ve gotta have the courage to step out of the landline a little Blissett. Let them step in. And then your next objective is the objective is to transition your mindset from something prove to something to give. You’ve gained all this knowledge, all this understanding.
Tersh Blissett [00:17:35]:
So let me ask you this. Yeah. Because, Before we got started with this conversation, I’ve prefaced, Brigham with
Brigham Dickenson [00:17:44]:
this is gonna hit home with
Tersh Blissett [00:17:44]:
me, and and Josh and I both because we both are in a very similar situation like that where, we don’t we don’t need anymore. And and used to, we were motivated by that need. And I was motivated for years Like, if I don’t go to work, I’m not gonna make a paycheck so then my mortgage isn’t gonna get paid, or my car payment’s not gonna get paid. And now it’s to the point to where, I don’t have to get out of bed to make money as weird as that sounds. It’s like I could stay in bed for 2 weeks, and I could I would still make money. And how do I stay motivated? How do I not get depressed? Because over the period of, hey, Tony. By the way, Tony, one of my, my business partner and and, one of my guys out in the field. They’re on live stream. So, and, yes, I’m gonna be talking about y’all today on this show. One of the things is I went through, about of, I would say, probably depression. Not it wasn’t clinically diagnosed or anything. But definitely anxiety. Whenever I have to self motivate, I have to motivate myself to get out of bed not to make money because that’s not what I have to do to to make money, but to just be a productive citizen and society, I guess, is the best way to say it. Because, like, Josh and I had this amazing plan last year where we’re We’re gonna go to all the events, and we’re gonna record 52 episodes. And then we don’t have to live stream on Wednesdays anymore. Because we have now we have a production team who’s paid for by our sponsors and our partners, and they’re gonna do all the actual work that Tersh used to have to do every single week make sure the episodes get put out. And we’re gonna do this all in January February. So then the rest of the year, we don’t have to record anything. Well, guess what? That does to Tersh. I don’t have to get up and record anything. I don’t have to get up and edit anything. I don’t have to get out of bed and do the social media post anymore. Like, that, like, and now we have full teams who do all of this stuff. And so it’s like, Alright, Church. What do you wanna do today? Let’s go ride side by sides. Okay. I did that yesterday. Let’s go ride dirt bikes. Yeah. We did that already. Like, now it’s like, alright. How do we how do we, how do we stay motivated and how do we get out of bed to go do things. Like, so I don’t know. That’s I just wanted to make sure that everybody listening knows that this is a very open book, and you know, Tony would say, hey. Come out here in the field and help me. And, you know, so I don’t have to worry too much. And and I I do that. I I do that also. But Do
Josh Crouch [00:20:44]:
you find yourself? Because I I mean, obviously, when you get busy, you go in the field. Do you find yourself sometimes when you don’t have things to do, you’re like, yeah, I’m just gonna go jump in the field today?
Tersh Blissett [00:20:53]:
Yeah. Sometimes I do, but sometimes I I I’ve I’ve done it, and then it messed up the flow of the work. Because because I’ll I’ll go out in the field, and I will screw everything up. And then, like, I I don’t follow processes properly because I’m not trained to do it. Like, I know the process from the office side of things.
Josh Crouch [00:21:14]:
Tony said dang right.
Tersh Blissett [00:21:16]:
Yeah. See, I know He
Josh Crouch [00:21:18]:
agrees with you.
Tersh Blissett [00:21:18]:
But, see, like, even today, I this morning, I had to go run and drop off, a a package unit to to Tony and JJ. And, like, it was everything I could do to follow the process to be dispatched properly, to arrive properly, to to lead properly. And, like, it’s just not something I do on a regular basis. So then I get out of the routine. I do it wrong and then the team sees me doing it wrong. And so then it’s like, alright. I I can’t keep doing this the wrong way. So why do it at all? And
Brigham Dickenson [00:21:52]:
So then you step back out?
Tersh Blissett [00:21:54]:
I step back out.
Brigham Dickenson [00:21:54]:
Yeah. And then you find something else that fulfills Hopefully.
Tersh Blissett [00:21:58]:
Hopefully. Well, that’s the goal. And and that was the podcast for, an extended period of time. And, the the one thing that that fixed me years ago was Monday learning how to say no because it so full circle around this is the ego, getting the ego out of the out of the situation. So you said you you delegated or you’re working. You, you know, you able to get Zach to do everything. And
Brigham Dickenson [00:22:26]:
Not not to Zach, but the entire team.
Tersh Blissett [00:22:28]:
Right. Right. Well, yeah, that’s
Brigham Dickenson [00:22:29]:
He was the last piece.
Tersh Blissett [00:22:31]:
So but everybody relying on you for momentum. I think that’s what happened. Okay. So that’s kinda what triggered this thought in my mind is Once I got to the point to where Tony became a business partner and people found the motivation from Tony, and no longer needed me for the motivation. That, I think, is whenever I was like, like, why what’s my like, how do I stay motivated? Because I’m no longer the motivation for the team.
Brigham Dickenson [00:23:02]:
That’s right.
Tersh Blissett [00:23:03]:
Or don’t have to be the motivation for the team. So I think that that’s kind of where I’m at right now is, like, how how do you stay? Like, I I know that we’re gonna talk about with these these five points and and all of that, but that’s me in a nutshell. Like, Tony’s Tony’s now motivator. So the ego of me not being the motivator anymore is hit home.
Brigham Dickenson [00:23:34]:
And you’re not the only one. Yeah. So so I’m experiencing the same thing. We’re on the we’re in the same boat and chances are there are a ton of listeners listening to this right now. That have gone from multitasking half listening to completely listening and completely engaged. And I’m grateful for that. Yeah. The the short answer is is that you should go to brighamdickenson.com and preorder the book. It’s coming out September 19th. And it’ll it’ll it’s a short read. It’s an easy read. You can read it in 2 days and you’ll get all the answers you need. But let me just preface, it with with, a short, experience. So my wife’s parents own apple and peach orchards, and they own them in Mexico. Okay. They live in an American colony, believe it or not. That’s been there for years years years. And the story behind that is miraculous as well. Okay. Everything about having an orchard you guys is a miracle. Okay. First of all, money does grow on trees. Okay? It absolutely does. Sometimes. And here’s what I mean by that is that there are times when the weather ruins their crop. Now if they have a good year and you guys, it is feast or famine in this business. K?
Tersh Blissett [00:24:53]:
Oh, yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [00:24:54]:
If they if they if they have a good year, they could do half a 1,000,000 a year. K? And for one family to do half a 1,000,000, that’s incredible. Right? That’s that’s awesome with awesome margins. Right?
Tersh Blissett [00:25:05]:
So, you know,
Brigham Dickenson [00:25:06]:
as long as the price is good for for the, for the, peaches and the apples. And in fact, they’re in the middle of a very good year, but the but over the last 3 years, they’ve only had one good year. So the 1st 2 years over the last 3 years have been, completely destroyed by, weather and wind and you know, rain and I guess I guess all those are included in weather, but but hail, dude, hail is awful for peaches and apples. I mean
Tersh Blissett [00:25:35]:
Oh, yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [00:25:35]:
It’ll knock those things What a thought.
Tersh Blissett [00:25:38]:
I know.
Brigham Dickenson [00:25:39]:
It’s crazy. And all these things that, you know, that you know, we just turn on our windshield wipers and get through it, is absolutely devastating for them. And, over the years as they share these stories with me. Every time I sit down, my friend is so fascinating how they get through the hard times. And one of the things my my mother, right, my my wife’s mother, side note they expect me to call the mom and dad. It’s hard for forty seven year old to do that, but I do it. Yeah. I
Tersh Blissett [00:26:09]:
caught that. I caught that, but I wasn’t gonna say anything.
Brigham Dickenson [00:26:13]:
An expectation and and I love them and respect them and so, therefore, I get it. I’m told. But but, and you can kinda tell how their culture is down there. But, just great people, god sharing people because they they absolutely have to be. They rely, on on, on the divine to help them through each season. But she said that during the difficult seasons, she finds the best way to overcome depression and anxiety is to stop thinking about herself and to serve her neighbors and her friends and her family. Now if you were to tell that to somebody, who’s suffering from depression anxiety, they’re gonna tell you to go pound Sam Like, you’re
Tersh Blissett [00:26:54]:
a preacher. It’s like, oh, oh, you’re you’re sitting on my couch right now and, you’re oh, you have depression. Don’t think about yourself anymore. Just think about your name.
Brigham Dickenson [00:27:04]:
Yeah. Yeah. It’s not gonna go over well.
Josh Crouch [00:27:06]:
It’s not gonna go over well.
Brigham Dickenson [00:27:07]:
Yeah. It’s counterintuitive. But the fact Tersh, that’s that’s how she’s that’s how she and her family have have been able to get through the difficult times. This is to stop thinking about themselves. Incredible, incredible insight there. And so from that moment, I started thinking about, wow. All this time, I’ve been proven myself, and that’s worked for a time being. But I’m also realizing how proving myself is keeping others from growing. I’m standing in the way from them growing and doing what I’ve been able to do. And so instead of continuing to prove myself, I need to now find fulfillment in giving, in serving, and sharing And that’s how I’ll continue to find fulfillment and happiness in my life. And so what we’ve done, you guys, this was just totally skip the five steps and skip to the end. We could talk more about, and private anxiety and depression, towards the end of this. But, certainly wanna talk about, the 5 critical steps that need to be taken in order to experience freedom over income, which is great. Freedom over, time, which is even better. And then the most important thing, freedom or anxiety and depression by final fulfillment. In in a role that, in a leadership role.
Tersh Blissett [00:28:29]:
So we had these five points. The I know that we want us you wanna share on each of the points and then a little story on each point, and then we can discuss a little bit Are we you think we can still do that? You think we could fit that still in?
Brigham Dickenson [00:28:46]:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And and as a side note, that can be on as many of these as you’d like in order to get it done. So so, hey, I’m I’m all yours.
Tersh Blissett [00:28:55]:
Okay. Cool. So first off, let’s let’s start with with point number 1. Yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [00:29:03]:
So you might think this one’s rudimentary. But let me preface it with with an experience that I had. As soon as as soon as, Zachar said, took over operate, not operations that took over leadership. Lindsey Wood is is over operations, and she’s also a brilliant integrate integrator type mind. Inside the organization here, it personally grows. But, as soon as they started taking over and and and, running the company. I got a phone call from a contractor, and he said, hey, I hear you’ve got some free time. And I said, as a matter of fact, I do. And he says, how would you feel about, doing some ride alongs with my technicians? And I was like, what do you have in mind?
Tersh Blissett [00:29:53]:
Yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [00:29:53]:
And he said, just do some ride alongs. And and the thing is they they lack soft skills. I’m I know that there’s no there isn’t one listener to to relate to that, right, concerned about their technicians and having not a soft skill. And so I was like, sure. Let’s do it. Let’s do it. Well, I ended up, doing ride alongs for 3 months. Did did, over 50 right alongs and, over after this, I I learned so much, you guys. After Tersh Isn’t
Tersh Blissett [00:30:23]:
it crazy how much you learn from a ride along? Like, you we were talking beforehand. Like, when you go and coach a technician out in, like, a in a coaching environment in a warehouse or wherever in a classroom versus coaching a technician in their environment. And they’re, right along. And you just and not as a business owner, if you have a CRM and you think that you have set all these steps up that they’re gonna follow this workflow and this chart and this workflow is gonna work great until you’ve gone and done that ride along and done the work flow yourself, you can’t understand the frustration that a technician has just to, you know, just to I
Josh Crouch [00:31:04]:
just think observing just observing what really happens because we have all these bright ideas as CEOs and founders and stuff like that.
Brigham Dickenson [00:31:12]:
Like, this
Josh Crouch [00:31:12]:
is how it should be. Oh, this this this next great idea is gonna change how your role evolves and all this stuff. And then you try to put it into play and say, that’s not it’s not really that practical. We we have all these great ideas, right, and they’re just like,
Brigham Dickenson [00:31:25]:
You learn at the
Josh Crouch [00:31:26]:
end of the day, they’re not practical, and they’re not gonna work in the real world.
Tersh Blissett [00:31:29]:
But you learn how comfortable the technicians are with within their own skin as well.
Brigham Dickenson [00:31:34]:
Yeah. I mean, you put them you put them in a class. They’re definitely out of their comfort zone.
Tersh Blissett [00:31:40]:
Yeah. I mean,
Brigham Dickenson [00:31:41]:
the reason why they got into this business is so they can work with their hands. Are experiential learners. Right? They are hands on learners. And so when you get them comfortable in their element, it’s amazing what you can learn about them as well as about the industry. And so my eyes were opened. Absolutely. K. I look. When it comes to a call center, I know what to do. Right? I’ve been doing it for years. In the field, one of the very first things I learned was I was one of 5 bids on my second phone call. And I didn’t sell anything. Dude, I feel like I can sell ice to Eskomose.
Tersh Blissett [00:32:17]:
You’re right.
Brigham Dickenson [00:32:18]:
Freak. How did I not I started thinking about that. And finally, I called the owner. I said, look, I’m not gonna go on another phone call. They said, what? What’s going on? Why isn’t it?
Tersh Blissett [00:32:29]:
Oh, no. It’s service call?
Brigham Dickenson [00:32:30]:
Yeah. Yeah. I think I want another service call. Exactly. Until your call handling team is making sure I’m in limb on going out. And he said, well, how can I guarantee that? I said, dude. His name’s Rob. He said, Rob, Valley Plumbing, by the way. Awesome guy. Great company. Rob, we’ve been doing this for 15 years. Your team needs to be trained and held accountable on a regular basis so that by the time the call is over, They feel like they’re done shopping. They meaning the homeowner. They’re done shopping. They don’t want to go anywhere else because of the amazing screens they just have over the phone. People don’t want 5 bids. They have to have 5 bids.
Tersh Blissett [00:33:11]:
That’s what we’re told.
Brigham Dickenson [00:33:13]:
So all we need to do is create such an amazing experience over the phone so that I know I’m now. So once that understanding, between Rob and I was made, there was a much, much bigger difference for me. From from there on out. When I first started working with his technicians and teaching them these soft skills, they’re doing about 500,000 a month. In revenue, gross service call revenue. Okay? At the end of the 3 month period, they were doing over 700,000 a month. Just with some skills.
Tersh Blissett [00:33:46]:
And they’re not having to to make return trips after the, you know, they won the bid or not win the bids or whatever.
Brigham Dickenson [00:33:54]:
That’s right. And the way that I went about it is is I didn’t sit there and observe the technician. I mean, that’s what better way to make them nervous and not Oh, great.
Tersh Blissett [00:34:03]:
I’ll watch you over your shoulder.
Brigham Dickenson [00:34:05]:
Yeah. Instead, well, I just said, hey. We’re we’re we’re tag teaming. We’re gonna
Tersh Blissett [00:34:09]:
we’re gonna talk to
Brigham Dickenson [00:34:09]:
the customer again when Eric with the customer. We’re gonna create safety and environment of safety and environment of of comfort and have a little bit of fun. And the way that I get the technician’s attention is I simply say, hey, look. How do you get kissed on the first day? It’s amazing how they all go. What’s what’s what’s happening? How do how do I do that? Right. Well, it’s simple. You’ve gotta create a, an environment of safety, comfort, and have a little bit of fun. In that environment, you’re gonna be very successful in that first date. Yeah. Okay? Same thing inside the customer’s home. If in the right from the get go, if you can create safety, an environment of safety, okay, where they’re comfortable and they’re having a little bit of fun. Guess what? You’re gonna be very successful in in offering your your services and your products. Why? Because you have the freedom to be curious, take a look around the home, find out what’s happening, and we far above and beyond what you’re initially called out for. Right?
Tersh Blissett [00:35:06]:
Right.
Brigham Dickenson [00:35:07]:
And then you provide options, and then you as you provide those options, they already like you. They’re already having fun. So now they’re in a buying environment. They’re not feeling like they’re being sold, and you simply get to a yes or no. Just say, hey. Here are the options. What which one do you want? Right? Yes or no? And you move on from there. No selling required. Now when you go when you push it that way with technicians, holy Crouch. It changes everything for them. So the point that I’m making here is is that as I did this over 3 months, I was able to go back to Rob and see, Rob, this person is a leader. He’s being underutilized. That person over there, that person that I’ve been working with is an absolute go getter.
Tersh Blissett [00:35:46]:
Mhmm.
Brigham Dickenson [00:35:46]:
K. We’ve gotta make sure that you put him in a place, where where he can act make an actual difference for this organization. And so I learned something. You know how you go to an event and everybody says, hey, you need to work on your business instead of an Yep. Well, nobody teaches you how to do that.
Tersh Blissett [00:36:06]:
Right.
Brigham Dickenson [00:36:06]:
And so while I was doing these rounds, I began to realize, holy cow. This is how you do it in our industry. The way that you do it is you actually sit down with your office staff and you spend time with them. Right? And I’m getting into the 3rd step. I’m getting ahead of myself. But but the bottom line is is you want to you want to discover talents amongst the ranks of your team. And and make sure you put them in positions of power. They can actually make a difference in cellularization. So before I get too far ahead of myself, if you guys have any questions or comments on what I’ve covered so
Tersh Blissett [00:36:38]:
Nah. Uh-uh. That’s
Josh Crouch [00:36:40]:
No. I’m just taking notes.
Brigham Dickenson [00:36:42]:
K. So so step 1 step 1 to be clear is to make sure you’re the wingman going The best way I found to do that is have an outside company, an outside source that just gets it done for you. K. I I realize I’m being self serving here, but fact matters is that it works and works. I’ve been doing it for 15 years. You just need to do it. You’ve gotta put your technicians and your comfort advisors
Tersh Blissett [00:37:09]:
set them up for success?
Brigham Dickenson [00:37:10]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Tersh Blissett [00:37:11]:
And and so let me ask you this program. What happens if you’re that size company where you don’t have a CSR yet or you’re maybe you’re thinking about getting a CSR or you need a a CSR.
Brigham Dickenson [00:37:26]:
Yeah. So if you go to bringdickinson.com. My first book, Tersh for excellence, it’s the orange one.
Tersh Blissett [00:37:33]:
Yep.
Brigham Dickenson [00:37:34]:
If you do not have a CSR yet, get that book. It’ll teach you everything everything we teach or at least everything we taught 8 years ago when I wrote it.
Tersh Blissett [00:37:45]:
Yeah. Wow. 8 years ago, I can’t believe it’s been that long.
Brigham Dickenson [00:37:48]:
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, so so definitely get the first book and and you can, you can learn the soft skills so you can you’ll find that there are ways to apply them with the technicians that you’re and comfort devices that you work as well. Does that answer your question?
Tersh Blissett [00:38:04]:
Yeah. I I guess, should do how important I I know You got a little bit of bias there. How important is hiring a CSR? Like, how quickly should that be done? Do we need to be doing that? Like, If you’re an owner operator in the field and you have one other technician, should they have should you already have a CSR, or is it whenever you come out of the field, you should hire a CSR or maybe it’s like you’re like me and you’re not the best CSR because of your personality. You should hire 1 faster than what someone who is a great CSR.
Brigham Dickenson [00:38:40]:
Yeah. So let’s say that your business owner that is still in the field, and that you’re and you’re answering your cell phone, right, in between calls or what have you. I would absolutely get a CSR because it’s a whole lot better than you cherry pick in every call that comes in.
Tersh Blissett [00:38:58]:
Yeah. And and I so one of the things as an owner, who did work in the field before. A CSR’s job is to say yes and and book the call. And as a business owner, if I’m in the field and I’m like, oh, man. I’m just having I don’t really feel like doing this right now. Mhmm. Then it’s like, Oh, I don’t know if I’m gonna be as motivated to book that call as, as I would if I was that was my job to book the call and then, you know, the dispatcher or whatever else had to figure it out later.
Josh Crouch [00:39:29]:
And what we see and and we we have a team that listens to our clients’ calls that we track. They’re answering them while they’re in the attic or they’re in the basement or they’re on the road and the truck in the background is making all that noise that a truck makes on the highway. It’s awful. Like, you can hear it. I’m like, god, like, this is terrible. Like, no wonder you can’t book calls and why these things aren’t working. Like, it literally needs people I don’t know why, and it’s just this way. It’s been this way for as long as I’ve been in the industry. CSR position is always extremely undervalued. It still feels the way it feels like we are making progress, but again, all these new business owners that come in, they don’t they just don’t get it. So it continues this cycle of, like, Oh, I gotta hire more techs first so I can get out of the field, then I’ll hire a CSR. Well, I I answer the phone, so it’s no big deal. It’s like, well, you suck at answering the phone.
Tersh Blissett [00:40:21]:
The thing that the thing about it not
Josh Crouch [00:40:22]:
the right person for it.
Tersh Blissett [00:40:23]:
I believe the benefit that a business owner, and this is me personal. My personal belief, I believe that when we as a business owner are successful at booking calls is because they’re talking to the owner of the company, not because we have amazing CSR skills. That’s just me personally.
Brigham Dickenson [00:40:42]:
You know, the thing the thing about when is a good time, you’ve gotta decide. Right, Tersh?
Tersh Blissett [00:40:48]:
Yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [00:40:50]:
Well, I’m curious. There’s there’s more behind that that that, that shuttle there. Tell me tell me more, Tersh.
Tersh Blissett [00:40:56]:
No. I just I I believe that like, there are times where I go out and so, like, I’m not a salesman. Brigham, you are a salesman. You are a great salesman. You have a a great personality for salesman. I am, very much, like, not that at all. But I still sell. Like, my closing rate is very good. And and I truly believe that it’s because they have the perception that I’m the business owner and I can make things happen. Whenever I go in and close deals for more than a technician closes or a comfort specialist closes the deal, promised less than they promise, and they’re the customer is a 100% hap happy and satisfied. And blows my mind because I under promised and overdelivered and got way more money or I’d say, you know, percentage wise, more money for the work that was done. And the comfort specialist is constantly asking, was something asking for discounts? Like, can I give them a discount because I can’t close this deal? Our margins are getting super tight and all this other stuff. And I believe it’s because they just had the perception that since I’m the business owner, then it’s gonna be like, You’re good. We we believe you.
Brigham Dickenson [00:42:20]:
You’re right. But you are selling. I mean, look, Blissett, You’re selling yourself short right now. You’re saying you’re not a salesman. Whatever.
Tersh Blissett [00:42:28]:
Right.
Josh Crouch [00:42:30]:
Believe me, I say the same thing, Bregan, and I been working to remove myself from sales here because my process is I guess I’ll I’ll I’ll leave I’ll leave a PG. It’s it’s Crouch.
Brigham Dickenson [00:42:43]:
Good call.
Josh Crouch [00:42:44]:
And it it only it only works because, like, I feel like people they see me.
Brigham Dickenson [00:42:50]:
Yeah.
Josh Crouch [00:42:50]:
So you’re the face, you’re the voice, you’re the everything. Of course. I don’t have a repeatable process, which of course doesn’t allow for that freedom, right, where it doesn’t allow for some of these other steps and some of these other things to happen, which I realize, and I want to move towards. But to tertiary’s point, I totally I do feel like that sometimes, like, yeah, they They know that I’m super knowledgeable, and I know that I’ll take care of the problem so they’re gonna silence because they’re comfortable that way. But it wasn’t because of my sales prowess.
Brigham Dickenson [00:43:20]:
It’s because of your confidence.
Josh Crouch [00:43:23]:
That’s that’s probably true because I know what happens on the back. And just like, Tersh knows, like, hey, I know we’re good at installing this stuff. Like, you won’t have any problems if you work with us. And that confidence gets exuded when he talks.
Brigham Dickenson [00:43:35]:
You got it. K. Self confidence is what we want to train every one of our employees to have. And you only gain that with experience and time and training. But it’s self confidence, it’s self reliance and service money. Those happen to be the 3, three purposes of power selling pros. And so, so, yeah, yeah, it’s easier for the business owner to make sales because it comes up here or she comes across a lot of companies.
Tersh Blissett [00:44:04]:
Can you do you do you feel like okay. So this is my last question on this point because we’re still on really technically number 1. The so the what happens in the meantime? Like, how how long does that process take to change, if you’re using power cell and pros, not using power cell and pros, getting to be that the only person that arrives at the home. And, also let me just for the listeners who are listening because number one might not make as much sense as say number 5, like what what I’m working on. And, to confirm number number 1 of the of the five points and how that is actually going to help us achieve that that power over of the of the freedom over these these 3 things. Does that make sense?
Brigham Dickenson [00:45:01]:
Yeah. Total. So If look, the technician needs to be set up for success. The comfort advice needs to be set up for success. If you do not if you do not do that, it’s going to affect their confidence. K. If 1 or 2 of my phone calls every day is me being a bid, that means I am in number. Right? I’m a com I’m a commodity. I mean, I’m I’m I’m dispensable, basically. Right? I I feel like, you know, feel like I’m on a street market hoping that somebody, you know, buys my discounted rug. That that is not, how we wanna set up our technicians and our countervisors. No. K. Instead, we want we want them to feel like they’re coming into to a Nordstrom’s Right? These store, right, these stores go into.
Tersh Blissett [00:45:47]:
Okay. So how do you experience that without go into Nordstrom’s, or if you’ve never stayed at a Ritz, how do you how do you say, let’s provide the Ritz experience to someone who has never experienced the risks?
Brigham Dickenson [00:46:01]:
Yeah. So that’s where the patent for excellence comes in.
Tersh Blissett [00:46:03]:
Okay. Yeah.
Josh Crouch [00:46:05]:
You know, it’s funny. Sorry. I gotta I gotta share a really quick story. This is really cool place in Arizona. Has a really awesome history here that I took my wife to for our anniversary in June. And literally, it’s one of those, like, all in, all inclusive places. And, honestly, I I’ve never really spent a lot of time in places like that. Like, like, say the Ritz level thing. I I’m usually like a I’ll just stay at whatever hotel. I don’t really care. Like, some of that stuff doesn’t really
Tersh Blissett [00:46:29]:
No. It’s it’s it’s gravitational. Scary because whenever I go with Josh, he’s like, This place is fancy, and I’m like, no. This place is not fancy. This is like giving me the creeps right now, John.
Josh Crouch [00:46:39]:
Very simple. Like, I don’t I don’t need a lot of extravagance, but we went to this this place, it’s, Castle Hot Springs in Arizona. So anyone that’s in Arizona is familiar with it. Really cool history of, like, the who’s who of people back in the early 1900 visit is placed because they’re like the the the magic healing of the spring, hot spring, and stuff. But literally, when you experience something that has that level of ex that customer experience, it’s literally something that you will never escape your mind because every single employee. It was like the happiest person I’ve ever talked to over and over. Like, they remembered every single thing I told them about the reservation at our anniversary. Everybody greeted us and knew it was our anniversary. Like, it was just the most amazing. Everything was laid out for you. They knew when you were away from your room, so they came and, like, put new stuff in your room. It was, like, just the wildest thing you could ever imagine. But having that experience, I do feel like sometimes it’s harder to teach an experience if you haven’t actually physically experienced it, if that makes sense.
Brigham Dickenson [00:47:44]:
And if the environment’s not there, you know, in other words, in your place of business, they’re not gonna be motivated to do it anyway. But why? Because it’s exhausting.
Josh Crouch [00:47:53]:
Yeah. It’s a lot. I can only imagine how much work it took to build something of that level of value, but it was, like, Now, this, I mean, this is like a 15 100, $1800 a night place. This is not a cheap place. You don’t this is not a place you go to, like, just, like, sit in
Brigham Dickenson [00:48:09]:
the shop.
Tersh Blissett [00:48:10]:
At the exact same time, like, that that experience level, I think, is a conversation with the with the the CSR dispatcher, your office team, the people at the front line, the people that see, like, that I feel like is very much that conversation, I think the Nordstrom conversation would relate better to technicians and and comfort specialists, especially if there’s if they which I’ve experienced, everybody’s experienced this. I know you have, technicians selling based on their checkbook. So, like, if they’re like, hey, I don’t have $1500. I’m not gonna recommend a $1500 repair. You know what I mean? Or I can fix it myself. But you go into a Nordstrom and, like, I’ve gone into Nordstrom. The first time I ever went, like, I live in a I live in small town, South Georgia. Okay. There’s not Nordstrom’s in South Georgia. We have Walmart. Like, that’s what we have. And so that’s what most people relate their experiences too. And and sometimes you get the fancy Walmart. The and so that’s it. And so I the first time I experienced a Nordstrom was in Columbus, Ohio. And I was by myself because my wife was at she was on her her annual tours there, for the international guard. And so I was just visiting Columbus. I was I was, a tourist there. I walk into Nordstrom’s, and I’m like, This is really nice and spacious and very. This is my kind of people right here because, like, I’m South Georgia, and I wear a three piece suit every single day. And people look at me like I have 4 heads. And so when I when I go to visit something like that, then it’s like, alright. This is like, I I can fit in with these people. And the way that I felt there was, yeah, those shoes were $800 but I could see myself buying those shoes, even though I could probably Google them and find them cheaper somewhere else. And all of that good jazz, which is the exact experience that we deal with as technicians. But if the the just the fact that I walked in there and overwhelmingly felt comfortable, and they were there to help me and support me and make sure that I felt comfortable, and they gave me advice the whole time. They were like, you probably want this, like, size 11 wide because your foot, like, let’s let’s actually measure your foot. And let’s put it not one of those metal things that are uncomfortable, but let’s actually go through this whole process And then it’s like, wow. Like, I’ve never spent more than a $100 on a pair of shoes, and here I am spending $25100 coming out of the store. You know? And as our consumer, that’s the exact same experience that we should be providing for them, but I’ve never taken none of my technicians to Nordstrom’s and showed them that experience. So, like, how can I tell them, hey? Let’s give them the Nordstrom experience if I’ve never done that. And and this is not what today’s episode’s supposed to be about, but I just I I want to say I want to say, like, there’s so much that you’re talking about even in in this first this first point here that we fail at I I feel that constantly. I I I used to do what I thought was a great job, and and and I believe that we provide better service. We have the capability to provide the best service in Savannah. But I know for a fact that we’ve failed recently just because of not staying consistent with implementation.
Brigham Dickenson [00:51:53]:
And you’ve nailed it. The fact of the matter is, and and we’re all saying the same thing. Right? Because of the amount of effort and time it takes to make sure your your, technician department and your comfort department. Comfort with the adviser department is running the way that department should run. It just makes the most sense to have somebody else handle the
Tersh Blissett [00:52:12]:
call center. It does.
Brigham Dickenson [00:52:15]:
Handle it. Make sure that we’re the only ones coming out and let us do the rest. And that’s basically what we’re getting at here. It’s okay that it’s taken this much time this much time to get there. This is step 1 and you cannot skip this step. Right. Please make sure you show that you respect and honor the time of the technician and his or her expertise by making sure they’re the only ones going out. Period.
Tersh Blissett [00:52:42]:
So what about, a CS? What what do you say? What would you tell a business owner or service manager there, the amount of, time each technician should be allowed to have for a job. Like, should should do you think that they should limit to 4 or 5 calls a day, like, and and and you set that with the CSR?
Brigham Dickenson [00:53:02]:
Yes. Yeah. The reason why this is important is just because we in order to create safety, comfort, and fun, you’ve gotta have time to do that. K? And I don’t want to just go out and look at the situation itself that I’ve been called out to do. Yeah. I wanna be able to create the right environment with a homeowner and then take care of everything that I can take care of while I’m there. Is that not great customer service?
Tersh Blissett [00:53:29]:
That’s, yeah, 100%.
Brigham Dickenson [00:53:30]:
And and look, the minute you say technicians I want you to sell, you’re done. It’s over.
Tersh Blissett [00:53:37]:
Yep.
Brigham Dickenson [00:53:37]:
Packed up your bags, go to home because they their brains are turned off.
Tersh Blissett [00:53:41]:
But how do you how do you motivate them to sell? Because without using the word sell because a business has to sell. You have to sell to stay in business,
Brigham Dickenson [00:53:51]:
but
Tersh Blissett [00:53:51]:
if you use the word sell, then
Brigham Dickenson [00:53:53]:
You toast.
Tersh Blissett [00:53:54]:
We we turn our brains off as a technician.
Brigham Dickenson [00:53:56]:
Yeah. See, because technicians don’t wanna be salespeople. So instead, here’s what you do. You do the same thing we we do in the call center. You see in the call center, Blissett, he does. We don’t want you selling. We just want you to provide phenomenal customer experience. K. So under the guise of phenomenal customer experience, you guys just isn’t a trick. It’s the truth. You actually feel more fulfilled when you’re taking great pair of people. When you’re serving people, when you’re more service minded, you are more fulfilled. And so, basically, essentially, what we’re talking about is, hey. What we’ve been able to do for the last 15 years in this industry with the call Tersh, with your call Tersh, you can essentially do with technicians as well. So here’s what you do with the technician. You say, look, all I want is for you to be curious. In fact, you take you you basically basically feel help them feel extremely comfortable. The first thing you say is, guys, but don’t want you to sell. You’re like, what? But I don’t want you to stop. Instead, I want you to be curious. Okay? Be curious about what’s going on inside the home and how you can positively affect what’s going inside the home so they’re more comfortable and they feel safer and so on and so forth. See, those are our goals, safety, comfort, fun, safety, comfort fun, So we focus on that. We stay curious. I mean, guys, there have been times where the techniques and I were called out to to look at, I think it was a a washer and dryer. And we don’t even really do that. Right? But we were looking at it, and I was going, while we were there, by the time we’re done, it probably took 2 hours, but we were doing plumbing work. We’re doing hitting and cooling work. I mean, it was $100 job that turned into basically a $50,000 job. Why? Because we were curious about what was going on, we provided options based on our curiosity and we asked the customer to get yes or no. Just get yes or no. That’s it. Yeah. That’s it. Cheerious options. Get to yes or no. Customer says yes. Great. You do the work. Customer says no. Great. You don’t do the work. No selling required.
Tersh Blissett [00:55:58]:
Alright. So let me tell you. Let me ask this then. How as a personal experience, because I know that there’s different ways of doing this. You could I want to know how to keep those people motivated to the people, the service experts, your service technicians, keeping them motivated to do this on the call because they see they have 3 calls on the board. They could knock them all out and be done at lunchtime. Or spend this time. I mean, I know there’s several people who are like, alright. Pay them a certain way, and then they’ll stay motivated so you can pay them a commission or pay them, spiffs but then other people are like, well, that turns into dishonesty. And for me, it like, I I think that you have to Yeah. You start you can’t delegate the management of the technicians. You still have to have that you still have to manage every technician no matter how you pay them. But I guess how have you found success keeping the guys motivated and cows motivated in the field to provide that experience? Is is it the dopamine drip that they get whenever they’ve seen that reaction where you provide the service.
Brigham Dickenson [00:57:12]:
Yeah. Yeah. So once again, what we’ve been teaching CSRs dispatchers and coordinators for 15 years to help them find that dopamine drip. When the customer says You are amazing. This is amazing. Right? Yeah. We do the same thing with the technicians. Let me tell you a quick experience. Why is with the technician here in Salt Lake City Utah? And we we go down. It was a it was a no it was a no AC. Right? No cooling, super hot day. We went downstairs. We took a little bit of a furnace took a look at the filter. Looks like they recently switched out the filter. We asked the customer about the filter and, they switched out right before we came because they didn’t wanna see the dirty filter. I thought that was really funny. But yeah. We see that
Tersh Blissett [00:57:58]:
old filter.
Brigham Dickenson [00:57:59]:
Yeah. The old filter had been there for, like, the last 2 years or what have you, and they were really embarrassed.
Tersh Blissett [00:58:03]:
And with the date on it. That’s 2 years old.
Brigham Dickenson [00:58:06]:
Yeah. So we so we check out the furnace first. We go upstairs. We take a look at thermostat. And I see that the gauge is on the off position. So that we were called out for a new AC. And so, of course, you guys have probably been here a thousand times. I go, click. And then it turns on. Then we go outside. We take a look at the condenser, that we clean it up, make sure it’s running the way that it should. We go back in. We sit down and are sitting with the technician and we’re talking about, a regular tune up. We’re talking about air purification and so on and so forth. And then the customer asks this point blank. And and the customer said, guys, what really was it? What why wasn’t this air conditioner working? And the technician looked at me because because he didn’t know what to say. Right? Okay. So he looked at me and I said
Tersh Blissett [00:58:53]:
You don’t you don’t honestly, I don’t wanna lie. Yeah. You don’t you don’t wanna lie at all.
Brigham Dickenson [00:58:57]:
You got the At the same time, it’s like hesitation whatsoever. I looked at it, and I said, well, it was it was most likely because of a user error. And the technician was floored. And the customer’s like, Oh, shoot. I was concerned that maybe I didn’t I didn’t use it the right way. And so, she ended up buying, regular tune ups, regular service agreement. She’s even she’s even thinking about, buying electrification systems. YQ, she’s got a couple of dogs in the house and so on and so forth. Why was she in a buying mode? Because I never let her feel like I was trying to sell her on anything. I was there to provide the truth as there to provide service. And soon as I walked out of that house, I gained complete respect from the technician where he said. That was amazing. You just told her the truth. I said, yeah, bro. We’re not about selling. Were about providing a phenomenal customer experience. And he was just like, I get it. It’s so simple. I said, yeah. Yeah. It’s simple. You just take great care of the customer. You fight an awesome customer experience and to change the life.
Tersh Blissett [00:59:59]:
Yeah. I’d love to check-in with him in, like, a year or 2 or something like that and see his thoughts on that and stuff.
Josh Crouch [01:00:08]:
That’s a that’s an awesome story, and it’s it’s so true because I feel like there’s there’s a there’s an abundance now, and maybe there’s not an abundance because there’s always could be coaches and consultants up. But there’s a lot of sales training gurus out there. But again, they’re always focused on, like, these fancy objections and, like, how to handle it. Like, it’s if you if you tell people the truth, people can spot
Tersh Blissett [01:00:34]:
the honest
Josh Crouch [01:00:35]:
genuine and
Brigham Dickenson [01:00:36]:
and honest
Tersh Blissett [01:00:36]:
And they can stop they can spot the opposite too.
Josh Crouch [01:00:39]:
Oh, yeah. They they spot they can spot when you’re trying to sell them and they spot when you’re just actually trying to help them. And even if you’re not, let’s let’s say because and, again, we talk about sales skills, right, like, like, well, we can’t sell it well, but they trust us
Brigham Dickenson [01:00:54]:
Right.
Josh Crouch [01:00:54]:
Because we tell them the truth. And that’s really the different, like I
Tersh Blissett [01:00:58]:
think that that’s that’s what I thought. Oh, I’ve I’ve over, like, there’s a scale of of sales skill, like, a balance in low, like, a little, I don’t know, graph that you could look at. And and it’s like, sales skill versus brutal honesty. And it’s like, which way do you lean? I think I I I successfully sell because of brutal honesty. More so than the sales skill side of things. But, yeah, it’s I don’t know. It’s
Brigham Dickenson [01:01:28]:
Well, I mean, I just want the I
Josh Crouch [01:01:29]:
suppose as an industry, we could just focus on just give the answers and try and just make, like, if you’re already there, for a call where the switch needed to be turned on. See if you can clean out the AC, see if you can help him with something else. Like, you’re already there. You’re already gonna That’s the other that’s
Tersh Blissett [01:01:45]:
the other thing. Don’t just turn on the switch and then leave.
Brigham Dickenson [01:01:49]:
Yeah. That’s the problem.
Josh Crouch [01:01:50]:
It’s like, well, $79 service fee. I flipped the switch for you. Someone’s still gonna be pissed that you charge them 80 bucks from to switch it to Blissett. Even if they made a mistake, like, Give him something. Like you said, I I love that line. Be curious.
Tersh Blissett [01:02:06]:
Be curious.
Josh Crouch [01:02:07]:
What else is going on? What else can we help with today? Like, we’re already here. You’re already you have my full attention. So and I have a couple hours blocked for this call. So what else can we help you with today since I’m already here? I love that.
Brigham Dickenson [01:02:21]:
Let me just say this. And I’ve done this I’ve done this, in Utah, I’ve done it in California. I’ve done it in in Arkansas. I’ve been doing it all over the country. Hundreds, hundreds of technicians so far just because it’s super fun. The thing that I find most of feeling about it is that technicians, these guys, by and large, I mean, there’s a few There’s a few tricks here and there. Right? But by and large, these guys are the best people. The greatest people. I’m talking. Yes. Salt of the earth type of people.
Tersh Blissett [01:03:00]:
Yep. Especially, my guys, if y’all are still watching this, listen to this, y’all are the the best people. Absolutely. Trust people.
Brigham Dickenson [01:03:09]:
I mean, coming hard at people. The last thing we want to do is give them the impression to not be who they naturally are.
Tersh Blissett [01:03:17]:
Yeah. 100%.
Brigham Dickenson [01:03:19]:
So if we can if we can direct them in the right way, lead them in the right way, I promise you you will never have a want for income or money ever again. You just gotta channel that goodness of theirs and help them see that it’s all about from a customer service. And sales the sales will take care of itself.
Tersh Blissett [01:03:39]:
So really fast. I okay. There. Gosh, guys.
Brigham Dickenson [01:03:46]:
You won’t be on the game, Turkish. We obviously we
Tersh Blissett [01:03:48]:
obviously go do this again. Yeah. So really quick, just so that people know that the five points. Can you just go through them? And then we’re gonna explain in more detail, the other ones because that point one is great, and we spent an hour almost talking about point one. But Yeah. The thing as a business owner, point 2, I think is is more important than 1 one’s obviously the most important because you gotta gotta get started there, but I wanna make sure that people do come back and listen to the other four points because they are very important to me in any ways.
Brigham Dickenson [01:04:26]:
Yeah. Okay. So a vision absent point point number 2 is a vision as we said. And what I mean by vision is is that every person on your team, every every player in our team needs to know that thing that is bigger than them, bigger than anyone individual that’s motivating them to get out to get out of bed every day. So they they need to believe in what they’re doing, something that’s bigger than themselves, and they also need to believe in the person that’s leading them. So believe in what they do and believe in the person that’s leading them, those 2 things, and you you’re right. We could spend an entire podcast on that.
Tersh Blissett [01:05:00]:
Yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [01:05:00]:
The third one is taking time with each member of your team and discovering their strengths as well as dreaming with them as as far as where they see themselves inside the organization in 3 to 5 years. Once you’ve done that, number 4 is to, begin to delegate and offload each of your responsibilities to each of those players.
Tersh Blissett [01:05:20]:
But the only way that you can do that is by what?
Brigham Dickenson [01:05:26]:
Well, two things. The office staff, you’ve gotta meet with them. Right, with with the the field staff. You gotta make them in the field, right, to ascertain their strengths and their and their talents. But then you’ve gotta write down everything you do, put them on a sticky.
Tersh Blissett [01:05:41]:
I think that’s the challenge right there. When you when you stop and write down everything that you do, you talk about someone who actually might be experiencing some sort of anxiety, that just that just amplifies some anxiety because as a business owner, especially if you’re struggling at, at any point, if you’re dealing with any of the depression or struggle, and you’re writing down what you’re doing, sometimes it’s like Alright. My list isn’t very large. Why am I depressed? Or this list is so massive. Like, I don’t know where to start. With what I’m writing down, what I’m doing all day every day. And the fact that I love what you talk about with the sticky notes and stuff, and we can go in more detail about that Tersh, Yeah. The I think that that visualization with the sticky notes and that being there, every day reminds you as business owner, how much how many hats you wear, even if your job is one thing you might be doing something else that somebody else’s job as well that they really should be doing, and it might make you realize how much you’re doing that you shouldn’t be doing as a business owner too.
Brigham Dickenson [01:06:55]:
That’s right. You’ll probably have 25 things. That you do on a regular basis. The reason why you spend 80 hours a week doing endless amounts of tasks, and you’re asking yourself the entire time, why am I doing this this not the reason why I started my business.
Tersh Blissett [01:07:09]:
Yep. And
Brigham Dickenson [01:07:10]:
you’re right, but you don’t know how to get out of that hole. Mhmm. And so, if you don’t wanna wait for that podcast that we do, just go to brigham Dickinson.com and buy the book. Right. It’ll it’ll take you step by step how to do it, how to get to a 20 hour work week. Can you imagine a 20 hour work week instead of 80?
Tersh Blissett [01:07:26]:
Right?
Brigham Dickenson [01:07:27]:
Step by step how to do it. So that’s the 4th step. And then the 5th step is okay. Cool. Now now that I’ve gained freedom over my income and freedom over my time, how do I keep from getting depressed with nothing to do? Well, you transition your mindset from a something to prove mindset to something to give. And, obviously, the book will help you out as well, but we should definitely talk about 3 specific things that can help you. And that includes financing options, service agreements, and giving customer feedback on a regular basis. So as a business owner, you should be focused on customer acquisition. Customer retention and customer experience. And we can talk an entire podcast about that as well. And of course, at some point, we’ll summarize on on, how to completely beat, or at least taper, feelings of depression anxiety at the same time.
Tersh Blissett [01:08:18]:
Yeah. That’s, how long do you think it would take to to have that conversation? We could probably wait for that,
Brigham Dickenson [01:08:27]:
Well, we could we could talk a little bit about it now. If you how much time do
Tersh Blissett [01:08:31]:
you have? Crouch on it. Let’s touch on it.
Brigham Dickenson [01:08:34]:
Okay. So let me again, in the beginning of this podcast, we talked about the fact that as soon as I offloaded everything, I started feeling really depression and anxious, right, because Yeah. I went from the guy to not the guy. That’s really hard.
Tersh Blissett [01:08:47]:
The hero to 0 complex.
Brigham Dickenson [01:08:48]:
Yeah. It’s very difficult. And so this is why it’s so important. I mean, one of the one of the key characteristics of a leader, or in general is basically an ability to get back up to get back up after you’ve been knocked down. Yeah. What we should know is business owners, better than anybody, having been knocked down a thousand times, how to get back up. So the quicker we get back up, the less residual, right, damage
Tersh Blissett [01:09:15]:
Yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [01:09:16]:
In in the interim. And so we’ve gotta get very, very good at getting back up. And so I found based on the same conversation we had to get in from my from my mom in, Mexico. That the minute you start turning outward and serving your team, serving your people, that’s the fastest road of happiness. Counterintuitive, but but that’s the way it works. Now, I do have one tool if we’ve got time for it. I’ll go over it.
Tersh Blissett [01:09:41]:
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Brigham Dickenson [01:09:42]:
Okay. So the tool is an acronym. And the acronym is stop, s t o p, stop. And the reason why the acronym is stop is because our goal is to stop our racing mind. See, when we’re not doing things, that doesn’t mean our mind has stopped. Our mind is moving. And especially a business owner’s mind, it is moving at Mach 20. Right?
Tersh Blissett [01:10:07]:
That’s why you can’t sleep at night.
Brigham Dickenson [01:10:09]:
Yes. Okay? This this, if it’s left untained, will drive a person absolute bonkers. And so the way that you stop your racing mind is smile. Okay. Choose to smile. Right? And this is a whole lot more than just being positive. My goal here is for you to recognize that moments are all around Moments you can win, moments you can positively affect. And just because you’ve offloaded all of your tasks that you’re doing, you should still be recognizing other moments that you can win that you can possibly affect. And so the first thing you should do is smile because they’re there. And all you need to do is realize that it is show time. Yeah. It is always show time. You just need to recognize that it’s show time. Recognize that you’re in that moment so that you can positively affect it, especially with your family, with your team, with your spouse, as a neighbor, it’s showtime, bro. You need to smile. Get that frown off your face. Smile. That’s number 1. K? Number 2, time. You still have complete control of your time. Now you could decide inside your head where you spend your time. You can spend your time in the future. You can spend your time in the past, or you can choose to be right here right now. Because right here right now is the only moment that you can affect. So be here now. Be present in this moment. Stop state. Get out of the future. Get out of the past all the Google dates when I was doing all the stuff. Uh-huh. Be here now. Okay. That’s number 2. Number 3, opposition. Guess what? In this life, it’s always going to be there.
Tersh Blissett [01:11:53]:
Yep.
Brigham Dickenson [01:11:54]:
Always accept it. Choose to learn from it. Take what you can learn. Flush the rest. Get rid of it.
Tersh Blissett [01:12:03]:
Don’t don’t don’t live in that past and and just think about that and just begrudgingly think about the opposition constantly. That’s one of the biggest things that really freed me up several years back was I used to worry what the competition did I would just constantly like, what are they doing? How can I do it better? What are they doing? How can I do it better? Once I be once I got Freedom was whenever I was like, I’m gonna make the best version of me. Mhmm. And that’s gonna be better than the competition, and I don’t care what the competition is doing.
Brigham Dickenson [01:12:36]:
You got it. You can’t control them anyway when you control yourself. So you okay. So, yeah, you’ve know that we spend time stewing over our failures Yeah. And it destroys us just that stewing can really, really hurt us and keep us from beating back up. So learn what you all learn. Accept that and then flush it. Get rid of it. Move on. Okay. And the last one is peace. Peace. You are not your wins. You are not your Blissett. Those two things do not identify. What identifies you is the fact that you are a child of god.
Tersh Blissett [01:13:13]:
Mhmm.
Brigham Dickenson [01:13:13]:
That is what you are. And just leave it at that. Stop your ace in mind.
Tersh Blissett [01:13:21]:
Dang. That’s a tough one, though.
Brigham Dickenson [01:13:24]:
Mhmm.
Tersh Blissett [01:13:25]:
Just to say, alright. Ego get out of the way. You’re not the wins. You’re not all the success that you’ve had. That’s not you. Mhmm. But at the same time, when you’ve had a failure, that’s not you either. Mhmm.
Brigham Dickenson [01:13:41]:
So so if if your fellows are failures are not you, church, then what are you doing saying that your successes are you?
Tersh Blissett [01:13:48]:
That’s right. Yeah. No.
Brigham Dickenson [01:13:49]:
It’s a moment in time.
Tersh Blissett [01:13:53]:
But the challenge with that is how do you how do you How do you avoid the thought of well, I never win because it’s not mine. I can I can I can do away with, like, the problem as me as a biz with me as a business owner in general, is the rewards? So you you have your your Oh, why am I having drawn bran brain fart? So rewarding yourself, oh, leverage. So leverage the leverages that you present. Like, I can live and die by leverages. Like, if I don’t do that, like, that’s that’s ultimately how I stayed motivated a couple years back was I’d leveraged everything. I I said, if I don’t do this task, like, I did one time where I was gonna give a a one of my coaches a car of mine. Like, it’d be a very expensive car of mine if I didn’t hire a comfort specialist by a certain date.
Brigham Dickenson [01:14:57]:
Wow.
Tersh Blissett [01:14:58]:
So I could I said, alright, this is the leverage. If I don’t do that, then I will I will give you this car. And, I did it easily, but then she was like, okay. Well, what’s your reward if you do that? And I’m like, I’m not worried about the reward. I’m worried about the next leverage. Like, that’s the problem. You’re not rewarding yourself. And so I’m like, but I I don’t as a business owner, I struggle with the reward. I think a lot of business owners struggle with rewarding themselves. So I I guess with peace, if I don’t if I don’t have the win and I don’t have the losses, do we still get the the the the dopamine drip there?
Brigham Dickenson [01:15:39]:
K. Yeah. And and I I love that you’re asking this question because and and forgive me, but the the answer is is provided in in copious amounts in the book something to give. Right? So definitely go to bring them tickets.com to get that. But but but here’s the thing. So you know how we were talking before we get on to this podcast about your friend who had a picture of a boat. And and he was motivated by that boat. And I said, okay. Cool. But once he gets the boat, then what? You see, with these, temporal rewards that we give ourselves, we’re always it’s it’s always the next fix
Tersh Blissett [01:16:18]:
We’re
Brigham Dickenson [01:16:18]:
constantly going after the next fix. And as soon as we get that fixed, now we’re going for another fix, another fix. Until we realize but it’s not about the fix. Right? It’s about finding joy and happiness and helping other people get to where we are. K. It’s about bringing them with us.
Tersh Blissett [01:16:37]:
Now are we settling at that point?
Brigham Dickenson [01:16:40]:
Like When you need to settle? No. We don’t settle.
Tersh Blissett [01:16:43]:
Like, it okay. So if if if that is what is motivating a person and individual, Like, if if the next, toy or the next, like, accomplishment, because I I grew up poor, dirt floor poor. And, the the challenge that I have is, like, I don’t have necessarily a lot of people. I mean, I have friends that are amazing in my inner circle now who are very successful in life, and they have things that are that I could just dream to have. But growing up, I remember, you know, I just wanted to get out of the trailer park. You know? And the fact that I get where I’m at, and it’s like, Alright. I’m successful, more successful than I ever had imagined. And and if I compare myself to what I grew up thinking about, I am quote unquote successful. The, I guess, if we’re if we were we’re always motivated by that next thing, and we don’t do that. We don’t keep motivating ourselves by that next thing anymore. Does that not add to some depression? Or
Brigham Dickenson [01:17:59]:
It could if you don’t replace it. Yeah. Yeah. And could if you don’t wanna place it and that’s the goal here. Right? So we’re constantly proving ourselves.
Tersh Blissett [01:18:07]:
So be be becoming almost a mentor at the at the end goal. Like, your endgame is becoming a mentor.
Brigham Dickenson [01:18:13]:
You got it. So have you ever heard of rumbombs ladder?
Tersh Blissett [01:18:16]:
Yeah. K.
Brigham Dickenson [01:18:19]:
Go ahead.
Tersh Blissett [01:18:19]:
Go ahead. Go. No.
Brigham Dickenson [01:18:20]:
You you go ahead. So the the top tier of that ladder, k, there’s many different ways to give. You can just kinda Right? You can you can give them money and they’re good. Right? You you feed them for a day or feed them for a lifetime. Right? You’ve heard that saying before, but the the highest way of giving at the top of Ramon’s Tersh is the gift of self reliance. We actually show them how to be where you are, how to get where you’re where you’re at. Let me tell you a quick story.
Tersh Blissett [01:18:51]:
And that’s the reward that you give as you get as being a mentor. Yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [01:18:55]:
You got it. Yeah. Yeah. Coaches and players. K? There’s coaches, players, and fans. You never wanna be a fan. Be a coach or a player. Player or a Crouch, never a fan. K? We don’t wanna sit and watch on the sidelines. We either wanna be on the game or teaching people how to play the game. That’s where we find fulfillment. K? So, basically, we’re transitioning from player to coach. Alright? So
Josh Crouch [01:19:18]:
Gotcha.
Brigham Dickenson [01:19:19]:
Let me just tell you a quick story. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the fact that I love Spartan Racing. Are you familiar with Spartan Races?
Tersh Blissett [01:19:26]:
That’s the ones where you get shocked while you’re in the water.
Brigham Dickenson [01:19:29]:
K. That’s that’s a that’s a kind of race. That’s a tough matter or something like that.
Tersh Blissett [01:19:36]:
Yeah. Okay. That’s what
Brigham Dickenson [01:19:37]:
I’m thinking.
Tersh Blissett [01:19:38]:
Smart race is
Brigham Dickenson [01:19:39]:
is an obstacle horse race. I mean, yeah, you’re climbing up robes. You’re carrying buckets to rocks up the hill. There’s 5000 feet of elevation gain. K. It’s it’s really hot. It’s it’s a half marathon or a full marathon It’s crazy rates. Okay? I do these all the time. In 2019, I did ten of them. Wow. The reason why I did ten of them is because I wanna get on the podium. Wanted to get for, you know, 3rd, second, first. What happened? Well, in that year, I took 4th twice. How’s that for kicking the pants? Right? Brutal, super brutal. And so one of those races, I invited a bunch of business owners with me. One of them is Crandell. He’s, a heating cooling he owns a heating cooling company here in Salt City, Utah. And he weighs £250, six foot five. Yeah. He lost £40 to be ready for this race. Wow. That’s crazy.
Tersh Blissett [01:20:28]:
Yeah. It was awesome.
Brigham Dickenson [01:20:29]:
I was still concerned about him because he’s such a big guy.
Tersh Blissett [01:20:32]:
Yeah. You
Brigham Dickenson [01:20:32]:
know, his DNA just it it’s it’s tough on it. It was gonna be really whatever’s tough on my body is gonna be absolutely much that much more difficult with his body. Right? So I get done with my race. I take 4th. I get over throw some I get some liquids in my body, and I run back out on the course to make sure that he gets in. Right? I I said to him, I’m gonna run back on the course to make sure everybody gets in 2 things. Right. You’re right. Yeah. So I I get out to the five mile mark and I see him come to the trees and he did all the good. And I said, dude, how are you doing? How are things? He’s like, I’m okay. Right? He didn’t really wanna be there.
Tersh Blissett [01:21:06]:
Yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [01:21:06]:
And I said, you’re probably the last one through here.
Tersh Blissett [01:21:08]:
He said, like, yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [01:21:09]:
Thanks for bringing it up. And I was like, Hey, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Right? Trying to recover from what I just put in foot in my mouth. I said, look, there’s a there’s a bit of a loop here. I’ll meet you back here at the 8 mile mark. Yeah. And and we’ll go in together. He says, sounds great. Well, remember, he started this race at 10:30 in the morning. He did not get to the 8 mile market till, like, 5 in the evening. Wow. In fact, when he gets there, he says, oh my gosh, you can’t believe you’re still here. Now in my head, I said the same thing. I can’t believe I’m still here either. And so he was like, brilliant. I’m done.
Tersh Blissett [01:21:38]:
Yeah. How’s that?
Brigham Dickenson [01:21:38]:
I don’t wanna be here anymore. And and so I so I said, look, bro. You’re almost done. This this thing is all k. You’re still upright. You’re obviously not done. I could tell he wanted Yeah. He wanted to punch it. Right? But he’s too tired. Right? I said, look, we’re gonna do this together. So stop over this hill. There’s a couple more a sense. And then after that, it’s gonna be all down, but from there, it’s gonna be fantastic. And so I’m just talking through the last few miles, right, last five miles. And, 7 o’clock, 7:30 at night. Some was going down. He’s about to go across the finish line. In fact, all the other business owners there cheer him on. And he starts sprinting. Right? I could barely keep up with him when he when he gets to the finish line. He gets he crosses the finish line. He puts his hand on my shoulders. He says, bring him. I gotta taste him. I said, what’s that? I never plan to finish this race. Woah. What do you mean ever plan to finish this race? He says I plan to go 8 miles. I’ve trained for 8 miles. I figured it’d be good for my 1st race. Thanks for helping me finish.
Tersh Blissett [01:22:30]:
Wow.
Brigham Dickenson [01:22:31]:
The way I felt in that moment was worth a 1000 podiums.
Tersh Blissett [01:22:35]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Brigham Dickenson [01:22:37]:
Yeah. So for leaders, what we don’t realize, it’s not about winning that makes us happy. It’s not just about winning. It’s about the people we bring with us to the finish line, and that’s what we’re doing. That’s what brings happiness. Bring them with you. That’s what happens.
Tersh Blissett [01:22:55]:
Dang. That’s good. Man, bring him. I appreciate you hanging out with me. I hate to
Brigham Dickenson [01:23:03]:
do it.
Tersh Blissett [01:23:04]:
Josh Josh had to he had technical difficulties, had to leave, but he’s out. Sucks to be him.
Brigham Dickenson [01:23:10]:
Well, he can listen. He can listen. He can listen.
Tersh Blissett [01:23:13]:
But at
Brigham Dickenson [01:23:14]:
5 speed, you’ll get it all.
Tersh Blissett [01:23:15]:
Yes. Exactly. Exactly. No. I I really do appreciate you hanging out. We’re definitely gonna come back and and discuss this. If you haven’t ordered it yet, while you’re listening, to the show, go to brighamdickenson.com and get your book pre ordered. This we’re what July 26th here reading, or or, recording this, and it comes out, what, September?
Brigham Dickenson [01:23:40]:
September 19th. Yes.
Tersh Blissett [01:23:42]:
23. Okay. So, huge shout out to you and everything that you bring. Every time you you every time we talk and hang out, at a conference. I I really enjoy it. I just wanted you to know that. I appreciate everything that you do for everybody.
Brigham Dickenson [01:23:54]:
Thank you. Thank you.
Tersh Blissett [01:23:55]:
Yeah. Absolutely. If anybody has any questions at all, don’t hesitate to reach out to to bring him and his team, reach out to me. If you have any questions about power Sunpros, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I definitely I mean, I’ve I’ve already told you my experience with with them and, Connor and and our support team as as Connor’s moved up to different levels. It’s been great. So if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me about that. But with that being said, I hope y’all have a wonderful and safe week until we talk again next time. You for hanging out with us on the service business mastery podcast. We’ll see you later.
Podcast Announcer [01:24:41]:
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