The Restoration Playbook Podcast

Tony Scott: Building Leaders
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Tony Scott: We don't have a single and never have had a single commission person at the company , not project managers, nobody, which I guess, I think is a very big stretch for some people. I know I've lots of friends in the industry and they're just like, I don't understand that.

Travis Martin: What does it take to build a team that actually cares not just about the job, but the people they serve? Welcome to the Restoration Playbook Podcast, the show where we go beyond the surface and dig deep into the leadership strategies and system that move restoration teams forward. I'm Travis Martin, and today I'm speaking to Tony Scott, the CEO, and founder of Pro-claim Group.

Travis Martin: For over 30 years, Tony has built one of the most respected restoration companies in Canada, but it's not because he built a restoration company that leads the way in sustainability. It's because Tony went deep into the heart of Pro-claim group. He identified the values he wanted his team to live out, [00:01:00] and then he made it the backbone of his entire company.

Travis Martin: Tony has built a work culture fueled by passion heart, and the intrinsic motivation that is greater than Paycheques. He's built a team that finds meaning in the work itself and a company where innovation is employee led and empathy driven. If you wanna build a workplace, people are proud to be a part of.

Travis Martin: This episode is for you. Let's get in to today's interview with Tony Scott.

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Travis Martin: Tony, I'm excited to kick off this conversation today. I think that Pro-Claim Group is uniquely known for being forward thinking and innovative in the restoration industry. And so I think that you've got a lot of perspective there. Like we were just chatting, you're passionate about it, which is great.

Travis Martin: And I think that, As a whole, the industry would benefit from having more [00:02:00] companies that are comfortable leaning into the future and saying, Hey, this is the vision I have for what my company could be, what restoration could look like, and I'm willing to help drive that vision. things forward there. But before we get too far into the future, let's start with the past.

Travis Martin: What's your backstory? How did you get into restoration and into the position that you're in today?

Tony Scott: I like to say I've always been in restoration. Pretty much seen everything over the years. I started this company 32 or 33 years ago. And so I've been at it a long time. Before that I grew up in restoration. My stepdad was at a restoration company, and back then it was just fires.

Tony Scott: We repaired buildings that were badly fire damaged. No small jobs. It was just big fires. So very different industry back then. They hadn't, there was no drying there was no fans or dehumidifiers or anything like that. It was simply a weird arm of construction. So that's how I grew up.

Tony Scott: And then I went to work for another company [00:03:00] for, and that's when I learned about fans and dehumidifiers there just really was becoming big. And and so I got into it there and learned a very different side of the business which was dealing directly with insurance adjusters, small claims. I went from nothing under a hundred thousand back in 83. To a whole bunch of jobs that were worth $2,500 or a thousand dollars even break-ins and things like that. So it was a great time to grow up and learn, but I also learned that the industry changes and those that are on top of that and forward thinking are gonna do well. And I always thought that my stepdad didn't really think that way and he sold his company and I worked for somebody else and he didn't really get where the industry was going.

Tony Scott: And I tried to say, I'd like to arrange a lunch and talk to a few people. There's some young guys that worked with us. They're, friends, they senior people that worked with my stepdad, so I was trying to meet them and he said I'll I'll pay for that to you to take them for a coffee, but I'm not going to pay for lunch. But back then it was the eighties. Lunch was everything and they were long and often involved some [00:04:00] booze. Not that way anymore, but boy, it sure was then. So that's how I grew up, and I realized fairly early that was the case, and eventually, after two years there, I started my own company, which was pretty foolish not really knowing how to run a company like that or anything, but I knew I wanted to do things differently and try to focus more on the customer. And we were pretty money focused solely money focused at the previous company. So I decided to just do it differently. So that got me on this road and I've never really stopped that thought. We try to go by a higher ideal and that's always kept me informed or informed what we do as a company. Pretty passionate about people. And obviously along the way I got very passionate about and the environment is how things started. I was an avid hiker or still am, but I loved hiking up in the mountains. We, I live in Vancouver, BC, which is beautiful. It's surrounded by mountains and ocean. You can climb up one of those mountains in a matter of three or four hours and see the whole city as well as the ocean and up Howe [00:05:00] Sound. It's just the most beautiful thing. And so for me, my big moment was I was sitting there. I got my tent all set up and I'm sitting on this bluff looking at this beautiful sunset. And I was struck by the beauty of the old theater, some clouds and things like that, and then the sunset reflecting off them. And then I realized that it wasn't a cloud over the city, it was actually smog.

Tony Scott: And for me, that was like just a very big moment. I had a couple of kids three now, but at the time I had two kids. And I just remember thinking, man we're walking around in this environment and we're breathing that in. And we know. There was beyond a doubt. Everybody knew that stuff is bad for you. But it wasn't clear to everybody, for me, it was drove it home, like, how can I live in this knowing my kids are going to be breathing that every day?

Tony Scott: What can I do differently? The answer was not very much at that time. But I did start the road. I think I was probably one of the first adopters of a hybrid vehicle just in line with that. But it was the passion for the environment that really got me going. We started focusing on we have owned a flooring [00:06:00] store. And so we started focusing on, green products back before it was cool. I think some people were starting to sell bamboo as a, as an environmentally good product. And we got into that, we got into stuff that was reclaimed and we really were able to make some differences and focus on non off gassing products and things like that.

Tony Scott: So that really is where we got going into this. It wasn't a matter of, a business decision at some point to be environmental or anything like that. Yeah. We did this for years without ever talking about it. It was just what we did. And it was our unique culture in the company. And that's more what it was about, surrounding myself with people that also cared about both the environment and what we're doing to the world. It's a natural really for restoration because. The word restoration would imply that you're fixing things and putting it back. And we always thought that, we don't rebuild, we restore,

Tony Scott: right?

Tony Scott: So to me, it's always been a great fit to do that. So we got into, and then from there we got into recycling and as certain things became available to us to [00:07:00] recycle we jumped right in. I was already an avid recycler and composter at home. Drove my kids crazy.

Tony Scott: Most people say, yeah, my kids got me going and it was not that way for me. I drove my kids crazy with all the things that I was doing and whole milks from my local dairy, you name it. So I've always been into that very West Coast. But yeah, and that really just started the journey. Started everybody, the culture of the company became that and took it from there.

Travis Martin: Oh, you only need to drive through British Columbia once to see why so many people in British Columbia love the environment the way they do, right? Like when you're surrounded by that much beauty I think it really draws that out in you. I would imagine that Tony over the last 40 years or so you've seen a lot of Change in the restoration industry.

Travis Martin: We, we've seen a lot of innovation. I can, like you said the tools, the equipment that you're using then compared to now. Yet it also seems that given the way that technology is [00:08:00] evolving, it feels like we're maybe at a similar, if not greater inflection point. Now where things are going to go over the next five, 10 years.

Travis Martin: It's hard to guess, but how have you developed that mindset internally towards leaning into the future and what's next and being a part of The companies and the people that are driving that forward, bringing that to the restoration industry versus some of those, that late adopter mentality, that's not uncommon in this industry.

Tony Scott: Informed by my early experiences and seeing what, that was probably the first big change in the industry was that idea of focusing on drying. And it did change the industry. And I noticed that the early adopters were the ones who did well and the ones who didn't went away. And so I guess that was the initial part of that. But I think more, it's just always been in me to try to be better. Or, it was never enough to just, I wasn't in it to be status [00:09:00] quo. I was in it to make a difference. I was very motivated by helping people and I could never quite understand why, you We weren't focused as much as we should be on helping, right?

Tony Scott: That's what we do. That's the job. And so for me, that was just, how can I help them better? How can I get them back in their house faster? What is it they need and how do I, so I've never really thought that much. I guess it's just a part of my personality. The harder part was, getting the team on that.

Tony Scott: And I would say that over the years too, as we've grown and grown, it's very different at each stage. So what brings people in, gets them in when we were smaller. I like to call it power of personality. My passion drove it and everybody was either in or they left the company. And he didn't really, I never had to think about it. So it was much later, probably when we were up at around 40 people, 45 people that got, it changed a bit, we have internal leaders and what I didn't realize right away was that those internal leaders were leaders, whether I Whether everybody realized it or not, but they may not be leading people in the same direction [00:10:00] that we are. So I like to call it, you can call it a counterculture or what I sometimes call false community. So they build their own little group over something and it usually it's negative, right? There'll be negative about somebody or something. And that's the easiest way to join a group, right? To be a part of a group, all you have to do is say, somebody is complaining about Bob and they say, yeah, I can't believe what Bob did yesterday.

Tony Scott: Now you're, now you have something in common. So realizing that we really tried to realize that we had to be building better leaders internally that also shared the values and how important values were. And that was a key moment for us because we struggled for a year and a half or so and found that we were losing some of the things that we thought made us so interesting and great, why I love to work there.

Tony Scott: And yeah. Once we realized that I developed a leadership program, or we called it like an HR program that really focused on how to make sure that we're leading in the right way which isn't easy. There was, so we're going back probably 16, 17 years ago. Dale [00:11:00] Carnegie was around and I think we had seven habits of highly effective people. So there was some good literature out there, but not a lot of people were focused on how we manage people and how do you develop a real leader in this new environment? Often before it was about carrots and sticks and and that just wasn't the way I wanted to go. So we took a psychological approach to it, understanding what motivates people and studying extensively on what really motivates people.

Tony Scott: And it was pretty clear. It wasn't. It wasn't a great way to do it with a carrot and stick. I'm just offering, people incentive money wise, wasn't the best way to to build a great team of people that wanted to do great things. So we developed our own philosophy. And went about, teaching that to our people.

Tony Scott: And it worked very well. We were very early adopters of a lot of things we do now. You talk about Daniel Pink and Simon Sinek um, when Daniel Pink came out to his book Drive, which was really about motivating people my HR manager at the time came running in and go, [00:12:00] went , Oh my God, somebody stole your stuff. That wasn't true. He came up with it, I'm sure, all on his own. Not that I was only people that knew what it was in our company, but it just shows that was where the things were going to go. And for me, that was an important book as to how we manage and how that was becoming a reality in the industry. So then it was about how do we stay on top of it? How do we stay ahead of the game? And that has been fairly easy for the most part. There's hard parts, but if we stay aligned with what we first were doing 15, 18 years ago, that's never gone wrong for us. Like it's just a matter of how do we apply it with bigger and bigger company.

Travis Martin: A few things that I pulled from that, that I want to dive into a little bit more. The first, I find this really interesting that you have, it sounds like just a very unique drive and passion to want to be better and want to help more people. And I think that probably leads to. Mindset within the company, because there's not this [00:13:00] sense of, Oh, we just have to protect what's ours from the outside competitors, right?

Travis Martin: Like it's less protection, more like gaining ground, which I think is going to naturally lead to an innovative mindset.

Tony Scott: Yeah, zero focus on protecting.

Travis Martin: And it's that what I.

Tony Scott: We like to share whatever we have, actually. It with recycling and that, we we built the, we built a great program to do it over years but the first opportunity we had, we were training and working with other companies to help them learn how to do the same things, and how we can make it better for the whole, for Canada, and hopefully North America.

Travis Martin: And I think the fact that your unique drive and passion in these areas was maybe somewhat polarizing among early staff is a good thing, right? There's a self selecting process that's occurring there, which is people saying, actually, I don't know how much, how enthusiastic I am about this vision.

Travis Martin: [00:14:00] And for you to say, okay great. Let's, let's recognize that we're not going to be a couple while we're still in the dating stage. It's easier this way. And so you allowed your unique vision and passion for innovation to be polarizing and help self select the people that were enthusiastic about the same vision.

Tony Scott: Yeah, we all want to have everybody in, on the right bus, for starters as they say, and for sure that was polarizing. People either love working with me or did not like it at all. It was pretty easy to select self select for them. But it got more difficult as we grew. Like I said, it really, now, we have multiple managers and I get more distant from the team. It really got to be. I now needed to really focus on creating these other people that we're going to manage it. And we've been through probably, I think we're in our third iteration of that, I would say. We have multiple offices, which brings in all different kinds of problems. It's that realization.

Tony Scott: The first part of that is realization that I can't do it the way I did it. I can't run this [00:15:00] and everybody's just going to grasp my vision and jump into it. So that means allowing other people to create a similar, in line with values, but have their own idea of what that's going to look like. And that was a hard hurdle to get across. I was so used to my, just. Talking to everybody and having meetings with, a couple of people and it's they're going to do it. And it's they're going to do it their way. And and sorting through which ones would say yeah.

Tony Scott: But then they would, not do it. And I think a lot of companies might go through those things in their own way, depending what they're trying to build or show. But for us, it was, for me, it was shocking. I just, I've never run into that. A big lesson there was How to build these and select the right leaders.

Tony Scott: How to know who's saying the right things. Then you get into metrics, right? The only way to know if somebody is doing the things they're supposed to is you have to know what they're doing. And so that was a really big thing for me was to try to, to try to find new ways to build those leaders. But also as a company, usually somebody else pays us. So we're not only going out there, but we're fixing somebody's house and helping them solve big problems, [00:16:00] in a way, because we know what we're doing. And yeah, and somebody else pays the bill. So I think that in restoration, we should be looking for people that really enjoy and would help somebody.

Tony Scott: So we always say, if your neighbor was, had a problem in their house or it was ever a time when your neighbor had a problem in their house and what did you do? If they said I went over right away and see how I can help, that's our guy.

Travis Martin: Yeah.

Tony Scott: if they said, yeah, I closed the blinds cause I didn't, I didn't want to help them. That's not our guy. So a very basic way of giving that idea nowadays, we have better ways to look at the psychology behind that and what type of person it is. But that's the premise, right? And that's where we started was just trying to pick people that really enjoyed that. The reason that's important is not just what you think.

Tony Scott: It's actually that they get joy from the helping. Okay. And so they're going to go the extra mile themselves. They'll come up with ways to help that homeowner understanding. That A is what we do as a company, but it's also has to be what they want to do. That's how they think outside of the box, right?

Tony Scott: They're going to, they're going to think, Oh my God, [00:17:00] this lady has Alzheimer's, right? And so how are we going to manage to keep this lady from having a terrible experience when she doesn't really remember what, what's happened? So finding innovative ways to, to address that problem is where innovation comes from, really. So for our team, they put pictures up beside her bed. And on the fridge with pictures of the people that were working on site with their names. Every morning she woke up and they had this little note beside the bed. You had a flood. Here's what's happening. Here are the people. So yeah, so we, to me that's innovation.

Tony Scott: So it's not the kind of sexy innovation you think about when you're rowing a big company, but the company is built on those things, right? If you can achieve that connection between another human being and helping them and the team is motivated to come up with these ideas by themselves, that's really where innovation comes from. It has to come from within and they have to have their own desire to do it. And then they'll do it themselves. And without that, we would still be a 40 person company. It is [00:18:00] the people for sure. Yeah,

Travis Martin: example. And I bet you've got a dozen of those. That you're, where your team has just seen a unique opportunity. But I think underlying a team that has that mentality is this night and day difference between what you talked about. And frankly, I think what a lot of restoration companies run on, which is this like carrot-stick method of for motivating people versus this more, psychological, hey, how do you design for specific incentives and what's motivating people? And internally, how do they, how do you get them to really own it? Could you just help? Someone who is unfamiliar with this and they haven't read the Daniel Pinks and Daniel Kahneman's of the world.

Travis Martin: What is the difference between the two? Like just help, help bring it to reality for a restoration leader who [00:19:00] maybe is, didn't even realize it was possible to get a group of texts to think in those terms.

Tony Scott: I think it is, it's difficult because you don't get a lot of, and we're getting more now, but for many years, we don't hear a lot about the options for motivating. And even now, there's still a lot of talk about, you've got to incentivize. But really, if you think about what is incentivizing, right?

Tony Scott: And so internal is the internal incentive is much stronger than external. If you're trying to get somebody to do something, yeah, you can just say, you must do this and they'll do it. But that's never, you'll get you to a certain degree. There was a guy at the RIA conference. I think he was from Rainbow. And he actually spoke a bit about this, and I was just amazed to hear somebody getting it. I guess he'd just done his doctorate in, in, in some kind of motivational stuff, but he got it, right? And he was there teaching this whole big room full of people full of restoration contractors about that idea that you [00:20:00] need to have this internal motivation. And he said it pretty well. He said, if you want discretionary effort. That comes from internal motivation. Otherwise, if you give somebody an incentive that, if you get this done by five o'clock, and we're done for the day, you'll get a an extra a hundred bucks. If they realize that quarter to five, they're not going to make it, it's not going to be done. Now what? So internal motivation. Would be that they're going to finish it and that's what you want. You want somebody who's going to wrap that thing up. If it means work until six, they already know you're going to pay them overtime. They're going to get it done because it's the right thing to do for the company and for the homeowner. So that to me was a very good description that they gave at RIA and I wish I could remember his name. But he yeah, to me, that's exactly what it is. You get only so far and again, In understanding psychology, everybody knows certain things that nobody ever talks about. Like they understand that people are irrational when it comes to money, and so they'll make irrational decisions.

Tony Scott: And then we wonder sometimes why we're, somebody might cheat a little bit on, on [00:21:00] their what they're making, or they might fudge the books a little bit. Yeah, it's money. People are irrational around money. So it helps everybody to get out of that. And I would say that, It's a more long term focus, right?

Tony Scott: You're not just worried about this job and getting money on making money on this job. You're worried about 10 years from now, having a company that is full of people that are going to drive it and run it themselves without needing you so much. And that would be, that's the ideal outcome. So we believe in paying really well top of the industry. And so we, But we don't compete on that. We don't have a single and never have had a single commission person at the company not project managers, nobody, which I guess, I think is a very big stretch for some people. I know I've lots of friends in the industry and they're just like, I don't understand that.

Tony Scott: It's I can't believe you run a company like that. But most people know we have very committed staff and. We've, they've been long-term, so again, long-term, people are gonna be there because they feel internally happy and they go home. They feel good about what they do, their, their wife and kids or parents are proud of them [00:22:00] and what they do when they see something in the news where you've done something, you don't. Pretty big. We had a, one of our staff members who didn't really care about recycling and and but then there was this news thing on the news and we were doing all this recycling stuff in our, one of the cities were in our home city. And it was a big, we're doing that and we're cleaning up the rivers and these kind of things, the river banks and so they. He went home and his in laws were there and they said, Oh, don't you work for that company? That was doing all that recycling stuff and cleaning up the river. And he's Oh yeah, I am. And so from there he he got it like, and he was like, yeah. So now he's proud of that fact. So sometimes it works backwards, right?

Tony Scott: He may not be into it there, but when other people admire it again, which is we've known this in a long time, why people leave their jobs. And one of the reasons or why they stay on their job is because It's respected by those around them, right? They, people say, Oh, it used to be back in the day, you work at Microsoft, it was a big deal.

Tony Scott: And you were proud of that. And I think even Tesla, people would go the extra mile because they worked at Tesla, not to say that [00:23:00] he's not very convincing, I don't think, but he does have a way of motivating people. There's been successes. I think Netflix is another company that focuses on paying people to up a market but then expecting a lot from them. We do expect a lot too, and that's an important part of this. But maintaining a system where you're always having to tell somebody exactly what to do and how to do it, and and never having anybody. Change things or do something different or try to make it better. To me, I'll take the I'll take the longer route to get them motivated to do things and understand they can make a difference. Ultimately, that is what makes a company change, right? That's what makes you lean into this the things. How do we be better? How do we be faster? I'm never saying it's impossible. We just make it, somebody said, we, I remember a long time ago, Intact, one of the big insurers here Decided to have a, one of the first KPI, true KPI scorecards that we'd ever seen. And they hadn't, they worked out where people's average cycle time for a job was running around 99 days or something like that. And so from [00:24:00] beginning of flood to completion, everything signed off. Yeah. And then so they said we, how low do you think you can get it? And I said I think we can do it in 60 days.

Tony Scott: So everybody went, what? That's crazy. And, when you say that and you set that thing and then you start to think about how can we do it? Not can we, or can we not, it's just how are we going to do it? And so we got down to 60 days and now I think everybody is probably closer to 60 than they are 120.

Tony Scott: It's just a matter of who's going to drive it first and who's going to make it happen. But it really requires the team to really have that attitude to start with, to feel the freedom, to make changes. And, our whole recycling thing wasn't something that I did, it was really one of our employees who drove the whole thing. If you allow people to make it better and you allow them to build something themselves and to go about it, whatever way works best, that's when you're going to have that success. And I love it. I get to work here too. And I'm excited that we have that. I. As I said, I was big on recycling, but to get the team to do it was a little harder, right?

Tony Scott: It's more work on the job [00:25:00] and not really, but it's getting people over that hump. It's just not that much harder, but people imagine it is and getting it started. So that was at the point where I couldn't make that difference myself. Even though I took garbage cans out of everybody's office and hid them. So it was only recycling things. The only, even still now, the only garbage we have in the whole office is in the kitchen. So if you actually have something to throw away, you got to stand beside all the recycling different options and then reach into the very end. And that's the one. But that didn't work, right?

Tony Scott: It didn't, it wasn't where it got us there. It was a guy named JP, cared about mother earth. And that's all he wanted to do is help take care of mother earth. So he started doing it himself. He started taking the debris that he was taking from jobs and finding different ways to take them and recycle. And that's where that started. So to me, that's everything you, everybody should know about that is if you let your team do these things. And inspire them a bit to, to feel like they can. That's how you get a team that wants to change and make things [00:26:00] better.

Travis Martin: There's a few, there's a few different threads that I want to pull on, but I know that we're tight for time here. So I will say though, between the emphasis on intrinsic motivators versus carrot and stick, and even this environmental stuff, which I want to get back to in just a second, I think an underpinning of all of that is Those are all things that Gen Z workers in particular are very motivated by.

Travis Martin: So can you talk to me briefly, like how has your whole approach influenced your ability to attract and retain young workers?

Tony Scott: We traditionally have not had any shortage of workers no matter what. Yeah, they want to have something to clearly they want something that they can LiveUpTo, or something that they feel good about doing. They like values and principles and they want to change the world. I always laugh because people say, Oh, I don't know how you guys work with those people.

Tony Scott: Every time they bring them onto the job, [00:27:00] they're like trying to figure out, I've been here for a month or two months, and I'm not the CEO yet. And and they would laugh, everybody laughs. I'm like, yeah, isn't that great? That's the best possible thing ever, you can have. I'd rather hold somebody back a little bit and work with them to help them get there than to have somebody who just doesn't want to go anywhere. Like you can't do anything with somebody who's very happy just doing their one job and that's it. And they don't want to make it better. They just want to get their check. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not for our company. So everybody can choose differently, and you run your company the way you run it, and both work. It's just really what you choose to do, and what method you choose to go by. So we choose this method. It is the Great with that. I think during COVID, it was very strange. We're such a group driven company. We have big parties in our parking lot and it was very strange. And I think people started to realize too, that there's, they started to live a little something, a little different culture outside. They were spending more time at home, which is great more time with their family and their [00:28:00] kids. Work changed a lot for us. So we noticed coming out of that, that it we've changed. And so we were having a harder time when people would jump in to join in the team to go attend a really big flood or something like that. And so we realized that we, something changed in there. So we've been working diligently to figure out. What did we lose? Where did we lose it? And how do we get it back? And really it was, we'd lost a bit of that community feel with the people and there'd been some changes, people, some people left and went into different things. We had all these new people coming in that were very excited.

Tony Scott: And so we realized that we don't. Get something good for them. They're not going to stick around if they don't see it happening. So we really had to focus on key leaders spend a lot more time focusing and including them in on the new things that we're doing. We're always doing something new and different. And so really focusing on those key leaders for us, it's especially in the flood department, we've got four key leaders. And so understanding that those people buy into what you're doing. So we really made that new, smaller team, [00:29:00] and it's become more important. So how does that affect the people?

Tony Scott: When we advertise for staff we talk about our green initiatives and the recycling and the electric vehicles. And we talk about that's our culture. Hey, if you don't like that, don't apply, right? I think if you look at our website, there's this, we have this. Weird video about the team and yeah, it's not going to appeal to everybody. But we've, when we put that stuff in our ads, we found that it was like 230 percent increase in candidates. So real candidates, ones that you're going to probably interview because they're a good candidate, not the ones you throw away, 230%. And so we actually have group groups come in six or eight people at once to apply for the job.

Tony Scott: So we have group interviews because we have a lot of people applying. So it's not really, I think that's a great outcome. Never went into it for that reason, but that's the way it's worked out. And most of those people want an opportunity to make a difference, which is a great, it's another way that they were bringing in people that are already aligned with the values and we're just going to help them live it out. So we make some [00:30:00] pretty big goals. I heard. We're going to change, we're going to elevate the restoration business in Canada.

Tony Scott: And we didn't know exactly how, but it turned out we're, we've trained, I think, 65 different companies on how to recycle and how to document it all. So it's, it can happen, right?

Tony Scott: And I think that inspires people to seeing wins for sure. I had to learn too, to talk about the wins things that we were doing, cause I wasn't very good at that. I never believed that you'd go out And talk about the facts that you're doing good things. It's, I don't know, it just wasn't me. But our marketing guy, Trevor Burns, he came in a while ago, a young guy.

Tony Scott: And he had all these ideas. I've got to talk about it. I've got to do this. And but it's right. If you, I think the difference is always that you do first. And then you can talk about it. They don't talk and then do.

Tony Scott: And so that's something that he said that I really think we live by. As long as we're doing, and it's actually what we're doing, we're really just talking about what we do. And it allows other people to see that there's an option for them to come join a company that really does care. And. It gives back to the community. And we were [00:31:00] involved in so many things that, if people like it, they're going to like it.

Tony Scott: And then people who want nothing, no part of it, that's fine. We don't have to shorten the process of which to sort out whether they're going to be happy here or not. And that's really where we get to. We get that idea that we want to create a great place to work. Everybody says that we have a plan. Like we know exactly how we're going to create a great place to work. I've always said I have to work here. I want to have a great place to work cause I'm coming there every day. So we really focus on that. And then the other part of it is that we try to once we get those people in that, that are going to be in line with that, then they create it themselves.

Tony Scott: And so we try to say what's best for the employee. And I know that sounds crazy. And some of our people, if we get a new HR, a new person came in, that's managing a group and they talk all the game and then they're like at what point did we penalize them? At what point did we do this? And say we think about what's best for them. And and they're like, what does that mean? So trying to explain it is actually quite difficult. But if you think about it like a parent and a child, what's best for the child. You want them to have a good career. You want them to find [00:32:00] something they're passionate about.

Tony Scott: You want them to do something great. If that's what they want or, and so if you think of it that way, you think of them and employee the same way that you should care about them in the same way, it won't be as much but you shouldn't care about their outcome and are they achieving their goals and how are they getting there? And so for that reason, that's why we say what's best for them. Sometimes what's best for them is to work at another company. Because we're never gonna be what they want. Way more structure than you're gonna get here. They want rules that they other follower don't follow. You're gonna be unhappy here and sure enough, people are right.

Tony Scott: When they are, we just talk about it and say, it is probably not the best fit. And it's we're not changing who we are and you're where you are. There's going to be some great companies, happy to give you a great recommendation with all the skills that they have. These are sometimes are very good people, good at what they do, but it just doesn't fit with us.

Tony Scott: And so we try to give them that opportunity, but that's why we say, we do what's best for the employee. In COVID we knew that things were changing fast and nobody really knew what was going to happen. So the first thing we thought was what do those employees [00:33:00] need? They need to know that they're getting the same paycheck every month deposited into the account the same way. Their biggest fear, am I going to be able to pay the mortgage, the rent? Am I going to be able to put food on my table? Am I going to pay for my vehicle? Whatever. So we said to everyone who came out, one of the first things we said was, Everybody gets the same amount of pay, no matter what. Deposit into your bank account every week or the same day every two weeks, same as it always has been, nothing will change. So put everybody at ease. Now that was relying on values to do it, but it was crazy. Didn't realize how bad it was going to get. But fortunately, other things kicked in from the government and things like that, that made it doable. But those are the things we think about that was based a decision based on what we say, which is we do what's best for the employee,

Tony Scott: even when it's hard, especially when it's hard,

Travis Martin: wow. I've got two rapid fire questions I wanna throw you away. Just to wrap things up here, Tony. First would be, I'm curious, do you have any slogans, timeless truths, like North stars that you've really held onto? Over the course of your life, that's helped [00:34:00] fuel your leadership and how you think about leadership.

Tony Scott: Yeah. I think it's probably, um, think about passion about people and I think really that one of those things is, do what's best for the employee. Like it really, it answers so many of our questions and the other part of it is. Just trying to focus on, we say that, if you see another person as a human being, it makes it much easier for you to empathize. So we, when we say, we talk about leading with empathy, and I think that for us, really, that means, understanding that other person, no matter what they're doing or saying at that moment, they're a human being that's going through something. And if you can get your head around that, now you're focused on how do I help them? Not, I'm offended that they're yelling at me. In our business, you have to have that. So just seeing somebody as a human is really our immediate go to when somebody is struggling. Who is that human, right? Who are they and what are they going through right now? And why do you think they're having a hard time? If you can get there, you can really get to that human part of it. And now you can deal with them and really help them [00:35:00] in a way that is truly empathy, is really seeing somebody for who they are and the troubles they might be having and putting yourself and understanding that. So for us, that's that just see the human in the moment, right?

Tony Scott: It it helps in this business. Sometimes you get some people that aren't grateful for all the things you're doing. But there's always reasons why, right? They're just struggling with a disaster that upsets their home. And we just like to say, if the family's coming over for the big deal is that all the family's coming over for Easter dinner or something. And and now all of a sudden it's a week away and you've had a flood. Yeah. That's going to be pretty disturbing for, a grandparent who's, who doesn't get to see their family a lot. So you, if you can put yourself there, you can, Put up with a lot of grouchiness, or even the odd loud thing, or even a swear word, and that wasn't it. So those are our guiding lights. We probably have a lot of them, but we're not really too focused on slogans. We try to stay away from that. Those are our guiding principles. Like I said there's a lot. And as you get into it, those change over time. And that's the other thing I would say is that being open to, [00:36:00] what's relevant now. It isn't necessarily relevant 10 years from now. Changing that. yeah, so we're also a social purpose company. We try to, everything that we do is focused on certain things that drive us. Would answer questions by one of the things we have is that, we care for the planet. And anything that we do has to match up with one of those. So caring for the, does it care for the planet? Does it build community? Is it best for our employees? And so those are, that's how we govern ourselves, right?

Travis Martin: Last question that I have, I'm curious if you've received any advice or feedback or lessons or anything from a leader in your life, that's really stuck with you over the years.

Tony Scott: Yeah. I was terrible at taking advice when I was young because 26 years old, started a company. I thought I already knew everything. Why would I ask anybody? Um, I probably garnered more from books than anything else. I was very moved by seven habits of highly effective people, beginning with the end in mind. Sitting back and thinking about what you're going to, [00:37:00] where your life is going to be or where you want it to be. And I think that in the book it talks about what would somebody say at your funeral. And I think to me that would be significant. Other than that, it was little things. My stepdad had a lot of interesting things that he had little sayings.

Tony Scott: And and so there was lots of different things that he talked about, but it's hard to really say there was like somebody who said one thing that changed my world it was more of a slow movement. I was a slow mover. I was a slow learner when it came to that. I'm really into it now. And I wish I had started that earlier. I think that would be my one big mistake is I didn't do enough of that listening to that. , I don't really have a lot of, moments of advice, but I have read a lot of books. It's hard to keep them every, all the little things straight and many things have impacted me. But yeah, not a lot of I don't really have a hero. I don't really have anybody that kind of you know, affected me that way. My grandma was probably the biggest influence in my life. So And she introduced me to reading. I was a big reader, but she had I inherited a giant collection of books when she passed away at a young age, so I was reading, philosophy and, political books and things [00:38:00] like that probably since I was nine years old.

Tony Scott: So not a lot of things remain and I know it's always good to have something, quick to say a

Tony Scott: little saying, But, I think if I was to say there was a, I'd be making it up and that would never be me. I just don't want to, I don't want to have one for the sake of having one. It's just not really who I am.

Travis Martin: Yeah. Hey, Tony, I think the proof is in the pudding, right? Which is, I see you're seeing fruit in how your staff think about their work and in just the way that. A lot of the problems that many people in the restoration industry are struggling with attracting and retaining staff and motivating workers.

Travis Martin: You've found a way through that through some outside of the box techniques. And I think that, that is, to use a Canadian analogy is really skating to where the puck is moving when it comes to how Gen Z workers are looking, what they're looking for. in a job.

Tony Scott: Yeah, they want a clear path to know how they're going to get to success. And if you can lay that out for them that's the [00:39:00] key. But you have to be living it in order to do that. And we have that system where everybody, you don't have to ask for a raise. We have a system where they, as they learn new things, they immediately automatically get wages increase. So things like that, where they can see how they're going to, where they're going to get to, that's all they want. It's not just, they want to run the company. They just want to know how to get there to run the company.

Travis Martin: Yeah. This has been an awesome conversation, Tony. I really appreciate you giving us your time and sharing these insights. And I'm excited for more people in the restoration industry to start to adopt some of these approaches. And I think we're going to see some of the struggles that we've experienced over the last five, 10 years, as far as motivating staff, attracting and retaining workers.

Travis Martin: We'll start to get a handle on those. And I think we'll start to see some of those challenges, hopefully begin to fade in the rear view mirror. So I appreciate your insights today.

Tony Scott: Oh, you're very welcome. And I think you're bang on there

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That's a wrap on this episode. Huge thanks to Tony Scott for [00:40:00] sharing his journey and for showing what's possible when a company is built around passion, not just process. If this conversation challenge the way you think about leadership, culture, or what your team is really capable of, then hit subscribe.

However you're listening to this podcast to make sure you don't miss what's coming next. In case you've been wondering how to take the wisdom inside your team's head and turn it into systems your entire company can use, we've got something for you. Join us for a free live webinar on April 10th at 1:00 PM Eastern.

It's called Unlocking Tribal Knowledge, how Your Experts can Easily Build Your Company Playbook. We'll show you how to capture what your best people know and scale it across your entire team. Check the show notes for the link or head to try knowhow.com/resources to save your spot. Thanks for listening to the Restoration Playbook [00:41:00] Podcast.

See you next time.