The Restoration Playbook Podcast

Jonathan Dew
We put the customer first every single time. It makes everyone that was part of the job part of something that's bigger than a job. Money aside, we make a difference. And I think people getting that sense of making someone stay better is probably one of the most important factors of the job. And it's celebrated here in the office. We talk about it during the morning meetings because that's what matters here. And it's like we're part of something bigger than just the business.

Paul Silliman
Hi there. I'm Paul Silliman, and you're listening to the Restoration Playbook Podcast by KnowHow. Today we're joined by two special guests from Restoration 1 of East Baton Rouge, and I can't wait to share their story with you… so I won't!
There are some jobs that hit close to home, and that's what happened this summer when Jonathan, an estimator, responded to an AC pan overflow. The incident left 50 years of the homeowner's hard work tracing his family lineage back hundreds of years soaking wet. An entire closet full of the only existing copies were drenched. But Jonathan was determined to save what he could. He successfully dried every single document. Not one sheet had to be discarded. On top of that, he took it upon himself to frame the family's coat of arms and gift it to him during this difficult time.
Jonathan, can you tell us about what happened that day?

Jonathan Dew
Yeah, it seemed like a normal call out, and of course it was. At the end of the day, were all ready to go home, and David told me that AC pan had overflowed and it was affecting a closet. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to get out there, sketch this out for the guys. This is going to be an easy one, quick situation. We'll get them rolling and everything's going to be fine. Well, they opened the closet door and the ceiling had already collapsed. Insulation was all over stuff, water was all over stuff, and I just see boxes and shelves and shelves of just paperwork and kind of instantly overwhelmed. I didn't know what it was at first, but we started pulling it out.
The wife told me what was inside the boxes, and of course at the same time it was pouring rain outside, so I kind of had to make some decisions right then and there. My team was able to get all the boxes out of the closet and into the kitchen area just to get them out of danger and out of getting even more affected. And I kind of at that point, decided to get all those boxes the very next day while it wasn't raining, back to the office and try to figure something out. When she told me that it was genealogy records from when I did the research in the paperwork, it was actually from the 1100. So it was like an insanely long research process. And honestly, my dad is big into genealogy.
I'm actually a history major, and I knew that kind of stuff requires an insane amount of research. It wasn't just whatever the meat, 21 and me, 25 and me I don't know, 21 and me kind of research. It was literally dives and dives into everything. So I didn't want that. It kind of tugged at me to see what I could do to fix the situation.

Paul Silliman
Yeah, and that's one thing. Going out to any restoration call, you never know really what you're getting into, especially when here it's an AC pan. You don't really know what you're coming into, but finding those kind of precious heirlooms or things that really someone can't live without, these aren't really replaceable, you know? Jonathan, how did it feel being able to gift back that family's coat of arms and some of that information that they probably thought was lost at the time?

Jonathan Dew
The whole kind of story was kind of a hard one. That the job. It was the husband. He actually ended up passing away. But after we finished our work, however, getting to be involved in this process, as I said, I was a history major, so I did snoop a little bit while I was looking through these files and trying to dry them out. I was really intrigued by a lot of the articles that he had from the newspapers and photographs he had that stuff. I'm intrigued by history. And so when I was looking through this, I was seeing blueprint family trees that he had been doing throughout the whole process. I think I found the first one he made back when he was a kid. And so, obviously, this was something that was huge in his life, his entire life.
And when I found the coat of arms, it was kind of like the staple of everything that was going on that was his family. You could tell he had a lot of pride with his family and his lineage and everything like that. And I felt like when I found that piece that was some artist must have drew it up and made it nice for them on some nice paper. I knew that was kind of like encapsulated everything in one document. Asked Marissa if I can go to Hobby Lobby and grab a nice frame for them. And the homeowner told me that her husband was actually brought to tears when he saw it. The next time when I went to their house to kind of check on things, it was sitting right there, right next to the entryway, the frame.
And it meant, I think, a lot more to them than I even knew that it would, which was also something that made me obviously it made me feel good. But at the same time, that was the least I could do in the situation were in. And it was pretty impactful to not only the husband and the wife, but also the kids that were there during that time of grief, I guess.

Paul Silliman
Jonathan, thank you for sharing that and doing what you could to help their family during a challenging time. I know going above and beyond during times of chaos is in your team's nature, which is why I'm excited that we're also joined by Marissa Hofstadter, Vice President of Restoration 1 East Baton Rouge, who owns the company with her husband. With a range of responsibilities across the company, she joins us to talk about how they cultivate a work environment that encourages going that extra mile like Jonathan did. So Marissa, you know, what does this say about your workforce to take that extra step and really put almost the needs of that customer really front and center there?

Marissa Hoffsteader
It shows that our team doesn't see Restoration One as just a job or just a paycheck. It truly is about the people in front of them every single day and those people's families and lives and careers that are all being impacted by this situation that they're going through. So our team really sees the bigger picture and they truly care about these people that they're helping.

Paul Silliman
And that's huge because it's not just a job. I mean, we are coming in, we're helping people at their time of, you know, Marissa, I know you wanted to highlight some of Jonathan's exceptional contributions. What stands out about Jonathan and what kind of makes him that asset to the team?

Marissa Hoffsteader
Definitely his heart. He always does the right thing even when no one is looking. And usually more than he. He's not only the story that we're talking about right now, but he won't even come to me. I'll just be talking to him and he'll have a gift bag in his hand and I'm like, where are you going with that? And it's one of our clients favorite movies because he found it out during a conversation with him and he's going to gift it to him. Or he comes to me and he wants to spearhead getting together a gift or a card for one of our team members or our clients who've had a family member pass.
Know, it's really hard to find people that deeply and truly care about what they you know, we appreciate Jon and he's such an example and a leader to the rest of our team.

Paul Silliman
And it sounds like going above and beyond, really building that relationship with the know, that's something that's ingrained in your culture. That's not just one person doing this. You can tell this is something, you know, it's how you stand out from what everyone else is doing. How does that weave into your restoration? Kind of going that extra mile like Jonathan did. How does that kind of impact your team and your client relationships?

Marissa Hoffsteader
I'll say that we have clients who rave about Jon and his communication and his accessibility. They never feel like he's too busy for them and he might have ten claims on his desk that he's working through or five adjusters that he needs to call. But he's extremely patient, and he provides the information that they're asking for. And that goes a really long way, because these clients that we're serving, this might be a once in a lifetime situation for them, but it's easy. To forget when we're seeing damages from water, fire and mold every single day, that we really have to be that guidance and that patient know to these people who are going through a terrible.

Jonathan Dew
Experience, Paul, I'm going to piggyback off something you said that typically it's the worst, not going to say the worst day of their life. Obviously people have worse things happen, but probably the worst day that they're having this year of when we pop into the house. And I'm typically the first person that gets out there to do the inspection, do the assessment. And it's really easy to see a job, to come to a job. And it's not that bad, however, because of everything else we've seen, however, it's that bad to that customer. And I have to remind myself of the words I use and the way I communicate. Because obviously, if it's just a hallway in a bathroom, it's like, this is whatever. We can knock this out, be no problem.
However, there's a lot of inconvenience when it comes to having this process happen in your home, especially if there's a lot of rebuild that has to do it, especially if it's in a kitchen. There's a lot of things going on that's going to inconvenience the customer and it's going to make their next few months pretty tough. So kind of every job that we start, it's kind of like you have to refresh of how you're going to go into it and be there for the customer. Because although it's not as bad as what you've seen probably that day, it's really bad to them.
And you just have to keep that in mind that you're going to have to be helping them with this weight that they're about to carry on and how to move forward with it and just be there to answer questions that you might think are obvious. But some people have never gone through a situation like that and it's important to let them know that they can lean on you for answers even when it comes to their insurance and their policy and different things like that. Sometimes it's the first time I'm seeing something like this and I have to pretend like, yeah, I know that we can and I know that we'll figure it out. But there are situations that they have to have confidence in us that we're going to knock it out for them and we're going to do a great job.

Paul Silliman
Culture is a hot topic right now, especially in restoration. Everyone, whether they have a good culture or bad culture, everyone has a culture and these kind of acts and the way you go about doing things with homeowners. Have you seen this as something that's maybe spread throughout your team or almost like leading by example? They see how these clients interact. They see the reviews, they see how people communicate. How do you see that kind of like kind of spreading through your team and kind of making that almost a base standard for you guys?

Jonathan Dew
I can answer that. I would say that our company as a whole, we put the customer first every single time. When I'm leading the morning meetings, when I have my inspection and I have my notes, there might be a situation where someone has a disability or there's a really young kids or someone has a wheelchair or something like that. We make that known off the bat so that there's no surprises when people get into there. And also we like to celebrate successes with going into a home and doing a great job with it. And then it makes everyone that was part of the job part of something that's bigger than a job. And you can have any job.
You could be making tons of money, but at the end of the day, you have something that you can go home with, that you know you did the right thing and you know that you helped somebody out. And money aside, we make a difference. And I think people getting that sense of making someone stay better is probably one of the most important factors of the job. And it's celebrated here in the office. We talk about it during the morning meetings. There's a lot of encouragement going on, and it's not just like, oh, busy, busy, where that gets swept under the rug of how to really show how anybody in our office, any of the techs, if they stepped up and did something that was slightly above and beyond, then it's talked about and it's recognized.
And I think that's really important, not just because it's like, given a treat or something like that, but it's like because that's what matters here. And it's like we're part of something bigger than just a business.

Marissa Hoffsteader
And I would just add to that it's celebrating everything, making everything a big deal, because it truly is. But it's tying it back to our mission, the restoration. One mission is when disaster strikes. I'm sorry, I said that terribly wrong, that we believe restoration services should be people focused when disaster happens. We treat our customers like our neighbors, and we lead with passion and expertise to bring order in times of chaos. So anytime we're celebrating a new review, we tie it back to the mission. What part of the mission is being lived out in that know, something someone does, something extraordinary like Jon does. It's celebrating it. It's making it a big deal. And it's contagious when other people know their managers, supervisors, other technicians, leaders doing those things. It's just something that infiltrates the entire team.
And when they know that is the standard and that is how we expect to treat our clients, not just what's expected, but even more than that, then that's when you truly have a people first culture.

Jonathan Dew
And I think what's really great is sorry, go ahead. I was going to say I think what's really great is that something and I don't want to just pump us up or anything like that, but something that seems like it's like crazy and extraordinary, it's something that we get to do. It's like habitual now. It's like a behavior that we've all become a part of because that's what's not expected for a bad reason. It's expected because it's like that's who we are and that's what we do and everybody likes being part of that kind of, I would say greatness. I mean greatness in a way of like that. This is more than just going to someone's house and tearing out some drywall.
It's like there's a greater thing going on with the relationship that we have with our customers and the experience they have being around us and not just us just coming into your house and tearing things out.

Paul Silliman
And I think that's very important for everyone listening is how do you build almost that tribe because it's so easy in restoration to just focus on, hey, we're behind on these jobs. We have too much going on, we're extremely busy, there's a storm coming through, maybe we lost. Realistically though, being able to celebrate wins. Celebrate what you're doing well. Build that culture, build that tribe of, hey, this homeowner just went out of their way. I gave them maybe a piece of heritage or a piece of that home that they thought was lost forever back and just made their day. And being able to kind of create that to where like you guys said, it's a standard, this is how we do things. And almost creating that to where it's not looked at as oh, somebody went and did this. This is our base standard.
This is how we like to operate. And it's something that, you know, kind of what attracted you to restoration one, what made you really want to kind of get into this kind of work.

Jonathan Dew
It's a super long story, but I'll just say the really quick part of it. I moved from New Jersey about six years ago. I don't even know how long, probably longer because I've been married for five years. I moved from New Jersey in 2016 in the wintertime. I was a pizza man and I also tried to start my own business with leather work and stuff like that, but I got lazy and just like delivering pizza. So the 2016 flood happened down here and this was the first time I've ever experienced something like an event like that. Up in New Jersey. You'll have your blizzards and you'll have freezes and stuff like that. I never knew one person that had their basement flooded with water or something bad that happened. I never grew up around excess water in people's homes.
It just wasn't something that you see down here as much. So the flood happened here, and I was like, my brother lives down here as well, and I've kind of grown up doing volunteer stuff here and there. I was part of the Boy Scouts. I did missions work and stuff like that. So I talked to my brother. I said, there's a lot of people with a lot of things going on right now, like, how can we help? And we literally just got in his car when the water started receding. And we would just stop at a random person's house that had like we saw them pulling stuff out of their house and we said, can we help you? We weren't doing it with an insurance company. We weren't doing anything. We just were like, what can we do right now to help you?
And they said, well, we'll pull all our stuff out of the house. Well, the next day there was a church down the street that was actually taking lists of people that were in need and pretty much dispersing people in the community. These are the people that need help right now. So me and my brother would go and then we tore out wall. We gutted homes. I've never touched a power tool before this. We were just ripping out. I was like I kind of like punching through walls, ripping stuff out. I enjoyed the destruction part. That's just kind of me I like working with tools. I felt like a man. Like working with them, it felt cool. But then I'm also helping people out, so it was like, that's weird.
Like, I'm kind of destroying this person's house, but at the same time were helping fix it. But then they were also really grateful. But the thing that hit me the most was everything. They were having us pull outside of their house and put in the front lawn for a backhoe to come and just put it into a dump. And I'm just like, this is their lives. And I actually remember one story where their house flooded and she had this book that her grandma passed down to pass down whatever. She thought it was the only it was like something of America. Like it had songs from Yankee Doodle in there and a bunch of other things, like American Heritage kind of stuff. And she felt like this was like the most valuable book ever because it was handed down from generation.
She thought it was, like, the only one in existence. Well, I went on Amazon and found it for like $6 or something, and I bought it and put a little note in there and gave it to her and said, hey, I happen to find a copy. Like it was some crazy thing that I did. And she started crying, and I was like, what the heck? Because that was like, the most important thing that she had to represent the generations in her family. And I was like, that was $6. It was like, nothing, really, but it made a difference, I guess. I got into restoration because it's like, you can do things and help people out. You're not even doing that much, but because of the time that they're in at that point, it means way more than what you're actually doing.
And I didn't grow up wanting to work in restoration, but I grew up wanting to help people. I grew up wanting to be involved in my community. And this is the career I have now. And I love it. You get to work with people, help people, meet them where they're at that point of time and make a difference for just doing your job. So that's kind of what gravitated me, was literally the flood in 2016 pushed me in the direction of I could see myself doing that.

Paul Silliman
And it's funny, everyone has that unique story on how they got into restoration. And I have to point out there is something about that demo therapy that just makes you good, ripping out some, know you feel good, you get a little workout in. But I'm curious, you know, people listening to know the first thing they're going to say is, okay, how do we replicate Jonathan? How do we find more of him? I'm curious, like, Marissa, what are those keys you're looking for? How do you kind of find those key players and people to your organization to really drive that message home and really create that culture?

Marissa Hoffsteader
Well, I just want all the listeners to know that you can't have Jonathan go find your own Jon. But no, at one point we hired based on industry experience, and that didn't go so well for us when we started hiring for character, that made all the difference in the world. Like Jon said, he didn't have much construction experience, not any specific restoration experience. He did have some when he got to restoration one. But what we do is extremely difficult mentally and physically. It's 24/7, it's unpredictable. It's not your banking hours. It's not sitting in an office all day for everyone on our team. You've got to find someone who truly loves serving people deep down to their core, because otherwise that's not the candidate for you, that's not the employee for you. So it's really just finding someone.
I mean, Jon is a perfect example. He just wanted to help people. He wanted to make an impact. And we hired him in a different position initially. And then it's just figuring out what people's strengths are and where they're going to thrive and where they're going to have the most impact. And then we moved him from that position to the position he's in now. And he's amazing at it. He has that talent, that ability to connect with people. And I mean, hey, he even talks to adjusters all day long and he still has adjusters that love him. So to me, that's pure talent.

Jonathan Dew
I did want to add that actually they met me because my older brother they were at an event, my older brother met them and my older brother knew I was looking for a job where I can move up in and stuff, like connected. He gave me David's number. I called David and they asked me to come in for an interview. And the interview was like we sat there and talked for 2 hours and it was barely about work. It felt like were talking as if were friends already. And after that interview, I was like, I definitely want to work here. And it ended up everything worked out, but it was all a crazy chant by chance.
I think they were about to put an Indeed thing up and try to find people, but they held off on it for a little bit and then the stars aligned and we got to meet each other and everything went from there and it was a coincidence. But at the same time, we're all where we're supposed to be.

Paul Silliman
And I know the next question most people listening would say be like, you know what, I understand. Find that good character. I'm curious, what are those action steps? All right, we found the good candidate. They have those traits we're looking for. They have that personality. How do you help enable them to learn that restoration side to help amplify that personality? Kind of what are some of those steps you guys do?

Marissa Hoffsteader
For us? A new hire immediately needs to know and understand our mission and values. Everything that we do, every decision that we make is tied back to that. It's having your strong supervisors and managers and leadership that is leading by example every single day. They're not going to know everything day one or month one, but it's constantly exemplifying. This is what we expect. And those little things come through. Reading the reviews out loud, the team votes for employee of the month every single month. And they go around and they say why they think a team member should be employee of the month. And it's usually because of things they've noticed them doing. Stepping up, being a leader, helping out clients, just all immersing them in that mission and making sure that they understand the standard.
We can teach you everything else about restoration, but someone has to have that servant leadership inside of them and the want and the drive to help people because otherwise it's not the candidate for you.

Paul Silliman
That's huge.

Jonathan Dew
I'm not in charge of hiring or anything like that. I'm not too involved with it. However, the one thing I think that is awesome about this company is that there's opportunities. People don't come to work every single day being like, I'm going to do this and I'm going to become the boss or I'm going to become this manager. It's like there's opportunities throughout daily situations of how you interact, how you communicate with the customer, how you communicate with the rest of your team. And that goes almost more noticed than the mundane things that the hard labor work because there's so much more to this industry than, like I said, tearing out drywall. That's not what we're about.
We're about doing what's best for the customer every single time, even if that's drying things out without tearing anything out, which that's always what we're going for. However, we are always focused on those individuals that stand out based on them. You can see how they kind of figure things out and how they communicate and how they don't have to be told. You can see the natural ability that they kind of do something on their own. And that's what I think goes the most noticed with the leadership is you can tell when someone comes in and it's not just a job for them and it's more of a career and a livelihood of like, this is what I'm doing and this is what I'm proud of when I go home. I feel successful when I go home.
And I think that's what's great about this company is that stuff doesn't go unnoticed. But it's actually pretty easy to notice it when it happens. There's things that someone will do that was really awesome that they did, blah, blah XYZ because it's really easy to go slightly above and beyond because every single job is a little different and you can see that someone's taking the initiative to do something and there's a lot of opportunities and then they will promote them. Heck, they've created new positions for people because they deserved to be put into a position that's where they are meant to be in order to lead more efficiently with the rest of the team. There's a lot of opportunities and it's recognized of when they have a certain skill that this is where they're going to fit in the best at.
And I think everyone kind of has their own little drive of where they want to be in the company and what they want to do and there's a lot of routes to get to that point, if that makes sense. Sorry.

Paul Silliman
No, absolutely. And it truly sounds like you guys have a very open culture. You're led from the top down. You guys have open communication, you celebrate those wins, you make it a place you want to come work and that's frankly what a lot of people are trying to do. Kind of wrapping up here. I'm curious, what are some of those actionable items that we can maybe give to our listeners who are looking to improve their team, improve. That culture or celebrate wins, kind of what are some quick items that people can start looking into or really implement in their team to help kind of build up that culture and help those employees understand how the importance of going that extra step or taking care of those customers are?

Marissa Hoffsteader
I think the most immediate impact someone can have is finding out what motivates their people. So if that's just a quick survey, having them write it down, but you'll be surprised that money is usually not at the top. So for our team, our top three motivators are family, professional growth, and pride and work. Those are our team's top three motivators. And so once you've identified those motivators, it's giving them the opportunities to be motivated by those things and feel the success from that. So, for example, in family, it's asking, how did the ball game go this weekend? How was the hunting trip? What are your goals for your family? Everyone on our team knows each other's spouse's names, kids names, what they're involved in. And it really is a family like culture that we have here.
Many of our employees hang outside of work, then we have professional growth. So whether it's performance review or it's just a casual one one conversation, it's finding out what are their goals professionally and how can we help you get there? So whether it's additional IICRC certifications, whether it's some sort of leadership or sales training, whatever that is, and following through, there are so many times that team members get disgruntled because they were promised something, and they keep waiting and waiting, and it never happens. So following through with getting them to where they want to be, and sometimes you find out in those conversations that someone's interested in a totally different position. Maybe there's an opening coming up or a new division being added, and you find out through those conversations that's something they're interested in.
And then lastly was the pride in work, which makes my heart very happy. And that's just through making it a big deal, reading those reviews out loud, tying it back to your mission. You can start recognizing people right away, right now. You could walk out of your office and you could go recognize somebody for doing something great or amazing, highlighting them, putting them on your social media, doing employee of the month, celebrating birthdays, just all of those little things that make people feel appreciated. Because someone who feels appreciated is always going to do more than what is expected.

Jonathan Dew
I also agree with that. And another thing, when I'm estimating, a lot of times I'm looking through the pictures from the whole job, I might notice something was done in a different way or a better way, even hanging a containment that might have been weird. I make sure to bring the guys into the office, whoever was on that job, and I'm like, or if they're kind of new and this is the first time they had to do it on their own. And it looks great. I'll make sure to bring them into and say, hey, that was really good. That's our standard of how to do this and that was awesome that you were able to do that without whoever being here helping you out with that.
I let them know that, A, you're qualified to become something more within this company and also keep up the good work kind of thing. And I think that gives them a little bit more confidence and the fact that they're knowing they're at least doing that right gives them a chance to keep on doing better and improving in other ways. And when I see the creative stuff, we'll put it on, even in the morning meetings, we'll put the picture up on the TVs and say, this is what we want to see. This was great job. Whoever was involved with it, that was a weird place to put it and you guys knocked it out. This was a hard thing to dry and look how you guys set this equipment up. I wouldn't have thought of that. Great job.
This is what it needs to look like from the rest of the team. So you find those little things of what your team is doing, especially individual members, and really build up those small things that some individuals are better at because that's kind of their niche of what they're doing. And other people can come and ask them for advice on how, hey, I saw that you did it this way. Can you show me how to do that? And it kind of builds a value and builds a purpose in that individual because they might be the best at putting up containments, but someone might be the best at making really good cuts on drywall. Everyone is the best in their own way at something different. And to highlight that kind of lets the person know that this looks so good because you did it.
And it's not fake here. It's not like it's the pizza party thing that, oh, good job, team. We had a great quarter. Everyone gets pizza. It comes from the heart from our ownership too, of like, you can tell the passion when they speak to us and when they're encouraging us and motivating us. It's not just a I'm going to motivate them so that we can make more money. You can tell that it's genuine 100%, and that's where it needs to come from every single time. Because we're all adults, we can read through that stuff. We've been told everything our whole lives. But when you can tell it's somebody speaking with passion and being genuine, then it means more to you to want to make it a better place for everyone.

Paul Silliman
No, that's awesome. That top-down leadership, having that open communication. This is exactly what you want to see in a restoration company, guys. This was a fantastic conversation. Just curious for any of the listeners, where can they follow you guys? Where can they find more updates from Restoration 1? And if they want to reach out and contact you guys, where can they get a hold of you?

Marissa Hoffsteader
So we have Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. If you search Restoration 1 of East Baton Rouge, you can find us. We are always putting updates before and after photos, community service, where we're at, what we're doing. We do employee of the month, birthdays, all of that's on there as well as employee contests.

Paul Silliman
Awesome. We'll put all that information in the show notes below. But thank you guys for coming on today. This was fantastic and can't wait to see what's coming next from you guys.

Jonathan Dew
Thank you.

Marissa Hoffsteader
Thank you Paul.

Paul Silliman
And thank you listeners for joining us today. We really hope you enjoyed this episode. If you're hungry for more insights about the restoration industry, feel free to check out our past episodes or head to tryknowhow.com resources for more data-driven insights from the KnowHow Research team.
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