The Secrets to Successful Team Development featuring James Terry

James Terry: It's not about events. It's not about these huge, impactful, big expenses that that don't necessarily drive. It's how you treat people every single day, every week, on a bad day, on a good day, no matter what. It's consistently saying, your good mornings walking around the office being present.

That to me, drives more culture than free coffee. Kate Volman: I am so excited about this episode because I am joined by James Terry, a third generation plumber who turned a family trade into a thriving company with more than 50 team members. James is the founder and CEO of GreenTeam Building Services, and has been leading and shaping the plumbing industry in South Florida for years. Kate Volman: But what I love most.

About him is how grounded, generous, and people focused he is. Today we're gonna talk all about leadership, what it really takes to build a great culture, and why it's essential if you wanna grow and scale your business. I think that you're gonna gain a lot from this conversation and definitely think differently about leadership and the trades. Kate Volman: James, thank you so much for joining us today.

James Terry: Oh, thank you for having me. Kate Volman: I am excited for this conversation because you and I originally connected on LinkedIn, and so I've kind of been watching you from afar building your business and how you talk about your business, how you talk about your team. It is so clear that culture is important to you and putting people first as you grow and build. Kate Volman: And so this is gonna be a fun conversation and I would love for you to start by sharing a little bit about your background and what inspired you to start your business.

James Terry: Absolutely. Uh, so when it comes to being inspired to do something, I think a lot of times in the world of entrepreneurship. There's also this feeling of there is no other choice. James Terry: And that's pretty much what happened to me because I worked for my father as a kid, learned the trade through my dad, and then joined a couple of different organizations and eventually found myself in a position where during the 2008, 2009 financial crisis with the mortgage bubble, I was terminated from a company where I was living, uh, in the owner's house and essentially was forced to, to start a company.

James Terry: I had two choices. Either sit in the unemployment line, which in 2009 did not look a very promising thing to do, or I could start my own business. And essentially at that point in time, I had already been doing some side work in the trades. It's a beautiful thing where you can still replace faucets for people and garbage disposals and do things like that to get a little bit of cash here and there.

James Terry: But essentially I just took a side job and turned it into an organization and a lot of it was outta desperation. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs are, are built that way because they're forced. To make a tough decision. You know, like a lot of people talk about jumping off the cliff and building the airplane on the way down, and that's pretty much how the whole journey started.

Kate Volman: So a lot of people, when they do have their backup against the wall, it's either go try looking for a job or starting something. I mean, not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur. There's a lot of skills you have to develop. It's a lot of mental toughness.

So when you started it, I mean, what did that look like? Kate Volman: What did that feel like when you first started and did you envision that you were gonna build this big company? Or what was your dream when you started the company? James Terry: Yeah, I think my dream was to just to be able to pay my bills and raise a family and, and do the normal, traditional things that everybody in life wants to do.

James Terry: You know, have kids, have a nice house, have a nice car to drive. And a lot of it too is I did grow up rather poor, you know, not poverty, but pretty poor. We didn't have much growing up. I was raised in a barn.

Practically. So a lot of the struggles essentially just come from, you have to just have faith sometimes you have to have this blind faith that things will work themselves out. James Terry: There's no guarantees with anything in business, and we all know that. But having the faith to just be able to take one day at a time, it does require a certain mindset.

You do have to have a certain level of mental toughness. And it's like the Mike Tyson thing. You just gotta be willing to wake up and get punched in the face every day. James Terry: And if you're willing to, yeah, it, there are moments that do suck and they come hard and they come often, but there's a price for freedom and that price is pain.

And to me, it was never about money. It was more about just having the ability to control my own destiny, to make my own decisions, to do the things that I wanted to do that I thought were right. James Terry: You have to live with those decisions, right? And you're gonna make mistakes.

And there's a lot of scars. If you can't see them, they're there. And it's like anything. But my thing is, if you're the person, and I was this person when I was an employee, I was always telling someone in the business how we could do something better.

James Terry: Hey, why do we do it this way? This doesn't make any sense. Why are we using these paper tickets? How come we don't estimate this way?

And a lot of it is just that curiosity. And so what I would say to most people is. If you're that person, you probably born to be an entrepreneur, right? If you're always the person that wants to fix everything, whether it's a restaurant, you know, like you walk into a restaurant and you're like, wow, this could be so much better if X happened, or imagine if the waitress did this or said that.

James Terry: It's just a whole different level of, of just, I don't wanna say control, but you do. You, you want a certain level of control of your life, and especially now with the economy the way it is, everything's just always. Difficult to navigate. You know, it's uncertain, right?

There's uncertainty all the time. And, and for me, I would much rather be uncertain but in control than uncertain. James Terry: And I have no idea if I'm gonna be let go tomorrow or what's gonna happen or how the future's gonna look. And to me, when you can be in control of the future, yes, it's scary because you have to be the, the decision maker and you have to live with those decisions.

But the freedom far outweighs the pain. Kate Volman: In the first couple years as you were building you, you already talked about there's a lot of times when you get knocked down and you have to keep getting back up. What did that look like as far as when did you make your first hire? You started to build your team, and then how did that change your philosophy on like company culture and when did you recognize that that was a really important piece?

James Terry: Oh yeah. Three trucks. Three trucks is about the point where. In order for you to maintain and and continue growing, you have to be able to get into the office.

And again, but this also goes back to the skillset, right? You have in the trades a lot of people that are very good tradespeople, but maybe not so much business, right? James Terry: Maybe finance or marketing or sales or strategy or operations isn't your expertise. You have a choice at that point, and that choice is you can either hire people to fill those voids where you don't shine or you don't have those skills.

Or my true suggestion for anybody is you gotta learn by fire, like it's trial by fire. James Terry: I call it like if you come the GreenTeam, you're gonna get an MBA in six months and running a plumbing company because we empower people to make decisions on their own, and we allow people to make mistakes unless you actually go out there and just do the stuff. Because as a business owner. You're never gonna be able to make true decisions in your business unless you truly understand every part of it.

James Terry: So yeah, you might wanna hire somebody for marketing, but you still have to have a basic idea of how to do it and what the goals are and, and some of the basics I failed in at, we added, at one point in 2015, we added electrical and air conditioning to our business. And by 2016, we weren't making any money. James Terry: The business was failing. And I ended up, we cut the entire company in half from 30 people down to 15.

And that was a very tough moment. I sent three or four trucks back. We had to lay off five or 10 people. We cut the company in half.

But the reality was things weren't working. And sometimes it's like you gotta know when to fold them. James Terry: You gotta know when to say, Hey, this isn't working, let's try something else. And that's really hard to do.

And, and the, the tough decisions are probably the hardest part of this business, but. Well, from my experience, the hardest conversations and the toughest moves are the ones that drive the most change, right? James Terry: They're the ones that you're really avoiding because it's uncomfortable and the person's been with you or they're not performing, or this is happening or that's happening. But those real tough ones are, that's the breakthrough moment.

When you make a big change, it really sucks, but to me, it's more important to appreciate the climb up the mountain than the view at the top, because the view at the top is a very, very short period of time. James Terry: And it's just gonna be, you know, you gotta climb again the next day and then you gotta climb again the next day and the next day. And the view sometimes may only last 15 minutes, but you know, you do have to appreciate both. You have to embrace the view for the 15 minutes that you have it.

But to me, I think any real entrepreneur who's a bootstrap startup, I'm not talking about somebody that raises millions of dollars and starts a tech startup. James Terry: That's not what I talk about, but. If you're in the trades or you're starting a business, I don't care if it's a laundromat or a restaurant, you know what it's like? You have to grind, you have to show up every day.

You're the backup plan for everything else. You are the plan B, C, D, E, F, all the way down. So there's a certain level of work ethic and respect for the work ethic and, and just enjoying the ride. James Terry: Because again, it's that saying of like, would you rather work?

I'd rather work 80 hours a week for myself than 40 hours for somebody else. That kind of goes along with it. Kate Volman: I just thought of, uh, I love asking people like, you know, that question of do you love to win or hate to lose? What would you answer?

Kate Volman: How would you answer that? Do you love to win or hate to lose? James Terry: I've embraced hating to lose because to me, losing teaches lessons. Winning.

Winning is a reward, but it doesn't teach lessons, like, yeah, okay, what did we do right? Oh, we had a good month because we did X, Y, and Z, but like, what did we do wrong? James Terry: Those moments are where the most growth comes from. You know, you don't really grow when you, when you win.

That's just a moment of reflection. I've had good months and really bad months and good years and really bad years, and I've definitely learned the most from the bad years. Kate Volman: What did you learn and how did you lead your team when you had to make such a massive layoff? Kate Volman: Obviously you talked about uncertainty and if you have to lay people off now, not only are you a little uncertain, but your team is uncertain of, am I gonna lose my job?

What's gonna happen? What does that mean for me? And that's a very interesting place for a leader to be, and especially during the pandemic when a lot of leaders were dealing with tons of uncertainty and unclear of what was gonna happen, having to lead in that uncertainty. Kate Volman: How was your perspective?

Like, what did you do in that situation? James Terry: I like to call it wartime leadership, and I think wartime leaders are people that are very successful long term. It starts with transparency. If you're just doing backroom deals and you're having conversations behind closed doors all the time, if you can bring transparency to the table, that's the biggest thing is just telling people exactly, Hey, we're going through a tough time.

James Terry: Hey, we're having these issues. Yes, it's important as an owner to remain confident, but it's also important to be vulnerable because if you're not vulnerable, you, you just, you're looked at as like a robot or machine. I don't care what business you're running, if you're trying to grow a company. There was a saying a while back, if you're not almost going broke every four years, you're not really building anything.

James Terry: Right. You're just kind of like maintaining lead with transparency over communicate. You know, we call it relentless communication where we're just always talking about what's going on, whether it's at a service meeting, a projects meeting, a different departmental meeting. It is, it's hard, but you have to be able to just show up more in those hard times more for your people.

James Terry: And um, yeah, it's not an easy thing to navigate no matter what. I don't care who you talk to, it's, it's always the same thing around the holidays. What stops cash flow, right? People stop sending checks.

People aren't going to work every day. Everybody else is taking the time off and it's like, well, the bills don't stop. James Terry: The bills don't care what holiday it is or what long weekend it is. And so there's a lot of navigation around that.

So I think when you really look at it, if you can embrace pain and you can handle it, then entrepreneurship is definitely an avenue. If you're somebody who gets anxiety with little things or has trouble dealing with like small problems, you definitely don't wanna be in, but maybe you're a great number three person, right? James Terry: Maybe you're a great vp, maybe you're a great CFO, maybe you're a great CMO. There's so many opportunities for people to do different things.

They don't have to be the one that's responsible for the entire organization. Kate Volman: Yeah, I mean that's part of, with people is the, this idea that everyone's got their, everyone's got their superpower and I think really incredible leaders. Kate Volman: They see that superpower in other people, even when they don't see it in themselves, and then they're able to develop that and feed into it. So you have about 50 team members.

So it's always interesting when people make their first hire and then they have three and then five and 10. And once you get up to, you know, 20 and 50, that, that's a lot of people to lead and a lot of different. Kate Volman: Personality styles, a lot of communication styles. So what was that like?

How was that like building and like, what does that hiring process look like for you? James Terry: I'll be honest, completely honest. The process didn't exist in the beginning. Kate Volman: You're not alone, James.

You're not alone James Terry: in the trades, especially when you're looking at hiring people in the field. James Terry: It's a very difficult thing to do. We did promote a lot from within. We would take somebody who was proven.

Who was reliable, who was responsible, who was consistent, who had a good personality, who always had a good attitude. We would typically promote those people eventually to come into the office, whether it's a project management role, estimator role, whatever it was, we try to promote from within as much as possible. James Terry: It's really just a, it's an ebb and flow. It's like a high tide and a low tide.

There's moments where you're so busy. And you go to hire a bunch of people and then two and a half months go by, all your projects get done and all of a sudden now you have an extra five people with no work to do. How are we gonna keep these people busy? James Terry: It is definitely, there's no easy task in growth.

I would say that a lot of it is controlling your finances in a way where when you have lulls, you can take a guy and say, okay, hey, let's work on organizing the warehouse. I mean, I can't tell you how many months where it was like, Hey, we, we staffed up. And then all of a sudden, revenue would drop, or opportunities would drop, something would happen. James Terry: A big job would come, come to an end, and then it's like, Hey, you've got these quality guys that you've had for six months.

Hey, go in the warehouse. Let's work on organizing. Let's work on the yard. Let's work on the warehouse.

Let's do things that that will keep them busy. But there's also a balance there too, because now that's going directly to overhead. James Terry: So it's definitely not a fun thing. That's why you have to have systems in place for things like sales.

Some things like maintenance and service for predictable revenue versus bigger high ticket jobs, which don't always come. So a lot of it is, is data too. I mean, we're in a position now where we have two major data analytics people that work for us that their main job is just to get data from our software, create reports, provide reporting and background information on all the things so that we can make decisions. James Terry: Data drives decisions in when you're in the trades.

I know that we aren't typically known for like this super technologically savvy people, but the reality is that if you are in the trades and trying to grow a business, data is your number one best friend. And if it's not it, you need to learn how to get there. James Terry: But what I'm also learning as we've made these changes, especially with software and all these things, you gotta find a way to get the data out, to make the decisions on your business. 'cause it's like.

You know, it's kind of like macronutrients, right? You could be on a diet, but if you're not getting enough protein, you're not getting enough carbohydrates, you're not gonna reach your goals. James Terry: Well, a business is the same way. You can't just say, I wanna lose weight.

You have to say, okay, I wanna, I need this much protein, this much carbs, this much fat, and now that I'm gonna get to my destination, a business is the same way. Certain departments are gonna be low margin, certain departments are gonna be high margin burger, fire, anything like that, right? James Terry: They make a hundred percent margin on their soda and their ice cream, but the burgers are only making 30% margin because that's what gets people in the door. So there's a lot of that knowing where you make money, knowing where you need to be lean, knowing what the market will take.

But that all goes back to being able to keep people employed over long periods of time when you may not have a full scale position for them yet, because. James Terry: There's a lot of that. I've hired people that I didn't even have a job for 'em, but I knew, I saw the personality, I saw the accountability. I saw maybe someone has like a, maybe a, a marine or military background that has real structure.

I'll hire those people and figure out what to do with them later, which is a risk for everybody. James Terry: But at the same time, it ends up, sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. I do believe that it is also a numbers game. You're gonna have to go through.

You're gonna have to kiss a lot of frogs to get your princes. Kate Volman: How would your team describe you as a leader? James Terry: I would probably say I'm all over the place because some days I am, but I'm also very willing to jump into any problem. James Terry: I love problem solving, so I love when someone brings a problem to me.

Usually problems don't get brought directly to me. They get like in a circle, I'm like, can you give this to James and tell him about this? And then I end up figuring out what's going on. But I would say I'm consistent.

I am very confident. James Terry: I'm a presenter when there's a big problem, customer service wise, I'm always getting involved because sometimes you have to make sacrifices, you know, whether that's a revenue sacrifice, whether that's a, you know, you're just doing something to keep a large customer happy. I would say comfortable in chaos, because there is a lot of that with our business. James Terry: I mean, we're 24 hour emergency business that sometimes you look at our daily schedule and it's like sleeping in, sleeping in, sleeping in, sleeping in.

Because all these guys worked all night. They worked from 10:00 PM to five in the morning because we're working in an airport or we're working in a, an IT building or we're working in some kind of data center. James Terry: And it is, it's chaos all the time. Kate Volman: Being calm in the chaos.

That's a great skillset to have and something that entrepreneurs need. There's lots of chaos and when you can be that calm in the storm, that's an important thing for especially for, for people to see. Because so often people are not able to do that. James Terry: And I think recognizing that you are reaching your maximum capacity for chaos is important because there are some people that should just say, okay, I only want 10 employees.

I only want 15. 'cause I can promise you the rewards don't always get bigger with the bigger company. You know, it's not always, revenue is vanity and profit. James Terry: Insanity is the most.

Accurate statement you can ever say to a business owner. But if you chase the right things, you know you'll be successful. But if, for me, my big thing is, is my family taken care of. I want my employees to have flexibility, right?

If something's going on in your life, you, you need to drop your kids off every day. James Terry: You need to come in a little late. Like, we're very flexible with things. So that's another thing I think is important for if you wanna grow.

But Kate Volman: how do you. Work with your team to help develop them and so that they're able to gain new skills and to continue to grow personally and professionally. James Terry: A lot of it is logical coaching, right? James Terry: A lot of people don't wanna be over complicated with spreadsheets or 10 page documents about how to do something or a process.

Gary V taught me this back in the day, but the clouds in the dirt, right? And the clouds is what your vision is for what the company is gonna become or wants to become like, Hey, I wanna be a billion dollar business. James Terry: Whatever your big hairy goals are, and the dirt is the trenches, it's the everyday in the warehouse, in the trenches, whatever, whatever business you have. It might be in a restaurant, you're in the kitchen, right?

If you can find the balance, I have to spend time in the dirt, whether that's in the warehouse, whether that's in the field, whether that's figuring out what's going on with jobs. James Terry: As an owner, you cannot spend all your time here. You have to work in the middle, and you have to sometimes get down in the trenches because this is where the action is. This is where you're really gonna get information because the bigger your business gets, the farther away from the truth you're going to be.

James Terry: And unless you're truly in the mix, in the dirt and in the middle, playing in the middle. You're not gonna get the information you want. I found some inefficiencies yesterday by asking a question about one piece of material that was laying on the floor, and it was literally like a domino effect. Okay, this job was approved on November 14th, it's December 2nd.

James Terry: Why haven't we done it yet? Well, this, this, this, and this happened. Okay, well this inefficiencies in this department between these people and communications. Where's the breakdown?

Where's the bottleneck? If you don't take the time to ask those questions and get in the trenches, you're never gonna figure those problems out because. James Terry: It. Your employees, while yes, they're loyal, they're not gonna think like you, they're not gonna think about the little inefficiency that causes that job to take 10 extra days.

Well, at the end of the day, I'm financing all this stuff. A hundred percent of our customers are net 30, 60, 91, 20. So I'm financing all these projects. James Terry: I put the money off of the material, I put the money off of the labor, and I hope that I get paid in a decent amount of time.

But the reality is the faster you can speed that transaction up. It's all about efficiency. Efficiency is is the key to any business in being successful, no matter how small or big the process has to be. James Terry: Efficient communication is everything.

'cause as soon as there's a breakdown, that's when things fall apart. But I would say back to the original question is, how do I train people is I get in the dirt with them, right? I say, where are we at with this process? Show me how you do this.

Or if I don't, I'll have my general manager do it right. James Terry: My general manager will sit with somebody, get all the information, and then bring me back the summary or the report of, Hey, this person is struggling because of A, B, and C. Okay, let's give them more support. This person needs more work, they have more bandwidth.

Let's give them more things to do. Okay, Hey, we're gonna put 'em in this department. James Terry: So I would say if you can find the middle ground between the clouds and the dirt, that's where all the magic is. Kate Volman: Yeah.

I like that. It's, it's, I mean, really it goes back to j. Asking questions and engaging with people, you know, ask the right question, and you don't even know what's gonna show up. There might be answers to questions that they didn't even really know there was a problem happening, and all of a sudden you uncover something and they would never have known to even ask about it or bring it up or ask a question about it.

James Terry: It's a hundred percent true. If you don't ask that question, you don't get involved. You're never gonna get E. Everyone always says, this system works great.

This system works great. But you know the results. Do the talking. Kate Volman: Yeah.

Oh my gosh. I think it's really cool that you are so passionate about this industry. Kate Volman: I know there's lots of misconceptions about the trades, and I would love for you to share what are some of those misconceptions, and I know you're working towards helping people see your industry a little bit differently. James Terry: Yeah.

I think when people think of plumbers, they think of overalls, a plunger, and someone's butt crack. James Terry: Right. And it's like some guy with a pair of dirty work boots with a poop stain on his knee. And that's what people's perception is sometimes.

And I think as a whole, everybody knows at this point in time that the trades are really the biggest deficit that we have. And that, I mean, they're saying that they can't build data centers 'cause there isn't enough electricians. James Terry: So like you can AI all you want, but if there's no electricians building that data center, you're not gonna have this at scale. But it goes back to.

When I was a kid, probably 12 years old, 10 years old. This was back in the, in the eighties, late eighties, early nineties. I remember going to the supply house with my dad and I would watch these guys get outta their trucks. James Terry: They would have matching outfits on white khaki shirt, tucked in pocket protector, all different kinds of sharpies and, and their glasses.

And they had their, their knife and all their stuff and all their tools. They just, to me and, and it's true. If you go back to the 19 hundreds and you look at photos of people working on job sites, they were wearing suits, they were wearing tuxedos with caps. James Terry: These people were dressing like they were in finance, and I believe that that can make a comeback, right?

I think that we've just lost this generation of like show up in a t-shirt and cargo shorts and a tape measure, and you're just a contractor now, or you're an engineer, or you're a plumber, an electrician, or an HVAC guy. James Terry: Putting on a blue t-shirt and jeans with a ripped hole in them doesn't justify to me what a trait is. If you look at every profession, and I explain this all the time, if you were getting ready to have surgery and the doctor walked in and he was wearing like some beat up joggers and a t-shirt, you'd be like, are you sure that you're the guy that's doing surgery on me today?

James Terry: It's the same thing when a plumber walks in a building or HVAC guy walks in a building, you that guy should be representing what professionalism looks like. And that's how you look, how you talk, how you act, the way your truck is. And to me it's a whole package. You can't just be well dressed and then your truck is, is unorganized and it's beat to crap and you can't find anything.

James Terry: It starts with taking pride in the trades and I think a lot of people have lost that. They just look at it like as a paycheck when to me, and, and it's also contractors. A lot of contractors don't have this level of accountability for their people. It's like they don't care what they look like as long as you get the job done.

James Terry: I believe that the people that treat this like a, like a five star restaurant or a five star hotel, and if you've ever been to any kind of high level hospitality event, you know what it feels like. Everything is the way it's supposed to be. You know when the, when that guy pulls that little silver thing out of his, out of his little thing and he starts wiping the breadcrumbs off your table, and all of a sudden your, your plate's back to where it used to be and everything's there, the silverware comes back.

James Terry: Every course is the same. It's consistent. I believe the trades needs that kind of mindset and we've lost it unfortunately, and I think it'll come back, but I don't know, and I'm just passionate about trying to lead by example and hold people accountable and try to be that company that always has uniforms on that always has clean trucks, that it's always organized, that I try not to judge people, but I'm sorry. James Terry: People are going to judge you based on how you look, how you act, and what your truck looks like.

If some guy walks in and men, again, our customers are Fortune 100 clients, we're walking into law offices that are paying 70 to $80,000 a month for rent. Their carpet is worth more money than the truck, so you have to protect it, right? James Terry: We always, we put special things on the floor, on the walls, on the ceilings, and that level of preparation and care. That's what these kinds of customers come to expect.

That's what really separates us from a lot of other companies, is that. We roll out the red carpet, we cover the walls. When we do any work, we put something down on the floor every single time. James Terry: We don't put tools on countertops because that countertop is made outta quartz and it's probably $30,000.

So it's having that pride in your image, your product, the service delivery, and everything that you do that I'm really obsessed with. And I think it also comes back to when I was working for my father, he ran his business off the side of a cardboard box. James Terry: Here's a material list. This is the address, here's the phone number, go to this call.

Stuff everywhere, unorganized. And there's nothing to say that that's bad, but you can learn by seeing it the wrong way, just as much as you can. Seeing it the right way. And from my experience in all the companies that I've worked for.

James Terry: There's just always been this, this question of like, why don't they do it better? Why is it that we don't have high standards? Why is it that organization and inventory and the way we look in the image just doesn't become something that people care about? And so I'm just trying to change that mindset.

James Terry: Construction's a different animal. We're focused on service maintenance and retrofit, which is more so we're in the customer's face. I'm not on a job site. And in those perspectives you don't necessarily always need to, but at the same time.

It's a trade. It's a craft. It's a professional service. And no matter what, no matter whether you're walking into a veterinary's office or anything, you expect people to look a certain way and, and I'm pretty passionate about it.

James Terry: Clearly. I just think I've spent like 10 minutes, no, Kate Volman: I can't tell at all. No, you can tell it's so cool because I feel like this is such an opportunity for the trades to make that comeback to kind of help rebrand a little bit because even as you were talking, you're talking about making sure that the guys are covering the floors and making sure that they're not putting tools on the, on the countertops and everything. Kate Volman: And as you're saying that, I'm thinking.

That all needs to be conveyed to the team. Like everyone on the team has to have that same mentality of this is what we do when we show up. This is how people expect to be treated, and this is how you can go above and beyond. And when you're instilling that in them, then you know that they are gonna do other things when they're there that you didn't even think of because they just have the mentality of customer first show up.

Kate Volman: Understand and know what they're trusting you with and what and how they expect things to happen. And then you get to show those little surprise and delight features that maybe everyone on your team has their own little, again, their own little personality. Things that they say, making the client feel, uh, appreciated, making them laugh, like all those little things. Kate Volman: Those are the things that you remember.

Like I'm thinking when people come to my house to fix stuff. I remember the guys that showed up with a smile that treated me well that were like kind and fun. And there's these little things that you can show that, but you can't necessarily teach that. So the fact that you're hiring people sometimes just because, Hey, I know this person is a good person.

Kate Volman: You can't teach someone how to care or be passionate about something. You can teach them the trades. James Terry: That's, yeah. And that's a culture, right?

That's part of the culture. But it's funny that we spent a bunch of money on a, on a business coach and a consultant that came in and we like laid all the stuff on the table and we talked back and forth for months and we tried to come up with like, what's our motto, right? James Terry: What are we gonna say about a company? It's exceptional service, no exceptions.

That's it. That's the tagline, because exceptional means you went above and beyond in every manner. And no exception means there is no exception. There's no excuse on why it didn't happen this way.

So. Probably spent way too much money trying to figure that out. James Terry: But you know, that's the way it goes. Sometimes you gotta work through it.

It's, it's a culture of service delivery. Kate Volman: It's the quote, I say it all the time that quote about, I would've written a shorter note. I just didn't have the time. When we're trying to get down to like the mission statement or a bit like.

Kate Volman: You have to throw all the things out in order to get that one little clear, succinct message. So you were recently featured on the South Florida Business Journal's, fastest Growing Companies. Congratulations. That's so exciting.

Thank you. I know that you got to be part of this round table discussion with other leaders that all were also awarded that and got to share being on that list. Kate Volman: What was that experience like? Like you're in a room full of leaders, they're all part of fastest growing companies.

What did you talk about? What are some of the insights that really stuck with you? I would love to hear what that conversation was like. James Terry: So what I really enjoyed was getting perspectives from all different kinds of businesses.

James Terry: There was medical psychology company, there was insurance companies. There was an aerospace company. There was a bank. I was probably the only trades person in there, which which is kind of nice 'cause we have our own little niche, but.

The information was a lot about culture. It was a lot, a lot of it was about managing employees, managing expectations, onboarding. James Terry: It went back and forth on, on a lot of topics. I would say some of the biggest takeaways for me were just people that talked about, for instance, a guy who had 120 employees says he has a a 10 minute coffee talk with every single person in his organization.

And that really hit me like, man, that's something that I really need to try and do more of. James Terry: Because when you're intentional with your time and you really show people that, Hey, I just want to, I just wanna talk for 10 minutes, just tell me what's going on in your life. Doesn't have to be about work, doesn't have to be about anything. It just connects differently.

The other one was a letter, basically like a monthly letter from the CEO of a bank saying what's going on in the organization? James Terry: Any kind of changes happening, like back to transparency, right? People just want to hear from the leader and know what's going on. There was all kinds of topics that came through.

I would say the culture was a big one. And it's funny because a lot of people went around the room and said, well, I have Christmas parties and I have, you know, annually we do this event and then we do this, and then we buy drinks and we got pool tables and we got free snacks. James Terry: That stuff is great. But the point that I drove home with that whole table after everyone got got done with their accolades of how many cool events they have every year.

It's not about events. It's not about these huge, impactful, big expenses that that, that don't necessarily draw. It's how you treat people every single day, every week, on a bad day, on a good day, no matter what. James Terry: It's consistently saying, your good mornings walking around the office.

Being present, getting in the dirt with people, right? Instead of just being the guy in the clouds in the corner office with his door closed, looking out at the city every day. It's truly being intentional with the way you speak to your people, with the way you communicate with your actions and, and how you take action. James Terry: How you show up to meetings and all these different things.

Being involved in the business, in the everyday decisions, that's the hardest part is a lot of people, they're in the business and then they wanna work on the business. You have to find the balance in the middle. And a lot of what we talked about was, was controlling the culture, not just by having free snacks in the, in the break room, right? James Terry: Because that, that's a great feature, but that's just a perk.

That's not a culture. You can't control culture that way. And you know, I think I really drove home my point of it's just how you treat people every single day. You're not gonna just have some fancy party at the end of the year and everybody's gonna be like, oh my God, this is amazing company to work with.

James Terry: No. Because to me it's, it's a human part of running a business, which, you know, we've had people with high risk pregnancies, we've had people who have had sick parents. We have had people who's been in all kinds of different situations where we have to work around their problems. Right.

Or challenges. We, we should call them. James Terry: And if you're an owner and you're not flexible with stuff like that, you're gonna express to those people exactly the way you feel, which is, I don't care enough to be flexible for you. And that's a mistake a lot of people make, I think, and you do have to find a happy medium.

You can't be like, kumbaya, come and go whenever you want. James Terry: But you also have to say, listen, if you're performing, if you're doing your job and, and you're productive and you're a, you're a well-respected employee and teammate, then I'm gonna be flexible with your, with your knees. That, to me, drives more culture than free coffee. Kate Volman: You hit the nail on the head.

Those things are perks. Kate Volman: That is not culture. And w wrote a book called The Culture Solution and he shares the six principles of a dynamic culture and, and part of that book, he shares that. It is not about it.

It's not about the, the perks. It is, you know, making sure people know what's expected of them. It's hiring right people. Kate Volman: It's, you mentioned over communication, over communicating the plan, like all those are the pieces that when you have all of that together, you have a coaching culture, you, they feel supported, all of that.

Then people actually wanna come to work. They feel like, oh, James actually cares about me. Not that I just can do the work, but cares about me as an individual, as a human being. Kate Volman: And we're not this professional self and this personal self.

We're one person. We don't change. And so for leaders to recognize that, so that, that, that makes me very hopeful. That was so much of the discussion among leaders as, as people are building and growing.

Because that, I hear from so many people, just the lack of leadership in their organizations and they feel frustrated or they're looking for a new job or then they kind of feel like they're. Kate Volman: There isn't a place where they will feel appreciated, but then we get to meet people like you and we know that there are leaders that are building great company cultures and want their people to grow. James Terry: Just to touch on that as well, it's also important as you get bigger and as you get more employees, that your director level people, meaning managers that are responsible for say, five to 10 employees, or even two to three employees, you have to figure out.

James Terry: And you have to get your divisional leaders or your department heads to have the same mindset, right? Because you're not gonna always be there for every single little micro decision. But those micro decisions, that's the real truth. When the micro decision comes out like, oh, hey, we docked you two hours, uh, for going to the doctor the other day because you know, we're whatever.

James Terry: It's like, why did you do that? You did that because you think that's the best thing for your department. But that's a micro decision that leads to. Big problems down the road, which is like flexibility and openness and hey, people are gonna have these issues.

Um, but it's, you can't be the only person in the organization that thinks that way 'cause it's not scalable. James Terry: And I've reached points where we had to have serious conversations with people like, all right, why are you making these decisions? And unfortunately, you do have to learn by mistake. And sometimes what'll happen is you'll get a disgruntled employee, Hey, I'm not happy with the way my manager's treating me.

James Terry: And as we all know, people don't leave companies, they leave managers. So having your managers and leadership team and executive team trained up to, even if they aren't sure of the answer, having some kind of a system where like, hey, if you're not sure what to do in that situation, come to me. Ask me. I will guide you.

James Terry: But you can't be the only person responsible for the culture either. Kate Volman: Yeah. No, it's not a, not a one person job. Um, alright James, before I let you go, is there.

A book, a podcast, a resource, something that you're really, that, that you felt has helped you this year in your business? James Terry: I really follow, I follow Jordan Peterson and Simon Sinek. James Terry: I think those two are really big influences in not just psychology. Jordan Peterson is more on the psychology side.

Simon's more on the business culture side, but to me, if you follow those two guys. There's so much good content coming from both of them and even from your personal life. Like both of them impact your life, not just in business, but like decisions with your family and having hard conversations and being open. James Terry: To me, there's a lot of breakthrough that, that I got from that, not just in my business, but in my personal life too.

And I think that if you're gonna, if you're gonna follow someone, if you're gonna be on social media, you're gonna be on some kind of a platform. You're gonna spend time outta your day consuming content. James Terry: It should be something that is like more than just impactful in one area of your life should be something that like you can take home to the kids. There's a lot of times where I, it's hard for me to explain something, so I'll just put a Simon Sinek video up and I'll be like, does everyone understand?

James Terry: Okay, I really understand now. It's also, you have to find people that are very logical and direct, especially in the trades because. Like, I'm not downplaying the trades, but like big words don't, aren't good for us. Yo, some big nine 19 letter word that I don't understand or I can't use.

Jordan Peterson does do that a lot. James Terry: He's got some big, crazy words in there, but how can you be logically direct so that we can really be impactful? Because a lot of times I'll take what someone says and then even further make it more logical or simplify it so that everyone can really consume the information. Kate Volman: All right.

And what is your dream for GreenTeam Building Services over the next three to five years? James Terry: So our goal is to have an office in every major metropolitan market in Florida. Right now we've been successful with the South Florida market and the Tampa market, but we definitely have clients that are calling in Jacksonville and and Orlando and some of these other places in Florida. And that's our big goal right now.

James Terry: And we don't necessarily tie that to. I don't tie goals to finance, I tie goals to just things that matter to me in the sense of, I know they're attainable because we've spent so much time building clients. And, and that's, again, if you can as a, as an entrepreneur or business owner, pick the clients that will take you with them in all the places that they go. James Terry: Right?

If you're just chasing one person, one restaurant, or one individual consumer, it's a very hard way to scale a business where. For like our, our three biggest customers are Coca-Cola, Amazon, and the Fort Lauderdale airport. Well, Coca-Cola's got 40 locations throughout Florida. Amazon's got just endless amounts of distribution centers throughout the state, and those are opportunities where I can go with them.

James Terry: So when they open up a new distribution center in Jacksonville, I'm there, Nobert, I'm there. But that's, that's the big goal right now is, is one major metro in every city in Florida or every major metro in Florida. And then eventually we will expand into some kind of a nationwide deal. Kate Volman: All right, cool.

Kate Volman: Well, I'm excited to watch you continue to build and grow. However we can support you. We are here for you. You're a remarkable leader at the way that you talk about your business, your people, how you're building and growing.

So I'm happy to know you. So thank you so much for coming on the show. James Terry: I appreciate the opportunity. James Terry: And I think you also deserve some accolades too, because of the things that you talk about.

We're on the same page and. I think it's a lost art culture is a lost art in business. I wouldn't be here if you didn't send me the book and got me reading and got me thinking and got my mind moving and even made some changes internally in our office based on the book. James Terry: So I'm looking forward to also getting to know you guys and, and learning a little bit more about what we can do together.

Kate Volman: Awesome. Thank you so much James, and thank you so much for watching. We hope. I know, I know there's something, something that James said that is going to shift the way that you think about culture your people.

Kate Volman: Maybe it's an opportunity for you to take some time to have that little five minute coffees with your team member to start asking them about their dreams and more about what it is that, that they want. Because when you know about your team members' dreams, they're gonna show up at work differently. So thank you so much for being here and for listening. Kate Volman: Until next time, Lead with Culture.