 Hey, good afternoon everybody Tom Stewart here with Liz Trotter. This is smart business moves. Hey, y'all Monday It's my brother's birthday or one of my brothers, you know, I have a lot of brothers so one of my brothers my baby brother's birthday today What do you do to celebrate when you're you're you guys had like family birthdays? What does that look like? Um happy birthday to hope you're having fun You set a card or I should do that. That's a great idea Tom Maybe I'll do that for the next brother. Yeah now You can do something digital, right? Like one of those singing Happy birthday things where some celebrity is like singing something and yeah The name in there. I like those so maybe I will do that. I Uh, I was thinking I would send a potato. Have you seen those send a potato to anybody? No, what does that what would mean potato like a real? Yeah, it's a potato Hey Denny and that's why it's funny because why would you send somebody a potato? Yeah, and and they can they'll put a message with your potato. I think they wrap wrap the message around your potato with rubber band How much does it cost to send somebody a potato like $15? We're in the wrong business, I know it's cheaper than flowers so and I think Potato would definitely be the way to go with most of the members of my family I think that they would appreciate a potato better and more than Like cookies or flowers or anything Wow, I love sending cookies I do love sending cookies too. Yeah brownies. I like sending brownies a lot of people love brownies Well, you know people get brownies or cookies. They kind of like oh boy, you know I mean there's something you can do with those you get a potatoes like Wow, how did you know? I will tell you how thoughtful. I'll tell you why if you feel like a potato After they eat their brownies, they never mentioned the brownies again You send somebody a potato. They got conversation for a lifetime My sister sent me a potato one time when people are talking about birthday gifts. They never forget that potato They can put a stamp on a single flip-flop with an address on it and That does not shock me at all Rochelle. It just really doesn't Hey, didn't eat since it's just us on here us as growth that fellows Did you hopefully got the link to my kelin Lee I I did tag you all right So I had heard that oh we have done like public speaking exercises I've seen this done before where you have to take a potato and introduce the potato to you know, everyone in the audience and Explain what makes that potato special all its unique attributes and you know kind of what what? accomplishments and life stories and what you make that potato so awesome It takes some imagination to make a potato sound exciting well I'm I'm thinking that one of the things that we have done in the past in interviews is to tell people that they can Pick up anything in our office and Give us 20 uses for it But I might like the idea of handing them a potato and asking us how they could use that potato instead That's a kind of a good idea. I might I might try something like that To I like to mix it up a little That's a that's the exercise we do in Boy Scouts actually when we're teaching them leadership skills and we're talking leadership So, you know Nice That's a great idea about that family potato. I do like that Tom that is a Great little segue there and you can explain why we are all alone here Today, I'll let you Let's go tell a story though Richard just got back From a place out in New Mexico called Philmont. It's a I guess it's a place that Boy Scouts go go camping over the summer and for the last two weeks Ian and a bunch of his friends were like wandering around the wilderness out in the deserts and mountains of New Mexico and they survived Thunder storms and hail storms and the temperature gets, you know, really hot in the day and it gets really cold at night and We flew back Saturday and my my daughter, you know, she's been home And we went over to pick him up at the airport and we're driving back and he's telling all his stories about getting pelted with hail and so forth and My daughter and I took the dogs out for a walk Saturday and it rained on us and we were telling that story and Wasn't very he started off like it was really sympathetic And my daughter was telling the rain story with the dogs and she figured out that he was really punking her I can totally picture that happening in your family Yeah, you're not getting anything in that family Bears and all kinds of weird stories Oh, yeah, it was awesome. I mean your teenage boy. I mean it couldn't be any better, you know, I Passed on on that experience. I was given more than one opportunity to go and it's like, you know, I'll set out They were seeking referee refuge one night with a really bad storm in some abandoned building That was full of rats Oh, it's a trying to survive Yeah, I know you do a lot of the weekend things the three-day weekend things with the Boy Scout, which I Yeah, that's that's not as quite as rugged, you know And I'm within a cell phone call away from, you know, some emergency medical help if necessary You're not having to eat rats No I mean, I have I've taken like wilderness first aid classes, which are really I guess they're okay But they really don't prepare you to do wilderness first aid All they really do is bring you to a level of understanding of all the really bad things that can happen when you're more than two hours away from medical help that You know, you don't you don't finish that feeling better you just have more things to worry about you're like, oh great. I'm so glad we're going now. Yeah No, they have places where they like throw food at them and a lot of it's like the it's all the dehydrated stuff and Like like I you don't understand the visual that's going on in my head right now No, they use the dehydrated stuff and you have to get like water out of streams and cook it in little, you know Boil it in little stoves and you know a lot of like granola bars and stuff like that You know a lot of junk food actually a lot of candy and cookies and whatnot because you're supposed to have At least like 3,500 calories a day when you're doing stuff like that. So a lot of it is they're just trying to Make sure that people don't lose too much weight I could so easily eat 3,500 calories a day and I don't even have to eat garbage I just like to eat the food. I do was thinking when you were talking about that Tom I do remember Derek talking about the story where he went I can't remember where he went so and you'll probably remember you're the where guy and He ate his Dehydrated foods with no water and He had to be taken to the hospital. Do you remember that? Yeah? Yeah, I do and he was by himself Hiking and he was tired. He was hungry and didn't feel like Preparing his dehydrated hydrated meal properly. So he's probably dehydrated himself and Eating the food with no water and he had to like He had his phone with him and he was able to find out where the closest road was and he had to make his way Like a mile through the woods if I recall the story correctly to make it to a road that EMS could pick him up Yeah, but he actually had to be taken out of there by ambulance. I was like, oh my gosh That's scary and all by himself and he'd been out there all day long was like nine hours or something You know as those big five gallon pales now the dehydrated foods, I don't know if everybody's seen them Like for the proper kits. Yeah. Yeah. And so Tim is loving these things. I think we've got like six of them. I'm like We're feeding everyone apparently if something happens Do you know something that the rest of us don't I mean should we all go out? I do not nothing zero my brother is always Heavily prepared for anything and so I think that's what happened plus You know opportunity Costco has these these kits and they're really inexpensive. It's like wow Does Costco know something? All right, we're buying the we're buying the kids They know if they make them people will buy them and that's kind of what they exist so true fact We are talking leadership this this month and We had a guest scheduled King Carfagno, and he is really an awesome guest. He's Done smart business moves at least one other time. I Were calling he's twice. That's what he did like back to back didn't he was so good He had to come back and finish the the topic and He's fun and and informative and He's like a solo cleaner and his business model is He actually Performed he doesn't really have an employee is the last I talked to him. He cleans himself, but he gets wacky He has started Hiring people and then teaching them his solo cleaning method So that he can or even more money. Yeah But you know he it's it's it's it's a it's a different model and he gets a price point that most of us could only dream about But there's a whole methodology goes through and He was going to be sharing some some some leadership secrets with us, but You know my bad I guess I didn't Get the link out to the show to him until about I don't know five minutes before we were going live and Liz forgot to remind him. So I Didn't forget. I don't ever remind anyone. I just plan on that He that text going out the reminder, but maybe I should We're gonna try it We're gonna see if we can move some things around and try to get him here Wednesday. If we could That being said, you know part of part of leadership is planning and looking ahead and preparing for for the unknown and Here we are with the unknown because we didn't know that we were gonna be doing this without what Robin is out here But this hand did know what the other hand was doing hot this hand was just wrong Followership session. Thank you David. What is that? See ya? What is a followership session? We're not leading. So I guess we're following each other You're good David. Yes Well, what's the latest with cove it because one of the things as leaders what y'all need to be thinking about is You know is cove it gonna be impacting our business in the weeks and months ahead And if so, how and what do we need to be doing now to to plan and prepare for that? What have you been hearing Liz? Ah? Well, same thing as you. I do know they're talking about here locally They're scuttle, but again that they're gonna shut us down. Uh, I don't know how everybody else's states went But our state last time we closed we opened in phases phase one phase two phase three and Or actually not that way was the other way five four three two one and Phase one is completely open again So currently we're operating in phase one, but they're talking about shutting us back down again and taking us to phase four So that is not a fun little bit of news that is You know going around it's not that is not news that is Just scuttle, but my friends of mine that work in the state have been hearing so, huh? Hoping not fingers crossed. That was not fun last time Well, one of the things that are that that seems to be different now then say a year ago when we were doing this is The Delta variant seems to affect children Than the variant that was going around, you know previously even even you know this last winter Yeah, and there's some concern that if kids can catch this easily that that's gonna make it difficult to open the schools And if they open the schools and kids start getting sick, they might not stay open for long Which means that a lot of the folks who work for us are gonna have a hard time working because they're having to stay home to take You know, you know that whole drill so Don't know if I have any wonderful answers for that and I don't know, you know Let's hope it doesn't happen, but we need to at least need to be Aware of the possibility for that as we we plan for the for the months ahead Yep We we have a Somebody right now currently an employee that has COVID. So we're not happy to see that already Coming into the business that that wasn't the case Last time we we didn't I Think it took us a long time Maybe 11 months to get our first case and it wasn't even anybody that was working out in the field cleaning homes so Not not I'm not loving it. There'll always be a variant We need to push through too many businesses and people didn't survive. It's more kids to suicide here though We personally know then we did take COVID. Oh Lost more Yeah, I Don't think they have numbered on What's happening with the kids yet for this new variant? Have you heard? Like I've heard I've heard anecdotal some interviews of like ER doctors and you know doctor You know just people who work at hospitals that you know having kids admitted to the hospital with COVID Previously as was unheard of but it's happening more regularly now But again, we don't we don't know You know, we need to make decisions from a from a business standpoint in terms of what we're going to be doing with our businesses and Yeah, it would be hard to shut down unless somebody was making us but if schools You know wind up not Not doing their normal thing then that could create just another degree of complication in terms of You know getting your workforce where it needs to be in an environment where it's already challenging to hire people and if the schools Don't open up. They start talking about that. We're also going to run into problems with daycare and all of the other Schoolish type options. So which is what I ran into the bulk of my work force was Mother single moms with kids. So it was It was a challenge for sure. What are you doing now Tommy doing anything currently? to in the realm of leadership with your people and helping we're Promoting the idea of everybody needs to get vaccination. We're you know paying people, you know bonuses if they get vaccinated That's what that's one thing that we can do we're Still we're constantly assessing, you know our bill rates and if we need to be raising rates, you know If the economy is wide open and COVID is a non-issue then theoretically We will have a larger work force and we'll be able to clean more homes But if we find ourselves in the situation where you know, we might even be more constrained We want to make sure that we've got prices that are high enough to Make it work, you know, we can make we can make money cleaning fewer homes if they're priced appropriately Yeah So I think I think, you know constantly taking a look at the pricing during these uncertain times and making sure that you're Getting as much as as you could hope to get And if there's like a downturn in labor You know even even go a little bit higher because you don't want to just tell people you can't clean their homes You'd rather for them to self select saying that this is more than than I can afford Yeah Well, historically we have talked a lot about I have and in my company and most of the companies that I work with When they do when people do price increases, they're looking at 2% or less people that say nope I'm canceling. I'll pass but the last this last round of Businesses that I work with in the last month have been averaging 9 to 11 percent That's quite a bit more. So that's a It's a harder pill for people to swallow And for other business owners to get behind the idea of raising raise is like, ah, but I Think that the math is still the math if you're not making money If you can't if you don't have enough employees to clean your jobs Need to be raising the rates on those lowest paying jobs that you're not making money Or not making as much money as you could with the new ones that are coming in And you know, we're still in an economic environment where you know Consumers your your clients have a ton of money in the bank Just as a rule the amount of money that that the average household has in the bank due to You know kind of the shutdowns and not being able to spend money on stuff And there's still a lot of things. There's kind of shorted, you know, you can't really find it so people have money scrolled away and And people are getting money every month in prices prices are going up and a lot of different ways a lot of different areas this whole idea of Inflation being transitory is the term at the that the Federal Reserve uses the economists use which means that At some point the prices will stop going up It doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be going down in all cases also for some commodities Maybe, you know situationally it would Nobody thinks that the labor rates are going to go down and There's there's a belief that a growing belief that they're not done going up yet that as Food and transportation and other things cost more People are going to be charging more and people are going to be able to demand more and especially on the lower end of the You know the labor market the lower wages is really what they're doing and there's more more You know speculation even people from the government are starting to Admit or at least recognize that From an overall economic standpoint, that's a good thing There was too much of a gap between you know the lower wages and the higher wages There were too many people the lower wage scales. I really couldn't Engage fully within the economy and buy stuff and the more we raise those lower-raised Wages the more money that's going to come back in the economy And you know, I don't know but I think I think our government likes the idea that those wages are going up Not because of some piece of legislation, but just because of economic forces Okay, well, I'm glad you pay attention all that stuff Tom and I can learn from you super helpful Which is which is another reason to make sure that you're constantly watching what you're charging for your service Right as long as you keep pushing that up you can afford to pay more And and we're going to have to so it doesn't look like that's changing any home soon I Cannot even envision a time where we're going to be able to start paying less People don't allow you to take their money away. That's that's not really a thing. So No, we're gonna know not under normal circumstances, you know if Situationally within certain industries or certain businesses you can say that You know, we're having an economic You know turmoil, you know, and we've got two choices. We can either close the business or lay You know come off or everybody takes a pay cut of You know some percentage. I mean it can happen, but it's it's a rare thing and even when they do that it's usually a very Short-term thing. It's we're taking a Pay cut for this period of time So I don't know how you would do that now. Nobody has a clue where anything's going Everything's so uncertain right now. Nobody Feels like they really Are confident about what's going on When we got the PPP money gave out more money letting technicians know that it wasn't forever Mm-hmm. Yeah Kind of a bonus COVID bonus or hazardous duty pay Yeah, letting letting them know that I'm not really giving you this extra money that Federal government's giving it to me and I'm giving it to you and they stopped giving it to me You're gonna stop getting it Yeah, they're just trying to help. Yeah Right now all that we are doing is just Having a quick daily at weekly We might we might increase it to daily if we need to if Numbers are changing but just a quick weekly like State of the Union, you know, what's going on. Here's here's what's going on. Here's what we need to be doing with COVID Yes, the mask mandate. Here's here's how it's working you guys. Yes, you have to be wearing a mask Yes in this situation Yes, whether you are vaccinated or not, you know, where so we have to keep updating that But we're not doing a whole heck of a lot more than that currently I I tend to like to Be more active to do to do something more than just Talk about things. So it feels a little uncomfortable not even having an idea what to do Well, all you can I mean I say all you can do I mean you can can can kind of lay the groundwork you'd probably be a good idea to take a look at your PPP PPE rather inventories and just you know, some of the some of the blocking and tackling stuff, but You know, it's a lot of us just planning at this point and you know, hoping for the best but being prepared for the worst Yeah, and and the the good thing is that right now we really do know what to prepare for because of last time We know what PPE we're going to need. We know that we need to get it now We know approximately or at least we have an idea of home. How big of stores we need to have and Everybody should be buying toilet paper now Don't wait go buy your toilet paper Actually, it's funny story Charmin went on sale five dollars off a big thing of it at Costco and Maximum to I told Tim. Yeah, you'd be buying that that toilet paper now, dude We don't want to be caught in that funky toilet paper crunch. I never even knew it. That was all about but You know, I'm sure that the whole country was in the same boat We were at different times where you would go to the grocery store and shelves were empty not just toilet paper Shelves were empty and not just cleaning supplies. Like we didn't have ketchup for a while couldn't get ketchup Certain salad dressings couldn't get there were a lot of things that were just Not like shopping in the United States Well, there was a momentary, you know drop there just because the whole Logistics side out at the trucking industry was it was was a bit off. I mean there's several things contributing to it Stuff got back on the shelves. There was a toilet paper shortage, but you know, you're in the cleaning business All you need to do is just contact the same person you get your your your cleaning products from on the commercial side They had more toilet paper. They knew what to do with because a lot of their, you know Office work and you know multi-tenant type stuff was was wasn't using a lot of toilet toilet because they weren't in the office. So You just weren't weren't looking in the right place Well, we never ran into that problem. We had plenty of toilet paper And we do get our office toilet paper from our supply distributor so we knew that there was toilet paper just because that wasn't an issue and our our Local distributor was pushing stuff All my time vaccinations for employees is a local story one of our kids They they had to close. Okay. I just read that Walmart's requiring vaccinations for employees. Yes. Yes, they are a lot of the large retailers are I think Amazon is one of the one of the airlines I heard is and I think that you're going to be hearing more of this and the in the days and weeks ahead where large employers are requiring and some of them are Requiring like their management staff to get, you know vaccinated but not necessarily the line labor and it's kind of a calculus of You know, they don't want to lose that $15 an hour person because they might quit over the vaccine But you know, the their their management would be less inclined to quit over something like that Makes sense But if they're doing it for everybody now, why that's a that's a bolder move for sure We talked about that last week. I wonder if you'd ever see it in the house cleaning industry if you see see companies Mandating that it's kind of hard to imagine at the moment because it's just one you're giving You know, your potential employees the labor pool one less reason to work for you if they were anti-vax Yeah, I I can give you another argument though that I've seen so I saw survey I think it was this morning. It was recently where like 70% of the population would like to see their employer mandate Vaccines because they would rather work in an environment where they knew that their cohorts their co-workers were Vaccinated so depending on where the sentiment goes that could actually be Something that would make you a more attractive That that's interesting. I guess that's really going to depend a lot on where you live too and What the sentiment is around where you live? I know I know some areas where It's just that the area itself is very very anti-vax in other areas where it's very pro-vax so Yeah, I guess that's So we're gonna see we're gonna see how things are gonna play out here Yeah, what are you doing Diana? We haven't heard from you in a while Are you doing anything with your? Vaccination processes Hmm. Just curious. All right anybody else David you're on her to What what have you heard or seen haven't heard from you in a while either? Actually, we're sure I haven't seen you on here in a bit. We see Danit and Robin and Linda fairly regularly although I'm not sure that you guys have shared what you're doing or if you are doing anything Curious it is leadership week. So just curious what people are doing to lead their people during these unprecedented times Now it feels a little bit more like it's uncertain than unprecedented But not really but I'm going to offer a bonus next week for the vaccinated. I believe I have about 50% vaccinated All right, so Diana are you planning on doing anything for the people that are already vaccinated? This is what a company that I know I've ran into they offered a hundred dollar bonus for anybody that got vaccinated and They didn't think whoever was parsing the message Did not get the memo that everybody who was already vaccinated will also get the hundred dollars and they said no You already got No, it's just for the people that are going to get vaccinated and they had a little bit of a kerfuffle as I think you can all imagine So but some people I do know another company that if you're already vaccinated They're they're giving you $50 and if you agree to get vaccinated. They'll give you a hundred dollars So that's interesting too Strongly suggest the shot wear the mask in the meantime Demand vaccine cell have considered bonus. Just don't know how to go about it. Feel my key players don't want to get vaccinated They will get the bonus. We talked about money or offering and pay day off. Hmm. I like the pay day off thing if I had labor I feel like I'd rather give money right now $100 incentive for vaccine no takers yet staff wearing masks. No takers, huh Linda? How many people do you have that you? Would like to get vaccinated that aren't taking Hmm Yeah, Diana, are you I are you over staffed you can afford to give the payday off? Or is it like for the future you can take it in a month or something like that. Just curious. It's interesting I always like giving people time off, but no, I don't have a lover Barely making it overstaffed Nice nice Diana. Tell us tell us your secrets Do you want to come on smart business moves and talk about your leadership strategies for being overstaffed? Poor Diana. She keeps posting it. She's super excited. She's proud Stop bragging I love when Facebook does that Yeah, we didn't think you were really bragging Diana Well, I have six staff one vaccinated. Oh everyone vaccinated some think it is a government conspiracy Yes, I have heard about the conspiracy. Tom. Did you hear anything more? Did you see anything more about the rhetoric of The vaccine is sterilizing people Yeah, I did see a little bit that over the weekend. I mean, I was actually Googled it and was was you know There's a lot of theories I Think a lot. I mean, I don't care where you land on this I think everybody would agree that social media Definitely is is playing a part in shaping how people feel and believe and are behaving about You know, COVID and and and everything surrounding it regardless of your opinion Which am I am I safe in saying it that everybody could agree that social media is playing a role in Helping us look at look at the situation from whatever perspective we're looking at it Yeah, I can't imagine that that isn't the case. I Am only on it's not true. I am rarely on open Facebook Facebook that is outside of groups But when I do hit it usually once maybe twice a week I get pretty much Plan on seeing something having to do with COVID and that's new for my feed, I don't tend to have friends acquaintances that are Very Political so I don't tend to see a lot of those posts, but even I'm seeing that now So I'm thinking it probably does have Impact in some way. I'm most everybody if it's it me Thinking it's it and everybody it if you're on social media. I Don't know the Facebook is the least The least visited Social media site, I believe for the younger group that seems to be having more of a problem So I don't know how that plays out. I don't know but there's a lot of other channels that people are getting their Information and I don't know. I don't know but Posing interesting challenges for us. No doubt. Absolutely Any late breaking developments are particular strategies that you hear people are using on the recruiting side. I mean You know getting back to David's thought, you know, if you don't have people to lead you really aren't leading and obviously the Labor market is still a really big Challenge here Diana, how do you look right now? You said that you'll help with this. I don't know if you're ready to go Live right now if you are Let me know and we can pull you into the show real quick I don't know has anybody received the second idle request Do you know Tom, have you heard of anybody receiving it? um Yeah, I I received round two and in one particular case and a few other cases It's still being being processed, but for one company, you know, well, there you go No, mascara is not required Diana Absolutely not. All right Tom Why don't you shoot Diana that link and I'd be great Diana. Come on and share what you're doing some stuff's working Anybody that has stuff that's working. Let's let's hear more about that Anybody that's over staffed awesome, I Know in the strategic success groups we had and Libby what's your name delusion from whoop recruit on on Friday and She had a lot of good little tips. They boy that that company knows indeed inside and out I'll tell you that oh Anybody else have any ideas love to hear that too your ideas about Attracting and getting people to show up to interview That's the big thing. I'm hearing is people can't get Anyone to show up They say they'll come and then they don't or they don't show up for the first day After the interview if there is an interview or they don't show up for the first day Hey Hey, there's an interview Yeah, you're gonna have to they don't show those down the Facebook Whenever we have a third person I always need to have my To I think so let me do that So Diana what world's going on in your world good to see it's been a while It's everything's good. We're busy growing That's good. I feel okay Yeah, we I think we got kind of lucky recently With the staffing For one I Still do all the interviewing so I do a hundred percent of the interviewing and when we need people I interview every day Usually if not four days a week Oh You know a couple months ago when it was really bad I just opened up my schedule and put all of my attention on hiring I know you guys know this but I'm pretty nice. So when I have an interview Usually I have successful interviews I have successful interviews I present the job. Well, I send them a video I've been much more particular. I've been lucky that I've been able to get more particular about who we're hiring You know, I just try to zero in on good manners and stuff and I think the last bunch We hired a couple of weeks ago. I can't remember four or five people. They all they've all stuck so far The last couple of months of hiring I have one person that's on the fence. It's been with me a few months Because the job is physically, you know, she has a hard time with that part of it but we have great trainers too, but you know, but but I also Not to I also will you know weigh up my budget for indeed for just for a short period So I'll just spend one week up in my budget and just process process process the applications the second they come in And then then then I'm full with with interviews I send reminders text messages. I reach out to everybody. I put them in my It's not called infusions up anymore keep I put them in a thing And you know, I put them straight in there if I like them so they get text email We mark it to them How many of the people you market to Diana? Do you see Coming through later That's a good question. I wish I knew I know I have 50 show rate typically Around that And that's for for a zoom meeting. I do zoom or facetime. They choose I have better I have a better show rate with facetime than I do zoom for whatever reason Um, I have a standard, you know, job form question. I ask every single person ever the same, you know I'm very consistent. I have a That I don't want to veer from them at all. I adjust my questions as things come up like since it's zoom now I need to say a new question is um So where are your tattoos? And I see them I hired somebody with a little something You know that maybe I wouldn't know You know, we would have had a conversation about it So, uh, although I hear it's it's I haven't I haven't even seen this person I haven't seen him. So I don't even know what Candice says. It's fine. It's fine mom So, you know, that really is interesting Diana because I know Candice has tattoos It's everywhere right now and I don't I don't care about tattoos. I just don't want them to be inappropriate I mean she Candice is covered in disney characters Uh, not offensive at all, you know, warm They don't want like a teardrop Nothing overtly, you know political sexual or or drug Yeah Yeah, so that's it. So that that that's the one thing about zoom and honestly, I hired somebody that was missing me I did I was what? Oh They won't say Yeah, I Right. Yeah, this might be more challenging. This is how we clean Yeah, I might definitely can be yeah, interesting. I wouldn't even have thought of that I've got like three different things that I'm wrestling with and I'm just not going to say anything Now my question at the end is We lift this we do this we do that we do that Are you physically capable of doing all aspects of this job well and safely? So, you know that person's still going to say yes, for sure. She gave her she gave her effort She really did so yeah Did she did she come to work? Yeah, she came to work one day maybe two I can't remember and the trainer said she was huffing and puffing and really just doing you know Really trying? Yeah, really trying hard and of course if she could have done the job Welcomeed her with open arms. Of course. Of course, of course. It's a hard job though. Yeah, that's a good job That's really definitely with Yeah, and not having an appendage. That's definitely something we want to talk about it's hard enough Right everything going on. You know what else I've done that I think is helping is Well, we've raised our pay of course like everybody else three times the last 12 months We've raised our pay and a lot and I get comments during the interview process that okay I'm really happy with your pay your pay is good. So that so it's making a difference but We offer part-time hours And I I quite frankly am shocked We just did a poll last week Friday, I think and I haven't really looked at it but the poll in our group me was I'm happy Basically with the hours or I want more hours or less hours, you know or but it was nicely written like I'll take more hours If given the choice I'd like more hours Because we're ever staffed so everybody's getting off around two or three or I'm happy getting off early if given the opportunity And it was 50 50 there too So now instead of we have a long day for us we start at 7 45 They have to be solos have to be at their home between 8 and 8 15 and then they get out up to 5 30 So Now they can choose to get off at two Or And work five days or work fewer days or work from nine to two Kind of that, you know, yeah So it's pretty much more flexible with the solos. We're flexible. Yeah, it's easy to be flexible with solos for sure It is we're flexible and so that's really That's helping a lot because the minute I opened that app I hired three or four people right off the bat getting off at two So do you have that in your title then diana? Part-time or full-time or do you run two ads or I don't need to my title But it's in my description for sure You know, they're kind of put persnickety about the titles Yeah, so do you have that? What do you have as like a line item part-time available or full and part-time or full-time or part-time? Yeah, okay easy You know, they're making our staffs making good money I'm sure that yeah, I mean They are you ours and they're making good money. So How are you talking about pay in your ads? Are you talking per hour per week per year? Um, I present it as Uh hourly And then I send them the video that explains it fully because as you know, we have that two dollar an hour weekly bonus so trainees or 13 plus two dollars an hour Uh, once they're finished with training it's 14 plus they have that opportunity for two dollars an hour bonus So, you know, they're 16 an hour fully fully half get the bonus Um, and then the trainers make another two dollars an hour and we raise all of our prices So our labor cost is a little higher but not Uh, it's not not making me sweat. I'm okay. How do you earn? How do you earn the two dollar an hour bonus? quality and attendance Okay, uh-huh combination. Yeah I've considered the attendance thing dropping it because we're not having attendance issues because Waiting work on that too Yeah, that's to be helping and that is they call out in our group So I feel like that's super easy Or at least much easier Yeah, and yeah, it is I look in the morning and I'll see somebody go. I'm so sorry. I just stop feeling good today Sorry team Yeah, so it's not bad Yay, so you're not using it as a um a uh shame shaming um No, I'm Not typically your style, but I know that that's that's something that's going around right now, right if people are Are you using it that way? Yeah, that's pretty cute. No, I'm um more of a uh, we're all adults Don't I don't want to tell you at least on least on paper Yeah, I've got I'm not really interested in parenting anybody else. So Yeah, I have to give kandace a lot of uh credit for keeping our staff She's really good at um You know, I know she I know she's probably a part-time therapist in there Oh, yeah, a lot of part-time therapy going on. She's she's very good at engaging and She really is yeah, I think And she's fun too. She's fun. I think four of them went out this weekend and got matching tattoos Okay, yeah, so how many of your employees are getting tattoos? That's your next strategy All right I know what Diana you're you're bringing up a great point, you know, everybody right now is focused on Hiring and how they get more people in and how much money you have to pay But if you got them going out the back door as fast as you have them coming in the front door That that's just so much wasted energy So finding a way to keep keep the people getting them to stay Is a a huge piece of it. So you're thinking That a big piece of getting people to stay is kandace's connectivity her individual connection So we start the conversation with the applicants Saying hey look like we expect really great communication on your part On what you need if you need more time at home if you need to take off whatever we expect great communication We'll we're definitely going to do the same for you You know, we do that thing I heard you talk about many years ago Uh where every day at one o'clock we check in how's everybody doing so they help each other So there's that connection. Hey, uh, I'm getting off at six. Oh, no, I'm getting off at two Let me come help you. I have a handful of people every day that say I'm finished for the day. Does anybody need my help? So there's a lot of that But it starts with You know, we kind of presented as we don't leave anybody out in the field Uh, so if somebody's out in the field, we're not we're not done with the day So I think the last time somebody complained about Well, it's three o'clock. I've already done my two houses. I don't want to go help Was about six months ago Nice Oh, yeah, they just it's it's I think when you have that group dynamic Dean uh other people saying oh, I'm getting off who needs who needs my help Yeah What platform are you using to foster this level of communication? We have group me and so we have like You know Different groups in it. We use the time variants Which is where they're asking for time and they know why you know Uh, they'll ask hey, um, this is happening and they have to tell us client issue tech issue This is how much time I need for this home because we have to keep our eyeballs on that And we explained it to them. We're paying more. We want to continue to pay you more We want to continue to raise our Pay so we have to really watch our efficiency. It's super duper important So we actually we actually manager meeting every morning. Look at the previous day So we're intel it's how that's exactly how we need it to be. We're talking about it every day And so they we have that time variance group. We have our call out or schedule impact group You know, so I'm running Tenants like and you know what I love At least six times in the last six months. Somebody's posted Um, I I need a new tire, but I'll be there when I'm done. So there's a lot of that. I'll be there when I'm done Good example, right? Yeah, that's fine. I love that So you kind of have the no man left behind mentality Do we do Right and I even hesitate to say like Well, it's a family it's a family business, but we're fake We definitely do want you to go home to your family And I in they see my grandkids and the kids at the office and you know, it we really are focused on Uh, you know, like one of the ladies that took the part time. Well, my daughters have gymnastics twice a week So I'd like to be able to get off to take them to gymnastics. I'm like totally I want you to take your kids to gymnastics Yes, you're the kind of person I want the mom that takes her kids to gymnastics. Yes, awesome I think that's a completely. I know we are out of time. Tom I know you're watching the time But I just want to point out one thing that's different about what you said diana than what most people say One thing uh, what what most people say is yes, okay We can accommodate that for you what you say is not only are we accommodating it We're actively seeking people like you. You're the right person not you're a problem and we'll make it work You're the right person. That's a completely different mindset. You know, that's 180 from you if that's part of your culture everybody is working to help each other or accomplish that goal Yeah, and honestly I have to say Probably moving to the solos helps that Yeah Right Just because we were just at a loss of how to communicate and how to engage and so We just kept You know and then I really like doing the interviews. I like the way I do the interviews I can't seem to give up anytime soon. Although Chad keeps Are you sure should we hire? No, no, I'm good. I've got it You know, you know what I would really love tom is someday if we could bring diana on here And have her interview me Do a live interview right Like exactly like you would interview anybody else and you can talk the way you would normally and give all of the normal stuff I think people could really learn a lot from that because it's It's um easy to hear the information but seeing it at together is like, oh to a a deeper level There is a guy that there was a guy at the car wash place where we take our you know We took her oil change oil chain place where we took the cars to get oil change and he's like, oh, it's okay And as my mom applied at natural care and she didn't take the job, but she said she was the nicest lady That is not surprising I really do like people Yeah, that is that is not at all surprising Well, diana, thanks for coming on here today. Hey you guys, I know we're running just a hair late. Who would have thought but diana you're you're sparkling We're without mascara diana. Oh, thank you Still got the hair Sure All right, well, thanks everybody thanks again diana I'll see you guys Wednesday five o'clock. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye y'all