Building A Values-Driven Company

Hayden Lee

Welcome, everyone, to the Success Elevated podcast. As always, I’m your host, Hayden Lee, and I am joined this week by a very special guest. you were actually prompted to come in from Katie’s, breakout session, decided to come in and jump on the podcast. We’re live on Facebook right now, which is super, super cool. Eric Anderson, who is the president of EC restore.

Hayden Lee

Eric, thanks for coming on the podcast, man. How are you?

Eric Anderson

Hey, thanks for having me, I appreciate it. Yeah. Katie gave us, she had a breakout session yesterday, which was great. It was on social media. Not as zoom. It was on, a portion of SEO. Yeah, it’s very specifically organic.

Hayden Lee

Having good content.

Eric Anderson

Content and kind of how to be found on the Google.

Hayden Lee

Right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And the Google on the Google.

Eric Anderson

Yeah, man.

Hayden Lee

Let’s talk about your background a little bit. I think that’s kind of the naturally the first place you’re always gravitate towards. Get you familiar with our audience, which is a lot of restoration 

Eric Anderson

Yeah. and it’s I don’t know if it’s an interesting story. We’ll see. So I’ve been in the, I’m 46. I’ve been in the industry for, 24 years. and through family. Right. So I did my, graduated high school in 96. I did my undergrad up in the both school in Boston. Tufts University graduate for that.

Eric Anderson

I went premed. Okay. I wanted to be a pediatrician.

Hayden Lee

It’s a little bit different than restoration.

Eric Anderson

I want to be a pediatrician, and I go weed it out freshman year. It’s like, you know, I don’t want to be a pediatrician that bad. Yeah. So. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. you know, graduated worked in.com world basically in sales in .com world for a couple of years during the internet bubble time. Yep, yep. watch that rise, watch that fall.

Eric Anderson

Watch that burst. Participated in that? Yeah. was really, actually pretty fun. and then in 2002, felt called. Man, I started talking to my father, who started our business back in 1983. So our sister company at the time was called Insurance Reconstruction Services. And he started that, you know, true entrepreneur. I was like six, seven years old, 1983.

Eric Anderson

Wow. and really built that business up for my whole, my whole life. So I been in the industry as a little kid, kind of just watching my father do it, coming to these trade shows and doing that stuff. And then a few years out of college, he and I were talking about trends in the industry. Yeah. And I approached him.

Eric Anderson

What do you think about me coming into the family business? And we are really afraid of if you guys can’t see me. But you hear me, I’m nuck. I’m button knuckles, right? Yeah. You’re afraid of that head button going on? We’re a little bit different dogs. but we decided to launch a sister company to his current business called Enviro Clean and we focused on mold remediation.

Eric Anderson

So I went in and I started taking classes on Stachybotrys and how to abate, mold and do all that stuff and became an expert. I’ve testified in Rhode Island, mass. Connecticut, in California over the years, so really became an expert on mold a few years into doing some mold remediation. 

Eric Anderson

We’re the one of the first companies in the country to buy these big convective dry heat drying systems 20 plus years ago. and we brought those down to, Hurricane Katrina. Did some work down there. So we did some cat duty, some cat work, and really started growing our commercial drying business, mold remediation, commercial drawing and full recon.

Eric Anderson

Now, my father’s reconstruction company at the time was focused on really a high net worth client. Like, we had nice homes and that was his demographic that he’d go after. A lot of evolutions happened in the insurance industry over the last 20 years. Like, it’s wild how fast every year now insurance is slow to change, but not lately.

Eric Anderson

and so, I worked alongside my father. We built up the Environ clean Company together. we had, it was it was, you know, I’m going to say I don’t say it’s typical. It was our relationship of ups and downs. We butt heads, we get along great. But in the end, you know, we’re family. Yeah.

Eric Anderson

And we had a common goal of, you know, of building this business up and creating jobs. And he had his vision for the company. But around 2015, we’re buttin heads pretty good too. We realized, hey, it’s time, it’s time for transition. And I approached him about buying the company and I said, you know, he was I could tell he was tired.

Eric Anderson

He ran. He, you know, he’s burnt out. Yeah. That happens.

Hayden Lee

Done it since 1983, right? Yeah.

Eric Anderson

Yeah. Yeah. He was legit like. And I’m like, you did it. Congratulations. We’re here. Let me buy the company from you. Yeah. And so we worked. It took us about a year. We worked out a deal. I bought the company from my folks, bought them out entirely. And that was in 2016. We closed, and it’s been a really wild ride since then.

Eric Anderson

Even I got to be honest. unexpected out of the gate a few challenges out of the gate. we had, we had some important turnover that we, that I initiated. Yeah. and brought in, my vice president. Now, her name’s Erica Dean. she runs my day to day operations, and she’s been phenomenal. She has a strong insurance background, worked with Amica Insurance for a bunch of years.

Eric Anderson

So she brings in that perspective and plus that corporate world. And I’m I’m, I’ll say that part of the owner where I’m the visionary, I’m kind of loosey goosey on the rules and stuff, too. I don’t rule with the High D personality. there’s, you know, it’s. I’m all smiles and fun. Yeah, yeah, but, but we get our jobs done, so brought in Erica, and then, we built the company up, and we actually, grew by about 50%, in the first three years.

Eric Anderson

Then Covid hit, you know?

Hayden Lee

Right. Threw a wrench into everything

Eric Anderson

Threw a wrench, man. So we had a great reset, like a lot of people did. and our revenue basically got cut in half. Wow. and so that hurt. we had some furloughs, brought a lot of people back, but we took some, some time off for a few people. but it allowed us to kind of have for me personally, that was really maybe one of the most important things I went through.

Eric Anderson

Yeah, it allowed me to have a great reset and saying, why am I doing this? What is my goal? What I want for my family, for this company? All those questions, right? And really refocused. And one of the big things for me was saying, I’m done chasing. Not in the literal sense, but I’m done, I’m done begging people for business.

Eric Anderson

Yeah, everybody can be my customer. I don’t want everybody to be my customer. Right. That’s cool. I want to focus on people that want to do business who are attracted to our type of company. We we. And so we became that was really the start of really becoming a values driven company. Right? In this day and age, and especially right now, I’m seeing so many companies get bought, right?

Eric Anderson

Yeah, yeah. Private equity groups are coming in. They want to enter this space hundred percent. We got large corporations that are growing exponentially because they’re buying up small guys. And we have this transition going on, which is really difficult for the parent child transition is hard. And it’s hard any business. Right. And it’s hard. And we’ve done it.

Eric Anderson

Now I’m eight years in. But I saw that trend and now it’s hit me really hard. And I’m like, well what happens if you if you sell out? Good for you. Like fun making money get your payday? I have no problems with that. For me personally, your organization loses something and you become a profit driven company. And when you have a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders, right, you have that responsibility to your, your, your board, to others.

Eric Anderson

Right. And the dollar leaves the local community. And we’ve lost that local business. You know, it’s really important. Having local businesses is really, really important. And so so we said rather than, you know, not worried about being a profit driven company. We’re values driven company. You know, what are our values as we hone those in. Right. And we really shaped, who we wanted to be as a team, created a leadership team.

Eric Anderson

We developed that and we said, hey, we’re going to be values driven. We’re going to be. And then my role shifted from in the day to day operations, you know, helping out, you know, to the extent that an owner would. and I said, what about 45 employees? to really more let me, supporting my team and recognizing you do the job at your job better than I could.

Eric Anderson

I’m not going to micromanage you. You do it better. I’m going to give you direction when you support what you need. and make sure that they know their value, that they’re appreciated. And as I started focusing on my team, they take better care of their customers. Yeah. And and guess what? Just profitable at the end.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. Yeah.

Eric Anderson

And we had our best year income in 41 years. Our best year last year.

Hayden Lee

Oh that’s awesome.

Eric Anderson

I was like heck yeah man. Like we got it. So and then I realized, okay, so we fired a couple more accounts. Yeah. You know, the ones that 80% of your problems with 20% of your clients, we’re in those 8020 rules and, you know, and then about, Actually a year because now he’s walking by me. Dave Collier, my man right here.

Eric Anderson

Dave, you should pop in here for a second. Dave Collier from First Atlantic Restoration. He’s the reason I joined core. Is this right here? We’re on a podcast. We’re on Facebook.

Hayden Lee

Live. We’re also live right now.

Eric Anderson

Yeah. And so I just I just was singing your praises. I said, because I’m at this point, I’m at this conference right now. And I called up Dave, a couple other friends in the industry that I really respect and said, Dave, I got this idea. I want to create this network of, values driven, independently owned companies.

Eric Anderson

So we can easily dude just join core. It was that simple. That was really the conversation. He’s like, no you got to talk to Dan. I’m like, oh. And I had the light bulb went off. I’m like, I actually talked to Dan three years ago. And then Covid hit. Yep. And whatever. He just and then I get distracted pretty easily.

Eric Anderson

I mean, that’s the nature of my life.

Hayden Lee

So yes.

Eric Anderson

That’s why we do it. Yeah, man.

Hayden Lee

That’s cool. The values piece is is something. I mean, kind of like you said with the the private equity worries too. It’s something that’s lost on a lot of companies. But like having people that care about their values. Yeah. Values is scalable. Like having good company values like that allows you to hire and grow.

Eric Anderson

Everything you do

Hayden Lee

Good people.

Eric Anderson

Yeah. Everything to do is by value. So the first question I was asked by one of my business development reps was what do we value? And Erica and I said, well, I want to be recognized as the most professional. Yeah. And so that’s easy to do because I know my competitors are in my space. Yeah. They’re not very professional.

Eric Anderson

A lot of those.

Hayden Lee

Systems or whatever, you.

Eric Anderson

Know, get the most be the person I want to be the friendliest. I’m a friendly guy. That’s just who I am. And I said, why can’t we then be known as the Friendly Guys? You know, it’s like you get a loss at your house, you’re going through something devastating. Hey, you get someone professional and nice?

Hayden Lee

And they’re nice.

Eric Anderson

That’s cool. And I want to be the most ethical. Recognize these guys do it right. They don’t play games and not playing any of the shenanigans. They do it ethically, right. So those are our first three. And we everything we did surrounded on those and then we adapted. We added a few more like collaboration. Yeah. And that’s a big one for me right now.

Eric Anderson

And that’s the one that I’m just like jumping in collaboration. Like we’re collaborating with other contractors or collaborating with insurance companies, right? Yeah. You know, it’s. Yeah. So thanks for stopping and say Dave. Yeah, I didn’t know what that was going to do there. So sorry. There I know I got a bathroom so day to day so he popped out too but I actually it’s funny Dave that was the guy those was used to that I mean involved with Core.

Eric Anderson

So core right. This this network that we’re part of now it’s got 50. We know that 50 plus elite members. Yep. you know it’s really interesting you to be an elite member. You have to do certain revenue, right. There’s there’s a size of your business. You have to be to join core. And there’s certain expectations for the elite members and stuff too.

Eric Anderson

Well, just so happens to be an elite number elite member. We hit my I didn’t realize that at the time. In 2023 what that number was, the growth the revenue number. Right. Yeah. And I had set a reach goal for our team. And it was like a big reach goal. Yeah, it was the same number. I didn’t know that at the time.

Eric Anderson

And we beat it on. was it December 29th?

Hayden Lee

Wow.

Eric Anderson

We had that. We just caught it. You got it was that close? It was like.

Hayden Lee

That, you know.

Eric Anderson

It was just like fate that you just had to happen, right? And so.

Hayden Lee

Amazing.

Eric Anderson

Yeah. So we’ve been. That’s kind of my path up to this, this, this place right now. And here we are.

Hayden Lee

So many. Cool. I mean, there’s so many cool directions we could go with that, Eric, because I love, like, the whole, like, family business piece of it. Yeah. I love how you’ve grown and been buying out your dad. Like there’s so many different directions we could go. I think I want to start by you mentioned briefly there, and it’s something that we’re big on to here at spot on solutions, but the personality styles you mentioned the D personality.

Hayden Lee

Yeah we’re big on the DISC personality

Eric Anderson

DISC is great.

Hayden Lee

I know what what what kind of how did you get involved with like that personality style stuff? Why did you think that would be something important for your team to have awareness of?

Eric Anderson

Yeah. So, so when you come on to our company, I ask often, I want you to be able to fit in. So they still say, right, but really, how are you going to contribute? Yeah. Right. And so there’s a there’s an element you have to align with our values to fit in totally. But then you have to bring a uniqueness.

Eric Anderson

You have to bring a way to contribute. Right. Yeah. And DISC I’ve used for years I’ve always been that kind of guy. I like, there’s some Myers-Briggs stuff that I’ve used. Yes. Well that’s great. There is, the, you know, so I’ve got this, I’ve got a website that I use and staff will use that.

Eric Anderson

And what you can do with when you really go to deeper in, you go to a DISC personality assessment. Right. It’s really understanding, like I’m a high I if you haven’t figured that out. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. and then on any given day, it might be the supportive D or supportive S, like, you know, depends on what my mode I’m into.

Eric Anderson

But naturally it’s just like, I’ll be friendly. Yeah. And that’s it. And supportive. And that’s like.

Hayden Lee

Talking to people. You like interacting with people. Yeah.

Eric Anderson

You get I get I feed off of that energy. But I recognize what I am. I like to catch butterflies too. Right? I’m a visionary. I like to wander, I like I wander a lot.

Hayden Lee

So you need someone like your vice president to kind of give you some direction at times.

Eric Anderson

Yeah, all the time. Yeah, I ask for it. And so, you know, I, you know, when we when we started, when I bought the company within a week or two, by the time I bought her a present, for her office, the big yin yang. Yeah. She’s a yang to my yin, right? Yeah. And his hang still hangs in her office and is.

Eric Anderson

And we talk about because it means even more to us today than it did in that moment, which is really fascinating how things start to evolve and grow.

Hayden Lee

Seven years later. Eight years later.

Eric Anderson

Yeah, yeah. And so our whole staff, we, I’ve tried it before. I can’t say I’m great at it, but we’ve had the whole staff do the DISC personality and then I have, or another type and then you can learn it’s like, oh, that’s why it almost makes somebody more like, less judgmental, more forgiving, more honest, like, oh, that explains why we clash over on this stuff.

Eric Anderson

Okay, I get it. You’re a C person. That means you’re, like, analytical and you’re this type. And like, I need that person running my books. I need that person on collections. I need that person who’s who’s handling. I know I need this type of person handling phones. This, you know, and you can kind of really fit in, know that I got little bits and pieces of people, or personalities that really.

Eric Anderson

And then we bring them all together. Yeah. Into a company. It’s like, yeah, man, this works. And I got to tell you, my team is pretty kick ass. Yeah. I’ve got great staff right now. today, I can say I’m more happy with our staff overall than I have ever been since owning it. And then certainly since working it in the last 25 years.

Hayden Lee

That’s so cool

Hayden Lee

Do you think that’s a big reason why you know, when we connected yesterday, I mean, I saw you had like three or 4 or 5. I mean, you several team members here at this event with you. Is that a big reason why, like, you’re bringing them to events like this is because you just, you know that these guys are awesome.

Hayden Lee

And to make them more awesome, they got to come interact places.

Eric Anderson

So yeah. Absolutely. So this is my first collective or the Core yeah Festival. Yeah. Conference. Yeah. I’ve been to plenty of these over the years. Yeah. All the industry ones. and we send people to different ones, but I wanted. So this was a combination. It’s Austin, it’s cool place. Yeah. I know Dan and the team at core and what they were planning here, and so absolutely needed Erica to come and network.

Eric Anderson

And me and I brought my director of business development, come network. And basically, I tell the staff, they tell the team, I suggest that work, meet people, talk to people, see what’s up, right. And create some, allies around the country, whether you’re in restoration, whether we do some marketing, you do a little business relationship that we obviously we do work with the carriers that are going through Core as well.

Eric Anderson

And that’s important. And we get to.

Hayden Lee

Meet companies, whatever.

Eric Anderson

Yeah, yeah. You got a lot of vendors out here. We got the trade show. It’s been great. And then so we decided and we added our fourth person, my senior estimator. And for multiple reasons they know you should come to because these are carriers and you’re writing the estimates and you said, let’s, let’s all be on this.

Eric Anderson

So it really comes down to let’s be in sync. Yeah, let’s be on the same page. And so if I came by myself I’m going to go back all hot. Ready. Hey, I got this idea this idea I think I’m like, whoa, Eric. No, because they’re in it. Right? Yeah. But this gives us a chance to step out one as a team and kind of all observe the same thing, participate, have these.

Eric Anderson

So we all go back fired up because you do you come out of something this you’re like I got new ideas, I want to I want to, I want to implement. so I think that’s a big part of that. It’s also it’s team building. We had a blast last night. Yeah. Like we went out, they had a great party up on the deck, and we stayed there, and you just hung out, and you meet people, and it was just a really nice time.

Eric Anderson

It was great night last night, and we hung out, and then tonight we’re going to Joe Rogan’s comedy club. Love it. and when Jay started my director of business development, he’s here. He started with my company about four years ago. Most of the day. Yeah. right after Covid 2020. And so that was when our office was empty.

Eric Anderson

It was just I went into the office every single day, and I had nobody coming in. And it was like the first few months of kind of wild, right? Yeah. Yeah. We’re we’re wiping down Amazon packages.

Hayden Lee

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there’s your team small because you had to. Yeah, yeah.

Eric Anderson

We got some team. So but I hired a sales guy. Yeah I was like he’s like I can’t play. And I said no this is when we going to invest in this stuff. Right. And but he came into the office and we would sit across from each other, across the hall from each other, and he’d start and it was, you know, it was work was a little bit different than two.

Eric Anderson

You had like this kind of reprieve of like. So we would talk Joe Rogan’s podcast. Yeah, all the time because he had all the guests on and stuff during Covid, like questioning all stuff. So it was great and so, so full circle. Now Jay and I here in Austin, we get to go to comedy. Since he moved to Austin, I was only pretty excited about it tonight.

Eric Anderson

But yeah, so it’s team building.

Hayden Lee

The team building thing is important. And I love that you said because we feel the same way here and we obviously go to trade shows. We’re, you know, we do digital marketing and build websites and stuff like we come here because we want to network and meet potentially new clients and customers. But the other reason is, is coming to events like this.

Hayden Lee

We also get a take a step away from the business and be like, okay, what can we do to help make it better? And there’s something weird like psychologically about doing that is because you really can look at your business from like a 30,000ft view and be like this. This is what we need to do, or this is the team members that we need to hire, or this is the training we need to offer to help them grow.

Hayden Lee

And it’s something weird psychologically that happens when.

Eric Anderson

You happens, man, you go away. So you come away with a nugget. I always say, If I’m going to spend money to go away for work, I need at least one nugget. Yeah, something to go home. Yeah, yeah, but but you’re right. Even sometimes, honestly, it’s a plane ride. Yeah. Get on the plane. He just kind of checked out and you’re like, I’m here.

Eric Anderson

That’s why I love skiing. Skiing’s my passion.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. Okay. Love it.

Eric Anderson

And, it took me. And I’m a really high energy guy. I’m trying to actually tone it down a little bit. Right. But I got two people on Facebook Live sit with us.

Hayden Lee

Heck, yeah, I love it.

Eric Anderson

And I find, like, the chairlift is the same thing for me, right? Yeah. I like slow chairlifts. You ever skied before?

Hayden Lee

Yeah, yeah. Shut the brain off. Or, you know.

Eric Anderson

You know, you got 12 minutes on the slow. That’s you got like two. We got like, go on the mountain that I skipped. Most of the time. It’s a 12 minute fixie to the top. Yeah. And so that takes me 12.5 minutes to get to the top. And it’s only a two person. So sometimes I love it. I get to meet a new person and talk.

Eric Anderson

Sometimes I ride with my kids since I ride with a friend. Yeah. And then I get the coveted I call it the Zen chair.

Hayden Lee

By yourself

Eric Anderson

I myself. Yeah, it’s like riding the plane though, right? All of a sudden now. But you’re going to a work conference. You go work on the mind. Yeah. Cause you can watch Netflix. Yeah, or you can start the process and start. And then you come here and you’re like, oh, you feed off the energy because I’m here right now with another 100 plus business owners that do restoration, right?

Eric Anderson

Yeah. And if I can meet a few that I vibe with some new guys and I see some old friends too, it’s like, man, synergies are going right, you’re fired. And then I think there’s connection that happens beyond which we even know beyond the conscious. Right? I meet up with somebody and you kind of just vibe. You just sink.

Eric Anderson

Right. And I think there’s something that happens. So you guys can, you hit something off. Yeah. Spark some ideas and new things. So. Yeah. And you go back motivated.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. 100%. And I think a big thing is, is and you’ve I’ve you probably have recognize this as you’ve, built your business and you’ve bought the business. Now, you get to maybe stop working in the business so much and work on the business like you can think about maybe a new system or new process or new training, or how can I help my team be the best that they can be?

Hayden Lee

And instead of like, man, I’ve got to go take care of this water loss or go jump on a truck and go help with this job. You’re not necessarily working in the business, you’re going to work on it.

Eric Anderson

Yeah. That’s right.

Hayden Lee

There’s something about yeah, doing a trade show, all that, the psychological things, all of the thing. I just I love coming to trade shows and doing stuff like that.

Eric Anderson

Yeah, yeah. And you can meet some good vendors out there. You know, I, I made a point of, I’m going to say in this trade show in particular, you know, with joining core and I’m sharing this with new member prospect. So I made a point of going to seeing every vendor in there and talking to every booth.

Eric Anderson

Yeah. they spent the time to be here. I know it’s it’s not a huge conference. Like, there’s not a ton of opportunity. So let me give them a chance to see our company. And I met a few great guys. So it’s like, okay, let’s have some. Let’s get you let’s talk through how we integrate this. How do we at least have you in the next conversation with their company.

Eric Anderson

So that comes from that too. and I do believe like core is interesting because we are a group of individual owners, independent companies. Yes. And some of them, you know, a lot of the TPA world, like the referral world. Right, right. It’s like, all right, well, I’ll join, but what are you guys doing for me? And I think with core does so much for us.

Eric Anderson

But as we join I realize no, it’s like how what can I do for core. Yeah.

Hayden Lee

And what can I do to help these other owners? Yeah, yeah.

Eric Anderson

But I came in with that mindset. Like, I know that I’ll get some leads and referrals. I know I’m going to meet people and talk to you, but like, I really want to participate in like, let me help advance the cause of core because this is exactly like what I’m trying to do to actually see that. And, it works, man.

Eric Anderson

Yeah. Like you see that? Like, there’s collaboration really happening here, there’s that word again.

Hayden Lee

Well, but it goes back and. Yeah, collaboration one of your values, it goes back to your values. Like we want to build a business that has these certain values, like, yes, we want to be profitable. We want to grow our revenue. We want to hire more people. But at the end of the day, the piece, the centerpiece of it all is we want to be more collaborative.

Hayden Lee

Yeah, we want to be more, you know, ethical, whatever, you know, all of your values. And now you’ve found a place that like, okay, I can network with other businesses that feel the same way, that have maybe not exactly the same values, but very, very similar. they might have it written down different way, might be on a poster board while yours is printed out somewhere different, you know, whatever.

Hayden Lee

Like. Yeah, but they’ve got their values that they want to live to. And you guys can connect, see.

Eric Anderson

Some new innovation to happen. I’m really excited about that. You know, I was when I bought the company, it was close because I was teaching at the time. I was teaching, a unit at Providence College in Rhode Island. Yeah. And I was tempted to go that path, like I had actually worked with UConn about developing, and I wanted to be a professor of entrepreneurship.

Eric Anderson

Right. That’s what I was teaching. I love that, and when I decided to buy the company, I was like, okay, I can really I wasn’t at the time. I liked the industry, but I wasn’t passionate about it. Like it didn’t strike anything for me until I bought it. And I realized, oh, I can shape this thing. And I realized now and people talk, I get to help people every day, truly.

Eric Anderson

Like, we’re like, we get paid to help people. Yeah, right. Yeah, that’s really cool. And, but as this innovation starts to come in, I like a lot of the, the, the, the, the training. Let’s just call out of the, the experiences I’ve had, plus the, the ideas coming in of, of how to do business a little bit different.

Eric Anderson

Right. Yeah. And I’m really fed up lately with, with the greed. Right. With this idea of like of the corruption in business.

Hayden Lee

I squeeze every dollar I can outta this

Eric Anderson

And you know or your team, my teammates do. It’s like, no, I want to be like the best paying restoration company around to I think that’s a goal. And we’re doing it like I yeah, I mean I think locally probably are right and stuff. So I want to you know, we have we started having I guess he’s a teacher, but he’s, he’s, he’s, shamanic practitioner.

Eric Anderson

He comes and does guided meditations and sound baths for our staff on the regular, and that’s cool. We started incorporating, like, really And what I find with that that brings again brings our team together to all of us who are ready, those who want to participate, you know, you don’t have to. It’s okay. But we’re having this stuff available where, allowing me by doing all this, these synergies, it’s allowing me to continue to work on the business.

Eric Anderson

Like you’re just saying. Yeah, versus having to immerse myself in. All right, well, I got to call this adjuster back, and I gotta figure out this. Now. My team does that better. Man, they do better than me. They don’t want me doing it. Yeah, they they say don’t get all the way Eric get outta the way like and I say they say stop.

Eric Anderson

Just get out. Yeah I know like we got this.

Hayden Lee

You can work on that. Yeah. I think there’s something really, really powerful about owners getting to a point where you don’t necessarily have to be as much of an owner operator. You can just be the owner and focus on, okay, how do I help these people be successful? How do I put them in places to really thrive? You know, and maybe it’s just like personal development.

Hayden Lee

Like, I love that you guys are taking an active role in trying to help your employees be better by, you know, meditation or whatever it is. Right? Like, let’s let’s focus on helping them be the best they can be. We we recorded a podcast yesterday where we just talked the entire time about like personal development, health, like taking care of yourself in your mind can help you be better in your business, right?

Hayden Lee

And like and I love that you’ve you’ve taken an active role in trying to help your employees do the same thing.

Eric Anderson

Real important too. I think, on that note is recognizing that life is hard. Yeah, being born today in the United States is hard for anybody. I mean, except for the few, the silver spoon. Now, because that gap is getting wider, right? Yeah. It’s getting hard just to live. Yeah. And then you and you were taught you go to school for 18 years that you don’t particularly care for, you know, less than a lot of kids, right?

Eric Anderson

Yeah. With the box, it’s out. Yeah.

Hayden Lee

Maybe four more years on top of that.

Eric Anderson

And then you take on debt four more years and you get a car payment, and then all of a sudden you’re like, oh, shoot. And I want to buy a house. You’re like, I’m out of money because I had this student loan. And so that’s that’s one path, right? But in any event, even just, just, living sometimes is stressful, right?

Eric Anderson

We know that in this day and age, but then our industry is stressful. Like, we get customers who don’t want to call us. Yeah, our customers are calling because they have to call us.

Hayden Lee

It’s an emergency

Eric Anderson

It’s an emergency. You know, house is on fire. That’s traumatic. So this person has gone through something traumatic in their life or they’re in shock, potentially. Or if you just bad water damage, doesn’t matter. It’s something. It’s an event for them. So they’re not let’s just say they’re in a bad mood. Then they call.

Hayden Lee

Us, which is very common. Yeah.

Eric Anderson

So I have to go in and say, all right, this is a customer in a bad mood. I get to go instead of saying, oh, any number thing, I get to go and say, we get to go and play hero, right? We get to go in so and do that. But people are people crazy. Let’s be real, right?

Eric Anderson

People are like, they’re the rough out there still and they can give you hard times. They say, okay, so and then adjusters, depending on the carrier companies like that, we have here, pure and openly involved and people. Right. Those guys are great. Yeah. Like they care about service and those are our ideal partners because we care about service.

Eric Anderson

Right. But the companies a lot of insurance companies don’t. They may say they do, but they don’t. Right. Yeah. And I didn’t mention any names. I wouldn’t do that on the podcast. But but and because they, you know, it’s, it’s they it becomes a hard battle sometimes advocating for the insurer. Like, wait a second. No, I don’t want to paint half a wall.

Eric Anderson

Let me paint this room. They had a flood cut. Let’s match the paint. And they want you to feather in a wall. Now that’s an extreme. But that’s happened, right? Yeah. And so you end up fighting or becomes difficult. And I gotta say.

Hayden Lee

It’s wear and tear on your mind.

Eric Anderson

Wear and tear. And so if it’s my employee, if our staff, is dealing with that on the regular. Well, and I better make darn sure that our environment is, is, is healthy, right, that we have that we have cohesiveness, right. That that our team is getting along and and feeling supported. And that’s what I get to come in and do and realize.

Eric Anderson

And so, and the job may be hard at times, but my team and I bet you have as any one of our employees, they say they love coming to work even on a Monday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that’s important.

Hayden Lee

The work might be hard, but you can make the job easier. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, you can make the like the work might be difficult. The emergency the dealing with trauma. I mean, you know we have clients and I’m sure you’ve had to do jobs where, like, they’re literally doing trauma cleanup. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Hayden Lee

So, like, you’re literally dealing with people’s trauma. And so, like, it can be really, really taxing on your mind. So if you can build a workplace or a job that’s like, I still enjoy coming to work, even if the work is hard. Yeah, it can make all the difference.

Eric Anderson

That’s what I’m finding. So and if they feel valued, yeah, they have to know that they I don’t think they feel that their value they my team knows that they’re valued. Yeah. I maybe I’m not the best at the daily type of atta boys, but yeah, you know that that express. But I get they get lots of thank you’s.

Eric Anderson

Yeah. Appreciations and and we do some pretty unique things to show appreciation. Yeah. You know, last year they had, there was I had a handful of my staff who were, we had a good, great year. Right. And I said, if we hit that reach goal that I shared with you. Yeah. And put this out with two months to go at the end of last year, say, hey, listen, we’re on pace.

Eric Anderson

We could do this, do this. The reach goal not the regular goal. Yeah, but the reach one. And I said, if you do, I put an incentive out there. Airfare tickets and a weekend away for very key people that are in charge of getting us there. Right? Yeah. And we hit it.

Hayden Lee

It’s so cool.

Eric Anderson

And so that was just like a little bonus stuff too, that they could do. And I got to get them to use it. And they all work. So are like, guys, I’m favorite airfare. Let’s go. Take the time take a spouse take a friend getaway. Go to wherever you want to, wherever you want to go. There, I love it.

Hayden Lee

Well, I think this all leads and this has been an awesome, great man.

Eric Anderson

Thanks for having me

Hayden Lee

Yeah, I think this all leads perfectly into, like, what does the future look like for you guys? What what what are you hoping to accomplish in the next two, three, five year, ten years? What’s what’s the ultimate goal for you as you continue to grow and build your business?

Eric Anderson

Yeah. So right now we’re currently serve the Rhode Island and Southern New England market. So we’re headquartered in Rhode Island. I’ve an office in central Connecticut, and we have a dot on the map. I call it, in Massachusetts. Yeah. so immediately, you know, we used to have an office in Florida close that down a couple of years ago.

Eric Anderson

That was management issues and trying to really hire that right person. And I realized we want to stay. I want to say home office and kind of branch out that way. Know your place. Yeah. and so the goal for the next year is to really strengthen Rhode Island office and a couple of these key accounts that we’ve been growing, through core and through some other work that we’re doing.

Eric Anderson

Yeah. Let’s let and then ultimately want to open up a full Massachusetts office. I’ve got the plan in place for that. and that’ll help us cover all of Rhode Island, all the mass, all of Connecticut, southern New Hampshire and Vermont and be better, you know, better service. So that’s our expansion goal. and the immediate after that, I’m I’m pretty an open minded guy.

Eric Anderson

I like to ride this river of life now. Yeah. Recognizing like the right. It’s not the destination is the journey. Yeah. as they say Right? Yeah. Yeah. and that’s. But but really, I mean, that’s what it is this moment like out here now, right? Yeah. So it’s it’s about being present but paying attention to the future. So I think that’s the goal we’re going to work towards.

Eric Anderson

I don’t have financial goals at all. I don’t care. Like I just want.

Hayden Lee

To be I want to grow.

Eric Anderson

I have a way of life that I want to live and live, you know? And it’s not anything extravagant. By all means. I do love to ski. Yeah. So I do want freedom. So for me, as the owner

Hayden Lee

Grow, you got to still be able to ski. Yeah.

Eric Anderson

My goal is freedom, right? So, you know, I’ve got plans in place for my team. And to build that out, we want to build and I want to build a company. I love to say, hey, this is what it’s like to run a $20 million company or 50 million. I don’t know, man. We’ll see where that goes. So but there’s there’s that.

Eric Anderson

Quite honestly, though, I want my team to feel satisfied, to feel valued. And I want them to have opportunity. I take real pride in being an employer. Yeah. And providing really strong benefits and quality life for our team. I’m learning as I go to, like, we all are, right? This is life. And life change is hard, right?

Eric Anderson

And as the economy shifts, it gets more and more difficult for everybody. How that affects small businesses. Really challenging. Right? Because all of a sudden I’m like, I don’t have the ability just to change everybody’s pay just like that. Because I’ll tell you what, insurance companies don’t change what they’re paying just like that either. Right. Well, and they talked about it this morning.

Eric Anderson

one of the, one of the speakers talked about like, just the pace of that stuff and like some someone got one carry was like, it’s really slow. And yeah, there’s like, no, I want innovation. And it’s fascinating to see what happens. So yeah, I think that’s the immediate future. you know, I’ve got I’ve got four kids.

Eric Anderson

My oldest son, he’s interested to get into the business. My middle son is 15. He and I’ve already talked like he’s got his whole plan of being, like, being a ski bum for a couple of years and being a fireman and working in the business part time, and then maybe taking over from dad. And maybe it’s a three year, you know, 20 years from now.

Eric Anderson

Maybe he takes it over. I don’t know, I don’t know which is wild, right? Yeah. But we’re 41 years in business, you know? I’ll put it out there if anybody’s actually listening to this far ahead. Right. Great. Thanks. Appreciate you. Yeah. but I, you know, one thing that I think that I can do in this industry, too, is I’ve been through this transition, right?

Eric Anderson

Successfully. Yeah. I’ve seen companies buy and sell within the time that I bought my company and go out of business. Yeah. but the father son or the parent child transition is a challenge. Yeah. Right. for multitudes of reasons, whether you get along or not. Yep. All the personality stuff, but then the staff and transitioning and honestly, the way restoration was done 20 years ago is very different than today too, is just everything just kind of changes.

Eric Anderson

And so and the cost of doing business is skyrocketing. Yeah. but, I like to be a resource. I’ve talked to, I’ve helped some other people go through transitions and what don’t do this or does this things I’d encourage. Right. Perspective. Yeah. And so, it’s interesting meeting people. I’ve talked to a few, even at this conference, what’s going to happen, like that transitional thing.

Eric Anderson

And I think that’s fascinating.

Hayden Lee

Love it. Well, that that actually is perfect because I was going to give you the opportunity if people want to maybe connect with you and pick your brain a little bit on, on how they can be more successful or how can they maybe they could build their restoration company to do a little bit better, or do a little bit more like what you guys are doing, what would be the best way for people to reach out?

Eric Anderson

Yeah, I love it. So my contact information, you can go on our website ecrestore.com. and you’ll see my picture right there.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. Facebook. You’re obviously on Facebook.

Eric Anderson

Facebook. And, I socials on LinkedIn. I don’t really I’m not a good LinkedIn guy, but, you know, on Instagram and Facebook if you to see my personal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s, a combination of stuff, but, you can track me down on my cell phone. I’ll give it out to anybody who wants it. I’m one of those.

Eric Anderson

Yeah. I’ll text call anytime. I love to. If you guys somebody want to meet up or chat about that stuff.

Hayden Lee

Love it. Eric, seriously, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. This is an awesome conversation. I’d like to have you on again in the future. If you’re available, we can do it over zoom or whatever. We’re based out of Idaho, so we’re we’re kind of on opposite ends of the country. But yeah, maybe at the next collective or potentially we can do over zoom.

Eric Anderson

When I come visit you guys in Idaho.

Hayden Lee

For skiing.

Eric Anderson

Believe it or not, I’m a landowner in Idaho now. Really? About an hour. An hour from you guys. That’s very clear. So I have I started that dream of having a place in Idaho a couple of years to my family. And it’s last year in Driggs, you know. Driggs. Yeah.

Hayden Lee

Yeah, right at the Grand Targhee.

Eric Anderson

Right

Hayden Lee

Doorstep. Yeah. That’s awesome. For those of you don’t know, that’s a great place to ski.

Hayden Lee

Eric, thanks for coming on.

Eric Anderson

Hayden I appreciate it. Thanks, brother.