Greg Owens 19:26
Yeah, I’ve learned I mean I as I’ve gotten older I guess I’ve gotten less patient with them around that because I’m basically like you I I we need the end result. You know the rooms painted and everything’s put back together the way it’s supposed to be. Either I don’t care if you go around the room to the left or on the
Katrina Stephenson 19:46
right the cliff notes version. Yeah. Good also, also to Katrina here. I just want to say that what you said about being calm, cool and collected is so like, like the most important thing aspect of all that, as someone who loves Chili’s and has worked in the restaurants, so it’s 15. In the industry, I mean, you just you’re running around, and it’s almost similar to, you know, facilities to some degree of being calm and collected is like the key,
Dave Stockton 20:15
that’s one of the things that we talk about on our team is from time to time, you know, the managers are like, let’s just say when a, when a lion runs into a pack of, I don’t know, if it’s a herd of gazelles, you know, they all run all different directions, with their hair on fire, I don’t know what to do. And we are live there right now, where we kind of walk up, cool, calm and collected, and we’re going to take care of business, and we keep our heads about us, and you’ve got to remain calm, otherwise, you’re going to lose your back critical thinking is out the window.
Greg Owens 20:51
How do you teach that within your art? Or do you look for that, when you’re hiring people, for your direct reports, in
Dave Stockton 20:58
a way we do, we do look for that in the type of person that they are, if they’re, I mean, you know, we’re all pretty laid back. Just Our team is about 15, strong. We’re, we’re all pretty laid back, we’d like to we work hard, and we play hard. We, you know, we all like to have fun when we get a chance to. But you’ve got to you’ve got to just kind of take it all in. And and you know, if when somebody calls you freaked out, you know, you might go through that phone call, and you might just stop and think about it, you know, kind of counts 10 I mean, that’s one of the biggest things to counting to 10 and I’ve been there we’ve all been there where you just jumped to conclusions about what’s going on, oh my god, we’re gonna get shut down the health department this and that. And you know what, one of the things that that I see that’s common, and this is all restaurants. If I haven’t gas smell in my restaurant, they dial 911. And what happens is the fire department shows up, and then the fire department will shut you down, the fire department might tear your ceiling apart, trying to figure out where the smell is coming from, they’ll cause more damage than fires do most of the time in restaurants. You know, just think about it before you call 911 because we’ll end up shut down most of the day, because then they have to get a Health Inspection to reopen. It slows things down drastically and just remaining calm and Canada cam You know what, what is it that I need to do in an emergency to get this restaurant opened back up as quickly as possible to make them profitable again? Right?
Greg Owens 22:37
So just good. It’s such good advice. 10 second rule, right, because we see it within our clients and sometimes the painters, but mostly the clients, and mostly This is on the residential side of painting, we have more of that kind of thing. It’s very rare for us to have commercial clients crying, right. But you know, when when a client picks the wrong color for their master bedroom, and it’s really important to them, they can get pretty emotional about it.
Dave Stockton 23:02
Oh, I’m sure I’m sure I would too. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And but bigger than that. Yeah. And I mean, I’m a hands on guy. if if if there’s anything for myself, I pretty much do everything myself.
Greg Owens 23:16
Yeah. All right. Nice for your own house. Yeah. Did you make the wall behind you the last actually
Dave Stockton 23:22
shiplap wall I did. I didn’t do that myself. I remodeled mine during COVID. a remodel mile six.
Katrina Stephenson 23:28
And this is the second one we’ve seen on this podcast and someone did it DIY themselves. It’s great.
Greg Owens 23:35
But the paneling behind it is it does look really good. Maybe stained in a nice grey? It’s great. Like, yeah, it’s so and they Yeah, and that’s, that’s I mean, we we run into that so much where the maybe the top down is panicking about getting a project done. And I love it when I go and I talked to the facilities managers, and they’ve been around a long time much longer than some of the C suite people and that kind of thing within the building. And they’re just we can then have sort of a real conversation like contractor to somebody that knows contracting about Okay, what is the what is the real timeline here? And what is really needed to be done? And then how do we execute and get this done? Right. It’s It’s such a great conversation to have when it’s somebody that just kind of knows the industry and knows what’s going on.
Dave Stockton 24:26
Now, what’s most important to to the customer at the end is timelines, the by wind, the by winds are if you if you can give those to those to your customer or whoever it may be being given by win or to the state level, you know, actors in the in the process. That’s that’s important to them, so they know what to report to their customers, so to speak. That’s huge. And when that’s one of the things that we preach within the company, and our team As you know, you got to give them by win for everything that you can. That way they know when to expect and and if it doesn’t happen by that timeframe, you know, for be prepared for another update. You know, that’s because we know why, again, right now by winds are very difficult when it comes to anything to do with supply chain. I mean it’s it’s, it’s really it’s hard and it’s really bad right now
Greg Owens 25:24
yeah, we’re supposed to remodel like four bathrooms for a commercial client. And they were, they were saying they want it done by October 1. And we’re like, we can’t promise that we don’t know, right at the moment, we don’t know, we can get all the materials, we don’t know what we don’t know, like, what other things that come in your own building is closed us down multiple times already, because of COVID. Right? Like, somebody gets COVID at the building, and they’re like, nobody comes inside. So you know, and then our own company could have challenges with employees or COVID, or something along those lines. So it’s like, you know, what, what can we do to get make sure you’re happy with this proposal? And, you know, and what’s our contingencies if we can’t get it done on time? Right? This has been a big conversation that I keep, keep having to have with people.
Dave Stockton 26:11
I’m sure, I mean, everything is everything is different. And, you know, one of the other things too, is is that I see out of out of a lot of a lot of people because everyone is so busy. And I had a conversation last week about it seems as if mediocrity has become the standard at times when it you know, with servers from services provided by certain people, because they’re accepting that because that’s the best they can get out of their people. And that’s not acceptable. Totally.
Greg Owens 26:41
Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s a different world right now. And like I said earlier, it’s a weird moment in time where these things seem to be happening. And it might be like, as you mentioned earlier, there, you know, there’s definitely a lot of money out there, the economy is booming, there’s a lot of activity, and not enough people to take care of it. So so the standards are getting lowered a little bit, right. But I see what I see in that the opportunities to really shine and really do a good job. You know, and really sort of stand out ahead spec because all these all good things come to an end at some point, right?
Dave Stockton 27:14
They do they do it for sure. And and all the bad things there too.
Greg Owens 27:22
And so looking at the future ahead for you guys. How are you navigating? The State rules around COVID must be driving you guys crazy, because I’ve been travelling a little bit this summer, and each state is completely different on how they’re viewing and how the and how, what the rules are. I am in New York City right now. And I went to a bar last night for the first time I was COVID vaccine vaccination test checked point, which was a new one for me. Luckily, I was prepared, but it was it was it was new. I was like, Oh, this is the test right there. No, no, they wanted to see my vaccination. Right. I see. Right, you know, until in order to let me in to see my friends who were hanging out at this at this bar. I mean, a couple of drinks. world and they said that’s the new law, though. It’s not being enforced yet. And I don’t know if it’s an actual law. Right or request.
Dave Stockton 28:21
That’s, that’s very different from Well, yeah, I mean, I’m sure everyone has heard about how Texas is and that our what our you know, the mandate that our governor has sent down and you know, that’s causing a lot of difficulties with the the rise in the Delta variant and that that’s a that’s a struggle for everyone right now. I mean, I can’t really speak to what what the other facility managers are having to deal with in certain states outside of just what I’ve heard. I know that the Northeast it there are a lot more stringent and up there than what they are down here. I most recently I was in Orlando. Well, about three to four weeks ago, I was there and it was a lot like Texas, no mass, no, no concerns nothing. And I believe there are one of the most flared up states right now. Florida. Yeah. And then a few weeks ago, I was also in Vegas. Vegas was mass everywhere except for outside. And I as far as the checkpoints go with the with the vaccination card. I just I certainly hope we’re not expected to carry them I have a picture of mine. Was that something that would have been acceptable? it’s acceptable.
Greg Owens 29:33
Yeah, you can get an official looking like the state of California does it you can get an official looking vaccination card by putting your name and social security number in and it’ll it’ll everyone
Katrina Stephenson 29:44
didn’t laminate theirs.
Greg Owens 29:47
I haven’t done my it’s awful big. That’s true. Katrina laminated mine for me doing that because now it doesn’t fold. Anyway. Yeah, laminate It will be close to wrapping up Dave in and I wanted to touch on a little bit about what your recommendations for people that want to change careers like they’re a contractor and they’re thinking about something different. You know, they’re tired of working with tools they wanted to get into more management position, or new people that are just coming up and don’t know about this career in this field, what would you recommend that they should like work on study? what’s what’s the best practices there?
Dave Stockton 30:33
I would say, to try and get as familiar with all the trades that they can. I mean, you know, one of the biggest values that I have for myself is coming from the HVAC and refrigeration trade, it’s kind of a mixture of all the trades. So I’m pretty familiar with most most all the trades. Find a mentor, a mentor is crucial. You know, I’ve had a lot of great mentors in my career, some good leaders and and I’ve had, I’ve had a few bad leaders, but not many. I mean, I’ve been very blessed to have had some great leadership to kind of show me the way I’m, you know, that that’s, I would say, that’s one of the biggest things that they can do for themselves is connect with someone in the field that they or they may know, and then choose whether or not they want to go. Is it restaurants that they want to be in facilities management? Or is it is it high rise, I mean, I’ve been there for all those different areas. I’ve also been in retail, I had a short stint with Pier One imports many years ago, and I discovered the retail is not for me retail is is is it is a lighted box airline and air condition box. That’s what retail is. And everything is about the lighting and the whole lot of trash in hollowing the product, but what color is it going to be when they get the product home versus what it is in the store? Right? You know, figure out what direction you’d like to go restaurants it’s it’s a it’s it’s tough, you know, small, they’re small box restaurants there’s there’s medium box, I’d say we’re Chili’s is a medium box size restaurant. And so it’s I could probably be responsible in upwards marry of three to 400 restaurants and manage those because there’s so so much somebody, there’s not as many assets within that, that that restaurant than there is from what we’ve been doing. We are we’re constantly adding assets, because we’ve been picking up virtual brands. And so that’s more assets we’re adding to our menus and, and it’s just it’s about being versatile. And the ability to multitask and accept change constantly, by the moment as what the expectations may be being versatile. If a person is have the ability to only focus on one thing at a time. restaurant, well facilities may not necessarily be for them, they might want to. So you just have to be able to constantly evolve and change with your customer, your technology, whatever it may be, you know, but I would say familiarization with the trades. In summary, I would say familiarization with the trades, finding a good mentor. And what what do you what type of facilities work do you want to do?
Greg Owens 33:31
What I’ve noticed is we’ve talked to a few people in the restaurant industry. One One was jack Ma, facilities manager for Jack in the Box. And you know, that when I talk to you, you guys that are in that industry, everything so much more of a faster pace, right? And there’s so much more critical moments, right? Like, if the refrigeration goes down, or the power is out or, or the roof is leaking, it’s a major, much more bigger deal than if it’s like some skyscraper and there’s like the floor went off or something like that, or it’s too hot, right? There’s a little bit fast pace with what I’ve seen, especially when you have so many different locations out there in the world.
Dave Stockton 34:12
Everything’s different. I mean, you have to kind of know a little bit about every location that you have, where it’s located, what type of you know, what, what, what is the, you know, who’s the power company who’s the, you know, but all of these things you have to know or at least have a quick access to, to find out that information. I mean, we’re large, I mean, we’re we’re 1200 plus restaurants and we have you know, a lot of departments that we have to reach out to to get information after hours. I mean, we’re one of the few departments that work out of our home office that works constantly after hours. Now one of them another one would be it I mean, they’re they’re constantly working as well. Beyond that there’s not many others that that aren’t out of our home office that are not eight to five. So gaining access to anybody else. It’s
Greg Owens 34:59
really good. Gold. And you mentioned that a little bit, but what was your path to getting to this point in your career, like you’ve mentioned being you’re a contractor and HVAC contractor, which, you know, HVAC, people don’t always realize like a person that studies and knows about HVAC they know about cooling, heating, electrical and plumbing is so involved in that, right. And that’s, that’s a lot of trades right there to that knowledge of a little bit about your just background getting to this point in time.
Dave Stockton 35:30
Okay, so, um, well, when brinker international was my customer back in 2007. And that a pretty good connection with their facility manager at the time, who, who now is a co worker who is still a co worker of mine. And so he and I just discussed the career pathway. And his background was also hbic refrigeration from at one time. And so we talked about it, I didn’t know and what what drew me into the restaurant business is, first of all the people the culture that the company had, it just was fun. And, you know, it seemed like the type of job that I could work and have a lot of fun at the same time, which we do on certain times working. So I interviewed with them and came on board and I was enrolled for about four years, and I decided that I wanted to grow a little faster than what they could provide me. So then I, I chose that role to go to in retail. And it didn’t take long for me to figure out that wasn’t for me. About eight or nine months later, I was lucky enough to reconnect with an old boss of mine that I was with at Brinker International and I went to Texas land cattle, Lone Star Steakhouse, and then work my way up to be a director of facilities there. It was a turnaround opportunity for that restaurant company, which it didn’t really work, it didn’t work out. So from there, I went to our Senior Director of facilities for Topgolf, the opportunity came about which was at the time my dream job it was, I was responsible starting out about 12 rescue or 12 12 venues at that point. From there, I went to all I think we had about I was there a little over four years, a little over three years and the culture started kind of changed you know, culture so important to many with that company. And, you know, the things things changed and evolved there then started focusing more on going public than they were the and then they did their people, in my opinion. And, and the opportunity for me to go back to Brinker presented itself. And I came back home to my family. That’s that’s where I feel that I am now and, you know, finding a home like this with or the team that that feels like family. That’s, that’s, that’s a pretty good place to be. And it feels less like work than then then truly, just,
Greg Owens 38:11
that’s a great story. It’s a wonderful and I think there’s sometimes it’s really nice as an owner of a company, I’ve had employees that have left to go off and try other things. And I think it’s so valuable when they come back, you know, because they get to get to taste the waters of something else and come back and you know, and have more appreciation and more sort of dedication, a lot of ways. You know, when they when they’re back there,
Dave Stockton 38:34
you’re more appreciative when you come back. Yeah. That’s one of the things that I speak to, you know, I’ve worked for other restaurant companies now. I I tell them it’s it’s not it’s not that different than where we are there. There’s there’s pains in the in your backside everywhere.
Greg Owens 38:53
Yeah, yeah. ugly. Dave, thank you so much for being on this podcast, the Watching Paint Dry, and people can if they want to reach out to you what is the best way? Would it be LinkedIn? Yeah, LinkedIn would be the best way to get a hold of me. That’s great. That’s great. All right. Well have have a wonderful rest of the day. I know you’re super busy. Again. Lots of appreciation for jumping on this call with us.
Dave Stockton 39:17
Thanks so much. Thank you. Good luck to you too.
Outro 39:30
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