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Nearly 400 home service professionals gathered in Tucson, Arizona, recently to attend Business Development Resources’ (BDR) SPARK 2023 conference. The training and business coaching service for HVAC contractors and distributors held its second annual event as a way for members to cultivate new ideas, develop strategies for communicating with new generations, and collaborate with peers.

“At SPARK 2023, we were able to ignite the industry leaders with impactful keynote talks, meaningful business breakout sessions, and of course, great food and activities in an amazing setting," said Kim Archer, vice president of coaching at BDR. "After a couple of challenging years, we wanted to provide an outlet to help our clients and their teams recharge and head into the new year with tools to help them reach their goals.”

FUN ACTIVITIES: After the meetings, attendees could choose from a number of fun activities that included touring local museums, making guacamole, or building a catapult (shown here). (Staff photo)

Mentorship

The conference started off with a bang as keynote speaker Clint Pulver, a professional drummer turned workforce expert, played the drums before discussing the importance of mentorship. He told the story of how his mentor, Mr. Jensen, a grade school teacher who noticed he couldn’t sit still in class, suggested he play the drums as a way to work off his extra energy.

“Mr. Jensen looked at me and said, ‘I don't think you're a problem, I just think you're a drummer.’ And he gave me my first pair of drumsticks,” said Pulver. “I'm somebody who believes that one single moment in time has the ability to change your life. I was the kid who always had to move, and everybody in my life saw it as a problem or a limitation. But it took one person in my life who said, ‘No, he's not a problem — he's an opportunity.’ And then he designed a moment that allowed me to live a better story.”

For contractors, this type of interaction is imperative with younger workers, who often rank praise or a personal connection as more important than money. So how do you become a mentor? It must be earned, said Pulver, noting that the mentee must first invite you into their heart. That is done by possessing these five Cs: confidence, credibility, competence, candor, and care.

“Confidence is a mindset. Confidence exudes trust. Are you confident in your communication? Are you confident in your marketing? Are you confident in your skills? Are you confident in your business?” asked Pulver. “Can I look at you as the mentor and have confidence that you're going get me from point A to point B to point C?”

Credibility consists of your background, history, and reputation, said Pulver. How long have you been doing this? What do other people say about your organization? Then there is competence, which is important because employees want to work for someone who can get in there and do the job instead of just talking about it.

Candor is also important, because great mentors have the ability to create relationships so strong that honesty can exist. It means not pretending that the job is all “sunshine and rainbows,” said Pulver, but making clear that you have a job to uphold, profits to make, responsibilities for clients, safety protocols, etc.

“It's like the bank account principle,” he said. “Every day with your employees, you're either making deposits of trust with them or you're making withdrawals. The problem occurs when you try to make too many withdrawals and you've made no deposits of trust. When your bank account is empty, you can't have a candid conversation. Or when things go wrong and you have to have the hard talk, it doesn't go over well because you're the boss, not the advocate.”

That leads to the fifth C, which is the ability to just give a darn — to really care.

“Do we advocate for our teams as much as we develop them? Advocacy is when you’re there to help them live a better story versus making sure they get the job done,” said Pulver.

“Great mentors connect people to their dreams,” he continued. “Every great story has a mentor: Luke Skywalker had Obi Wan Kenobi. Katniss Everdeen had Haymitch. Aladdin had the Genie. Frodo had Gandalf. Simba had Mufasa. Then my personal favorite — Rocky had Mick.”

To become a great mentor, Pulver said contractors should ask themselves, “How do I create the moments in the lives of other people where they say, ‘I like myself best because I'm with you’? Now more than ever, it matters.”

Industry Trends

After the keynote came a lively session of “Cards Against Contractors,” where attendees broke into small groups to answer questions ranging from “what is the funniest experience you’ve had with a customer” to “what is the worst review you’ve received online and how did you respond.”

Then came the breakout sessions, where attendees had the opportunity to learn about everything from improving service department efficiency to recruiting new talent into the trades to the industry trends that will shape business in 2023. In the industry trends session, John Michel, lead head coach at BDR, and Ronda Chaney, head coach at BDR, identified some of the potential challenges that contractors are facing. These include cybersecurity, the supply chain, and the skilled trade shortage.

On cybersecurity, Michel said that contractors need to confront this real danger by mitigating risks, such as malware, phishing, and password attacks; implementing multifactor authentication; obtaining cybersecurity insurance; and making sure staff are properly trained about the risks.

“Awareness training is critical,” said Michel. “Should we click on that email? Should we click on that text message? What could that do to your system? Please take cybersecurity seriously, because it can definitely affect your business.”

On the supply chain, Chaney noted that things are getting better, but added that small contractors will likely still be affected. That’s because they don’t have the buying power of larger contracting firms, so they may not have as close of a relationship with their distribution and manufacturing partners.

“As small contractors, be forward thinking and have a plan in place,” she said. “We highly recommend talking to your distribution partners weekly or at least monthly. If you don't have a meeting scheduled with them, set that up, because it’s super important. You want to ask them, ‘What's available?’ ‘What are the trends?’ ‘What are we seeing?’ Be forward-thinking and take action on projections based on your plan and trends.”

Everyone is aware of the skilled trade shortage, and Michel put a fine point on it by noting that there will be approximately 41,000 openings for HVACR mechanics and installers each year over the next decade.

“The No. 1 threat that we have to all of our businesses is lack of labor. And it's growing,” he said. “So what can we do about it? How can we bridge that gap to the best of our abilities?”

To that end, Chaney suggested that contractors cast a wider net and look at hiring employees who may not have the skills, but have the right attitude.

“The reality of recruiting an experienced level four technician and filling that position in two to three months is super low. They don't need experience, though, because we can teach and train them. But passion, culture, commitment, showing up for work on time — those are the things that are super important.”

That means setting up an in-house training program that can include e-learning, third-party facilitated training, virtual reality, and on-the-job training.

“I know a lot of you are thinking ‘I don't have the time for that,’ but you have to,” said Chaney. “It is one of the most important things to make time for.”

BDR will hold SPARK 2024 in Savannah, Georgia. For more information about BDR events, visit www.bdrco.com.