The Art of Succession

welcome to the art of succession podcast

with Barrett young join us as we explore

the strategies stories and insights that

shape the Journey of leadership

Transitions and business success no

matter where you find yourself along the

journey this is the podcast where you'll

find the tools to make it happen I would

get involved in other aspects like sales

and whatnot but nowhere near to the

extent that I am now you know retirement

was something that he never thought he

would do um you know we'll figure it out

when we'll figure it out when the

biggest lesson I learned was how to just

put one foot in front of the other my

name is Barrett young and this is the

arst succession podcast my guest today

is Garrett Noak president of lamothermic

a Manufacturing Company in New York

Garrett welcome to the artistic

session thanks for having me

Barrett so we've got a story that we're

gonna unpack today uh your father was

the president of the company and then he

unfortunately passed what year did he

pass in uh

2022 okay so he passed just just under

three years ago and you found yourself

at the age of 25 taking over this

Manufacturing Company um before we get

into that what what's interested you in

telling this story today on the artist

succession um hopefully reaching the one

person out there that's in my shoes and

can look back and say

you could do it

too all right I appreciate that thank

you so much for being open and candid in

this interview so did your father start

the company just tell me a little bit

about the origin of the company quite

briefly sure um yeah so we make

investment

castings um for commercial industrial

use um anything you can think of dad

founded the company back in 1976 he was

working for the company that builts our

induction furnaces that we used to melt

um the metal and he was working for that

company and um was getting a little

stagnant in that role and said I I can

do this whole casting thing too and went

and uh built the company so he uh

started in my grandparents basement and

got a location here Cold Springs down

the road couple years later moved to

Pauling and now we're in Brewster we've

been here for probably about 30

something years so okay kind how it

started so you grew up in this business

then I did I've been running around this

place since I was you know yay tall with

my scooter and my old Sony

Walkman okay did did Dad have any

co-founders or anything or uh uh he

started the business uh with a college

roommate um and they

saw different Visions for the business

so they split ways my uncle joined the

business so my father and my uncle uh

really kind of built it from the ground

up okay gotcha uh is your uncle still in

the business or uh as of last year uh he

is retired and it's me okay all right so

your your father then wasn't 100% owner

at the time of his passing correct but

he was the acting president and and

running the company that's correct okay

uh had you been involved in the business

tell me a little bit about your

involvement up up until that point sure

um like I said I've been running around

these walls since I was a little kid and

when I became 16 I started working in

the business you know officially rather

than just helping my dad push the button

a kid um and I would come here after

school when I was in high school and

work a couple hours here a couple hours

there I'd come in on the

weekends uh then I went to college uh I

graduated from senior news with a degree

in mechanical engineering and during my

college breaks I

would come and work kind of like a

engineering intern if you will when I

graduated college I got hired full-time

as a manufacturing engineer here and

spent probably uh let's see if I do the

math correctly about four years doing Ma

up until Dad's passing okay so from

teenage years it was your purpose to

come into the family business then yeah

it was kind of my intent um I was really

big into computers when I was younger

and I went off to school thinking I'm

going to be a computer engineer I don't

need this dirty manufacturing stuff and

and then one day I had a professor that

gave a presentation in mechanical

engineering and I just sat there and at

the end of the presentation I said what

in the world am I doing this is so cool

and um had I do it all again I'd

probably gone to school for

manufacturing engineering rather than

mechanical engineering but yeah that's

what kind of flipped the switch and one

day I just kind of made the decision I

think this is what I want to do and it

still is what I want to do okay

interesting um and give me just a

ballpark on the size of the company like

number of employees uh volume or

anything like that that you're you're

comfortable sharing sure

um we've been as high as probably about

130 people um currently we're about

53 um when I took over the business we

were at um about 70 in change um 2024

was a slower year than I had liked um

but we resided in a 50,000 foot facility

we've run as much as three shifts almost

247 for the most part um um we're about

$12

million okay are I mean do you have like

large Supply or large customers or is it

more small order like what's that look

like um a little bit of everything um we

have some very large customers that make

things that you and I use every single

day you see them all around the world in

terms of automotive and I got the guy

down the road that's rebuilding you know

a barn and want some door handles made

so uh everything in between okay so I'm

I'm just trying to get a I'm trying to

get some context here of what you're

stepping into at at 25 years old so what

I stepped into I'd say you know we're we

haven't grown all that much about a12

million company we had about 70 change

employees running three

shifts pretty stable other than like

supply chain issues and covid and stuff

like that so that's kind of what I what

I stepped into I was going to say that's

about the timeline it sounds oh yeah

that was a um a painful time in terms of

the supply chain and Co and everything

yeah um but it's a wellestablished

business um when I got into it I

definitely saw room for improvement and

there were some red flags in my

mind but when Dad pass past it was kind

of my first priority to take care of

some of those things when I stepped in I

was kind of like drinking out of a fire

hose you know I had gone to school for

engineering I think what I'd say is

proficient in doing some of the

engineering things

here had no formal training and how to

run a business or any of the legal or HR

matters or anything like

that yeah prior to his passing what was

your what was your role were you a

department head or shadowing him what

what did that look like just a

manufacturing engineer um I was

developing processes for the products

that we

manufacture

um from you know Soup To

Nuts but that was really kind of it my

Niche was in engineering and I would get

involved in other aspects like sales and

whatnot but now I near nowhere near to

the extent that I am

now so I was kind of just dipping my

toes in the water dad didn't really have

a succession plan which was kind of the

hardest part for me gotcha but prior to

that you were I mean how many mechanical

engineers would you guys have on staff I

mean one of 10 one of three what about

one of three one of four okay gotcha so

you're kind of in the middle even though

you're you know the owner's kid and

everything like that have been running

around doing this for six years

but so you don't have like department or

budget uh responsibility or anything at

this point no at that point no not at

all okay um and your father passed of

cancer correct yeah he lost his third

battle unfortunately I'm sorry uh how

how many years has had he been uh

fighting this um so he got red

diagnosed um with cancer in 20 20 so on

top of Co which was a nightmare in

itself um that's when he was diagnosed

so we spent you know two and change

years battling what everyone else was

battling in terms of the world of Co and

whatnot and we were battling you know

dad being sick let you know Co aside

imuno

compromised a difficult way of living

if you will um it was a very emotional

time in my life and you know when I

think about it it's still

emotional

but it was something

that you know you do the best you

can yeah prior to that his first two uh

bouts with with cancer I mean were you a

a child when he first was diagnosed

yeah I was a child I don't remember how

what age I was but I I was too young to

understand um and it was difficult on my

mom

and my brother was a little bit too

young to understand but my sister

understood by the time I understood what

had happened it had happened and you

know he was in remission for you know 18

years or something like that I don't

know the exact amount okay almost your

entire life then yeah yeah and

um um his second

battle was when I was in college

so we thought that kind of cleared up

and then it progressed into a different

or was a you know it became a different

type of cancer so it was you know we're

going down the road this way and it said

well we're going that way type of

deal

okay I appreciate you sharing that I

know it's it's touchy and emotional sure

um so you you came in sounds like right

before the third bout with cancer

started again yep and and you said he

passed without a succession plan

so I I I mean succession planning for

any business owner is hard enough

already we don't want to you know we

don't want to admit that there's an end

out there um I imagine fighting cancer

you just have to stay optimistic and not

give in to that is that is that why he

was wasn't putting he wasn't

prioritizing succession planning do you

think can't really tell you what was

going through his head other than it

wasn't um on the top of his to-do list

my dad like me loved what he did and you

know retirement was something that he

never thought he would do um you know

we'll figure it out when we'll figure it

out when well when came and

gone so it wasn't something that he was

really

um thinking

about okay how much planning had he done

I mean had he had he put anything in

place is it like a 20-year-old will

or uh yeah we had a you know he had a

will um but it really didn't do much in

terms of me figuring out anything with

the business there was

a um

you know outdated drafts of things but

nothing too

crazy gotcha so I mean if we can can we

talk about this for a little bit because

a lot of people think you know wills and

Estates and trusts and things like that

and they think oh if I just write it

down in that it's going to take care of

the

family but business owners need an

operations plan I mean there's oh that's

the majority of it in my opinion um

doesn't matter what you put down on

paper if you don't have a plan to

execute who cares what's on paper you

won't be able to do it yeah especially

if if you don't have a family member

involved in the business or signing

power over checks and bank accounts and

things like that um it could take months

to try to unfreeze assets or get in

contact with a with a um Trustee of a

any estate plan but you've got payroll

coming up this next week so yeah um

lessons learned that you want to share

or re or just enforce from

that um the biggest lesson I learned was

how to just put one foot in front of the

other every day for quite a long time

until I was starting to feel confident

in what I was doing U we

have had and still have u a wonderful

team that helped me

get through it um to a point where I

felt a little bit more

stable but the biggest lesson I take

away like I said is just learning how to

keep

going a a a good therapist and um some

good hard work goes a long way and

organization learn as much as you can

every day because you don't want to be

rushed to do at all a short period of

time I mean if you don't want to please

stop me sure but talk me through that

first month after he passed I mean you

have to wake up you have to go in and

then you also have employees who've

probably been working with them for 15

20 maybe even 40 years at this point and

you have to get them to show up and do

the work I mean was there grief

counselor involved for the team or just

a lot of touching checking in and um a

lot of checking in yeah I'll tell you as

as much as I can from the beginning

um I remember the morning that dead had

passed and we got a call from the doctor

saying you know this was the

end and that for me is where it started

um obviously took the day off

and we waited for the end to come it was

kind of slow and

painful I took about two days off to

grieve and I came into the

office and that's when I said all right

it's it's time to keep

going everyone here was holding the

weight for me and my uncle was here and

he said all right Garrett it's time to

go you I said all right let's do it and

the next you know several weeks it was

all right well Dad has a empty desk here

um what do I do with that I spent a lot

of time cleaning the desk because Dad

has all these files what are

these went through those

um yeah I was checking in with myself

checking in with the people that work

for me you know

it was a difficult time for

everyone but everyone kind of stood on

each other's shoulders it

was you know this is what Dad would have

wanted dad would want would have wanted

us to do it this way and while you know

that's kind of hard in today's way of

thinking at the you know immediate month

after his passing was

um you know let's let's make Dad proud

and let's keep you know doing the thing

I need to get done and uh it was

probably a week or two after that I said

all right I need to learn what to do

like I said we have a team that that

kept me

going but a lot of the the growing pains

were me figuring it

out and you

know kind of by the way it goes making

it my own

style I I didn't have a whole lot of

time working with my dad in the capacity

of what it means to run a business I had

time with him doing engineering related

projects but I have no idea what my dad

would have said on half the things I

needed to ask him about running a

business so who I mean who were you able

to lean on during this time had your

uncle had any experience running the

business too or um advisor CPA anything

attorney yeah I had a a good amount of

people people um our general manager

that was running the plant for you

know 30 about 30 years or something at

the time really has a good grasp on the

way the business runs and my uncle was

here you know doing the

same most of the the key managers I have

were the ones

that held their own and helped me create

my own

way my my first

goal probably in the six the six months

after my Dad's passing for me mentally

was you know stabilize what what do I

need to do to stabilize because I felt

very unstable at the time you know I

didn't know what I didn't know and U it

was a

rapid exercise and learning of learning

the things I I I don't know

I I mean a company of 70 you've you've

got to have systems and HR and um

accounting department sales different

kinds of things am I am I correct in

that and so those things had been set up

in advance and kind of just leaned on

those some of the things some of them

not so much you know we don't have an

accounting department we have somebody

that does accounting that interfaces

with our accountants and you know same

thing with HR and their sales team was

one at the time so like I didn't have

these big you know giant teams of

people but I had people and so they just

kept doing while you're taking these six

months to stabilize they're just kind of

business as usual trying to keep things

going the way that they had been going

yeah I'd say that's a good description

of it it was you know we do have systems

and

processes that kept things going yeah

like you said you know business as usual

um but from a leadership of the business

standpoint that's really where I needed

to to fill the gaps because anyone knows

you know how to follow the directions

and push the buttons but um you know in

terms of where is the company going from

here is

a much larger

question yeah uh what happen you know

when do we decide the directions need to

change yeah exactly and and for me that

was the the the biggest thing

understanding the you know prior to this

I had no real understanding of the

financial situation the company and it

was all a black box to me and it was

like all right time to open the box and

dig in and see what's

there all that was kind of done as

needed as needed

to and you know that kind of led me into

the next phase of after I stabilize you

know what do I learn that will help me

grow and then how do I grow and develop

and now I find myself in this growing

and developing stage you know here we

are almost uh you know three years later

it's a totally different picture Okay um

I definitely want to get into what

you've done with the company and made it

your made it your

own I I mean I don't want you to feel

like you're dishonoring your dad but

what kind of messes did you find what

kind of what kind of mess do people

leave because they always think I can

fix this

tomorrow a lot of things that my

dad didn't know about you know he was

really great

engineer um not so

much a person that wanted to really

drive a company in a direction you know

he didn't um he didn't find that part as

fun as an exciting as I do which is you

know totally fine

um I wouldn't say there was anything

messy if I had to get close to the term

messy it probably would have

been just the way that there weren't any

there wasn't a blueprint on how to keep

going there was no if Dad piss past then

do this type of thing um yeah there

there was no plan I think that was the

part that that bothered me it was I I

knew things that had to get done

but not from you know

dad's planning um the size that you guys

were at and number of employees and just

the the size of your customers and

everything were there I mean was there

any fear that Revenue was going to dry

up I don't know if your dad was involved

in that relationship side of sales or

not oh yeah he was and I was fearful of

that but no one else was I'm proud to

say we didn't lose a single customer

over the that Dad wasn't around we

didn't lose a single employee du the

fact that Dad wasn't around so the the

brand of the business remained even

though I had concerns about

it that's that's amazing yeah anything

else uh around this that I haven't asked

or um haven't PRI

into

um not off the top of my head no okay

all right so the first six months did

were you able I assume within the first

six months to stabilize the company did

that go faster than expected did it go

slower than expected uh it went faster

than expected you know stabilize the

company maybe isn't the right term

because it's not like we were you know

about to crash or anything it was more

so you know we're kind of on autopilot

and there's a time and a place for when

you get a down you know off of autopilot

and you know who's going to fly the

plane type of thing um you know we were

we were moving forward in in an okay

Direction um stabilize for me was

understand the systems and what are the

next steps going to look like and yeah I

was able to do that um a lot of hours a

lot of soul searching quite frankly um

you know now it was well what do I want

to do it was no longer well what did Dad

and I want to do it was

what did I want to do walk me through

that first decision to change something

what what's going on in your mind

emotionally you know is this the right

thing is it too fast is it too soon talk

talk me through that first change I have

a bunch of them and I still have some

today and I probably always will um but

probably one of the biggest things is in

the summer of 23

uh we gutted a part of our production

facility to revamp it um the induction

melter that we used to melt our

metal

was you know had seen better days and we

decided that we were going to buy and

Implement a new one and the company that

we bought the melter from is where dad

started off his career before he decided

to create this

business and people that I talked to

during the sale remember

dead um and we

took um at least 10 days and gutted out

our operation where if we tried to turn

turn the lights back on it wouldn't

worked um we redid everything we broke

up floors we replumbed this and redid

the electrical lines on that um and we

spent hour and hours and all I could

think was is am I going to be able to

you know turn this thing on at the end

of the day and get back to where we

were and it was probably the most

stressful day of my career when we went

to turn the machine on and it didn't

work and I said I've spent 10 days and I

was part of the crew too I was up on the

boom leftt and everything and I'm like

we spent 10 days and this thing's not

turning on and everyone has to come to

work two days from now and I'm supposed

to pay people this week what do you mean

it doesn't work and um the poor guy

commissioning the unit um heard it for

me but uh it was a false alarm they put

the wrong sticker on the machine and had

the wrong settings in but I was very

scared you know I was I made the

decision that we're going to revamp this

thing and we're going to spend 10 days

shut down we you know making this thing

better and all I can remember is

standing there watching my con my

contractor Jackhammer the floor part and

I'm sitting there all right well there

goes that part there goes that part and

U once he started breaking up the deck I

was like should I have done this can I

can I manage to turn the operation back

on um we did it and it worked great

something that we're all really proud of

but boy was I scared boy was I unsure if

I was going to be in business a week

later after

some of the headaches I had that

week I mean given that was your dad's

experience I I imagine he was that

person running the entire show in the

past when you guys had installed these

right yeah and here I am call the

shots yeah all that all that knowledge

that was stored in his head he just he

knew it to do kind of thing yep yep he

did just for context because I am an

accountant and I love this kind of stuff

uh how many what's the dollar amount of

the size a piece of equipment and and

just complete install that we're talking

about here probably when it's all said

and done you know like labor and

materials and Contracting in the

unit

uh

probably half a million's too low but

three quarters is probably too much okay

somewhere in that range not exactly

pocket change for my a business yeah

yeah and you have how many of these

operating one usually oh just this is it

we had two one was broken and one was on

the

fritz and I mean you know when we're

down for a day and that machine turns

off and it's not melting metal you know

I'm losing Revenue at tremendous

speed

um and I just decided you know if I if I

could go three days without this running

it would you know pay for the

machine and eventually it would break

and it would break and I didn't have

somebody to fix it and i' have to call a

technician and the dollar started adding

up really quick I said we need to do

something different

here so all right uh after you

identified the problem was it another

day of refiguring everything or was it

oh yeah it was about a day to get things

back up and running but it was scary

probably this one of the scariest days

of my

career um I started kind of going

through my head you know what do I need

to do to make sure people have jobs you

know in a couple days from now and that

they're going to stay in the payroll

things like

that but at the end of the day it worked

really well I mean it was a it was a

long project in the planning we probably

spent eight months planning it a lot of

hard work and commitment from everyone

and

I'm so glad we did it it worked great

just boy was I terrified in the

moment so since that since then that

that first big project I mean have you

what kind of Direction have you chosen

since now you're no longer just keeping

going in the same direction you you

mentioned you're down about a third of

your Workforce is it re is it shifting

your business model or anything like

that the biggest thing that we saw was

during Co everyone would buy a lot of

product from us and the supply chains

were so disrupted that they said oh I

better go buy more so and that pushed

our lead times out which made somebody

else say oh that takes a long time to

get my product better buy more so people

bought and bought and bought kind of

like toilet paper I mean you go through

castings a lot slower than you do toilet

paper though right so we kind of saw the

flip side of people um having too much

in on their shelves and that's kind of

what we saw in late 23 through 2024 so

that was kind of our reducing head count

we're on our way back up now um we're

actively hiring people and I see nothing

but some really great things for 25 and

26 in terms of new business um the

direction I'm taking the company is it's

different than what Dad would do um we

are not an ISO 90001 certified company

but hopefully by the end of March we

will

be

um and and what's that mean for you guys

um ISO 90001 is a international standard

that dictates Quality Management Systems

you know basically the way you run your

business and how do you follow the

processes that you have and ensure that

the business is in tune for risks and

things like that and there's a you know

a portion of succession planning you

know in that standard if you will um so

for us it means getting new business

because we essentially will hold their

certificate that says we have got

through the checklist of what you're

looking for you know it's a pretty

competent industry

certification um it's it's a culture

shift it's you know we're going to do

things by the book now rather than go by

the seat of our pants and if we say

we're going to do this we're going to do

this um it's a it's a culture

change you know Dad wasn't big on on

that

that uh that way of going but it's

something I think is really valuable for

the business because if you implement

the requirements of the certification

it'll make your business better and

it'll open doors for New Opportunities

so it's something we've been working on

for the last probably close to a year

now okay so it's more of a reliability

certification not like a tolerance or a

Precision kind of measurement of what

you could do some of it is

um for the most part yeah it's you know

are you doing what you say you do and do

you have ABC to make sure that your

company Works U you know in this

manner um you know I'm I'm targeting

markets that uh and customers that I

feel

are really good for the business and

while I'm never going to kick a customer

out a

door focusing my efforts on the ones

that matter more than that you know I'm

getting a good Roa good Roi

on you know we've had customers over the

years that we've struggled to do you

know good business with you know those

have kind of dropped out I think the

biggest thing that

um is different is I I hold a extremely

high standard the way that I want the

business to operate U and I love what I

do and I want everyone in this business

to want to come to work you know I

understand not everyone's obsessed with

what they do but come to work doing

something that you find meaningful

rewarding that you want to be part of a

team that achieves a common goal um and

if you have the attitude that you're

going to row the boat in the other

direction then you know you're better

off at you know a different

company and it's something that I have

little tolerance for so that's

definitely different too

where do you think that comes from

because I mean you shared three years

ago when when Dad passed you had none of

the business side the understanding of

you know what makes this kind of company

so I mean where's that come from for

you um you mean in terms of the

knowledge the attitude or the attitude

like what what helped you to develop

that that different approach than

Dad um do you think it's a it's a time

like a period of your life thing like do

you think he was that way when he

started a company in the 70s and 80s or

I don't I don't really know what how he

was but for me it's about I think the

type of person I am the type of person

I'd want to work for the type of

business I would want to work for um and

I've gotten a lot of and I mean a lot of

great resources to lean

on local councils here that I'm a part

of peer leadership groups that I'm a

part

of business owners that I know that I

can pick up the phone and call when

there's an issue you know how would you

approach this problem how would you

approach this and it's kind of just been

like this giant

encyclopedia in my back pocket

that well isn't really right has a lot

of different ways of going about

different situations and I feel very

confident the network that I've grown so

I think a big part of it is n networking

who do you know and what have they been

through don't make the same mistakes

that somebody else has already made that

they can tell you to not do what they

did um that type of thing i' I've met

one of my you know friends and mentors

is somebody I didn't know him he knew my

dad and he came to my dad's wake and

says you don't know me but I know you

you know come come by my shop next week

and let's talk and people that want to

see me

succeed have been really really

helpful I think the

the thing that kind of glues everything

together is the

culture and I think it's

just what kind of culture of a business

would you want to be in you know no one

wants to be at a business where they

constantly can't stand you know this

person or that

person so I mean it sounds like you're

Shifting the culture maybe slowly or

just focusing it or you know I know in

our business I've I've got clients

who've been clients of our firm longer

than I've been alive even much longer

than I've been here um and some of those

clients will still throw that well

that's not the way things used to be

around here how did you go

about casting a vision for that change

getting people on board and then making

the hard decisions if somebody is rowing

in the wrong direction that they need to

get out how how did you build support

behind you for that

um and I know it's probably in process

still so it's it is in process but um

finding the right as Jim colins said in

his book Finding you know getting the

right people in the right seats on the

right bus and you know once I identified

who's in the right seats on the right

bus U it makes it pretty obvious who

isn't and I still struggle with the well

that's not the way your dad would have

done it or you know 20 years ago we used

to do this and at some

point just have to draw the line in the

sand and it took a long time for me and

sometimes I still go back on the other

the other side of the line but uh you

know as a business owner and somebody

that's trying to create a culture and

you know develop a

business the people that want to see you

succeed I think it's very obvious that

they want to help you and they'll be

there for you to do the things that need

to get

done

and I think Drawing the Line is

something that just needs to be done um

you know especially with some people

that have been here a long time I you

know I appreciate that you've been doing

this for X period x years like this but

I want you to you know take the skills

that you have and I want you to do them

like that and most people have really

come along come a long way with that

type of attitude it's appreciating the

work that people have put in and valuing

what they've contributed to the company

but realizing that you know we're here

and you know we're going to go here and

sorry but that's where we're going

then the right people people that are on

the right people in the right seats they

get it yeah did you have Champions

within the company I mean I know you had

mentors and you know did you have

anybody in the company that started to

see that Vision early on and then help

you spread it within the company oh I

think it's still

ongoing I think a leader is not somebody

that's defined by their role as being at

the top of the organization you can be a

leader and be at the bottom of the

organization and the you know the or

chart and yeah once the

people identifi that this is the way

that you know we want to go I think the

attitude

spreads uh relatively quickly maybe not

as fast as say a bad attitude but yeah

it it does spread I didn't per se have

anyone that says you know this is the

way we're going to do it because Garrett

said so this way um but people that got

the message you know well whether it was

me explaining it you know word for word

or understanding it in the actions that

I took am

taking

okay um I'm interested in the operations

of a company your size with that many

employees where do you find yourself

today in like daily weekly operations

what's what's that look like a little

bit of everywhere uh I started out after

Dad passed kind of

what needs to get done and how are we

going to do it and I find myself wanting

to actually do it and my idea was all

right I need to learn how to do all

these things so that I can uh you know

help the people that are doing them and

I think that's important um

some I think some people in my shoes

don't understand that they don't have to

do everything but they have to have

enough knowledge to not have you know

the carpet split from underneath them

that type of attitude yeah um in today's

day I've done enough of the things that

I think I really need to to know in

order to manage the other people that

are doing

them um and now my day-to-day

is

it's it's Unique in the sense that I'm

still doing some things that are you

know that have to get done like

clockwork but I spend a large portion of

my time setting the vision for the

company and supporting the goals that I

set for the year say you know we're

going to do X Y or Z for the year okay

so the actions that I do every day

whether it's interacting with people out

on the shop floor

or you know working with somebody on a

reporting system whatever I'm doing has

to support the actions

that that I have you know that I've set

for myself tell tell I mean I know

you've you've had to let people go so

tell me about your approach to hiring

and finding the right fit for new people

because you said you're planning on

scaling up here look 25 and 26 are going

to be growth years again so what are you

looking

for in

team

um I think the author's name is Patrick

lyion yeah

um the ideal team player that's the best

book for Noah

who you want on your team or not you

know the three key attributes of being

hungry humble and smart those are my big

three check boxes um hungry and humble

are the are the bigger of the two you

know I need people that they might not

know but they're going to find out you

know I had a basketball coach when I was

younger I says I don't want the All-Star

I want the guy that could be coached and

that's how I feel you know I don't want

the people that are going to tell me

that's not my job or that's not in my

job description I want people to say oh

I want to learn how to do that how can I

contribute towards the success of the

company for the people that come in here

that I bringing on my team they have to

have those attributes and they have to

be people that understand the vision of

the company understand that this is a a

team approach this is a place where

people can build careers and you know

have satisfying career um where they're

not just a number so so you know in

looking for people that's kind of the

attitude

that you know I'll take I I'll ask a

bunch of technical questions on

interviews as well but you know they

could hit home runs on the

technical aspects of the interview if

they can't prove to me that there's

somebody that is willing to learn and

develop and Advance then it's not enough

for me so that's kind of where I set the

bar high in times in terms of the people

that I want here

I you know I don't go

with the notion

of yeah they're really good at their job

but you know they're a pain to work

with I set the line very

clear um I assume then you're involved

in the hiring still of all all employees

at this point um yep for most part um I

don't get deep in the woods in terms of

some of the machine operator positions

we have but anything above that yeah

pretty involved in do you have a

favorite question or how how do you cut

through the interview BS to actually to

find that in a candidate oh I've got a

lot of good

questions um I think one of

them there so many good ones I think one

of the ones that I asked that brings out

true colors in people

is where do most companies miss the

boat because if somebody's going to tell

me that most companies miss the boat

on insert whatever I don't want

here uh then it's going to be pretty

obvious to me and then the other thing

is what's what motivates them you know

I'm looking for somebody that's

motivated by learning by uh performing

working with people that they want to be

with you know the answers to what

motivates somebody usually

Finds Its way into my three key

attributes somewhere along the lines if

they like to learn you know they say

they're motivated by learning things

they're hungry they you know like

working within a team they're motivated

by teamwork they're humble you know that

that type of thing

um a lot of it is just learning to kind

of understand when people are telling

you what you know they think you want to

hear versus whether you're having a genu

more of a conversation with somebody you

know obviously obviously within

professional uh you know bounce but when

it becomes so much of an interview where

you can tell that they're just telling

you what you want to hear you know I

have no interest in that type of

conversation

gotcha um other than a culture of

excellence and saying we're heading this

direction we're we're heading towards a

higher quality or higher level of

customer how else how else are you

building culture in your company over

the past three

years um I think one of the things

is the commitment that we make to our

customers I would like the you know the

culture within the company is something

that you know has improved and is

improving but also the culture on the

outside of the company um we've

struggled to you know hit ontime

deliveries and things like that um and

I've set some pretty high expectations

for anyone that's interfacing with a

customer the expectation of anyone

interfacing with a customer is they're

going to hear back to you today you know

unless you're sick or something like

that you know if you're out of the

office you have your out of the office

on but the point is they know that they

could pick up the phone and talk to

somebody and they might not get their

answer today but they're going to hear

from somebody and they're going to know

when they get their answer so the way

that the company has perceived from the

outside world is something that's really

important to me that I've been working

on

gotcha um how are you developing

leaders within the company to move

up identifying the people that are

hungry humble and smart give them as

many opportunities to

succeed you know the beauty of being in

a small business is we don't have

somebody that only does one thing we all

wear a bunch of hats who wants to take

the most hat and learn the most

things and then they will naturally lead

up I have had people that I've you know

grooming

or have started to develop into you know

some of the more key roles here because

they are the ones that say gett I want

to do this Garrett I want to

learn I see the way that you want to

take the company I want to help you get

there those are the people that identify

to me as the leaders of of a business

because you know they hold that same

Visionary type attitude and then in

terms of how I actually go about doing

it we're a team here so if you don't

know you ask and if you know you find

out I've sent a lot of people to

trainings that pay for

schooling you know whatever courses

somebody comes up to me and say Garrett

I want to learn about this because I

take this

class most of the time I say

yes gotcha awesome

uh Garrett before we move on to the

lightning round is there is there

anything else that I haven't asked yet

or haven't covered that you want to

add

um I think it's really important for

business owners to understand

that there's more to business and

money there's a real people aspect and

that's something that I enjoy I mean

everyone you know everyone running a

business wants to run a profitable

company and

hopefully it's for the right reasons to

be able to you know invest in their

people and make the world a better place

via their contribution of their business

that's something that I think

is under undervalued and quite frankly

not enough people that aren't running

businesses understand that yeah thanks

for sharing that that's

great all right uh I'll do a lightning

round at the end of my episode so are

you ready to go let's go all right uh do

you you prefer coffee or tea and how do

you like it prepared uh tea and Any

Which

Way hot or cold both I prefer hot gotcha

gotcha okay um pie or cake and do you

have a favorite kind

cake um pton lava cake okay all

right um I mean you just shared one for

business owners but what's a common

belief among entrepreneurs that you

would want to challenge

the way teams are built rather than just

you know paying somebody and say you

know go do this here's your job help

them get there all right uh do you have

a favorite holiday and why Thanksgiving

it's low stress eat bunch of good food

no presents everyone just it's a good

time to practice

gratitude awesome love it um are you a

morning or a night person and do you

have a favorite routine that you like

morning wake up walk upstairs to my home

gym workout whatever kind of workout it

is sit down do a 10-minute meditation in

the morning go downstairs have a bowl of

Greek yogurt with healthy toppings take

a nice shower make my tea head to work

what what what's one thing that you

would want your successor to remember

you for being

a leader um

providing the right people the right

opportunities um and where are you

finding creativity right now in your

work or for your work the leaders that

I've met a lot of people have a lot of

great ideas and I think AI is wonderful

as long as you don't use it to replace

your blame you know if you use it as a

supplement per se there's so much you

know time that can be saved and things

that can be done

I think we're on the verge of an

explosion here in a good way yeah are

you are you meeting monthly or weekly

with with your local peer groups what's

that look like for you um I am part of a

local CEO group that meets um every

other month of the group and every

alternating every other month with the

group leader and I'm a part of uh the

local manufacturing Council here that uh

will'll have

I'm not on the board but they'll have

board meetings that I

attend for you know quite frequently and

all sorts of different events that I'm

doing at least once a month that local

CEO group that you're in I mean how deep

into the weeds operations of each

other's businesses do you got do you

guys get are you like looking at

financials together is it sharing

just it's financials it's struggles it's

challenges it's making sure everyone is

doing what they need to do to work

towards their goal goals so kind of

holding each other

accountable nice how how many people in

that group uh I just joined recently and

we're at seven so it's and it's you know

non non-competing

interests people that have business

problems that doesn't matter what

business you're in awesome love it

Mastermind group that's great to hear

yeah uh what do you have coming up in

the next year that's got you really

excited everything I I love love what I

do there's so much fun to have but um

we're bringing on some new big accounts

uh we're going to get our ISO

certification like I mentioned during

the show um we have new people coming on

board you know developing

people all kinds of new projects that

are launching us into the 21st century

in terms of

Technology um I could go on and on that

ISO 9 901 I think is you said number

right what how long of a process is that

and do you have to hire a consultant to

audit it or how's that yeah we hired a

consultant um to work with us and I also

sent my director of quality to a

class to learn how to basically get our

certification depends on the company how

far along you are um we like to say that

we've always had it just without sticker

and we had some cleanup to do so it

could take years or you know couple

months for for somebody there's a lot of

internal audits that need to happen and

external audits that need to happen to

clean up the paperwork side of things

but we've been implementing new systems

over the last six months that need to be

implemented but it's definitely a work

progress so it's been under a year

though from the time you decided to when

you when you should finish this thing up

yeah we're coming up about a year now

gotcha and we had some time loss because

I was Ill earlier in the year so

collectively yeah okay uh and where can

people find out more information about

you Garrett I'm all over LinkedIn reach

me on LinkedIn um and there's some you

know my brief bio on lm.com but if

anyone's

interested shoot me a connection request

on link to awesome thank you so much for

sharing your story Garrett I appreciate

it no problem thanks you've been

listening to the art of succession

podcast with your host Barrett Young

twice a month we'll bring you interviews

sharing the successes and challenges

from business owners with their own

succession Stories the art of succession

is sponsored by gwcp and is provided for

informational purposes only before

engaging in any transaction you should

consult your own adviser if you've

enjoyed this episode please share it

with others and we'll see you on the

next one