EW 038 – How To Become A Values Driven Leader Who Builds Great Teams – Winning With Randy Valk, President of Grassroots Landscaping and Irrigation

Gordon Sheppard (00:01.026)
Randy, welcome to the show.

Randy (00:04.102)
Thank you very much, glad to be here, Gord.

Gordon Sheppard (00:06.092)
Well, it's just outstanding to have you here for so many different reasons. I had a chance to run into you at a technology event where you're receiving an award for doing good in the world that everybody needs to discover in terms of what you're looking forward to to help me and my.

help all of us really look forward in the water conservation area. Unfortunately, that's not what we're here to talk about today, but that's one of those big ideas that you kind of moving forward. And I hope people reach out to learn about that. You're a family guy. You've been around sort of a bunch of sort of the industry in the golf area and all kinds of, if I get it wrong, like landscaping, irrigation, you're an expert in those areas. You're been, you know, seeped in those things as well. But, you know, that's just sort of me introducing you a little bit. There's a lot of people that want to get to know you better. You know, if they're listening to this podcast right now, if you had to introduce yourself.

What's one of the main things that you would say?

Randy (00:53.522)
So yeah, I think you touched on a lot of really good things there. I would definitely say, you know, a family man, got a great wife, two lovely kids. And I would say probably somebody who got really fortunate back in 2020 and managed to acquire a business that had been in existence for 44 years at that time. And that's been a life-changing moment. And now I'm just trying to navigate the waters of how to build a great team and do great things with a great business.

Gordon Sheppard (01:23.598)
Well, congratulations on getting that sort of thing. Any business acquisition is not an easy thing. I know from the pre-interview work we've done before, you were an employee at this business for a while. And there was a moment where, when we go to buy a business as an employee, that's its own kind of unique experience. So take me through that a little bit. There's sort of like, it's one thing, like let us know how long you were an employee there. Let us know what the thinking was behind it. And then you kind of made the transition, which gets us into our story. So give us some of that backstory as well.

Randy (01:34.064)
Yeah.

Randy (01:51.662)
Yeah, for sure. So I had been an employee at Grassroots Landscaping for about 14 years before I was given the opportunity to acquire it from the previous owner. And it was great. It came through a journey out of the golf industry. And my journey out of that had a lot to do with losing my employment with Desert Bloom Golf Club here in Madison Hat. And then...

you know, having somebody with, with previous owner grassroots who really did, offer me an opportunity, to come on board their team, not really knowing what it was ever going to offer. then, you know, 14 years later, when it was obvious, his son wasn't going to succeed. and when I say succeed, I mean, succession, in the business, you know, it was, it was a natural next step for me. So Ron and I had a bunch of opportunities throughout that too.

loosely explore, you know, kind of that that that might be coming along. And then, yeah, it was was a fall day in 2019. He walked through the door and he said, now's the time. And yeah, it was it was from the frying pan into the fire and learned a lot in a very short period. We had to go through COVID during that transition. So that was a challenge. But yeah, it was it's an interesting transformation going from owner or pardon me, worker to owner.

You realize that while you may have a lot of the technical skill sets, which I did after 14 years, I think anyone that had worked with us for 2020 or 2021 would have seen no noticeable difference in the way the business was operating, which is great. means it was a good fit. But I would say the biggest thing that I realized within the first couple of years was that where my skill set was lacking was in really understanding how to build a team to survive.

another 4,400, 5,500 years.

Gordon Sheppard (03:50.905)
That's funny because when you're you know when you're thinking about going to buy a business you figure you got the chops You know to get in there and kind of do it like you think there's sort of a state of mind you're going into because it's not an easy thing to Make that acquisition. I don't mean to get into the financing of it, there's serious financing involved There's legacy pieces that are involved with that so you're getting all those pieces kind of lined up But then you actually have to go run it and like you said you were discovering maybe your your sort of 360 leadership pie wasn't filled up Is that fair?

Randy (03:55.153)
Yeah.

Randy (04:18.576)
Yeah, that is fair. And I think, I think there's a lot of people that, that run great entrepreneurial businesses, that are owner operator businesses, right. And, and for me, I wanted more than that. you know, I would like to be able to see grassroots grow and expand, possibly into other markets. And, know, along with that, I've, I've got my family involved in the business. And so I'd like to be able to see, you know, that this business succeed well past their, their time here. So.

Yeah, for me, it really did come down to if I wanted to be an owner operator, I wouldn't have changed anything. It could have just continued going the way it was going, right? And it honestly would have led to a very successful path into retirement, no question about it. But I also, that wasn't my vision for what grassroots could be.

Gordon Sheppard (05:07.284)
So why? So that's really interesting to me now. What is it about you that didn't want to coast? Like what is it in your makeup that, I mean if you could coast that's one thing, but you didn't want to, right? So how come?

Randy (05:11.079)
Yeah.

Randy (05:18.322)
I wonder if it's just because of when it happened in my life. You know, it happened when I was, what would I have been, guess, 45 years old, 46 years old. And it probably would have been the easiest time to coast, but I think because throughout that lead up to being 45 or 46, I'd always wanted to own my own business. And so then when you finally get the moment, it's kind of like you become a kid again, right? And you throw age out the window.

It doesn't matter anymore. Now you're like, I'm 25, 30 years old. I've got my own business and let's go. And also Gorda, think a big part of it is just looking, you know, looking behind you and seeing a great group of people in behind you. And some of those people are your family, your children. And knowing that if I do coast right now, which would have been the easy thing to do, what does that mean for them? Right. And so yeah, was, was step on the gas pedal and let's go. So.

Gordon Sheppard (06:16.974)
Thank you so much for taking a shot at becoming a kid again. What a great moment in time in terms of, and still are, right? Cause you're in that sort of journey. And I just have to dig in cause I know having spent a little bit of time with you before the interview is there's something transformative in when you got the business, you get in for the first couple of years, but then you started to bolt in and really kind of get into becoming the leader that you are today, becoming and continuing the, so take me on that little bit of a journey cause we really need to understand that part of the story here.

Randy (06:22.61)
I am. Yeah.

Randy (06:47.122)
Yeah, and I think this is the business purchase was in 2020, the acquisition and 2022 we did a strategic plan through BDC actually, Business Development Canada. And it was great. We went through drafting out the mission vision core values. You figure out your market segments, anything that a strap plan does, we went through.

but the interesting thing was when we first started at the consultant that came in through BDC to do it, he, he said, before we get started, I want you and your team. were, think six of us, in the room doing this. He said, I want you guys to go through this book before we get started. And the book was leadership by John Maxwell. And the timing was great. You know, Christmas season came upon us and I had some time over the break to be able to really kind of dive into this. And it, I would say that was the catalyst.

That was the moment where I realized, wow, okay, so if I want to be able to give, I have to have something to give. And in order for that to happen, I have to invest in myself and invest in my own development journey. And so that would have been the catalyst for sure. And since then, I think, you know, I've invested heavily in my journey, whether it's a John Maxwell, Jim Collins, Pat Lindsay only.

you know, Jim Rohn, Peter Drucker, you name it. You know, there's so much incredible advice out there at our fingertips and, you know, or at our earbuds nowadays. How much easier has that gotten, right? And so, yeah, just dove into it and went really heavy and then took everything I was learning and really just tried to implement it here at Grassroots and in other areas of my life. And it's been great.

you know, I've been in rooms with some pretty incredible and successful people and you just soak up those moments and, try to bring them forward. I, know, the, think the one key thing would be, for anyone leading a team, it's, it's really hard to encourage others to be better unless you're willing to also invest in yourself to be better. And, and that to me is the biggest takeaway. There's a Jim Rohn has a quote, you know, I'll do better. I'll, I'll do better for me. so.

Randy (09:08.186)
or sorry, I'll work on me so I can do better for you. You work on you so you can do better for me, right? And it really does come down to how are you managing yourself? So yeah, that was kind of my aha moment, I guess.

Gordon Sheppard (09:22.543)
Well thank you for being a reader and thank you for being an applier of the reading. It's one thing to read the book, it's another thing to actually integrate it into the reality. And I know, I think your phrase in one of our pre-interview moments was, can't give what you don't have. You've said that so well. Is that fair?

Randy (09:39.058)
Yeah, that is fair. Yeah, I have a sign in my office, be a river, not a reservoir. Our reservoirs will fill up with all the information we gather, but our job as leaders is to continue to pass that information out, which means you always have a void, right? And so what are you doing to fill that void? And I think when we go back to the whole coasting, working hard aspect, that was it.

I want it to be able to just keep filling myself up and keep pouring it out and seeing these incredible young people around me develop and grow into better versions of themselves. So, yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (10:16.569)
Well, that's so lucky and that takes me to a moment in the conversation where I always want to jump in and say, if you had to describe your biggest win in this journey that you've been on in your business, what would that win be and how would you describe it?

Randy (10:22.556)
Mm-hmm.

Randy (10:28.014)
It's pretty simple, it's one word, it's people. I think the journey we've been on with our people in grassroots, and I would even say in personal life to be honest with you, because there's been transitions there as well, is huge over last five years. When I look at the group we have in front of us now compared to even last year. When we first went through the strap plan,

Gordon and we did the mission vision core values. This is something you and I briefly touched on as well The the easiest thing you do is you do this strap plan. It gets put in a binder You throw it on the bookshelf and it sits there collecting dust But you feel good, right because you feel like you you made some progress in your business We we did this we have this documented, but it really isn't doing anything Then you know a little something changes. You're like, I'm gonna put them on the wall. So you go put them on the wall

maybe a fancy picture below it. But again, it's existing in a space. And I had a moment and I can't exactly pinpoint what it was, whether it was a conference, book, or something that I heard, it's, doing this is fine, but unless you're actively living out your core values, both in person and at work, because there is no real separation, you are who you are, you're never gonna get traction out of them.

Yeah, we ended up a couple of years ago really taking that to heart. We did have them on the wall. We did have them in a binder on the bookshelf. But then we made the conscious effort to start talking about them. At that point, it was weekly. Now we try to incorporate a conversation on it every single day. We hire, fire, retain, reward based on them. We celebrate the things we do well. We celebrate the things we don't do well so that we have opportunities to learn from it. I've given out.

probably as many rewards this year for guys making mistakes as I have for guys doing great things as a way of just encouraging creativity. So yeah, think just that knowing that if you are serious about your mission vision and in particular your core values, you have to be intentional about it. You can't just sit back and pretend like they're actually gonna do something for you and your business, because they won't.

Gordon Sheppard (12:46.863)
And again, the practical part is bringing them into daily conversations, allowing those things to get stuck into the fabric of things. You're reminding me when I worked at a large company many years ago, those inspirational posters up on the wall with whatever the seagulls or whatever, they were just paste. mean, really like no, they never ever stuck. And again, being a large corporation, 25,000 employees, seven levels down or whatever. Then when that strat plan got handed down, it had no meaning for the small group that I was managing. I remember at that time in my career.

Randy (12:50.662)
big time. Yep.

Randy (13:00.069)
Yep.

Randy (13:10.162)
Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (13:16.811)
with those nine people. We had to make sense of it to try and work on that and I would say we did that process imperfectly. It sounds like you with the conscious approach you're having, you're having a real chance to make an impact and actually when you say the higher fire thing, right people, right seats on the bus, that kind of thing, that also makes you have to live up to that. Is that fair?

Randy (13:30.342)
Mm-hmm.

Randy (13:36.784)
Well, it absolutely does. And I think that was probably the biggest transformation between this year and last year in particular was not just from an internal gut check moment where you realize as the leader of the organization, if you want to call it that, people are looking up to you. And it is how you act on a day-to-day basis.

I was actually, if I could just share a story a minute, this was quite interesting because I was at a, it's incredible the places we can learn in the moments in life we're in. we, don't have our phones stuck to our face, actually, and this, had one of these moments and it was actually at a place called the McLennan's in Culldale, Alberta. So little pub, small town outside Lathbridge, like nondescript wing night. And I went in there and long story short,

There was a lady, I'm assuming is the owner, but I will find that out, who this place was packed, out the door, 250 people probably in the building, food flying everywhere. And this lady who was the owner just coasted around there with such a calm demeanor that after about 20, 30 minutes of standing at the door waiting, you could just see that had rippled all the way through every single staff member at that business.

And it was so incredible to watch in an environment like that where chaos could have easily ensued. But what it taught me was as the leaders, how we act is how others will act that are in our charge. And whether you're a parent, whether you're the head of a business, anything it's, it's people do learn from how we behave. And in that moment, I saw a group of people all pulling the same direction in a calm, collected manner. Customers were happy, staff were happy.

And it was, yeah, was a really interesting moment to learn from actually.

Gordon Sheppard (15:28.931)
I'm so glad you shared that story because it's like when you buy your truck and then you suddenly only see that same truck on the road. I can hear when you do the leadership intentionality, you can see the leadership moments everywhere. It's not reserved for my MBA or anything like that. It really is that moment to moment.

Randy (15:44.497)
No.

Gordon Sheppard (15:46.917)
Where can I see those lessons? How can I? And so you're in that continual improvement mode that's gonna go on for the rest of your life, because you're not coasting, you're being very intentional. And I know with those bigger things that we were describing, not only are gonna impact your family, your family business now that you have going, the customers that you have, but these bigger ideas are gonna come into play. And you've got unlimited runway for these next four and five decades. I can hear it. It's just, what an exciting, what an exciting, exciting moment that you got kind of going and for where you're at for this transition in your life. So the win is people, love it.

Randy (16:08.251)
I hope so.

Gordon Sheppard (16:15.78)
Very eloquent in terms of what it is. I always jump in and I want to explore the anatomy of a win. So what is the strategy, the work plan, the people, operations, and results behind getting this win at this time? Strategically, we have, like you said, vision, mission, values, practicing them along the way. What's the strategy, strategic highlight behind getting this win, do you think, at this time?

Randy (16:37.008)
Yeah, I think the strategic highlight right now is, if I can draw on Jim Collins a little bit, he kind of coined the right people on the bus in the right seats. And really that it is the, once you get the right team in place, it'll actually help you to find the direction that you're gonna go. With where we're at in the business, especially when we think about growth and possible strategic acquisition into different markets, whatever, we're being...

I would say the biggest win we have right now is we're really starting to find a great group of people in those key leadership seats. And what that is allowing us to do is very cautiously ensure that this business and us as leaders is ready for the moment where that opportunity presents itself. And again, I'm going to draw on Collins, like we're firing some little calibrated bullets before we're firing the cannonball. And I would actually say it's kind of the same thing with people.

You know, we're testing the waters in a few areas right now with some of our internal team just to see how they are equipped to possibly shift into a more leadership position. So, yeah, think strategically, Gord, it really is just, you know, having a really great upper leadership team that is fully committed to the values. We really haven't even brought a lot of this structure.

like other than talking about the values, we haven't brought it down yet because now isn't the time because it would feel too unconvincing, I think. So I think right now, yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (18:15.28)
So you've got the pathway in mind and you know that you're building this foundation through an intentional chunk of learning. We had them in a binder, we had it on the wall, but then we lived it. That's a foundational approach. We've got foundational things in knowing that if a leader is gonna fit, they have to fit into the values that we've agreed upon. And we know that there's possible leadership changes that you've made along the way, but now you're getting to that right place. That's a very mature.

place to do business and a really solid place to do it from because it's going to carry from that core. You already can see probably how it's impacting your clients and we could get into that area as well for how the work is going, how the jobs are running. I'm sure it's impacting it there already and you haven't even gotten to maybe even sort of a deeper level of structure and operation but the people thing is the win. We've got this strategic highlight in place. It's very conscious the way you're doing things. Anytime we have a strategy, we need a work plan. There's a timeline to things and you've already started to describe that to me. I was an employee.

Randy (19:08.914)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Gordon Sheppard (19:12.036)
Then I made the acquisition, think 2019, 2020, she got that there. 2020, we get these two years in, get it under your belt, it was running, but I'm not gonna be an unconscious leader, I'm gonna be a conscious leader. That's what you're saying along the way. There's this time, like, so in terms of the highlights of getting that in place, it didn't show up for those first couple of years, but now it does. So like, how many years in does it take to get to this good people win? Is it just now, or was it sort of year three, year four? And then explain that a little bit for me for highlight.

Randy (19:14.802)
2020. Yeah, 2020.

Randy (19:41.17)
So yeah, I would say it's gonna depend. The way I would really put it, it's gonna depend when you kick that dusty binder off the shelf, if you've got one. I think that's really gonna dictate how quickly you're gonna be able to do this. From the time we did kick the dusty binder off the shelf and then decided not to just have window dressing on the walls, it's been a couple of years.

and, and I think we're close. I'd say we're very close, but it is funny because, know, even within that people you had mentioned earlier, how we're, you know, we're going to see the successes of that with our clients and everything else. You know what the funny thing is when, when you hire for people that are just good people that hold the core values that you hold dear and your business holds dear. And, and a lot of the times those people won't check the technical boxes. We have made an amazing amount of mistakes this year.

Just an amazing amount of mistakes this year. And I actually have a couple of my staff that are incredibly confused with me. They're approaching 50 and they don't understand why I'm not frustrated with the mistakes being made. And my answer is simple, because we have a great group of people that we're all learning, right? And we're having fun doing it. So going back to the lady in the bar, I'm trying to approach it calmly. Yeah, do you get frustrated? Of course you get frustrated.

But at the same time is getting, is yelling and stomping my feet, going to solve the solution any quicker or make anybody learn any better? Of course not. So, yeah, I think a couple of years ago, probably for sure, but, but it really honestly just depends on how hard do you want to go at it? Like what your version of intentionality really is. mine, I'm a both feet in, into the deep end of the pool. Not a lot of people are that way. So for me, it's, I think it's moved pretty quick. I think it could take significantly longer. Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (21:36.945)
I love, and by the way, in the interviews that I've been doing with senior leaders on the podcast, I'm hearing five years, 10 years. So that sort of natural course of things, cause there's your own internal work you've done that continues. Then there's getting this thing to shift. I heard earlier that you reward mistakes. Again, you're shifting the culture when you do that kind of thing. Like that's a really interesting way to go at things, but you can see then you've absorbed the best of all this business literature and it's real. It works. you're, know, that, but you know, that you're going to have to go through some stuff.

Randy (21:47.154)
Mm-hmm.

Gordon Sheppard (22:06.106)
to get to even further to the good stuff. Well, that's just remarkable that you've been able to do that. And the Zen, whenever you got going internally for your own heart health, to not have to go in and scream and yell, because you came from an industry maybe that wouldn't have modeled that. I'm going to guess if we went back and sort of, right?

Randy (22:14.662)
Yeah.

Randy (22:19.826)
Mm-hmm.

yeah, no construction industry as a whole is, is about as old school as you can get. Like, it is screaming, yowl, right? it's actually funny because that whole accepting of, failure, if you want to call it, had an opportunity last year at a conference I went to to see Amy Edmondson and she's a Harvard professor, but she wrote a book, the right kind of wrong. And, and it really does talk about creating a safe workplace. And when I say that it's, it's a safe creative work.

place where you want feedback, you want to allow people to make mistakes. And, and, know, it was an incredible thing. I got to meet her and we had a great conversation about it and it that transformed me. Right. So again, it, as a leader, the more rooms you're going to put yourself into, get out of your own little echo chambers and just expose yourself to this stuff. You might not agree with all of it, but it's incredible what it, can hit with. and I'll tell you what, when you

Give a guy a $50 Tim Horton's gift card because he took six hours to clean a sidewalk when it should have taken 30 minutes. But he's getting rewarded because he tried and he never gave up. And that's what's good. And since then, Gord, that young man who's 23 years old has continued to make brave decisions because he doesn't have a fear that the mistake he's going to make is going to be punished.

Gordon Sheppard (23:45.49)
You know that speaks to the long-term vision that your company is in and how lucky that you get to practice that and how lucky that this group of people at this moment in time, it speaks to scaling, it speaks to external stakeholders looking in and saying, what are you doing? my goodness, isn't that, it's on trend for getting away from old school heart attack type stuff. wow, congratulations on walking the talk, which you set out to do, right? So we've got this strategy,

Randy (23:51.58)
Mm-hmm.

Randy (24:12.1)
It's fun confusing people.

Gordon Sheppard (24:14.801)
The construction, anyway, there's a zillion strands I need to go down, but I'll try and keep on this conversation for a second and say, we've got a win, which is people, we've got a strategy and a work plan that we've talked through a little bit. And then the third part is actually the people themselves, which you described a lot. You described, it's funny, I wanted to take you back because you said you were reading that book somewhere South, that first Maxwell book. Is that right? What was the moment, what page did you hit?

Randy (24:20.22)
Yeah, sure.

Gordon Sheppard (24:38.289)
What was the moment that started to bust you up when you were reading that at some resort and you knew that you were about to make the start this transformative journey?

Randy (24:45.936)
Yeah, well, I would say I was actually reading in a house in the jungle, just outside La Fortuna, Costa Rica. And no TV, no cell service. So, you know, it was the absolute perfect environment. I'm not sure I would pinpoint a page other than, cause it's not a long read, but I think what it was was getting through a chapter and then doing the workbook on it. Right? So not actually just sitting down and reading a book, but actually sitting down, reading a section and then doing the work on it. And then...

By doing that, you know, the work you do on chapter one kind of helps frame how you're even going to interpret chapter two. And I think that was the intention behind, you know, Rick at that time, having us go through this book. and yeah, I think it was just the fact that it was a workbook, not just a read, and, and you had your own thoughts to look at and reflect on. So I think that. Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (25:39.729)
I love what you're describing because the idea of intentionality around that as opposed to, and I've seen fatigue from this in a lot of small to medium sized businesses, do I have to go take that course? It was a waste of my time or whatever, but you're saying, no, just in time, I had the book, I had the workbook, it was a modality that suited you. That's the other thing too, is that modality suited you and you're able to get in there and apply it as you're kind of going forward. So we hear your people part and then your attitude through that journey has been a chance to sort of...

Randy (25:47.431)
Mm-hmm.

Randy (25:56.059)
Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (26:06.585)
You were in a certain place, you took yourself through, and you've gone through your peaks and valleys of business ownership as you're going, and you're still in an imperfect world, but you know where you're headed, which is interesting to me, and we've heard that along the way. Attitudes of some of the people involved, you've got younger people that are now in an environment where they're not worried about making mistakes anymore, so they get to sort of come along for the ride. You know that you're intentionally leading your family and the employees. Any other highlights from sort of key people and attitudes that have made this success story occur?

Randy (26:35.186)
Yeah, there's a ton and it's an ever evolving list. You know, from a personal standpoint, obviously I'm gonna focus on family first. know, having the support, leadership can be a very lonely position. Anyone that's in it, right? You have to have good support when you walk through the door at home. And I do, I have incredible support. I've got two great kids, but other than that, it really is just surrounding yourself with.

You know, what's there's the saying, you you become the five people you surround yourself with, right? Or the average of the five people. And, and it is true. And I think whether it's, you know, people from my faith or people from work or, know, a limited friend group, but a friend group, it's, it's just having all those people in your corner that are there to cheer with you when you're successful and there to have a shoulder to, you know, cry on when things aren't going so well or whatever. It's just, yeah.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to the people that I've been fortunate enough and blessed to have in my corner and around me.

Gordon Sheppard (27:40.028)
You've got them there, you've got yourself and now a filter, a strong filter for the new people that you allow in probably in any area of your life, but certainly in your business, which you know is going to contribute towards that growth in the future. Funny enough, I'm 35 episodes in on the podcast and part of the intentionality of that was meeting people like you, which I now filter out and speak to audiences with, speak in individual conversations with. So what am I referencing? love, I love Jim Collins and I have.

Randy (27:43.895)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Randy (27:54.81)
Okay, congratulations.

Gordon Sheppard (28:07.537)
love Rome but I also love Dr. Jodi Abbott who's the executive director of the University Hospital Foundation CEO there in Edmonton and I'll just give you a little piece that you're reminding me about because one of the things that she did to give an indication of her culture that she was looking for when she led that organization with her CFO was she changed the first part of the CFO's title to Chief Catalyst. Imagine how the CFO is going to react from being a traditional CFO to saying I'm entering a CFO I'm not the oh I'm the Chief Catalyst

Randy (28:27.344)
Yeah. Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (28:34.811)
She says, I need agility. It's going to speak to what we're doing. But again, intentionality around that. again, part of my expanded world has just been knowing people 40 minutes at a time. I talk like I know people very well, but it's funny. These 40 minute conversations are very, it's like the deep reading that you're doing and I'm getting lucky to do it. Strategy, work plan, people is three things that we talked about in the anatomy of a win. Operationally, we have to operationalize things to get a win. And so I don't mean to go on and on. Is it policies?

Randy (28:50.546)
Sure does.

Randy (29:02.608)
No, it's all good.

Gordon Sheppard (29:03.643)
procedures, tailgate talks, what gets this sort of win to operationalize, think, would be, what highlight can we get there?

Randy (29:07.239)
Yeah.

Randy (29:12.526)
Yeah, that's actually a great question. Cause I think that often goes missed to be honest with you, especially when you do, you know, kind of what I said, we've, we've, you know, we're really focused at the upper level, but then, you know, in, in graining that culture and the core values at the operational level, toolbox talks for sure. every single Monday with the group, that's where, we actually even integrated onto our toolbox form where we have, the core value discussion for the point underneath that we have.

our impact statement for 2025, which is maintain excellence. So we have to speak on those two things. within the top one, there's those core values. We pick one of the core values for that week, and then we identify somebody who's exemplified that core value over the previous seven days, and then they get rewarded for that. So yeah, every single week, someone is getting recognized. And sometimes it's not all good. I did one the other day where

with our team, brought out quality. That's one of our core values. but it was because we had let it slip. you know, we did a few things that, that weren't at maintaining excellence and, but within that, you know, that was a learning opportunity. So again, instead of just kind of letting it slide by or getting mad about it, there's an opportunity all the time to be able to talk about it in a productive fashion and then, and then improve from it. So, and again, there was a reward.

given out from that. yeah, so it's been fun, but operationally that's it for sure.

Gordon Sheppard (30:43.141)
I'll, I'll, I'll...

Well, and again, I'm just going to go, we had it, we didn't have it. Then we had it in a binder. Then we had it on the wall. Then we started to talk about it. Then we got it in a form and the form is daily front facing. I know there's another workshop that I teach about effective meetings. I'm like, can you put your vision statement on every agenda that you send out? And they're blown away by that. Like, what do mean? And you've actually done it even better than me there. You've said we've got the value that we can talk about there. And you said we've got our year statement.

Randy (31:03.09)
100%.

Gordon Sheppard (31:13.457)
which then gets into EOS and it's start to get into that level, And you guys, you know what I mean? So you can see the entrepreneur operating system for the people that haven't heard about it. That's the gift of investing in those systemic approaches to your business because then that's what gets onto your form and that's what gives you the daily thing. And if you track your quality data, you know it's gonna get better, but the form is a huge part of making that occur.

Randy (31:17.264)
We do the EOS. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Randy (31:39.13)
And it's funny because now you've given me, so I gave you an idea, you gave me an idea because I'm now going on our toolbox form instead of actually just having a blank spot that says core value, I'm actually gonna put the core values where we can now checkbox it because again, from the more you see it, the more you get it, the more you learn it and everything else. So there, we both came away with a win on that one. Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (31:59.874)
I love it. And that's that multiplier effect of good minds getting together to pull out the good stories. And I can't wait for the leaders to listen to this episode because we're learning such a ton. Anyway, we've gone through the win. People, eloquently said. One word, that's the best. That's the first one word win that I've heard, by the way. It's fantastic. The anatomy win. Strategy, work plan, people, operationally. We got some highlights out of each of those areas to see why that's occurring. We know a little bit more about you and your journey. Finally, we get to results. There are quantitative and qualitative results.

Randy (32:03.066)
Absolutely.

Randy (32:15.826)
Right on.

Gordon Sheppard (32:29.027)
On the quantitative side, we hear that there's a different leadership team makeup in just number of people. For example, that you had alluded to earlier where that occurs. So that's different. So the makeup of people on the team itself is quantitative. And then there's qualitative elements as well. For you, if you had to sort of point out quantitative, qualitative highlights, I picked up on maybe one there, but are there other ones that you can point out for getting this window?

Randy (32:56.23)
I would say on the quantitative side, it's an acceptance that building a good team, there is no cookie cutter for it. And I think one of the scariest things, and it's funny because Collins often refers to this, is there can be a significant gap when you want to go down this road of hiring people first or getting the right people on the bus in the right seats. It often has to happen.

And the way he puts it, does have to happen before you're actually even generating the income that these people are going to help you generate. Right. And so that's a huge fear factor. And I think that probably is one of the things that does stop people dead in their tracks is going, holy smokes, I have to invest in all of this with the goal of this. you don't know. It's the great unknown. Right. So I would say from my end,

quantitative wise, we're going to end up with more...

Randy (34:03.89)
more expenses on the labor side, if you want to call it, at the upper labor side, knowing where I want to go. And that can be challenging. That's a head scratcher some days and kind of scary. 100%. Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (34:17.478)
Well, cause you're you're gonna, you're gonna bite margin. You're gonna bite margin to go and fight this long-term thing. But you're in, like you said, I'm, I'm both feet in and the way you're talking about it, it really is building that, building it out and building it out properly. Cause you know the payoff. And then again, you go in that daily education at every level of your organization, but you get then what's gonna happen.

Randy (34:24.56)
Yep. Yep.

Gordon Sheppard (34:40.866)
for those bigger ambitions down the road. Cause when he said, when we're ready for acquisition, when we're ready for the big move, when we're ready for investment, whatever those things are, you're going to be ready. Well, congrats on having the stomach. Cause it's easy to say it in a sentence and go, this is what we're doing. This cool thing. There's sleepless nights to go with that. As you sort of go through personnel changes, you go through hiring cause hiring now is, more complex and there's gotta be, you thought it's longed on, what is it slow to slow to hire.

Randy (34:52.21)
Mmm.

Randy (35:04.86)
Big time.

Gordon Sheppard (35:10.204)
fastifier, right?

Randy (35:10.546)
You have slow to hire fast fire. Yep. Yeah. And I think most leaders would probably say they're too slow to fire.

Gordon Sheppard (35:14.16)
And that's absolutely essential.

And, and, but you're not going to be, cause you're going to be living up to these values now. And you know that the people around you can't do it. So that head scratching that you're in, funny enough, you've got some confidence in head scratching. So you at least have that. And then the people around you can kind of wonder, but they're starting to see that too. Well, anyway, so good. The that's quantitative qualitatively. How does this journey feel like over this time? What's the qualitative.

Randy (35:32.444)
Yeah. Yeah.

Randy (35:38.682)
It feels good. It's transformative, Gord. And it isn't just, you you feel better inside when you see people developing around you. That's just, it's an incredible feeling when you see people doing things they probably didn't think they could do. And for us, a big part of what we do is community. You know, we're in Medicine Hat. You know, we do a lot of city projects and...

It's easy for us to look at the city of medicine out as our, as say our number one client, but at the end of the day, the city of medicine has funded by the taxpayer of medicine. So to me, we have, you know, every community we work in, we have a responsibility to ensure that we're giving back to that community as well. And when we try to find as many different ways as we can to do that and try to get a little bit creative, but yeah, I would say just in, seeing the people develop, seeing young men and women become better versions of themselves when they hopefully stay or go.

And hopefully seeing a community that's, you know, we're going to help make better.

Gordon Sheppard (36:45.51)
lucky to find a mid 40s leader who was in a certain... Well, no, but I'm saying when you got this journey, when you got started on this acquisition, so you're a worker, you probably could have been a worker. Do know what mean? Then you bought a business and then you're like, well, I could have just coast along. And then you actually put in the reps, are now, just, you sound like a little kid who's just opened up Pandora's box to go and start to pick out the pieces along with a business that can cashflow. It's a good business.

Randy (36:50.098)
51.

Randy (36:55.18)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (37:14.032)
right, this 44 year history, it's a good business and you understand the business well enough that you're not gonna get caught out that you can put this full implementation into place. Is that fair?

Randy (37:23.186)
Yeah, and I would say that is when I say a blessing, know, or a blessing even told in the business, that it isn't easy. right. I'm not going to call it, I feel like I have a safety net because, know, you still have to be responsible to your balance sheet, right? And we are very responsible to our balance sheet with the work we do. But there is no question, you know, when, when you run a good and have a good profitable business, to me, business has an obligation to

do better things with the profits we generate. Obviously, whether that's supporting the team members that work alongside you or doing things within your community, that's a responsibility to me. And so yeah, we are building something special here, I think. It's been a good business. It's going to continue to be a good business. We're going to be responsible to the financial side of it, because if there's no financial side, you can't do any good anyways.

Gordon Sheppard (38:20.752)
Love it. And just to get us out of here, always liked, it just sort of, you know, come to the end and say, if you met 45 year old you from a leadership perspective and you had a chance to say a few sentences, and this is for the leaders that are maybe listening to start their reading journey, to start their own internal transformation, what would you suggest to them to kind of get that started or, you know, what advice would you sort of pass along?

Randy (38:23.152)
Yeah.

Randy (38:49.17)
I would probably say, how do I want to say this? Yesterday isn't too late, but tomorrow is. You know, you can't change where you're at, right? So 45, Randy or anybody, know, God puts us in these moments for a reason. And so my moment was at 45. And I think it's what you do every single day after that.

Don't look back with regret. and yeah, enjoy the ride. Be a good person. Do good for the person next to you. Hold the door open, smile at somebody. Like just help society get a little better. I know that sounds kind of cliched, but that honestly is where my head is at. Just be a good person.

Gordon Sheppard (39:39.162)
Not cliche at all. In these geopolitical times, we can't get enough. And the fact that you've created your contribution in those areas is part of that, again, I'm going to say national fabric, international fabric that we get a chance to go forward. What a gift. So I can't say thank you enough for spending the time to share your journey that other leaders can learn from. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Randy (39:43.442)
Mm-hmm.

Randy (40:01.392)
I appreciate it, Gord, it was a lot of fun.