From Second Chances to Stronger Teams: Bradley Henderson on Structure, Culture, and Trades-Based Redemption

This is straight straight straight out of Crumpton with your host, Greg Crumpton. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to another episode of straight out of Crumpton. I'm Greg Crumpton coming to you today from beautiful, sunny Greenville, South Carolina, where we are recovering from snowmageddon. We had six inches of snow, and you would think that the world had come to an end. So we're glad to be through that. And, guys, over the last couple of months, I've been following a gentleman who, I think we have a lot of shared interest, and and, we both come from a mechanical world, and we're both still in the mechanical world. I know it's a shocker to y'all that listen to this, but, I think I I just felt like this this gentleman, needed some some sunshine on what he's doing. So today, we're going to welcome Bradley Henderson. Bradley is with Bay Climate Control, does business development there as well as runs operations, And, just a cool guy. So Bradley, welcome to the show, my man. Mr. Greg, I appreciate you having me on. It's a it's an absolute honor. See, that's what you say now. We'll we'll see what you feel like in about thirty minutes. Yeah, you're right. Well, glad you could join today. I know you've been out on the road doing some traveling for work today. So thanks for taking time with us. Before we get going, we usually jump in and just say, hey, tell us a little bit about you. So give us the thumbnail sketch of Bradley Henderson. So, yeah, I'm I'm I'm Brad Henderson. You know, I grew up along the Gulf Coast of Florida, and everything was pretty normal growing up. And throughout life, you know, my granddad was a tradesman. He had a metal fabrication shop, so I grew up kind of in that industry and around it. My father did the same thing. He was a pipe fitter. So I grew up around the trades, for sure. That that that's been in my blood. Fast forward, you know, I get a job, my first job. In fact, I've got my first paycheck still. It's kind of funny to say. But fast forward a little bit, you know, I've worked the trades, trades, trades. And then I got injured, and I started taking opiates. Well, that opiate consumption led into an addiction, and that addiction turned into me making some choices that led me down a dark, dark path and eventually sent me to prison. Since I got out, I got an opportunity to sink my teeth back into the mechanical arena and have worked my way back into society and got another chance at life. So that's kind of a snapshot of what I've got going on. Pretty normal life growing up. Got into some mischief. Owned it moving forward. Well, I applaud you for owning it. Glad you are recovering. And, you know, I I guess that some of the the scars that we get along the way eventually make us better people. So, I I can say that for myself for sure. Yeah. It led me to a point where I had to bring structure into my life and accountability. And I had to grow up. And when I put that recipe together with me and move forward, things start working out. And I'm just grateful I have people in my life that that were willing to give me an opportunity, to showcase those skills. Wow. Proud for you, man. It's it's a great story to hear and, you know, watching you and what you're doing now and and how you're you're working not only, in the trade, but helping people in the trade and, people outside the trade as well. But it's just it's a it's a great story, so I'm glad you're with us today. Tell me, you know, the first thing I think about when you said bring structure, you know, having time, having some alone time where you were incarcerated and then coming out and getting back into the business world, if you will, how's that, how did having that time, and you don't have to go into the gory details of what all you went through mentally, because I'm sure it was a challenge, but how did that affect you in a way that you're able to bring what you learned and deliver it on a daily dose, that helps not only keep you going, but operationally keeps Bay in line. And what were, what was some of that, internal messaging that you got out of your time that you spent at the courtesy of the taxpayer? Yeah. I encompassed a lot of pain, and and and I think pain was the turning point for me to where I didn't, you know, I I I never wanna go back to that situation. I had to have a moment of of time alone to myself to get clarity and, find a path forward. So I thought about it, thought about it, thought about it, how I was going to approach. And and, you know, unfortunately, when you when you make mistakes and you do wrong or you don't meet expectations of people or or or whatever the case may be when you don't meet expectations, you know, to come back, you've gotta rise above the expectation now and and do a lot more. So what I told myself basically was I was gonna do whatever it took. And I was just gonna ask as many people, talk to as many people, and I was gonna do whatever it takes to get back in. And if that meant getting up every morning, making however many phone calls it may you know, it took to to to get in front of the right person that would give me an opportunity, that's what I was going to do. And so that's what I set out and I did. And I, you know, held myself to that standard. And it's really worked out. When you turn that over to a structure standpoint, my life needed to be consistent, and it needed to be structured. So I line everything out. And then, you know, I I plan, and I and I just perform better when I do that. Well, whether whether people probably like to admit it or not, I think most people do. You know, remember reading the book about Steve Jobs, and they asked Steve, why do you wear the same darn clothes every day? And he said, because I don't have to decide what to wear. I wear blue jeans and a black mock neck. That's what I wear, and I don't have to decide and burn daylight on something that trivial. I I just you know, regardless of what you think about Steve Jobs, some people love him, some people don't care for him or care for past tense. The guy had a system. So I'm a systems person. I like structure. I like processes. I've told this on myself before, but I'll walk around the dang house here, and I try to study efficiency, like to a very finite degree. Like if I got to go to the bathroom and I got to get a cup of coffee and I got to take the dog downstairs and I got to go to the mailbox, I'd route that out in my head like some kind of psycho, but just because I like that structure. So whether you like structure or whether you benefit from structure, I think it's healthy. Some people don't care to build structure, but when they're involved in a process that works, they suddenly realize, hey, this this works. I don't have to get up and decide what color shirt to wear. Right. Well, I I can't I can't I've I've I've yet to find a way to make it work for me other than to do do do it this way. You know? It just seems that when I work through structure and I work within a system, it's gonna expose my weaknesses. And then, you know, I get to to look back at the data and correct. Well, you know what I say. It works if you work it. So we need to keep going. That's it. I I that daily diligence on that for sure. Well, obviously, whoever you connected with at Bay, saw a whole lot of good in what you're doing and what you were capable of and gave you that opportunity. So that's so cool that you got that. How you know, when I when I think about coming into a situation fresh like you did, how how do you think that people respond best to new leadership or to new even if it's not if you're not in a total leadership position when you come, how do you think presenting yourself affects the employees that are already working? Because I feel like you had to come, you had to blend in, you had to build that trust, earn that trust, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, until you've got to a certain point mentally or relationally with the ownership, however that works. How do you think coworkers, and I think about this a lot, but I'm not a daily grind any longer where I see my coworkers daily. How do you feel like coworkers respond when you come in fresh to a company with experience? And and I guess, really, did they know your past, or did they not know your past? And and was that a problem? To the owners and the the management team there, I was very upfront, completely laid the cards out on the table, and let them know what I was going to do. At that he wanted to bring me on board. And I just got to work. You know, I was working hard. And I got in there with the guys. I met the guys. And, you know, over a little bit of time, you get well, it wasn't even that much time. We got pretty close pretty quick. Probably about a third or fourth week, I brought them all in and basically had a meeting and let them know, listen, guys, I'm not perfect. I've made mistakes. But I try to learn from them now. And then I told them my situation. And that's where we left it at that. And I let them know, you guys are going through any problem at all, you're not going be able to scare me. I'm somebody that you can come talk to. I'm a normal guy just here to help you. I love how you approach that. Just, you know, no no smoke and mirrors. No nothing. Just here here it is. Here's what happened, and here's where we are. I love that. That that's the only way to be. I I've tried to be the other guy, you know, that that tried to to hide stuff in the past, and that that came back to bite me in the rear every time. And it's just not it's not healthy. It's not effective. And it's it's just it just doesn't work. So, you know, it is what it is. I am who I am. I've made mistakes, and I've learned from them. And, yes, I'm gonna have to do more than everybody else because I have made mistakes, but I'm willing to do that. I I think that says a lot about you, first of all. Didn't mean to cut you off, but I just think that that speaks to your your innermost drive of of wanting to prove it. The people part I find really, interesting. Last Saturday, I went over to our the president of our company's house because he had a a plumbing issue I was assisting with. He wanted to put in a automatic shutoff valve on his lake house so that he could kill the domestic water when they're gonna be out of town for a while, which I think is a great idea. And it works off an app. Who knew? So I was over there with him and had a young man that I was showing how to do stuff like that, one of our apprentices. And so his dog, Truman walks up and I was rubbing the dog and I hadn't seen this dog, but like three times in my life. Well, the dog comes up, you know, like we're best buddies and lays down and he wants his belly rubbed and all that good stuff. And I told Ryan, I said, man, isn't it crazy how dogs know dog people? And I really do believe that they can sense and ease when people are dog people and they're not, you know, wigged out by a dog. I think humans have the same capability to detect other good souls like that, regardless of what you may have been through in your life. I think people can discern high qualities, plural, without having to get to know everything up front. I don't know. It just kind of hit me when I was thinking about Truman. I'm not going to rub your belly, but Yeah. No. No. No. You're you're you're right. I mean, you know, I have gut instincts about people all the time, and usually, they're spot whether I feel them. And I've always tried to give the person the opportunity to prove me wrong. And I know that that if I get if I get an opportunity to present myself to somebody that, I'm not gonna let them down. I can just tell you that. I think so many times, Brad, that's a a god thing that we have no idea of how He orchestrated. But you know, I have all these things that, and I'm not a believer in coincidences, but things will happen and I'm like, you just couldn't script that. You you couldn't draw that out on a playbook to happen like it happened. So I know there's got to be divine touches on some stuff like meeting people. You know, like Some people you meet and you just click with, and some people you meet and you just can't get away from quick enough. Nothing wrong with them. It's just not a fit. I think people have a unique a lot of people have the ability to figure out who's who they want in the foxhole with them and who they don't want in the foxhole with them pretty quickly. Yes, sir. That that those instincts definitely will flare. Those red flags will come out, and, you know, they'll usually grab ahold of you for sure. I like to just want to perform and help get the guy that's walked in my shoes now that the help he needs or the hope he needs are trying to get them in the direction they need to go. It just just serve in ways possible to help others. I I find that I get the biggest reward in life for me when I'm helping other people or when I'm giving back to something, you know, larger than myself. Oh, so there's two things I wanna talk about. One of them is some work you've been doing that that you sent me some information on. I wanna talk about that in a minute. But I wanna talk about what you guys at Bay are doing. How are you helping your people grow? And I don't just mean learn how to solder quicker. Right. Yeah. So we we we're we're implementing a development program that is, basically, we're we're bringing guys in quarterly, and we're trying to paint a picture of of what they want in their growth, inside of Bay Climate. And then we're gonna try to put a road map together to fit those needs. And we're gonna do that every ninety days. We're gonna be meeting on that, and they're gonna we're gonna be keeping scorecards on their growth, where they're at to where they wanna go. And then we're gonna try to eventually have them end up, you know, at their goal, whether they wanna be CEO of the company or or if they want to graduate from a a maintenance tech to, you know, full time service tech, outside tech, or, you know, if they want to go run the run an install team. We're trying just to get them aligned with with their goals and and have them move in that direction. So that's be focusing on culture around Bay Climate right now and making some healthier changes that'll that'll help our people grow, even the leadership team as, you know, the owners opened up and letting us reach out so that we can grow as well. And I think that that's helpful, for all of us, especially when we can learn something and then pour back into the organization. So how did y'all come up with the I won't call it the idea, but how did you come to embrace the fact that you gotta listen to your people and you got to help them with a roadmap. What led you to that point in career building and people building that made sense for y'all? Because it's something I study a lot because of the multi generations in the workforce. It's just an interesting topic in how communicate to a twenty five year old versus how you communicate to a fifty five year old are different. Same message, different words. And the twenty five year old wants to know where he's going to be in five years much differently than the fifty five year old did when he was twenty five. Because those thirty years that have elapsed have foundationally changed the way young workers think about their career. So what what led y'all down this path? Well, when I got here, there there was some there was some culture, issues within inside of Bay Climate that I I think needed some attention. A lot of people, it got brought to to to several people's attention. And, over the over the few years, we talked about it. And then we made a decision over the last leadership meeting that we had back in September to put this, meet with every every person, get the road map in play, and then start implementing it. So that basically, you know, we we just had a couple leadership conversations about it. And then, last September, we decided we were gonna go with it and invest in it, whether that's you know, whatever it looks like, whatever trainings they needed, whatever. I mean, there's some really, really cool kind of things that people want to do. But the growth aspect of it was a group effort. And, we basically talked to the employees that we had, found out what needed to come together to start bringing culture, you know, back into the company. And that was one thing that was universal was they wanted clarity as to where how they can move up within the company. So, you know, that's kind of how we came up with, let us know where your goals are to be here, And then, you know, we're gonna help you achieve them. Well, I applaud y'all for doing it, you know, from a operational standpoint, but I also applaud whoever's writing the big check that understands that this is a value nowadays, and it's not, you know, warm and fluffy and all that fuzzy stuff like we used to think it was, but it's real life right now. And, you know, we get caught up in the fact of older guys saying, well, you know, back when I was a boy, that's just what we did. And, you know, that's cool. I mean, I'm glad, you know, my age, we went through some stuff. But it doesn't matter because that's not what we have right now, you know, regardless of how the glory days were glorious to you mentally, they sucked when we were going through them those days. We have much rosier looking glasses looking backwards than we did looking out the windshield when we were, young guys driving the service truck. But it's it's really it's a big step when when ownership, probably not a young owner, says, I get it. Let's do this. And that's that's great for y'all. Good all around. Good for the guys. Good for you. Good for them, everyone. And your customer ultimately wins. If your troops are happy, they do better work because we all do when we're in a good place mentally. We get yeah. To get better people, you know, you get them to perform and, and, and they, were invested in them. They're gonna reinvest in us. And and that's the give that we wanted so that we could, you know, get to receive, you know, from their end as well. And ultimately, just just just be committed to the people. And and because, you know, we're in the people business. That's the reality of it. Yeah. But y'all are doing more than that. Y'all a lot of people say that, that y'all are actually doing it, which separates you from the the wannabeers because a lot of people went and had a leadership meeting last September and came up with some grandiose ideas. And here we are heading into, you know, spring, and they're still doing the same stuff they did in September last year. So, you guys, you know, developed a plan or implementing a plan, and I suspect already starting to hear, see, and feel a difference. We are definitely starting to hear, see, and feel a difference. That's for sure. We you know, we've also we we've changed a few things within the culture at Bay Climate. And I tell you, it's it's moving up into the right, and, you know, I hope it just just stays on that course and direction. And if everybody still comes to work like they're coming to work right now, we're gonna be able to achieve that. You know, I heard something the other day. It was a sheriff talking about I I forgot who where I heard this story, but a sheriff was talking about his deputies. And all he could ask of them every day was to bring their best to work. And some days, that's a hundred percent, and some days, it's seventy. But if you got seventy in you today, give it all to me. You know, like me, be, be as fulfilled as you can that day. Don't beat yourself up on the thirty. Just give it all you can. And I want a good reminder because you know, you, you hear a lot that people are going through right now, whether it be financial hardship, family, you know, everybody's got stuff going on in their personal life. It's yeah. I've had some people lose relatively close family members lately, and it affects people whether they even know it or not. Having that little bit of grace for somebody, they're giving you eighty eight percent and that's all they got today. Just hug the other twelve percent out of them. You know? Like, I'm I'm starting a new book this weekend. I'm really excited about it. It's written by Bob Chapman called Everybody Matters. This guy runs a company called Barry, and I'm gonna screw this name up, I'm sure, because I don't have my glasses on. Now I do. Barry Wehmiller. And they are a manufacturing company. I think they make printing machines for big industrial printing. But this guy's philosophy on how he runs the business and how he handles employee matters is, is apparently phenomenal. So I was re somebody referred me to read it, so I'm looking forward to it, but you've gotta take care of you folks, man. And the older I get, the more I know that. And the more I realize that when I was in my thirties, was a complete moron some days. You know, you hope to recover from that by doing more on your tail end than trying to give back to make up for those less than pristine efforts that we did at some point previous to today. But I I just love the fact that that y'all are doing that. I I think it's really cool that the culture of of companies is is something that is so unique to study. And, you know, our company that operates in your area, Engineered Cooling, they have a really good culture. And then our guys in Raleigh, North Carolina have a really good culture, but they're different. And I use both of these examples because both of those companies have what I would consider a culture committee. It's kind of people that making sure the company's doing right by the people and making sure the people are doing right by the company. That's my words, not theirs, but it's a culture committee. What feels good to our employees? What doesn't feel good to our employees? Kind of keeping the pulse on the company group. And it's I love seeing the fact that both of those companies out of sixty, we have more than that, but these two really pop in my head right now. Just because they're paying attention. They're not trying to be, they're not trying to be anything else except the engineered cooling or Piedmont Service Group or Max Air in Atlanta has a similar product or similar group, but they're all different. And that's what makes companies so cool to me is, you know, all of our companies have a green swish under their logo or under their name representing ServiceLogic brand. But what happens in the capital letters, the engineered cooling or the Maxair logo, that's where all the magic happens, not at the green swish level. And to to see how and and these companies, by the way, are union and nonunion. We don't think it makes a difference of how the company operates. But it's really cool to see how people respond to being cared for well. Like engineered cooling, they have before or when they hire somebody, they have a a pre employment care package that goes out to the employee's house before they even start. You know, setting that tone of how the company is early and often, even before they they're they register their first hour of employment. Just little things like that, I think, are what make great companies. And doing what you guys are doing, just take you know, I say this with our safety committee. I'm I'm on the safety committee. And, you know, we beat ourselves up pretty bad a lot because we're not doing all we could do or we're not doing everything perfectly. But I have to remind the team like, guys, we are so far ahead of the ball or the curve, because we're at least trying. We, we are making an effort. We know that there's a need and we are trying to fill that need as best we can. And that's more than a lot of people are doing. You know, don't beat us up as a group when we're not perfect because we are making an effort. And I think that goes for what what like, what you guys are doing. You're not gonna build, you know, Harvard Law School in six months, but you've started that process. And I think that's so cool. Yes. We we we we're definitely headed down that road, you know, and we're we're we're putting checks and balances in place as well. So there'll be surveys will go out every ninety days before we go into another meeting to where we can grade ourselves and check ourselves company wide. And it'll be you know, we won't know who sent and who wrote what. They just answered the questions open and honestly. And that'll judge us on where we're at, where we need to move the needle. And that's gonna be the scorecard from here forward. We're gonna get it right, hopefully, this time to bring in, you know, build people up the way they wanna be built and then, help them get on track to get there and obvious obviously try to get other talent looking our way. Well, that's what works. You know, that the the the worker, rumor mill is stronger than the internet. So when people are happy where they're working, that does tend to spread rather quickly. So congrats on that. Alright. I wanna shift gears a little bit and talk about your your passion project. Tell tell us a little bit about that. So, you know, mister Greg, it's basically, you know, going back to service work. I mean, it's it's it's just me wanting to be I wanna give back to the trades because the trades allowed me an opportunity to rebuild my life if it didn't save my life. And I and I think that, you know, I I hold that pretty close to my heart and owe a a great deal of gratitude towards trades. So I'm gonna make it my mission to do what I can to support, you know, the the trades as a whole. And then also, you know, if there's somebody out there who has a mark on their record and they don't know how to come back, I want to help them write a road map forward and give them a little bit of hope that that it's possible. You know, you're just going to have to do whatever it takes. And as long as I can speak, I'm just gonna be an advocate for it. It's something that I can just that that's in short, that's what I wanna do. That's what I'm trying to do. Well, it it really is truly a that's a gift to, to the community. I know it probably hits me differently than it hits you obviously, because you created it. And I know it comes out of a place of love for what you've been through. And, I just, I thank the world of you for doing it and look forward to watching it develop and, and hopefully I get to participate somehow and cheerlead it. Cause I I'm, I'm sitting here looking at a file folder I built over the holidays and I have been intentionally sitting on my duff deciding what to do with it. But it is a similar thing, that you're doing probably for a lot of the same reasons. You know, we all have our, we all have our skeletons in the closet, but so I built this thing and it's so funny because you mentioned a grocery store earlier called Aldi, and that's the name of this group is Aldi. Okay. Are are aspiring leaders developing intentionally is how I came up with that. And hopefully, Aldi will sue me over the name, and I'll get a little bit of publicity out of it, then I'll change it. But, you know, so I read a lot of John Maxwell stuff, always have. And intentionality is one of his big words that he emphasizes a lot. And coming out of a meeting that I sat through with some of our, I was hosting a panel at our operations summit in, where were we? Somewhere in Texas. I forget which city we were in. I hosted a group and it was called Aspiring Leaders. And there were some young up and coming service types, managers, operations ladies, what have you. We had a mix of people. And coming home on the airplane, I thought I got to do something with this group of young whippersnappers because as busy as life is right now, I'm concerned that people aren't getting the mentoring that they need because everybody is so busy. But that doesn't, change the fact that people still need it. So I'm trying to figure out. So right now I'm working with four young men, from fifteen to twenty two years old. Three of them are already working in the trade. One of them is a sophomore in high school who lost his dad last year to an illness. And that's about all I can do hands on, you know? But how do you take your passion and want and the desire to want to help and multiply it? Which is what I'm trying to figure out with this group. How do we reach more? Is it an online mentorship thing? I don't know. I'm just kind of noodling that. So maybe you and I can talk about that offline. Sure. I'd love to. I'd love to. I just, I just know that I, it's it's definitely on my heart to get involved, and it is brand new to me right now. You know? I'm I'm right in the the the core of of building it. Yeah. The deal I wanna do, and it's just just get a message. I I think that I think that's like you said, mentoring needs to be out there. It needs to be accessible. And, you know, the guys gotta understand the the the young men And women. They're part two. You know, they're gonna have to, to, to reach out and, and, and, you know, you gotta get ahold of them somehow. And, they need to know an avenue to go. That's for sure. And women. And women. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. We got a lot of young women that are coming into this trade. They're doing it. Don't have a whole lot of advocates right now. So we gotta figure that out too, without being, without somebody banking, you're a perv for wanting to help a young girl. You know what I'm saying? Daughter. She, I got a picture of her with a hard hat on the other day, as a matter of fact. Well, you know, we, our goofy industry has excluded half of the population, the smarter half of the population, I might add. We've excluded them for some reason for so long, but we gotta, we gotta get cracking on that. Well, man, listen. I know you got a busy afternoon scooting around on the on the coast down there. I really do appreciate you you dropping by and spending some time with us, and I'm I'm excited for you, man. You got a lot of good stuff going on. I've enjoyed our time, you know, where we've had a quick chat or two here and there, but we got snowed out at at AHR, but, I'm gonna be getting back on the plane here shortly. So I'm gonna I'm gonna figure out a way to rendezvous with you. We just bought a company in New Orleans, so that might be a good reason to figure out a way to stop by on the way. So right on, I can get over there. That'd be no problem. That sounds fun. We can sit around and solve the world problems over some shrimp, which is what I like to do when I'm on the coast. But Bradley, thank you so much, man. I'm excited. Like I said, I really, I don't want to gloat over you, but I am excited for you and proud for you and proud of you. So just keep doing what you're doing. How can people stay in touch and watch what you got going on? What's the best way to follow you? The main access is, you know, Bradley Henderson on LinkedIn. You'll you'll see my mugshot right there. Just just just me. Handsome fella. Yeah. Or Hendo helps, at Gmail dot com. If anybody's out there and really, wants to talk a little further, I'm open to talk anytime. So they can catch me there or or or LinkedIn that can direct message me or that'll be, you know, that's probably the easiest way. All right. Well, we will look forward to continuing our LinkedIn connectivity and, and that's Hendo, H E N D O, help, H E L P s, or just help? Helps with an s. Yes, sir. Help. HendoHelpsgmail dot com. The man is on fire, folks. Y'all go check him out. He's busy. He's in the HVAC world. He's in the people world. All the cool stuff in my book. So, Bradley, thanks so much. Guys, thank you all for sticking with us. It's been man, I'm gonna tell you, these kinds of talks get me so fired up in such a good way because it proves that good people are out here roaming this earth. We just gotta connect all the dots. So, y'all go find all the good people, and let's let's bring them here together and celebrate good stuff. But check us out. Gregcrumpton dot com. You can check out the books on, Deep Knowledge is the name of the book. Two of them, DeepKnowledge. Me, if you want to go check those out. And we'll see y'all at a trade show or maybe at a shrimp restaurant somewhere on the Gulf coast before you know it. But for now, for Greg Crumpton, myself, Bradley Henderson, thank y'all for this episode of Straight Out of Crumpton, and we will talk to you on the next go round.