Transform Construction Careers with Grit and Creative Campaigns to Close the Gap

This is This is straight straight out of Crumpton with your host, Greg Crumpton. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Straight Out of Crumpton. I am Greg Crumpton and your host for the afternoon. Today, excited. We we've been through a couple of iterations of scheduling. This lady is busy. I'm busy, and we finally got it done today. So, we are welcoming Jenny Schrom, from VVB Builders, and she is also an author. So we're excited to hit her from, really both sides of her life, the creative piece, that she does for the company as well as, book author. Because I'm I'm super interested in books and, love which is how I found Jenny, I think. I was looking at children's books. So without further ado, Jenny, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Greg. I'm glad we could make it work. Yeah. You know, I think that's a good thing, though, when when you're both really busy and and you're trying to find, you know, that magical spot and then things line up and here we are, beautiful day. We're recording today, the day after Memorial Day twenty twenty four. I'm in Greenville, South Carolina, and it is gorgeous. Temperature is perfect. Humidity is a little bit low. I took the golf court, golf cart to lunch up to the subway, had a sandwich. It was just it was a it was a good day. So Yeah. I agree. It's warm here. Sunny. I live in Maryland. So you mentioned, DBB is the place I I work, but it stands for Delmarva veteran builders, and I live actually on the Delmarva Peninsula. A lot of people I've met, I didn't realize had no idea where that was, so we're kinda sticking out of the Chesapeake Bay. Pretty isolated. Only a few a small land bridge, basically, of the peninsula and then two kinda scary bridges or tunnels to get to where I am. So it's a little bit remote, but it's beautiful. Well, Jenny, I have to admit, I fall into that category of people who did not understand the whole Delmarva thing. But Yeah. Once you and I got connected, I was like, I gotta figure this out. And then I talked to a buddy of mine and said, you're such a moron. Delmarva, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia. I'm like, ah, got it. Yes. It makes sense once you really think about it, but most people never think about it anyway. So it's okay. You're not alone. Well, it it's a cool place, from from a lot of different aspects for me. Fishing, seafood, coastal, I like all that. But, before we get rolling, Jenny, why don't you give us just a bit of a bio about yourself, how you got here, you know, kind of kind of what who is Jenny and and what is Jenny? Yeah. Sure. Yeah. So, I actually didn't grow up in Delmarva. I I'm from, Northern Kentucky near Cincinnati, Ohio, another area that confuses people because I sometimes say Cincinnati, but I'm really from from Northern Kentucky. It's all right on the border of the Ohio River. So, I grew up there and had a really great family, creative family, and really harnessed that sort of, I don't know, just artistic spirit in me. So it was just a great childhood. I ended up transferring from the University of Kentucky in college to a small school called Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida, where I majored in graphic design, and, I played soccer there. So it was a really great time of life. But, after that, I've kinda lived in all different parts of the country doing graphic design and different types of also real estate design and various things. So I ended up getting married, and, my husband, who is from, Delmarva, from Salisbury, Maryland. So I ended up here in this part of the country, which I never knew existed before I met him. So, yeah, so I moved here, let's see, around two thousand fifteen. And a few years later, I was looking for a place to do graphic design work, and I met, Chris Eccleston, who's the owner of Delmarva Veteran Builders. He's a a navy veteran, and, he founded it's a commercial construction firm. We're just kind of a generalist. We do a lot of different, convenience store work, hotels, you know, like like a holiday Holiday Inn or Hilton Home two kind of, kind of hotels. And so they need a a graphic designer, so I I was able to come work with them. And so I started here in two thousand nineteen. So it's been a little bit, I guess, five years now or six years. I can't count. But yeah. But it's in a hurry, doesn't it? Yeah. So that's, yeah, a little bit about me, but I I really, yeah, I did got into the building industry, basically, when I started working here. Well, we're glad you did because you're doing some really cool stuff. And I mentioned it earlier. We got connected over the book that you coauthored. And, I I've been, you know, kind of messing around for a while, a long time, because I'm old with trying to educate the tray people about the trades and the opportunities that lie within the trades. And, you know, the trend is to reach younger and younger children to help them understand what life is really about. It's not not many people make a living playing video games. You have to get out and and make it happen every day. And, in my in my search, you know, I found several people that were writing books that were written with a younger generation in mind, and and yours certainly came to mind, or or came to light. Can you give us just a how that whole thing started, and and I'd love to hear that story. Yeah. Sure. Sit back and relax. No. I'm kidding. I'll I'll try to keep it brief. But, yeah. So I, oh, you have a dog. Wendy Williams. She's excited to hear this story. I love it. I have a dog too, and the dog actually, Calvin, is in the book. So I made sure I I included him in the story. Yeah. So back when I started working at DVB in two thousand nineteen, Chris, the owner, he he kinda tasked me with a a challenge. He said, you know, I want you to do, an ad campaign. I wanna I wanna do something different here, at Delmarva veteran builders. And so, of course, that is exactly what I've I feel like I was born to do just to look at things differently. Steve Jobs is, you know, one of my idols and just think different is is is something that I totally want to aspire to do in my daily life. So, you know, I started kind of observing more about about my coworkers here because I, obviously, I'm I work in the office, so we have a lot of project managers here. And then also I'm I'm, you know, close to a lot of our superintendents in the field, but I I kinda just get this overwhelming sense of how much time, effort, and dedication goes into building. It's not just, you know, strategizing. It's also putting up with different things that happen, many obstacles that happen during the building process that a lot of different career paths don't necessarily they don't necessarily face this, but it's a really beautiful thing to see how people face the challenges and overcome them on almost a daily basis. And so, as I was trying to think about different things, I wanted to really honor, not only all the people in construction, but I also wanted to honor our veteran, workforce here. So I mentioned Chris as a navy veteran who founded it. So we're we run about thirty five percent veterans here. And I'm not a veteran, but, obviously, very very appreciative of their service. So, I kinda wanted to to do something that's more vintage style. So I ended up, doing an ad campaign, that we just highlighted the, just the spirit, almost like the veteran spirit of of our company. And, and at the same time, we also I also, wanted to come up with a a new tagline, for for DBB. So, so the tagline was really important to this whole story because, my my goal was to have almost like a battle cry versus a tagline, something that wouldn't just be boring and forgettable. It'd be aspirational. It'd also be, like, almost calling the community and others beyond just construction to really think about, what they want what your life to be and and when almost like we're the examples of something that someone can aspire to be too. So, I ended up writing the tagline grit leads to greatness, and that was that was something that my company totally bought, and we just loved the they loved the idea. And so we use the word grit as part of of, it's almost like a character trait that we could teach the world how to be. So we're not just, like, highlighting construction. We're highlighting the the, you know, the character traits of perseverance and tenacity, all those different things that have to go into if you wanna be good at construction, you have to have those quality traits. We feel like that can be something we can actually go out into the world and teach. So that's kind of, how, I started with this tagline, grit leads to greatness. And I we didn't mention earlier, but the name of the children's book is grit leads to greatness. So I don't know if we didn't didn't mention that part earlier. So Just so people know, they can't see you, but it looks really cool over your head. Yes. Yes. And I can share, you know, some photos with you, you know, if you need to for for the audience to see, if they're listening along. Yeah. Even the font, you know, it's just a great, it it just pops. So Yeah. So behind that. Behind that. Yeah. The so with the the idea you know, I went back to the greatest generation. Obviously, World War two is such a such I I love history in general, but World War two is just a time of life where everybody in the country kinda came together to face a common enemy. And what I really loved about what happened, especially in the US, is that not only did the military men and women go out into the field, they also enlisted the help of, like, just regular men and women at home to step up and do something greater than than themselves. You know, with a lot of women that went into the workforce after the men a lot of men left and went and went abroad, and, it really gave women an opportunity to show what they could really really capable of. And, you know, even children are a part of drives and different things. So I I what I really loved about that, it kinda reminded me as almost a metaphor of of of my office here and and our company is that we're veteran and civilian, but we're all working together towards a common cause. And we wanna be, we believe greatness is, you know, something that you when you're using your abilities to change the world and even in the smallest, simplest ways, you know, maybe it's not making the history books, but you're striving to to bring greatness and and and quality of life and happiness to others. So it was a really fun, way to do a vintage style poster. You imagine those propaganda posters from World War two. So I basically took that idea, used those types of fonts, and we created this whole ad campaign that we we basically plastered our whole, like, community all up and down the peninsula here. We have a lot of our job sites require, fencing, so we used all the fencing that and and and covered that with mesh signage. And so that's kind of what we're known for in this area. People have noticed it. We've get lots of phone calls, lots of people just really enjoying the sort of nostalgic, view of the poster. So that's kind of that was that was the beginning of of of all of this. Well, you know, one thing that pops out over your right shoulder is Rosie the Riveter there. And that's such an iconic brand, you know, that that or or symbol or whatever. Yeah. Because, you know Yeah. That's our that's our, that woman is is Catherine. She's our director of operations. She's second in command behind Chris, our founder, and she leads, you know, all the men and women here. And I just she was my first poster that I did of anybody, here because I I just I think she's just someone I admire personally, and I just love that she really is a great leader here. And she's just she just has all the qualities that I think anybody would want in in in in a leader. So I, yeah, I was really proud to start off with her. Yeah. That's cool. Noticed that. Well, that you know, Rosie the Riveter is kind of a to me, when I when I see that image, I just think about patriotism because to to your point, so many women did go into the workforce, and they were building bombers and all kinds of stuff. Yes. I think about so my grandparents were of that era. Both of my grandfathers fought in World War two. Wow. And my uncles who were not drafted went to work for Goodyear building plane tires. So it was it was like, systemically across the country, people were working towards the common good, and I love that. I just love that idea. You know? So Yeah. Thank you. I don't know. It's it's really cool. Yeah. A lot of people can relate to it. And and it it gives that that just kind of go get a mentality that a lot of people appreciate. And and and I think it's it's those posters have have stood the test of time because of that sort of, feeling that you get when you look at it, just the remembrance of of all the things that were accomplished. So, yeah, I think we pulled it off, and it was a lot of fun. And we end up getting a international marketing award for it, which I'm really proud of and unusual for a construction, you know, company to do that. So that was something my, with with Chris actually enter entered us into a contest, and, yeah, we won. So it was it was something I'm very proud of today, and I'm glad I had the opportunity. That what's really great is I had the opportunity to do it. You know? Like, having someone like Chris who was heading up the company wanting to do things differently. I mean, to have that opportunity as a graphic designer in this industry was was something I am very thankful to be able to do. Alright. So two two things. I wanna get into the book, but I got one more thing that's always puzzled me. Steve Jobs. Yeah. Love him, hate him, understand, not understand, wherever you're at with him. The guy was obviously hugely gifted in a lot of ways, especially for hiring Johnny Ives. That was probably his best move. Yeah. But is it think why does it not think differently instead of think different? Yeah. That's a good question because I actually have that quote. We have a quote while here at our office of just all the different all all we asked everybody to come up with some inspirational quotes, and that is one of them, and that was mine. You know? And I I thought about that too. I was like, you know, I don't I actually I know there is a story behind it, but I I don't know. But that was more Apple who who, you know, the itself was that was their tagline. So, but, yeah, I know. Yeah. He is a polarizing character in many ways, but I I just I've as a graphic designer, I've used all Apple products for all of my it's created up so many different opportunities for me to be able to to be creative. And I love the fact that if you hear about his life story, he he sat in on a typography class at Reed College, I believe, in in, Washington State. But he's he took that randomly, but it changed his life. He learned about how to you know, that the typography is a beautiful medium to to apply to to computers. So just instead of having the boring type, he just like, I'm gonna go and make this just aesthetically pleasing. And I was like, okay. That's something that I can get behind, and it and it people notice that, and that's just where he thought differently. Right? Different. So Yeah. It's that it's different instead of differently that he makes it his. You know? Right. Yeah. You're right. And That's we'll have to look back into that because I know I knew at one point, but now I can't remember. I'm I'm one of the gabillion people who bought the thick book and and on his life story. Yeah. But I'm one of the few who actually finished it because it was a it was a tough one. I've never read it. A lot of book. A lot of book. A lot of great detail, but it it it just showed you how broad the guy could think. You know? And it's kinda like today, Elon Musk is that guy, who thinks so different than we do. So, anyway, I I didn't wanna get too distracted. But I do think about that because when I saw that advertisement for nine in nineteen eighty four when they kinda did the, the Those the futuristic, kind of I forgot who who the Orwell. It was Orwell inspired. That changed the world for a lot of people that day. And, I think we're better for it, for sure. But okay. Now co author, Awesome. That's an awesome moniker. So how did that come about? Yeah. So, after we, finished the ad campaign I say we. I mean, Chris. Chris and I work pretty closely together here. You know, he just usually comes, sits in my office, and we just sit and brainstorm or, you know, just do a lot of a lot of stuff like that. So I appreciate, you know, him him always coming up with random ideas. Some of them are crazy, but some of them are are are good. So he, he came in. He we had we always talk about different things that we wanna do in life, and he he had mentioned in the past that he wanted to write a children's book. And, and and I've always said yes. I I've I I would love to write a children's book, but, didn't really think about it much just coming off of this ad campaign. But, Chris Chris came in. He's like, you know, I think we should we should write a children's book, and his idea was, like, was that, so we do different school. We we don't really build from the ground up schools. We've done a lot of, lot of school remodeling and different things like that. It was elementary, middle school, and high school. And he was thinking it might be a a cool leave behind if we go into an elementary school that we have a children's book. And we, you know, we do the renovation, and then we leave the book for the kids. And it's kind of like the this the school systems in the area will remember us for the fact that we have this, like, unique book. And not even at the top. Yeah. I mean, that's the school right there. Right. Right. That that was smart. So he but he was like, you know, I want you to basically start writing it. That's what he asked me. And I was like, okay. Okay. I had to, like, switch modes. That's sometimes hard being creative when you're just you gotta go a different direction and just really it takes me a while. Like, I don't being creative, sometimes I get this panic moment. Like, I'm never gonna come up with another good idea. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's one of these things that you just, I think it's made personal insecurities of of being creative. It's like, what if I never come up with a new idea? You know? It's kind of those panic moments, but it always ends up coming. But, anyways so, he he had mentioned an idea. He's like, why don't we do a hammer that doesn't know it's a hammer and it goes to the construction sites? He told me this idea, and I was like, Chris, I can't write that. I I I I it doesn't sound interesting to me. So we always crack up about that. But, so I got to thinking about it, you know, over morning coffee. That's usually where I start to really kinda think deeply. But, I thought about our tagline, and, I kinda had this idea. I was like, what if with the tagline being grit leads to greatness, I was like, what if kids thought that greatness was a place that you could find on a map? And so that kind of that was my first, like, idea that that just really started set into motion something. So the word grit, obviously, is something that we we believe in here at DVB. But, I realized that I've heard all this these rumblings ever since I worked here that the world is is gonna not gonna have enough construction workers to fill this this there's a half a million plus gap, and it may never be filled. And we may be in in a complete, you know, disastrous freefall here within ten years. And I I've kept hearing this, and I'm like, how is this possible? Why did this happen? And what can we do to start to change this narrative? And I, you know, I sometimes believe that that construction has gotten a bad a bad rap on its own. I think sometimes it's represent itself poorly. And, also, people just have have pushed college. There's different things about, you know, getting degrees versus having a trade or a skill. And I think that has has you know, obviously, many of us agree that's caused a major imbalance in our society. And, and so I'm I you know, in my mind, I was like, you know what? I want people to start looking at construction differently. I want us to go into the world and us be the ones to show people what a good life can look like and and that you can be proud and and you can actually you actually save the world. Like, that that's something I I just started to really think about. Another thing was about, you know, mentioned about grit and overcoming challenges. I feel like with kids, you know, we always talk about the kids these days and, you know, all these different things that kids are too soft or, you know, different things like that, which I I don't necessarily agree with, but I think that kids just wanna be inspired by something. And I think it's not it's our it's our job as as, you know, teaching the next generation to, like, show them, you know, what you can do with with your life besides, you know, staring at a screen all day. And so one thing about, about me is that I have I have four children. My husband was widowed. He had a a wife that passed away from cancer, and he had four young children. And so I actually knew him in college. And when he got married, I knew him and his first wife, and we lost touch over the years. But I ended up reconnecting with him on Facebook when I was living in California, and and I end up adopting his four young children. And something that really opened my eyes is that, kids sometimes aren't equipped with the idea that life can throw really big curveballs even when you're young, and that you have to understand, like, that you have the power to overcome challenges that you face even as kids. How do you look at a challenge? Is it going to hinder you the rest of your life? Are you going to look at it as a or a way that has made you grow and change? So part of this incorporated my own, you know, personal view of of of my kids going through struggles and the way I saw them showing their own personal grit. So there's a lot of things wrapped up to this that came to my mind. So, long story short, it's an adventure story where two kids save a world that's forgotten how to build. So it's like a dystopian world. The world's crumbling, and everybody's forgotten the the construction trades. And two kids kinda look around and realize that there's more to life than that. So that was the the premise of it. Yeah. And then then from there, it was a lot easier to kind of, you know, figure out and fill in the gaps. Yeah. Once you get it, kind of the the baseline. Right. So how are you, so I I I interrupted you all ago, which I apologize for, but I was excited because I think and I I've written about this myself. When people come into a new environment, like a remodeled building or a remodeled school or what have you, they don't always know what went on before the final vacuum and the before the final testing. And I think leaving that book is so key, you know, to help them understand maybe just to give them a a sliver of what it took to do that. And I've re my my piece I wrote about was when I when I owned my company outright, before I sold to ServiceLogic, we did a lot of after hours replacement work. So we would go in on a Friday night and replace the entire air conditioning system for a building or for a tenant. And then Monday morning, everybody comes in and it's perfect again. Right. And then, like, it's just magic. Right? Sunday morning at five o'clock, it looked like, you know, freaking war zone. But it I just always love that. Friday night, five PM, it looks like this. Monday morning, eight AM, it looks like this. And total chaos in between, and nobody knows. Right. And that's something I think, you know, kids kids kids don't know what they don't know. Right? And they don't know that that there is this stigma surrounding construction like maybe parents do. Right? They don't know that at this point in their life. And so this is where I find, you know, using this book and other ways we be to be proactive with kids and have them realize just, like, what you said, that the things that happen behind the scenes that make your life so much better, you know, in terms of, you know, HVAC, a roof overhead. And we have so before I read the book to the kids, you know, I have them kind of talk about their environment around them. You know? What what do you think how do you think this got here, and how did you you know? And we kinda go through the whole construction process to kinda have them look at their, you know, their surroundings. And so, you know, part of the book is, we cover five trades. I don't know if I mentioned that yet, but, the kids, the kids wanna save their save their world from there's an earthquake, and that world's about to fall apart completely. And they end up, meeting an an old man that tells him about a place called greatness, and they think that greatness has all the answers and will maybe be a way to save their town if they go and find it. And so along the way, they run into all these obstacles. They, the obstacles happen to be the different traits. So each time they run into this obstacle, say there's a a a road that's blocked, they're building retaining wall where they meet masons, and then they go on to meet carpenters. There's a school that's being built. It it falls over during a snowstorm, and they they wanna stay and help at least get it back to where it was. And then they go on to meet welders building a bridge, and there's plumbers, there's water slides, and they finally meet the electrician magician who takes them on a, you know, roller coaster ride through circuits, and they have to light a tunnel. And, so there I try to just at least bring up the five major ones, but we also talk about a lot of, you know, more of the intricate details of all the different construction trades. But, yeah, I think kids just, you know, need to understand that that it's something that you can be proud of and excited about and that they can they can see that construction does save the world and what it would look like without it. And I think that makes kids think a little bit more on their own versus telling kids construction is important. You should you should value it. You know? You You think about most kids remember things through stories. And so I think that's something that we've kinda caught on to a little bit more, with this and and the the response we've had. But yeah. So that's that's something that I personally love to the adventure story because I think most kids like adventure. Right? Well, two two things you said, that kids have a bias, towards or or don't have a bias towards the trades. It's their parents that do because we've been trained that way that you had to go to college to be worthwhile as a human, and that's not true as many of us found out. And then Yeah. I forgot what the other one was because I didn't write it down. You see how usually it goes away. How are you distributing the book? How how do you how are you getting it out and about? Yeah. Well, we actually ended up self publishing. We went through a hybrid publisher. Our worry was that we didn't want the book to sign the book's rights away to people that we didn't know if they would actually take the story and distribute it properly. You know, just a general publisher who prints, you know, thousands of titles wouldn't really necessarily focus on construction and understand the need and the just the just the nuances of of construction. So we took a gamble and just decided to self publish. We actually I worked with a a printer. We we shipped them to Baltimore. We have the books. We've printed almost eighteen thousand books, have them stored here in our office. I ship the books myself and, but our main our main, groups have been construction associations. So, like, associated general contractors and, associated builders and contractors, which are large, you know, national, groups that have different chapters throughout the US. So we've gone to different, conferences and and presented our book. We also, had a local chapter that's read the book, and then they went and took it to national as well, and we're excited to do it. So we so, basically, that's been our biggest distribution where we we've we've distributed sold about ten thousand books on our own, which is people told us we'd sell probably four hundred, and we're like, okay. Like, that's fine. Well, we don't really have any idea what we're doing anyway. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So we we realized that it struck a nerve with a lot of people trying to reach a generation that, you know, is easily distracted and that has a good message, not just And teacher like I said, teachers love it too because it's not just construction, it's grit. And just have throwing that ability of grit into so many different things of your life, including schoolwork. So we we our biggest thing has been been, a lot of, people will buy a whole classroom of books, so a bundle of books, or they'll do a whole grade. So we've done, like, some schools where there's several hundred students at a time getting the book. They all get to read along as as we read it aloud, and then we get to talk about the book and and about construction and tie it in. So it's, it's kind of a it's a fun event that we've done. Whether or not we're there personally as the authors, we've had people who just do their own readings across the US. We also have two characters that we created, live action characters that I thought was a crazy idea. And Chris, the coauthor, he was like, we I've always wanted to do live action characters. So we went to Hollywood, literally got a a company there that created two two characters, and, they're basically they do Marvel and Fortnite, which is a big video game that a lot of our my kids like to play. So, yeah, it's it's was it's been one of the craziest journeys of my life. Luckily, I have a husband that's very, understanding, and Chris's wife is very understanding. But it's just been something where you you're like, okay. This is I never knew I'd be an author, really. I I I found an old diary when I was ten years old. Just the same month that we that I wrote the book, thirty years later, I found a a diary when I was ten that said I wanna write a book one day, but I just don't know what to write. But literally, it was thirty years to the the month that I wrote my first book. And so that was kind of a personal, accomplishment for me that I got to do that in my life and and actually have someone like my coauthor, Chris, support me and and, you know, we do that together. It was a lot more fun to do it with somebody else. That is cool. What a cool story. Yeah. So how do people buy it? Because I bet my one of my nieces is a first grade teacher, and, I was thinking this would be a cool gift for her class, when they come back in the fall. You know? Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty simple. I will bought one. I know I've got I've got yours up here, but I'm involved. Shipped it to you myself. I or I think I wrote you a note. But yeah. No. It's, it's grit leads to greatness dot com is is our main website. That's where you can buy individual books, or and we do a lot of our bulk sales there. You know, you can buy the book bundles if you're interested if people are interested in sponsoring a classroom. That's where we have a lot of our basically, our our books have been contract led contractor led. So a lot of, like, a different construction company will buy, you know, you know, twenty five, fifty books for the kids, and they give it to them, you know, and and and people go and read. So it's kind of been nice to have it's not we haven't had, like, a large sponsor, like, buy all the books, really. It's really been individual companies that have done this. So, we're also on Amazon. So we we sell individual books on Amazon. But if you wanna get, like, bulk books, go to our website. So you can find us on Amazon and, and our personal website. Very cool. The the whole book writing thing's exciting, especially to figure out thirty years later you were supposed to write it. I love that story. So Yeah. And I tell the kids when I'm reading it to them, you know, because usually, we're our our I did mention earlier, but our grade level is is between second to fourth grade is is, I would say, the sweet spot for the reading level. But we've read to kids from first grade all the way, you know, to fifth grade. And a lot of teachers like the fact that, you know, there's we put some big words in there, but they we they get to hear it out loud. And and, you know, we we we don't hold back on on, we think kids are smarter than what they seem to be. So we we really tried to just make it, as authentic as possible. And, yeah. So we, I I I would love to tell the kids, though, that I was when I was their age, I wanted to write a book, and I fulfilled my dreams, and I did it through a construction company. I wrote this book. And so besides them hear the story, they love to hear that because they're all very interested in being creative themselves. And it kinda reminds them that, you know, your dreams are important even when you're young. Like, that's something that, you know, if you feel it in your heart, that's what you wanna do. Like, it doesn't leave you even when you become an adult. So, that's been a fun addition to to reading to the kids. I love it. I love it. Well, as we as we start to, wind down here, tell us a little bit about the company because you you mentioned that you you guys do, some remediation work, renovation work. Do you guys work in the area? Do you travel? How how how are y'all We have about a two hundred mile radius, and we we do new builds as well. You know, like I said, for more of the the schools, we we haven't we haven't built, from ground up personally. We've done we've done trade packages with larger, with larger, construction firms, like nationwide construction firms that have come to build schools. But yeah. So we've done from the ground up, like I said, you know, like a Hilton home to different convenience stores are a big thing. So there's Wawa, which is a big, big convenience store. Obviously, seven eleven, memory sort of that. And so we, and then Royal Farms is a big area around a big, convenience store around here. So, we're we're working on, you know, fire station. We just did a police station. These are about, you know, fifteen million dollar buildings that that we've done. So, yeah, we have about twenty, twenty three employees Very cool. And we do, we base up just the the superintendents, project managers, and then we sub out a we have a lot of subcontractors that work we work with. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a small company, but, you know, I think we'll be more That's who the world works for. You know? It's so amazing. We hear about the Amazons and the Googles and all that stuff, but, you know, ninety five or ninety six percent of the United States population works in small businesses. And I love that fact that, you know, you guys are twenty, twenty five people. You know? That's such a cool company, you know, because my company, when I sold it, we were forty people. And it it it was just it was so fun because you knew everybody, and and it just had such a good culture about it. And you you could walk up and give somebody a hug without worrying about getting sent to HR because you needed to Yes. You're dog dog last night or what have you. Very personal. I agree. It's been fun working on, like, these posters. I'm still doing a new round of it. This is week twenty twenty is when we launched our, the ad campaign, but, you know, I'm doing a new round of it now, but it's really fun because I'm reaching out to a lot of our new employees and just kind of getting to know them personally. And then I'm trying to create posters that really represent who they are and their values and kind of what they would like to represent as as we put the make them into posters. So that's just it's something for me personally that I feel like is valuable. It gives our people I work with value as well. They feel like they're being listened to and heard and their their own voice and what they care about is being portrayed. And I think that's just been a a really a really good part of my job that I've I get to do. Wow. That's cool. You know, there there's not a lot of things we need as employees. We need we want to work for somebody this ethical. We wanna do meaningful work, and and you wanna feel good about what you're doing. And, yeah, you gotta have pay and benefits and all that. But that's kinda like the that's the price of admission. Right. Those three things about feeling really good about where you are and why you're doing it and who you're doing it with, man, that's that's the money. That's where people are not dreading Sunday night. Right. They look forward to it because you get to go do it some more on Monday, and it just sounds like y'all have such a and I I've read that, you know, about your company, and y'all just seem to have it going on. So really proud for you. Yes. I I appreciate it. And, yes, I I am very proud to work here. So thank you for noticing. Well, it matters. You know? I'm I'm a huge advocate of small business. Our company is is a big business made up of smaller businesses. And it's important you when you have that local flavor, you know? I was at a I was at two companies last week, that we own in Canada, and and they're forty miles apart. And they're totally different even though they're both mechanical service companies. They both have their own identity and and so do our other fifty whatever we have. You know, we all have the same ServiceLogic logo under their name, but it's it's like a unique culture. And I just love that independence and that that that really, you know, Jenny, this is so corny, but a lot of our companies have grit. And I'm seeing that word for the last forty minutes. And that's a great word. I think a John Wayne and true grit, you know, that word. Mhmm. And and those words turn in the feelings. And when you think about grit and a company having it, it's endurance, and it's grinding it out, and it's being there for you when you need them and vice versa. And I think you guys nailed it with that. You nailed it with that tagline. That's great. Yeah. We we actually tell kids it's a superpower that everybody can possess. You just have to tap into it. So we tell kids, like, do you know what grit is? And a lot of the kids don't actually know what the word is, and so it's fun to explain that to them. And one kid couldn't believe that it was real. That's something that you can can can actually have. And so it's kinda it's kinda fun to see it kind of played out with kids in that sense. And I, you know, I think, yeah, represent construction because there is that that, you know, you are you talked about, you know, going into school late at night and and and having on this mess and then getting all cleaned up, and it's it's there. They don't see that part of it, but it's you have to almost have a like, things aren't always perfect, you know, but they they come together and there's something greater, a plan that's beyond just the the messiness of life and the different things. So there's so many metaphors to to construction life that has been fun to play within a story. You know, that what what you just described happened to me more than once, but especially one time in a school. We were doing a summer renovation, and, the company that I worked for had, I think, a less than great program of getting the job accomplished. They had a lot of half half We've all been there. Yeah. They had some part time project managers and nobody was on it full time. Well, here comes school starting and we're not done. And, there was this big push to get it done. And, you know, I just remember, like, at two thirty in the morning, I had to call everybody together, and we had that grit conversation. Like, guys, this is not fun. It really sucks. Yeah. Monday's coming, and we gotta be through or there's financial penalties coming. Right. Let alone the kids won't have anywhere to go to school. And, when when you and and I shut the door to this classroom to have this talk with with our crew, and there was a quote on the back of that door of all the classrooms I could have picked, that room and that quote, and I carry it in my phone to this day. It it you just can't you can't replicate that or you can't make you you can't manufacture that. That just has to happen, and that's one of those god moments where you're like, okay. All the stars are in alignment now. Let's go. And, you know, I I can talk forever about those kind of things. I hear you. I I've been I know exactly what you're saying. It is. It happens. And I I think a lot of people just need to have that little nudge in those different messages, and that's where I hope this book, you know, gives people kids that ability, just that nudge, you know, when they're going through a tough time. And they'll remember that all this message came from somebody in the construction industry. It might bring them bring them hope, but it's like it's also like they'll think of us as people who go into the world and teach positive messages. You know? Rather than waiting for the world to change, a lot of people in construction are like, we you know, this talk about this dire, this, you know, workforce crisis. Well, we need to we need to go into the world and do something about it, bring bring hope to the world. We don't need to wait for someone else to do it for us or expect everybody to know that to talk about construction for us. You know? And that's where I think this book has inspired people to start to do that and go to the kids. You know? We don't we don't need to wait for them. We need to go to them. So, yeah, I I encourage whoever's listening to do that. You know? Like, I think I think that's something I hope more people get involved with and and and do something. It doesn't have to be my book, but just really think about this next generation, how we can inspire them. You know, Jenny, I I think and I say it often. If if all of us in the trades would reach out both arms and grab one person under each arm and help them walk towards getting started, we would be so far ahead. But I agree. We just have to I mean, there there's, like, there's a movement afoot. There you read it. You hear it at school meetings. You hear it at county board meetings. It's coming. We're getting back to where people are going, holy crap. We're gonna be how many people short? You know? Yeah. Yeah. It's So we're we're we're getting there. We're getting there. Yeah. Well, I wanna say thank you for taking time today with us. It's it's been great to to learn, about you, about everything that, you know, you guys are doing as a group and that and and your inspiration in in leading that charge and that just that tagline tells me a lot about you. So, really do appreciate you taking time. Tell us how people can follow along with you if they wanna see some of your magic happening. How do you how do you present yourself? I'll wait for them to know. Try to keep up with social media as best as possible, but like I said, you're sometimes burning two ends of a candle sometimes. But, yeah, I usually you can find me on LinkedIn, Jenny Kirschrone, and then we've got our grit leads to greatness on Instagram. And you can find us on our website too. There's some more I'm adding more teacher resources and different activities for kids. I've had some different teachers throughout the US kinda help write some curriculum just because they like the book and wanted to offer their expertise. Like I said, I this is my first time doing any of this, and it's just, you know, it's, an experiment in progress. So I've really appreciated a lot of different educators and people in the industry kind of jumping in here and trying to to spread the message. So, yeah, and say hi to me. If y'all have any questions, anybody listening, I'd I'd love to speak with you. Reach out. It has been so much fun to meet so many people all over all over the country, really, and, I hope it continues. So I I appreciate you having me. Well, proud you've been with us. And and, folks, this if you wanna if you wanna contact her, please do. Get the book. Buy the book. Share it. Read it. Give it to your grandkids, your kids, your your school, your church, daycare, whatever. Just, let's get you know? And you guys hear me say it every week, but let's let's keep getting that message out. Well, Jenny, great great time. Everybody, thanks for your listening today. Straight Out of Crumpton can be found on Apple, Spotify, and all the cool places that you download your podcast from, as well as greg crumpton dot com. We have a little tab on there where you can listen to all the hundred and thirty, I think, we have now podcast listed on there. So, they're a rambling collection of HVAC people, book authors, all kinds of cool stuff. So join us if you will. But for now, I'm Greg Crompton. Thank you for your time. Look forward to talking to you soon.