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Creating connections is essential to building a community. It’s even more important when the people you’re trying to connect with aren’t in the same location. Businesses and companies have always found geographic distance to be a challenge to building a really great community-oriented culture. At Empowered Ventures, the same challenge holds true, which is why we decided to start Empowered Owners, the podcast that takes you inside Empowered Ventures.
In each episode, CEO Chris Fredericks will have a discussion with one of our employees to discover and highlight their distinct personalities, perspectives, and skills while also keeping you in the loop with exclusive news, updates on company performance, and a glimpse into the future plans of Empowered Ventures. Not only is this an opportunity for Chris to learn more about our amazing employee-owners, but it’s also an opportunity for you to hear regularly from Chris and others from within Empowered Ventures.
00:00:00:09 - 00:00:22:02
Casey Grisez
Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Empowered Owners, the community Building Podcast by and for the employee owners of Empowered Ventures. Join us as we take you inside the world of employee ownership, discovering the stories, insights, and sometimes surprising adventures in a family of businesses where everyone's an owner. Now let's dive in.
00:00:22:04 - 00:00:39:11
Chris Fredericks
Welcome to another edition of Empowered Owners. I'm excited to be joined today by my colleague Casey Garrison, who handles marketing communications and also does some finance and work for us at Empire Adventures. Casey, welcome back to the show.
00:00:39:13 - 00:00:54:13
Casey Grisez
Good to be here as always. Yeah, I think last we did, one of these is kind of a sort of an EV update kind of episode was, what, about six or so months ago after the share price reveal and any sort of update? So, sure, it's been a been a quiet six months. Not a whole lot going on, right?
00:00:54:15 - 00:00:59:14
Chris Fredericks
Not a lot going on in the world or in our companies, you know, pretty slow and quiet these days. Yeah.
00:00:59:16 - 00:01:17:14
Casey Grisez
Yeah. Well we're excited. Another one of these. We'll kind of flip the script. I think we were there's a few things to update on, you know, at AEV, like at the Holdco specifically in Eva, in our operating companies, I guess more broadly. And then zooming out even more, just a couple of interesting, interesting things that touch on in the employee ownership world.
00:01:17:14 - 00:01:22:00
Casey Grisez
So we're excited to to flip the script on you. Yeah, a little bit and ask you some of the questions.
00:01:22:02 - 00:01:24:24
Chris Fredericks
Yeah, there's actually a lot to cover, which is exciting. So yeah, let's.
00:01:24:24 - 00:01:32:17
Casey Grisez
Get to it. Okay. Yeah. So we'll start off. I had Eva some personnel news, some, some some updates there, but yeah.
00:01:32:22 - 00:01:53:15
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. Really excited. Our team continues to grow and will now be a team of eight, here shortly. And by the time this releases, it will be official, you know, publicly. And the announced and stuff. So we have a new corporate development person joining us at the holding company level. His name is Aaron, and we're really excited about Aaron joining.
00:01:53:15 - 00:02:17:06
Chris Fredericks
And corporate development is a part of our our business that we don't use that phrase all the time when we talk about it, but it's really kind of like the acquisitions and mergers and M&A efforts of what we do, and which is a big part of what we do in corporate development is, you know, an area that we've been kind of tag teaming as a group, and no one person has been really focused on it for a little while.
00:02:17:08 - 00:02:35:22
Chris Fredericks
And we're really, really excited that Aaron is going to be, you know, focused on that and, you know, going to be kind of relieving some of us of some of the day to day work, but also, you know, really broadening the scope of our efforts in that, in that realm. So it's big news and exciting for all of us at the Holdco team.
00:02:35:24 - 00:02:44:17
Casey Grisez
Yeah. So out of curiosity, why now? It's obviously something that, you know, pursuing acquisitions is something we've done. It's it's our model. Right. So why now?
00:02:44:23 - 00:03:11:06
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. Great question. And it's been there, as you said, since the beginning of kind of a core to what we do. And we feel like we're pretty good at it still learning and growing in that area. But right now we're seeing a lot of, potential to increase our efforts to find go direct, you know, to talk to business owners directly, build more relationships, and really think, you know, build a pipeline of opportunities for the long term.
00:03:11:08 - 00:03:41:02
Chris Fredericks
So far, we've found success, you know, with acquiring businesses largely going through kind of the broker and the banker network, which means, you know, companies that have decided to hire someone to facilitate the process of selling their business. And that's worked well for us. But we're excited for Aaron to build a lot of relationships directly with business owners, so that over the long term, we're finding the absolute best, you know, opportunities for EV.
00:03:41:04 - 00:03:58:14
Chris Fredericks
And also, you know, we're increasingly interested in businesses that are related to the ones we already have. So maybe, you know, finding more opportunities that could be combined with some of our current companies to make them stronger, make them bigger. So that's another area Aaron's going to be focused on as well.
00:03:58:16 - 00:04:18:09
Casey Grisez
Yeah. So this is not our little, prep sheet here, but here's a little bit of a curveball. So Corp dove isn't you know it's not unique to us. It's the you know, it's a it's a very common role. Yeah. How would you see EV doing kind of corp dove as a function differently.
00:04:18:11 - 00:04:40:10
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. Yeah. And it's kind of like everything we do we really try to take a fresh look at it and not just kind of do it default to how how everybody does it. There's best practices and stuff for sure that we will will adopt and continue to use. But I think our, our approach has been and Aaron's going to I think really thrive in this way.
00:04:40:12 - 00:05:09:18
Chris Fredericks
As well as to, to really be relational, like super duper relational. In the, in the world of corp dev, it can get a little bit technical. And, you know, finance, so to speak, Uber professional, you know, which is is not bad. You know, it's it's fine to be professional. We I think to kind of feel like we're I've used the phrase an island of misfit toys a little bit about our team at the holding company, where we're fun and different.
00:05:09:21 - 00:05:26:18
Chris Fredericks
You know, people, we like to do things our way, and we feel like that resonates, too, with outsiders. Like when we talk to business owners that we're just real people. We're not we're not overly polished in some ways, and Aaron's going to fit right in on that on that front, I think.
00:05:26:20 - 00:05:30:14
Casey Grisez
Yeah. Yeah, he he's polished, but, I think he is.
00:05:30:20 - 00:05:34:06
Chris Fredericks
But and professional but like, he's a real human and. Yeah.
00:05:34:08 - 00:05:45:19
Casey Grisez
And I think that's something we, we talk a lot about at the whole code. I think it's the way we think is, long term over short term. So I, I would venture to guess that's how you know, we'll view the corp to function as well.
00:05:45:21 - 00:05:47:20
Chris Fredericks
Absolutely. Yeah. Good plan.
00:05:47:22 - 00:06:06:07
Casey Grisez
Yeah. Another is shifting gears a little bit, another announcement that just recently went out is, EV is gone self-funded for health care. Yeah. So curious who to dig in. What does that mean? And maybe, maybe more importantly, kind of day to day, year to year. What's that mean for three years? Yeah.
00:06:06:09 - 00:06:31:22
Chris Fredericks
It's exciting. This is a change we've been kind of anticipating and building towards for a few years. Going self-funded, what that means is we're no longer, in the, in the true insurance kind of sense of how health care typically works, where you just pay a premium as a business and as an employee, and you know that that kind of caps your, your, your downside on a, from a cost perspective.
00:06:31:22 - 00:06:52:07
Chris Fredericks
But also there's no, you know, benefit to you if you're if you're effective, more effective with your use of the, of the product. So going self-funded means we are paying our own claims now. And that means we have the benefit if we do well and also take on a little bit more risk. But it's capped. Our risk is still capped.
00:06:52:09 - 00:07:16:22
Chris Fredericks
There's definitely another layer of insurance in place that essentially prevents it from going out of control from a spend perspective. So that's that's kind of how the mechanics of it, but it creates a lot of benefits for us. By being and self-funded, we're just able to be more in the driver's seat. Ultimately, we can pick and choose our partners a little more carefully.
00:07:16:24 - 00:07:57:03
Chris Fredericks
Make sure ultimately we're delivering, you know, best options to our input for our employee owners. So they they're truly empowered to have great care at reasonable cost. That's kind of the goal. It's definitely not just, a cost management goal. It's really, a holistic goal to, you know, try to make an impact in an area that's difficult for all, all Americans, honestly, like health care is one of those runaway cost areas where there's a lot of challenges and we can't fix all those challenges because we are, you know, we're we're part of the general, you know, environment system as well.
00:07:57:03 - 00:08:24:05
Chris Fredericks
But this is one way we can really, create a, the, the potential to influence our health care and our, the way we approach benefits long term. With there will be a lot more on this topic coming. I know in a future episode with Kim, our, our, our air leader and, sure, she'll explain this a lot better than I can.
00:08:24:07 - 00:08:35:12
Chris Fredericks
But we just want to share that this is really exciting. And if anyone has any questions about it that they want to share that we might cover in the episode with Kim, I would we would love to hear those questions.
00:08:35:12 - 00:08:44:09
Casey Grisez
Yes, absolutely. Reach out to us and and yeah, we can make that as an Army style to wear. Yep. Collect collect some questions. And yeah, we love what what are people curious about.
00:08:44:13 - 00:08:45:19
Chris Fredericks
Yeah absolutely.
00:08:45:21 - 00:09:07:01
Casey Grisez
But but I do think what's thanks what's interesting to me is how much this feels like it aligns with kind of our broader, yeah. You know, ownership mentality that that we talk a lot about that in day to day roles. I mean that's just it's part of employee ownership right? It's taking ownership over what you're doing day to day, voicing opinions, voicing ways to make things better.
00:09:07:03 - 00:09:25:06
Casey Grisez
And for this to be something that, you know, we as an organization and then we're asking, I think, even as individuals to really take, take ownership of, of their health. It seems like a really versus the other model was will join will pay in and kind of whatever happens happens. Yeah. This feels like it aligns better.
00:09:25:08 - 00:09:41:22
Chris Fredericks
Absolutely. I totally agree. It's it's another step in our, the way we, you know, support our employee owners to, hopefully, you know, feel feel better and stronger and more informed and, and have better outcomes in their personal health journey as well.
00:09:41:24 - 00:09:58:15
Casey Grisez
Yeah. Yeah. This feels like it's unintentionally turning into the theme of the episode. But you know, another it's a long term it's a long term play, right? I don't I don't think, we're expecting anything, you know, overnight. Any changes. But this could be a long term. The savings could be long term. The mindset shift could be long term.
00:09:58:15 - 00:10:02:02
Casey Grisez
And there's just a lot baked in that. It's with that long term lens.
00:10:02:04 - 00:10:03:07
Chris Fredericks
Absolutely.
00:10:03:09 - 00:10:16:17
Casey Grisez
Yeah. Well, speaking of I guess we'll shift gears once again financially. So we're three quarters through the year almost to the end of, fiscal year 2026. How are we looking? How's the you're looking so far?
00:10:16:22 - 00:10:38:02
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. And a reminder to everyone March is the end of our fiscal year. So yeah, when we say fiscal 26, we're we mean March. And yeah, we're having a solid year. Revenue is actually pretty good. So far, you know, ten months out. And at this point, I think we could finish close to our budget on revenue, which is, which is really great.
00:10:38:04 - 00:10:59:10
Chris Fredericks
Bottom line profitability is solid, but we're looking probably at falling a little short of our budget, again, solidly profitable, which is great. There's cost pressures and other things that all of our companies are dealing with and some some market challenges. And really proud of our businesses for persevering and and dealing with those and doing their best to manage those.
00:10:59:10 - 00:11:22:03
Chris Fredericks
So we're not the only ones kind of having this story. You know, we hear through through our networks and and stuff that, you know, the past 12 to 18 months have continued to be challenging from managing costs and, you know, inflation and all those types of things. The tariffs that happened last year, you know, certainly, had an impact on, on our businesses in different ways.
00:11:22:05 - 00:11:41:16
Chris Fredericks
So really proud of our team for just continuing to to chop wood, so to speak, and, you know, drive performance. But profits aren't going to quite get to budget. Unless we just have a blowout last couple of months here, which, you know, may we know, you never know. But, so hope everyone just keeps pushing through through the end of the fiscal year.
00:11:41:16 - 00:11:46:06
Chris Fredericks
But just so everyone knows, yeah, we're having a really solid year.
00:11:46:08 - 00:12:07:24
Casey Grisez
Yeah, I just mentioned a couple of them. But just curious just to talk about it, because I'm sure everybody listen to this kind of a feel for, for their businesses. One what the, the what pressures are that they're facing? I mean, I guess any any more thoughts on, you know, yeah. So the weather specifically to one, 1 or 2 OP goes at that, you know, what they're facing.
00:12:07:24 - 00:12:14:21
Casey Grisez
Or more broadly, I mean, they mentioned tariffs. You mentioned interest rates, inflation. You know, those kind of things. And you're hitting.
00:12:14:21 - 00:12:37:07
Chris Fredericks
On the main ones. Yeah. And you know, there's some more market specific things that each of our businesses deal with. You know, one of our businesses is heavy and RV and marine. And that's continued to still be a little bit slower the the last couple of years. But the the they actually have, you know, that business is actually performing quite well from a revenue perspective.
00:12:37:09 - 00:13:00:18
Chris Fredericks
But you know, tariffs and interest rates and stuff is definitely having, an impact on profitability. Across the board, I would say, and one way that manifests is just the ultra competitive, you know, environment, everybody competition in all of our businesses is very high pricing pressures, you know, are there to kind of just to compete and maintain business.
00:13:00:24 - 00:13:12:05
Chris Fredericks
So it's it's typical business challenge stuff. Honestly. It's not it's nothing special or unique to us. But you know, it's it's definitely been felt this year. Those pressures.
00:13:12:07 - 00:13:19:05
Casey Grisez
So what I'm hearing is, is it would be a good thing if, everyone listening to this goes out and buys an RV? Yeah. That's great.
00:13:19:07 - 00:13:21:10
Chris Fredericks
You know?
00:13:21:12 - 00:13:38:13
Casey Grisez
Okay. So what what are your thoughts? So, so going forward and again, I think through this lens of, you know, what kind of the ownership mindset, what we can control, you know, long term lens. What what kind of things should we. And I mean, as the collective, we, you know, kind of all ev ears, what should we be thinking about?
00:13:38:13 - 00:13:44:24
Casey Grisez
How to how to help? Yeah. You know, our our individual opcoes and then EV as a whole, especially when, when we're thinking financially.
00:13:45:04 - 00:14:13:11
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. I mean, I think it's and we'll talk more about this later. But just that, that ownership mindset of, viewing your day to day work as, as essential, you know, to the performance of the business because it is and finding any and every small improvement, big improvement are are great too. But, you know, small, small improvements to how we work and, you know, finding ways to, you know, save a little bit here or there is definitely important.
00:14:13:17 - 00:14:54:15
Chris Fredericks
The other big one that, everyone has a role in, even if it doesn't feel directly like you do all the time. But growth, you know, we're that's the name of the game for us at this point, growing our businesses from a revenue perspective, adding new customers, supporting our existing customers and adding more, share with our existing customers, just really everyone rowing in that direction and seeking for us to grow revenue, in our businesses is going to be the number one way that we can actually, you know, increase profits and ultimately increase share price by creating value, you know, for all of our businesses.
00:14:54:15 - 00:15:13:17
Chris Fredericks
So I just would encourage everyone to view themselves as part of our, our sales and our customer service teams, because ultimately, that's the customers, you know, is how we're going to, servicing our customers well and adding new customers is how we're going to see, you know, outsized success going forward.
00:15:13:19 - 00:15:30:04
Casey Grisez
Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned a couple that kind of this the sales staff, customer support. Yeah. Also think about it. If you're, you know, out on the floor, you know what, what can you do that your work is quicker, is better, is, you know, and again, I think a lot of it comes down to that, that ownership mindset, I guess.
00:15:30:04 - 00:15:41:22
Casey Grisez
And anything else in your mind for someone who's sitting there thinking like, well, there was there's nothing I can do, you know, I'm not sales, I'm not customer service. You know what? What? How can I influence growth with me? Thoughts there.
00:15:41:23 - 00:16:08:07
Chris Fredericks
Yeah, yeah. I mean, like you said, finding finding the improvements and stuff here and there, but fundamentally being, you know, everyone being reliable and consistent in their role. So you know, if, if the goal is to 100 you know, parts output on, on, on a particular day, hitting that 100 parts so that the business knows, like when we make a commitment to a customer, we know we're going to be able to fulfill that commitment.
00:16:08:08 - 00:16:34:00
Chris Fredericks
That's that's the the secret sauce of, of growing companies is they can make promises, you know, to new customers and existing customers because they know operationally we're we're able to reliably fulfill those promises. The worst thing you know, to do when trying to grow is to make promises that you can't fulfill, because now you've you've harmed your, you know, your brand, so to speak, you know, with customers.
00:16:34:00 - 00:16:49:03
Chris Fredericks
And so everybody is so essential to that reliability. You know, being a reliable business is is ultimately what, customers count on, you know, when it comes to, you know, giving us more opportunities and more work.
00:16:49:05 - 00:17:04:19
Casey Grisez
Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like, if it was Bill Belichick or Nick Saban, it was, it was one of those two wildly successful football coaches. And their big thing I think was Nick Saban. But the big thing was do your job. Yeah. You know and you think about that in a team right. You know the quarterback and the receivers.
00:17:04:19 - 00:17:24:22
Casey Grisez
And you know those scoring the points get get the attention. But you know you have breakdowns on special teams at breakdowns in the lines. You know the people that we really usually don't know their names watching. You know we just came off the Super Bowl about a week ago that not many people are going to know the, the offensive linemen for, for, you know, the teams, but without them doing their jobs, team's not going to succeed.
00:17:24:24 - 00:17:46:03
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. I love the phrase be a star in your role. You know, every single role can someone can be a star in that role. And if everybody is a star in their role, that's like the ultimate high performing team. So, you know, and I think we we're lucky we have so many people who already feel this way about the work they do.
00:17:46:05 - 00:18:05:21
Chris Fredericks
It's it's fundamental to what has made us who we are as an enterprise. And, so it's just encouraging everyone to continue to have that mindset. And, and it's a contagious mindset too. You know, if if five out of, you know, six people have that mindset on a team, that six person's eventually going to kind of come around as well.
00:18:05:21 - 00:18:12:22
Chris Fredericks
So, yeah, it's fun. It's fun to be part of a group where people take this kind of thinking seriously.
00:18:12:24 - 00:18:20:02
Casey Grisez
Yeah, yeah. And it's, you know, I think.
00:18:20:04 - 00:18:28:21
Casey Grisez
The hard part is going, talking to those in the opcoes and seeing the great work that they do, and it's like, well, it's I'm just doing my job, you know what? And it's nothing special.
00:18:29:00 - 00:18:32:12
Chris Fredericks
They don't. Yeah. They don't think that they're doing anything special. Yes.
00:18:32:17 - 00:18:37:06
Casey Grisez
But it's it is really cool to see there are so many of those star players.
00:18:37:11 - 00:18:37:24
Chris Fredericks
100%.
00:18:37:24 - 00:18:47:08
Casey Grisez
Of star stars in their roles. Again, they might not be getting the headlines, but stars in what they do that, yeah, they're they're a huge part of of the engine. Yeah.
00:18:47:10 - 00:19:07:14
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. Along those lines. And this is I know skipping ahead a little in our, in our planned format here on our notes. But you know, we're really, really hoping going forward to highlight those more of those kind of things. And I know that's a big part of what you think about day to day. Casey. You know, we talk about ownership in action.
00:19:07:16 - 00:19:28:23
Chris Fredericks
And this is what we're talking about is like when people are kind of exhibiting this kind of, star in the role mentality and going above and beyond, but but not necessarily in a way that, you know, has to be spectacular. It's it's really fun to highlight those stories of someone, you know, being a star in their role.
00:19:28:23 - 00:19:37:00
Chris Fredericks
So is that something you want to like? What? How do you think about that and what what do you want to see and hear from people on on things like that?
00:19:37:02 - 00:19:38:23
Casey Grisez
Yes. All right.
00:19:39:03 - 00:19:41:12
Chris Fredericks
All of it. You would like to hear more? Yeah.
00:19:41:12 - 00:20:13:18
Casey Grisez
Yeah, yeah, I think I, I'm not really too particular at this point. Again, I think it's a matter of, you know, someone went the extra mile and whatever, sent something to a customer, to his or, you know, sent whatever a card or flowers or something, you know? Right. Those little things, it's it's, and we I know we have a few stories of that, but the operational improvements, you know, either in the warehouse or on the production floor, at any time, I think, you know, again, we've we've talked about it, the newsletter and, and we've talked about it in other places, but moments.
00:20:13:18 - 00:20:42:08
Casey Grisez
Right. Those, those little, those, those seemingly small things that when you're working on it, it's like this just made my my day, my job, this process, that product, it made it better. And it could be, you know, you hear a lot about, you know, one get 1% better, like 1% better is a lot. But if it makes things point 1% better, that again over time with that long term lens, those things are game changers.
00:20:42:08 - 00:20:44:09
Chris Fredericks
Yeah, I really add so yeah.
00:20:44:09 - 00:21:14:05
Casey Grisez
So sort of talk about those, you know, the marketing. I don't need to be the one. I would love to hear more of them. But even if you just start talking about it in your business, talk to the people around you. That's a huge first step. I yeah, just just to get this culture of we celebrate. We celebrate the wins, regardless of if it's landing a new million dollar customer or this small operational thing that's going to save us, you know, 100 bucks a month or something to make a process easier or save someone's back a little bit.
00:21:14:07 - 00:21:15:02
Casey Grisez
Yes. Huge.
00:21:15:04 - 00:21:23:13
Chris Fredericks
Yeah, I love it. The moment is really what we would love for people to just be on the lookout for. That's the that's the exciting thing to celebrate. Absolutely. Yeah.
00:21:23:15 - 00:21:39:18
Casey Grisez
Yeah, we've talked about it internally. I think it's one of those, you know, you get you get, you get a new car. That's all you see is that car driving around. I think it's the same thing that those moments as, as we start talking about the more and celebrating, the more I think a lot of people are going to start realizing, oh, there's there is a lot of really cool stuff happening every day.
00:21:39:21 - 00:21:41:09
Casey Grisez
Yeah. In the businesses.
00:21:41:11 - 00:21:42:20
Chris Fredericks
Yeah, absolutely.
00:21:42:22 - 00:21:58:24
Casey Grisez
Yeah. Well, actually, perfect Segway here. Just talking about, you know, some wins across the organization. I think, you know, again, we have joked up front and it's been a quiet six months. It's absolutely not been a quiet six months. There's been a lot going on. So, yeah. We I love for you to, to kind of walk through, some of these wins.
00:21:59:05 - 00:22:28:03
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. And a real quick hitter, since there's so many wins in our companies that we could celebrate and mentioned so many we don't even probably know about as well. But just kind of 1 or 2 per company we thought we'd highlight. So with any brothers, our most recent acquisition recently celebrated their their one year anniversary with EV, and just generally, it's been really fun to see, you know, people, embracing and come, you know, the ownership mindset is already very clearly taking root there.
00:22:28:05 - 00:22:57:09
Chris Fredericks
The excitement I think so that's that's been really awesome to see. TVF are our first business that really, you know, is the keystone of what has turned into empowered ventures. You know, recently has had just a really impressive and exciting streak from a hiring perspective, bringing in people with great expertise and experience. And TV's always been, you know, great at, always having new people and having a great balance between new and experience.
00:22:57:11 - 00:23:18:00
Chris Fredericks
And that's continued, especially with this really recent strong streak that's been especially focused on supply chain. So really want to celebrate that. And welcome to all those new people, to TVF Paramount, our business in the RV and marine space, as well as specialty vehicles has launched, a really awesome new website. And I would encourage every it's go, go check it out.
00:23:18:00 - 00:23:40:11
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. Paramount plastic sitcom. Really great. It really showcases the work they do. There's some videos of the actual, you know, thermoforming vacuum, thermoforming process that they use, and it's just need to everyone can really see like the actual product right there on the front page. So it's it's awesome. And and kudos to them for that banner.
00:23:40:11 - 00:24:04:22
Chris Fredericks
Our plumbing Hvac business has done a great job hiring as well over the last 12 months. Finding people is always one of the biggest challenges for any business. And especially in the plumbing Hvac space generally that some competitors have very competitive. Yeah. Business done a great job and recently done a great job adding in their custom sheet metal kind of fabrication component of their business.
00:24:04:22 - 00:24:25:14
Chris Fredericks
So, that's really exciting potential for them. What they've added, their first star is really been focused on on adding new customers and growth, like a lot of our companies are, but they've really doubled down on that effort in the last year with some account based marketing efforts, which is a really great technique for trying to add new customers.
00:24:25:16 - 00:24:47:22
Chris Fredericks
And in particular, they've made some inroads with 1 or 2 really good potential customers in and a key industry kind of space that they've wanted to grow in. So that's been awesome to see. And so yeah, that's just a real quick hitter of a few things we want to celebrate. And it doesn't, you know, mention at all all the kind of day to day, you know, smaller wins that you and I were talking about before.
00:24:47:22 - 00:24:53:10
Chris Fredericks
But but these are more headline things that that I think are, are awesome and worth celebrating.
00:24:53:12 - 00:25:16:12
Casey Grisez
Yeah, yeah. And quick plug that a lot of these, are in the monthly newsletter whether it's. Yeah, the one we send internally to each ears or the we have one that we send out externally, then we also post a LinkedIn. So, it's been really fun and some months challenging to keep up with. And how do you, how do you keep the newsletter brief and readable when there's when there's so much going on?
00:25:16:14 - 00:25:35:08
Casey Grisez
Yeah. So but I'd say it's a great challenge and I'd love to love it to be more of a challenge. So so again, as we're going through kind of day to day, I love to hear more love. Yeah. Because to talk about it more and, and you know, really share said all of the headline or not all of the great things go on.
00:25:35:08 - 00:25:58:24
Casey Grisez
Yeah. So, yeah, I think a lot is and we've talked in the past as ownership and action, you know, ownership mentality kind of touched on a little bit earlier. But a lot of these fit into that. And yeah. So I guess I'd be curious to, to you know, one redefines that. I think we talked about potentially maybe the last time we did this when you when you kind of first, you know, introduced the ownership action framework.
00:25:59:01 - 00:26:06:09
Casey Grisez
So maybe just to give it a quick read definition, but then just give your thoughts on what these mindsets are and how you see a play now.
00:26:06:13 - 00:26:26:01
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. Thanks. And it's just maybe as a quick refresher and reminder for folks because like you said, we've started talking about it this way over the last half year or so, but it's really like, back to your point about, you know, once you have a certain car, like you start to see that car everywhere. This is our attempt to say, what does ownership in action look like?
00:26:26:01 - 00:26:48:17
Chris Fredericks
What is it when and when folks have that ownership mentality? What are the kind of patterns to that and what we've what we've landed on at this point is that there's kind of four particular mindsets growth mindset, innovation and improvement. A service mentality or mindset and and enjoyment. And I think, you know, growth meaning the start going through them really quickly.
00:26:48:22 - 00:27:15:09
Chris Fredericks
Growth to me is like a personal growth mentality. You know, I think we we see in our businesses and in our team at the Holdco, just a desire to improve like personal improvement. But also that translates to business growth. As individuals grow, businesses can grow. And that's something I think gets lost sometimes is that that revenue growth ultimately comes from individuals finding improvements for themselves and for their business.
00:27:15:09 - 00:27:47:15
Chris Fredericks
So just really believing in personal growth as a as a mindset, as a key, you know, thing to that we like to we're excited to celebrate from an ownership and action perspective. Related to that is the innovation and improvement that the business itself can, can ultimately have. And so, you know, whether it's a new product, a whole new, you know, market to tackle that, like, hey, wow, we could actually service that market because of the skill set we've developed and any number of other things that, you know, could fall under that innovation and improvement mindset.
00:27:47:15 - 00:28:14:16
Chris Fredericks
That's that's key service, I think is super powerful from an ownership mentality perspective, bringing a sense of customer service to your work, even if you aren't directly interacting with customers. Because we all have somebody we're in service of, you know, for a lot of of our team members that the people we serve are others in our organization. And how well we do our work enables them to do their work better.
00:28:14:22 - 00:28:37:20
Chris Fredericks
So viewing your your role as customer service, no matter what you're doing is actually a really powerful way to kind of embody what it means to be an employee owner. And then the last one, which I think is just as important as the rest, is enjoyment. And it doesn't mean every moment you love the work you're doing, like, we all have some amount of monotony and, you know, tediousness in our work.
00:28:37:24 - 00:29:11:17
Chris Fredericks
That's why it's called work and not fun. But, you know, finding your way to enjoying generally enjoying what you're doing, taking pride in it, recognizing the importance of it, and bringing the spirit of enjoyment to it can really uplift, you know, the culture and the experience that you and your fellow employee owners have. I think it's just obviously more fun to go to work when everybody's smiling and finding the enjoyment in it versus, you know, just completely stuck in kind of a drudgery mindset.
00:29:11:19 - 00:29:35:07
Chris Fredericks
And that's really a choice. And I know that that doesn't always feel like a choice, but I do think the art, when we see the people who most embody ownership mindset, inevitably they're smiling and laughing at work. And I think that's that's a really powerful thing to know. And it doesn't mean if you're not enjoying that, you're you're you know, I think there's a hey, it's a it's a question to ask.
00:29:35:07 - 00:29:50:18
Chris Fredericks
Like what what needs what could need to change for me to kind of find this mindset. And it's not I think that's just a it's a really powerful thing to ask yourself and something we want to encourage our team members to support each other in.
00:29:50:20 - 00:30:07:21
Casey Grisez
Yeah. And I think, yeah, if we're enjoying that, not every day. You're not going to be smiling and happy every day. But it's the that thing, right. Like, you know, the Sunday scaries and dreading going to work and that kind of so that's that's the type of stuff, you know, that you get on on that day, enjoy to do, to enjoy the people that you're with.
00:30:07:23 - 00:30:37:11
Casey Grisez
But I also think, and, what's powerful, I think, about this framework or these mindsets, and I know we even love a good visual love a good, you know, way of representing this, but, you know, I think when you have a growth mindset, it leads you to want to be innovative and improve things. You then I think there's a want once you've had an input into something, I think you then want to serve it and and serve others and help others.
00:30:37:11 - 00:30:52:17
Casey Grisez
You know, if it's a new process, other people are most likely going to be involved in that process. And then hopefully once you have some say and some input and you're you have some ownership over, over what you're doing, you're going to enjoy it. And that's going to be a big help. Yeah, yeah. If you're doing it you're going to keep on to grow.
00:30:52:21 - 00:30:54:14
Casey Grisez
You know there's there's a said Casey.
00:30:54:14 - 00:30:58:07
Chris Fredericks
That's a nice little spiral pattern. You've, you've identified there you.
00:30:58:09 - 00:31:01:10
Casey Grisez
We should put it on paper.
00:31:01:12 - 00:31:26:02
Chris Fredericks
Now it's so true. And that's well, really well, said Casey. And along those lines, something just came to mind for me that has helped me and my personal life, and I think very much relates to all this, which is if you want to be happy, make another person happy. And it doesn't mean ignore your own needs and wants and stuff, but it actually is the most enjoyable thing possible to to do something that makes someone else happy or feel good.
00:31:26:04 - 00:31:35:20
Chris Fredericks
So that gets to that service to enjoyment kind of part of it too. And it's just more fun when everybody kind of brings these, these attitudes to work ultimately.
00:31:35:22 - 00:31:42:18
Casey Grisez
Yeah. Yeah, I agree completely. And I think we have a recent example. Yeah. The service mindset and helping so much talk us through that.
00:31:42:20 - 00:32:02:23
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. I think just one example of what's been, you know, of, of this combination of these mindsets is, are Whitney brothers folks, you know, like, like a lot of companies have had to take a look at it and like, okay, how do we how do we take our I.T infrastructure to the next level? In the modern era, so to speak.
00:32:03:00 - 00:32:41:08
Chris Fredericks
And Scott, the president at Whitney Brothers, ended up, you know, working with reaching out to TVs IT team, Ben Jones and Lisa Pratt, in particular. And they they supported recently supported Whitney brothers Scott and the and and the management team through a significant transformation you know of the IT infrastructure and it was a lot of work. Ben and Lisa went kind of above and beyond, you know, the call of duty, so to speak, and and did so with all these mindsets like, so such a, a service mentality, you could tell they, they really wanted to make an impact for Whitney.
00:32:41:08 - 00:33:04:08
Chris Fredericks
Brothers weren't resenting at all that this sister company, cousin company wanted some help. They that they loved doing it for Whitney brothers and Scott's been super grateful express that so clearly and it's just been neat for me and us at the Holdco level to kind of see it happen. We didn't have to, you know, even encourage too strongly for this to take place.
00:33:04:08 - 00:33:24:15
Chris Fredericks
It was all we did was kind of make the connection. And then it was all of them kind of just leaning in and doing the work and just really need to see. So just want to call that out as one example of one of these ownership and action mindsets to the power of being part of a Holdco with, you know, resources and being able to lean on each other.
00:33:24:15 - 00:33:27:03
Chris Fredericks
It's been a really awesome thing to see.
00:33:27:05 - 00:33:49:16
Casey Grisez
Yeah, yeah. And it's I think it's the beauty of the Holdco structure too, right? Where you have these related but not overlapping businesses. And if you know, it's one of and I can't think of others off the top of my head, but one of other examples where they, they help each other out, in many if not all cases, it's, it's not like, yeah, to your point, we're not we're not forcing anything.
00:33:49:16 - 00:33:53:15
Casey Grisez
We're not pushing anyone on anybody. But hey, if they can help each other, you might as well.
00:33:53:18 - 00:34:16:15
Chris Fredericks
We've actually seen it a lot. You know, all of our companies kind of leaning on each other, getting advice, getting support. We have an example coming up soon, which is our, you know, summit where our employee ownership committees come together, encourage each other, share plan annual plans with each other. Super powerful, you know, meeting that that all of our companies have every year with, with us.
00:34:16:18 - 00:34:29:14
Chris Fredericks
And yeah, it's just really fun to see and feel that support that supportive sense that crosses through these companies even though they're independently managed, as you mentioned. So yes, it's a neat part of our model for sure.
00:34:29:16 - 00:34:35:09
Casey Grisez
Yeah. Small small business is hard. So if you can have have others you're working with it. Yeah. Yeah. That little bit easier.
00:34:35:13 - 00:34:37:21
Chris Fredericks
Absolutely.
00:34:37:23 - 00:35:04:09
Casey Grisez
So I think shifting gears quickly to zooming out a little bit and we talked, before you hit record that neither of us are super well read on any of this. We're we're not subject matter experts on, on Esop policy necessarily, but but just some things that have that have happened recently that I think, you know, I think part of how we both view what we do and what EV does is, is kind of raising the profile of employee ownership more broadly.
00:35:04:11 - 00:35:08:09
Casey Grisez
So I think these, these handful things are worth mentioning. So I may just run through them. If you're good at that.
00:35:08:09 - 00:35:08:22
Chris Fredericks
That'd be great.
00:35:08:24 - 00:35:47:08
Casey Grisez
It's like one, the Secretary of Labor who is, is very pro Esop was confirmed with a 6732 bipartisan support, which this may come as a shock to a lot of people listening, but we're in a bit of a politically charged environment. So so to see, you know, I think to see any secretary of anything confirmed to 67, 32 is, is a really cool sign of, of support for it and for it to have someone in there who is so supportive of, of Esops, come on, a related note, there's federal legislation advancing, including one bill that actually creates in the Department of Labor, an office, an advocate for employee ownership.
00:35:47:10 - 00:36:10:17
Casey Grisez
So, again, kind of at that federal level, which is an important piece of employee ownership right there. There's a big role. Yeah. But there's also federal support for that is nothing but good. Yeah. For for kind of employee ownership as a whole. Yep. Zooming in a little bit I thought this one was really cool. So Oregon is creating procurement preferences where state agencies can give preference to employee owned companies.
00:36:10:19 - 00:36:31:04
Casey Grisez
So those companies in this gets down to, you know, bidding and state financing projects in that whole world. That is terrifying and fortunately foreign to me. But I don't in a lot of case, it comes down to who's the lowest bidder. Yeah, but in Oregon, it's now employee owned. Companies can win state contracts even if they're 5% higher than the competition.
00:36:31:04 - 00:36:52:13
Casey Grisez
And it's up to 10% for in-state production. Wow. So yeah, if you're an in-state business in Oregon, you can still Wednesday contracts. Even if so, you know, I would imagine there probably is no national and international competitors coming in for some of these, some of these contracts that in the past they may have one of them. But now, you know, to, to support employee owners and employee ownership.
00:36:52:15 - 00:37:08:19
Casey Grisez
So Oregon's past this that they you can still win state contracts, which I think is really cool. Yeah. So so you're starting to see, you know, activism not just at the federal level and, and movement, not just at the federal level, but also at stake. So there are other, other states. I think California is one of them, maybe Colorado.
00:37:08:21 - 00:37:18:06
Casey Grisez
There are a few other states that are looking at very similar bills. Really, I think if you can kind of get this preferential treatment for employee owned companies, you know, that's only a good thing.
00:37:18:12 - 00:37:20:11
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. That's awesome.
00:37:20:13 - 00:37:41:14
Casey Grisez
Yeah. See, I think it's just feels like this momentum is building. And I know I don't have the stats off the top of my head, but that the number of esops has been fairly stable in the US for for a number of years, you know, so I'm hoping that these types of this type of, you know, support from a government perspective is going to help grow that.
00:37:41:14 - 00:38:00:16
Casey Grisez
Now it's again, it's it's partially on us in the EO world to, you know, expand awareness. But when there's also those incentives in place that's only helpful. So it's kind of that feeling of we believe we're part of something bigger. And that's all the opcoes as the whole go, there's there's something bigger happening here. And it's it's exciting to be a part of it.
00:38:00:18 - 00:38:22:10
Chris Fredericks
Yeah, that's really well said. And that's that I think two takeaways for me that I would hope are folks, readers would, would know is, you know, one, you're, you know, there is a there is a positive momentum politically, you know, going on for employee ownership. So, you know, it's one of the few things that consistently has true bipartisan support.
00:38:22:12 - 00:38:42:13
Chris Fredericks
And that's a really good thing. There could be a point at some point in the future. And we've done this in the past where we're actually asking our employee owners to write letters and send stuff to senators and representatives. We don't do that very much. But if there's ever like a really consequential piece of legislation that's related to employee ownership, they may hear from us and say, hey, here's how you do it.
00:38:42:13 - 00:39:13:09
Chris Fredericks
We've and here's what we would encourage you to say. Because having that support does really make a difference for folks that don't know we're an S Corp Esop, which means we are deferred from an income tax perspective, very technical finance thing, but we don't pay income, federal income taxes as a business. It's deferred to until, you know, ultimately when people take their distributions and and they end up taking it out of a tax advantaged account, that's when the taxes get paid.
00:39:13:11 - 00:39:43:09
Chris Fredericks
And that's a huge advantage to us as a business and helps us create, you know, the compound effects of, of wealth, and our share price and stuff. So it's a big deal. And so it's good that we have the support. And yeah, to your point, I think, you know, that they just know that like the employee ownership thing is, is supported by all these different states and that there's this effort to make sure that employee ownership gets isn't disadvantaged in like procurement and stuff.
00:39:43:09 - 00:39:46:24
Chris Fredericks
That's also happening as well. So it's a good thing.
00:39:47:01 - 00:40:13:16
Casey Grisez
Yeah. Yeah. I think it's it's it's cool to be a part of and, and I think, you know, a kudos and I don't, I don't want to list them out off the top of my head because I'm sure I'll forget some. But there are multiple national organizations that, you know, they're there, for the advocacy and the lobbying, you know, to, to raise awareness of, to push for, for policy that is, you know, pro Esop.
00:40:13:18 - 00:40:17:06
Casey Grisez
So I think, you know, giving, lots of kudos to all of them.
00:40:17:10 - 00:40:19:11
Chris Fredericks
Yeah for sure.
00:40:19:13 - 00:40:38:07
Casey Grisez
So. Well, I think we're at the end of our official, list of things to cover, and we're only 44 minutes in. So, so nice, nice brief episode for everybody, but, yeah, this this is fun. And it's it's always really cool. So there's, you know, even on a small team, I don't always know everything happening everywhere.
00:40:38:07 - 00:40:49:24
Casey Grisez
And there are things you don't know yet, so it's it's just cool to catch up in here kind of in one block. You know what? Six months or more of, you know, head down work. What else is going on around us? So, just as fun.
00:40:50:01 - 00:41:10:13
Chris Fredericks
Yeah, really grateful for everyone for tuning in and grateful for everyone's hard work and dedication to to what they're doing. If there's one thing I would ask of everybody is if you find our our podcast are, you know, useful and interesting, just I would encourage you to mention it to other. This is one of our favorite ways, honestly to kind of stay connected with everybody.
00:41:10:13 - 00:41:35:14
Chris Fredericks
And it would be great if, if more of our viewers would tune in, YouTube and any podcast, you know, player of their choice, it's available there. So for a lot of folks may not know that YouTube is like an easy way to kind of follow along and watch and listen to these. So I really would encourage, you know, those who are already enjoying this or getting anything out of it to just mention it to others.
00:41:35:14 - 00:41:37:18
Chris Fredericks
It would be really helpful.
00:41:37:20 - 00:41:41:09
Casey Grisez
Yeah, yeah. And we're not offended if you listen while you're like doing the dishes or driving home or.
00:41:41:09 - 00:41:48:03
Chris Fredericks
Something, that's actually great. That's preferential. I'd love to just be in your ear while you're doing something, being productive at home. That'd be.
00:41:48:06 - 00:41:50:10
Casey Grisez
Absolutely.
00:41:50:12 - 00:42:02:10
Chris Fredericks
Well, thanks, Casey. Grateful to you for all your hard work on on, all the these efforts to get our, you know, share our story. And thanks for coming on this episode of Empowered Owners.
00:42:02:12 - 00:42:03:15
Casey Grisez
Always happy to Chris. It was fun.