21. Robin Todd: Journey of a leader
EPISODE 21
In this episode of "Figure Eight," Julie converses with Robin, a successful entrepreneur in the plumbing wholesale industry. Robin shares her journey from joining her father's business to purchasing and growing it to over $140 million in revenue. They discuss the challenges Robin faced, her lessons in financial management, and the importance of effective communication and leadership. Robin's story offers valuable insights and inspiration for women entrepreneurs, emphasizing resilience, strategic thinking, and the significance of a supportive team.
Catch the Conversation
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In 1982 Rob's Dad was upset that she had bailed on university. He told her she could work for his plumbing wholesale company for one year and would then be going back to school. After being there for thirteen years Dad sold Rob his business. Scared sh!tless, she relied on the same techniques she used in high school, figure out who the smart people are and hang out then them. In 2021 with the tumult of COVID receding, sales at $146 million, and record profits, Rob sold the company.
Click here to check out the Business Robin ran.
Additionally connect with Robin through her email: robintodd62@gmail.com
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Julie and Robin discuss...
Robin's Journey Begins (00:01:21)
Robin shares how she joined her father's plumbing business after leaving university.
Learning Financial Management (00:05:02)
Importance of understanding finances as a key lesson in entrepreneurship.
Tony Robbins' Philosophy (00:08:17)
Robin shares insights from Tony Robbins about maintaining goals while adjusting strategies. Robin emphasizes the importance of gradual change to avoid overwhelming the team.
Investing in Leadership (00:13:06)
Robin discusses the significance of leadership training for personal and team growth.
Team Dynamics and Challenges (00:20:58)
Robin shares how attending strategic coaching shaped her ambitious goals for the business.
Types of Entrepreneurs (00:22:29)
Robin describes two types of entrepreneurs: those focused on ideas and those focused on execution.
Strategic Pricing Program (00:25:19)
Robin discusses implementing a pricing program to optimize profit margins.Decision to Sell the Business (00:29:40)
Robin shares her thought process leading up to the decision to sell her company.
Post-Sale Transition (00:34:40)
Robin reflects on her leadership style and the legacy she left behind. Robin shares how her team stepped up following her exit. -
Julie 00:00:04 Welcome to Figure Eight, where we feature inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs who have grown their businesses to seven and eight figures revenue. If you are in the mix of growing a bigger business, these stories are for you. Join us as we explore where the tough spots are, how to overcome them, and how to prepare yourself for the next portion of the climb. I'm your host, Julie Ellis. I'm an author, entrepreneur, and a growth in leadership coach who co-founded, grew, and exited an eight-figure business. This led me to exploring why some women achieve great things. And that led to my book, Big Gorgeous Goals. Let's explore the systems, processes, and people that help us grow our businesses to new heights. If you're interested in growing your business, this podcast will help. Now let's get going. Hello and welcome to this episode of Figure Eight. Today I am joined by Robin Todd. And in the 1980s, Robin’s dad was upset when she bailed on university and so her dad told her she could come and work for his plumbing wholesale business for one year.
Julie 00:01:21 And 13 years later, he sold her the business and she built it into something amazing and has her own exit story to tell. And I am very excited to talk with you today. Welcome to the podcast, Robin
Robin 00:01:36 Thank you, Julie. Excited to be here.
Julie 00:01:38 Yeah. So you were the I think it's a bit of a classic entrepreneurial story in terms of, you know, you weren't fitting into kind of the traditional education path and so decided to try something else. And yes, I can understand why your parents maybe don't have been too happy about that.
Robin 00:01:58 Yeah. No, not very happy about that. All their girls were supposed to go to university.
Julie 00:02:03 Right. I mean, I feel like that was sort of like the baby boomer generation's promise to their kids, right? Like that. You know, they had accumulated this wealth and they wanted their kids to do better than they did, right?
Robin 00:02:15 Yeah, absolutely. And back then, I mean, I don't have kids, so I don't know.
Robin 00:02:20 But back then it was sort of a golden ticket.
Julie 00:02:23 And so you sort of took the golden ticket and said, and then what happened? You went and joined your dad's business and obviously you stayed.
Robin 00:02:33 Yeah. I, I, loved it from day one. He threw me into accounts payable and I was just eating it up. I just, I realized I loved working for a living. it had some odd jobs. I sort of got, you know, I left the house after graduating from grade 13 back in the day, and, I had some odd jobs and sort of starve to death. well, sorry, that's a bit dramatic. but I definitely, had trouble making ends meet. I was buying grapefruit for for a dollar and not paying my rent and things like that, and then, Yeah, I came home, and so I graduated in June or whatever. And I came home in January and said to mom and dad, you know, it's not working. I can't do it. And, that was a great lesson.
Robin 00:03:24 I mean, it was tough love, but I mean gentle, tough love. Let's be honest. You always have a I always had a nest to come back to, and, Yeah. And then he said I, you know, come into the office tomorrow for an interview and, so, yeah, I was so, you know, I was just lost and got a job, and he threw me in there, and I loved it. I loved I look, you know, as I said, from the first week I was working over through my lunches, you know, whatever.
Julie 00:03:50 So you would have moved through a lot of roles and seen all the aspects in the different corners of the company. As you moved through that 13 years before you bought the business from him?
Robin 00:04:03 Yeah, I did buy I, I always, you know, I look back and I, and I used to tell people the only things I didn't do at Mark supply were outside sales and truck driving. Other than that, you know, computers inside sales, you know, branch supervisor, warehouse it, you know, but I, I ended my career, working for my dad in the role of controller, and he was very proud to give me that role.
Robin 00:04:33 And he the great thing was, you know, we all have strengths and weaknesses. One of my weaknesses or non strengths is, attention to detail. And so being, you know, sort of in charge of all the accounting and bank reconciliations and the like, it was a huge and payroll huge. Great lesson. the lesson being, if you don't, you can do all the business you want. But if you don't pay attention to the numbers and understand what they mean.
Julie 00:05:02 Yes. I think it's a great lesson as an entrepreneur because I think that, you know, not being detailed people is often the case. And even if you are a detailed person, like the finances can feel intimidating, but it's also this huge like risk point for if you don't get it right in terms of knowing the numbers, having the right oversight, all of those pieces, you know, you're always at risk of somebody taking advantage of you.
Robin 00:05:28 Absolutely. You know what you say. There's rings. So true. And I remember my dad.
Robin 00:05:34 You know, it's funny, we have these lessons taught to us in one sentence or so and they stick with us forever. And one of my dads was, whoever has control of your money has control of your life. So that message was about, okay, where is the money? Right? Is it? Do you have a huge bank loan. Well, you know, then they're going to have control of your life, your business. Do you, do you have customers that owe you a ton of money? well, guess what? If the money's sitting in their hands and you can't pay your bills, you're in trouble. So, yeah, you gotta understand. You have to pay attention. Because people, you know, entrepreneurs like to have fun and great ideas and see things grow. But growing sales does not mean growing profit. so I and I, there was a time when I said, okay, I want to take this company to 100 million. And I spent a number of years growing the top line and reducing the bottom line.
Robin 00:06:28 So I always say, if you want to sell more and make less, just come to me. I'm a pro. I have the answer to that one.
Julie 00:06:35 There you go. Hahaha. It is so funny though, because there is a point where it makes sense that that happens as you grow, that the profit diminishes, but you've got to find the way then of bringing the profit back up after you kind of stabilize into the growth pattern.
Robin 00:06:52 Yeah, that's spending for growth in people, equipment, whatever has to produce. Right. Like it's it's not like you're doing it as an investment, not as a, as a anchor.
Julie 00:07:06 Yeah, yeah. And that can feel scary too. Especially when especially when you're, you know, you're up in the you're in twenty million and forty million and you know, like that investment and the amount of spend is not small.
Robin 00:07:18 No, no. And I always say the other one of my lines is it always costs twice as much and takes twice as long as you think it was going to.
Robin 00:07:26 Right. Oh, we're going to spend 100 grand and we're going to grow our sales 10% in the next year. Well, let's start doubling those projections, because you're going to spend more than that and take longer than that.
Julie 00:07:38 Yes. Well, and I mean, that's always the interesting part about projections is you never you never hit them. Not exactly as you plan to. Right. You overshoot them, you undershoot them. You. You know, there's always an adjustment that has to be made. And the course of trying to get there.
Robin 00:07:55 Exactly. Tony Robbins, who I've gone to almost all his courses and at first I didn't like Tony Robbins. I like what he had to say, but I didn't like the way he delivered his message. And then friends went for a weekend. And so I ended up going and spent going to all these programs. But he used to say, the goal is the goal. If that's really what you want, that's the goal. Don't change the goal, just change.
Robin 00:08:17 If it's not working, change how you're getting there. You know if you're heading left and it's not working, try right. If you're heading right and then try up, try, try like try something else. But these you know, I used to have sometimes people working for me that would come in month four of a year and say she's we're not going to make it. We should adjust our numbers. And I'm like, we're not adjusting anything. The target remains the target. It's up to us to adjust our approach. Right. Change things until you figure out what works.
Julie 00:08:47 Yeah, I think that makes sense in so many ways that that's where you have to get creative. Well, and and often there's that whole school of thought of, you know, if you want 1X something, then you're going to probably try to do all of these incremental things to go there. But if you decide you're going to ten x something, you need to reinvent yourself. You need to look at like completely different ways of making that revenue.
Julie 00:09:14 And sometimes those are the mindsets we need to put on. Right is how do how are we going to do this differently? Like how are we going to lever ourselves upward? Because I would think that, you know, when the business when you bought the business versus, you know, when you exited the business and it was over that 100 million mark, like those are different businesses.
Robin 00:09:33 Yeah. I bought the business from my dad at 8 million, sold it. The sales were coming in over 140 million, which is great, great numbers. Excited, you know, took 25 years or whatever. you know, I, I'm a disciple of Dan Sullivan's, and his big program is, you know, ten x based. And, I brought that mindset to my company, but I chunked it down because, you know, even going to your leaders and saying we're going to double the size of this business can be mind boggling. And I'm not saying double it in a year, of course. So we did bring the ten X program into my company, but I picked spots for it.
Robin 00:10:14 Like let's say we took on the cooler line. And in the first year I'm just going to throw out stupid numbers because I don't remember them. But let's say we did $1 million of color. Then I'd say, okay, our next target is 10 million. But what I said is I'm going to let it be cumulative, meaning we don't have to do 10,000,000 in 1 year. Someday, hopefully. Of course we will. So next year, you know, how far can we get? Can we get to two and a half. Can we get to five? Right. But that and bonus accordingly. So, you know, we even had logos ten x cola and, you know, had shirts and hats. And the whole goal was to get the team focused on ideas about and talking about how do we ten x this cooler number. Of course, if it took ten years to get to 10 million, you didn't do anything. You were still selling a million a year. So the goal.
Julie 00:11:02 So that's the yeah, if you do it in three and you go, yeah, you know, one and three and six or something, then great.
Julie 00:11:08 But yeah.
Robin 00:11:09 It's right. Like yeah. So yeah. And that was my way of because sometimes an entrepreneur can come into their business and blow their people's minds to the point where people get scared and turtle or run. So, you know, you have to all these philosophies are awesome. And these business coaches and thought mentors and I love them. But at the end of the day, it's your business. You got to walk in there and figure out how you're going to manage it, bring it in and make it happen and have it be exciting. Not to, you know.
Julie 00:11:41 And yeah. And it makes me think about two things. What you're saying, like so one, 25 years of overnight success, right? I mean, that's always the you know, people are amazed at over 140 million in revenue, like, wow. But yes, 25 years. On the other hand, though, that is still remarkable growth levels year over year over year over the course of 25 years to grow the business to that level.
Robin 00:12:06 Yeah. And I was fortunate I had a you know, my big thing is and I've said this many times, is it was to do what I did in high school, which is to figure out who the smart people are and hang out with them. Right? Yeah. the other, you know, challenge sometimes business owners have is they think they have the answers to everything and aren't prepared to, you know, ask like, I'm not a logistics expert. So I have nine locations, you know, 26 trucks or whatever. I'm, you know, why am I coming up with all the answers as far as that? No, I hire the expert, and I and I pay them well and ask them to implement their ideas, support them where I can, and then we all have to cry when things don't go as planned, but then pull up your pants and keep going. Start again.
Julie 00:12:51 Yeah. So how do you feel? Like. I mean, you've talked to me before about investing in your own leadership and what it was like on the journey as the business grow, grew, and how you needed to grow to be able to stay up on that.
Julie 00:13:06 What was that like for you? Because I think it was deliberate that you knew you wanted to improve.
Robin 00:13:13 Yeah, absolutely. So that was really where, where I think for me as a business owner, I had my fun. Right? I went out and, you know, Tony Robbins, Dan Sullivan, I, I went to Dan Sullivan's program, like for over 20 years. I found it, I think, a financial guy, because he used to do a lot of people that, of course, were financial people. And my financial guy came and said, oh, there's this guy named Dan Sullivan in Toronto and Chicago, and he, says, if you stay, you know, the sort of the claim to fame is if you stay in this program for three years, you doubled the size of your business and double your days off. And, you know, we all love a challenge. So the other thing was, I, you know, I one of I think a really important thing to do is admit, you know, what you don't know.
Robin 00:13:58 And one of my challenges was I grew up inside my dad's company. I didn't have experiences of talking to other business people in the like. And so I joined strategic coach. All entrepreneurs go to that program. He doesn't he won't teach anyone. That's not, you know, self paid, if you know what I mean. Whether you're a 100% or commission sales rep or the like. And so that was a lot of fun. Taught me a lot of techniques and ideas. and then, yeah, I just found like going to industry events and they can be a downer because we were in the plumbing and wholesale business, which is not the sexiest thing in the world. There can be a lot of good old mom and pops in there, which are awesome. So I love being able to talk to other business owners and say, hey, what are you doing? You know, with customers that are trying to pay by credit card when that whole thing came out or what are you doing in this situation? Loved picking the brains of others.
Robin 00:14:55 And I laugh, especially Americans, because they they'll share anything, which is you're not a direct competitor, right? So I'm just this sweet little Canadian girl and they'll tell you anything. But still, no matter where you're getting your information ideas from, at the end of the day, it's you that makes a decision, right? So so, you know, you can get a great piece of advice and ignore it, and you can get a horrible piece of advice and implement it, but then you're going to be the one to say, that didn't work. Let's try something else. So I loved it. And I also realized at some point and we just talked about this briefly, that, wow, you know, as my business grows, My job goes from, you know, doing things to being a leader. And so I invested hugely in leadership training for years. I had a leadership coach, and I had that coach also be the coach of my direct reports so that we could strengthen our relationships, and be honest with each other without breaking the relationship.
Julie 00:15:55 Right? Yes. And that's so important. Like you said, you've got this big vision for how you want to grow the company, and you have to communicate that vision in a way that doesn't frighten people off. Right. And so I think that's where yeah, having that leadership coaching for the group of people can really help everybody to be on that same page and to think, you know, to to understand how their each person's thinking and what they're bringing to the table.
Robin 00:16:27 Yeah. Dan Sullivan's one of his things was, what's your three biggest moneymaking activities. And I said having strong good relationships with my key employees, my key customers and my key suppliers because those are the triumphant that makes this thing happen. And really, I spent 90% of my time on my employees, on my leadership team and the leadership team below them because I figured if we just get it right at the top things, good things will happen down below. It's just and it it's an everyday challenge slash opportunity.
Julie 00:17:03 Right? I think that's a really great mindset too, because it means that you trust in your leadership team to continue to cascade that down the company.
Julie 00:17:16 In terms of the team that got built, the culture that was there, all of those pieces coming out of that top table.
Robin 00:17:23 Yeah, and I talked with them and was sort of like I had, you know, I would send weekly messages out to the whole company through our interim message system. I do videos, I'd go to the branches and have open conversation with the teams in the various locations. So when I bought the company, we had just opened our third location and when I sold it, we had nine locations and two and three showrooms. But that communication is so important and you know, when things are going wrong, get out there in front of your team and take it on the chin and say, yeah, this is not good. And none of us are happy right now, but here's what we got to do to fix it. And I need your help. Right. I think, too many, you know, sometimes owners, especially when things are going wrong, sort of hide in their office where the answer is The last place to be when something's going wrong.
Julie 00:18:13 I agree with that 100%. I think it's interesting too though, because, I mean your journey started as, I mean at sort of that 8 million in revenue. You weren't quite an owner operator, but you would have had a lot more visibility to all the levels and all the people and all the things that were happening. And, and so that transition for you as well at that you're talking about now of you really focused on sort of the people at that leadership level that reported to you. And, and that's also showing that understanding of like, you couldn't see into all the weeds of everything at that point and that size and scale.
Robin 00:18:54 Know and, you know, people say, oh, Robin, you're so transparent. I'm like, well, I don't know if it's transparent, but I just want the truth. Right. And so, you know, it didn't work well for a leader if they were trying to hide something. and don't get me wrong, I didn't see everything.
Robin 00:19:10 I mean, I'm sure I was, like, talking. And some truck driver on branch number seven was saying, well, that's not how it happens in our location, you know, sort of thing. I'm sure those things happened. but the thing was, at some point. You know you can't hide too many things. And the other thing is, if I ever found out you were hiding a thing that is hiding something in your area of responsibility, then that hugely breaks trust with our relationship and with the rest of the executive team and management team. Because someone knows, right? So so don't try. And, you know, as a as the president of American Standard used to say, well, if that's the tree you're going to hide behind, that's an awful skinny tree, right? Like, come on guys, you know, I.
Julie 00:19:58 Can see you. Yeah.
Robin 00:19:59 Like let's just be honest here and say oops, you know, is this a problem we're going to fix or just admit, right.
Julie 00:20:04 Yeah. And I think it's interesting like that. You articulate that in some ways because in, in a lot of ways it's how business should be. But I think it isn't.
Robin 00:20:17 Always it's painfully honest. Dan Sullivan quote all progress begins with the truth, right?
Julie 00:20:24 Yes. It's true. That is true. Yeah. Yeah. And so you have now sold the business about almost three years ago or around three years ago now.
Robin 00:20:37 And three years ago last week, I guess it was.
Julie 00:20:39 Oh my gosh. Okay, so we're on like the third birthday here of you. And so I mean, I can't imagine when you bought this business from your dad that he or you could have ever imagined you could do with it what you did. I mean, that is just an incredible journey. Yeah.
Robin 00:20:58 So fortunate. I mean, not a smooth journey, but exciting nonetheless. Nonetheless. And great people and great mistakes and bad people. I held on too long, too long, and. But that was my job is to figure out who the team is that's going to take this to the objectives and then, you know, help them along the way or carve them out of the herd if I have to.
Robin 00:21:21 So and you know, my dad. You know, my sisters would say, you said to me, and many people have your dad would be so proud of you, which is really nice to hear. he he told me he was proud of me before he passed away, which was nice. but I but I agree, I don't think he or I imagined that it would get to where it got, and I probably wouldn't have had those objectives to get to 100. My number was 100 million. a significant profit at 100 million. and, I wouldn't have had those if I hadn't been going to things like the strategic coach. Which gets you thinking, thinking, thinking. I think a lot of business owners are sort of looking at their shoes, looking at their current.
Julie 00:22:03 Yeah. The heads down. Yeah. Worrying about the day to day problems instead of the head up. Thinking about the longer term big picture future.
Robin 00:22:12 Yeah, absolutely. And you got to connect the two right. You can't just be head in the clouds.
Robin 00:22:17 You have to realize what's going on on a day to day business. But you got to gotta. Okay, here's where I want to go. What are the steps? And the steps might go left. And I thought they were going to go right. And. But you got to be thinking.
Julie 00:22:29 Yeah. And it's where like it's where I think there are two. I'm sure there are more shades of this, but there are two kinds of entrepreneurs. There's the person whose head is in the clouds and needs to work more on their attention to the steps and the appreciation of that. And then there are people who could could stand and look at their shoes all day because they're seeing all the steps. They're not always seeing the like idea, idea, idea, piece coming in.
Robin 00:22:57 Yeah. And and again, I want to remind your listeners, I ran a very boring old company and a boring old business which is plumbing distribution, selling toilets, selling furnaces, selling air conditioner. We weren't like, you know, we're going to be a unicorn, you know? Right.
Julie 00:23:15 Just. No, but that's it's.
Robin 00:23:18 Fun to watch those things happen. But I can't. I can't even conceive of having to make that how to make that happen?
Julie 00:23:23 Right. Yes. But I think, on the other hand, there's just something about, like, you had this great business in this sort of innocuous place that people wouldn't necessarily think of, and you were able to do amazing things in terms of how how you grew it.
Robin 00:23:41 Yeah, a really quiet old business, lots of competition. you know, commodity business. We also have the same copper pipe. We all sell a toilet, whether it's, you know, coal or American, whoever's. So you know, the goal is to figure out how to get people to buy it from you. And that's where, you know. All right. We used to spend a lot of time with our sales reps. We'd say, yeah, of course they can buy it anywhere. And yeah, if you just want to sell for the lowest price, I would say, well, why do we need you? We can just let them buy, you know, get a, an automated answering system saying, what do you want to pay.
Robin 00:24:16 Right. Yeah. So it's a lot of work. And the the other thing I spent, and my team spent a lot of time on was figuring out how to find efficiencies. I think you and I talked about this previously, but some people, you know, want to sell a dollar. And no matter what falls out the bottom, sell more one dollars and and you'll make more money. Mine was how efficiently can we sell a dollar? How much of that can we keep at the bottom? And it wasn't through, you know, cost cutting. Whatever it was, it was through. And it sounds like a euphemism, but it's through efficiency. So we bought a a program that looked at our pricing and figured out where, you know, if customer A buys 5000 of these widgets a year, he's going to want a great price for it. But that doesn't mean that great price needs to go to customer peak Z, who buy four of them a year. The challenge and the mindset of your people who are answering the phone is they know that that thing sells for a dollar to the big client, and no one should want to pay more than the dollar, so they'll tend to quote them a dollar.
Robin 00:25:19 So we bought a program called Strategic Strategic Pricing Associates I think is the name of the company. And it would we download all our system pricing and twice a year I think it was. And then it would re suggest it would suggest new pricing, you know, which was impossible to do by hand. Right.
Julie 00:25:42 Yes.
Robin 00:25:43 There's no way. Yeah. And then we'd sneak in candidly non value known pricing. So if a customer bought this three times a year and didn't really pay attention to it. Yeah. He, he would pay $3 instead of a dollar. And all those nickels and dimes just come plunking down to the bottom, right.
Julie 00:26:01 Yeah. Yeah. There was some special project or whatever the case.
Robin 00:26:05 Yeah. So efficient pricing and then knowing where your money's made. So the other thing is we, there's a book for and I don't know, it was for distributors, but I'm sure it would work in other businesses called Islands of Profit in a sea of red ink, and again, going to a, strategic coach and bumping into another distributor there from California and him telling me about this book, I mean, changed my company's life.
Robin 00:26:30 And really, what it does is allow you to evaluate who your most profitable customers are. And again, these are words that Canadians don't like to share with their client base and their employees because they'll, you know, they don't like to know that. No one does, I guess. But but yeah, figuring out where your money is made and then making sure you put your resources towards it, the first reaction you have when you see the analysis is, oh, I gotta cut all these customers because they're costing us money. Not realistic because they're actually paying, you know, keeping you have 26 trucks and like things and why you have nine locations. But he's the, the the and I think his name is Michael Burns. I'm not sure if that's Jonathan Burns I think is actually is going and protecting your your key clients, the ones that are the most money. You know, we used to use the analogy, you've got to empty wheelbarrow and people are filling with money as you go along the year and then or your customer base and then some customers are taking out of your, your wheelbarrow.
Robin 00:27:32 so your key is to make sure those people that are putting in your wheelbarrow are well looked after, because if they step aside and look at a competitor and start buying there, you just got a big punch in the face. So. Right. And it was.
Julie 00:27:45 Just got a lot lighter.
Robin 00:27:46 Yeah. Instead of saying, you know, cruises for everybody, we could say we're going to take customer A, B, C and allow them to take them and their, their family, you know, reward them with a personal vacation or go babysit their kids or whatever it is. I'm just giving examples, but that we're not saying we did these things, but you treat them like gold and you protect them because they're the ones you don't want your competitors talking to, and they're the ones that you can, you know, on basically the way they buy is why they're profitable. And then you you can afford to be competitive with them on pricing.
Julie 00:28:18 So interesting. Yeah. And that makes sense. Yeah.
Julie 00:28:21 Right. But isn't it amazing how when you like I think that's part of putting yourself out there is you get these little gems and I'm sure you read, you know, 11 other books that people recommend it as well, but that you just find that one that is so changing to how you view things.
Robin 00:28:39 Absolutely. And I remember holding it up in an executive meeting saying, guys, this book is going to change our lives. And it did. Now the key is to do something with it, not nothing, because it can be overwhelming and not to try and go to the university level of it. Let's just start at grade one, right? What's the first, most simple thing we can do here? Right. Instead of trying to, you know, blow your people's brains up?
Julie 00:29:03 Yeah. And the idea of not everything in this book might work for us, but there are many things that will. And so we're slowly going to work our way through the ones that we think are our best opportunities.
Robin 00:29:14 Absolutely. Yeah. That's that's a great point, Julie, because not everything in the book would work. Right. And and let me tell you, the things we did do got pushed back just already. Right. Because it's very difficult to, you know, turn your team from left to right or, you know, even by degrees.
Julie 00:29:32 So and so now, as you came to the sale, did you make a plan to sell and exit at that time?
Robin 00:29:40 I did, you know, it's funny. well, it's funny. I don't know if the word is funny, but I had always, you know, we had one of the elements of competition our business was that competitors would spread rumors that that my company was for sale, or it had been sold or whatever. They, you know, to disrupt or dis or to confuse or distract my team. Right? Yeah.
Julie 00:30:04 and and your customers.
Robin 00:30:06 Yes. And my customers. Right. And then, you know what happens if someone's scared or thinking that, then they jump ship because they're always getting offers from competitors, right? So I kept saying, guys, you know, this company isn't for sale.
Robin 00:30:18 I'm not selling this business. Well, then Covid arrived and that, you know, I don't know if you call. We talked about it, but people thought they were going to die and there was a lot of pandemonium. And so I had to step really in very strongly as a leader again, because I also thought I could go bankrupt if they stopped, if they shut down business. Right, we could go bankrupt, I should say, because it would affect everyone at that company.
Julie 00:30:43 And you didn't have a business. You could pivot to being virtual. I mean, you have a business with things and warehouses and orders to be packed and picked up and, you know, all of those pieces. So it wasn't like you could just flip everybody over. And that was easy.
Robin 00:30:59 No, a lot of work. so and, you know, they were the team was excited when we were considered essential and got to stay open because we supply plumbing and track equipment. But I was like, well, that's great, but that's not really how we make our money.
Robin 00:31:12 You know, with a guy coming in for a new toilet seat. So, so yeah, I really had to step in as a leader. And, you know, again, I mean, I always was a leader, but it was, you know, a lot of communication. Honestly, I have to I'm usually a very collaborative leader now. I had to start commanding a bit because even my direct reports were, you know, coming up with ideas or getting feedback from customers and, and employees about things that I did not want to happen in my business. So we would discuss it. But then I was much more stepping forward and saying, this is what we're doing. and then so it was quite tiresome. I, I'm married to a beautiful woman who lives in California. So we see I would visit her every six weeks to two months and, now no travel. So I didn't get to see my partner. Maybe I saw her for about 13 days in 18 months. So that was challenging.
Robin 00:32:10 I mean, you want to accept it, but not to the point where you can just accept it. And then what are you married for? Right. So that was challenging. And then I just thought, you know, gosh, everyone's got the jitters. If I was a developer, I think I just put a hold on everything right now for all future development, which made me think, well, there could be a recession, maybe in the future. And of course, the government was handing out money like mad. And I thought, well, they're never going to lower capital gains. So it was kind of a mix of all these little messages and ideas and experiences that said to me, I think this might be the time to look for an oh. One big element was because supply and demand finally turned and there was much more demand than supply. We we were making some very nice profits. so I went to my finance guy, Curtis, who has been with me, gosh, Or maybe 30 years now.
Robin 00:33:03 But it was 20, 22 years back then. And I said, Curtis, I think it might be time to sell this business. I know I always said I wouldn't and I never would, but this could be it. and so, yeah, we we went out and looked for, a broker. And I would always encourage people, if you can get a broker to work with you and, and, you know, go and do your search for a broker. And because they're the middlemen and they, they send your messages across the bow to the other team without it becoming personal. I know there's a philosophy that you put two owners in a room and things are going to work out. I've never had that experience personally. I've worked with, you know, tried to buy a lot of companies over the years, and it hasn't worked out because they wanted me to pay for the retirement, not for what their company was worth. But, yeah, it worked out beautifully. I'm very fortunate. And back then there was no travel or anything.
Robin 00:33:56 So we sold it to an American company and we did it all online, all through zoom. They went out and had a videographer take videos of our facilities and do a walkthrough with our, VP of logistics and operations, and but they never set foot in any of our buildings before we sold it.
Julie 00:34:16 That's amazing, really, when you think about it, because they would want to be checking the inventory and confirming things and like all of the pieces that go into that due diligence process, it's pretty, pretty big.
Robin 00:34:29 Yeah, it was a big transaction all online. And so I have to commend everyone on all sides, the lawyers, the accountants and the and the two companies because big project.
Julie 00:34:40 And so what happened to you after that? Did you stay on for a while or did you leave fairly quickly?
Robin 00:34:46 No. It's funny, one of my eye things was, I always said, if I sell this company, I'm going to have to walk away because I can't see anyone else raising my child or managing my child.
Robin 00:34:56 And I also didn't, And I knew because, you know, I'm someone who wants to speak the truth coming out of my mouth that if they ask me to do something I didn't agree with, I could never fake it. Right? So I just part of the deal was, yeah, I announced in the next day I'm done. And I it was great for me. I think it was great for the president, who turned out to be my finance guy who took over. But I, I think I hurt some people's feelings for sure because they were like, oh, you know, we used to everyday or we used to hear from you everyday or, you know, you didn't come and do a farewell tour and whatever. So I think I kind of hurt my team a bit that way. But but I can't take it back now.
Julie 00:35:39 No, no. And I'm sure they missed feeling like your steady hand of leadership after all of that time as well. Right? It is a big time of transition when you when you have an acquisition, and to have you go so quickly would have been shocking for them for sure.
Robin 00:35:54 Yeah, I in my mind I justified it by saying it's good for the new president, who, by the way, had been with the company many years already. It wasn't like they were being handed off to a stranger. The owner was a stranger, but they were in Chicago. But, yeah, I think so. They, they it was kind of. Yeah, it was a big adjustment for them in a very like ripping the Band-Aid off style. Yeah. And it's as I say this, I harkened back to my dad when he sold me the business, walking into the management team, six guys and me and him saying, I've sold the company to Robin. She's now the president and she's now your boss and walking out. So I kind of did that.
Julie 00:36:35 So maybe you are a little like your dad.
Robin 00:36:37 Yeah, well, this is what they say. The reason you have, you know, is because you're you're more likely than not. So.
Julie 00:36:45 That's good. Well, what an amazing company you built.
Julie 00:36:48 And, and amazing opportunity for the team, your leadership team, when you exited to really step up for the new owners as well, even though it may have been a hard time at that moment.
Robin 00:37:00 Yeah, they yeah, it was I mean, the leader, the director reports new the next level down and everyone from there down didn't know. but it was an opportunity for them and they were I mean, let's be candid. Used to it because I as I said, I'm not an expert in your area of responsibility for this business. So your, you know, the quote unquote president of operations, you're the quote unquote president of finance. So you need to, you know, step up and take these responsibilities and take the responsibility for the the failures and the and the victories. And so they were used to that responsibility, and they liked it.
Julie 00:37:39 You hired them as an expert and you treated them as one.
Robin 00:37:41 Yeah, exactly. And they and it was up to them to perform as one.
Robin 00:37:45 I would say one of my biggest weaknesses as a business owner was I was too patient sometimes with my team.
Julie 00:37:51 So yeah, they might not agree.
Robin 00:37:53 They might have said she's very impatient, but sure, I held them up to a standard and I expected them to meet it. but I.
Julie 00:38:00 You gave them the opportunity to meet it as well?
Robin 00:38:02 Yeah. More than once. Right?
Julie 00:38:04 Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, there's I mean, there's certainly a line where, being too patient with someone who isn't performing, reflects on your reputation as the boss. but I think it's also important to give people opportunities and not, you know, you also don't want to be known as the person who fires at the drop of a hat. Right?
Robin 00:38:26 Exactly. It's like anything, a fine balance be bringing, you know, patient and supportive and tough. Right. Like and.
Julie 00:38:33 Yeah. And figuring out how to how to balance those two sides right where it's not you know, and we all have those times.
Julie 00:38:40 We look back and we were like, yep, that should have happened a while ago. Yeah. And you know, you learn from those things and in getting the balance better.
Robin 00:38:49 Yeah for sure.
Julie 00:38:50 Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's so good. And now you can travel to California and spend time with your lovely wife as well. As you said, you do volunteer work and time with friends. So, you're still busy?
Robin 00:39:03 Yeah. You know, I really am enjoying the volunteer work. You know, they always say you have to have a purpose. And I was like, okay, purpose. Purpose. because, you know, you're growing your business. And the purpose for me in my life was to build, such a financial resource to protect the people I love. Right? Whether it's, you know, to take care of them no matter what catastrophe might be. Follow them. so that's great. I ticked that box. Okay. Now what? And so it's just fun. I volunteer at Thrift on Kent and Kitchener, Mennonite organization that sends the money around the world, even, and here in Canada, to take care of people that are having challenges and but, you know, it's just I always gave money when I was working because I didn't think and I didn't make time to volunteer.
Robin 00:39:51 And so I kept saying, I'm going to volunteer when I'm retiring and volunteer and, and the first six months or a year, you're kind of stumbling around. And, you know, I was helping at the soup kitchen and things like that. but to really be able to get out there and volunteer and, and not just talk about it has been joyous. So.
Julie 00:40:10 Oh, that's so good. Good. Well, I look forward to staying in touch with you. I've really enjoyed our conversation and what a great business you built. Congrats.
Robin 00:40:19 What a what a great opportunity for me to just, you know, have fun remembering and sharing stories. And hopefully something meant someone to to someone on the podcast. But to see you, go out there and ask people to share their wisdom and their ideas is is a wonderful opportunity for everyone. Talk with speakers and listeners. So.
Julie 00:40:39 Well, thanks, Robin, for joining me today.
Robin 00:40:41 Okay. You take care, Julie. You too.
Julie 00:40:45 I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
Julie 00:40:47 Please remember to hit subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you won't miss any episodes. Figure Eight isn't just a podcast, it's a way of seeing the big, gorgeous goals of women entrepreneurs coming to life. If you're interested in learning more, you can find my book, Big Gorgeous Goals on Amazon anywhere you might live. For more about my growth and leadership training programs, visit www.Julieellis.ca to see how we might work together. Read my blog or sign up to get your free diagnostic. Are you ready for growth? Once again, that's. www.Julieellis.ca When we work together, we all win. See you again soon for another episode of Figure Eight.