IAQradio
Show Number: 711 Draft Blog
Josh Miller, CR, CFE
A "Fireside Chat with the President of Rainbow Restoration"
From the Trenches to the Boardroom
Good Day and welcome to the IAQ Radio+ Blog. This week we welcomed Josh Miller, President of Rainbow Restoration to discuss his journey from the Trenches to the Boardroom. Josh shared his story of the challenges and obstacles overcome to his ascension to the Presidency of Rainbow.
Josh is one of the property restoration industry's rising young leaders who ascended from working in the cleaning and restoration trenches to the President of one of the industry's most prominent brands serving the restoration sector.
Josh has been a technician, project manager and industry instructor, and served as an association volunteer in a leadership role attaining advanced designations in restoration certification. Josh holds his CR, WLS, CMP, CLS, ERS, and FLS certifications and is a Triple Master Restorer.
Nuggets mined from today’s episode:
What was your first job in the cleaning and restoration industry and when was your first promotion? In 1996, Josh went to work for his ex-father-in-law as a carpet cleaner water damage technician. He learned the skills through on-the-job-training delivered by his father-in-law. The first IICRC course he attended was Odor Control Technician. He was promoted by his father-in-law upward into an office role as estimator in 2001; where he learned construction estimating.
What lessons learned from OJT and training courses you’ve attended have made you a better instructor?
Make it simple and understandable by 12 year olds.
Visual aids, on the screen or hands-on-demos.
Be encouraging. “I believe in you.”
Build camaraderie. “We are going to get through this together.”
Repeat information.
Be observant. When students seem fearful of asking questions, approach them privately to ensure they are learning.
Be patient.
Has Rainbow found any successful strategies for attracting service personnel? Rainbow founder Don Dwyer, Sr believed in continuous recruiting.
A Value System helps in attracting people with similar values.
If you are looking for a carpet cleaning technician the pond you are fishing in is small, try fishing for the generic employee qualities you seek in a bigger pond.
Rainbow is one of nineteen services under the Neighborly brand.
Neighborly is the world’s largest home service brand.
Neighborly uses an applicant tracking system powered by Artificial Intelligence. The tracking system is integrated with employee recruiting sites Indeed.com and GlassDoor.com.
Young potential employees are impatient, employers who respond the fastest to schedule an interview often gain an advantage in hiring.
How does Neighborly foster upward mobility for employees? First have a company people want to work for. Jack White is the reason that Josh is at Rainbow. Jack laid out a plan, he told Josh that he believed that Josh had the skills to take over Jack’s role upon his retirement. Upward mobility within a franchise depends on how big each franchisee wants to grow the business. With 19 business options to choose from, it’s not uncommon for employees of Neighborly franchise businesses to aspire to purchase their own franchises. Corporate headquarters also offers employment opportunities. There are always opportunities in Neighborly!
Upward Mobility VS Importance of patience? Josh learned from Mary Thomson, Neighborly COO the importance of patience. Promoting too quickly can ruin career trajectory.
Is leadership an innate talent? Josh describes himself as originally a high D (Dominance) on the DISC Assessment, or militaristic as Josh called it. Over the course of his career, Josh’s D decreased some and his I (Influencing) increased.
Josh keeps his old personality assessments in a binder and reviews them periodically. D and I are 2 of the 4 quadrants on the DISC Assessment.
DISC assessments are behavioral self-assessment tools based on psychologist William Moulton Marston's DISC emotional and behavioral theory, first published in 1928. Wikipedia
• D – Dominance: Relates to control, power and assertiveness. A person who ranks highly in dominance places emphasis on accomplishing results and is often confident, outspoken, assertive and decisive.
• I – Influence: Relates to social situations and communication. A person who ranks highly in this quadrant is often skilled at influencing or persuading others and tends to be optimistic, open, enthusiastic, trusting and energetic.
• S – Steadiness: Relates to patience, persistence and thoughtfulness. A person who ranks highly in steadiness places emphasis on cooperation, sincerity and dependability and tends to have calm, deliberate dispositions.
• C – Conscientiousness: Relates to structure and organization. A person who ranks highly in this quadrant places emphasis on quality and accuracy and tends to enjoy their independence and be detail-oriented. Source Indeed.com
DISC Assessments can be a valuable tool for interviewing, hiring, and interpersonal relations.
Josh’s leadership style has changed over the years. Josh credits Mary Thomson with showing him the importance of patience, Chuck Violand showing him the importance of influencing. Steve Yzerman demonstrating leading by example. Josh recently read Wisdom of the Bullfrog, by Admiral William McRaven
Josh hired his weakness as his #2, builds vision, sets goals, hires talent and only steps in when needed.
How much notice did you have that you were being promoted to President of Rainbow and how did you prepare for the role? When Josh learned of the upcoming vacancy at the helm of Rainbow, Josh told Mary Thomson that he would like to be interviewed for the position. Mary felt that Josh wasn’t quite ready. When the interviewing team decided none of the other applicants “had the right stuff”; Mary recommended Josh for the job. Josh had 2 weeks to prepare. He said that while its lonely at the top in some firms, at Neighborly its not lonely at all; because he has 18 other presidents who share a culture of humility.
Where do you see the restoration industry going? Consolidation by private equity. KKR now owns Neighborly. Private equity firms invest for only one reason—return on investment. The disaster restoration industry is maturing and becoming more sophisticated. The American Dream of starting a business and controlling your destiny is changing. It is no longer the one-on-one restorer and adjuster relationship business it once was. It’s increasingly harder for independent restoration firms to succeed. Most of the successful ones have been gobbled up by big players and networks.
What does the term mentor mean to you? Someone that cares about you, believes in you more than you believe in yourself, sees things in you, walks beside you, lifts you up, and challenges you. Jack White is a mentor. Jake White taught Josh to draw people out by asking more questions than necessary. During conversations, don’t assume where people want to go. People need to know that you believe in them.
Carey Fairless was another of Josh’s mentors. He advised asking people to explain their thought process? Is it in the best interest of the franchisee and the franchisor? Coach and correct by saying mistakes are OK. When Josh was considering leaving Rainbow to accept a job with a large restoration company, Carey asked Josh, “are you running toward something or running from something?” After some introspection, Josh realized that he was running from something and decided to stay with Rainbow.
How do you determine the value system of job applicants? Through open ended questioning. Examples: “Tell me about a time when you knew doing the right thing wouldn’t be profitable, what did you do?” “What is the hardest thing you ever had to do, and why?” “What are you most proud of and why?” “What is the biggest mistake you’ve ever made and why?” “How have your values changed?” “How has your worldview changed?”
What is the Neighborly Code of Values? Living Rich. [Respect, Integrity, Customer Focus, Having Fun in the Process.
https://www.neighborlybrands.com/about- ... of-values/ ]
RoundUp
Pete Consigli Restoration Industry Global Watchdog
• Josh met Pete at a WLS course hosted by Aramsco. Josh had earned his CR and CMP. On Day 1 of the course, Josh was sitting in the back of the room and smiling. Josh told Pete that he could teach the class. Pete felt that Josh was cocky and that Josh’s statement that he could teach the class was something that Pete might say himself.
• Stephen Covey’s Principle Centered Leadership-
TEACHING (IS HEARD)
MENTORING (IS FELT)
MODELING (IS SEEN)
• Dina Dwyer Owens was the keynote speaker at an RIA Convention- Pete’s takeaway from her presentation was: hire your weakness, your direct opposite.
• Pete wanted to know what happened behind the curtain that resulted in the RIA Board of Directors creating the Pete Consigli Scholarship, which Josh presented to Pete in Orlando in 2021. Josh served on the RIA Board of Directors from 2016-2020. A decision was made to shrink the board from 18 directors to 12. While Josh never met Marty King; he was inspired by RIA trainers Ken Larsen, Norris Gearhart, and Loren McIntyre. Josh served as RIA education chair for 4 years. Josh felt that both history and legacy were important and recommended that something be done to honor Pete. Josh credited Mark Springer (Education Chair) for getting it done.
Cliff “Z-Man” Zlotnik- There is a proliferation of many new electronic gadgets, software programs, estimating tools, sensors, recordkeeping, monitors; is the purpose of these to do a better job and help the client or hold restorers more accountable? In the past, restorers would encounter adjusters on almost every job.
Part of the blame falls onto restorers who provided poor documentation, overcharged for things, and were alarmist.
Now with tools such as Matterport, 360° Image, Auto Measure, CoreLogic, Encircle, and AI.
Mickey Lee advises to: “Speak to the project, do what needs to done without getting crazy.” Josh wishes that there was less software as Rainbow operates in multiple countries.
Josh agrees that technology is being weaponized against restorers.
Josh advises to “do what’s right and communicate”.
“Radio Joe” Hughes- What are the biggest challenges facing the industry and do you have any solutions or recommendations?
Fragmentation and the need for consolidation.
Adversarial relationships with insurance companies.
Building career paths.
Is restoration being viewed as a trade?
RIA’s tagline is Educate-Advocate-Elevate.
RIA’s AGA (Advocacy and Government Affairs) Committee is slowly building momentum.
How do we get more people to attend RIA events? There is nothing like attending an RIA event and humbly asking people you meet for help. Volunteer to serve on RIA committees.
There’s RIA, IICRC and new groups popping up all the time. It’s cheap to build online groups, with no financial investment and little investment of time.
Dream, believe in your dream.
Find a mentor.
Z-Man signing off
TRIVIA Question
Name the book written by the founder of Rainbow Internatiuonal Don Dwyer Sr?
Answer: Dyeing to be rich
Answered by: Don Weekes, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
