Rebuilding After a Business Partner's Betrayal | Wymond Wong, Twin City Heating and Air #084

Hello everyone. It's Karissa from Shining Light on Minnesota. I am super excited. I have Wymond here from Twin Cities Heating, Air, and guess what? Electric. So many people don't know, but they do electric. He's owner operator and he is amazing. Welcome, Wymond. Thank you, Chris. I'm excited to be here. Yes. I didn't You haven't ever been here before. So, once we're done, we're going to give you a tour, but let's get started. Let's tell everybody, how in the world did you get into the heating and air and then the electric side of things? Oh, that's a really good question. Yes. In all reality, I went to college at first. Well, let me start off. My dad owned a restaurant business. And a lot of people didn't know that he owned a restaurant business either. Yep. I grew up in a restaurant 1960s. He bought a restaurant in Minneapolis. What kind of food was it? It was Chinese food. It was amazing. Yeah, but back in those days, I got to admit, like in the 60s, people didn't know how to eat really good Chinese food. People weren't aware of it, right? Like they even kept using the word orientals, right? Like you can't oriental express andal food, right? But oriental is not a politically correct term anymore. Correct. Yes. But but chowine was the big push that he had. And back in the 60s and 70s that was really exotic, right? Chicken chowine, beef chowine, whatever. Yeah. So, I know you're wondering where this is going to, how I got into healing and air with that, right? So, when he was uh when he did the when he had a cooler breakdown, he uh just kind of called up the the uh um the the mechanic, the refrigeration guy, and he looked over their shoulder and he said, "Okay, that's where the gauge is supposed to be. I can do that." And back then you didn't have to have licenses to work refrigeration. You didn't have to carry the license to actually carry refrigerant. Nowadays you have to cuz it's more regulated. You can go down to Granges and buy your own. He bought gauges. Yeah. Let's just figure it out on our own. Engineer it and do it. Rather than paying 150 bucks for a guy come out every month to fill it up for him, right? I would do it. Right. Yeah. Right. and and the refrigerant is kind of like danger to the ozone layer and that's what they used to talk about, right? And that's why they regulated. But back in the 70s, I remember we'd get to the end of the can and it would have high pressure in there so you can clean the coils with it. So that was back when mercury was safe and all the [laughter] other stuff was safe too, right? Exactly. So you're back there huffing that refrigerants in and it even says on the label can cause cancer nowadays. So Right. Well, so Agent Orange and everything else, too. But hey. [laughter] Yeah, for sure. For sure. Um, and then so what happened was he um I still remember he said, you know, [sighs and gasps] being Asian, I didn't get the best grades. I got B's Mhm. and C's. Like I was like the black sheep of being Asian. And so, [clears throat] so I played baseball back then. So I had a scholarship, not to play baseball or anything. It was just from the Elks Rotary Club to go to college. Okay. And I still remember telling my dad, "I'm taking this to uh I'm taking I'm taking this to college." Yeah. And I'm just going to play ball, right? And party. Do do the college thing. And he first said, "You should do something good with it, like go to a trade school. Maybe learn fixing TVs cuz fixing Curtis Matthysse is back in the 70s. That's big money, right? Absolutely. TVs." But I said, "Nope, Dad. I am going to go to college. I'm going to go make uh I'm going to get myself a degree in architecture or something like that. And he goes I still remember him turning around and going my kid's an idiot in Chinese. Design those I want to design those baseball fields. Dad, come [laughter] on. Exactly. And basically when he said, "My kid's an idiot." I kind of said, "Well, what does he know? He doesn't have a blowp stereo in his car." [laughter] Right. Let's get the booming going. Let's figure this out. Right. Get the party, get the baseball, and have fun. So after that, I failed miserably in college, did too much partying, and then came back home and he kind of said, "Hey, um, I I I'll go to vocational school." And then I ended up going to North Henipin Tech. Nice. Did he teach you anything about how to do the heating and air back in the day since he taught self selftaught himself? No. And in all reality, he really didn't know what he was doing. and he's just trying to figure it out on his own just to keep it going. And it never really nothing really bad happened. It just like you just added refrigerant to it and then it would cool for the next month and a half like adding antifreeze to the car just to keep it going. Exactly. And it would leak out and then we would put more in, leak out. It was like once a month, but that's that I hate to say it. Asians are sometimes cheap in that sense. So, but they keep it going. Like you got to keep it going. Look at Yeah. You do what you do. What position did you play in baseball? I caught. Okay. Yep. I caught and uh which is hard on the knees. Which is hard on the knees. You have to have a good arm to get it to second base. You have to have an arm to get it out there, third or anywhere else. Or you just have to be that kid that's like, I'll take the abuse, whatever. [laughter] Yeah, that's true, too. You played a lot of other sports though, too. I I played football and then I kind of sat on the bench for basketball. Actually got cut by my sophomore year. Okay. So yeah. [laughter] And now you like to watch hockey. I do. I was never a hockey player, but man, I think I wish if I could So my favorite sport probably to play is basketball. Yep. Like out of all the sports, I just feel like there's so much more freedom to it. And I think autonomy, I think that follows in business, too. I like the autonomy of basketball, right? You don't have to always like I still feel like it's a team sport. Yes. But you have a little more freedom to position yourself in different places. Absolutely. And it's all about spacing, right? So yeah, there is some freedom to it more so than baseball or football. Yep. You're really reliant on the team in those. Yes. I feel like hockey is somewhat the same way. I wish I would have played hockey. Yeah. Probably the height didn't help me with basketball. True. True story. Yeah. You're not going to be against, you know, the seven feet tall. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. So yeah. No, I I really I think all that stuff that got put together was what we were made to do today, right? Like all the little lessons I learned going through the process of playing a team sport. Yeah. And you grew up in Minnesota. I did. I did. I got to play baseball at North Henip and that was the highest level I got to but um Yeah. Yeah. It's I mean it's still good to play at that level though. A lot of times people nowadays, they're even done freshman level, they're done at sophomore level because they realize, hey, either I'm going to go pro or I'm going to be done. Yeah. [clears throat] And and they want those goals and they think I'm going to go play at a not even a collegiate level, but I'm going to play for the pros. And that standard is it's so high. It's not not a real standard. And I think too many parents put that pressure on their kids to do that, which is instead of trying multiple different things. Hey, you're going to play one sport and you're going to go pro. Yeah. No. And you were quite the athlete when you were younger. Do you feel like when these kids are like like specializing and they're playing like one sport all year around by the time they're like 12 years old because they're going to get burnt out. Burnt out. But I also think there's more injuries cuz you're not using different muscles. Give your kids the option to do multiple things if they want to like if they want to they have to have a passion of some kind, right? No matter what it is. But find something and do it. Yeah. But multiple things. Yeah. But the crux turns out to be and that's what Dan did. You met Dan and you know by the time he was like 11 years old, you're not going to have a shoulder, you're not going to have a knee, you're going to have, you know, not going to have a back. It's going to be something. Yes. Right. But his quandry was like, if I don't specialize in one sport, I'm going to get way behind and I'll never have a chance to make varsity. Right. That's that's what we've been feeding these kids. But that's why I think it's such a bad thing, if that makes sense. The demands that like now you can play basketball all year round. You play hockey all year around, right? And back then you back in the 80s we didn't do that. You had to play them all. Yeah. Basketball, baseball, football, and you hope that you're going to make the all state all-American team and all of them just because you can. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's really interesting and I think it's changed our mindset. Yes. of our children these days and younger adults right now too, right? They feel like they need that success. They have to do it. They have to do it because everybody else is doing it. And if they don't do it, it's a lot of wear and tear on the body, too, because it's the same movement, same rotation over and over and over again, too. Do you feel like it translates to some of the real world stuff now that we see in the kids? I wouldn't say work ethic cuz I don't think it's a work ethic thing. Yeah. I think it's a mental thing for them. Mindset. Yeah. Yeah. like they have to understand their why more or less right more so than ever. It's more what they want to do and what they're told to do instead of let's try multiple things and let's figure out what works today instead of let's just get on the narrow and stay in your lane, you know, let's figure it out and try something different, you know, let's see, maybe you'll like something else, you know. But yeah, I think that's good though that they can try something else. But I think the mindset has been you should focus. Yep. So, but a lot of times parents aren't a lot of kids these days are not forcing their kids to try things either. Kids are just doing what they do, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's interesting. It's a different world that we live in these days, too. It truly is. It really is. Interesting. And you have a few kids of your own, so you've been through that whole process. Yes. So, you have some kids. Yep. What do you What is your What are your roles with your kids? So, it's it's interesting that you say that. I think we all, you know, they don't come with instruction manuals when they're born, which we wish they did, right? Y but um but um they um they they don't come with instruction manuals and what [snorts] I wish I would have done more is studied yes like the neuroenccoding right like we do in business with our teams right like give them a passion have core values in your house because I think core values are huge they are if [snorts] you know maybe one of your core values is you know we we commit to excellence every day, right? And if they say, "I don't want to clean my room or I don't I I I don't leave my room dirty." Y well, you can look up at the sign and go, "Are we committing to excellence?" I suppose you have to do more layman term, but right at least now, you know, this is the rules we play by in this house. Rules. Yep. Yeah. Yep. So, with my kids, I feel very strongly my relationship with them has been really healthy, but we all have dysfunctions. Yep. I my oldest kid, he's trying to figure it out still. And a lot of them do. And of course, my wife and I divorced the my first wife and I divorced about 15 years ago. No, God, longer than that. 2010 or so. But either way, um, so he was about 14 at the time and I think that plays an impact on things. So it does. And I think also mom is living by herself. So he's living with her right now still. Yep. Um not that it's bad or good. It just is what it is. It's a different situation. Yep. The the middle the the second boy is he's kind of out on his own. He's figuring things out. He went to the military and he's just y doing what he does best. Yep. And uh living his best life, just doing what he does. Yep. And Grace and I've been very blessed. Uh Grace is actually working for the company, my daughter. Y my stepdaughter, she likes it. She would have never thought that in high school, right? Well, nobody does. Like, as a female working in the construction world, who would ever think that you're going to go into construction, right? But construction is different. Like, there's so many different roles as construction. Like, doing what she does, doing what I do, doing what anybody does. You don't think you're going to go in and swing a hammer every day or you don't think you're going to go into heating and air or electric or you don't think you're going to be doing this, you know? It's it's something different. Yeah. Yeah. And it's and her job is business development branding. So she does a great job with it. She does. She's phenomenal. And my son who has been a service tech, he started as like a helper when he was like in high school. He would go out and help with jobs, right? Installs. It's kind of funny cuz that's where I bring back sports sometimes. I coached him in basketball all the way through since he was little. And he um I still remember I always had to tell him you can never play like the coach's son. No, you have to play on your you have to do it at a high level and you can't depend on me. Yeah. You have to I expect more out of you and it's just the way it is and I know it be harder and if you if you don't can't handle that, it's going to be hard. So it translated into the work world later on cuz he was he was in college at the time and he came back to work for a full summer. Mhm. Expectations are always higher. Exactly. But this is the proud dad moment. He ended up like he worked from like May until like August and all of a sudden, you know, he has to go back to college up at UMD. And uh the guy that he was working with as the installer helper cuz he was a helper to the installer. The installer comes into my office and says, "I didn't know Dan was your son. He's like the best helper I've ever had in my whole life, in my whole career." Right. It's like then you're just beaming. You're like, "Oh my god, proud dad moment." There's a little bit like he wouldn't admit I'm his dad though, right? Wait, you're doing great, but what am I missing here? Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So, but in all reality, like you you work with your husband. Yeah. We're really blessed to be able to work with family. I I I look back and yes, did I not like working for my dad's at my dad's restaurant? I hated it. Every moment of it, right? I miss it now cuz I like cooking more than I ever have. [snorts] But I'm just so blessed to be able to have that opportunity to work with family as a It's a family business. I mean, Mark and I are not married, but we live together. We've been together for 10 years. When it's a family business, you go home, you Everybody's like, "How do you work that family, that work life balance?" I'm like, "It's not really a balance." I'm like, "You make it work and you work harder because you treat it." Well, it is it's your own, you know? It's something you live it, you breathe it, it's it's in your blood. It's just what you do, you know? It's one of those things. I got a question for you cuz we all have this, right? Like it doesn't matter if you're have a family business, you take the work home with you always. You have the discussion in the living wherever it is that you may be. Phone's ringing 24/7. So, you know what? I'm practicing more recently with my wife and I got this from Robin Robin uh Johnson from High Road Heating. Y I had her on my podcast and she says this is how they handle their work at home because they work at the shop together. Yep. They have made a rule that they don't talk about work in the house at all. Right. They have to go to the garage. Hey, I need to talk to you in the garage. Then they can talk about work. Yeah. Which is pretty amazing. I find a lot of times we try, but when an installer's calling or if someone's calling for sales, I mean, we typically don't talk to each other about work unless it's something that's really demanding because we both work until late. That's the hard thing. We're once we're home, we're both exhausted. What we do and what he does, it's two different roles and I'm exhausted. I don't even want to talk when I get home. I'm just overt talking, you know? I'm like I'm over it for the day. I don't care if you're my kids. I don't care who you are. I just don't want to talk. I'm I'm wiped out. I'm tired. I just kind of want to make the dinner, do the laundry, do the house stuff, and be done for the day. So, it makes it easier for us. But on the same side, people don't understand. I know what kind of a day he's had. He knows what kind of a day I've had. So we don't have to have that working conversation. We know exactly what happens. So work's already shut off. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Well, my wife doesn't work with me at the shop or in the business, but I feel like and I'm more of a talker cuz sometimes I like to talk just to hear myself talk. Doesn't everybody though, right? Cuz I'm an extrovert. She's probably more of an introvert. Yep. But that's what makes you work. That's what makes the marriage work, right? She's a good listener. I'm a good talker. But I feel like sometimes you drag it too much and it's like I'm like h you have to have other things outside of work. I mean that's why we golf. That's why we do the things that we do. We have outside activities. You always have to have something else. There's always got to be something else. But don't you still kind of go even when you're golf and go, "Hey, you know, I was thinking." No. When we golf, we golf. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Golf, the phones are shut off. Golf, there's no there's no work talk when we're on the golf course. Because golf has always been my thing that even when we're golfing with people that are we're working, we bring out to the golf course for work. We don't talk work. We don't talk work at all. We'll talk work afterwards, but during that, let's just have fun. Let's do what we do and let's talk golf. Wow. I don't know if I can compartmentalize that. Well, yeah. I feel like I'm still thinking like work. I like all of a sudden an idea because if somebody calls or if something happens while you're golfing and you get a bad call or you talk work then your game's gone because if something calls and you get annoyed then you're going to be thinking about that your whole round cuz golf is mental, right? So, if you get a call and someone's annoyed or you get annoyed or you get a call and say, "Hey, someone's missing something." Or you you're sitting there thinking about the film that's missing or you're sitting there thinking about an invoice that you forgot to send out or you're thinking about something a wall that has to be done that you forgot to do and you just want to get off the course to make sure that the wall gets done tomorrow. So, there's a lot of work stuff that you don't want to have when you're on the golf course. So you turn the phone off and just say, "Hey, I'm working. I'm golfing." Yeah. But even if you turn off the phone, I feel like your brain still goes there. No, not at all. Because you're thinking about the little white golf ball that has to go in that hole. Yeah. But that's a long walk up to the next golf ball and you can start thinking about like your swing and stuff, but for some reason [sighs and gasps] I can shut it off just because I've played golf my whole whole life and that's my competitiveness. I'm like, I'm I'm going I'm going to put that in. I'm good. Wow. That's that's impressive cuz even finding myself playing baseball back in the day, you still kind of like went up to the plate or you're behind the plate and you're going, "Huh, God, I wonder if I should get my which I should do today. Should I get my geometry homework done or should I Yeah, I think I think you just happen to do that and you got to stop yourself. Go, you got to get that out of your head. Focus. Focus. Shut the mind off. Hit the ball. Get the next shot done." Like, where is this going? Cuz with golf, you're always thinking about the next shot. like you have to figure out where's the wind going, where's the ball gonna go, things like that, too. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I still think there's a little time when you're going up to if you're walking the course especially, there's a lot of time walking up to the ball. You're counting your steps. I mean, for me, it's I've played it so much that you you're just in the zone. I don't know. That's that's how I agree with you, too, cuz whenever you get in that zone, that round goes by so fast and you're like really in the zone. I'm in the zone. I'm counting it. I know where I want to go. I'm placing the ball where I want to put it. You do it. Yeah. But do you think when you're not placing the ball, you're having a bad day? Does it just kind of more frustrated? I'm like, now I know where I I I need to figure this out. What am I doing wrong? Then I'm in my head. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. Okay, I got to ask you this then. I always feel like and you know, I haven't golfed in a long time. I mean, I golf maybe four or five times a year nowadays, but back in the day, I'd golf almost every day, which was different, right? Yep. But I feel like if I only golf like four or five times a year, my best round, first round. Yeah. Because you haven't golfed in a while and you don't think about anything. Exactly. You're just thinking, I go up there, hit, no demands, no pressures. But then you golf the second time like, "Oh, I got to pull back a little." Understand. Well, that's one of the things like if you hit a bad shot, like a lot of people, the mental side of it, like when you're learning, they'll be like, "Okay, untie your shoe or put your hat on backwards or put the money that you have in your right pocket in your left pocket." So, you start thinking about the mental things or untie your shoe. So, you're thinking about your shoe that's untied instead of the next shot because you just hit a bad shot. So, you think about the other things. So, you got to stay out of focus, too, sometimes to get focus. Yeah. Because if people think about the bad shot, they're gonna let that ruin the hole, which is gonna let them ruin the round. Yeah. When then what fun is that? Absolutely. Yeah. And I always equate it to business. Yeah. It's winning every day, one day at a time. Yeah. So, what is and who have been some of your mentors along the way that have really focused and made you who you are today? You know, I think I've been blessed with a lot of good people that I've met in life, right? Uh, and then plus watching videos and stuff like that. But I got to admit, God rest his soul, a guy named Jeff Johnson. I worked at Centerpoint Energy back in the day. Y, that little small company. Yep. He was my master technician. And back then, what the master did was they had a crew and they would go around and help the younger guys learn the trade, right? This was before computers, internet. And I still remember we were at a job and we're looking at a boiler and he says to me, "How much water do you suppose this should have in it?" Like, "What should be the pressure?" And I'm like, "I don't know." And I probably learned it at school at one time, but you don't remember all those numbers, right? And it's kind of funny cuz wait, this is back in the day before Google before you can just even ask your phone, right? 92, I think, was when I worked with him. And I still remember him saying this to me and I was like kind of amazed. He goes, "You know, that's a good question. I don't always remember either." So then he goes takes me out to his truck and got like three stacks of milk carts, right, with files in them. He's looking up boilers and he's like he pulls it out and he shows like it's like 1.8 or 1.8 ft for every pound, right? Or something like that that you go up. Anyway, so he goes, "Yeah, I don't [clears throat] always remember, but you know, there's always a resource somewhere where you can find it." He goes, "You don't have to know everything, right? I've been in this business for a long time." It showed me the humbleness, and I think that's kind of key to some success sometimes. It's okay to not know. There's a balance to the humbleness and the ego, right? Like, and that's there's a difference. Yep. Yeah. Well, a lot of lead leaders, the best leaders are humble. Yeah. They're not the ones that are going to know everything because the ones that know everything. They don't know everything cuz not everything that you see in here is accurate anyway. Yeah. You need to have some humble humbleness to you for sure. Yeah. But you want people on your team like even here at Sun Control, you want them to have some sort of ego too because if they didn't have You have to have that. Yeah. If they were always humble, they'd be going like, "Well, what would you like me to do next? What would you like to do next?" You know? Well, that's how you are in life. But you do have to have, you know, it's a balance, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's interesting how So, yeah, that was one of my mentors, and I believe like my dad was a good mentor, even though he's said some stuff that probably damaged my psyche, but kind of do that. Yes. But it's not out of out of like I want to screw my kids up. Like I said, they don't have a manual, an instruction manual with them. It's more to protect them, right? So, and then I think some coaches along the way, some, you know, some base baseball coaches I've had um in in little league and high school and and even up in town teams. Yep. Yeah. What do you think with your mentors has been some of your best or even not with your mentors, even with your kids, what have been some of your best memories? Those are really good question. the the for the kids I feel like when you give them some instruction and they give it a try and I think it was with Dan that happened with my other two kids I give them suggestions and they do so I I'm proud that they can do that too but the one I remember was Dan was working on a hard step left and drive right for basketball right and like you can throw them off and we would set up a play where we could do an isolation play where I got to go left and then I got to go right. Like what's the fake about? Right. Right. But he worked at it and worked at it. He'd work on it in the driveway. He worked on it. The house everywhere. It took like a year or two the the second season, but I still remember he would try it and and it wouldn't work for him. He wouldn't make the layup or something happened. But then one game all of a sudden I'm I'm coaching him on the sideline and he pulls that move perfectly. Right. We isolate him. Yes. And he gets the foul. He draws the fall on top of it cuz he got the guy light up and he's like, "Oh my god, I just did it." And he walks he walks to the free throw line and looks over at me, gives me the thumbs [laughter] up and I'm like, "Proud [snorts] dad." Amazing. Yep. Yeah. And I mean, as a coach, too, it's like one of those things like all your time has made it worth it, you know? It's Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. So I think hopefully I am showing them that at least now with Grace and Dan and even my little two kids that if I keep pushing forward no matter how hard it gets and have the positive attitude I think things will come out right at the other end. I think that's what I hope I can impart on people for sure. What have been some obstacles that you've learned along the way that have kind of pushed you forward? So yeah, um you know there's times where you uh start building and you like anger builds some of that uh your success, right? And but you can't build success on anger, right? Cuz it's just holding energy that's just useless. Yep. So, with my business, I actually had a business partner up till 2016 and whether it was right or wrong, he was using some of the funds were business partners 50/50. He was using some of the funds to like pay different credit cards off that I never heard. Was he a silent investor or was he? No, he was a working partner and it was him and his wife and um and it was me and Grace was about to go to college at that point and what happened was I had to get a FAFSA done. Yeah. So I ended up going to the accountant and I said, "Hey, you know, has has Jeff came and talked to you about um our taxes?" And he said, "No, we haven't heard heard from him." Y and he had told me that he was going over there. And so I'm now frustrated. Right. It's end of January. I've got to get back. It's time. I've got to get the FAFSA and the financial aid's due. You got to get it all done. Yes. And so my accountant says to me, um, why don't you just get like the bank statements and cancel checks and I will um try to work it out. Yeah. We'll recreate it. I go to the bank, get the checks, and I'm seeing like credit cards being paid. You know, Fost Swim School was another [laughter] Y. Oh, boy. Yeah. But I don't think he did it intentionally. He just figured he, you know, it so my lawyer said, "It's not stealing. It's 50%'s your money. He's just got to make you whole, right?" At the end of the day, I was so angry. I'm like, "He was stealing? He can go for fraud and stuff like that." And you know how Nero encoding the whole thing, he actually forged my he just wrote Wymond Wong on some of the checks, you know, and he had signing rights, but I feel like it was just him justifying that Wymond's approving this. So anyway, so at the end of the day, we ended up breaking it up, breaking up the company. There was more to it on the backstory. But um I got out on my own and I started hiring the spots that were my weaknesses. Um, uh, sales was not my weakness. It was more kind of detailed back office work and answering phones. That was huge. But I went from like a $400,000 company to like $1.5 million in two years, right? And it was all even though I had a business coach and I'm telling my business coach like, "Yeah, I'm doing it because I want to build something special for a bunch of people." Out. Yeah. There's people below me, right? and I want to just build a great company that people love coming to work for. But in the reality of it, learning myself, it was about like I'll show him. Yep. I've got this. Like this is the root of my I've got this. I'm going to show you I'm better than that. Yes. He's going to wake up every morning. He's going to see like five or six or eight trucks running around. You're going to know the name and the label cuz it's going to be out there, right? Exactly. And it kind of I hit a ceiling at that point because it was the anger and it anger drives growth sometimes too. You know, it's just kind of like I've got this. I can do this and just watch me now. Yeah. But it's not I don't think it's a really true space of where I needed to be, right? Because it was a lot of wasted energy into that. But once I started Yes. Yes. And once I flipped the script and truly said, I really want to build something. I don't when I leave here I never ever am going to say man if I could have made another $40,000 more for my company during co how much better off would I be right that's not going to make or break me at the end of the day no yes and when I started thinking I really truly want people to come to a great company and their family get taken care of make a difference that's yeah that's exactly why and that's why we had and I know you know taglines are sometimes just taglines on our trucks we have feel the And it really stem from the anger part at first, right? I'm different. You know what I mean? You're going to feel that difference, that burn. Ex [laughter] Wong burn. Exactly. But then after a while, I started realizing like feel the difference is a good one because I want this company to be different from other companies, right? Y Yeah. We're not the biggest or the richest company. Y but we really do truly care about the culture of our team. And I think that's what has made my company successful in that sense. We're not the most successful financially, but I feel like our team is very well co really cohesive. Yeah. So you have Twin Cities Heating and Air. Let's talk about the sector that not a lot of people know about the electrical side of things. Yeah. So when I created some of that success about five years ago, um, one of the things that we were finding out was when we put in a furnace or AC, Yeah. I had to subcontract some of the electrical because a lot of cities wanted electrical permit. Yep. On a reconnect for an AC, anyway. So I did sub it out for a while. Y, but I was having a tough time getting them there on time. And that's a really important thing for my company. And finding electricians and doing all that other stuff is is a lot, right? So I said, "Why don't we just bring in our own?" And so we did. Y and then we just developed it from there. I you know, if I just brought him in for just the furnace and AC hookups. Yeah. We wouldn't have that much work for just one right guy. So we let him start having the autonomy to how do we build this, right? Y and so what the amazing thing is Kelsey Hal who is our master electrician he's the future of our company and um he's really taken on his shoulders to really run the whole field operations for us. So that's the buy in I think if you build a good culture. So with adding adding that in is he an investor too or is he is it all under you? It's all under me still. Um, but he is coming in as a part owner with his sweat equity basically. I mean, I think you wouldn't have it if it weren't for him because he's doing the electrical side of it. Yeah. Yeah. And I think everybody needs to be compensated fairly. And Absolutely. If your goals are aligned with your management team. Yep. I think that's huge. Yeah. And you guys also have a service plan, too. Yes. It's $14 [clears throat] a month right now. Yes. It's pretty relatively cheap. It was 12 like or 11 like 4 years ago, 5 years ago. You think when people you raise that price, people notice, but it only goes from 12 to 14. Yeah. And people making a big deal out of that $2 difference. Would you rather have something break down and be paying a big fee or would you rather pay an extra $2 a month, you know? Right. And it's it's and it's not so much a breakdown plan, I think. And again, I can say the Centerpoint Energy [snorts] Service Plus plan. I worked for them. I get it. It's a good plan. There's a raise and everything, but Yeah. Right. But it's really a break plan. It's like it's not a maintenance plan. And I, and this is just my ideology, you prevent those breakdowns by having maintenance, right? And so that's what we're actually paying for. That's the $14 a month where we come out twice a year to do a check and tune up on your furnace, check and tune up on your AC. And we have our electrician come out once a year to look at your panel and any electrical issues you may have. And with that, we actually give you one free service call because we're so confident in the maintenance of your stuff. Nice. It's kind of like a car. It's a win-win, right? You've got to maintain it to keep it going. Yeah. It's like a car. You can buy a I'm going to date myself here, but a Ford Fiesta or you can buy a Cadillac, right? But if you don't do the oil changes and the maintenance on the Cadillac and you do it on the Ford Fiesta religiously, that Fiesta will last you forever. Exactly. So So you have your family in the business. What do you guys like to do outside of work right now? Other than hockey games? Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I'm a workaholic, but Right. Aren't we all though? It's like you go to work and you go home and it's like, "Okay, new day. What are we going to do tomorrow?" Go to work. But thank God I'm not a drunk because I heard Rodney Dangerfield say this the other day and I don't know if you know who Ro of course I'm a Catty Shack fan of like Oh, that's right. That's right. That's another golf thing. But I do know Rod not Rodney Dangerfield from back in the day. Yes. One one of my favorite jokes he said was like, "Yeah, my dad's a workaholic. He goes out to work, comes back and drinks all night." [laughter] Yeah. But um but yeah, I I think I tend to like to go to the hockey games and I'm a little bit older now, so I do like hiking, I guess. I just don't do it as much with my family. What about the state parks? Do you ever get out to any of the parks or the state parks? I do. Funny you asked that. And a few years back during co we joined what they call the the state park hiking club. Yes. So, what you do is I don't know if you know about the hiking club, but you go to like the parks and then you have to hike that one trail and then you find the secret password and then you mark that down. Amazing. And then if you do 30 of them, you get one night stay at one of the state parks if you want to camp and then you get a placard if you get to like 50 or something like that. How many have you guys been to? I got to admit, we were we did about 25 in the last like two, three years ago. Yeah. And then we kind of slowed up the last couple years, but we got to get back. Work picks up. Like it's it's kind of one of those things. Work gets busy and well, you can't say work. Work's always busy, but you kind of get into that work rotation again. Yeah, life happens. But my there's a crazy bucket list, but it's kind of a bucket list, I suppose. But I'm going to I'm going to advertise for Minnesota State Parks now. Yes. But please do. There's a place up in, you know, the Northwest Angle up by War Road. There's like this big lake there and it's almost like a triangle. Yes. Yes. And like out in the middle of that lake there's called Garden State Park and like you have to get out there by boat and so you've heard about this and it is a state park and they have a hiking trail but to get all your hiking trails you probably got to get to that one which it's one of those things like if you go out there you wonder how great it actually is. That's true. You know, like are you gonna get out there and take the boat and then what if it's nothing? What if it's just [gasps] just I've seen pictures it looks good but from 20 years ago and [clears throat] now it's just grass and native grass and Yeah. Never [laughter] thought a state park can troll me, right? So when you when you go there in the next couple years, you're going to have to show us some pictures for sure. Yes. Oh, absolutely. I'm excited. Yeah. I I do like the north part. We talked about the Boundary Waters before. It's beautiful up there. What have been some other places that you've traveled to since we're talking hiking and stuff? I, you know, I've been really blessed. The I've been to almost I I guess 48 of the 50 49 of the 50 states. The only one I haven't been to is Alaska. I've been to Hawaii. But man, my my my family, my my sisters moved from here to California. Go figure that. So, I've been around California quite a bit. And uh they have been the most. Which is your favorite? You know, [laughter] I I God, they're just so many different They're all different. Very different. Right. They all can be your favorite at different times in different places. Yeah. I got to admit, I mean, yeah, it's hard because it's apples and oranges, right? I love the Boundary Waters, but you being from Montana, you know, one of the things I really loved about going out towards that way and going to Montana and Boise was Big Sky, Montana. That's such a beautiful place. Sky and then you get to Whitefish which is a little bit even better than that if you haven't been there like the glacier part too. Yeah. Yes. Yes. And you can get up on and then I've been to Colorado where they have Pikes and Pikes Peak and then going down south you know down by Virginia and all that other places. South Carol Portalene Idaho is a different one. If you haven't been there that would be a place you should go to. Yeah. Idaho, Idaho. It's by Montana, but it's like a little slice of heaven. It's It's really really really unique. Oh, I might have check out. Yeah, I don't think I've been there. Yeah, I'll have to check. Yeah, I've been to Idaho. I've been through Washington, Oregon. Yep. There's just so many cool places in the United States. Yep. Have you gone outside of the United States? I have a long time ago when I was right out of high in college, actually, or when I was bartending. actually went to China in 1989 during the student revolution. We were there then. Yeah. Not planned. Nope. We actually I still haven't seen the Great Wall of China yet. Okay. Not yet. Okay. I I went there during the during the Student Revolution. We were going to go up into the Great Wall, but they declared martial law at that time. It was a big thing. It was a big thing. And then when they declared martial law and they lifted it after 3 days, we said, "We better get out because we might not be able to get out again if they declare it again." Yes. I lived in Hong Kong actually for one year of my life when I was like in second grade. So, it's really interesting cuz it it's like that time your life when you're learning the most. Yes. And one of the things that I don't know about me is like the only time I think in Chinese is when I have to do multiplication. It's crazy like those multiplication tables stick. Yes. And that is something that I think everybody doesn't that's when the brain develops and Yeah. that triggers everybody back. It's crazy because I asked my dad like how he when he was alive, do you think in Chinese or you think of think in English? And you know he was in the US military and everything. He came over here when he was like I want to say like 10 years old. Okay. But he said he thought 5050 like like if he's thinking business Yeah. he'll think in Chinese but he's thinking like like he'll watch football or whatever he'll think in English, right? or so. It's really interesting how your brain works, how it works. But he figured it out at one point cuz like back in the day when we had to do the math tables, right? And you had to like write it out and 2 * 2 is four, four times and you do it as fast as you can. You write it out in like a minute or whatever. Yeah. And then they would time you and then you'd flip over the paper. I was always one that flipped over the paper like fast like I was done. But then they did the flash cards and I was super slow at it. Like and the teacher thought that I had special needs. I have some problem with my my education, right? Like and my dad figured out that no, I think he's thinking his multiplication in Chinese and he's translating it back to English. So he starts from English, goes to Chinese and then comes back and his brain is converting this without saying it out loud. And so now that's how they figured that they said, "Okay, I guess he doesn't need special [laughter] needs classes." Just just teach Show him both. Show him English and Chinese and then he'll get it just like that. Exactly. And back then it was kind of a you know, we had some kids that had special education stuff. It was kind of a I feel like it was such a walk of shame that you had to go to a special classroom, right? ASL or there's whatever it may be for languages just like everything else. Yes. And even one of my kid had to do that and they had to carry a special folder, right? Like to that class. This is my yellow folder and I have to walk with it and I'm going to make you go to this other room just to learn. Yeah. So I thought that that is interesting. So So an important question for you. Are you ready? What's your favorite food? Tough one, right? Wow. It is tough. I love a good steak. Okay. What kind of steak? I I like ribe eyes. Um, I think if you're talking ethnically, culture-wise, I have to go with, and I'm going to be biased because I look, you can see in my eyes, but I do like Asian food like like chain like from way back or No, I like I like to go to dim sum. It's it's more you know what dim is they have little plates and you kind of share around the table. It's like you can't go to dim sum with one person. No, absolutely not. No. But you can't go to But you can't go. Yeah. No. You have to order a lot. You have to get everybody in a little bit of everything. Yes. So that's the cool part. I think that's probably my favorite. Nice little food. Good. Good. Oh, what a great question. I know. That's just one that always throws everybody. A lot of times people say, "Hey, it's a grilled cheese." I'm like, "That's random, but that's good." Yeah. Just something kind of fun out there, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, do you have a favorite quote? Ooh, I just heard one the other day. We were talking about books the other day and so that just stirred my mind. I'm like, what about a quote? Yeah. The one quote that I think of and I've just recently reread it and actually a guy named Jamie Ogden posted it. I don't know if you know who Jamie Ogden is. Heard of him? Y he's actually with Keller Williams and he's the chief value officer there. I'm actually meeting him next week for lunch and I'm bringing him on my podcast and the guy played baseball for the Twins. Um, anyway, so the one line and I'm trying to remember verbatim, but I got it really close. We don't we we we fall we don't fall fail our goals. We fall short on our systems. Yep. And it comes from atomic habits. Yes. And that was really good because atomic habits is like just being consistent helps you win. And I sometimes forget that. Yes. You know, it's very important. We like those flashy moments of brilliance and we keep chasing it. We keep chasing that little carrot that's out there. Yes. But if we really just focus on the little things like even making your bed every day, right? Yep. That's huge. Having that same outfit so you don't have to make that decision, right? [laughter] Yes. It's a consistency thing. So podcast Twin City Tales, how's that been going? It's going well and I love it. just like you you know I think ours have a lot of similarity to it. You've been doing it for a little bit longer. Um but it's about people's stories, right? And I love how passion Yeah. I love how you brought me in and was bringing me different passions or trying to bring that out of me somewhat. And it's really making me think like God business is kind of my life except for I should have talked about podcasts. I love hearing people's stories. I love I love history. I love going to the Minnesota History Center. And what part of history is your favorite if you could go back in time or what part of history do you like learning about the most or hearing about? I just feel like all of it seems like, you know, cuz we all learn from our mistakes. I I don't think I want to like we all think that it's such a simpler time back in the 60s or the 50s. And what about like the ancient ruins and way going back to that time? That would be interesting and things. Yeah. And I've been down to like um down to uh god why can't I think punta not puntarta but Cancun in that area. Yeah. And then you go into those ruins and it's like those were tough times. And then the psychology back then was a little different. But then you think of like the 60s and then you think of the 70s those were tough times too. So there's been tough times even then you go into the 2000s there's tough times there. you go into co like there's always been tough times. Yeah. And that's what I find amazing like you know I think when we were younger we always say yeah why can't and people say this why can't we go back to the good old days right it's what you make of it staying positive and finding things making the best of it and all good old days wasn't really always the good old days they just don't remember I think we tend to like the 80s when you were outside riding your bike and you didn't have technology or is it the ' 60s when you it's all what you make of it Yeah. And politically it all rotates, right? Like I think in the 80s, even though we weren't thinking about as much when we were kids, but I think our parents were like, "Oh my gosh, you know, interest rates are like on houses are 17, 18% to buy a house, right?" And man, what's Reagan doing? He's putting everybody in jail for just these little drugs, right? Like just it just I think it just changes, right? My grandma was 106 and she's like, "I remember the best times going in the horse and carriage and coming home for Christmas and we got an orange and a little mint and that was the best Christmas present I've ever had." And the little things like that. I mean, there's so many different memories that people can pull up and it's and it's what you make of it, you know. Exactly. It's perception. So, that's an interesting question. Boy, I really Your questions are thoughtprovoking. Yeah. Well, it makes people want to think and it's like, you know, you talk about history and what is history? Like, what do you think history really is? And it's all what people think of it, you know? I just wish we'd learn from it a little bit more. Mhm. They need to push it a little more in school, too. I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Instead of one-sided, like, let's really go back in history and time and let's think about it and really because kids want to learn about it. It's just it's what they want to learn about. They block out what they don't want to learn and they Yeah. If you could a little more interesting. Do you think our school system sometimes does that too? Block out the stuff that they want to teach and don't want to teach. Yeah. I feel like that happens a lot. Get biased and one-sided. Yeah. I feel like some of the Native American history ends up getting that way. Like we don't want to make our government look bad, but at the end of the day, what we did to the Native Americans or what the government did to not that we did it, but it's all part of that, right? Like we basically pushed them off this land and said this is ours. I mean you could go back to the whole Clark and or like I mean the whole I mean any part in time and you could hear the whole two sides of anything. Yeah. You could go back to Louiswis and Clark. You could go back to any of it and hear both sides of the story. I mean there's always three sides. What one says, what the history book says, what the other says, and what actually happened. You know, it's it's interesting when you actually get into all of it. Yeah. And that's I think that's what I find fascinating about doing all this history stuff. Like even Lindberg, right? Like if you go up to Lindberg House, Columbus, like any of it. Yeah. Yeah. And you go up to a Lindberg house. Yeah. It was kind of cool. But then you start learning that he was a Nazi sympathizer, right? And I mean and that was kind of the day, right? Like like we had a heavy German population and they sympathize with their countrymen, but at the end of the day, did they know any better, right? if that makes sense. Or did they know the true sides of the story? You know, so it's interesting. So, talking back to history and going back to like your parents, how different were your mom and dad, you know, this gets a little bit uh dicey. Okay. [laughter] Sorry. No, no, I'll talk about it because they're both gone. I do have my stepmom still, but this is an interesting story. I'm kind of glad you asked. It's kind of therapeutic for me. But so when my dad got in the restaurant business in ' 65, and I always look at it things like if that didn't happen, I would be sitting here with you right now. But he he got married when he was in 59. My mom actually was like 10 years old when she went through World War II. Yep. And she didn't talk about it, but she actually during World War II, she was running from the [music] Japanese, I think, in China and trying to get to Hong Kong. And I think now that I'm older, I kind of started realizing things happened to her probably that we will never know about, right? Because I do remember when I was like in eighth grade, seventh or eighth grade, we were at home and she started she had another nervous breakdown. She was getting nervous breakdowns every year almost. So there's the reason something's causing those. Yeah. Yeah. And she actually started taking off our clothes and she tried to scurry under the bed and she's yelling, "The Japanese are coming. The Japanese are coming." Right. And she's naked. And as a seventh grader, you know, being what, 12 years old, that's scary. It is scary. Like what is what is going on? Yeah. And my dad saw her have a nervous breakdown quite a bit. And back then it wasn't something that was talked about, right? They just gave her like lith and drugs and just tried to calm her down. And I remember just being so disrespectful in a sense back then to go to my friends and just say, "Ah, I can't hang out this weekend cuz I got to go see my mom in the looney bin, right?" You know, and it's just but knowing what I know now and she didn't talk about it, she went through a lot going through there. And then my dad probably, you know, it is what it is, but he um he actually she didn't speak a lot of English. She spoke a lot of Chinese. They were pen pals. And anyway, so in 74 when I went to Hong Kong, I think my dad had another pen pal. And he actually brought her back. Yep. So this is really interesting. Yeah. And my mom and my stepmom actually worked in the restaurant business with my dad on 14th and Nichollet for like eight years just as co-workers. Yeah. As co-workers, but they were married, right? And they knew and you know, I don't know. They probably knew somewhat of each other, but they just Yeah. Well, they did they did know each other. They had to work together every day. They might have known of each other like what was going on. Maybe. Maybe not. They did. I I think it was pretty clear. It wasn't, you know, and I think my mom, well, she knew what she was going through. She was just like, at the end of the day, it is what it is. And I think my dad was, where is she going to go, right? She doesn't speak a lot of English. I mean, she spoke a rock and a hard place. [clears throat] Yeah. Yeah. And I think my dad just was kind of having to deal with it every year. Like he's just like, I have to deal with the nervous breakdown. So, I think he did what he had to do. He bought like two houses. They both lived in separate houses, but they worked at the restaurant together. We were raised in one house. Yes. And my dad really tried his best to take care of everybody. Happen. Tried to make the world the best it could be. Yes. And I just remember my sister got into college and she met a guy who was like a lawyer and then the lawyer said, "Your mom should sue his kester and get half of everything right." And I still remember my dad's like, "What? I'm taking care of all the bills. I bought the house." you know, and that happened and then so my mom kind of left the restaurant business at that point. But that's where all our family dynamics kind of everybody has weird family dynamics. Stories to tell, right? And this is where like it's fun. It's not it's interesting to hear stories. Everybody has a story to tell, right? And so that's why like when you do your podcast, I do my podcast, it's more intentional that way when I'm out and about, I could be like, "Hey, Wymond, how's how's Dan doing?" or "How's Grace doing?" in, you know, business development or knowing where you came from a little bit more lets me understand where you're at today. And like it just gives you that more of a connection. You know, when you're in front of people all day long, I'm in front of people all day long. It really lets us with a podcast get to know people on more of an intentional level. I love this, Karissa. I really do love this about this your podcast. I'm glad I'm learning from you. You're kind of like a mentor now for me to fall into your your podcast shoes. Yeah. Well, I appreciate having you on today. If there could be anything that you would tell our guests going forward or anything motivational that you would tell them or anything about your business, what would you tell them? Yeah, you know, I think it's all about the positivity. I feel like staying positive even through tough times and we know we're going through some tough times right now and I don't want to get political but you know there's so many divisions and then it's divided families up. I think it's just a matter of actually truly caring about one another is what this world needs to be about. I mean with all the you know we're going through a lot here in Minnesota this this past six months. Minnesota really? No. Yeah. Yeah. and the ice thing and you know so many div so much has divided us but I truly believe more things put us together than they divide us. Yeah, if that makes sense. Absolutely. We're all one. We all win together. And and I think there's just three things we really want in life take away money. It's really just love and being heard and respected at the end of the day. And I think that's what truly no matter what color you are, where you come from, what um what level you are in society, that's all we really want. And why can't we just give that to each other, right? Absolutely. There's enough there's enough of the world to go around. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I don't want to sound like I'm a tree hugger or like a touchy feely, but [laughter] we're getting there. We're almost there. Come on, Wymond. No, I'm kidding. No, but I really appreciate having you on, shining light today and hope that people take a lot away from this podcast and look forward to having you on again maybe in a year and just see where you're at and see where the electrical side takes you so people know a little more about that and just keep growing and learning from you. Thank you for being on. Thank you, Chris. Yes. And before we go, we have some fun stuff. We've got what a bright yellow. Say what? I was going to I got to throw a review on now, too, because I saw that. So, yeah. And then we've got some fun pens that are always good. One highlighter. And then because we have Sunny, our mascot, we've got a Sunny sticker, too. Sweet. There you go. I love this. It's about the sunshine and happiness. Yes. And then we get to see you multiple times through all of our different associations, and we wish you luck in the future. Yeah. Well, I'm excited to hear you speak uh coming up here with the Metro Chamber. Absolutely. You really are involved. I don't know where you're fired all the time. You do a lot of work. You got to put in the time to make things [music] happen. Yes. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Wymond. Great. [music]