SUPPLY HAPPINESS IS OUR WHY.

Remember supplying happiness is: 1.  smiling and having fun and all that shit. that amazing stuff we do!

2.  we get to do that when we kind of kick ass on all that little stuff, like cleaning a bathroom, typing an order perfectly, getting our butts to jobsites, pulling perfect loads, wearing our seatbelts, catching a wrong item when receiving.

When you do your whats improving by 1% and chasing perfection (although you know you won’t reach it) and know your why… well… I think you have life figured out!

add 1 plus 2.  = BOOM. MISSION.

this video you probably saw.  i just watched…for the 500th time.  Got goosebumps.

Love.

TGI- HUMPDAY!

OK, random things I learned last week.

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Aaron Rodgers called out his young wide receivers, calling them “piss poor.”  I don’t know what “piss poor” actually means but I love the term.  Then this week he was asked if he was worried about if the guys were having a hard time with his criticism.  He said, “I hope our team isn’t that soft.”

I LOVED THAT.  I hope Drexel isn’t that SOFT EITHER.  If we got problems, let’s not be defensive, talk it out, and “put our big girl/boy pants on.”

Having hard conversations are easy when they come from the heart.

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Salespeople!  Are you stressed? This is GOLD.  HUMOR ALWAYS HELPS!

Did you know… and wow I love this! Recently I was asked…. I assume Drexel was named Drexel because of St. Katherine Drexel.  I laughed.  I knew why they assumed that… but I realized maybe you don’t.

You see St. Katherine Drexel who lived in the late 1800s here in the United States (so you know she’s like a normal person, not a heavenly saint as you would assume)  was wealthy.  Her family traveled all over the country.  She saw the poor black people of the south and the poor native Americans in the West.  She felt very sorry for them.   So sorry she used her family’s wealth for a visit with the pope, as she was a woman of faith.  This is where things happened, that she certainly didn’t expect.

She went to the pope and stated her case.  “Sir, you should see what I’ve seen, it’s horrible.  I just wanted to have this meeting to let you know the Catholic Church should be helping these people.”  I assume she even often a bit of financial assistance to help any cause the Church would take up.

The pope though had other ideas… and often God works this way within us…

He simply turned to her and said.  “This is a GREAT IDEA,  Katherine Drexel, YOU should do this.”

The story goes… that was the end of the meeting.

…And so I assume she went away humbled.  It did “change her world” though.

She became a nun, started missionaries, Xavier University, and spent all of her wealth, all $20 million, to help these people.

Wow.  Drexel Building Supply Stuff indeed!

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Best month EVER in July.   Matt, Gronk, asked me…how do we do it again…and keep doing it.

KEEP DOING ALL THE LITTLE THINGS RIGHT.

If we EACH do our JOB.  Trust each other.  It’s brilliant and simple.

Double check your acknowledgements, review your bids, be on site on first loads, double check your load before you leave.

THE LITTLE STUFF CONSTANTLY.

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So… THANK YOUR CUSTOMERS!  THANK THEM.  HUG THEM.  LOVE THEM.

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Our contractors want us to BE ORGANIZED ON THEIR BEHALF.

And to CARE ABOUT THEM.

AND #1… HAVE THEIR MATERIALS ON TIME AND IN FULL, INSTALLED IF REQUIRED.

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JUST FOR TODAY… MAKE SURE EVERYTHING WE DO IS ON TIME AND IN FULL.  THEN STACK THOSE WINS.

— PEACE AND GRACE, JOEL

Our Drexel journey is sure one hell of a ride.  We have recently been informed we are the NATIONAL PRO DEALER OF THE YEAR.  

Then we were like, hmmmm.. who do we bring to accept the award?  Downtown group, store leaders… yeah… that’s great, but how do we bring the whole team?   10…UNSUNG HEROES… that sounded just perfect.   They will come with me to accept the award.  Our people.  Our tribe.  Our way.   And we will celebrate like absolute rock stars.

https://www.prodealer.com/

Well how do we pick them?  How about if each team member can nominate one person and tell us WHY they picked them… Sincere appreciation.  Check.   Teamwork.  Check.  Love.  Check.  Caring.  Check.  Serving.  Check.  #sowedidit

105 nominations poured into my e-mail over the course of a week.  All departments nominating people from different departments.  Different stores nominated other people from other stores.  Like a tightly wound rope. Very.  Strong.  Raina got a vote for her passion to Blue Door.  All very inspiring!

Someday we will begin to share these with all of you.

Ok… so now the challenge was how do we pick 10?   I mean EVERY nomination deserved consideration!

Oh…and then it became EASY.  Each winning nomination got not 1, not 2, but 3 or more nominations.  Unreal!  Simple!

Now… we got to thinking.   These people CLEARLY mean a ton to what Drexel does.

You see, as Jon Gordon states,

A culture of greatness doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when a leader expects greatness and each person in the organization builds it, lives it, values it, reinforces it and fights for it.

These people

BUILD

LIVE

VALUE

REINFORCE

our CULTURE OF GREATNESS.

So this is our chance to REALLY thank them.  Chicago is gonna be great.  But what else can we do.

$5,000 payroll bonus?

DO IT.

$1,000 to their favorite charity?

PERFECT.

Now how to tell them how to do it?

Let’s do a blog post and as we inform them uniquely the world will share in their happiness as we post how we did it and their reaction.

Stay tuned. I’m in no rush… so it might take a bit.

This blog will tell the story.

I’ll update this as we go.  If you have any ideas… how I can inform the HEROES… let me know!

I’VE GOT 10 GOLDEN TICKETS!

I FEEL LIKE WILLY WONKA! I’M SO EXCITED!

HERE ARE THE GOLDEN TICKET WINNERS SO FAR:

Below the celebratory “pie in your face”…that didn’t quite make the video.  Dave VanDreese… our NEW Assistant Store Leader in Columbus.

Post Celebration, Pie in Your Face

TGIM!

RANDOM THOUGHTS.

FALL is almost here.  Hard to embrace the beauty of late summer, early fall … the end seems so near, yet is so far.  It’s like life I suppose embrace every day.

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Why are YOU still doing ASAP AND DWI deliveries?

THESE ARE F***ING STUPID!  QUIT IT.

MAKE AN EXTRA CALL, BE ORGANIZED ON YOUR CLIENTS BEHALF, AND DON’T CRY WOLF.

DWI… LITERALLY destroys our operations team.  “Hey, when this comes in hustle it out right away, they are HOT FOR IT.” Only TO HAVE  NO ONE ON JOBSITE WHEN WE GET THERE.

OR ASAP… which means nothing… ASAP TO ONE PERSON might be anytime this week, to the next person is in 15 minutes… determine a time.  Set expectations we can live up to!

DISPATCHER/STORE LEADERS DON’T LET PEOPLE “CHEAT THE SYSTEM.”  START.. NOW!

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GET AFTER IT.  GOOD REMINDER FROM BROOKFIELD TEAM.

HEY, WHERE’S YOUR ENERGY AT RIGHT NOW!  GOOD?  TOO HIGH…OH YOU BURNING OUT…

TOO LOW… COME GET SOME!

BE AT A 8 ALL THE TIME!  10— you will burn up.  6 — crank it up!

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Have you spent enough time with your team?  With your clients?  The answer is always no.  Do more of that.

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I’m neither successful nor a failure.  I’m getting better.

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Supplying Happiness is making things easier for those around you (team and clients).   Processes and procedures do this.  Do more of this.

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Thinking bigger.  Beth reminded us a few weeks ago… where were you, where was this company 10 years ago… no go forward… 10 years from now… where will we be?  WHO KNOWS!  Never change WHO YOU ARE but change WHAT YOU DO!  We will be different, much!  EMBRACE CHANGE!

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Learn.  Constantly.  About everything.  How else will you improve.

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When you die people will talk about your family.  your career.  maybe your hobbies.  and your friends.  They won’t talk about how much time you were on your phone or how much TV you watched.  Remember that.

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Do less.  I was at the Packer family thing Friday night.  I saw a few so unhappy kids and parents… dragging their kids around to “take it all” and “do everything”.  Go home.  Do nothing.  The memories are in the little things, not the big ones.  Do less to do more!  SAY NO.  On weekends don’t book it fill.  Leave the gaps.  Leave lots of gaps!

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If you need help. Holler.  I see plenty of teams that still don’t work as one cohesive unit.  Just found out today.  Windows just started sharing bid work.  Game.  Changer.  Thank you.

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CONTROL THE CONTROLLABLES.  Don’t try to get every sale.  They have to want to buy from us too, and we have to add something they need.  We have to align.  I used to force the sale, now I research the client.  Big difference!

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This year we have gotten so much better… profit sharing looks extremely promising this year! … tracking very well.  All that stuff about the little things so true.  We are soooooooo close to 3 weeks paid vacation.  Do you all believe yet?  When we ALL do we WILL.

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Did you really THANK a customer lately.   Don’t delay, it feels so gooood!

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Every early fall my to do list to too long, days too short.  That’s ok, prioritize the good stuff will come up… the stuff you didn’t get too… that’s ok too… it probably wasn’t that important.

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Many of you would be surprised I think how close and organized our downtown team is.  We might look like one man shows when we meet with you.  Our team really works together constantly to make our locations and team perform awesome.  So far, so good!  We talk a lot, have a lot of fun and move FORWARD TOGETHER!

🙂

Peace and Grace,

Joel