Interviews with Four Elevator Consultants
This episode brings together advice and lessons from four consultants in the elevator trade that were previously interviewed on the podcast, each with their own unique path and perspective. Featuring Mike Balsamo from VDA, Joe McAnulty who serves as chair of the Elevator and Escalator Safety Foundation (EESF), Matt Jackson with Blackstone Elevator Consulting, and John Koshak with Elevator Safety Solutions, sharing advice they’ve learned throughout their careers.
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Transcript:
Mike Balsamo (00:00)
You could be the smartest engineer, tech, mechanic. The problem is if you’re not communicating to your clients
If we’re not giving them the answers and they’re emailing us or they’re calling us and we’re not getting back to them, they’re flying blind and it’s making them look bad.
Joe McAnulty (00:13)
consultants are the ones that drive, you know, how elevators are going to be installed and what the specifications are going to look like. So if you’re involved on every aspect and whether it’s code or or even safety,
there’s tons of opportunity to get involved
Matt Jackson (00:26)
when our contractor is succeeding, when our manager, property manager, client are succeeding, it’s their stakeholders that, that win, right? It’s their tenants, it’s their, their residents, And that doesn’t work when all three of us, consultant, contractor, client are not working together.
John Koshak (00:44)
you have to be the one who says, I want to take the prints home. I want to understand this as well as the mechanic. There are mechanics who won’t teach you. There are mechanics that will spend all their time teaching you.
You have to find that guy, or do it on your own.
Matt Allred (00:59)
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Today’s episode brings together advice and lessons from four consultants in the elevator trade that were previously interviewed on the podcast, each with their own unique path and perspective. Featuring Mike Balsamo from VDA, Joe McAnulty, who serves as chair of the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation, Matt Jackson with Blackstone Elevator Consulting, and John Koshak with Elevator and Escalator Safety Foundation, sharing advice they’ve learned throughout their careers.
Matt Allred (01:52)
What would you say is the most critical skill in what you do as a consultant?
Mike Balsamo (01:57)
Well, it’s communication. Again, it goes back to that responsiveness. ⁓ You know, you could be the smartest engineer, tech, mechanic. The problem is if you’re not communicating to your clients and you have to understand the temperament of the business, you know, a lot of these boards and owners of buildings, they’re very demanding people they rely on their management companies to obtain answers.
If we’re not giving them the answers and they’re emailing us or they’re calling us and we’re not getting back to them, they’re flying blind and it’s making them look bad. So it’s responsiveness. So that’s what I do here is I’m like an email jockey. I get over 300 emails a day. ⁓ They responded to within 24 hours, every one of them. And sometimes I don’t have the answer, but I tell the client, I received your email. I’m looking into this. I’ll circle back within the next day or two.
At least they know there’s someone on the other side that answered their email. And that’s where I tell all the employees here at VDA, if you don’t have an answer, just tell the client you received the email, you’re looking into it. Just make sure you follow up with them and give them the information that they’re looking for. So I think that’s critical. And again, that’s in direct sales. I mean, the more responsive you are, the client feels that you are reliable and they’re always going to come back to you.
Matt Allred (03:07)
Right.
Matt Allred (03:22)
What advice, what words of wisdom would you give to somebody who’s, maybe they’re following a similar path to you are wondering, hey, should I get into consulting? And like you said, a lot of people think that’s only something you do after you retire. Obviously that’s not the case with you. But what would you offer to somebody who’s coming up through that path?
Joe McAnulty (03:41)
Sure. Definitely education. Get your certification. get a QEI, then you get the QEI supervisor after that. Because it’s more education hours each year, so you get to learn more things, you know, dealing with the…
Code is one thing and then dealing with personnel is another thing. So, you know, if you have that ability to train in each of those aspects, I think it’ll make you a great elevator person and a great person in general to work with. So the education portion of it is, and having an open mind. I talk about a lot with my team and some of the guys that I’ve worked with for years joke around about sometimes when they were the service side, we would tell them to go do something.
that just sounded really odd when they were troubleshooting and they’re like, that’s, there’s no way, it’s not related. You know, it’s not even in the area of what we’re looking at. Like, what are you talking about? And then they go and do it and they see that it, there’s an instant change to the elevator and whatever problem was going on. And it’s not from me. It wasn’t from me. I learned that from somebody, you know, I learned those weird, odd troubleshooting skills. And, and so it doesn’t matter whether you’re looking at the code or you’re looking at troubleshooting or, know, you’re looking at design,
keep an open mind about everything and really allow for change. Obviously control the change instead of complaining about something, be involved in whatever’s going on. Okay. If you want, you know, if you don’t think it’s a good idea, Get involved in the conversation and figure out what everybody’s opinion is, and then try and work it out so that it’s going to work for everybody
So, if you want to change it to a certain way, get involved in any type of committees out there. There’s elevator committees, there’s code committees, the code committees always looking for help. I’m part of the EESF, which is the Elevator and Escalator Safety Foundation. I mean, I know that’s just for dealing with the safety of the riding public, but
get involved in that because you get to have conversations with people from all over the country. And that’s what getting involved really does is it opens you up to speaking with people that you probably would never speak with
And so if you want to be on the consulting side, I say get involved in things because consultants are the ones that drive, you know, how elevators are going to be installed and what the specifications are going to look like. So if you’re involved on every aspect and whether it’s code or construction, you know, or even safety, So for me, I was involved in a lot of the safety things for the construction industry, not necessarily elevators. You’d be very surprised how
many spots they leave open for elevator contractors because none of the elevator contractors are involved in a lot of these big construction safety forums or even big large conventions for construction. There’s not a lot of elevator people, so there’s not always somebody looking to be in those spots. So there’s tons of opportunity to get involved and you really expand your career when you’re involved in things that nobody else was involved in before.
Matt Allred (06:29)
That’s great. That’s great.
Matt Allred (06:36)
And as you talk about what I kind of envision is, you’re in somewhat of a diplomatic role of bringing two parties together and kind of walking that fine line and helping both, you know, communicate because there’s definitely some room there that they need to figure out what the real story is.
Matt Jackson (06:55)
Yep, you got it. got it. And, you know, I think you hit the nail on the head, right? The way I view this business, when done the best, is in a partnership approach, right? Certainly there’s times when we have to be stricter, stern, you know, assess penalties and other things where it’s appropriate. But that’s not what our goal is.
Our goal, you know, I firmly believe when our contractor is succeeding, when our manager, property manager, client are succeeding, at the end of the day, it’s their stakeholders that win, right? It’s their tenants, it’s their, their residents, it’s, it’s whatever. And that doesn’t work when all three of us, meaning consultant, contractor, client are not working together.
Matt Allred (07:46)
No, no one, wins, right? Because ultimately you’ve got an elevator that nobody could ride because it’s not getting the service or whatever. So everybody loses. And ⁓ so, yeah, I see that.
What’s something that you’ve learned throughout your career that you’d want to pass on to our listeners or maybe you know, either future generation or maybe somebody who’s brand new to the industry?
Matt Jackson (08:07)
your, your name is all you have in this, in this industry. And, ⁓ you know, I’ve seen people do the wrong things and, have left the industry never to be heard or seen from.
Conversely, I’ve seen people that have carried themselves really well have, you know, through whatever reason, maybe been out of work because there’s downsizing or there’s corporate restructure or whatever, but those people get picked up almost immediately ⁓ because of the close ties and close knit relationships in this industry.
as cliche as it sounds, right? Doing the right thing, being genuine, ⁓ all of those things, certainly they matter in life, but I’ve witnessed how that matters in this industry.
Matt Allred (08:55)
Sure, sure. It sounds like it’ll serve you well, you know, throughout your career. Yeah. Awesome.
Matt Allred (09:06)
So I’m just curious if you could give us a little bit of some sage wisdom. offer to the industry or maybe someone who’s even following in your footsteps? What have you learned?
John Koshak (09:19)
I think tenacity is a character trait you have to have. You have to believe in something tenaciously.
You have to have principles. You have to have.
an honest demeanor and practice rigorous honesty. I think that’s first and foremost in any endeavor in life. And it’s, I think, true in the elevator industry to be successful in our industry. In my opinion, you have to be the one who says, I want to take the prints home. I want to understand this as well as the mechanic. There are mechanics who won’t teach you. There are mechanics that will spend all their time teaching you.
You can’t get mad. You have to just be tenacious and find that guy or do it on your own. But you have to show up. You have to be there on time.
Being honest, being tenacious. I think it’s rewarding because the elevator industry offers so much. It’s not just learning electronics, electricity, plumbing, carpentry, welding, bolting, materials. You get to do it on the Hoover dam. You get to do it on the Golden Gate bridge. You get to do it at Genentech or Lawrence Livermore.
you know, Berkeley, Oak Ridge laboratory. You get to go to all these places. Not all of them are, you know, the two stop at a strip mall with an orthopedic office. But even there, you meet new people, you get to see and do very, very few people get to do what we do. And it pays very well. It should. It’s a very risky job. The last thing I would say is safety has to be paramount.
You have to always know where your fingers and toes are. You always have to say, I’m moving the car. Are you clear? If you’re working with somebody, make it your habit to always end and begin every movement with a warning. I’m going to stop.
Coming home to your wife, your family, your kids is the most important thing.
So.
safety, honesty, tenacity, and be there when you say you’re gonna be there.
Matt Allred (11:33)
Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting. Please visit our YouTube channel, @elevatorcareers, or check us out online at elevatorcareers.net. Please like and subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.