The Power of Mentorship and Relationships in the Elevator Business | Kris Garcia
In this episode, I interviewed Kris Garcia about his journey from the automotive industry to the elevator business. We discussed his passion for sales, mentorship in the trade, and important lessons he learned throughout his career. Kris emphasized the importance of relationships and shared that he and many others are happy to help newcomers to the elevator trade.
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Transcript
Kris Garcia (00:00)
When we talk about making mistakes, I made just about every mistake you can make. And I’m still here. you know, so, you know, it’s like Chuck Sharp said, as long as you don’t make the same mistake twice. And the biggest thing is just showing up for work every day, you know, as a young helper, you know, you put so much stress on the team when you don’t come to work.
I hear this all the time about, about young people. They have no work ethic. Well, you know what? They said that about our generation too. You know, there’s people out there who are, I think you’re born with it. you either come to this industry with a great work ethic or you don’t. And if you don’t, you can still learn it. You can still get it. You can still make that happen.
Matt Allred (00:25)
I’m sure. Yeah.
Matt Allred (00:43)
Hello and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast brought to you by the Allred Group. I’m your host, Matt Allred. When talent is mission critical, call the Allred Group. With industry expertise, top talent, and exceptional customer service, you need the Allred Group on your side. Your priority is our priority. Call now, 404-890-0445. In this episode, I interviewed Kris Garcia about his journey from the automotive industry to the elevator business.
We discussed his passion for sales, mentorship in the trade, and important lessons he learned throughout his career. Kris emphasized the importance of relationships and shared that he and many others are happy to help newcomers to the elevator trade.
Matt Allred (01:26)
Kris, welcome to the show.
Kris Garcia (01:28)
Thank you very much for having me, Matt. I really appreciate it.
Matt Allred (01:31)
Yeah, I appreciate it. I’ve enjoyed getting to know you over the years and it was great to see you in California at the NAEC show. A lot of fun.
Kris Garcia (01:40)
Yeah,
yeah, it sure was. What a great place.
Matt Allred (01:43)
Yep, absolutely, absolutely. So, you and I got talking a little bit about just your path through the elevator industry. tell me that story. How did you come to find elevators?
Kris Garcia (01:55)
So my first career was in the automotive business. I’m from Detroit. so that was, you know, a lot of people in that area went to work in the automotive business. So I started in the automotive business and I had an uncle who had an elevator cab interior company. And he asked me if I would come and help him because he was getting to the point where it was more than he could handle on his own.
And so I thought, you know, what the heck? How can someone make a living doing elevator cab interiors? I didn’t even know that that was a thing. You I mean, when I get in the elevator, just push the button and it goes up and down. You know, never think about you never think
Matt Allred (02:26)
you
Right, there’s this little
Kris Garcia (02:36)
Yeah.
Matt Allred (02:35)
stainless steel box.
How can you possibly make a living at that?
Kris Garcia (02:38)
some
crazy niche business and he figured out a way to make money at it. I thought it was, basically just a temporary thing, but I did it anyway. You know, he seemed to love it. So. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it was and it was it was a
Matt Allred (02:48)
How did he convince you? mean, automotive, you know, there’s, I don’t know, some prestige there, you know.
Kris Garcia (02:56)
good job I had and actually had to take a pay cut to take this job. But he said, you know, we’ll get to work together. And of course, I looked up to my uncle, so.
We’ll get to work together. You’ll have all this autonomy. You’ll be able to help me run this company. And then maybe, hey, and who knows, maybe someday this will be yours. And I’m like, great. I really want that. I’ll come and help you anyway. And we’ll see if we can make something happen there. And we sure did. We grew that company. It was the largest elevator cab interior company in Detroit, which there’s a lot of elevators in Detroit, if you don’t know that.
And so we did really well. But as I, as I got to know people in the elevator business from working with them, I eventually got recruited out of that company, out of my family business. And I don’t know if you’ve ever worked for family before Matt, but it’s not all what it’s cracked up to me. You know,
was a fun. Yeah.
Matt Allred (03:48)
that’s just it. mean, when he started making those promises to you, you’ll get to have this and run this and sounds like a disaster waiting
to happen.
Kris Garcia (03:55)
Yeah. And you never work harder than you do for your family, that’s for sure. Because they don’t, they always know everything that’s going on in your life. They don’t give you any breaks. So I ended up going to work for a Kone elevator. That was my first stop in the elevator business.
Matt Allred (04:09)
So when did you
decide that, I actually like this thing that to me seems so improbable? What was it that clicked for you?
Kris Garcia (04:13)
Yeah.
Well, you know, I think that the first thing I thought of was these guys all really make a lot of money for doing this. You know, this is this it. Yeah, it certainly did. And, you know, from coming from the automotive industry, I had no idea about the elevator industry. And so, you know, just getting to know all these folks and and listen, when I started, they didn’t make near the kind of money that they make now. You know, this was back in 1998. I think they just signed a new contract.
Matt Allred (04:23)
That shocked you though, right? mean…
Kris Garcia (04:44)
to go from $17.50 an hour to like $30 an hour. So, and I thought that was a crazy amount of money, you know, for an elevator technician.
Matt Allred (04:46)
wow.
That’s a heck of a leap there. I mean, that’s crazy.
Kris Garcia (04:57)
But my passion was always sales. So I gravitated toward that side of the business. And at that time, they put you in the field first. Did you know that? Yeah, there was a time they put you in the field first. So.
Matt Allred (05:00)
Mm-hmm.
Kris Garcia (05:08)
You stay in the field for a couple of months and then right before, you know, union wants to bring you on board, then they bring you back in the office. So I had an opportunity to stay in the field, but I chose to go into the office. That was always my passion is in sales. So that worked, that worked out great for me.
Matt Allred (05:24)
Very cool. So, yeah, at some point you realize, hey, this is a place for me. by then had you decided, hey, I think I’m going to stay here for a while.
Kris Garcia (05:34)
yeah. I thought man, this is great, you know, and I looked around the people that I was working with at the time and some of them are a lot of those people are still in the industry and then become, you know, like captains of the industry. ⁓ my first job, I worked for a guy named Jeremy Metzger who’s,
yeah, and right. Who doesn’t know Jeremy, right? And, know, I just thought, man, this guy, he’s
Matt Allred (05:51)
Wow, okay, I know Jeremy.
Kris Garcia (05:59)
He just has everything, you he has this beautiful home, this beautiful family, and he’s just making a great living. I’m like, man, that’s what I want. You know, I want to do that. So, yeah, so it was a no brainer for me, really, the elevator business. Once I got in it, there was no leaving. Yeah.
Matt Allred (06:13)
Yeah, yeah, there’s
a it got in your blood. In other words, is what I like to say.
Kris Garcia (06:17)
Yes, yeah, absolutely.
And that happens to a lot of people too, you know, in this business, so.
Matt Allred (06:23)
Absolutely. So in addition to Jeremy, who were some of the big mentors, people that you felt like really made an impact, made you want to stay, right? Because I think more than anything, from what I understand, right, people stay because of the people, right? If they’re going to leave a job or a company, and people will say that, right? That they don’t leave a company, they leave a boss. That relationships do have a big impact on your happiness, your success, your longevity, all of that.
Kris Garcia (06:42)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah, and I’ve worked for some really great bosses in my career. You know, of course, Jeremy Metzger is one and that guy, you know, he really helped me a lot, you know, to understand the business and to be really good at it at sales and and not just at sales, but all aspects of being a salesperson and what that took. But I’ll tell you, the best boss I ever had.
You know, he may watch this podcast he may not but if anybody ever gets a chance to meet a guy named Chuck Sharp from DC elevator That guy was by far the best manager that I ever had he was he was tough and he was fair But he was a great coach at the same time, you know, he gave me an opportunity to be the president of Right Way Elevator I did that for a little while and while I was there
He really mentored me in that role and really helped me be successful. if you ever run into Chuck Sharp, you make sure you tell him that I mentioned him on this
Matt Allred (07:56)
Yeah, absolutely.
he was willing to, be tough, but coach you and you knew that he were worried that he was gonna treat you arbitrarily.
Kris Garcia (08:03)
Yeah.
Yeah,
and you know, I was a guy that came into a role that I had never done before and I made a few mistakes and he would always say, listen, you know, you’re gonna make mistakes. That’s part of the job, but just don’t make them twice. That’s when we have a problem. Don’t make that again. So I tried never to do that, never to do it twice.
Matt Allred (08:18)
We all do.
Sure.
Kris Garcia (08:27)
that was good advice.
Matt Allred (08:27)
Right, right.
That’s when it gets super expensive, right?
Kris Garcia (08:30)
Yeah,
exactly. Yes, sir.
Matt Allred (08:33)
There’s like,
yeah, time to cut losses. So you mentioned being in sales and that sounds like your true passion, right?
Kris Garcia (08:38)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it certainly is. Yeah, that’s something.
Matt Allred (08:42)
What’s
your favorite thing to do? Is it mod? it service? Is it new construction?
Kris Garcia (08:49)
So I think that service was always where I leaned mostly towards, but I loved selling modernization as well. I was never a new construction guy. That takes a special kind of person to sit and read prints and do takeoffs all day. That’s hard job to do because you’re just focused on that job. You never leave your desk. I was always…
The guy I just wanted to be out, you know, I wanted to be out seeing customers be out in the field, hanging out with the mechanics and, you know, looking at equipment. I loved that part of the job. And I wasn’t always great at it. Honestly, when it came to mod, that was something I had really had to learn. I had to make
learn it. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Allred (09:32)
Well, there’s a lot to learn, right? I mean, it’s a very complex,
it’s very dependent upon what are you pulling it out of and, you know, can this brick building even hold it up or do we need to do some kind of remediation to even put the new one in?
Kris Garcia (09:39)
Right.
yeah, so that’s something and I you know, of course again, you know, I made a few mistakes and You know some of them were costly some of them not so costly, but you know, I just loved that part of the business I really loved the mechanical aspect of it, and like anybody I just love to win so I like the competitive aspect of it as well You know, I liked I loved it when I won a job from someone else and it was close You know, we were battling it out in the end
And then finally I, you know, I came out the winner and I hated it when I didn’t come out the winner.
Yeah.
Matt Allred (10:18)
it makes a good salesperson, That killer instinct, right?
Yeah. What would you say has become your favorite part of working in the elevator industry?
Kris Garcia (10:29)
I think that it’s the people in this industry, you know, it’s a lot of people like me who have the same passions, who have, that it’s a complex system. It’s a complex job. And in any part of it, if you’re in operations or you’re in sales or you’re the boss, you know, or you’re the president or you’re
the vice president, whatever it is, it’s a complicated job because first of all, you’re dealing with customers that cannot always be agreeable, right? And then you’re also dealing with the mechanical aspect of the job. It seems like it’s just a box that goes up and down. And like I said, when I first got introduced to the industry, I thought you get in, you push a button, it takes you where you need
- I never, never thought about it at all, what goes on.
Matt Allred (11:13)
That’s all there is to it, right?
Kris Garcia (11:18)
inside the shaft or inside the elevator machine room. So,
you know, it’s a very complex industry. And so it’s the people that get involved in this industry that I love the most about it. You know, when you get a couple elevator guys in a room, the conversation is always about elevators. It’s just it’s very interesting how it always turns to elevators.
And it turns to some, it’s either something about some incident that happened or how it could have been prevented or about some technology or something that’s going on. the conversation always turns to elevators. And, I just love the people.
Matt Allred (11:52)
Absolutely, absolutely. So you’ve mentioned a couple of times, made some mistakes, learned from them. What would you say is the most, one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned through this all?
Kris Garcia (11:57)
Yeah.
Well, man, listen, there’s been so many valuable lessons that I’ve learned. You know, I’ve been in this business a long time, Matt.
So I think that the biggest lesson I ever learned was that this industry, although it’s very large, is also very small. And you need to make sure that you don’t leave any enemies. You know, listen, hard to get through an entire career
and not making an enemy or two. If you’re doing your job, then you’re bound to piss someone off at some point in your career. But as a whole, you just want to make sure that, you know, you just leave every door open when you leave. Make sure you treat everyone with respect. I can’t ever remember losing my temper or I’ve always been like really easy to work with.
as far as I know. Now there may be some people out there that might disagree with that, but I always felt like I was very easy to get along with, very easy to work
was.
Matt Allred (12:57)
I was gonna ask you
you learned any of those the hard way, right? I sometimes, you know, I know that a lot of times I do something wrong and then it’s yeah, okay. ⁓ Now I understand.
Kris Garcia (13:07)
Yeah, yeah, you know,
listen, there may be a time or two that I did learn that lesson, Matt. but we’re not going to talk about that on today’s show.
Matt Allred (13:14)
I thought I’d ask the question. Sometimes people aren’t afraid to share those, but no, it’s
all good to let that water go under the bridge too.
Kris Garcia (13:23)
Yeah, yeah, I think that if there’s a, you know, if I had any regrets at all, there was a time or two when maybe I should have kept my mouth shut and just did what I was told, you know, and I think that that’s a valuable lesson for anyone. You know you let your emotions get the best of you. But I think that overall I’ve built some great relationships in this industry. People I worked with 25 years ago. I matter of fact, I just called somebody the other day.
And we had a long conversation about a job. I worked for Thyssenkrupp back in Detroit for many, many years. I was a sales manager there and I called up one of the guys that worked there. He works now for a fire company. He works for Johnson Controls and his elevator experience was able to help him get that job. So that’s another thing about this industry. has a lot of ⁓ things that you can use in other industries as well.
But just called him up out of the blue and he took my call right away. And immediately it was like we were still in the same cubicle, you know, talking about sales back in the elevator business. So, you know, I built some really strong relationships in this industry a lot more than I’ve made mistakes. That’s for sure.
Matt Allred (14:33)
Yeah, well, and I was having a conversation talking about the value of relationships and that they do make a big impact both in the near short term and long term. And it’s very important.
Kris Garcia (14:40)
Mm.
you.
Yeah. And I’ll tell you, and there’s a lot of young people now too, that are trying to get into this industry and ask for my help, whether it’s trying to get in to be a mechanic or trying to get into the, you know, the sales side of the business or whatever it is. And I always tell them the same thing. I’m like, just, you know, you have to, you have to make yourself easy to work with. And, you know, like, and just like I told you, this industry can be very small. So as you progress through the industry,
Don’t just try your best not to make any enemies because it’ll come back to haunt you at some point.
Matt Allred (15:20)
Sure, sure, yeah. mean, like I say, you may make a few, but don’t make a habit of it, right? Because it’ll cost you.
Kris Garcia (15:27)
That’s probably true in every aspect of life don’t make a habit out of making enemies Matt
Matt Allred (15:31)
Right, right. Good point. Yeah. I mean,
and some of it may happen just might be a competitor, right? Well, I like that guy because he keeps beating me to the sale, right? That’s going to happen. But who knows? Maybe it’s just good hearted competition. Usually won’t make enemies. it’s
Kris Garcia (15:39)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
yeah, as long
as you don’t take it too far.
Matt Allred (15:56)
Yeah, yeah. So if you could look back, what’d
you say, 25 years in the industry? that a little bit more maybe? All right. If you could look back at young Kris back then, start now, what advice would you give yourself?
Kris Garcia (16:01)
Well, yeah, like 27, think 27 is a magic number.
the advice I would give myself is that, know, anytime you you think the grass is greener, see whether it be some promotion or whether it be, you know, working for another company. I think one of my biggest regrets is that I left to Thyssenkrupp Elevator. And when I look back on that,
I had a great career path and I hit a few bumps in the road and I got upset and I quit. And I think that that’s something that if I, if I had it to do over again, I would have never left. I would have stuck it out and made my way into some other area of the company or moved on to a different position there. But I got to make a long story short, I got promoted to be the director of sales for the East region. And,
Matt Allred (16:57)
Cool.
Kris Garcia (16:58)
somehow they combined five regions to three. This was back in 2013 or 14, somewhere around there. And so I got caught up in that. so they offered me a couple of different jobs. said, hey, you could have your choice of these different jobs. So one of them was branch manager of Sarasota. And so I took that job and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all. So I wanted to get out of it. The minute I took it, I wanted to get out of it, but I ended up staying there for a year.
Matt Allred (17:17)
⁓ Okay.
Kris Garcia (17:27)
You know, I did my best. I didn’t do great, but I didn’t do terribly. I didn’t ruin the company, but I didn’t, I didn’t love it. So, but they kept promising they were going to move me on, kept promising. And then they, you know, after I was there a year, I’m like, listen, I’m done waiting. And I left. And I think that was the biggest mistake that I ever made. Cause after that, I just bounced around at different companies. I could just never really find a home. And, and I think that if I had stayed there, I probably.
would be running some other branch right now or doing something, you know, similar to like those guys that have been in that tenured at Thyssenkrupp
Matt Allred (18:01)
Sure, sure. And it might have been the timing, right? Maybe if you had hung on for five more years, maybe you’d have found the right next step or whatever. I mean, it’s hard to say. But obviously, you had enough experience that you were able to find something, right? To find some work. Yeah.
Kris Garcia (18:07)
Yeah.
Yeah, certainly
what you know, listen, you know the nice part about it is that moving on and you know, I got a I got a pay increase every time I left so You know the different jobs I did bouncing around I ended up making a extremely good living So that that wasn’t that was never a problem. It was just a problem of ⁓ You know, I just never found a home. That’s
what it came down to Yeah, so
Matt Allred (18:43)
Bye. Right.
weren’t maybe as settled as you wanted to be, but still had a lot of value to bring and hence a lot of opportunities. And I do see that a lot with the people I know that once you’re kind of established in the industry that, as long you’re not making too many enemies, right? There’s a lot of people that can benefit from your knowledge, your experience, everything you bring. it’s difficult enough to get in and
Kris Garcia (18:49)
Correct. Yeah.
Right. Yeah.
Matt Allred (19:14)
get ramped up so that to the point that a lot of people who get there are highly valued because of those skills and everything you’ve learned.
Kris Garcia (19:20)
Yeah.
That’s correct, absolutely.
Matt Allred (19:25)
I’ve got one more question I wanted to bounce off you. Is there anything you want to say before I kind of give you my last one?
Kris Garcia (19:27)
Sure.
no, I think that, you know, other than I did, I did maybe just want to elaborate a little bit on, you know, giving advice to young people. And I did want to say that I’ve never said no to anyone that’s asked me how can you help me get into this industry? ⁓ I, I, I’ve gone out of my way to help many young people get started in this industry. And I, and like I said, I always tell them the same thing. What I told you already is that, you know, try and just try and show up for work every day.
Matt Allred (19:46)
Mm-hmm.
Kris Garcia (19:59)
Do what your boss tells you. Be easy to work with. And then, you know, and just try and learn the business as best you can because and a lot of that’s on you, you have to do that yourself, you know, just like I did, just like everyone else did. I talked about those great guys in the industry, they learned how to do that by putting their hands on things and doing it themselves.
Matt Allred (20:09)
Sure. Sure.
Kris Garcia (20:18)
. Yeah.
Matt Allred (20:18)
You’ve got to show up curious, right? You’ve got to ask a lot of questions and you’re going to want to know. And what I do
What I do see a lot is that if you have that desire to know, people will bend over backwards to make sure you get that information. It’s amazing. I was talking to a gentleman earlier today that really said that I want to share my knowledge because I know I’m not going to be around forever. And so I want to teach everything I know.
Kris Garcia (20:34)
That’s correct.
Yeah.
Yeah, right. Exactly. And that’s exactly how I feel too. I just, love to help young people who are enthusiastic about getting into this business. you know, listen, not everyone makes it because it’s not, it’s not an easy business. it’s very, you know, safe. have to be safety conscious, you know, so there’s a lot of things that, deter people from being in this business, but it’s a great, great business.
Matt Allred (21:06)
Yeah, well obviously it’s worked as your second career for these many years and actually I was going to ask you about advice for the next generation. You kind of beat me to it.
Kris Garcia (21:15)
Yeah. Okay.
Good. Well, listen, I could talk about that all day, you know, because I said, When we talk about making mistakes, I made just about every mistake you can make. And I’m still here. like Chuck Sharp said, as long as you don’t make the same mistake twice. And the biggest thing is just showing up for work every day, you know, as a young helper, you know, you put so much stress on the team when you don’t come to work.
And, I hear this all the time about, about young people. they have no work ethic. Well, you know what? They said that about our generation too. You know, there’s people out there who are, I think you’re born with it. You know, you either come to this industry with a great work ethic or you don’t. And if you don’t, you can still learn it. You can still get it. You can still make that happen.
Matt Allred (21:44)
I’m sure. Yeah.
Kris Garcia (22:02)
So, yeah. Yeah.
Matt Allred (22:02)
Sure, I mean, it’s a choice, right? You gotta choose. And I think
for those who choose to show up and choose to ask questions and wanna learn and choose to not make recurring mistakes over and over and over, right? There’s all kinds of opportunities, there’s all kinds of benefits to really, I guess, engaging in the process, right? Just being a part of it, showing up like you’re saying.
Kris Garcia (22:24)
Yeah.
Yeah. and so, you know, also this business can be extremely rewarding. If you, if you learn it and become really good at it,
you can do anything that you want to do in this business, really.
Matt Allred (22:37)
Well, that’s
one, that is one point that I’m glad you brought that up. Just having worked in other industries prior to getting to elevators and, you know, being a part of HR, it’s almost like certain industries, certain companies would block people if, know, if you don’t have a bachelor’s degree, you’re never going to promote kind of thing. And I saw that a lot, but this is much more based on what you know, right? And if you get in and you, you know, and have the, expertise then yeah.
You’re not really limited in the same way from what I’ve observed.
Kris Garcia (23:07)
Yeah.
Yeah, no, that’s very true.
Matt Allred (23:11)
Yep. Very cool. Well, Kris, I appreciate you being here today. It’s been a lot of fun.
Kris Garcia (23:15)
you, Matt. I really appreciate it. I really do. Thank you very much for having me.
Matt Allred (23:19)
You bet. Yeah. Well, good luck to you. Stay safe out there and we’ll chat again.
Kris Garcia (23:23)
Sounds good. See you soon.