In this episode of “How’d You Do It and Why Should I Care?" Laila speaks with Maria Neumann, the owner of Fire & Water Damage Recovery. They talk about how she ended up in a career that is completely different from what she studied; and how she was able to adapt and cope.
In this episode of “How’d You Do It and Why Should I Care?" Laila speaks with Maria Neumann, the owner of Fire & Water Damage Recovery. They talk about how she ended up in a career that is completely different from what she studied; and how she was able to adapt and cope.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to the next episode of the Bay Street capital holdings podcast titled, How'd You Do It& Why Should I Care? This series aims to highlight women doing amazing work in various industries. So today, we are so lucky to be joined by Maria Neumann, who is owner of Fire & Water Damage Recovery. Hi, Maria, lovely to have you on the show.
Maria Neumann:Thank you for having me.
Laila Arain:So I guess we can first start off with an introduction as to who you are, and perhaps the main answer to the question of the podcast, which is How'd you do it? And why should I care?
Maria Neumann:So I own a restoration company, which basically means we clean up anything disgusting, WaterFire mole to edge gross, anything you don't want to touch? And the question is, what?
Laila Arain:How do you do it and why should I care?
Maria Neumann:Well, I do it by happenstance. So what happened is I met a guy in 1999. And he said, I make a deal with you, you helped me get my business going, and you'll never have to work again. And so 22 years later, he's sitting on the beach, and I work 80 hours a week. So first thing is is never ever, ever, ever take a deal like that unless you have it in writing. Why should you care? You don't have to care. But when it came time to decide who was going to buy the business, him or me. The main reason why I decided to take the business is because I have employees. And I really, really, really, really like my employees. And I really liked the fact that I can give a blue collar guy a job, that he can make six figures. So the reason why you could care is because I care about my employees. How's that?
Laila Arain:Awesome? No, that's such a great answer. And what inspired you obviously to join this industry? I mean, you mentioned obviously this man you met in 1999. But was this something you were expecting? Or was it
Maria Neumann:I have a Bachelor in fine arts from a theatre school. I actually know more about Shakespeare than I do about cleaning up sewage. So this was just like tripping and falling over a career.
Laila Arain:Well, what an interesting turn of events. So I guess what lessons did you wish you would have known before starting in this industry?
Maria Neumann:Oh, my God, I knew nothing. I absolutely knew nothing. Every single thing I know, is from the school of hard knocks. So the first thing is the industry that I'm in was the least regulated of the construction industries. It started out in the carpet cleaning space, and it ended up having its own industry. And it is it was the Wild West, you know, you could do the same job for $2,000 one day and $40,000 The next day, and the man that we shall not be named he, he did whatever, you know, you put an ad in the Yellow Pages and nobody cared. And in 2008, the yellow pages for those of you who know know what the Yellow Pages is, it's the big book that you sat on when you were kids, so that you could sit at the dining room table, you know, so you can see, that's the Yellow Pages. Back when I was a kid, it was six inches wide. Now it's like it's got pizza delivery people in it. Right? So we would put an ad in the Yellow Pages. And we did $42,000 worth of Yellow Page ads. And we got$400,000 worth of work per month. Overnight, it went away. What
Laila Arain:that's crazy. And how comes how did you fix that?
Maria Neumann:So we were one of the first Yelp adopters. Like when I got on Yelp, Yelp did not exist. Nope, was like, What are you doing? No, we're not going to take everybody and have them do a video that was one of our successful actions. And then, little by little I would I just listened to basically my successful action, even though talking incessantly has been listening, because everything you need to know, somebody did it before. Yeah,
Laila Arain:definitely. And I'm following on from that. Thinking about the whole span of your career. What would you say was your biggest failure? What did you learn from him?
Maria Neumann:My biggest. My biggest failure was, was not following my dream. So my dream was never to be the queen of sewage. What I really wanted to do was display Shakespeare and do Shakespeare festivals and all of that. So my biggest failure was just just making the deal with the devil and saying, hey, you know, you have all all work with you until the business get Selling. So that's that's me personally, as far as this company is concerned. What did you know the biggest failure is thinking that everything is going to be the same day after day, you have to look and see what you're doing constantly. Because one day, the Yellow Pages works the next day Yelp works. The next Angie's List was, oh was like, we do $600,000 worth of work on Angie's List. And then the next year, we did$6,000 worth of work. So you constantly have to be watching everything and going with the flow. I mean, you can't, you can't depend on things being the same.
Laila Arain:Definitely. I would definitely agree with that. And you'd be dropping some really great pieces of really raw advice, I think in this call, and I really appreciate it. But what is one piece of advice that you'd give somebody who is wanting to pursue a career similar to yours?
Maria Neumann:Well, okay, so there's two careers here, the first career is that I own a company. Yeah. And my advice to anybody who wants to own a company, is to know as much as you can possibly know work in that industry, as long as you can under somebody else, and learn all of the mistakes from them. Personally, it's not, I don't know what kind of what kind of career you could have that you could learn in college, the things that you learn on the streets. And the second thing, the second part of my career is I'm the sales girl, for my company. I personally bring in$5 million a year worth of work. Wow. So most salespeople do between one and 2 million, I do five, and I've never been able to hire somebody who can do the numbers I can do. And that the main thing I have to say about that is you can't you can't go to Sales school and learn sales. because sales is just communication. So what you really have to do is have to learn how to listen to people. And, and all the classes that you take about listening. It just, it just cracks me up. Like you always know you have sales person on the line, when the first thing they say is how's your day going? I mean, I just basically tell my employees, if somebody calls and wants to talk to me, and the first thing they say is how's your day going? You're a salesperson, and I want to talk to you, then in email. So one of the main things that I've learned as a salesperson is every salesperson has their own technique. And you have to learn your technique by listening, not by talking.
Laila Arain:And what would you say was one common myth and about your industry that you'd like to debunk right here right now?
Maria Neumann:Okay, well, my industry, I would say is probably one of the finest industries in construction. And, and that's not a myth. It is filled with all sorts of people that shouldn't be doing it. So a myth about my industry is that I guess, but there can be an ethical company, and that there are people out there who do care.
Laila Arain:Awesome. Um, obviously, as the owner of a company, you're probably very busy at the moment. But what is one book that you've read or a podcast that you've listened to recently, this really inspired you?
Maria Neumann:So one of the things that I do is I'm not so much the pod books. I've taken courses in communication, just basic education. I'm, I'm a big, a big fan of the Scientology communication course. And that's probably he wrote the, you know, L Ron Hubbard, you did Dianetics and Scientology, he did a lot of communication courses. And those are the book the reading there. That's, that's pretty much been my foundation for sale.
Laila Arain:Awesome. Well, listen, that's really inspiring. And thinking across the span of your career, who are three people in your life who have been the most influential to you?
Maria Neumann:Well, of course, L Ron Hubbard, because he wrote all those things that I like, I really like Matt or don't. He's a killer sales guy. And he does all sorts of, you know, taxing and all of that. And probably the third is my general manager is a guy named Frank Yankee. And he's really, he has an amazing moral compass. And, um, you know, I always thought that you had to, you know, kind of bend the truth or that you couldn't really get by being 100% Honest all the time. And you actually can't. And it's really nice to have a partner, and a general manager who I mean, it's inspiring to
Laila Arain:me. Definitely. And then finally, to sort of round off our conversation, what is one piece of advice that you wish you gave yourself at any point in your life?
Maria Neumann:Well, the first thing that I, I probably would tell anybody is, everybody thinks that acting career and acting degree is useless. And it's actually the most valuable, the most valuable set of skills to have, if you're going to be an owner of a company, a salesperson, even my, like, I have a son, who used to work at NASA. And he also was on Lizzie McGuire, you know, oh, wow, was a professional actor until he was 15. Yeah, and then when he was older, he became an astrophysicist. And I used to argue with my dad about my son's career, but I would tell anyone who really wants to be a salesperson, or who really wants to, you know, be able to do this. They need to study acting. I mean, they need to do improv, they need to be able to comfortable in front of, you know, a camera, and it's under taught as a skill. Because it really is a very useful skill for so many different kinds of business.
Laila Arain:I would definitely agree that such a useful and unique Yeah, that's such a unique piece of advice as well. But thank you for that. I guess that rounds off our conversation for the day. So thank you so much, Maria, for taking the time to speak with me.
Maria Neumann:This was truly such an engaging conversation. All right. Well, thank you. It's fun being on my first podcast.
Laila Arain:Amazing. Well, thank you then bye bye.