Welcome And Guest Introduction

Julian Placino 0:00

Welcome to the Home Services Success Stories Podcast powered by Peakzi, the number one AI platform for growing your home services business. I'm Julian Placino, your host, and we have another great show in store for you today. Because today we have Lynn Tomasek, president at Brothers Plumbing Heating and Electric. Lynn, welcome to the show. How are you?

Lynn Tomasek 0:20

Thank you so much. I'm doing so well. Thank you. It snowed here in Denver today, so we're happy about the cold weather.

Julian Placino 0:27

Yeah, we're I'm I'm here in Dallas, and we're also getting the cold front. So all across the country. It's great to be with you.

Lynn Tomasek 0:34

Thank you. We're glad to be here.

Lynn’s Path Into The Trades

Julian Placino 0:35

So, Lynn, tell us a bit more about yourself. Before we jump into brothers, tell us about you, your leadership journey, and what ultimately led you into this role.

Lynn Tomasek 0:44

You know, I um one, I am a fitness enthusiast. I am really passionate about my family. And um, you know, that's ultimately how I ended up getting here is through family. My dad started the business um back in 1980. And so I grew up just really watching him build the company and do all the things that created this great life for our family. Hard life at times, but a great life. And I grew up and knowing in high school, I knew that this is what I wanted to do. So it was just a passion that I had and watching him. And um, I went, you know, went away to go play basketball and again to fell in love with fitness and stuff at an early age and sports. So went to play basketball, college, um, marketing management. And then I came back and have worked in the company since I was a child and came back afterwards and did all sorts of different roles. So I've had a customer service positions here, dispatch, office manager marketing, HR. And 12 years ago, I became the general manager president of the company 11 years ago. My brother, sister, and I all bought the business from my dad and allowed him to retire and appreciate and enjoy all the hard work he put in over the years.

Julian Placino 1:57

What a journey indeed. So interesting. So you said since early on, you knew that this was something that you were going to want to do as a career. You know, some folks that I interview in home services who come from the industry, they want nothing to do with it, right? So I guess describe a bit about what inspires you about the industry, the business seeing your dad in action. Tell us a bit about that.

Why Home Services Inspired Her

Lynn Tomasek 2:19

You know, I think just being, I've always been a leader since I was young. So just leadership and you know, as a kid, we had little businesses uh that we ran as, you know, just for play. And so I always had that entrepreneur heart. But I just, you know, something about the impact that my dad was able to make on so many great people, people in the community. We'd go to the store. I did ride-along with him even. So it's a little bit different today, in today's day and age. You're not taking kids along with you to jobs. But back then I was able to, and I was able to see just the impact that he made on people in the community, the employees that we had, and also the opportunity that the trades created for our family. Like I said, it wasn't always an easy journey. He worked holidays and, you know, but he always made time for us. And I just saw the potential that it could create for my family and in, you know, through that legacy and just um how consistent and dependable the trades really are.

Taking On The Family Legacy

Julian Placino 3:16

So I heard ultimately the impact he made in the community and like the life that ultimately it's created for for you and your family. So uh definitely uh lots of great reasons to be inspired by that. So well, well, as you mentioned, uh Brothers has been serving Denver since 1980. So what responsibility did you feel carrying that family legacy forward? That's a lot to bear on your shoulders, right?

Lynn Tomasek 3:37

It really, you know, really was and is. Um, and honestly, though, I was ready for it after mentoring underneath him. I had a great, he was a great mentor, great person to watch, and he um didn't hold anything back from me. So I was really fortunate to be able to grow up and watch and learn underneath him. So I was ready, but I was nervous at the time, um, no doubt. And, you know, it's not just a legacy, it's our family's history and it's our family's legacy. And I knew that the company, you know, isn't wasn't successful without doing a lot of things right, but I also knew that I was gonna need to make some changes also to continue with that growth. And I don't want to rewrite the story. It's just about continuing to honor what he built and to protect the trust in the community has placed in us and really make sure that we continue to grow in a way that supports all the values that the company was really founded on, our family values, really, in all honesty. Um, so longevity um is part of legacy, but it's really the experience that we create for people that's ultimately what I feel the most responsible for.

Julian Placino 4:41

So, really carrying forth the legacy that's already been built, but also bringing some new things to the table. You mentioned some changes. What are some of the most significant changes that you brought to the table that have bore fruit?

Lynn Tomasek 4:52

You know, we've we've always had a great culture. When my dad was here, the culture was really good. Um, but we brought a element of play or fun to it that maybe, you know, an older generation wasn't necessarily connecting with um younger people and bringing people into the trade. So um just really expanding on that. We gamified a lot of different things, created some just some real intentional, brought some of the core values that he had and some of the concepts that he had, but really became more intentional with them. And again, used utilized that in a way to gamify things and um really just connect with the younger generation to continue to be able to bring people in and retain people at our company and not just, you know, an older generation. We want young people to be able to come into the business as well.

Attracting Young Talent With Career Paths

Julian Placino 5:39

Got it. And what do you do to attract young people?

Lynn Tomasek 5:42

Oh man, we are, you know, we get a lot of referrals. So when we get young people that start to work here, they have friends, they talk to friends, and we can give people an opportunity to grow, they're just not here. You know, they're they start at a generally our tradespeople will start in the warehouse and they'll gain some um experience, be able to become apprentices, and then um become technicians. And when they can experience success doing that and they see the amount of support that we offer them from education to tools and communication skills, um, all those different things, then it provides a really great environment that other people want to be a part of and they want to bring their friends into. So that's helpful, um, a big part of it.

Julian Placino 6:22

So it sounds like like attracts like and you get a lot of referrals from some of your top-performing young people, but it also sounds like you have a kind of a definitive career path starting off as an apprentice, and they can kind of see that trajections trajectory. So you can kind of show them a future, right? I mean, which I think is I think it's people want to know where they're going, right?

Lynn Tomasek 6:40

They do they even if they don't necessarily know where they're going or where they want to go when they start somewhere, ultimately they they don't want to most people don't want to stay stuck or in the same position. They want to have the opportunity for growth. And when you can encourage and support them to grow, then you know they're more likely to stay with you and um want to do well for you. So um try to provide that kind of atmosphere for them here so that they don't stay stagnant in where they're at.

Progress Over Perfection Leadership

Julian Placino 7:07

So tell us a bit about your leadership style. You are very forthcoming and uh transparent about being a recovering perfectionist. Yes. So so how does that change the way that you lead? And um what would what does that mean for maybe your future employees?

Lynn Tomasek 7:22

You know, being a perfectionist, I always thought that that was a strength. It was just, you know, if you're if you're working and you know, being perfect perfect um was a strength. It's you know, it's not really that at all. When I realized that there is, you know, it creates pressure, and I can, you know, I have to really be intentional with slowing things down and um really adopting the mindset of progress over perfection. Um by doing that, we get more done because we're not so worried about things being absolutely perfect before rolling them out. And I always, you know, when we were smaller, I just wanted to be everything to be just dialed in and perfect and tested this way and that, but it really slows down some progress. And sometimes the best lessons and mistakes are learned as you, you know, and you can continue to tweak the process as you um as you test things. And so there's gotta be a balance. We've got to have things well thought out and well thought through so that we don't make big mistakes, but um, just letting go of that, um, having people that I know I've got some really competent people supporting them, you know, and and letting them, it doesn't have to be perfect. They're gonna make mistakes too. It doesn't have to be my way, and just really um concentrating on growth because growth happens when mistakes are made. It doesn't have to be flawless. And overall, I think it just helps my team to trust me a little bit more and allow them to grow through their own processes as well and experiences.

Values That Guide Daily Decisions

Julian Placino 8:47

I think the mantra that you mentioned, progress over perfection, sort of captures all of that, right? So the focus is on growth, making small iterations and not getting caught up in the uh, I guess, any barriers of trying to be perfect. So I think that's a that's a great point. So um you you mentioned earlier about the culture, and brothers is built on values of family, care, and excellence. Yes. So how does that, how do those values actually show up in the day-to-day running of the company? And ultimately, what does that mean for your customers?

Lynn Tomasek 9:16

You know, um family is just really who we are. Our values really show up in everything we do. It's just not these signs that we put on the wall, right? It's not just something that we put on our website. It's really the really um helps us to make our daily decisions, you know, and things that we do to care for our employees, our team members, for each other, we are evaluating that with all the decisions that we're making. So it's a continual conversation, you know, is this does this really come down to the core values? Um, does it strengthen our family feel? So when we look at recruitment, when we look at processes and procedures and you know, events and different things that we're gonna do, does this really encapsulate and and really continue to have that family feel? Are we supporting them and their families? And um, you know, being able to just continue to strive for excellence in everything that we do too. So, you know, whether that's goal setting and different initiatives that we put out there, um, so it's really we just have to align with that. And we have that win-win-win philosophy. And so when, you know, when our team members win, when our community wins, um, the company ends up winning as well. And so it's really important that, you know, family thinking not just about our family, their families, care, um, care for the team members and our our clients. Um, and then that, you know, that ultimately will create help create excellence.

Hiring For Character And Pride

Julian Placino 10:37

So tell us more about the team. What makes them special? What makes them great?

Lynn Tomasek 10:42

It's it's the people, right? So people just in general, and you know, when we go to family events, my husband doesn't work in the company, but when we go to uh company family events, uh he will often comment, he's like, gosh, you just have the best people. They're not just good at what they do, they're actually good humans and they have pride in the work that they do and the care that they have for the client. You know, it's not just they're just not in it for the money, they're not just in it for what they, you know, coming to work and getting a paycheck. They really care. Um, they have technical skills and that can be taught, but it's really their character and their mindset that really makes a difference.

Giving Back With The Butterfly Effect

Julian Placino 11:21

Gotcha. Okay. I also know that Brothers is very big into giving back to the community. So tell us about Brothers gives back, what that is, and what that does for the community.

Lynn Tomasek 11:32

You know, I'm a big believer in Andy Andrews' book, The Butterfly Effect. And it's all the small intentional actions that create a ripple effect that's far beyond what we can see in that exact moment. So it's really that philosophy that shaped how we give back. We give back to the community, and by giving back to the community and those organizations, they're impacting so many lives and creating this ripple effect throughout. So we're really intentional about it, we're processed about it, driven. If you know, if you just do it kind of when you feel like doing it or when you think about doing it, then it often can be, you know, forgotten about. And so we make it, you know, just a part of our daily processes and it's not optional, it's not uh sporadic, it's built into our structure. And do we just want to make sure that it gets done and you know, our team gets involved? And so we just, it's just part of our overall culture and what we do for, you know, making sure we're consistent with it.

Julian Placino 12:26

Any great stories that come to mind that have come from this program?

Lynn Tomasek 12:30

You know, we have so many different programs. We uh Brent Ely, for example, Brent Ealy is a organization here that supports families that their kids are being treated for cancer. And um, we give away free plumbing work and you know, work at their facilities. And, you know, through that, even we've donated like sports tickets where these families are in town and they can go experience something that they wouldn't be able to otherwise. Um, we do brothers' carers bags where we hand out um like these homeless kits to people, you know, that as we see them. We just do so many different things. I don't know if there's one specific, but we meet people that come into our office and they tell us their story. And, you know, I just just the impact is so great. And every time we meet somebody and it's just an awe of the organizations that they have and what they do for people in our community. And um, you know, we just try to incorporate it into so many different areas from our shoe covers that we wear. And I just it goes on the list goes on and on, and all the things that we do. So um the impact is big, but I don't know if there's one specific story that stands out.

Using Peakzi For SEO And Insights

Julian Placino 13:34

What a great combination! Not just a great home services company, but a force for good and social impact. Uh I'm sure your father would be super proud, is proud in doing all of these things and continue to carry that forward. That's great. So uh so shifting gears just a bit. So this show here, of course, is powered by Peakzi. You are a Peakzi customer. So, how would you explain to other home services leaders what Peakzi actually is?

Lynn Tomasek 13:56

That's a great question. Uh, Peakzi, you know, we were one of the early adopters with Peakzi and being able to use the platform to really look at and compare ourselves to our competition, to how the um the community and our clients are viewing us to be able to see the different trends and um make decisions based off of that. So it helps us to understand how to pivot and what's going on in the marketplace and get ahead of that. And um, you know, as uh technology is changing and search results are changing and more AI-driven, um, they have been very impactful and helpful to us to make sure that we're staying relevant with those changes. And we're incredibly grateful to have the partnership and to be involved with them because it's allowed us to make some very um very good decisions for our business and stay again ahead of the curve in some of the things that are going on out in the world.

Julian Placino 14:52

So tell us about some of those decisions. What are some of the most important strategic decisions Peaksy has helped you make?

Lynn Tomasek 14:59

So some of those decisions, um, so we're able to see different trends, for example, on um keywords that are trending. So we're able to look ahead and see what keywords in our industry are trending and make sure that our SEO and some of our PPC terms are really optimized so that you know, if a if the market is searching for gas lines right now, right, and that's a hot trend for whatever reason, then we can gear some of our, we want to make sure we're showing up in those search results. So utilizing um blog articles and again optimizing our our web pages and and PPC and you know all the different terminology out there. So when those customers, those multitude of customers are searching, then we're able to show up and make sure that we're part of the results that they're getting. And so that's one specific um way that it's helped us.

Julian Placino 15:51

So kind of real-time marketing insights so you can pivot based on what the market is actually looking for and not just guessing. That's that's great.

Lynn Tomasek 15:58

It's no longer it doesn't have to be what we feel, right? We think they should be looking for this this time of year, but they're really not.

Julian Placino 16:04

Yeah. So any other interesting features or or outcomes you can report being a Pixie customer?

Lynn Tomasek 16:10

Oh, it's really good to be able to see. I mean, they've added it's constantly adapting. And I love that we, um my marketing team is able to have monthly calls with um with the Peakzi team to stay on top of the changes that they're making because you know they're constantly evolving, which is great. You don't want a company that stays stagnant. So they're they're continuing to add features. And the different features with um, you can look at the customer reviews and the customer sentiments. So seeing how we stack up against our competition, where we need to improve, that's been very helpful. There's some employment things that are available to us with the recruiting that we're just starting to get into. Um, but that's another feature that you know we're very interested in. So there's there's just again continued growth with um Peak Zi and what they're doing and us learning how to utilize those different features.

Julian Placino 16:58

So it sounds like you have a good understanding of what the features are, but you're still kind of at the beginning of it. You mentioned the recruiting piece, and it's really cool because you get to see like all the technicians based on their actual reviews, and that's very empirical evidence on who are great top performers you can bring to your team. And I know that culture and people are number one to you. So um excited to see what you can report on that later on. So um anything else you want to share about Peaksy before we kind of begin to close out here, Lynn?

Lynn Tomasek 17:23

You know, they've just been, I used to say Peakzi has been incredibly helpful again, just ahead of the curve. And that uh that that's that's you know, differentiator between them and other people. Um, you know, AI, they knew AI was coming years ago and started on this journey, and some people are just now trying to catch up. So the fact that um they're ahead of it has helped us keep ahead of where we need to be as well. And I think that that's really important to have those um future thinkers and you know, we don't always know um what's going on. And so when you have people that help to educate you, then it helps you to stay ahead of it as well.

The Legacy Lynn Wants To Leave

Julian Placino 17:58

Well, appreciate you sharing those words, and we're excited to see your continued success with the platform. So um, so Lynn, close us out when all is said and done, and it's interesting because you've just been so integral to um uh the business and hearing from the beginning, the middle, and and now casting vision for the future. Like what type of legacy do you want to leave behind for your team, your community, and your people?

Lynn Tomasek 18:21

You know, um, I have big shoes to fill with my dad, you know, so I've got a great, you know, great person to look up to. Um one of the things, you know, I love the word impact. And one of my personal, I have a personal mission. You know, businesses have a business mission. My personal mission, though, is also to make a positive impact on the lives of others with every interaction and experience that I create for it with them. And so with that, just like with the butterfly effect for our brothers' gifts back, it's my small actions every day that impact people and will change the world in the future. And so I just want to inspire people and help them. And I hope that the, you know, my interactions with them help them to be better people, to achieve their dreams, to chase after the things that they're looking for. And I'll never fully know the you know, full impact of of what I, you know, of my interactions because people will move on and they'll go do other things. And I hope for that for them, because I hope that people go and chase the dreams that they have. And, you know, maybe I encourage or inspire them to do that.

Where To Find Brothers Online

Julian Placino 19:22

Oh, that's a very inspiring vision and uh a great way to think about your legacy. It looks like you're already making such tremendous impact. Uh, so we wish you all the continued success. So uh Lynn, close us out. Share with us your website, your social media. How do folks get a hold of you?

Lynn Tomasek 19:37

Our website's very easy. Uh just www.brothersplumbing.com. You can find us on um all the socials under the same name. And so um, we've got a great team. We've been working, you know, just trying to demonstrate our culture and share. Um, you know, we're here in the Denver metro area, and um I can give we have a jingle that everybody likes to sing, but I'm not gonna sing it for you. Um so it's great, it's uh we're pretty easy to find.

Julian Placino 20:06

So follow Lynn on social so you can hear the jingle, which he's not gonna perform for us now.

Lynn Tomasek 20:11

And um, you know, my sister works in the business, so I think one of our great things looking up the sisters at brothers, um, that kind of differentiates ourselves as well. It's two women in the trades and sisters that work at a company that's called Brothers.

Julian Placino 20:24

That is a really great story indeed, and definitely worth following. So uh Lynn, we'll make sure to have all your contact information in the show notes. And this was uh a real joy to get to know you. So thank you for sharing your story.

Final Thanks And Sign Off

Lynn Tomasek 20:34

Thank you, Julian. I really appreciate it.

Julian Placino 20:36

And that is it for today's episode. So thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you next time on the next episode of the Home Services Success Stories podcast powered by Peakzi, the number one AI platform for growing your home services business.