March 4, 2015, 6:52 PM
Welcome to the first episode of The Silvertrac Extra Podcast! We are super excited to kick this off and look forward to sharing some amazing material with you in the future. In this episode we lay the groundwork for future episodes and spend a little time getting to know the co-hosts, Chris Anderson and Johnny Page. Listen in and don't forget to share!
Episode #1 Transcript
Johnny: Hey everyone. Welcome to the Silvertrac Extra episode number one. A podcast designed to help you improve in the security industry. My name is Johnny Page and I'm joined with my co-host Chris Anderson. Chris, how are you doing today?
Chris: Good. How are you doing John?
Johnny: I am super excited. To be honest, I am a little bit nervous because it is our first podcast ever. I think we've done a couple webinars together and all that but there is just something that feels a little bit different about doing a podcast, don't you think?
Chris: Yet. I have to admit I was a little bit nervous when you first asked me about my name. I didn't know what to say, I forgot it.
Johnny: Well let's see if we can fumble our way through this one. So Chris I think the best way for us to start is to get a recap or a preview of what the episode will be. So I think we have plans of going through. We will introduce ourselves a little bit. We will cover what the purpose of the show is, we will go over a little bit about who should listen, maybe the show is not designed for. We will give a little bit of background about you and I, how we met and then we will give a preview of how the shows in the future will be structured. So to kick things off Chris, where did you grow up? Tell us a little bit about yourself and where you grew up.
Chris: Well actually I was born and raised in California. Small city called Lakewood, California for the first – I think it was about six years old and then we moved to Long Beach which is neighboring, probably about 7 or 8 miles south from there. I lived there most of my life.
Johnny: Okay and do you have any siblings?
Chris: Yeah, I actually have a twin brother John. I've got an identical near* twin. And then I have a younger brother named Scott, who works for us as you know.
Johnny: Wow. So what was it like growing up with a twin?
Chris: Well I almost kind of actually grew up with – my father was like the Great Santini. If any of [inaudible] are old enough to know who Robert Duvall is, I highly recommend you rent that movie because that was my father. My brother being a near* twin, what that means, he's left-handed, I'm right-handed, my hair, the cowlick in the back goes to the right and his goes to the left. So it's just like looking in a mirror.
Johnny: That's incredible. Now where you guys pretty close growing up?
Chris: No we were actually totally opposite. I mean we were at war at elementary school. We had rubber balls and ropes, he had his gang, I had my gang, totally different. Because when you're twins people want to know well who can beat up who, who is the strongest. When you both look the same, identical, I mean we actually switched classes, that's how close we looked.
Johnny: Wow. Any cool pranks that you guys played on your parents or anything like that being able to switch places?
Chris: Well we did it when we were at elementary school. I liked his art class and believe it or not he liked my science class. So for about six months, we just switched. We didn't know we were doing anything wrong, we were probably what in fourth grade? It wasn't until later when the teacher finally figured it out.
Johnny: Wow. I could imagine that being pretty dangerous. So Chris, do you have any kids?
Chris: I actually have two daughters. I have a 16-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old daughter.
Johnny: Oh cool, very awesome.
Chris: What about you? Where do you live in?
Johnny: So I currently live in – luckily I live on the central coast of California but I grew up in Beau*, North Carolina up in the mountains where it's currently – I think there is a high of 0° there today. So of course I'm texting back and forth with my parents telling them how fortunate it is that I am in 70° weather right now and they've got snow piled up on in the porch and in the driveway. So I feel pretty fortunate to be on the central coast. And I live here with my wife who is expecting our first child any day now. So if the episode goes blank or this one is unusually short then hopefully I'm off to the hospital to have our first daughter.
Chris: Absolutely brother, I got you covered, no problem. Are you super close to the hospital? Do you have like a 10 minute ETA or is it like a paramedic response?
Johnny: No we are about 20 minutes away and it is kind of like a little a little backroad. There is one that is right off the freeway that's really, really massive but we decided to go to a smaller one; a little bit more homier, a little bit more personal touch. But it is a little off the freeway, so I am hoping to be able to pull out one of those red lights, slap it on the roof and be able to do just like in the movies and race my wife to the hospital to have our daughter, at least something memorable right?
Chris: I know absolutely. It's life-changing and anybody will tell you, it's unbelievable.
Johnny: Yeah, we are counting down the days. It's pretty exciting.
Chris: That's fantastic.
Johnny: So Chris, why don't we go over a little bit about what the purpose of the show is. Why did we decide to start the Silvertrac Extra?
Chris: Well you know John, dealing with the industry it's a really, really difficult industry. Everybody has so many ways of conducting their business or getting into the business. A lot of the guys are operators that worked as a security guard. So you don't see a lot of people with the MBAs in this business.
Johnny: Yeah and I think we, in conversations that we've had off the air, we were talking a lot about the industry's tendency to not want to share anything with the fear of their competitors getting a hold of it. So you don't find, like there are in a lot of other industries where there is a lot of peer to peer, working together to see what works especially I know in the start up industry, a lot of technology industry, people are very willing to share what's working and what's not where we don't necessarily see that as much in the security industry. So I already know that you and I have talked and our goal is really to help kind of break those walls down and share what is working because you and I get the opportunity to work with so many different companies all over the world really. That we get to see what's working and what's not, from everything from operations, to how they hire their guards, human resources, sales...
Chris: I think we're going to be able to create a whole different environment on here because everybody is just again what we talked about, everybody is so competitive. They are really, they are just scared. The industry is huge, there are several different verticals for these guys to go after, there is the commercial, residential, homeowners association, we got school districts, hospitals. There are numerous verticals for these guys to get involved in and again I just think it's because the industry is so close in the way from one guard company – I should say from one officer going from one company to the next company. They never know who is coming in the door and who is working with each other. So I think, having everybody come together and learning what we've done, my [inaudible], I think it's going to be game changing for all of them.
Johnny: Yeah I certainly think so too and I had the pleasure of going through, at the end of 2014 I went through the full list of Silvertrac clientele. And I was going through and in the down season around Christmas time, my goal in digging through all of that data, I was trying to identify trends in some of our customers that are doing – seem to be succeeding more than others. And I was trying to identify what was different about the ones who are successful and I know one of the things that stood out, it was undeniable, it was that customers that have worked one on one and got to spend time with you, were more likely to be successful, not only with the software but as a business. And so I know that one of our goals is to re-create that process. Not every company can just drive up the 405 and spend the afternoon with you but we would like to be able to companies that are more remote or farther away to be able to experience what it is that you really have to offer because you have the unique position of having been in their shoes before as a security operator.
Chris: You know I will tell you, I don't have a huge background when it comes to college. I have very limited college, I came straight from high school, got into a little bit of college as mentioned and then became a street cop. You know I wanted to follow my father's footsteps, had no idea, any intention of getting into and involved with the security business. And I'll go over that again later but anybody and everybody that I talk to, right off the bat I just tell them plain and simple, what I am about to show you, I'm not a genius, what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell you what not to do because I did it. You know what I mean, I'm just telling you hey listen but and they go wow Chris, that's amazing. I go well it's not really amazing, I think you are just agreeing with me because you probably have experienced the same thing when it comes to working the field or hiring guards or dealing with different clients. I've been there, I've got 25 years in the industry so you know I think that's where we kind of break ice in the beginning. And that's where the relationship really becomes – that's truly what it is in this business, is building a relationship first right?
Johnny: Yeah absolutely. And I think that one of the things that we will aim not to do is just to be clear as we start, to all of our listeners, this isn't going to be a glorified sales pitch of Silvertrac. Our goal is really to provide value for our listeners whether you decide to use Silvertrac or not. And we will have several discussions that Silvertrac has no influence over, so we will dive into successful hiring processes. We will dive into client relationship management. There is going to be a lot around the industry that Silvertrac doesn't have an influence in but we are really prepared to dive into those areas and things and issues that you guys are facing as our listeners, our goal is to provide a show that helps provide values in those areas and not to be a sales pitch. And also, although we hope to have a good time and that it is entertaining but the purpose of the show is really to give you tools to improve your business. So this is probably not going to be like the late-night radio show where you turn it on just to pass a couple of hours while you are on your patrol. This is going to be something that we hope you take and it provides actionable steps at the end of the show that you can implement to help really improve your business and reach your goals as an operator, business manager etc.
Chris: It's a really good point. Technology is one thing and we want to invite anybody, it doesn't matter what you are using because there is so much technology out there whether it is an accountability tour system or a GPS. It doesn't matter, what we are here to do is just to share the experiences, share some of the things that we've brought to the table to help folks with. You know people who are looking for a tool, great come to us because we've seen it all, right? We have used everything including myself, got 25 years as I've mentioned.
Johnny: Absolutely and so Chris, who is the show designed for?
Chris: Well, I'm going to start right from the bottom. And I think that's where a lot of owners and people make the mistake, it starts right there. So I'm going to tell you it starts from the guards, all the way from the sales or business development managers to human resources to your VPs and or owner operators/CEOs. I think it's a show for everyone.
Johnny: And I think that leads us straight into what our listeners can expect. So we have broken this down, the Silvertrac Extra will consist of two different types of episodes if you will. So the first type, we are going to open up something called Ask Chris. This will be a segment that will allow you our listeners to submit your questions to the show throughout the week and then have them answered here on the show. And this is a couple of things, first of all it allows you to pick Chris's brain on specific problems that you are facing in your business, to tap into that experience and into all of those relationships that he has throughout the industry. But it also allows you to hear how, number one, other issues that businesses are facing and then either how Chris, myself or any of the guests that we have on the show help them solve that problem or what their recommendations are. [break in audio]
Yeah which leads into what the second type of show that we will do is we will have full interviews where Chris and I will bring in a guest and together we will interview them and pick their brain on their specific perspective of the security industry and recommendations that they have. We will talk to owners in the industry, see what issues they are facing, what they've used to be successful. So a lot of cool things to look forward to which leads us into Chris why us, why should someone value our opinion? What makes you credible in the security industry? How long have you been in the security industry?
Chris: Well I've been in the industry over 25 years. I ran and operated a security business in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, did that for 20 years and that's how the software came to play. And that's how we built it, started with parking management, a very basic foundation because I took on probably the worst clients that anybody could have. And those of you that are listening right now, you know exactly what I'm talking about and that's the apartment industry. I'm not – it's a tough industry. When you are dealing with residential homes and or tenants from commercial properties especially a bigger home owner association of 500 people. That's 500 people that can call and complain about your guard, so very, very difficult. The turnover is about every 90 days as we all know. No matter what kind of proposal you put in the ground, they're going to the back page for pricing, right? That's what makes it competitive. So we're going to talk about not only my experience in the industry from all levels, how it came, how the software was put together but we're going to talk about even the clients that I've been involved with since we opened the Silvertrac and I sold my business 10, 12 years ago. So a lot of shared experiences John, it's exciting and we will make it comical too. Let's have some fun with this, keep the people excited.
Johnny: No I want to go back a couple of steps here because before you and you mentioned it a little bit earlier in the show but before you even got into the security, you were a street cop in LA. So what was that like, what was your day to day like in the sheriff department before jumping into security?
Chris: Well like I said, it started with my father. He was a police officer, should say deputy sheriff for Los Angeles county and when I grew up, that's what I wanted to do. That's all I knew. In fact, before my dad beat me when I was a kid, he never read me my rights so I wanted to [inaudible]. It was a pretty tough industry so I figured if I can't beat them, why not join them, right?
Johnny: Yeah, wow.
Chris: I started as a police explorer at 15 1/2 and what that is, it's kind of gives you the ability to kind of work at the station at a lower level doing fingerprint, report writing – those kinds of things. And then what it does give you – when you build up so many hours, you get to go on a ride along. So you get to really experience what the police officers are doing in the field, make that decision whether or not you wanted to make it a full time career. And they also like put you through an 18 week Academy. On every Saturday, we went up to the actual Sheriff's Academy getting yelled and screamed at every weekend. And of course it was easy because I fell in love with all the instructors because they yelled at me just like my dad did.
Johnny: So you have been trained all along, right?
Chris: Yeah, I was being trained all along. It's really funny, I really had to thank my dad when I was standing there in line going wow all these other kids are having mental breakdowns. And I was just like water off a duck's back.
Johnny: Wow, that's incredible.
Chris: Yeah, the fun part later on when I tried to apply, when I became of age – another funny story, I went for my oral interview and I'm thinking I got this made it, I passed the written. I go with my dad's taking me, we are going up to the oral interview board. He gave me all the questions going up there so I'm in the interview, thought I did a great job. I come out and I get a letter two days later that says may not be assertive enough due to youthful appearance. I had a real baby face. So they denied to me and I will never forget my father's look like what did you do wrong? And I was like dad I answered all questions right! So luckily enough, I was able to appeal it and get back on couple years later which was my advantage. But which is leading to, is after the actual Academy graduation, they put you in a custody environment and I was able to start at the LA County Jail. And LA County, how it works, you got to remember this, everybody being arrested comes into the main facility. So everybody in Los Angeles County, so every gang member, every crook from all the cities within the Los Angeles County region are coming to this mean custody facility. So it gives you a real ability to sit and learn in that environment. You have every crook, every person [inaudible] from every city. So a good foundation before you actually went out in the streets.
Johnny: Wow. I bet you saw some pretty eye-opening and you had some pretty unique experiences just getting started.
Chris: Yeah, well you can imagine being in a custody environment, being young, you have all these hard-core criminals in the custody facility. They are playing games with you, you don't know – so it's a good training ground before you actually go out in the streets and I was very fortunate while I was in custody to get involved with their gang unit detail. And I have a very good friend, who is my mentor named [inaudible], I hope to bring him in on these conversations later. He was a lieutenant at the time that worked street gangs for many, many years. And so he kind of guided me and took me through a step before I went out in the streets and worked the [inaudible] area.
Johnny: Wow, so how long were you at the Sheriff's Department before you went into your own security – like how did that transition work?
Chris: I'll tell you, I never thought I was ever going to leave the department. But while I was on the department, I mentioned that my father was a police officer, we had a really unique hobby and that was sport flying; actual experimental aircrafts. He taught me how to fly when I was a kid. He was a pilot. So as I remember being what, oh man I think like five or six years old, I couldn't even reach the rudder pedals. My feet were still dangly over the front seat and he would take me flying after he got off shift late at night. And we would actually go flying over the city lights and he taught us how to fly. So that was one of the [inaudible] and then unfortunately he was killed in an experimental aircraft that we were flying. It's called the BD 5 – you know the James Bond, that little jet that he kind of flew through the barn? You are younger than I am, so you may not have seen that but it was that type of aircraft and he was killed in 1992. And when he was killed – yeah it was pretty tragic, I was actually running from [inaudible] to Vegas, Sheriff's run – kind of like the big run they put together every year. It was actually the day of that run. So I had to take a leave of absence which...
Johnny: Oh my gosh, I'm sure that was difficult.
Chris: Yeah, we had a pretty trying time. My mom had a house under construction at the time my dad was trying to finish. So I took a leave of absence which kind of led to an introduction to somebody that just opened up a security company and it kind of took off from there for time purposes.
Johnny: Wow, incredible. So you spent just a little bit more than a decade at the Sheriff's office? In the Sheriff's Department? And then you transitioned into a company Anderson's Security, how long were you doing specifically security before and how parking got involved into all that.
Chris: Well when I was with the department, I wasn't really sure that I wanted to leave. So during that leave of absence, what I did is I actually got with the gentleman that owned the company called Brew Security. He was actually in the – off the 10th Freeway, I forgot the – West Covina area. He was in the West Covina area. He and I partnered up and I kind of did a part time while I was still kind of working with the department to see if it was going to be a good fit. Unfortunately, LA County at the time didn't allow you to do both jobs. You couldn't work as a security officer or even be tied to a security company if in fact you were a police officer. It was a conflict of interest. So I had to make a decision and while working with him, it was going so well, I just – to be honest, it was almost like losing family. I just took a job, I wanted to do something different and that is what I decided to do. I took my retirement money and I jumped in full [inaudible].
Johnny: Wow, incredible, incredible. So that led into the parking management which is what caused you to start the software. You were looking for a tool that would allow you to make the parking management services a little bit more streamlined, correct?
Chris: Yeah. In fact the first clients that we were dealing with – you got to remember, this was when security at that time was just coming, this was brand-new. I mean the only company that they really knew at the time was Wackenhut. There wasn't too many companies out in the market, so really, really new. And the majority of the complexes that were these contracts were apartment communities, homeowners associations so that was the majority of the work that we were actually providing. That's where we started to core business. And in California, in Southern California especially, parking is the number 1 in 2 reasons why residents move out of the community. So it made it very difficult for the managers to maintain or get their bonuses and keep their occupancy, what they call the 95 5, keep the house full. They still want a decent turn*but they got to keep the house full. So here we are providing the security patrols or the courtesy patrols and doing the routine lockups and they are constantly asking [inaudible] vehicles, cars that were parked in perspective parking or visitor parking. So I figured you know what if I could find a way to streamline the process, the retention was huge. So we learned to take that process away and that's how the parking application came in.
Johnny: Wow, what a cool transition. And so later on, we fast-forward probably about 10 years, your full-time Silvertrac, you went to an acquisition right? You decided to – the software took off, really look like a solution that could work for the industry as a whole. So someone came in and offered you, like how did the sale of Anderson Security go and then the transition into Silvertrac?
Chris: Well, I will tell you. It goes even further if you know during that time period, I was very successful with my first business and I even had to close it. We grew so fast that I couldn't even meet the payroll. For those of you that are listening, I'm sure you've been there. I actually had to move to a location where the mail got delivered during the morning hours so I could see if I could meet payroll because the clients weren't paying on time and as fast as I was bringing the contracts on, I couldn't bring the money quick enough. I actually had to shut the business down. So I actually had a couple businesses that we had to roll over and restart up again. I'm brand-new in this industry. So all of this is coming into play, the parking was going well, the security patrols, the standing guard – all that. So we obviously grew the business pretty large in Los Angeles and then it branched out through Orange County because we had sister properties in other communities that wanted to join us in the business. And then from there, it actually grew down. We had the opportunity to take on a huge contract on the same day, it was called Garden Communities. The developer down there had all kinds of parking issues. He tried to hire parking company to come in and they literally took him for hundreds of thousands of dollars for on permit registration. So he invited me down, he understood, asked about the opportunity and he actually – believe it or not John, he actually opened up a full – he actually gave me the master suite down there and say hey come on down here and if you can make this work, I will give you all the contracts to eventually 80,000 units. I want you down here and I want you to get the residents back online, build their confidence. If you can prove out the parking module which you obviously done very successful from what I've heard from the other groups down here. I'll roll all the security contracts over to you. In addition, I'll even roll my maintenance, answering service and I'll let you dispatch or take those calls for service.
Johnny: That sounds like a phone call that everyone wants to have.
Chris: Yeah. But I got to tell you, he was a guy--they called him the friends of Stewart, right? The FOSs--if you could pull it off, he was a fantastic partner but if you did him wrong, it could go wrong real quick. And you know what, we did a terrific job, we built it out and we incorporated. In fact, a lot of the software was built down there. So it rolled from a parking management module, allowing the residents to register their vehicles online through our system, removing that task and those responsibilities from managers to incident management to where the residents could actually now not only register their vehicles but report a parking issue. But they could go in and actually register and report a security issue to and listen to this, maintenance issues; go online and report a maintenance issue. Now when they did either one of those, especially maintenance [inaudible] rolled right into a central monitor where the maintenance teams has access as you know and then the managers had access. Everybody could be notified whether it was fire, flood in the event of an emergency. So it really streamlined the operation, we literally sat in the trailer, we were able to produce numbers and show him the amount of calls that were taken and it opened up a huge contract. It was fantastic. And we ran that for almost probably, man, 10, 11 years. And I had a company approach me and when our software was at to the completion point and said hey listen, you got to go. You're taking the contracts out here, what do we got to do--let me buy your company and you should be out selling this to the security industry. So I kind of feel that this day, we left a little bit too early. I should have hung on because we had the market at that time but I was just so beat up and so tired with the business staying up late and running. And it would be really nice to kind of reduce our employees and sell the business, put investment money in the software and grow from there. That's what we did.
Johnny: Wow, incredible. That's an awesome--sounds like an awesome story. I'm sure we'll get into, dive a little bit more in that process later on because there's so much involved in really passing a company on, setting up the purchaser to be really successful with those contracts. I know it has a big effect on your customers and then jumping into software, I'm sure that was a whole new territory. So we fast forward 11 years now since this sale of Anderson Security and into where we are today with Silvertrac and you've been doing--am I correct, Silvertrac has been around for 11 years now in the form that it is today?
Chris: Yeah, I actually think we're almost pretty close to almost 13. I'll tell you John, when we had--when Silvertrac was developed, when they were still using the old brick Motorola phones from Sprint, Android wasn't even out yet, neither was Apple or iOS.
Johnny: Yeah I think I actually saw some old marketing material from when the little brick flip phones were being used and I thought it looked kind of funny. They were old paper brochures, of course we do everything digital now but it certainly goes back a little bit farther than maybe some of what technology could support. It sounds like you were a little bit ahead of the market then I think it certainly rounded into place...
Chris: Yeah, let me tell you. Here's the biggest part of our problem back then, our guard can't use the application because he's over 60 years old and his thumbs are too big. [Inaudible]. So how far did that come right?
Johnny: Wow, that's incredible.
Chris: ...stylus pen right? Yeah, goes way back, way back brother.
Johnny: And that's actually how I met you. I was a customer of Silvertrac. I had going back, I moved from North Carolina to California actually in pursuit of playing golf. I wanted to get out of the snow, I played golf all the way through college. I had moved back home to my parents for about six months and really needed my next move and it was getting to be winter and all the golf were closing down. So I decided that California was a lot better place to figure out what my next move was. I didn't know if it could be golf but I wanted to give it a shot. So I actually moved, packed everything I own into an [inaudible], moved to the central coast of California where I am today. Got a job at a golf course and I had a degree in marketing. I didn't quite know if that's what I wanted to do, no job offers right out of school were really catching my eye. It wasn't something that I felt that I could be passionate about and while I was here, a job offer opened up at a local security company to really launch the first time that they had ever had a salesperson on staffing 32 years. So I thought that it sounded like something fun to be able to build a program but also make impacts from day one. So I decided to take the job doing sales and marketing...
Chris: I don't mean to interrupt you but I got to ask you a question. Did you get hit in the head with a golf ball? I don't get this. What made you come to the security industry? Did you did your homework? I mean you sound like a really educated guy. I mean I know you're now and you are so I mean what happened here?
Johnny: Golf is a cutthroat – when you go from playing golf even in college, I was at a pretty competitive level. My – at the time my handicap was a plus two but when you have to go from making a 6 foot putt to win prize money like a gift certificate to the Pro shop. When you make the transition to having to make 6 foot putts to food on the table, it's a little bit different. It's turning professional, it's a whole new game and I didn't quite know if I enjoyed playing golf as a job. It was difficult transitioning and especially when you get up into the bigger tournaments, it is highly coveted to play professional golf. So it was a lot of competition and it was kind of taking a turn to be something that wasn't as enjoyable for me. There was a lot of pressure, I was only 23 years old, so to think about doing something, I just don't think I was mentally there. And I started to discover a passion in business, so I was really reading a lot and really felt that I had a lot to contribute somewhere. And when the door opened up, I wasn't dreaming from age 5 of going into security but it was just a great opportunity to really have influence from day one at a local company. So I made the leap and here I am a couple years later.
Chris: Well I had no complaints brother because it's been really a good time working with you. I really enjoy that, it's been fantastic.
Johnny: Yeah, it's funny because when Silvertrac came across the board, you and I started working together because I think it had been an upper management for us for a while and hadn't quite made its way to where I was able to include it in our bid packages. But when I really learned what Silvertrac was, I felt like – because my first 4 to 6 months at the security company, I was trying to find what made us different than our competitors because I had to resort to competing on price because there was nothing that I could include in our proposal that really made us stand out from our competitors. Everyone said that they trained, everyone said that they had the best guards and so when I would sit side-by-side or see other presentations or proposals linking across, I was having a really difficult time finding what made us different. So when I saw Silvertrac come across the line, I knew no one else was, none of my competitors in my local market were using anything like it. So I actually took it upon myself to learn the software, implement it at the first couple of properties at our company. And so I was working side-by-side with you, those were back in the day when we were doing training just one on one, spending a lot of time with you on the phone. I'm lucky enough that you kept answering the phone and never gave up because I think there were times when you and I would spend multiple hours a day going through launching this not only as a software but then later on, launching the parking management side of things. And luckily you kept answering the phone and one day I call you with an idea, I had an entrepreneurial idea of my own of a software, something similar for the security industry. You invited me down to Huntington Beach to talk a little bit more about the idea but then also to talk about what you guys are doing at Silvertrac. And then fast forward six months, it's my first day with Silvertrac and I've been here with you guys for about a year and a half now. So it's certainly been a fun ride and I think there is plenty of good stuff to come as well.
Chris: Well you were a forward thinker. As you know we talked about the business, we went back and forth about some of the troubles and what was going to make you different and I can't even tell you how many times we spent to share in the vision, right? It wasn't about the technology, it was about the process, it was about the concept, it was about being a partner not the vendor, how you're going to make that transition that change with a client, right? You need to do something for them and you picked up on that because I assure you, I stay pretty busy with the clients that we do have and talking with people. And everybody just wants to go back to accountability, they just think it's GPS accountability. And what I really like about you and what I picked up John, is the fact that you wanted to always take it to that next level and you listen to. When I asked you to do something, you jumped on it and you got it done and you saw the results immediately which did you not?
Johnny: Yeah. It was actually – it was pretty impressive looking back, I didn't know what was normal for the industry and in a little bit less than three months, I had actually put on a quarter million dollars. I was overflowing our operations, we were having difficulty finding guards and staffing the positions because I had sold it so quickly. And I have the benefit of – no one else – we weren't really close to Los Angeles and I was far enough north of Los Angeles and far enough south of San Francisco to where we're kind of in our own little area. And no one else was using any type of software, everyone else was writing reports. No one else was even using guard tour systems. The market was completely untouched, so it was very new and I was pretty aggressive to the point where we did put on quite a bit of business because it was a great tool for the customers as well. So partnering with our company having been around for more than 30 years, we had enough contacts and it made enough noise to make quite a difference and on the bottom line after introducing Silvertrac. So it was exciting to say the least.
Chris: Yeah and I think when you first came on, I think I introduced you to quite a few people, right? That you could make phone calls and do follow-up with that had the same experience. And again, it was people with that vision, understanding. You know I have the passion, you can hear it in my voice, I sound like I'm on 2 cups of coffee all the time but it's what I believe. This is heartfelt, driven and very, very passionate about it because I know what is working. I hear it from all the different clients, I help the clients get set up and then now I'm dealing with their clients, their call. And I've got 10 years in this, all the way across the US.
Johnny: Yeah and I think the biggest difference when people talk to you versus you know it's not a typical sales call most of the time. What really fuels your passion in talking to a lot of people is that you know what it's like to be sitting at dinner and not to be able to have just a night with your wife, to have the phone constantly ringing or the pressure of meeting payroll or guards constantly doing things that are putting your contracts in jeopardy. You know what it's like to operate in that area, so a lot of what you do isn't for you just by building a technology company but it's fueled by helping people who, you lived a decade or more in those shoes and so I think that's what's really cool. People can tell when we talk – and that's a lot of what we hope to convey in the show here, is that we really do care. We are hoping to provide you the tools to really reach the goal of getting out of that the rat race. So the constant pressure that security can place on you. This can be an enjoyable industry, there is a lot of great things about the security industry. We are hoping to highlight those and get us to more enjoyable days and like waking up on Monday morning.
Chris: Absolutely and for those of you that want to stay married that just got in the security business, you need to give me a call, I'll tell you how to do that because it cost me my first marriage. You're trying to have dinner, your phone is going off, you are calling your supervisors, make sure that they are doing the follow-up and the guards. It's a vicious cycle, no doubt about it. So yeah in joking aside.
Johnny: Yeah, I think Chris will go – we are wrapping up today, so in parting our users or our listeners can do to really help us just make something that's valuable. If you listened, if you made it to the end of the episode here, thank you so much for taking the time to just let Chris and I introduce our idea here and the vision for the Silvertrac Extra. Hopefully you feel like you've got to know both of us a little bit more today. If you can, please click the share button whether you share us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, the more listeners we have, the more time, energy and money that we will be able to invest in really bringing you a valuable show. And then go ahead and put your email in and subscribe to the updates. You don't want to miss any new episodes, so make sure you subscribe. You will get an email each time that there is a new episode released and then go ahead and click the Ask Chris button and submit your questions. The half of our content or the episodes that come out will be centered around questions that you submit. So if there is a subject or an idea that you would like us to go through on some of our future episodes, go ahead and submit those. So Chris any parting words before we wrap up our inaugural Silvertrac episode?
Chris: No I think we did a pretty good job for the first one. What do you think?
Johnny: Yeah right. I didn't hear any dogs barking, there were no injuries so I think we have made it through the first. I guess if you and I are the only ones that ever listened to this, we will know that we probably could have done something a little bit better but I guess the rest remains to be seen.
Chris: No I think that it's a good – and again guys listen, we will wrap this up. We got some great people coming aboard for interviews in the future. So don't forget to submit your questions as Johnny mentioned before. Good time.
Johnny: Absolutely, well thank you guys for joining us and have an awesome day. See you on Silvertrac, the Silvertrac Extra, episode number two.
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