And we are live. Welcome back, everybody, to Beyond the Tool Belt, episode 307. I am your host, Ty Cobb Backer. Thank you for joining us on this wonderful Wednesday edition. We will be right back after our short intro from our sponsors.

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Welcome back, everybody, to Behind the Tool Belt, the show where we talk about building things that last, like businesses, crews, habits, and mindsets. And I am your host. Can't believe this. 307. 307. 307. As we wind down the season, um, coming up, we're approaching our our sixth season. And with that, a lot of cool things happened around the time we started this thing. We had our home shows, we had 21 Turkey Salute, we had we just we had a lot of things develop around that time, and a lot of things developed because of this podcast when Chris Baker and I, and and a lot of our amazing guests, but most importantly, those of you that are listening right now and that have followed us, have given us input on things that you know we do today in our community. And one of those things that we all hold near and dear to our heart, which is like Christmas morning for us, is our 21 Turkey Salute. And today I want to talk about that. I want to talk about why our 21 Turkey Salute didn't just feed people during a hard time, but it changed our company. It changed how we run things, it changes, it changed how we operate uh for the long run. And I'm going to try to explain exactly why why it has changed us and why people want to come work here and why people choose um choose us and choose to trust us with their homes and and their businesses. And uh I'm sure I'm gonna leave some things out. I I I know I'm going to. Um, there's a lot of people that were involved back then, and I'd love to be able to get a head count of the the original people. I know Jana was there. I know Matt Bracken showed up, I think with his daughter. I think he brought like a half-thawed turkey to the event that we had to hurry up and try to get thawed out before we dropped it in. Obviously, Pastor Joel was there. Um and Jana, and I think, I think there was a guy that that did a video blog or something of us that came down there. I know for a fact Baker was there because he was one of the co-founders of not just Behind the Tool Belt, but um it was us running our mouths and and and had to cash that check our ass wrote one night on Behind a Tool Belt. And and I think it was Zach Fisher or somebody, one of our listeners, actually told us what the Guinness Book of Worlds record, Guinness, Guinness Book of World records for deep frying turkeys all at one time, at the same exact time, was 20. So I think we were batting around, you know, 80. We're gonna do 80. We're gonna cap this bitch off with 80. Chase that, Mofo. And uh, I think we came to our senses during that podcast where I was like, let's just do one, one more, just one more. Because I'm what's going through my head at that time, I'm like, man, I only got like three turkey pots and maybe two propane tanks and a couple other things. So I'm like, let's start out a little small and how it's grown. You know, we're up to 27 this year. This year's our our sixth annual 21 turkey. We have fed hundreds, if not thousands, of people, and that inspired us to do many more things, you know, food drives, diaper drives, you name it. We we're we were we're doing it or or we done it or or planning to do it, I'm sure. So I want to talk about that. I want to talk about how it's changed our company, changed our culture, and has been a a learning lesson for all of us, a growing, growing lesson in leadership, handling situations under stressful times and and all kinds of things. And you know, uh COVID-19 uh turned normal life upside down. And we we, I guess, Chris and I and and whoever else was there. Vic, I don't know if you were in the room back then in those days or not. You were okay. Well, then you were there too, I'm sure, and Tina and the whole familiarly. Which we gotta we gotta find some pictures. I'm pretty sure Rachel and Johnny were there. We got to get a head count on that. Janet, if you're listening, let's find some photos. I'm sure Rachel has photos of a head count because she's actually the one that that recorded all 21 of us. We had little badges on. We still wear the badges and countdown and do all that stuff. And it is just it, it's it's it's awesome. It it it it remains to be awesome. It started out for for an amazing cause, and that's when we really, really, really, really, really realized, at least for me personally, how fortunate I am. But I think the most important thing was that we needed to do more. We we got to do more for our community. That that has been so awesome to us. And and uh, you know, there had to have been something that we could do during that time. I was like, we we we are engineers, we are builders of things, we we work with our hands, we have plenty of gear and and and all the grit that that that goes with all that, and and uh what are we gonna do? And and that's kind of how it was. And and we we found out what the the world record was for deep frying turkeys at one time, and and so we we set up, we set up safely outdoors, and we did 21, and we called it 21 turkey slew, and we made a promise from then on to one it up, one up, you know, every year. And since then, the the tradition has grown into something bigger than a record. I mean, every year we serve hundreds of people, and and last year we served over a thousand plates of of food to our neighbors um who needed them. And we I think it every year we see them get younger and younger, and uh families with little children and and you know, obviously single, single parents, and the list goes on of the of the impact that we have, and um it becomes a day our community looks forward to, and and I know for a fact that our team essentially drops everything that's going on and participates, you know, and we all do, no matter what, no matter what's going on in our personal lives or professional lives. And and it's it's it's it's meaningful, you know, to us, and it's it's organized and it's done with purpose and and it has showed us what true consistency and discipline is all about, and that we hope that we created that in our team members' DNA to bring that discipline and that tenacity and that consistency to work every day, but most importantly, take that home to to their families. Um and and that's one of many things that this this 21 Turkey, the salute, has has done for us as a company and galvanize and create that that culture that we hold on to and build upon so so deeply and dearly year in and year out. And and you know, and and at the heart of it, you know, the 21 Turkey has just become more than just a deed. It it's a live, you know, just like this podcast is right now. It's it's live public stress test for our team um to build on. And then um that exact um quality we want to to teach, you know, our team and and um what people should expect you know from us every day, right? That same tenacity that we put into this is something that that we should bring. We should bring it every day to to our work life, to to our home life, to all those things. And and what it shows, it shows competency. Okay, it shows uh reliability, it shows safety. Okay, Vic and I were just talking about safety the other day, and and of course, um care. Our whole entire core value, core values have been built around this event. I mean, you if you read, if you have read, and we'll share it with anybody that that wants to read our core values. Now I need to update them. Um I I have updated them personally, but I gotta share it with the rest of the company. Um we've added one in there. And um, but anyhow, we'll we'll share. But if you read them, you'll see that that's they everything about the 21 Turkey Salute is in our core values. Um and I'm real big on competency. First off, I don't like to look incompetent. Believe it or not, um, even though I'm probably the most incompetent person when it comes to many things. And a lot of it has to do with I'm gonna get off topic here for a second. You know, life's about asking difficult questions. And what I mean by that is, is I spent half of my life not wanting to look dumb. Not knowing that I probably don't look dumb if I ask questions, but if I did, it probably would have only been for about five minutes, but I would spend a decade looking stupid because I didn't know how to do something because I was afraid to ask that uncomfortable question. So a life is about a series of uncomfortable, only for us, uncomfortable questions. Not even realizing that there's probably other people in that room that are grateful that you did ask that question. So ask more questions. Anyhow, so competency. I wanted to add that little tidbit in there. Don't be afraid to ask those uncomfortable questions, and most likely they're only uncomfortable for you. So, you know, coordinating all those friars, dozens of volunteers, food safety standards, permits. We had to get more permits this year than we have. I think there's about five, four, five, three, three to five permits that we we haven't had to get before, from um food and food and health safety certs to um our tent being inspected to man, just there's uh permits to pull to even set up in the city. And um, you know, and the thousand plus plates is is a serious project. I mean, it it it it it truly is. And then there's there's um purchasing involved, there's stage planning, uh timing needs to be nailed temperature monitoring, uh, the the quality. We have to protect the quality, right? Because we're not gonna serve shitty turkey or mashed potatoes or you know, because that's how you do anything is how you do everything, right? So our our turkey has to be the best turkey. And when you watch us run the salute, and and I'm emphasizing us, because it it takes a village, man, to do this. Um, you're watching us run a complex job, whether if you compare that to a signing job, a window job, a roofing job, it shouldn't be any different. I mean, it it's orchestrated, it's planned, it's it's um scheduled, all these, all these things and all these people that we have to get involved. Um you get to watch us in action, okay. And uh so we don't say we we don't say we can execute what we prove it and and where everyone can see it, you know, and it's it's we're definitely on stage. So um next is reliability, okay. Um deadlines. There's deadlines. Uh deadlines don't care about weather, right? And neither do hungry families, is the way that I see this thing. Every year we say we'll be there, and every year we show up on time with a plan and with a backup plan and another backup plan, just in case if something changes. And that rhythm builds, that rhythm right there is what builds our culture and builds our reputation. You can feel, you can feel that that day, that morning, the night before, that day. And when we're done and we're cleaning up, like there's this huge sigh of relief, like we did it again somehow, some way, something is watching over us to be able to perform this at the level, at the scale, at the efficiency that we that we run and operate this thing. People, you know, and people come to depend on us, and and we we are dependable. Um, and then there's the the safety aspect of it. And you know, and I'm talking about things that these these are all things that have changed the way that we run and operate our business today. And and I'm speaking on things that have changed in our company and that things that we are still working on today. And these are things that we're trying to teach and coach and and lead by example as just this one simple day. I know it just seems like three or four hours we end up busting out 100 to 120 turkeys in a matter of just minutes, minutes. Within three, four hours, this thing is done, done and done, and but weeks and hours go into planning this thing and making sure that everyone is safe. You know, there's there's hot oil, you know, and hot oil demands cool heads, right? We gotta stay cool, we gotta stay calm, and and we treat that responsibility with respect. And we respect the city and everything that they ask us to do, and we remain safe, you know, in every aspect of everything that you could possibly think of. We have gone over and beyond on our PPE from the spacing of the pots, then that started out early because we needed six-foot distancing. Um, you know, and early on was, you know, the face mask and and all that stuff. But the discipline, you know, the you know, the fire watch, you know, we got to keep an eye on everything and make sure that they're still lit, nothing's leaking, and all that stuff. And all our propane tanks are new. Propane tanks, nothing old, nothing rusty, none of that stuff. We used to take donated um propane tanks. We won't do that anymore. I buy new ones. Every year we get new ones. And um, so if anybody ever wants to participate monetarily or donate, you know, turkeys or oil, we're looking for oil this year. Our supply from the past couple of years uh can no longer provide us with oil. So I'm I'm checking around on pricing for oil and stuff right now. Um, my dad might be able to hook us up with his vendor that he uses down there at the restaurant. I spoke with him this morning, but the turkeys are ordered, the tents ordered, the permits are in, everything's good to go. It's and there's a lot of people involved to make sure that these strings are being pulled. And I'm grateful for every single one of them, every every single person that that has been involved with this. And like Zach said, it's it's it's very humbling, very humbling. And Zach's been uh, I think Zach, yes, six years in a row, Zach was there and his family. Um, I think that's where our our relationship had really bonded at that point in time. I mean, with with the world being upside down and us just wanting to smash it in the face and not not, you know, there were strength in numbers that day when we did that. We felt strong, we felt positive. And uh unfortunately, we ran out of food in like 30 minutes, literally. We didn't even advertise for it. We just set up a curbside pickup and literally we had to turn people away, and it was so freaking heartbreaking. And a lot had changed, a lot has changed since then, and and uh care, you know, uh serving more than you know, more than just a thousand plates is is not just a stunt that we pull every year. It's a statement about what we value. Um you know, we serve when there's nothing to sell. There's nothing to sell, right? We help when no one is watching. That kind of care is the foundation of of trust and the foundation that we are building here. Um so what does what does all of that um do for our company over time? And and here here's here's the long-term effect in in plain English. First, first it builds trust, okay. Utmost, the utmost trust with our team members, right? And Zach, ever since that day, and that's a perfect example. Zach that day um has trusted me, and I have trusted him. I would trust that man to to watch my kids, and that says a lot, you know, and and there's there's a few couple, few other people. There's at least 25, 30 of us there because we had to do 21 pots. We needed at least 21 people to to drop the turkeys and stuff, but but um, you know, it built trust amongst those that were there. And each year that we do this, we it builds trust with our team members, and it is built, it is helped build our culture today. It's the foundation and it builds brand equity, okay, in the community that money can't buy. It's a big part. Um, you know, a big part of that has been our team. Our team is our brand. When and when our neighbors think of us, we want them to not just see the logo. We we want them to think of a hot meal on a cold day. Um, they we want them to remember the smiles um on our team members' faces um when they were in line, you know, serving serving food with dignity. Okay. Um we want them to think of a team that that shows up. Um that emotional memory keeps us hopefully at the top of their minds when when someone needs a hand personally, their business with with whatever, whatever the case might be. Um that word of mouth um becomes our strongest channel. Um because people don't just remember what we did, they remember how we made them feel. Um and then um it changes, it changes the math in our business. When trust walks in a door ahead of us, one of our team members show up at somebody's house and they've already know us, they already like us, they trust us. Um that that scales that scales our sales. Um the the sales cycles are shorter, fewer quotes are are shopped around, reviews are stronger, referrals compound, and that's one of one of but probably one of the least important things about this day. But but I did want to mention that. So if there's any other business owners out there listening of what it's done for our team, but also our business and how we can continue to feed our team, and then our turn, our team in turn can feed our community. Um, but um it leads to it just leads to a great culture. And and um, you know, one community event becomes a flywheel for uh sustainable sustainability or sustainable growth. Um, so that's shit. And then okay, and then let's talk about um how it makes us a magnet for talent, whether it's at the home show. I don't know how many people uh we've been able to retain, recruit at at home shows at the 21 Turkey Salute, our food drives. A lot of people were looking for more than more than just a paycheck. And and Vic was one of those people. And the list goes on. And we've talked about this, how Vic, you know, had a successful business, but wanted to be wanted to be a part of something bigger and was looking for purpose, was looking for camaraderie, was looking for pride. Okay, and the 21 Turkey Salute is where where featured um future pardon me, future teammates see who we are on that day. Okay. I mean, we are in the public's eye. They see the coordination that that goes into this, they see the humility, um, they see the leadership at every freaking level. You know, this thing could run without me at this point in time, which is what we wanted. If I'm here, cool. If I'm not, it's still gonna go on. The show must go on. And and many, many of the best people um that that I've met has been through, you know, these these events that we do and and uh have met us, have met us at the salute and and or any of our other events and stuff like that. But you know, they volunteered at first, um, they liked what they saw, and uh they joined the crew. So anyhow, and let's talk about how it it it strengthens our operations. Um the playbook that we built. Because yes, this year, actually last year, I believe, Tim wrote an SOP. So I'm gonna call it our playbook we built for the salute is the same playbook that that transfers to our daily work. And that's the point I'm trying to make. One of one of the points that I'm trying to make here about how this has changed our company. Um, you know, we make uh fewer mistakes than we did the year before at the 21 Turkey Salute in hopes that uh we'll make fewer mistakes in our personal lives and in our professional lives. Um it has turned around work a lot quicker. Um we finish with a higher quality. Um the event is in itself is a community service on the outside, but it has become an operation, an operational training on the inside for our company. And it's deepened our partnerships um with the community, whether it be the fire department, the police department, the the mayor came down, the police commissioner was there, uh, the news channels, the news outlets. Um, you know, when we feed people, you know, schools, nonprofits, businesses, public safety teams, they notice, they notice these things because they they want to be a part of it. Where can they, where can they help out? What can they donate? What do we need? And and when they call, we answer. And when they call, we answer. We take their calls. I mean, that trust opens doors for collaboration, sponsorships, and and um, you know, many, many, many, many other things where you know that makes our reach much bigger. And I think when we first started this, how small my thinking was compared to today, the more people that we can get involved, the more, the more reach we have, and the more impact that we can have on other people's lives. And all of that has been hardwired into our culture, the, the, the one up movement, the one-up improvement. You know what I mean? Because every year we do, we do more than one more turkey. You know, we we do a lot. We do a lot of turkeys, we do hundreds of pounds of of food. And uh every year we had added one more turkey, you know, on top of the other couple dozen turkeys. You know, we add one more station, we we add, you know, one more space for somebody else to volunteer. We add one more way to give. We we add one more efficiency than than we did, you know, last time. Um, that mindset shows up everywhere now, whether our team knows it or not. But that's that's what's happening here. That's what we've created. We've created a a flywheel. And it just once you get that flywheel going, and now maybe that I've pointed it pointed this out to to some of our team members. Maybe they'll know why I behave the way that I do sometimes when it comes to these events that we host and things like that, because these are all learning experiences for these guys that guys and gals and and their children that they have never gone to a place to work before that does things like this. Okay, this is much bigger than us just giving to the community, although that is probably the most important thing. But along with that is how and what it's creating for us as individuals to take and carry that in every aspect of our lives, which is the coolest thing. And when you boil it down to 21 Turkey Salute has created that uh, you know, that flywheel for our company. You know, it it's the service creates trust and trust creates demand, demand attracts great people. I mean, that's the bottom line, and great people improve execution and and better execution creates uh more capacity to serve, and the wheel just keeps spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning. So um, and and the people, um that's why people choose us, that's why people choose to work here, that's why people choose to to stay here, that's why people choose us to to do work on our homes because they trust us. People don't hire a logo, they they hire a team to reduce risk um and deliver results. And if the 21 Turkey Sleeve doesn't prove that to anybody, then they better they better come down at the butt crack of dawn, close the street down with us, help us move the tent. Actually, about start the night before cleaning all hundred turkeys starts there and the lack of sleep and the hours that go in. But but we get it done. The team gets it done. And and trust has four parts. And um the salute puts all four parts on display for us, right? And the first part is is like I talked about earlier, is the competency. We know what we're doing and we demonstrate it under pressure. The team demonstrates that under pressure. You can see the planning and the precision that goes into this. This is not our first radio, whether it's putting on a roof or deep frying turkeys, right? And the second part is reliability, okay. We do what we say when we say, okay, year after year, that consistency becomes our signature, becomes our signature. Okay, and I talk about that all the time. And the third part is unselfishness. Okay, it's something that I like to try to spread around and uh to anybody, but it's it's we act in the community's interest, not just our own. We give first, we serve first, we put people before publicity. This isn't a publicity stunt. This is us getting out there, building. And developing our team, yes. Okay. But most importantly, we're serving the community first, first and foremost. That's why we're there. Now it's grown into a community event. And when you do something as big as that, we do it, it yes, it catches people's attention. But that was never the motive behind this. It's just created that flywheel. That's the point I'm trying to make. And when you can add, when you can, when when competency, reliability, unselfishness, purpose, let me talk about purpose. Okay. The fourth part that the 21 Turkey salute um has galvanized for me personally is that purpose and ethics. I'm gonna throw ethics in there too, where um that that live public event is the most transparent and raw display of us. Okay. There's there's no blueprint, there's no fine print, there's no there was no directions that came with this, right? There wasn't something that we read in a book. Um, it was just service in public and and some accountability in the open, right? We're just out there, we're making shit happen. And when you can add, when you can add competency, reliability, unselfishness, purpose, and ethics, when they show up together, okay, people see that people stick around, they come back. We've seen them come back, whether it's customers, clients, team members that left, they come back and they bring their friends. So when the world shut down during COVID, okay, the team fired up friars. That's what we did. We started out as it started out as just a scrappy idea during COVID-19 and has grown into the 21 Turkey Salute, a record-beating, community-powered fest, or should I say feast, serving 1,000 plates to our neighbors who needed it most. You know, and that's I think that's the most powerful piece is is that this this little scrappy idea has turned into much bigger than me, much bigger than shit, quite frankly, our whole entire team and our company. It has grown into an a community event that I don't know, speechless. That is absolutely freaking amazing. And I wish I had a better word than amazing, but anyhow, talk about the habits, um, the safety habits that we've been working on real hard here. And and uh this is a good event to display safety, especially with all the open flame and propane and stuff like that. And and you know, we use we use friars and uh these same habits we are trying to teach our team to use on every project, volunteers um who who have met us at at the Turkey Salute become um teammates. You know, Zach might not work here, but he's definitely on our team. And uh and what we've built, you know, will last for for years to come. And I'm hoping at least we can reach you know 10-year mark when we hit the 10-year mark. And and um, you know, and this is what's cool about it too, is like each year we we end up um adding a uh community partner, somebody who wants to get involved. And a couple, I think two years ago, Mark Jones got involved, um, just helping out, but now um he's full-time on his oh crap, I don't even know what you want to call it, a food truck, J JCB events. Now he's we decided to bring all of the uh sides. We we make the sides now on site. The church, Pastor Joel's kitchen is available to us. So we're making the mashed potatoes on site now, the gravy, the corn, the the stuffing, all that good stuff. And of course, we can't forget the pies. And and believe it or not, Walmart has been the place to hook us up each year since Jana's idea of bringing pies. Um, they they've actually look forward to us coming in there and asking them for that. So I don't know. If you're I guess if you're wondering what what all this means, you know, um if if you can I don't know, it's almost speechless. What an amazing event. You know, here's our promise. If we can coordinate 21 friars safely and on schedule, okay, we can bring that exact level of planning and safety to our jobs. Okay. I hope my team's listening to this. We started this during COVID to serve, okay, and we've kept serving because trust is built when no one is watching. Okay. A lot of companies talk about community. We treat community like a job. We're hired to do well. We don't just talk about it. We do it, we show up, we say what we're gonna do, and we do what we're gonna say. And inside our walls of TC Backer, we we keep ourselves accountable, we keep ourselves honest by measuring what matters and what matters most. Okay, and after every salute, okay, as an example, after every salute, we we look at the numbers. How many plates did we go through? How many sets of silverware did we go through? How many plates did we did we uh you know go through and cups and and bottle bottles of water, pies, all that stuff. We track how many people we serve essentially, and uh we track how many of our team members participated. Yes, I look at that too. Um, we track how many new teammates came from volunteering, okay. And we listen to the community partners um who were um we we listen to the the needs, I guess. Pastor Joel gives us a lot of input on on what people need. And we hand out sweatshirts and we hand out um beanies and and and things like that. And and by us listening to him and and trying to figure out like what you guys need down here, and that's where I think the the food drive was born, um, where we've raised raised thousands of pounds. I mean thousands, probably close to 50, uh 25,000 at least, 25,000 pounds worth of food, canned goods, ramen noodles, you name it. We've we've done it, we've brought it, we brought the heat, we filled the the whole freaking pantry up. And we get their feedback and um, you know, diapers a couple years in a row. We've done uh diaper drives and stuff like that. And um the reason why we measure those things is because we want to protect it, we want, we want to improve upon it. And uh I don't know, I love this. I'm getting geared up. I went down through my list this morning. I thought that's why this would be a great topic today to talk about the 21 Turkey Salute. And I think the older I get, the more that this means to me and my family and how it's grown us and developed us into the human beings that we are today. And I remember this picture, it was Jana and I doing an interview, and both of us were speechless. We didn't even know what to say. They were asking us, why are we doing it? It was kind of like people are starving. Like I had no better answer. Like there was food insecurity happening, running rampant all over York City, and it just seemed like nobody knew what to do to help anybody. So scrappy little idea turned into the old 21 Turkey Salute. And um, you know, the simplest way that I can say is the 21 Turkey Salute started as a response to a hard moment, okay, and it became a standard for who we are. One better every year, one better every single year. We still use that mantra, and that's why our people love working here, and that's why customers trust us. It's really that simple, it's a lot of work, and when someone says you must outwork everyone, this is the shit they're talking about. This is it. This is the the the raw, the real, outwork everybody to help everybody, you know, and if you've been a part of the 21 Turkey Slew at any level, um, thank you. Um, if you've dropped off ingredients, if you helped, if you ran and got um mashed potatoes because we ran out of them or however, whatever level that you've been able to help out. And I see Brad Whitlock's in there. He's pro he's donated propane tanks uh several years in a row for us. So thank you for that, Brad. And and you know, and and thank you for for helping build something that feeds people and has strengthen our company at the same time. So that's pretty, it's pretty badass. And and if you're if you're if you're hearing this and you're thinking, I I want to be a part of this, um, we'd love to have you. We would volunteer with us. Come on down, consider joining the team. Um anytime I would say between 10 and 12, if you want to come down there, it is on the corner of Westmarket Street Mason Ave. And I think with that, I think with that I'm gonna I'm gonna wrap it up. But uh Vic will post something in the link or put a link in the in the comments there for you guys, whether now or after the show, sometime if you want to be involved or get involved with this. And and um, but thank you guys for for listening. This is uh episode 307, and uh the 21 Turkey Salute is is definitely my favorite day of the year. And we don't have turkey at our house during the holidays, by the way. By the time we're done with the 21 turkey, I'm I'm pretty done. And uh it's it's the it's the reason more people um should get out and do more. And um, but but anyhow, the uh thank you for joining us for uh episode 307. I'm your host, Hi Cobb Backer. Until next week, take care of yourselves. And if you can't stay out of trouble, give me a call so we can get in trouble together.