Tim Bolden: Navy Discipline, Pool Butler Growth, and Gen Z’s Take on Work-Life Balance

In this episode of the Talking Pools podcast, Rudy Stankowitz interviews Tim Bolden of the Pool Butler. They discuss Tim's journey from the Navy to leading a successful pool service company, the importance of mentorship, and the challenges of running a business during a pandemic. Tim shares insights on leadership, work-life balance, and the evolving pool industry, emphasizing the need for innovation and customer service. The conversation highlights the significance of teamwork, the value of networking, and the importance of creating career paths for employees in the pool service sector.

takeaways

• Tim's experience in the Navy shaped his leadership style.
• White glove service is about enhancing customer experience.
• Career paths in the pool industry can be lucrative.
• Acquiring a business during a pandemic was challenging but rewarding.
• Work-life balance is crucial for employee satisfaction.
• Mentorship plays a vital role in professional growth.
• Overcoming setbacks is part of the entrepreneurial journey.
• Generational differences impact work expectations.
• Networking is essential for industry growth.
• The future of the pool industry is bright with innovation.

Sound Bites

• "It's a big process."
• "We hire to know."
• "Networking is key."

Chapters

00:00
Introduction and Fantasy Football Rivalry

02:05
Military Influence on Leadership

06:25
White Glove Service in Pool Maintenance

07:13
Career Path in the Pool Industry

08:05
Acquisition and Business Growth

09:09
Navigating Challenges During a Pandemic

10:52
Work-Life Balance in the Pool Industry

11:32
Leadership Philosophy and Team Dynamics

16:15
Problem Solving in Pool Maintenance

17:11
Vision for the Pool Butler

17:39
Innovations in Pool Technology

18:29
Mentorship and Passing Knowledge

19:42
Overcoming Setbacks in Business

21:10
Challenges for Entrepreneurs in the Pool Industry

22:07
Generational Differences in Work Ethic

23:26
Seeking Veterans in the Workforce

24:21
Future Aspirations for the Pool Butler

26:13
Industry Growth and Competition

26:50
Networking and Mentorship in the Industry

28:21
Final Thoughts and Encouragement

Transcript

Rudy Stankowitz (00:00)
Hey everybody, guess what? It's Friday once again. This is the Talking Pools podcast. I'm Rudy Stankiewicz and today we are with Tim Bolden of the Pool Butler out of Atlanta. Tim Bolden, one of our top 10 mentors in the running for the championship belt. Tim, have you seen the belt?

Tim W Bolden (00:21)
I saw some photos of it from Maddie, yes I did, it looks pretty awesome.

Rudy Stankowitz (00:26)
That's- and you mentioned Maddie. We had Maddie on the show a couple of weeks ago. She did a phenomenal job. Great interview. Really, really smart and sharp. Sharp, guess that would be the key word that I would use to describe her. Told me that she kicks your ass in fantasy football every year. Is that true?

Tim W Bolden (00:37)
that she is.

Yes, unfortunately last year I was number one all the way up until the end of the season and I got my butt kicked. So she's won it the past couple years and it's pretty big bragging rights inside our company. We've got trophies and stuff like that. So she goes to her, but hopefully she's going down this year.

Rudy Stankowitz (01:01)
that's cool.

so there is a plan. She is, uh...

Tim W Bolden (01:07)
There is a plan.

Rudy Stankowitz (01:08)
When it comes to that, the Fantasy Football do you secretly admire her strategy

Tim W Bolden (01:15)
she, she's vested pretty heavily in fantasy football, lot more than I am. So you can see the trades and everything she's doing throughout the week. And then I try to cram everything in Thursday morning when no one's available. And that's why I end up failing, because I'm not proactive in it like she is. When she invests her time into anything, it's 150 % in.

Like she's gonna give everything she's got to perfect it and make it what it's supposed to be. And she's that way with sports and personal stuff.

Rudy Stankowitz (01:43)
And she wears that on her sleeve that comes across in the conversation that comes across in meeting her, So great acquisition on your part. So good job there. So let me ask you this from Navy to swimming pools. How did your time in the Navy Guam, if I'm not mistaken, shaped the way that you lead and train your team at the pool Butler today?

Tim W Bolden (01:50)
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely. So I kind of.

Little preface to that started in the pool industry my freshman year. My algebra teacher was a after school pool builder pool cleaner. So I worked all through high school and then ended up joining the Navy. Was overseas for three and half years stationed in Guam and got to visit a lot of cool places in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. So that was probably the best part of the Navy, but you know it taught me a lot about just accountability and

You have to strive and you have to be married in business with everybody in order for it to work. And one of the biggest things that taught me was that teamwork and everybody has to be successful. If one fails, all fails. So I've really incorporated that into our culture and how we operate. Attention to detail obviously was a huge factor in allowing us to be successful and grow to the level that we've grown.

and we continue to make that the focus of what we do in that customer experience.

Rudy Stankowitz (06:25)
White Glove Service. What does that look like in practice on a hot summer day in Atlanta?

Tim W Bolden (06:31)
So yeah, you throw Atlanta into the mix with the humidity and everything, makes it worse. we've got a standard that we set for.

each division and in the maintenance department, the standard is what's supposed to be done. Everything that is a must on every ticket that must be done. So that's just the normal how we operate. That white glove service comes into effect and what we try to teach our people is about the customer experience, about what they see and what they feel with interacting with our company. So we really try to focus on making sure that all that flows seamlessly throughout the

process.

Rudy Stankowitz (07:06)
what was the moment that you realized that this wasn't just a job, that this could be a career path?

Tim W Bolden (07:13)
So my first boss was obviously a teacher, but he taught me a lot, not necessarily about pools. He did teach me a lot about pools, but more about just effort, work ethic, and keeping your word. And that really stuck with me over time. And again, try to instill that in everybody that comes through our doors.

Rudy Stankowitz (07:35)
If you had to replace every pool net in Atlanta with a lightsaber, would you train your techs to be like Jedi Knights or have them figure it out like a Star Wars blooper reel?

Tim W Bolden (07:50)
Definitely a Jedi Jedi Knight Definitely I'm not a big Star Wars guy, but I think Jedi Knight would be the way to go

Rudy Stankowitz (07:58)
I think that's probably best. So hey, you bought out a partner, is this correct? That's huge. How scary was that?

Tim W Bolden (08:05)
I did, I did, back in 2020.

It was a huge undertaking for me. I had worked for this gentleman since 2008. When I got back to the States, he employed me and kind of promised me from the get-go some ownership as long as I grew it. ⁓

Rudy Stankowitz (08:23)
Was this that teacher that you were

talking about?

Tim W Bolden (08:24)
Now

this was that was my previous employer so this one was you know someone in the local market and You know promised me ownership and I worked my ass off for four years and then in 2014 he gave me a piece of the pie And I grew it from 2014 to 2020 and then we had an evaluation done on the company and I was able to secure the company 915 of 2020 so it was

Rudy Stankowitz (08:27)
Okay.

Congratulations.

Tim W Bolden (08:52)
You know, again, it's a big process and having, you know, a safety net with a business partner and stuff like that was beautiful. So, you know, kind of taking that away and everything's on my shoulders. It taught me a lot, a lot of pressure, a lot of stress, but it's definitely worth it, well worth it.

Rudy Stankowitz (09:10)
What an undertaking in a year when the whole world went to shit. How did that add to the stress level? Here you are buying a company. Literally everything on the entire planet had just closed. In September, things are still iffy. Pool service personnel throughout the United States aren't considered essential in every single area. And how much stress load does this add to

that undertaking.

Tim W Bolden (09:37)
It was pretty significant because everything was remote based. So my attorneys, the bank, all the financial aspects of what you have to go through was all digital and over the internet. And Zoom had been around for some time in those platforms, but I'd never really used them that much. So it was tedious because you didn't have someone there next to you to help you.

Right? I'm a hands-on person. Someone walked me through anything face to face. I've got it. And it was a lot of things that I wasn't accustomed to. You know, I had to create a business plan. I had to create, you know, what the trajectory of the business looked like over the next three years because I had to finance the loan.

So it taught me a lot about business Which I didn't have you know I ran the company as a whole but not so much the financial aspect prior to Purchasing the company so I think that was a huge blessing going through that process allowing me to understand Terminology that you know in the financial world that I probably wasn't a hundred percent accustomed to you But it was difficult, but you know what? difficult times create diamonds and you know diamonds in the rough and

It was a tough time to go through, but I wouldn't have changed it for anything.

Rudy Stankowitz (10:52)
How badly do you wish you could have bought stock in Zoom in 2019?

Tim W Bolden (10:58)
That would have been, we may not be sitting on this call today.

Blasphemy.

Rudy Stankowitz (11:01)
What's your philosophy on

making a career path for everybody that comes on board?

Tim W Bolden (11:09)
Yeah, basically, you know, it starts at day one, but you know, my big phrase that I like to say is we hire to retire. You know, the pool industry is known as a lily pad. You know, people don't grow up saying I'm going to be a pool guy. And, know, you kind of accidentally fall into the industry as most of us have. And you realize that it's a pretty lucrative industry and it's fun. You know, I absolutely love being around water. You know, being

living in Atlanta really sucks because I'm nowhere near water ocean wise. But you know, yeah. I think the biggest thing is, is being able to show new staff opportunities that they can have within our organization. You know, if they come in as a maintenance tech, they can always move to the repair department and they can move into renovations.

Today is the last day of mine or yesterday was the last day of my non compete with my old business partner. So we're starting new construction moving into this fall. So there's opportunities for designs and install crews and stuff like that. So I think that's the beauty of it is we don't necessarily if you want to come into our company and stay in a department because you love that, that's fine. That's okay. But I think the opportunity to be able to show people pathways where they can see an actual career and

Rudy Stankowitz (12:02)
Okay.

Tim W Bolden (12:22)
term benefits. I think that's what kind of wins over our staff and they understand the amount of energy that myself and my GM, our leadership team puts into the company and that allows them to reciprocate it because they see us doing it. know, it's, I'd say we're a true team and you know, the decisions made in the company go all the way down to the greenest person in the company.

Rudy Stankowitz (15:28)
If your team was to describe your leadership in three words, what do you think they'd say and what do you hope they'd say?

Tim W Bolden (15:38)
I think the biggest thing is understanding. People make mistakes and that's known.

And the biggest thing is that we try to prevent is that same mistake happening more than once. So I'm very lenient when it comes, especially the leadership team. don't mean it micromanage. I allow them to run and flourish their departments. I'm here as support system and to give advice for them. But I kind of relinquish a lot of those decision making abilities to our leadership team. And I think that only elevates us because it gives ownership to them.

Rudy Stankowitz (16:08)
With that in mind, tell me about the toughest pool problem you've ever had to solve and what was your mindset in tackling it?

Tim W Bolden (16:15)
That's a good question. I'd want to say electrical, starting off in Atlanta. When I was a young pool guy, cleaning pools and stuff like that, I didn't do a lot with the...

the electrical side of things or bonding and understanding how all that works. And when I came to Atlanta, the gentleman that hired me asked me a question in his showroom. He's like, can you tell me how all this operates? And it was an IntelliTouch on the wall. And I said, no, but I can figure it out. Just give me some time.

And he took a chance on me, but that was, I think the biggest struggles of not knowing is in figuring it out on your own. I was too prideful to ask for help. I wanted to figure things out on my own. And I got bit quite a few times on the electrical side, trying to figure out things because I was too proud to ask for help. I think electrical as a whole, don't think I have an exact pinpoint story, but I think that was probably one of the more difficult things to learn for myself.

coming into the industry, the second go around.

Rudy Stankowitz (17:11)
beyond swimming pools, what do you want the pool butler to represent to families and businesses in Atlanta?

Tim W Bolden (17:18)
Convenience, worry-free, hassle-free. know, we want our people just to enjoy the pool and not have to worry about anything else that happens internally. And that all goes back to routing efficiency, our platforms that we utilize, putting the people, right people in the right places, and so on.

Rudy Stankowitz (17:34)
What excites you about where pool technology is headed?

Tim W Bolden (17:39)
So I'm a big fan of secondary sanitation.

you know, UV systems, AOP systems and stuff like that. Salt systems have their place, you know, I'm not gonna downgrade it. know, they have their places on certain pump pads. But you know, we've gotten into selling a lot more of the clear comfort systems. know, systems that can alter, chlorine's probably one of the most detrimental chemicals that we can add to a pool and has a lot of bad side effects if not utilized properly. And minimizing the amount of chlorine

that we put in a pool by utilizing one of those secondary sanitation systems is what we believe in to help minimize the amount of chemical interaction that happens in a pool.

Rudy Stankowitz (18:19)
Looking back, who mentored you in the early days and how do you try to pass that forward to your young techs now?

Tim W Bolden (18:27)
Larry Tucker, the original, my original boss, was probably one of the most understanding people I've ever met in my entire life. And wanted, you know, just always wanted the best out of people. And, you know, he transferred over to me, you know, coming out of the military, you know, you do things one way. This is the way it's done. Don't ask questions.

And I tried to kind of operate the business like that and found out that there's no place for that mix 100 % into civilian style. But at the end of the day, just having that understanding that people are gonna make mistakes. We just want them to own it, have a conversation about it and implement a plan so it doesn't happen again.

Rudy Stankowitz (19:11)
having been in the military.

Do you still eat your food really fast?

Tim W Bolden (19:15)
Yes. I can be down in 10 minutes and everybody's an hour. That is one thing that struck.

Rudy Stankowitz (19:18)
And everybody at the table is

sitting there and they're like, what? We're still eating.

Tim W Bolden (19:21)
Yeah.

Rudy Stankowitz (19:23)
They just don't understand why you've been out for 20 years. Why are you still? I don't know. Just that's just this. Yeah, running a service company is not easy. It's not. What's one setback that tested you the most and how did you bounce back from it even stronger?

Tim W Bolden (19:26)
Yeah, it's just ingrained in you. Yep.

So really tough, a couple years ago, I had two offices in Atlanta, kind of split between East Atlanta and West Atlanta. We just realized for consistency, training, just everything we needed to bring everybody back under one location. So a couple years ago, we moved to Marietta under one branch. And when I did that, my GM at the time,

maintenance director and operations manager were a couple and they worked for me and they lived, you know, kind of far closer to my Norcross office. So when we moved, obviously the drive was a little far from them and they put in their two weeks notice. That was probably the most crippling.

thing that's ever happened to me because not only did I lose one person, I lost two leaders in our company. It was a big eye-opener to me as far as what I didn't have my hand on. I didn't have my finger on the pulse with a lot of things because I just thought, expected everything was being done. But it made me realize that I have to be involved in a lot of aspect of the business and have a lot of checks and balances in place.

to make sure we're going in the direction we're supposed to. That was an extremely difficult time we got through it, cuz not only did we combine both offices, we completely changed how we operate. Because we had people living all over Metro Atlanta, I couldn't force them to drive all the way to Marietta in the mornings to get vehicles. So we made a plan and everybody has take home vehicles and stuff like that. So it was challenging, but

I think that's what makes us who we are today.

you know, we've gotten to a place where I'm not a big proponent of weekend work, people working dark to dark. I understand like that's how we get profitable and do, but you know, work-life balance is super important to me. I grew up into the, in this business working dark to dark, you know, it takes a special person to be able to do that. And we can't expect,

everyone to do the same as we did. That's a big eye-opener that just because I can do it doesn't mean everybody else can do it. So it kind of opens up different avenues and thought processes on which direction to take when it comes to that.

Rudy Stankowitz (21:49)
it's just, it's a very, very different mindset today. And maybe it's just in the approach. but I think, I think that's a big challenge also getting through to the newer generations, speaking that language so that there's not misunderstandings. How do you tackle that?

Tim W Bolden (22:06)
True.

Like one little evolution we went through was doing kind of an answer Q &A with our team about what's important to them. What do they want to see at the pool baller? What do they want to see for our industry? And the younger generation, every one of them was more time off. That's all they wanted. More time off.

And it kind of opens your eyes to, know, not everything always has to be monetary, right? You know, pay raises and stuff like that. And it made us to be more creative in our yearly reviews with our team and kind of personalize what they want to see moving forward. And if time off is important to them, maybe it's an extra few days a year or an extra week that we offer them versus, you know, a different path or something like that. But, you know, that's,

super important for the younger generation is you know that that work-life balance because that people don't want to work over 40 hours anymore you know we have a lot of people that are willing and more than able and capable of doing so but people want to work 40 hours or less and go home and not have to worry about work so the the people we kind of grew up with in the industry that was just a no matter what it takes you just got to get it done that means you got to work till midnight you got to work till midnight well that's not the case anymore

We can't operate like that.

Rudy Stankowitz (23:24)
Do think that's a good thing?

Tim W Bolden (23:25)
I think it's a good thing for balance, but not profits.

But at the end of the day, profits isn't everything, right? We've got to have that balance to make people happy and make them want to be here.

Rudy Stankowitz (23:37)
Do you make an effort to seek out veterans being your background service?

Tim W Bolden (23:43)
I do.

I do. It brings, you know, just a different mindset and caliber mentality to the playing field. you know, we definitely try to look at that, veterans in restaurant industry, customer service experience in the restaurant industry. You we've got a lot of key players that came from the restaurant industry just because of that customer service background, you know.

I can teach pool stuff, right? But a lot of the other things are hard to teach.

Rudy Stankowitz (24:12)
Ten years from now, when people mention the pool butler or Tim Bolden, what do you hope they say?

Tim W Bolden (24:19)
quality and keeping our word. I strive and constantly want to be the company that people look to. And I tell my team all the time, we're not going to keep every pool that we maintain, we're not going to keep every pool that we renovate. But what our goal is, is if we don't keep that customer, the next company that picks it up.

They know that that was a pool butler pool because everything's nice, clean, attention to detail and done correctly.

Rudy Stankowitz (24:48)
There's a lot of companies buying up service companies now. They're growing really quick. Buy acquisition.

What are your thoughts on that process? There's a big one in your area. I could throw out a name, but I don't feel like it.

Tim W Bolden (25:00)
Yeah, I've talked to

all those guys and I'm good buddies with some of the CEOs on some of those platforms.

I think it's good because our industry is very fragmented. I was set in on a webinar the other day with Skimmer and Casey Graham from Yummy Pools in talking about the growth in the industry and stuff like that. And a lot of companies, especially when you kind of get up to where the level that where we're at, margins really shrink. So having that investment from a

Sometimes companies have to make that decision and have to go down that path because they've reached a wall. So I think it's good for the industry 100%. I'm not saying I'm gonna sell my company, but in the future that's what we work for, right? We wanna build something successful and be able to hand it off hopefully to someone internally within the organization that can run with it similar to how I was brought into this, but that's not always the case.

I'm not against it. I think it serves a purpose and I think it's only going to elevate our industry as a whole.

Rudy Stankowitz (26:13)
Do you see future pool butler locations across the state or does Atlanta have everything you need?

Tim W Bolden (26:21)
Currently Atlanta has everything we need. We grew and expanded years ago and had two offices, was doing work up towards Chattanooga, Tennessee, out in Alabama. We've got a very large footprint, but that takes a lot of logistics to create to make sure we're the most efficient. So we've come to the realization that we just wanna stay in our backyard.

20, 30 mile radius of our location. Let's dominate everything inside that before we consider moving outside.

Rudy Stankowitz (26:51)
What words would you give to someone who's listening, who's in a position where they could mentor someone, as far as the rewards that come with that not just the individual they mentor, but for them themselves?

Tim W Bolden (27:07)
Personal growth? Being able to help someone out and guide them down a path where you know they're going to be successful and be able to flourish and really.

possibly do things that they never thought they can do. That keeps it going and just making sure you're there for your people.

Rudy Stankowitz (27:27)
You've been in the

there was not a culture of sharing, it was a culture of gatekeeping. I think social media probably had a lot to do with the shift the willingness to share information. Do you think that's good?

Tim W Bolden (27:42)
Absolutely. I think networking is if you don't network with other companies, you're missing out because there's no I'm not perfect. I still have a lot of room to grow and I can't grow unless I know. So I try to network with as many pool businesses as possible. You know, I sit on the board for our local chapter with P.H.T.A. I'm pretty heavily involved with the organization. And, know, it's again, just trying to create a

create an industry that people want to be a part of and they can see the benefits of it.

Rudy Stankowitz (28:13)
Anything you could say to the people that are listening right now in the industry, pool service, pros, builders, renovators.

What would that be?

Tim W Bolden (28:21)
Stick with it. Don't give up. I know it's frustrating. There's a lot of things that we go through and a lot of unknowns in the pool space, but it's worth it. Keep your head down, keep driving it, and continue to be successful and it'll pay off.

Rudy Stankowitz (28:37)
Tim, I want to thank you very much for taking time to be with us here today.

Tim W Bolden (28:40)
you

Rudy Stankowitz (28:42)
good.

Tim W Bolden (28:42)
I appreciate

you having us and very honored to be nominated for something like this within our industry. It means a lot.

Rudy Stankowitz (28:49)
You mean a lot to the industry and what you're doing.

without wanting or expecting recognition. to me,

Assuming the role of a mentor is probably the greatest thing that you can do for this industry and You're one of the top ten this year that are being recognized for that. So, thank you

Tim W Bolden (29:08)
Absolutely, I appreciate it.

Rudy Stankowitz (29:10)
everybody. I'm Rudy Stankiewicz. This is the Talking Pools podcast, Tim Bolden, the Pool Butler. Until next time, be good, be safe.