Building a Better Pool Company: Leadership, Growth, and Company Culture with Leslie Elliott

What really separates a good pool company from a great one?

This week, Natalie Hood sits down with Leslie Elliott, Founder and CEO of Poolie, one of the fastest-growing pool service companies in Texas. Leslie's journey into the industry didn't begin with decades of pool experience—it began with a green pool, poor customer service, and the realization that the industry had room to improve.

Together, Natalie and Leslie tackle some of the biggest myths surrounding pool service businesses, leadership, customer service, company culture, growth, technology, and artificial intelligence. Whether you're an owner, manager, technician, or someone thinking about starting a pool company, this conversation offers practical lessons that apply far beyond the swimming pool industry.

In this episode:

• How a green swimming pool launched one of Texas' fastest-growing pool service companies.
• Why customer service is often a bigger competitive advantage than technical expertise.
• The difference between running a pool route and building a scalable business.
• Why growth creates as many challenges as it solves.
• The importance of systems, standard operating procedures, and consistency.
• Why not every customer is worth keeping.
• Protecting employees while maintaining company values.
• Leadership lessons from growing from one route to more than 4,500 customers.
• The importance of training, mentorship, and creating career paths for technicians.
• Why people—not pools—are often the biggest challenge in business.
• How AI is changing customer service, operations, scheduling, and business management.
• Why the pool industry still has opportunities to modernize through technology and professional development.
• Building a company culture that employees actually want to be part of.
• Why success doesn't make leadership easier—it simply changes the challenges.

Key Takeaways

• Great pool companies are built on leadership and customer experience—not just chemistry knowledge.
• Growth without systems creates chaos.
• Company culture is demonstrated through daily actions, not mission statements.
• Investing in employee training pays dividends in customer satisfaction and retention.
• AI should be viewed as a productivity tool that frees people to focus on higher-value work.
• Consistency is often more valuable than constant innovation.
• The future of the pool industry depends on raising professional standards together.

Featured Guest

Leslie Elliott
Founder & CEO, Poolie

Leslie shares how her background in management consulting and business operations helped her build Poolie into a multi-market service company focused on exceptional customer service, scalable systems, and investing in people.

Hosted By

Natalie Hood
Director of Education & Events, The Grit Game

Sponsored By

• BlueRay XL
• United Chemical
• LaMotte Company
• RevdUp Apparel
• Aqua Comfort Water Group

Connect

Learn more about Poolie at Poolie.com and follow their continued growth on social media.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the Talking Pools Podcast, leave us a review, and share it with another pool professional who's committed to raising the bar for our industry.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:53

Welcome back to the Talking Pools podcast, your go-to source for everything wet, wild, and wonderfully misunderstood in the pool world. I'm Natalie Hood, Director of Education and Events for The Grit Game. And today we're taking a slightly different approach. We're going to be diving into leadership, entrepreneurship, company culture, and what it really takes to build a successful service business. And joining me today is Leslie Elliott, founder and CEO of Poolie. And what started as a vision to raise the standard of customer service and professionalism has grown into one of the fastest growing pool service companies in Texas. Leslie has built poolie by focusing not only for caring for pools, but also on building strong teams, creating systems that scale, and delivering an exceptional customer service. You know, in an industry where many people focus solely on water chemistry and equipment, Leslie has shown that long-term success is just as much about leadership, people and creating a company that customers trust. So today we're going to be putting some common assumptions to the test as we explore myths surrounding business growth, leadership, company culture, and customer relationships in the future of the pool industry. So, Leslie, welcome to the show. Thank you. Happy to be here. Yes, thanks. And before we jump into our myths, I'd love for our listeners to get to know you a little bit better. So can you tell us a little bit more about your background and kind of how you found your way into the pool industry and what inspired you to start pooling?

SPEAKER_01 2:25

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SPEAKER_00 4:32

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SPEAKER_05 6:01

Well, it all happened uh relatively quickly, but uh my background, I kind of had gone the traditional corporate path after getting an MBA at UT and went into management consulting and then a couple of operating roles. One of the last operating roles I was at was a skilled trades platform that was doing a lot of kind of roll-ups and acquisitions of smaller companies and putting them on platform and growing them. And the short version, long story, is I had gotten to a point where I didn't necessarily see kind of the next 12 to 24 months at that company, wanted to go a different path. Had always thought about kind of doing my own thing and just had a bunch of like life things happen at the same time where I had this moment where I was like, oh, if I'm gonna go do my own thing right now, I have a unique runway to go do it. My husband did just take a new job. Background for me is I was a single mom at one point, a little not so smart necessarily to go start your own company when you need health care and benefits with small children. So yeah, a lot of those things that kind of all come together. And I spent a lot of time actually, not even necessarily thinking it was going to be pools, but kind of looking at industries where, you know, there was a lot of growth opportunities, there was still fragmentation, and I don't know how many different business perspectives have I looked at and have kept seeing pools and kept thinking about pools, and it had a lot of those markers of a really interesting industry to get into. And then on the customer side, we were one of those people that put in a pool in COVID in 2020. Yeah. And I had a green pool. And I couldn't find a company to come and take care of it. And I was, you know, working from home still sometimes, like watching our pool staff like come in the backyard, like open the gate and basically walk out. I'm like being our brand new pool, like being green. I'm like, what is going on with this? And making phone calls, like, oh, we're full, we can take somebody new in 90 days, or we'll put you on our wait list. And I was thinking, okay. I keep saying these pool companies come up. If this is the customer experience, like there's gotta be an opportunity here. So one of my, I don't know if it's a gift or sometimes a fault is I tend to move fast. So I left my job in December and I bought a full route at the end of December and started the company in January. This is after my husband was like, take six months off and really think about it. And I sort of, you know, no pun intended, just dove right in instead. Um bought a pool route. Yeah. Uh and then it kind of all just took off from there. So that was December of 2021. So we're about to hit our five years of the existence of poolie this year. It is awesome. I love that. That is, I mean, and it it all started from a green pool. Yep, exactly. It's like, I'll this isn't kids, this isn't, you know, you think about the things you could go do, like taking care of kids is hard, animals, people. And I was like, school seems pretty straightforward.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

And why not? And and so, and that was in 2021, and you guys have now become one of the biggest service companies in Texas. We're working on that, yeah. Yeah. And you guys work with a lot, I mean, I you guys work with Lion Financial, you guys work with a lot of different partners. Let's talk about that for a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 8:55

Yeah, we sure do. We have, you know, grown the business. We took on you know some investment in 2023 and really expanded. So when I started the business, it was mostly Austin. Um, but then when we opened new markets for now operate in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and College Station. Um, and as a part of that too, we have grown into uh bigger repair but also renovation business, which uh lots of different partners, including Line, have been extremely helpful in helping to build off those business.

SPEAKER_04 9:22

Yeah, that's awesome. Gosh, you've you're just a rock star, girl. You you were giving six months and you were like, hold my bag. I got you. Yeah, I got you. How is your husband doing with all this?

SPEAKER_05 9:31

You know, we have had our like ups and downs with it at certain points. You know, I will say like one of the things in in some ways starting the business was a lot easier than I thought, and in other ways it was hard. Um harder in other ways. And I think part of kind of my thought of doing this too was like I have four kids and thinking, oh, like if I'm in charge, I'll have more flexibility and more time and you know, can kind of divide my time differently. And the reality is like the first two years, especially of running the business where you're wearing all of the hats in the company and doing everything. Yeah, that's not true. So it was more like 18 hour days. So at a couple points he was like, What why are you doing this to yourself? Like, what are you doing? Exactly. Exactly. So but you know, as we've grown, I think one of the things that I've continued to appreciate is like as you get to having more scale and size, like you're not kind of the end of one for everything. So I kind of remark every time we take a vacation or go, I think like, you know, back to a year or the year before and how much I ended up working on vacation to like when I do now. And it's awesome to have a great team. And having a great team means you don't have to be, you know, the one on all the time or solving every problem all the time.

SPEAKER_04 10:41

Right, right. Well, that is I I love that story. And I love how I mean you you just it this all started from a green pool, right? And now you're one of the most successful companies, service companies. That's fantastic. And I love that you're you're really changing the this the this the route and what it could be, right? And so that actually ties into like one of our first myths, and it's that the best pool companies are built by experts. But quite frankly, you've just busted that right out the door.

SPEAKER_05 11:07

I think there's, you know, certainly value in the expertise in the pool space, but I also think to me, the biggest thing about this industry is the customer service side and the consistency of the customer service. Yes. And I think coming candidly outside of the pool industry, kind of having that lens of what good service should be or how you deliver customer service was hugely beneficial for me. Um, and I think, you know, I think there are foundational skills in all good leaders where if you're a quick learner and you can adapt, like I can learn chemistry, I can learn pool equipment, I can pick those things up. I can't necessarily, you know, teach people Huffle or ownership or some of the things we really look for in strong leaders. And candidly, like a lot of our great leaders at the company are people that have now, you know, come in from not pool backgrounds before. We've got some great folks on the team that do have pool backgrounds, but having a mix of different perspectives and you know experiences is great.

SPEAKER_04 12:03

Yeah, no, I absolutely agree. It's uh I think there's definitely some wonderful experts out there, but I will say, and this is one thing that I constantly bring up on many of the episodes that I've run, is that I do feel strongly that customer service is lacking in the pool industry, right? You can have experts, they they know, they know how to tile or they know how to run one part of the industry, but the customer service aspect they're they're losing, especially when I think when it comes to you know, running a business, and I think running it's it's very different from running a route, right? I I think they're they're very different. And so, and I think a lot of owners are they they miss that, they miss the mark, right? And I think they're kind of running the business the same as they're running that that mark, and they're they're losing a lot of uh, you know, customers and they're losing they're they're missing the mark right there.

SPEAKER_05 12:53

Yeah. I think that's very true. And I think, you know, it's in a lot of spaces, even in like home services, like I think about like you know, construction or remodeling or things like that. I think there is an overall lack of like communication and customer service. And I tend to see the same in pools. And I think part of that, you know, probably does come from you know points when you were kind of thankful the pool person showed up. Like, you know, I've seen that kind of in some of our teams where they'll be like, oh, I sent the quote. I don't need to call, they'll call me. And it's like, oh, like give them a call, like make sure they got it. But there's just sort of this like they'll come to me and you know, I'll handle it then mentality that I've seen, you know, time and even getting in the business.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

Yeah. Well, and then you know, the other part of that is too, you could have an expert, you can be an expert, but if they don't have good leadership skills, I mean that company's gonna fail just as fast. Yeah. I mean, so many people you I I know so many people that have left great jobs, they've been with them for years, but the one of the biggest reasons they've left is because of leadership right there. You could have been with the company for years and people might go, well, why'd you leave? Bad leadership.

SPEAKER_05 13:51

Yeah, people don't leave the companies, they leave managers typically. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 13:55

Yeah, yeah. I mean, what and you know, it and I think too, uh, you know, once a company finds success, I think kind of going into our next one, the natural instinct, right, is to grow. But I don't think growth is always the answer. And so this next myth, it talks about, you know, growth solves business problems. You know, what would you say that? Do you I mean, obviously it doesn't solve all problems, right? But how did growth make things easier or did it simply just give you different challenges?

SPEAKER_05 14:23

Yeah, I mean, that's such a good one to unpack because I think growth does solve problems in the sense of kind of what I was saying earlier, where it's really, really hard to be an N of one or to have, you know, an N of one anywhere in your company where you've got people in really critical roles where if they walk out the door the next day, you're like full stuck. And certainly, you know, as you grow, being able to have scale or redundancy or bigger teams solves that. And I think that is probably the one of the biggest things from a beneficial standpoint of growth that you get. But candidly, the other half of it is growth creates all kinds of problems. Like growing is hard. Yeah. There's hiring and policy changes and working capital and you know, all of the things that happen with growth that are incredibly challenging to navigate. And I think in our business, 23 to 24, we did a lot of fast growth, which had a lot of you know, good with it and a whole lot of challenges. And, you know, I jokingly called our 2025, not you know, like the Chinese year of the dragon or year of the pig was the year of the SOP for us of just getting like standard operating processes together. We'd grown so much and we were doing, we hadn't actually gotten a point where we were like, what does pooly service mean? And is that the same in Dallas and the same in Austin and the same in San Antonio? You know, what what do our techs, you know, do every day? What's the feedback process look like for them? And how do we get that consistent across branches? So we spent a long part of last year kind of really trying to kind of absorb and integrate the growth, which was really critical for us. And I think I've seen other companies candidly sometimes where like if you don't do that after growth, then it kind of just spirals to the point where it's harder and harder and harder to pull it in. Um, and it was something that really helped us be in a much better position for this year and really being able to capture kind of the organic growth because we had just consistency in the way we're doing things.

SPEAKER_04 16:13

Yeah. I mean, with growth, I think definitely before you can really get a good hold on that growth before hiring, you need to better understand the systems that you need to put in place, right? And as you're bringing new people on, you're you have people that are in those positions, right? That they're most likely gonna have to learn to delegate. And for some people, delegating can be rather hard, especially, you know, if it's not done my way, it's not gonna get done. And that can be very hard. So it's it's a bit of a learning curve for a lot of people. So absolutely, I definitely think you need to have a system in place. And it also helps better support your customers when you're going through that growth phase, right? Don't forget the customer.

SPEAKER_05 16:51

Very true. And you know, the fun thing about systems too with growth is systems break with growth too. So you think you've got a good process and a good system, and all of a sudden you look up and you're like, dude, that doesn't work anymore. So that's uh and those can happen, you know, unexpectedly sometimes too. So it's uh it's a challenge.

SPEAKER_04 17:06

Yeah, yeah. Well, speaking about customers, and I think maybe probably every business owner has experienced this one, it's every customer is worth keeping.

SPEAKER_05 17:15

I disagree with that one. Certainly, yes. Yes, you know, I I wish I could say that every customer is worth keeping. Um, I think, you know, I believe that it's worth trying to keep every customer or kind of, you know, working to solve customers' issues. And I think if you have done that and you can feel good about the efforts that you have taken to do that and you're still not in a good spot, then yeah, like every customer is not worth keeping.

SPEAKER_04 17:42

Well, and I think too, you know, you definitely want to make sure you're keeping the customers happy. But in that, I think you need to protect your team. You need to protect your values, right? You need to set expectations, keep up the employee morale. You need to protect your team. And so, of course, you know, you want to keep every customer, but again, you need to protect yourself. And I'm sorry, but I quite frankly don't think some customers are worth keeping.

SPEAKER_05 18:08

No, I mean, some of the things, you know, I sometimes think it's and it's funny, I tell all of my kids this that I think they all need to have jobs in the service industry growing up because I think you get a very different perspective. And oh, yeah, kindly some of the things that our customers have said and done, it's like, sorry, like I I can't send that technician back in your backyard to your point. I mean, we had I'll never forget, like, a customer that had a uh bee issue, which we had, you know, said a couple of times like we need some help on that. You know, it's not good for our technicians to get stung. Hive technician gets stung in their backyard, technician had to leave because they were allergic to bees, so immediately had to go get treatment for that. And the customer asked us to next time send somebody who wasn't afraid of the outdoors. What? Yeah. So like that's a customer, probably not worth keeping. Yeah. No sympathy for technician allergic to bees that you know needed to go take care of himself, but instead said, Can you please send someone that's not afraid of the you know outdoors next time?

SPEAKER_04 19:05

That is ridiculous and unbelievably and that is just that's mind-blowing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:11

So there's there's a handful of good stories like that, but definitely folks that fall into the like to your point, like, you know, our company only, you know, exists because of the technicians that we have doing good work every single day, and they need to feel safe and needs to be an okay place for them to walk into and sometimes it's not. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 19:28

Well, and you know, by doing that too, by the really choosing your customer, you're actually creating a healthier company culture, right? Because you're also showing your employees, you're like, hey, we care about you. We don't care about this, this, this customer that apparently thinks you're afraid of the outdoors, but really you're just allergic to bees. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 19:45

There's another good handful of those stories. I've often joked that uh if we decided not to continue to serve as pools, we've had a great reality TV show between the things that happened with technicians and customers over uh the course of the years, like there'd be new content every season.

SPEAKER_04 20:00

So see, that's that's I I've gotten pretty bored of the reality TV shows on that they're airing. I I don't even watch really TV. I'll I'll stream things on occasion. I'll I tend to watch shows that have already passed because I don't have the patience to wait every week for them to arrive and I'll forget about it. So I just stream episodes or seasons or what have you. But I would definitely watch that. I would wait for that. And I think we I maybe that's the next thing that comes out because that would be entertaining to me. I don't think that maybe someone someone put that together. Um, but you know, we spend kind of taking it back to a different angle, we spend a lot of time talking about competitors, right? I think that's a big thing in the industry. But is that really the biggest challenge? And because there's a myth out there that the biggest threat to the pool industry is competition.

SPEAKER_05 20:44

I don't think that that is the biggest threat to the pool industry if we're defining, you know, competition as, you know, other pool service companies. I think the reason why we continue to see so much growth and candidly so many companies, you know, kind of seemingly pop up the way that they do is because if there's enough customers and people that are not happy with their existing pool companies. So like the churn in the industry creates, I think, you know, opportunities for more and more companies to kind of like tap in and take over. And obviously it's still an ever-growing space. But I think for the entire industry, like leveling up kind of our game and what training looks like and customer expectations look like and consistency and service looks like would be great for everybody and great for the entire industry. So I kind of view it as like how do we all get better together? And I think honestly, like to me, the bigger kind of you know, threat to some part of the industry is gonna be more on kind of the technology or automation side. You know, there are probably people that don't DIY their pools right now, but as that stuff starts to advance, you know, may turn into DIY. So I see that more as, you know, what could change the industry in some ways. So I still also believe there are a lot of people, like you know, me even as a customer, we're like, I'm not gonna want to put acid in the back of my car and drive it home. So, you know, maybe the service model delivery looks a little bit different over time, but you know, I think it could change. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:04

No, and and I do agree with you. I think uh by the industry working together, we can definitely raise the standards, right? Because for, you know, customers that are not familiar, they might and probably do base a bad experience on the industry. You know, it's a poorly run company and they're like, oh, well, these just you know, and there's a lot of skepticism towards it, right? And so I think raising the bar together, it raises everyone up, right? So I absolutely agree there. And, you know, another thing too, and is that some people say the hardest part of running a pool company is taking care of pools. No, it's people.

SPEAKER_05 22:38

You know, I think it is definitely people. It is definitely a bar with people. Yeah. I think, you know, the one of the things for us that we are really focused on is bringing in the right people and providing the training and career path. So people can grow with the company as we grow. And you know, our kind of sort of attrition or and kind of length of employment has continued to, you know, be better and better where people stay for longer, longer. Having said that, there's still a lot of turnover, you know, in the industry. And you know, sometimes it's exciting, like people taking on, you know, jobs in HVAC or welding or kind of next steps in career, which is, you know, something you just have to like applaud and say, sorry to see you go, but like good for you. And you know, but sometimes just moving or other things like that. But there's a lot of turnover. And so, you know, to me, it's it's 100% the people. Like, you know, yes, we have 4,500 customers, but we have 150 technicians between our bear and service teams, and that is a lot of people to uh manage, and you know, a lot of things pop up from time to time. So definitely the hardest part.

SPEAKER_04 23:38

Yeah. When was uh going back to Poole, when was the first moment you realized that Poole was becoming something much bigger than you originally imagined?

SPEAKER_05 23:47

Well, I sort of have a problem being bored. I've you know beat myself up on this one over time, and then I've just later in life just acknowledged that I just don't do well being bored, and so I should just know that. Yeah, I'm just gonna call it a gift at some point because just like I give up, you know, it is what it is. Like I'm gonna start a project when I get bored. Yeah, what happens? Um I about a year and a half into the business, you know, we had gotten to kind of the six, seven hundred pool point, and had, you know, had time to sort of like hire someone to help run the office and hired a you know, service manager, and like all of a sudden kind of had like people in place, and then I was kind of like, you know, what do I do all day? Like, you know, I'm kind of like, you know, I don't need to micromanage that anymore or do this anymore. And so I guess I found myself like doing like some side hustle consulting and some like some other things, and I was like, okay. I when I started this business, either decided it was going to be kind of a you know lifestyle business, then we'd stay at some sort of like six, seven, eight hundred pools like level and just you know, go with it, or I wanted to like build it and roll it up. And I kind of got to point where I was like, okay, I think I've actually hit this point and I'm finding myself not, you know, resting or taking a break or enjoying that, but I'm actually like starting other projects and doing other things. And I was like, all right, we're just we're going right. So time to grow. And that's kind of the moment that I was like, all right, this is time to really expand it.

SPEAKER_04 25:10

Is that would you would you say that might would that be a time when you considered it to be a risky change to the company?

SPEAKER_05 25:16

It definitely was risky. I mean, we, you know, took on kind of investment, external partners, which you know has its certainly pros and cons and challenges with that. And you know, you kind of go from at that point, you know, a small team that's in sort of this like, hey, I like working for a small company and I like the way we get to do things. And, you know, as you're making that transition, like the way that you do things has to change, like policies have to change, procedures have to change, culture's gonna change, like all those things change. And candidly, you know, a lot of your team might not either A, like, want to make that transition or you know, might want to go on that path, or you know, B may not be the people that can go from managing 500 pools to 4500 pools. So there's a lot of change along the way, and you know, change is challenging to manage.

SPEAKER_04 26:02

Yeah, no, definitely it is. So, you know, you've mentioned change, you've mentioned AI, you've mentioned kind of you know staying up with the times. And that kind of leads me to ask, do you think that the pool industry is behind the times? And this is kind of something that we hear, we tend to hear a lot. Some people think it is, some people think it isn't. What would you what do you say?

SPEAKER_05 26:19

I'm going to say holistically, I think it is. And I think even, you know, we at Pooley could, you know, still raise the bar and like where we want to go on a service level. And I would say that from a couple of standpoints, like not coming from pools. You know, one of the things that I kind of scratched my head about when I first started was the technology in the space and just sort of the like lack of an integrated system that really worked for pools across the board. You know, and you either had, you know, your big tech stacks, like a service tighten or a jobber, which you know had a CRM and everything built in there, but didn't actually have the functionality to really work well for pools. Or, you know, on the other side, you had kind of your pool industry softwares like Skimmer and Pool Grain that were great for pools, but didn't have CRMs integrated. And like coming from an outside industry, I was kind of like, what? Like, I don't get it. Like, where is why does this not work? And I think that's a real signal of it's you know, certainly catching up, but the industry being behind the times there wasn't a great software stack for you know running a scalable company that, you know, really hit all the needs. I think there's been a ton of progress in that. But I think overall, like there is still a particularly on the kind of the operations and customer service and professionalism side, you know, a huge uh opportunity to raise the bar in the industry. And I think, you know, part of that will come from software getting better and tools and systems getting better that people have to run the business for sure. And then I also think just professionalization of the industry and like what are industry training standards and you know what's required there. I mean, if you you know look at pools like short of your repair text, there's no like industry-wide certification that every pool technician should have going in somebody's backyard. And certainly there are for like electricians and HVAC, right? So there are just things that are different about the pool industry where I do think it is gonna leave behind some other industries.

SPEAKER_04 28:06

Yeah. Well, and I think too, you know, AI and it it it's not, I don't want to say it's it's still new. In some ways it is still new, but I think in the pool industry, a lot of people still frown upon it, right? They're like, mm, no. But the whether we want to admit it or not, AI is here and it's gonna continue to stay here and it's just gonna continue to grow. And so I think that people are still afraid to use it. And or when they see apps or people really getting more into it, they're like, oh, well, you're taking that away from the service, you know, the service pros, you're, you know, you're you're gonna be you're gonna be pulling feet off the ground. And I don't think it, I don't, I don't think that's the truth, but I think it's just it's it's additional resources to better help those pros on the ground, right? It's to better provide them information. We're not saying, hey, we're gonna take this information from you, but it's just more resource, resources and tools. Because there's just so much to learn. And again, I always say this just because you go out and you take a short training, that doesn't mean that you've learned everything. There is so much to learn. I am still constantly learning. People that have been in this industry doing it for 40, 50 years, I hope that you're still learning. Because you never, you should never stop learning. The day you stop learning is where I'm I'm I feel I'm sorry. That's too bad. You should never stop learning, right? But you know, I think all this new technology, let's use it to our advantage.

SPEAKER_05 29:26

I agree completely. I think you know, AI is pretty incredible what it can do in some ways, and and you know, terrifying in other ways too. But terrifying. Yeah, exactly. But you know, it's here, it's not going away. And I think you, you know, should think of it as a productivity tool. Like, how can you use it to spend your time more effectively or increase your, you know, impact that you can have? And I think if people are using it in that way, like it's an amazing tool. And candidly, you know, companies that don't embrace it, whether pool industry or not, or really any industry, I think are gonna get left behind or you know, have challenging competition because there's just a lot of, I mean, even on the simplest level, there's a lot of administrative things that you know you can teach it to do that make it so much easier.

SPEAKER_04 30:13

Well, and so again, we yeah, and we always talk about I always bring up the customer service part. If if that's maybe where you're not so hot in, you maybe you need some assistance, start to look up, you know, an AI agent. You know, go back to my conversation, my episode with Fred Ross. He and I really dove deep into AI and what it could do. And I mean, use AI for that. Do some research, get you know, start to build your skills on customer communication, really make, you know, start to shine a little bit more.

SPEAKER_05 30:41

We've been using it right now to try to build a tool to kind of look at, you know, our feedback and Hubspot for customers and then our phone systems and our like thumbs up and thumbs down and pool brain to kind of like go look and gather customer sentiment to tell us which customers might be upset. Because like maybe in one system we saw one thing here, you know, and then there was one email here, and people seeing those individual dots together don't know that this is an upset customer. But if we pulled the system info together, do we see that actually Natalie's been really now the last three services with us? So we should reach out to her before she quits, you know, and try to get out of some of those things. Like there's all kinds of things that we can do with it, even you know, beyond just like the AI agent or answering the phone. But yeah, it's a great tool. Yeah. I mean, I I settled a doctor's appointment the other day using an AI agent, and I was like, this is really weird, but also amazing because I would have been on the phone holding for 15 minutes before that, right? So it's yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:34

The the talking to the AI agent on the phone, it is a little weird. We were talking about internally in our group at the great game in one of our channels. Uh, I think it was the week last week or the week before, and someone was like, Have you has anyone ever spoken to AI agent before? And people are starting to chime in. And and it is really weird when you finally realize you're not talking to a real person, you're like, Who is this? Yeah, you know, like, oh, I'm an I'm an agent here to help you.

SPEAKER_05 31:57

Like, I was impressed. I went back and forth. I'm like, no, that day doesn't work. And you look at this and like, and it actually like, you know, stand right with you, like it was a person 100%.

SPEAKER_04 32:06

So yeah, yeah. I mean, hey, don't knock it till you try it. And again, it's use it to what what what would work best for you and your company. If you don't want to use it for for what it can do, or you know, choose choose what you want it to help you with. Doesn't have to be for everything. Keep those boots on the ground, keep the face-to-face learning. Not saying that. Definitely continue to educate, but see if there are ways that can better help you in your business and see if you can help those customers out. I mean, don't have to keep every customer, but for the ones that you do have, see where you can help them.

SPEAKER_05 32:36

Yeah, and and use it to do some of the administrative loads that you can actually spend your time on the high value things.

SPEAKER_04 32:41

Yeah, save you some time, man. I mean, there was there was something uh that one of our, um, not gonna say who, but there was I know someone that it was taking them about six hours to do something, and they started having AI help them do things, and now it takes them one hour. That's five hours back. So it's five hours, but you add that up over time, it adds up.

SPEAKER_05 32:58

Yeah, I was looking at our inventory the other day and like ran an AI report on like, can you please put together how many units we've sold of these 10 things over the last six months and pulling that out of QuickBooks and in prior life and getting the format correct to build the pivot tables and do all the things would have taken me hours and it's done in 15 minutes. I was like, this is amazing. That's two hours I had to do something else.

SPEAKER_04 33:17

So that kind of stuff, absolutely. Some of it, yeah, some of it's a no-brainer. Well, and you know, I think um sometimes business owners often feel the pressure to constantly innovate, right? Do you think that success comes from being different or from simply being consistently excellent?

SPEAKER_05 33:32

That's a good one. I think that it is both, uh, in the sense of I think delivering consistency in this industry is one of the challenges, like good technicians, scheduling, and you've got weather, you've got all of the things to deal with, right? So consistency and just coming in and operating, you know, day to day, kind of in the grind of operations is what makes you successful in this space. And that's all about just discipline and consistency, 100%. And I also believe that like we should always be asking ourselves, like, how do we get better or how do we do things differently? You know, I agree. Preach this to our entire leadership team, but I tell everybody go get their hands dirty, you know, at least once a month or a quarter. And what I mean by that is like, go to the frontline job like once a month, because every time I do it, like, why don't we do that this way? Like, this is dumb, or this could be better, or we could change this like this, or and it's things that like, you know, our service manager people see day to day. And they just maybe in the headspace of like, this is my job every day. I just come in and do it, and you come in with a different perspective and you do it, and you're like, huh, we could make this better. So I think it's incredibly important to have the discipline and consistency, but also constantly be saying, like, how do we make this better? Like, how do we change this?

SPEAKER_04 34:38

How do we make it more efficient? I agree, I agree. I've I've had the pleasure of doing a couple of different roles recently, and I'll say I have a lot of respect for some of the roles that definitely that happened in this company. And I had, I'll say I had fun, I was excited. And again, at the end of the day, I was like, I have such mad respect for you guys because you guys do this day in, you do it day out, and you guys are just you're all bosses. Like, go you, I'm rooting, I got my pom-poms, like you guys rock. But yeah, I love that. I I think it's so healthy to get out of your normal day-to-day and do something different that someone else is doing to give you a good perspective.

SPEAKER_05 35:15

And you can't design processes or you know, make the company better or change things if you don't know what the day-to-day looks like either and understand exactly how it feels on the front lines too.

SPEAKER_04 35:26

Exactly, exactly. I always really enjoy understanding the different parts of each company because I I truly believe it helps me grow and it really gives me a better idea overall of what's going on. And so when I get those two, 3 a.m. like ideas and I like I text Lacer, I send a note to Johnny, I'm like, hey guys, what do you think of this? And they're like, ooh, tell me more. And I'm like, okay, yeah. Like it's helpful, right? Because we're all there to help encourage each other, lift each other up and grow together, you know, because we're all in this together. We're all we're all here to help grow the industry. So you know, with with this industry, you know, some people, I would say maybe more so outside the industry, but they tend to think that pool companies really only work in the summer. And they think that the pool service is a seasonal business. What would you say to that? I have my thoughts, but we'll I'll ask you that first.

SPEAKER_05 36:13

I mean, I'm a little Texas biased, so you know, potentially some other states have a different perspective, but it is absolutely a year-round business for us. Yes. In some ways, like July and August are some of the easiest months of the industry, despite being the busier ones, right? Because, like, you know, springtime, we get all of pollen and all the fun coming into pools and weather changes and all of the rain and this year, especially. And then, you know, by the time you hit July and August, it's like it's dry and it's hot, but you're through, you know, typically major rainstorms, you're through the pollen season. Then we get into fall with all of the leaves dropping and the good six to eight weeks of that. And, you know, again, it's like you it takes you to kind of like, okay, the leaves are done in December or January, which are like relatively easy. But then in Texas, we have freezes that tend to hit, and we don't winterize pools in Texas. So, you know, those are always interesting weeks to operate, and you know, especially the last couple of years where we've had some like ice storms and snowstorms, and like those halt our teens on the ground and also create all kinds of problems in people's backyards. So it's year-round for sure. It's just the challenge of what you're dealing with in the different seasons varies quite a bit.

SPEAKER_04 37:27

Right. Yeah, I definitely I remember long ago there used to be slower, slower months in the year, but that has long since been gone. And now it's I I feel, you know, certain months of the year are for you know drilling down and getting certain work done. And then, you know, when the pools are open, that's a whole different story. And then when the pools close, there's a lot of travel, there's events. But yeah, I I would say it's just a different type of work, depending on the type of year, right? If the pools are open, work is shifted this way. If the pools are closed, depending on where you're located, it's a different type of work. There's always something going on, whether it's in front or behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_05 38:04

100%. And it's always really different too. You know, it's the like to your point, like when we do have the slower times, that's when we're like, okay, we're gonna implement a new operating system or we're gonna go do something, you know, massive and change. And you know, there's time to do that in a year too.

SPEAKER_04 38:18

Yep, yep. I agree. I agree. Well, you know, with kind of the changing of the seasons and you know, now growing this wonderful company, with company culture, some people tend to believe that company culture is just, you know, an HR buzzword. What would you say to that?

SPEAKER_05 38:35

I think it can be an HR buzzword and the way that you know we talk about it sometimes. But if you really think about, you know, what culture is, it's not the words on a piece of paper, you know, or in the employee handbook. It's the way things get done every day. You know, it's the way people interact with each other, it's the way people treat each other, it's the way people talk to customers, you know, it's the way people take care of the tool one to attract. Like it is, it is the part really of the business and the way things get done. And I think some people, you know, tend to define it really as sort of the paper side or the word side of it when really it is it's the way things happen every single day. So it's one of the most important things.

SPEAKER_04 39:15

Yeah. What would you say the cult? So what do you think about the culture in the field?

SPEAKER_05 39:20

As far as the technician side or yeah. I well, I think that's incredibly important. Lino, I think, you know, one of the things that we have tried to focus on is like treating our technicians well and you know, having consistency and pay and expectations and being very clear about like what we're asking of you, and this is what we ask in return. And you know, providing kind of the the paths to you know next steps, whether it's a filter talk or a pair tech or taking on the office row, but like how do we give people the space to grow? But you know, they're in our customers' backyards every single day, you know, and so they are the reflection upon our company. So making sure that we're aligned there.

SPEAKER_04 39:59

Yeah. And the reason I asked that is because again, a lot of a lot of people tend to get into the industry and they say, oh, well, I'm just gonna, you know, I'll make a quick buck over the summer and I'll just I'll service people's backyards. That's why I was asking. And I think it's unf it's unfortunate, but I think a lot of techs go out, they get a certificate, and they're like, all right, I'm a master, I know what I'm doing, huh? Wrong. And then they go and work for a company that unfortunately does not have these standards in place, and they're just truly set up for failure. So they they A, they they got a little bit of information, started with the company, they really don't didn't get any direction, and then they're really just kind of thrown out there to the wolves, and they they they're given that uh customer that thinks you're afraid to go outside.

unknown 40:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:43

So then you got that boom turnover. So that's why I'd ask about in the field. For sure.

SPEAKER_05 40:47

And well, and it's it's not just turnover then for our technicians, but it's cosmetic turnover then too. Yeah. One of the things, yeah, and then that kills you, like it's expensive, you know, it's hard. And I think one of the things for us, we've invested heavily in our training program where we now have a three-week training program that also has some like checks and balances in it, too, where it's not just the trainer saying this person is ready to go in the field, they have to go to a ride along with the manager, they're also saying, like, yes, this person's ready to go. So we have a double check on that. But we found over time, you know, we even put experienced hires through that and they can move faster through the three weeks of their experience, potentially, but we still put those checks and balances in place because we found that it's just so important to have consistency in that. And even for people that are coming from you know the industry or know exactly, you know, how to do pools, like we want to do it the way we want to do it, and you know, have consistency in there. You've you've got to do that and got to make that investment in your teens.

SPEAKER_04 41:38

Yeah, no, I agree. I think ride-alongs are so important and so useful. I mean, again, I've been in this industry for a long time, but at our our team that we do ride-alongs, and I've done some things similar to it, and it's just been so helpful. Again, I've been I've been in the industry for a while, and this is some of the things I've done with the grip game are slightly different than what I'm used to. But what I've learned have has been so helpful and has really set me up for success. And I'm like, whoa, that's pretty cool. Didn't know I could do that. Yeah. You know, and it's exciting and it's empowering. It's like, okay, cool, I got this, you know, it's and it's a good experience. And so I think the more that get that experience from the get-go are properly trained, you know, that are set up for success, we're gonna see less of that turnover, right? And we're gonna really consistently lift up the industry versus break down. Because I I'm I'll have to be honest, I there I still am a little concerned about where the industry is gonna be in the next five to ten years. And it's scary. It is.

SPEAKER_05 42:37

And I think that for, you know, if we get consistency or can raise the bar across, you know, companies where there is, you know, consistent training expectations or, you know, more industry standards along with those things, like some of them would be good for helping the level of industry. I agree.

SPEAKER_04 42:50

I agree. And one of our kind of leading into our last myth is, you know, I think a lot of people dream about reaching that point where everything just runs itself, you know, in a perfect world, if you will, when you win the lottery. Right. Once you've built a successful company, and this is the myth, your job gets easier. But has success really made your job easier or, you know, changed the kinds of challenges you really you face?

SPEAKER_05 43:12

It is definitely not easier, but the challenges are different. Um, and kind of where I spend my time, you know, day to day is different. But I think, you know, at least for me, like I am an active, engaged, you know, co-founder, part of the company. And so for me, it's like, you know, I'm here every day. I get my hands dirty on different things. I'm always taking on new projects. And, you know, as the thing that I mentioned earlier, it's gotten easier over time to have great leaders and teams who own certain parts of the business, which that's great. Maybe I don't need to go do that anymore. Like I used to do all the sales for the company while I was running the company. Now we have a sales team, you know, that's great. I don't do sales anymore. But that means that I have hours back to spend, you know, on higher level. Like, how do I make the next big decisions and how do I like look at the things that we need to do next and continue to level up the company? And candidly, like sometimes that stuff is harder to figure out than you know, doing the sales calls. So you know, it's just it's not easier, it's just different for sure. And you know, the bigger you are, like when we want to change something, you know, now it's not, you know, let me roll out a change to five technicians and have five quick conversations. Like if we want to change a company policy, or like this year we rolled out an incentive plan for our technicians, you know, we had to think about how do we do that across five different branches in the right, you know, order and make sure everybody gets the message consistency and like that's way harder than it was, you know, in some ways when you're smaller. So it just changes.

SPEAKER_04 44:37

Yeah, I mean leadership, decision making, personal growth, I mean empowering others, you know, just a just a couple of things, long-term strategies, just a couple things you gotta and and it's funny because like when you're smaller, it's like you know, you used to talk like the like the weight on your shoulders, like how am I gonna make payroll every week, you know, and it's like all on my shoulder.

SPEAKER_05 44:54

And you know, now that's not there, but now it's like okay, we have 150 employees. Like now I have a massive responsibility to make the right decisions for a much bigger group, too. That is amazing.

SPEAKER_04 45:03

I hope you're proud. That is that is something to be so proud of, girl. I mean, gosh, five years ago, could you would you have imagined you guys would have been this big five years ago when you left your job and your husband was like, Okay, you you can take six months off and you're like, I'm gonna go build this massive successful business in Texas.

SPEAKER_05 45:19

I don't know what I was thinking. I sort of uh I think uh the you know older I get or the longer I get where you know people always ask you that interview question, like, where do you see yourself in five years or ten years? And I've learned the answer is I have no idea.

SPEAKER_04 45:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:31

Like it keeps changing and it keeps evolving. And 10 years ago, I would have never said this. I don't know if I would have said it two or three years ago. So it's like, you know, I didn't it's exciting and fun and like super happy we've gotten here, but also I said, Oh no, that I planned on it, you know, I just kind of went with the day to day and like I kept pushing on things.

SPEAKER_04 45:45

So I agree. People people ask me, where do you see yourself in five to ten years? And I have a vision, but like you, I'm just sometimes I just make a decision and it's it's my my poor husband, he's hanging on for dear life someday. He's like, Oh gosh, what'd you do? What what do what what what what are we what are we doing? What what what's going on? And I'm like, it's good, we're good. This is what we're doing. He's like, just tell me when, where, and I'll get the kids. I'm like, I love you.

SPEAKER_05 46:08

Yeah, that's our dynamic. I'm married to an engineer, so you know, decisions are analytical and thoughtful and you know, slow and measured. And I'm like, let's go. So sometimes I have to be like, if I can catch up on that, we'll be okay. It's like he's gonna get all the information. So we're gonna balance, but we we drive things differently for sure.

SPEAKER_04 46:26

We I would say we definitely do too. I'm married to a combat medic. So he's just like, I got the band-aid and neosporin for the kids, you, I'm here. I'm here. Well, Leslie, I I can't thank you enough for joining me today. You know, I really enjoyed this conversation. I loved learning about poolie. And I really think one of the biggest takeaways is that success, it doesn't happen because of just one great decision or great product. It it comes from showing up and investing in your people, building systems and supporting your team and really being willing to learn and adapt as your company grows. And before we wrap up, if our listeners want to learn more about Poolie and connect with you or follow everything that you and your team are doing, where could they go?

SPEAKER_05 47:11

For sure. Uh well, we do have, of course, our website, which has, you know, kind of all of our branches and information on there, which is pooly.com. And then we are working in the world of AI on our social media games. So Instagram and TikTok are getting better and better because one of the things I think marketing is going to change with AI. So there's information there for sure, but uh, all of our branches and everything where we are is all on our website.

SPEAKER_04 47:37

Awesome. Well, thank you again for being here with us and for sharing your journey with all of us. And as always, if you have a myth that you would like us to bust or tackle on any future episodes, or if you know of a great story, just a story to share, please let us know. We'd love to hear from you. And until next Wednesday, keep asking questions, challenging what you think you know, and keep raising the bar for our industry. Until next time, guys.