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Hi, everyone.

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Welcome to the next episode of

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the Bay Street capital holdings

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podcast titled, How'd You Do It

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& Why Should I Care? This series

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aims to highlight women doing

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amazing work in various

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industries. So today, we are so

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lucky to be joined by Maria

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Neumann, who is owner of Fire &

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Water Damage Recovery. Hi,

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Maria, lovely to have you on the

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show.

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Thank you for having me.

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So I guess we can first start off with an introduction as to who you are,

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and perhaps the main answer to

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the question of the podcast,

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which is How'd you do it? And

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why should I care?

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So I own a

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restoration company, which

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basically means we clean up

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anything disgusting, WaterFire

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mole to edge gross, anything you

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don't want to touch? And the

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question is, what?

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How do you do it and why should I care?

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Well, I do it by

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happenstance. So what happened

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is I met a guy in 1999. And he

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said, I make a deal with you,

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you helped me get my business

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going, and you'll never have to

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work again. And so 22 years

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later, he's sitting on the

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beach, and I work 80 hours a

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week. So first thing is is never

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ever, ever, ever take a deal

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like that unless you have it in

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writing. Why should you care?

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You don't have to care. But when

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it came time to decide who was

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going to buy the business, him

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or me. The main reason why I

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decided to take the business is

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because I have employees. And I

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really, really, really, really

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like my employees. And I really

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liked the fact that I can give a

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blue collar guy a job, that he

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can make six figures. So the

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reason why you could care is

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because I care about my

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employees. How's that?

1:44

Awesome? No, that's

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such a great answer. And what

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inspired you obviously to join

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this industry? I mean, you

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mentioned obviously this man you

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met in 1999. But was this

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something you were expecting? Or

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was it

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I have a Bachelor

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in fine arts from a theatre

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school. I actually know more

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about Shakespeare than I do

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about cleaning up sewage. So

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this was just like tripping and

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falling over a career.

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Well, what an

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interesting turn of events. So I

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guess what lessons did you wish

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you would have known before

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starting in this industry?

2:21

Oh, my God, I

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knew nothing. I absolutely knew

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nothing. Every single thing I

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know, is from the school of hard

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knocks. So the first thing is

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the industry that I'm in was the

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least regulated of the

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construction industries. It

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started out in the carpet

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cleaning space, and it ended up

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having its own industry. And it

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is it was the Wild West, you

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know, you could do the same job

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for $2,000 one day and $40,000

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The next day, and the man that

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we shall not be named he, he did

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whatever, you know, you put an

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ad in the Yellow Pages and

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nobody cared. And in 2008, the

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yellow pages for those of you

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who know know what the Yellow

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Pages is, it's the big book that

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you sat on when you were kids,

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so that you could sit at the

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dining room table, you know, so

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you can see, that's the Yellow

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Pages. Back when I was a kid, it

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was six inches wide. Now it's

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like it's got pizza delivery

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people in it. Right? So we would

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put an ad in the Yellow Pages.

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And we did $42,000 worth of

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Yellow Page ads. And we got

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$400,000 worth of work per

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month. Overnight, it went away.

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What

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that's crazy. And

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how comes how did you fix that?

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So we were one of

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the first Yelp adopters. Like

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when I got on Yelp, Yelp did not

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exist. Nope, was like, What are

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you doing? No, we're not going

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to take everybody and have them

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do a video that was one of our

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successful actions. And then,

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little by little I would I just

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listened to basically my

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successful action, even though

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talking incessantly has been

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listening, because everything

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you need to know, somebody did

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it before. Yeah,

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definitely. And I'm

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following on from that. Thinking

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about the whole span of your

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career. What would you say was

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your biggest failure? What did you learn from him?

4:32

My biggest. My

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biggest failure was, was not

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following my dream. So my dream

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was never to be the queen of

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sewage. What I really wanted to

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do was display Shakespeare and

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do Shakespeare festivals and all

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of that. So my biggest failure

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was just just making the deal

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with the devil and saying, hey,

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you know, you have all all work

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with you until the business get

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Selling. So that's that's me

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personally, as far as this

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company is concerned. What did

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you know the biggest failure is

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thinking that everything is

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going to be the same day after

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day, you have to look and see

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what you're doing constantly.

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Because one day, the Yellow

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Pages works the next day Yelp

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works. The next Angie's List

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was, oh was like, we do $600,000

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worth of work on Angie's List.

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And then the next year, we did

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$6,000 worth of work. So you

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constantly have to be watching

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everything and going with the

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flow. I mean, you can't, you

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can't depend on things being the

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same.

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Definitely. I would

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definitely agree with that. And

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you'd be dropping some really

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great pieces of really raw

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advice, I think in this call,

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and I really appreciate it. But

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what is one piece of advice that

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you'd give somebody who is

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wanting to pursue a career similar to yours?

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Well, okay, so

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there's two careers here, the

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first career is that I own a

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company. Yeah. And my advice to

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anybody who wants to own a

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company, is to know as much as

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you can possibly know work in

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that industry, as long as you

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can under somebody else, and

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learn all of the mistakes from

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them. Personally, it's not, I

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don't know what kind of what

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kind of career you could have

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that you could learn in college,

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the things that you learn on the

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streets. And the second thing,

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the second part of my career is

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I'm the sales girl, for my

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company. I personally bring in

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$5 million a year worth of work.

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Wow. So most salespeople do

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between one and 2 million, I do

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five, and I've never been able

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to hire somebody who can do the

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numbers I can do. And that the

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main thing I have to say about

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that is you can't you can't go

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to Sales school and learn sales.

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because sales is just

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communication. So what you

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really have to do is have to

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learn how to listen to people.

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And, and all the classes that

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you take about listening. It

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just, it just cracks me up. Like

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you always know you have sales

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person on the line, when the

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first thing they say is how's

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your day going? I mean, I just

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basically tell my employees, if

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somebody calls and wants to talk

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to me, and the first thing they

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say is how's your day going?

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You're a salesperson, and I want

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to talk to you, then in email.

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So one of the main things that

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I've learned as a salesperson is

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every salesperson has their own

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technique. And you have to learn

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your technique by listening, not

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by talking.

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And what would you

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say was one common myth and

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about your industry that you'd

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like to debunk right here right

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now?

8:04

Okay, well, my

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industry, I would say is

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probably one of the finest

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industries in construction. And,

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and that's not a myth. It is

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filled with all sorts of people

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that shouldn't be doing it. So a

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myth about my industry is that I

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guess, but there can be an

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ethical company, and that there

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are people out there who do care.

8:30

Awesome. Um,

8:30

obviously, as the owner of a

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company, you're probably very

8:32

busy at the moment. But what is

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one book that you've read or a

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podcast that you've listened to

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recently, this really inspired you?

8:43

So one of the

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things that I do is I'm not so

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much the pod books. I've taken

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courses in communication, just

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basic education. I'm, I'm a big,

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a big fan of the Scientology

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communication course. And that's

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probably he wrote the, you know,

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L Ron Hubbard, you did Dianetics

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and Scientology, he did a lot of

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communication courses. And those

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are the book the reading there.

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That's, that's pretty much been

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my foundation for sale.

9:20

Awesome. Well,

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listen, that's really inspiring.

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And thinking across the span of

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your career, who are three

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people in your life who have

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been the most influential to

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you?

9:33

Well, of course,

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L Ron Hubbard, because he wrote

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all those things that I like, I

9:36

really like Matt or don't. He's

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a killer sales guy. And he does

9:43

all sorts of, you know, taxing

9:47

and all of that. And probably

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the third is my general manager

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is a guy named Frank Yankee. And

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he's really, he has an amazing

9:59

moral compass. And, um, you

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know, I always thought that you

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had to, you know, kind of bend

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the truth or that you couldn't

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really get by being 100% Honest

10:08

all the time. And you actually

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can't. And it's really nice to

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have a partner, and a general

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manager who I mean, it's

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inspiring to

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me. Definitely. And

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then finally, to sort of round

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off our conversation, what is

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one piece of advice that you

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wish you gave yourself at any

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point in your life?

10:32

Well, the first

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thing that I, I probably would

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tell anybody is, everybody

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thinks that acting career and

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acting degree is useless. And

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it's actually the most valuable,

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the most valuable set of skills

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to have, if you're going to be

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an owner of a company, a

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salesperson, even my, like, I

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have a son, who used to work at

10:58

NASA. And he also was on Lizzie

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McGuire, you know, oh, wow, was

11:06

a professional actor until he

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was 15. Yeah, and then when he

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was older, he became an

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astrophysicist. And I used to

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argue with my dad about my son's

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career, but I would tell anyone

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who really wants to be a

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salesperson, or who really wants

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to, you know, be able to do

11:32

this. They need to study acting.

11:32

I mean, they need to do improv,

11:38

they need to be able to

11:38

comfortable in front of, you

11:41

know, a camera, and it's under

11:41

taught as a skill. Because it

11:47

really is a very useful skill

11:47

for so many different kinds of

11:51

business.

11:52

I would definitely

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agree that such a useful and

11:54

unique Yeah, that's such a

11:54

unique piece of advice as well.

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But thank you for that. I guess

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that rounds off our conversation

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for the day. So thank you so

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much, Maria, for taking the time

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to speak with me.

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This was truly

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such an engaging conversation.

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All right. Well, thank you. It's

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fun being on my first podcast.

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Amazing. Well,

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thank you then bye bye.