Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Welcome to Monument Matters, a podcast produced by the Monument Builders of North America for all things memorialization.
Each episode is an extension of our monthly magazine, MB News. Monument Matters invites everyone to listen and share. You'll find all of the episodes on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: I'm your host, Mike Johns, CM, AICA from the Johns Carabelli Company Semrano Monuments and Flowers in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio. I'm also a past president of the Monument Builders of North America. MBNA is a 119-year-old association whose mission is to define and promote memorialization in a viable, innovative and diversified way for its members and to enhance awareness of memorialization by the general public and and the entire remembrance industry.
In that spirit of promoting memorialization, the MBNA Marketing Committee has created this podcast as an extension of our monthly magazine MB News. Each podcast episode features a discussion related to a magazine theme. Monument Matters podcasts invite everyone to listen and share. You'll find all of the episodes of our first two seasons on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.
Please join me in welcoming my friend and colleague, Troy Caldwell, CM F A I C A from the Caldwell Monuments in Kokomo, Indiana. Troy has been with Caldwell Monument Company for over 36 years and has experience in all aspects of the business, which is reflected in his grand title of Company General Manager, Family Services Manager and Owner.
So, Troy, welcome to the podcast.
[00:01:48] Speaker C: Thank you, Mike.
Best part of that introduction is you called me friend. Love that.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: It's very, very true. And it's been one of my distinct pleasures on this podcast to have many of my friends from the monument business join me and share their story.
So thanks for being one of them, Troy. I appreciate it.
[00:02:08] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: So, all right, I'm going to start off with a three part question for you so we can see the big picture. I know you can take it, Troy. So hang on.
So what is Monument Builders Academy and what need in the monument industry is it designed to address and why is that so important?
[00:02:28] Speaker C: Well, it's a big question.
Monument Builders Academy is something we started without that name. We started just building an online training resource last summer. You joined me in that you were one of the leaders in that team. And we've had had a few months of a lot of hours going through this curriculum, but the main point that we were trying to achieve was to be able to bring training to our industry, to the staff of the companies right there in their own offices. And so that was the intentionality of it. I think we started with Fundamentals course because we knew that everybody could benefit from that. From, from the receptionist at the front desk all the way back to the shop guy, so that we could give them access to a broad basis of knowledge about the monument industry, about monuments in general, not just the industry itself.
And so that's what our main goal was. The need is there. It's apparent. We see at conventions and other training outlets that we are training the managers and the owners and we're trusting those managers and owners to take that training back to their employees. And that happens. But it's a trickle down effect. And the academy allows us an opportunity to give owners access to train all of their staff, not just themselves.
And so I think we will see over the next couple years the results of this effort from a grassroots training that can only expand from there. I'm looking forward to seeing that and seeing the positives in that impact.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: As am I. So why, why do you think it's so important that MBNA steps in and provides this service, the leader in the
[00:04:26] Speaker C: industry nation or North America wide in education.
And so I think it was critical for them to develop stronger members and stronger member firms to lead this industry beyond. I hope that as people that aren't even members of MBNA find out about this, they join MBNA just to be a part of it.
Because I think it's that valuable of an asset for our industry and for our association.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: You mentioned that we've been at this for a little over a year now, but really you and I both know that we've been involved in trying to develop this type of program for, I'm scared to say, at least 10 years.
[00:05:12] Speaker C: Right.
[00:05:12] Speaker B: I mean it's been a huge thing.
[00:05:15] Speaker C: Yeah, it's been over 10 years since Jeff Anderson and I sat with MBNA board and we talked about a design course that was correspondence and would be three through email and that got launched and many people have gone through that design course. But that's just one aspect of our industry. And seeing, seeing this comprehensive academy training just as invigorating and exciting to me.
Can't believe how excited I am about it.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: I agree. In the beginning, as we've discussed, it's. It really didn't seem like it was going to become what we were looking for, but with feedback and pivoting and a lot of hard work, I think we have really developing something that not only we can be proud of, but the entire industry and anybody that participates is really going to see the value for sure.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: I agree. The one thing that surprises me the most is it allows us to inspire employees because they're Part of a much bigger industry and much bigger story than just their one firm and in their one desk and their one customer. It expands their appreciation for being called to work in this industry. So that excites me too because it'll bring more retention, employee retention, because they'll see value in what they're doing beyond just their day to day.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: Right. Thanks for that, Troy. So one of the key goals of the program is helping companies train and onboard their employees who may have no background in the monument industry when they start.
Why has this initial training been such an important challenge for monument businesses?
[00:07:08] Speaker C: Wow.
I usually, I'll just take it to my story. I usually have to inspire and train those newcomers to our industry in this. Basically just training them about our company.
It's not training them about our industry and then.
And then just building a relationship between them and our company so that there is employee retention for that new employee.
But it takes years till they are interested or going to training at EGA or MBNA or aica.
It takes years for them to get to that point.
This allows them to feel like they're part of something bigger right off the bat at their own desk in a couple hours of online training. And I can't wait for my current staff to take this training. And I'm excited about the next hires and them getting up to speed and getting more tuned into what the monument industry is all about rather quickly. And I, I don't know that anybody has gotten that right.
And I'm not saying that we have gotten this perfect, but it is a step forward like we've never had before.
Just to have them have this ability to sign up and do this course.
Yeah, I would agree.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: I think that, you know, a lot of what you said in that response is really insightful. I really hadn't taken all of that into account. But I think that really we can call this for the monument industry a Neil Armstrong type of step, you know, for the industry. So we're really looking forward to being able to share it with our monument builder community.
So the first course we're launching is the Fundamentals course.
And as I understand it, this course will be free for MV and A members, but it will also be made available to the whole industry soon with a fee attached. So again, who is it designed for?
What can someone expect to learn from taking the course?
Tell me.
[00:09:25] Speaker C: This Fundamentals course is designed for every staff member on your payroll. It is that comprehensive and that broad based. It was originally designed for the new hire.
But I think there's value in it, across the board, it has a $99 value. That's what we put on this fundamentals course. But as you said, if you sign up and you are a MBNA firm, you will get that free of charge.
So this could be for some of our firms, $1,000 or $2,000 worth of training if you're putting your whole staff through it and priceless.
So there is no reason you should refrain from doing this.
Every, every person on your staff can sign up, have their own login, do it at their own pace. They can tell you when they've completed it and what they learned from it, and you can go through it with them at the same time.
You know, pick a week or pick a two week period when your, your whole staff is being saturated with this immaterial and talking about it, and then just watch how it transforms your staff and you'll want to be a part of that. You won't just want to sit down the new hire and say, here, watch this.
You'll want to be a part of it. You'll want to have the dialogue with them. It will start conversations that you wouldn't have with your employees. It'll just bring a team spirit to your place if you, if you're intentional about it. Right. I know that for some of us, spring is coming and we may feel like, oh, we don't have time.
Take the time. It might transform the next couple months of your business in a way that you didn't expect.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: So, and, and, and to reiterate what you said before, all of these courses are designed to have something of value for everybody in your business. It doesn't matter what role they are in, in, in, there will be something in every course for everybody to take away. The next course we're, we've created is a design course and it's already in beta testing. And the course on sales is being developed now with courses in production, installation and business operations to follow.
So how did MBNA decide these were the most important topics to cover?
[00:11:52] Speaker C: Well, it took us a couple meetings just talking about that. What are the basics? What are the sections we want to cover? The design course is not just for designers.
As we finish that up, we clearly understood that this is for everybody across the board. Even the shop guys would get some value out of it. In regards to design, the salespeople will have great value and it will build. What we didn't see coming was it will build a team atmosphere around design, good design and monuments.
What's good, what's bad, what's missing what could be improved and then ability to critique that together. So I'm excited about that course as well. As we're knee deep in sales course right now. I think you and I both agree it's phenomenal.
I think we're surprised with how good it is at this point and we're still working on it.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: I agree. Yeah, it's really been a great experience.
[00:12:55] Speaker C: I think we put these sections to it. To answer your question, we put these sections to it so that an employee in a certain aspect of the business would be drawn to that particular section and he could say owner or boss. I want to sign up for this. I want to take this course. But I think the missing thing that we didn't factor in is so comprehensive and so helpful for team building.
You're probably going to want a lot of your staff members to cross over into other aspects that you wouldn't normally sign them up for.
Have them go through those courses as well.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it will provide an opportunity for.
It doesn't matter if you're the receptionist or the salesperson or in design or in production. Like we said, all of the courses are going to have something for everybody and at the end of the day, if nothing else, it's going to help everybody understand each other's roles and how they all fit the big picture so you have a little bit better appreciation of what your co workers spend their time on and how it all translates into something meaningful for your customers.
So many industries struggle to pass knowledge from experienced professionals to the next generation. How do you see the academy helping preserve and share that knowledge across the monument profession?
[00:14:24] Speaker C: Well, as I mentioned earlier, the thing I didn't expect was that I would want to go through the course at the same time as my staff members and have team discussions about what they're learning and or one on ones with them.
This allows me a tool to start those conversations and have deeper conversations with them than I would otherwise. Because I kind of have to generate my own list of what we're going to talk about when we're having those team meetings or those one on ones.
And I feel like this just gives me all the tools in my toolbox to have those conversations and to, to kind of adjust it to our culture, you know, because there are, there are some things in here that aren't our culture culture, but it allows them to open their mind up outside of our business and our culture and then come back in and we talk about how's that different here? How do we want to improve on that here, that sort of thing. So I think it will rejuvenate owners and managers to have that team building experience that they aren't currently having, just because they're going through it together.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Sure, that makes total sense. So, looking ahead a few years, what impact do you hope the Monument Builders Academy will have on monument businesses?
[00:15:43] Speaker C: Generate a momentum of people that are excited about the calling that they've received to be in the monument business? It's not just a job, it is a career.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: Don't say adventure. That's somebody else's tagline. Go ahead.
[00:16:03] Speaker C: That probably showed up in some of our taglines in the course.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: It probably did, yes.
[00:16:10] Speaker C: But it's, it's an amazing career that is so satisfying. And so I'm hoping that we generate momentum going forward for more people to take it as a career, as a profession, as a noble profession that brings in much more reward than the paycheck.
[00:16:28] Speaker B: At the end of the day, that's
[00:16:30] Speaker C: what I hope to achieve and I hope to see that momentum building over the next few years.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: So, understanding that these courses are being developed as entry level, so to speak, do you see more in depth training coming in the future through mdna?
[00:16:46] Speaker C: That's the beauty of this program and the beauty of the name Monument Builders Academy. I think this could grow to be the.
The premier, probably already is starting to be the premier education of our industry.
I see it as nothing more than a platform, a foundation for the education of our industry for the next decades.
We have the ability with this tool to adapt it, to change it, to revise it fairly quickly. That's not necessary yet, but it will be in a couple years. So each time we do that, we have a whole new product, a whole new education tool. If we see something missing, we can always add another course or we can adjust the courses we have. So I think it's very adaptable for the future.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: I agree. I think that it's not for me to say and share figures, but I will say happily that this is one of the largest investments in the industry that MB&A has ever made, and for sure the largest investment that MBNA has ever made in terms of education. And so I think it's important that our membership understands that and the commitment that MBNA has made to providing its members with the best possible training that there is for our people in our industry, for our businesses in our industry, from our friends in our industry, for our families that are served by our industry, there's no place else that that holds that education as much importance as MB and A does and will continue to do so going forward. So again, until you have an opportunity to take the the Basics course and really see what it's all about and what it contains and understand going forward what that means for the upcoming and following modules. Design, Sales, Production, Installation, Business management.
You know, you don't know what you don't know until you take a look. And I will say, having been in this business for over 50 years myself, there's still an awful lot of really valuable, tangible information that I'm getting out of helping create this curriculum. And so I know that it's going to be a valuable and a win for anybody that participates.
This is more than just a job. It's a vocation, it's a calling.
It's something that I think all of us do, from the receptionist all the way through all the chairs, as I said, and I'm not putting them in any particular order, but really anybody that is participating and working within a monument business, it's just more than your paycheck. It's more than just the job.
It's it's just something so much more. And we have opportunity to really treat our customers in a way that they may not get that same experience if they're dealing with a non member or they're you're buying from a third party vendor or something like that, buying on the Internet. I mean those are all options and they fit the bill for some folks. But the bottom line is that I feel very strongly that you're not going to get a better experience, you're not going to get a better commemoration to a life, a better memorial than having gone through the process with a monument builder, a member of MBNA.
Yes, I agree that's my tainted 2 cent experience, but I think it's valid.
So with that, Troy, I want to thank you for joining me today on the podcast. It's been a pleasure speaking with you and also to be continuing to work alongside you and the rest of the volunteers, staff and learning experts while we continue to develop these teaching modules.
The April issue of MB News is a recap of MB University, where the Monument Builders Academy was launched in Fort Worth. I encourage you to read this issue and if you have a topic you'd like to have covered in a future podcast, please leave a comment. Again, thanks for listening to today's installment of Monument Matters. MBNA invites you to stay connected Through Facebook and LinkedIn or visit us at www.monimalbuilders.org for upcoming events and webinars. Again, Troy, I do appreciate all the time that you've put into this. As we said in the beginning, this has been a long time coming. We've had stops and starts along the way.
But it's really taken a person like you to lead the charge, to really start to see it gel and come to fruition. So I do appreciate your commitment to this project for sure.
So for MBA and Monument Matters, I'm Michael Johns. Thank you for taking time out of your day to listen in if you found today's content worthwhile, and I surely hope you do. Please share the link with a friend for comments and feedback. We'd love to hear from you. So please drop a note to infoonmentbuilders.org and again, discussing future and upcoming education.
Please mark your calendars now because the 20002027 Monument Industry show will be in Mobile, Alabama, February 25th to 28th. Again, thanks for joining us today. Have a great rest of your day.
