When Leaders Care About Their People | Always Lifting Ep. 5

Karen sits down with friend and fellow second-generation leader Beth Hahn, President of Berkshire Systems Group and SAH, for a conversation on building culture that lasts. Beth shares how she grew from a small startup into leading a multi-location company—and why caring for your people, serving the community and leading with integrity are the real drivers of success.

Beth’s story is proof that culture isn’t a slogan, it’s what you walk past, what you reinforce and what you build every day. When leaders truly care, people and communities rise with them.

🔗 Learn more about Berkshire Systems Group at Berkshire Systems Group, Inc. (BSGI)

💼 Connect with Beth (22) Beth Hahn | LinkedIn

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Today's guest is not only a fellow business owner and leader, she's also a friend. Beth Hahn is the president of Berkshire Systems Group and SAH, and she's someone that I've had the privilege of getting to know through our CEO peer group. Like me, she is also a second-generation leader of a family business. And that brings its own challenges, opportunities, and responsibilities as we work to build something that lasts beyond us. Her philosophy around leadership and culture aligns so closely with mine, as well as her commitment to serving the community, and that shows how much she embodies what it means to lift others. Ladies and gentlemen, Beth Han.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Beth, I'm thrilled to have you here today. Thank you, Karen, very much for having me. Yeah. This is so crazy cool. Yes, uh, we're we're mic'd up.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Isn't this fun? Yes, this is fun. Well, I would love for you to tell everybody who's listening just a little bit about your businesses. I know about them, but I'd love for you to just say a little bit about what your business is, um what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

So we are a security fire alarm, communications, and sprinkler company. That is the uh version, that's the Berkshire systems side of the business. BSGI is what we do for short. And uh then we also have SAH that used to be Secure Home Inc. that I started right out of college. And that is the residential and small commercial installation portion of the business. So we work, there's a lot of synergy between the two businesses. And as you will learn, I grew into the bigger business over time.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

But nice. Well, let's jump into it. So tell me how your journey to SAH to Berkshire to, you know, how did you get interested in being in this industry? What led you to where you're at now?

SPEAKER_01 2:06

My dad.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Oh, funny how dads can have that in the city.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Isn't that amazing what the what influence they have on us? So I was really retail oriented when I was in college and actually before college, I worked for Reading China and Glass for six years, went the route of marketing, believe it or not, which I now pay people to do for me, which is amazing. Uh but I went the route of marketing and I came out of college thinking that I was headed into VF Corporation or Reading China, and my dad said to me one afternoon, right after I graduated, I have an idea. And that was the end of it. That's history. Uh he had the idea for the residential and small commercial side of the business. His idea was more of a home safety product business. Crazy being said that he sold a ton of equipment to electrical contractors. And electrical contractors would say to him, Well, I want some systems for my own house. I want equipment that's the professional equipment. So his idea was to sell the equipment to a do-it-yourself market. And he came to me and said, I have this idea, you want to run with it. And not knowing any better at the time and looking back and going, Thank God I didn't know any better and that I was willing to take a risk, but I didn't have anything to lose at that point. I was, you know, I could have had a job, like I said, at Vanity Fair or Reading China, and yeah, it, you know, it was time to move on. So starting SAH, I needed to learn it from ground up. But I did start as a home safety products business. So I was on Lee High Street, and we had a little storefront, and I sold home safety products, pool alarms and cabinet door alarms and kids, you know, child safety locks. And it's crazy where I came from and where I am now. I think if I wanted to take off and go shopping, I'd put a sign on the door and say, Went shopping, be back this time. You know, it just crazy where I came from and and what we turned into. It very quickly turned into I needed to join the Home Builders Association because if I was gonna sell residential security components to people who could handle their own installation, I needed to get involved with residential whatever it was. And the residential sector was Home Builders Association. And so I am not the kind of person that goes in shallow water. I like to go in deep water, obviously. So I got in very deep with Home Builders Association and then hired uh my first installer. And we became it felt like overnight, we went from a home safety products business and a do-it-yourself business to a custom installation company.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Crazy. First guy I hired actually retired from Berkshire, from my dad's company, which became mine, retired from me, started with me in SAH, and then ended with me in Berkshire. And he was with me for 35 years. Oh wow. Crazy. And he had such expertise and skills at custom installations. He taught me everything I needed to know to be able to sell a system, install a system, program a system, train a system. I I owe it to him in that respect, as well as my father because I became certified as a level one technician. I'm not a kind of person that can sell you something if I don't know what the heck I'm talking about. I don't feel comfortable. I'm not gonna give you a line of BS. So it was really interesting to start just dabbling and then go knee deep and then waist deep and then I'm over my head in it. And I used to be out on job sites, I'd run wires, I'd fish walls, I the fingernails, you know, were dirty, and I learned every single thing I needed to know to be successful. Because when I walked into a customer's house, keep in mind, I was only 21, 22 at the time. So young woman, I didn't even look at that as an issue. I just looked, yeah, I was just young. And what did I know about this male-dominated industry? And so I needed to really know it to feel comfortable with it. And I I got there. I got there with his help. I could walk into a customer's location and I could talk complete tech neck technical business with them. It wasn't that they were just talking to me and I'd say, Oh, well, I'm gonna get that motion detector to that corner. I'd say, Well, yeah, we're gonna get it there because we're gonna run it this direction and this direction. You know, I could give them the facts. And I always had the mindset of, if you want to buy a system from me, great. If you don't, I'm here to help you, whatever is the right thing for you. So there was never a high pressure sales that were coming out of me. I think that's what brought us success.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Yeah, I love the leaning in, learning the product, leaning in to being able to do all the pieces of the business. So, how did that evolve into you in you know, into your leadership? You know, I feel like you started by creating the business, right? And you had some people working for you. I mean, obviously your dad saw something in you. Tell me a little bit more of the evolution of that and to where you are today as CEO.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

So crazy part is I don't know that I knew I was being groomed. Just like you probably didn't know either. I didn't know either. Yes. They're very in the Arthur's sneaky in the best way.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

The best way. It's almost, you know, we've heard so many speakers together, and I'm reminded of a recent speaker that we had that talked about mentorship versus coaching. Um her name, I'm gonna I will have to look her up, but her name was Emma, um the tennis coach woman, and she was Yeah, she was talking about how um there's coaching versus mentorship. Mentorship is like you just talked about the gentleman um helping you understand the technical details, going through all the pieces, um, giving you the mentorship of how to do the things and and learning the pieces versus the coaching, which is what I think we experienced from our fathers, where we didn't even see our own potential and they were slowly unpacking and helping us to see what what they saw. I feel like that is kind of an example um that isn't what we basically I don't know what your thoughts are on that.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

It is. I don't know that he knew it was actually happening either for the first, I don't know, 10, 15 years, because I think my father had a different direction that he was going to take the company eventually. So when that didn't happen, and he he almost sold the company at one time. Oh wow, which is crazy. Yeah, that it was almost sold. And when that fell through and he knew he had needed to go another direction, he had a vice president that worked for him for years. And he knew after having him meet with a bunch of people from the community and leaders that he wasn't the right person to take over the business. So there were options, and I was obviously one of those major options. He was grooming me, but I don't know that he was as meticulous about it as I you know, and he was even asking our CE, you know, group that we talk about, our vestige group, he was even asking our vestige chair, was I the person? Was I ready? And it took some convincing, actually, of them to him to say that I was the person to do this. And then there was me. When he came to me and said, I'm gonna be retiring in a couple years. Are you interested? What do you want to do? I think it's time that we start really talking about it. I retreated, I think, a little bit. I was running a business of eight people. It was nothing. It was, you know, we worked really hard to just be in the black. I mean, we spent a lot of time in the red because our the business was so skin tight with margins and builders and doing new construction because we were heavily in the new construction business. And there was just nothing, no money left. Um, it was eating the profits from the monitoring, which was crazy. So we revamped it in time when I had my third child. That also adds a new layer to everything, is having three kids along the way. Um, but it it definitely was a huge transition going from an eight-person business and could I step into at the time? It was like 85 to 90 people. Whew, that's big. That's big compared to. And I actually reached out to a really good friend of mine who, a male, who owned his own business, was second generation as well, and his family and I sat down with him, had lunch with him at GNA, and I can remember sitting there saying, I don't know if I can do this. And he goes, There's no doubt in my mind you can do this. You know, you can absolutely do this. But why did I need that I needed the that validation at that time to say, yeah, go for it. I I guess I just needed to hear it from one person. I mean, Luke, my husband, was talking about it and saying, Yeah, go. Because he's always said he worked for my dad for 28 years before I actually came into the business. Oh wow. So there you go. There's another little dimension to this whole thing. But um Luke always said he was smart enough to know what he wasn't smart enough to do. And then he'd look at me and say, You're smart enough to do this. So, you know, that that validation helped get me there. Uh stepping into Berkshire, my dad was a champion at transition. Oh, wow. I give him a hundred percent credit to a smooth transition that he he decided I was the person. And once he decided I was the person, he put full faith and trust in me.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

It was one of those put full trust and verify. He did some verifying, he was still there for a bit, but he put full faith and trust in me to make the decisions I needed to make, which I think led to even better success for me in the transition. There's still caveats and challenges to that transition, as we know.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Even well-run family businesses always have there's always hiccups, right? It just that just tends to happen. That is awesome about the transition. I mean, if anyone's listening here who has a family business, I mean, is there any advice you'd give them on, you know, obviously you just said your dad did a really good job of transitioning, trusting you, trust and verify, which I would say in my journey that was was trust, but call a friend, like I could call for backup, I can run questions back, you know. Um is there any sort of advice that you have that you would share to transition to the next person?

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Well, I I would tell you, like I said, I was trained by the best of them. So I would hope that someday when I transition out to whoever that is, it's a next generation. It doesn't have to be a blood generation, it can be a generational, it can be somebody in the company already, it can be somebody that comes in. Um but the next transition will be I need to be able to tee them up for success. And that's the prep time that needs to happen. And once I tee them up for success, I gotta step back. I can't be in muddying the waters, causing drama. My dad didn't cause drama. He did not cause drama, and that's huge because to create conflict by people that are on your team that you want to become trustworthy with you, you need to not be undermining in any way. And so he did not undermine me. It's wonderful. Which is really which is really great. I I don't know that I always think about it, but yeah, no, I think it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

I it's almost I always like to say that silence can be a superpower. And in some ways, your dad being there supportive of you, but I would say silence and that he's allowing you to make those decisions and not confusing is so big. And something I don't know about you. I chant I try to do that in my day-to-day leadership as well, to let people who are responsible for making decisions make those decisions without money because we can we can do it in our current roles, right? And it can be even more destructive in that family transition role as well. It's huge.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Well, you know, it's funny, it was a gift actually to both of us. So I gave him a gift by being there to allow him to go out and very, very peacefully, happily retire without a ton of stress about what's happening with the business. And he gave me the gift of a very, very wonderful transition. It's awesome. Can and and then having my husband there who has the experience and having that support and yeah. So it's been it's been good.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

It's great. I feel like that transition and that reflection of you and your father and and having, you know, working through that as you took on the role of leading the company also speaks a lot to your culture. Because I know culture is something that's really important to you and that you are very intentional about. And I don't know if you want to kind of give me a little bit about what you think it takes to build a great company culture and reflect those values, right? Of wanting to be, you wanted a good your father wanted a good transition to second generation. You have that piece, but I know that this is reflected throughout your company as well.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

So it is. I'm gonna backtrack for that.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

No, go ahead, let's hear it.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

So my backtrack is that I took over as president in 2016, January 9th. I can tell you the exact date that my dad said, you know, you're president now. And uh but Memorial Weekend, the Friday I think it was before Memorial Weekend of 2015, I sat down with my brother and I terminated him from Berkshire Systems. Yes. And I did that because we were losing our my dad's financial guy, so his he wasn't a CFO at the time, but he's his financial person. He was leaving because he really was very connected to my father and he didn't have the same uh feelings or same um principles that I did, which was okay. We're still friends to this day. I I love i it was a great transition for both of us. Um but I was hiring a new CFO and I knew that I wanted the CFO to come in and I wanted it to be extremely successful. And my brother, as much as I love him to pieces, it wasn't going well. It was toxic between him and my father, they weren't really speaking. That is the most horrible thing for my father to deal with, and even for my brother to deal with. So I knew that it was necessary to remove the toxic nature of what was happening in our company. My brother was a is a very, very smart guy, could do anything, but he was choosing what he wanted to do. And he was letting everyone know that he was the boss's son. And I'm, you know, obviously I would say all of this to my brother to this day, so I'm not saying anything that's you know, it just it was really not good. It wasn't a good situation, and I needed, if I was gonna come in as president, I needed to go as smoothly as possible and create a culture of trust and and you know, it's if you walk past it, you approved it. That's one of our core values. And it I was walking past it, and my dad was walking past it, and he just couldn't do anything about it, and which showed every uh other person in the company that we were approving it. So that ended, and we still speak. It's not, it's a you know, we're at a great relationship. He went on to um own a restaurant and all good stuff, but um it just it told our employees that I wasn't willing to take BS. And so I think that was the start of this success. And then I always have cared, and you know, my eight people, it's always been a family, and it doesn't matter what size you are, I call us a wonderfully dysfunctional family because every single family is dysfunctional. We are at our finest. Um, so I needed to create a better atmosphere for everybody because it wasn't good. And culture is I don't I don't want to keep saying we're a family, you know, it's a family culture, it's a family this, it's family. No, we're people that really care about each other. We're people that give about each other and would do pretty much anything for each other. And that's what I wanted to create. Now, the other thing I had is my dad was a very respected businessman outside and inside the business. And I knew that I would have to work hard because my dad, as technical I was as I was on the SAH secure home side, I didn't know fire alarm as well as I knew the re the commercial fire alarm, industrial fire alarm, like like Berkshire is. And so I didn't have that background as much as I had the residential and small commercial side. So I really needed to build their trust in however I could. I don't have to know, I don't have to sell a fire alarm system, which my husband has busted my hump about over over time. But I don't have to sell a fire alarm system to understand how they work. I don't have to do that to back our people. I I don't I I I'm not I do not have my um NICET certification, which is another funny thing and and a little sticky thing that we say. That's a lot of our people have NISAT certifications in fire alarm.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Certification for your industry.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

A certification for the fire alarm industry. Uh I could pass it if I wanted to sit through for it, but what I bring to the table for our people is something totally different. And I think you know that, Karen. And what our capabilities are is to be um badasses and back them up every single chance we get and to be there to support. And so so building that culture and building oh building a leadership team. Oh you've gone through this. It's building a leadership team that's yours. I'm that vice president that was my dad's for 37 years. Thirty something. And he was uh he was a great guy that worked very hard for the business, uh, really was very dedicated to Berkshire systems, but he and I did not align in our philosophies.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Especially when you're looking to sometimes when you're looking for new to new things or to change things, right? That change can be be really difficult and you're seeing the future and um how do you navigate that?

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Well, he used to say to me, I love to decorate, so I love decorating, that's my side hustle. And he used to say to me that I missed my calling. And I would say back to him, Well, you can decorate In many different ways. It doesn't mean I have to just put paint on walls or furniture in a room. I can work on people and redecorating and what we do and how what we look like and how we operate. That's redecorating too. And so um he was a bit of a misogynist. Not a bit, I'm being kind. Um and I j it just wasn't uh it we weren't aligned. So in 2020 he actually left the business. And we have uh actually thrived very beautifully since. Um years of experience and history have a tendency sometimes to live in history. So that's our challenge. But I do have a leadership team that is the most incredible leader to leadership team you could ask for. We are we truly enjoy every minute we're together. That's wonderful. We know that there's stress, we uh suffer through a lot of it. We've been through some health challenges, we've been through all kinds of things, but I think that has only made us stronger. Uh we miss each other when we're not together. It's weird. I mean, it's really it's weird and neat and and and peaceful, and it just it gives me that we're at the right place. So it's been a journey. It's taken a while. That took a good six years. I'm I'm doing this January will be ten years. Yeah. So it takes a while to put it.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

And I'm sure it's still going. I like to think you're redecorating, as you're saying, you're redecor is being a gardener for an organization, right? You're the gardener, you're there's cycles and honestly the work of culture is never done, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Where No, it's never done because we change all the time. We change. What's around us changes and and what we're doing changes and our customers' needs change, and you know, so we have to, you know, it it's the whole political scene. And I'm not going politics, not in any way, shape, or form, but I always say it doesn't matter who's in leadership. It is our job to take what's in front of us and use it to its best ability. So Republican or Democrat, I don't really care either way. What benefits Berkshire systems to benefit our people, our team? That's what we have to do and benefit our customers. So I have a little circle of life. I it's the Berkshire thing that I came up with, and I say at the end of the day, I take care of our people. That's all I care about. Our people take care of our customers, and our customers keep coming back. I have a CFO, he worries about the money. If there's a money problem, he comes to me. We d but I have people to do that. So all I am focused on is our people. Love it. Yeah. It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Well, and it really allows you to create a place where people could thrive and make that your focus. I've you know, so aligned with you on being intentional about culture and putting those pieces together and that just the journey of it and understanding that it never ends and that it's as the CEOs of our companies, it is our responsibility.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Oh, we have to do that. We set that tone.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

And if we're not setting it someone else's, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Well, I said we walk through the door every day. And every day you walk through the door, Karen, you think of the what do you have, 200 and what employees? I think we're up to 240 right now. Okay, 240 people and their families. I have 145. Every day I walk through that door, I worry about the 145 people that we feed and their families. And what we come through the door with matters. They're seeing us, they're seeing everything that we do, and so I have to give my best, and you give your best every day. And you know what? And the days that we don't, because we've already set it up, that they realize when we're not at our best, they've got our backs. Yeah. And that's the whole key is to pick each other up. So I say that. That's that's what our team does. They're all about lifting each other up when we're not. Can't always all be superheroes every day. But superheroes need sidekicks.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

I I think it's uh you've created the the team and Yes, I I I love the philosophy and what you're doing there. And to add on to that, I know you also look to do a lot of things in the local community and you're passionate about it. You're doing them because you want to do them, but I think they're also reinforcing some of your cultural values. Will you I know I didn't know because when you came in, you were talking about your evening last night, but maybe you can share a little bit about some of the stuff that you've been doing in the community and how you use that as um what I'll say, team building, but maybe even better way to say it is galvanizing um for your people.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

So my parents have always been good at donations. They've always given back. Um and so when I came in to Berkshire, I wanted us actually before, because my dad brought me into the leadership team a little earlier than when I started as president. Before I came in, I decided it's time for us to have a wellness program. And part of the wellness program was community wellness. So if we are not uplifting the community around us, we're not going to be a strong company either. And our community is important in many aspects. We need to show our team that they need to do that as well. It's harder for us with all of our team because we have we have four locations. So we're reading York, State College, and now Pittsburgh. So it's tougher to bring in the State College and the York, not just starting Pittsburgh. Those sectors for a lot of community service, we're working on that. We have a smaller team there, but we're always willing to do whatever. For me, the community wellness part was I am very dedicated to what can we do and where are the needs around us. And it's not about giving money all the time. It's about giving time. We as a company give a lot of time. We let people go do meals on wheels. So we're all we're signed up on weekly meals on wheels every Friday, and people can sign up for that. Techs off, you know, that are on the road, they can come in and do that. We sign up for veterans things. We sign up for Animal Rescue Leagues, go walk the dogs. We have a VTO day, a volunteer time off day every year that we just put in place. I learned that through Vistage. You and I get to sit and learn all kinds of cool stuff. So we're we're doing all this stuff, but community wellness is just so important. And we set up a team. I'm actually not even on that committee anymore, which is so crazy cool, Karen.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

It's wonderful. You've grown something and it lives on beyond you, and you're so neat. And they have passion about it.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

And it's not just me. It's not me driving it. So I also have sat on the board for Mary Shelter. We were very involved with Mary Shelter before I I got on the board.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

I was asked to be Mary Shelter is local here in the Mary Shelter is local here. Tell uh tell everybody who's listening a little bit about Mary Shelter.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

So Mary Shelter is right across from the Pennsylvania State Police Barracks over on Kenhurst Boulevard. Mary Shelter started in the city and moved to Upland Avenue. And really, when they moved, when they were in Upland Avenue and in the city, they really serviced young women who were pregnant and did not have a place to go. Now they could have another child already, but they did not have a place to go to learn life skills, be able to raise a child, be able to move forward in life with a job. They didn't have, they just they didn't know how to set up a house. They didn't know how to do anything. So they taught, it was all about teaching life skills for success in women that were pregnant. I'm a sucker for babies. I'm a sucker for kids in general. Super sucker for kids and dogs. But anyway, we you know, we do our animal rescue league stuff. But Mary Shelter is very unique in the fact that when they moved from Upland Avenue, Chris Volcker, executive director and Danny and and others saw the potential to serve more. And she was all about how can we serve the unaccompanied and homeless youth community around us. And there was a lot more of it than we want to pay attention to, than we want to admit in in school districts that you would never believe. So they had this vision and they could actually realize their vision with moving to our new facility, which started with 10 rooms, moved on to 20 rooms, and now we have the lower level and we have 40 rooms. We also have a room for outside medical staff to come in and do well visits and any kind of medical care. We have outreach too, and people can come in in our outreach program. So we really serve an incredible amount of kids, and the success stories is amazing. I won't go with the negativity because the stories of the kids before they get there, I can't even fathom. It's it I'm sold. Hook, line, and sinker, I'll do anything for them. What the stories are afterwards of the success of them graduating from high school, going on to actually finish school when they weren't even going, going on to start college, take on a job, move into an apartment, just phenomenal. So anyway, I am sorry, extremely passionate about Mary Shelter. So we do a lot for Mary Shelter as well, um, but we also do a lot for other areas, other facets of the community, veterans. We have so many um people that have so many different in our company that have so many different passions. And so let's bring them all in. What can we do to serve?

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Well, and I think you were talking a little bit about um your power pack and how you brought 40 employees together and you were you're packing these backpack for kids who have food instability, which I thought was really a wonderful thing to do, and then a wonderful experience culturally to for your people to see the values that you believe in and that they believe in, and they come together to work on something like that. I think you can't help but feel good and kind of get a mental lift from that type of work.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Oh, it's you oh my gosh. I'm like oh super excited about it. We do this, we've done this four years in a row. Last night actually was our power pack assembly, and we started at 1,500, moved on to 1800 the last two years, and I'm not really a good one for not bumping that number up. Might be a little competitiveness in me, but so we moved up to 2,000 power packs last night, and what we do is we purchase the company purchases all of the food, and we assemble it's like mac and cheese and cup of noodles and and Gatorades and and you know, all kinds of little things that we put in a bag, a plastic bag, and we decided to add a note to them, a note of inspiration. So any of the kids, oh, and they went overboard this year. It was so crazy cool with stickers and all kinds of things to decorate these cards. And these cards make a difference in these kids' lives. I'm hearing that the kids are keeping them and putting them, you know, at home and they're showing them to their parents. And you know, this is tough. If you go home for a long weekend, a holiday weekend, and you don't have food stability and you're used to getting your your meals at school, breakfast, lunch, and not dinner, but breakfast and lunch, and you have nothing because it's just tough, or the refrigerator's locked, goofy stories. Yeah just goofy stories. We couldn't imagine. But um, what we're capable of doing is we serve through Emanuel UCC Church there in Shillington. We serve the Governor Mifflin School District as well as this year we've we're serving the Antietam School District. So crazy cool. They're very excited about it. And our employees go crazy. Lots of circles, lots of competition, lots of pushing to get these done. And by 8 30 last night, everybody was very tired and uh yeah, good. Good kind of tired. Good, kind of tired.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

To just kind of wrap up our conversation on culture a little bit. I know you talked about now you have these different facilities across Pennsylvania. Um how are you I know you've said you you're doing maybe individualized things at different places, but how do you keep that culture going across multiple multiple spots?

SPEAKER_01 34:39

So we have a lot of connection with those offices and actually this coming Friday. So your timing is extremely interesting, Karen. Um but this Friday we are celebrating our summer rush being over. Okay. It's called the Palooza. It's the Berkshare and S.A.H. Palooza. And so all of our employees come to the Reading location uh on Friday at about 12 o'clock, and we end for the day at that time, and we're having mission barbecue, and we're having the ice cream man come, and we're having a cornhole tournament, and we're giving away some fun things to our employees. And it's just a matter of like keeping them connected to each other and healthy competition with cornhole and just a lot of fun. It's great.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

You know, just a lot of fun. It's great. I feel like those activities and events mean so much and really do pay off in people, like you said, staying connected and feeling you know, we we all want to have that sense of purpose. Yes. And and feeling connected to the business and and that their what their work does matters. Um it's it's so important, and I think you do such a great job of that.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

Well, you know what, our team does because our team as I saw today, our team is so connected separately from uh just these events. They're texting each other, they're getting together outside of that's relationships that are built-in work, and that is so cool because they all are there to pick each other up. Wonderful. Which is neat. It's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Well, what I'd love to ask you to kind of end out our conversation here today. I have two two questions for you. One is there one, you know, we talked about culture, we've talked about community, we've talked about, you know, your journey in the family business. Is there any specific lesson in leadership or some sort of turning point beyond what you've already shared that really sticks out that you carry with you today? Um I don't know. Is there like a Beth motto that you haven't already shared?

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Wow, I probably have a lot. There's a lot of Beth-isms, which is so funny. My assistant used to write those down. We would like, we would like one of those. I have like goofy things. Yeah, you don't want me to tell.

unknown 36:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Anyway, uh, yeah. I uh my motto is just you know, we talk about being a woman versus, you know, and and it in a male-dominated business, which isn't as male-dominated any longer. And but I never made this about being a female business owner. This is about me knowing what I'm doing, being there to support the staff every single way I can. That is why and how we get success. It it's the only way. You have to be tot this is so freaking easy, Karen. It's just amazing to me that people don't understand. Just care about your people. Just give a I know you're gonna have to bleep me out, but just care about your people. And I do. I mean it isn't hard. And I love everyone. They hug me. They know they hug me. And even the ones that don't feel comfortable hugging, hug me because they know I'm coming, I'm coming in. And now I've got them to the point, I don't have to go in. They come to me. And that's so cool because they know I care about every aspect of their lives. So I would tell you, this isn't about work because they bring home to work, and we take work to home. So if you make them healthy however you possibly can, it's the success story. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

Well said. Well said. Well what then, Beth, right now is lifting you? What is a book, habit, mindset, something outside of work that is lifting you?

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Oh my gosh, outside of work.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

Or it could be a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

I was pretty for Okay, I have a quick one for inside of work. We had a employee retire today. Oh. And he left and actually, he came in this morning with a huge smile on his face. Walked around the building all morning with a huge smile on his face, greeted people, said his, you know, whatever, uh all kinds of, you know, reminiscing of things. And he walked out today with a smile on his face. It's wonderful. That is success. That is lifting me up. Other than that, I could just decorate something outside of work and that lifts me up as well.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

You know your happy place there and you're trying to do it. I know my happy place. It is, isn't it wonderful when you we because often as leaders, we don't get the reflection point that things are working. We get a sense, we can see things, we can see our you know, our financials of course are giving us indications, but we we kind of have a vibe. But when you get those few rare moments where something like a retiree smiling or saying thank you, or um, I think in in this case you've had some people say this is the best place I've ever worked. He said that.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

He sent an email out to the entire company.

SPEAKER_00 39:43

That's just wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

Which is crazy cool. I you know, I I just said I I've told so many people I'm not gonna worry about the financials, I'm not gonna worry about anything else. I'm just gonna worry about the people. You keep doing it. It's working. Now it's working. It's working. So and it is for you too, Karen. So kudos to you. And kudos to you for putting this together. Thanks. Well, thanks for having me. This is so cool. You know, it's so cool to be able to sit here and talk like this and actually think about what we've done. Because you don't have time. No. We're so busy. We're moving forward.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

Moments to reflect and just yeah, it's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 40:19

Celebrate the successes. Yes, absolutely. That's what this is about. Well, thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for including me.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

And really, you're showing us what leadership with heart looks like. Yeah, I love that. And reminding us that culture isn't just words, it's something you build every day, right? That cycle that you have to keep at. Yeah. And you've shown us that resilience and care can lift people higher, both inside a business and in our communities. And um, you know, as far as our our second generation leaders, I love the the story that you you shared about your dad and just highlighted the responsibilities we care we carry to try to keep these family legacies moving forward. And really, your journey is proof that when leaders truly care um about their people and their purpose, everyone rises. So thank you. Thanks, Beth.

unknown 41:08

Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 41:09

Being able to talk with peers is such a valuable resource to have. Beth and I share a close bond, having each grown through our family businesses. And I never take for granted having people like her to share experiences. Check out more on Beth in the show notes below, and please give us a subscribe and remember, always lifting.