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Part Five: Reputation and Hiring the Right People

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I came across a well worn quote recently, it was by the famous and highly successful Warren Buffet, It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently. Pat Padgett the Carpet Cleaner wasn’t Warren Buffet and he wouldn’t have put this thought exactly the same way, but he also knew this to be true. Spending decades as the local serviceman was all about reputation. Communities are small, even our big ones. What was true then is still true today, reputation matters. A Vulnerable Reputation There are two primary aspects of a business that are most vulnerable to depleting a reputation, the quality of work accomplished and the people who represent the company, your employees. If I were to heed Warren Buffet’s words I’d have to focus on my hiring. I’d have to hire the right people.   Because Pat Padgett had a simpler operation, the company's reputation fell onto his shoulders. My dad’s proximity to his reputation g...
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Part Four: Casted Shadows and Resting in the Shade

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Rightfully so, Pat Padgett casted a long shadow, in a similar way any patriarch of a family does.   And, it’s the responsibility of young men to stand in that shadow for a time and then eventually “venture-off.” By 1991 I had built something meaningful. But that year was a fork in the road. It was a year to build something larger, or a year to play it safe, stay in the right-lane and only merge when the road requires it. But a 25 year old Jeffrey Padgett wasn’t looking to play it safe, he was hungry and ready to prove himself, ready to test the boundaries of that shadow and to set-off on his own journey.  In hand I had a business consultant, Mack Clark, I had a management book,  Small Business Management  by H.N. Broom, popular at the time but has since faded into obscurity, and ambition. These were together a dangerous combination: a coach, resources, hunger.  From Mack I had caught the vision of expansion. Up to this point I had grown a business, I h...
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Part Three: Leveraging Consultants and Pursuing Growth

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I remember early conversations with Pat Padgett. As my Dad he carried this regular burden for my success and he would tell me so. He wanted my life to be different and better than his life and the way he saw to accomplish that was college.  But these conversations also confused me. I would look at my Dad’s life and see happiness and success. I didn’t see a struggling man, I saw someone who knew what they wanted and knew how to run after it. And, as a young man at the starting line of life I was biting at the chomps to also “run after it.”  But, Pat Padgett was a man who knew things and as my Dad a man who’s opinion I respected immensely. And so, after my Tennessee Nashville Mission I set my sites on college. The school to go to at that time was Brigham Young University, prestigious, known and respected. But, my lack of interest in school caught up with me and I was denied entrance. I instead enrolled at Ricks College with the aim to work hard, prove myself and continue applyin...
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Early Lessons: Walking A Mile in the Shoes of Pat Padgett

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Nineteen eighty-five was an eventful year. Coca-Cola introduced “New Coke” — this was an awful idea, they reversed course within three months, Michael Jordan was named “Rookie of the Year,” Nintendo released their NES gaming system in the US market and an 18 year old Jeffrey Padgett stood in a missionary training facility in Provo, Utah.  I would stay there for three weeks before leaving for my Tennessee Nashville Mission. I remember my time at that training center well. It was an important moment for me because it was the moment I ventured away from the protective watch of my parents and into the great unknown. At the orientation there was this specific moment when the individual who presided over the gathering pointed to two doors, one on his left that my parents would use to leave and one on his right that I would walk through. He said, “say your goodbyes, this is the last moment you will see your parents for the next two years.” And so it was.  I walked through that 4 x 7 ...
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Building on a Foundation: Learning from Pat Padgett

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  On a typical Friday afternoon, I sit down at my desk, I return phone calls and emails that are pending since the morning. When the clock strikes 3:00 a notification flashes on my screen, “Time planning for next week.” I then transition whatever I’m doing at that moment and begin working to outline next week’s priorities and projects. At this point in my life I’ve been in the restoration industry for over 20 years. I’m not “green” like I once was and I’m confident in what I do. But, I didn’t get here overnight. I realize I stand on the shoulders of giants, or rather, at least for the purposes of this series of blog posts, I stand on the shoulder of one particular giant, Pat Padgett. PAT PADGETT THE CARPET CLEANER Pat Padgett is my Dad, he’s a local legend. He ran a neighborhood carpet and upholstery cleaning business most appropriately named, Pat Padgett the Carpet Cleaner. Those were of course simpler times and I look back at my father’s business with gre...
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Location: Oak Glen, CA 92399, USA
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