Andy Hill of Glass Solutions' Keys to Glazing Contractor Success

Mitch and Matt interview Andy Hill, of Glass Solutions. In this episode, Matt, Mitch, and Andy discuss Andy's path into the glass world, how he helped grow Glass Solutions into one of the most recognizable glazing companies in the midwest, the importance of relationships, and leadership strategies.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• "Sustained growth in the glazing industry is a challenge. As we started to grow the big thing was to not get over out skis and the second was partners."
• Guidance for Glazing Professionals: "Be yourself, listen, set goals, and marry right!"

Meet Andy Hill, Glass Solutions- Chicago Based Glazing Contractor

Mitch Hawkins:

With us this morning, we've got Andy Hill from Glass Solutions. Andy, you have been a very anticipated guest from Krier and I, we started this just really to get to know the group of glaziers around the country that we think are innovative, and growing, and challenging this industry. And you were on that list. And so we for sure wanted to have you on, ask you a couple questions, have a conversation this morning, and see where we go with it. So if you want to introduce yourself, that'd be awesome.

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

Yeah. Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate that. Andy Hill with Glass Solutions in Chicago, I have been with Glass Solutions for about 20 years. Glass Solutions was founded by Tom Hill, my father, and a couple other owners. And about six, seven years ago, I took over ownership and took over really the direction of the company, driving it, more along the lines of how my dad grew up at Harmon when they grew it in Minneapolis, about 40 years ago. So, really, the goal was to get into the pre glazed, unique facade, but not to compete with the monumental guys, to really try to find that soft market. So, you know, our soft market, I would say is, 20,000 to 60,000 square feet of complex, humidified buildings. So our emphasis is higher education and hospital. We do some office buildings and things of that nature, and we also are pretty big in the Chicago. I think we're probably the biggest now in Chicago-land, on the interiors market, we do about 15 million a year of tempered glass, although that's completely dead right now. We're hoping that we resurrect that a little bit, but that's a big side of our business and typically it compliments well. Thanks for having me again.

Mitch Hawkins:

I was in Chicago covering Glass Solutions as the Viracon rep for four years. And so really got to know your group and really enjoyed everyone there. What did you do before that with Glass Solutions?

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

So before that we were smaller, so I was really sales and operations. We pretty much sold and ran our own work. Like I said, started from zero. So I was at Harmon with my dad and came over about a year after Glass Solutions opened. So I grew up in fabrication at Harmon and I've been in the field as much as I can around the unions. I've traveled to a lot of different Harmon shops. I was very fortunate enough to have pretty much full exposure to the industry and also of the different demographics and how it changes region to region around the US and how the construction of a wall is different from Baltimore to San Diego, with a stop in the Midwest, then going down to Florida or Texas with ballistics and different stuff. So you kind of really touched it all, but yeah, like I said, it's just primarily sales has always been my background and been my strength. But when we were small, you needed somebody to run it too. So, you sold by day and you ran by night, that's kind of what the model was.

Matt Krier:

It sounds like you were never given an option as to whether or not you were going to be a glass guy.

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

No, actually. And if you go right into the history, actually, my dad worked in the field in Kansas City for Harmon and a few other people. So my dad used to run the Midwest, and then my dad's two other brothers own a little family glass business in Nebraska. So I actually majored in criminal justice. I know that was one of the questions. Yeah, I was double major criminal justice and psychology. I think the psychology helps me as an owner. I'm not sure, about criminal justice though. So my dad did everything he could to try to not get me in the business, and I was like a trout swimming upstream.

Mitch Hawkins:

Well, what's cool about the industry is that anybody can get into it. Krier and I both graduated with teaching degrees and we got brought in and you figure it out, right. It's a cool industry to be in, we've we've enjoyed it so far. And obviously you guys, your whole family's in it. Your two brothers are still there too, it's cool that you guys have that family atmosphere and environment.

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

Yeah.

Keys to Glazing Contractor Success: Cultivate Great Partnerships

Mitch Hawkins:

So Glass Solutions, you guys really have exploded here over the last couple years. From when I started with Viracon five, six years ago now, and the kind of work that you've done and the things that you've accomplished is really impressive. How did you guys get to that point?

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

Thank you for that, I appreciate it. We've worked hard, again, I probably go back and give credit to my dad, all we knew was Harmon Blue, that's the way we grew up. They had a lot of different growth in a lot of different markets and a lot of different areas and tried a lot of different things. And we were lucky enough to see that in the rear view mirror of 30 years, and when we started to grow, the big thing was not get out over your skis. And then second was partners. So as you say, the one thing that hasn't changed in this industry since Harmon was started, you had Flower City, you had Trainor, you name any company that's come and gone, or that's still succeeded, but has changed.

And it's the relationships. If you're gonna be successful, you have to pick your partners. You can't be everything to everyone, but you have to be everything to a select few and give it your all, and not be sloppy. Stay within yourself, and know that next big step will come in a year or two year. That's really the way we started, we started in 2000 square foot office/ little warehouse, and now we're under 115,000 square feet. And, um, you know, but we've also had the resources. I wouldn't be here today, if it wasn't people in the industry that I grew up with, Darrell Sanny, Tom Heinholdt over at Pioneer, I can go down the list, even Dennis Pilkington, who's somewhat of a competitor.

As long as you keep your nose clean and you're respectful of your peers, they're all out there to lend a helping hand. And that's really helped me grow, having good peers around me and around Glass Solutions. So hiring the right people, training the right field installers so that they want to go out and do it the right way. We've had a few pitfalls, but one thing my dad would say, we've never had a catastrophic job. All of our jobs have been pretty successful and we continue to try to set the bar, and we try to get two or three monumental jobs now. Monumental for us is in that 20 to $25 million range, somewhere around 60 to 70 million total revenue. It's come a long ways in 20 years.

Matt Krier:

So with the emphasis on the partnerships there, and developing those partnerships, how do you figure out who's a good partner? Is that pretty obvious or is that trial, by fire? Do you figure it out as you go, or are there things that you look for in a partner specifically?

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

That's an awesome question. I've been very fortunate in Chicago to have some local peers, friends, that are owners of other companies, not just glass, but mechanical, electrical, MEPS, drywall and studs, concrete, all your other major trades. When I was growing up in the business, I was fortunate enough to meet a few general contractors. And then they introduced me to some other guys, and as we've grown, I've really used them because some of them are come from much bigger companies, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4, $500 million companies. So they deal with Turner, they deal with Pepper, Clark, Lendlease, Walsh, all the bigger guys here in town. You want to find those guys that want to build buildings and want to do it the right way and find the good people. The roundabout way to all that is just my local peers have been very helpful to me, to point me in the direction of the good people to grow with and build with. That's where I've been fortunate.

Mitch Hawkins:

Gotcha. And you guys, more than maybe more than anybody, developed those relationships very well. Whether it's you or the rest of your sales team, I think you guys put a huge emphasis on developing those relationships, it's obvious from the entertainment that you guys have done, or the golf outings that you run. I think you guys are really top of the line there on developing those relationships. It's a good example that you've set for everybody else that's trying to step in and do something similar.

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

Thanks, and it's important because it's not just Andy Hill, or it's not just the sales team, it's the full food chain here. It has to be run the right way. It has to be drawn the right way. It has to be fabricated the right way, it has to be installed the right way. My dad's always said, the only thing people remember is how you finish. So you can do the job 90% perfect, and then the last 10% you go and mess it up, and that's what they're going to remember. The guys in the field are really closing it for us, and the food chain keeps it rolling. So it's a total team emphasis, and every year when we do our state of the union, when have our leadership meetings, we're constantly making sure everyone knows we're a team here. The customer, the client, they see us top to bottom and we have to be solid all the way through.

Keys to Glazing Contractor Success: Find Great Teammates

Mitch Hawkins:

You guys have also been very good at bringing in talented people to work there. How do you go find that talent? And then how do you keep them at Glass Solutions?

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

Better lucky than good man. Not to keep going back to the well, but I think my dad had a kind of knack for that. He hired Bill Kruger at Harmon and Bill was welding dumpsters at Mankato State, and look at him now. Really, it starts at the top. It starts by having a good company that has a good name that has a good reputation. People want to work for companies that do it the right way. You know, Mitch, we come from a huge athletic family and, and I use that a lot in analogies, but if you're trying to build a dynasty, you can't build a dynasty with mediocrity.

You have to build a dynasty with excellence and with professionals that want to practice or work hard. You can't be an eight hour person. It has to be somebody that's willing to put the effort in on and off the court, if you will. So not just in the office, but out of the office. And that's not just doing emails, that's trying to go to events, that's research and different stuff. That's going to BEC, that's going to LCI. All of the intangibles that make you a better person and make you more well rounded is going to make your team better. And that's really what we do, it's really about the team.

And it's about the energy that you bring to the office every day, and coming to the office, wanting to be the best and constantly trying to set the bar. And it's not for everybody. We don't have a lot of turnover, but we have some, we're human, but I'm always here to build the best team, and it's all about mentoring and companionship and letting people lead. You have to allow people to lead and give them as much rope as you can, and be there to kind of shepherd them home if need be, but give them an opportunity to lead, because a lot of people are thirsting for that. And right now we're in a world where everybody just wants a dictatorship and they want to tell you how to do it, when to do it, you know?

Keys to Glazing Contractor Success: Develop Leaders/Mentor

Mitch Hawkins:

That fires me up hearing it. I think that's a great segue into like a leadership and a growth mindset. That's one of the things that Krier and I talk about here is we want to be leaders, and part of that is mentorship. You mentioned it a little bit there, and it's obvious that your Dad has been a mentor to you. And you talk about some of these other guys in the industry too. Is there anything that you're specifically doing? Do you guys have a mentorship group there, a peer group at Glass Solutions, or anywhere else? I know you guys have a peer group in the industry. How has that been important to you as well?

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

Oh my gosh, mentors are huge and they come in all shapes and sizes, and they come if you open yourself up to learn and to soak it all in. They come from all different angles at all different times when you probably least expect it. Like I said, I've been, I've been fortunate enough to find some great peers in Chicago that have helped introduce me to different people. We've created a leadership team here, we've also been very fortunate through another friend here to know a professor from Purdue that's been mentoring myself and our leadership team. We started that leadership team here, probably six, seven years ago now and we meet for an hour each month.

We also do a yearly retreat where we go off for three days and just go way deep, do some really critical thinking. Some hard gut checks, it gets really emotional. It's a great bond. And then three years with this same mentor. I've always loved everybody in the industry. I am the most fortunate person in the world to grow up being the son of a guy from Harmon that was well respected, because I could go anywhere to any shop and talk to just about anybody. So I wanted to start a glass peer group and with the help of Seth and Bob, primarily, we reached out to like companies and somewhat around an Andy Hill personality, if you could try to bag that one up.

Keys to Glazing Contractor Success: Viracon Peer Group

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

But so we strategically worked with Viracon and came up with this peer group, and it's been absolutely amazing. We have grown together, and what we have done in three years, most peer groups won't accomplish in five to seven years. It's just really, really neat. I'm extremely proud to be part of it. We've learned so much from one another, from fabrication to HR to hiring, to firing to you name it. This industry is all in all pretty simple and basic, but to be the best, you have to run with the best, and you have to be willing to sit there and swallow your pride, take constructive criticism and know that it's happening because they love you and they want you to be better. And it's really humbled me, but it's also really allowed me to see how much better we can be.

Matt Krier :

I think it's pretty interesting just in hearing you talk about this, because you always think about how you end, how does it look in the field? But some of the biggest takeaways I'm sure are actually like, how does that paperwork work when you hand it over from the estimator to the, PM, just little things inside that really aren't necessarily in terms of how you directly put the glass on the building,

Mitch Hawkins:

<laugh>

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

One hundred percent, it's all the small stuff. Everybody knows the major steps, selling a job, engineering, fabricating, install, right? It's those four milestones. But it's everything else that all the tentacles associated with each one of those that is gigantic. And like I said, the guys in the industry from this peer group are just men amongst men. And for me to walk the same line with them is pretty incredible at my age.

Mitch Hawkins:

It's also cool, we were talking about sports and I think there for a long time, whether it was a sports team or whether it was a company, people kind of tried to hoard stuff because they were like, no, I don't want to tell anybody else. This is a competitive advantage, but you look in around the NFL, like tight ends from across the league, all get together for a summit. Defensive ends get together for a summit, or offensive lineman. And there's a reason people are doing this. You can learn so much from talking to these different people and seeing, where do we put this setting table? Is it here? Is it here? Or what kind of equipment do we have to pick this glass up? Even little things like that is huge.

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

I agree. And if you go way back, Harmon had such a great mentoring program and they had so many studs around the industry, and obviously a lot of them went off and started their own companies, some which are still going, some of which have moved on because of great success. And, but you know, there's no secrets. You got four stepping stones, you have to sell it. You have to engineer it. You have to fabricate it. You have to install it. All of that. That' pretty elementary. If you can't do that, you probably shouldn't be in the business.

It's all the intangibles and sharing all the things that make life easy. This is a tough business. Nobody wants to go out and sweat it out and argue it out with the contractor, or try to figure out how to do this better, or how to, or bring technology into it. Or like you said, how to lay out a facility. Find some friends, find some allies, trust in them and make life a little bit easier on yourself. So you got a few more hours to have a cocktail at night for Christ's sake.

Matt Krier :

And that's the whole point of the podcast really. We want to do that. And there's a lot of great guys who have figured this out. Why do we have to stub our toes when we're doing this?

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

And I'm not too proud. I'd tell you that much. A hundred percent.

Keys to Glazing Industry Success: Guidance for Young Professionals

Mitch Hawkins:

And so closing here, we know you're busy. So Andy, for young people in our industry that are coming up, what would be something that you would give us to take away from this conversation that can really help us be successful and be happy in this industry?

Andy Hill, Glass Solutions:

I would just say be yourself. It's a super small world and I don't care if you're in Chicago, you're in Minneapolis, you're in New York, where ever you go, if you are humble and you are true to yourself and you hold a good rapport, your name's going to travel and you're going to get to know people and you're going to grow in the industry. Naturally, if you try to be something that you're not, it's going to be counterintuitive and you're going to do the exact opposite.

So, if you be yourself, and open up your mind to listen to anything, you're going to grow exponentially. And almost kind of naturally, unless you work hard against it to be successful. What I think is cool about construction as a whole is that you find the good core people in construction. They want to build buildings the right way. They want to have fun. They want everybody to make money. It's not me trying to build this trinket.

And that's the only way it's going to be built. And I'm not telling anybody my secret potion and that's the construction industry. It's very open. People want to have fun. People want to give to those that are willing to listen and learn and build a different way. Now that's what makes construction awesome, is you wake up and the way I build a building today, isn't going to be the same way I'm going to build a building tomorrow. And it's not the same way the building's going to get built six months from now, whether it's technology, whether it's performance, whether it's whatever. And so I would just be yourself, stay, stay within yourself, take it one step at a time. And the biggest thing that I was probably taught at a very young age was set your goals within yourself and know those goals.

So if it's 1, 5, 10, 20 years, but also make sure you're setting your personal goals, because you can't be everything at work unless things are right at home. I'm fortunate enough to marry right. My wife, Natalie, is going to be in the all Saint book one of these days. You have to have personal and professional because they compliment one another so much. As you get older, you have kids, you have family. So setting goals is big. And like I said, just being yourself and being true to yourself, not trying to say something that you're not is the biggest thing.