We’re thrilled to share that we’ve been awarded the 2024 Small Business Owners Community Podcast of the Year! This recognition is a huge milestone, and we’re beyond grateful for your support along the way. Thank you to everyone who tunes in and engages with us—you’ve truly made this journey worthwhile.

Thanks to you, what began as an idea back in 2019 has grown into a podcast reaching listeners in 71 countries, sharing stories that resonate with the blue-collar world.

In this episode, we tackle a crucial topic for business owners: how to retain employees when times get tough. With markets fluctuating and businesses facing uncertainty, it’s easy to overlook the value of culture and connection in keeping a team intact. We discuss why retention strategies should start with active listening and how small, sincere gestures can make all the difference. Leaders who prioritize genuine engagement and address team feedback head-on often see stronger loyalty and commitment, even in challenging times.

Join us as we explore practical, no-cost ways to reinforce your team’s connection to the company—strategies that can keep morale up and reduce turnover when it matters most.

Episode Highlights

• Strategies to keep employees engaged and loyal during economic slowdowns
• How leaders can actively listen to build trust and create lasting loyalty
• Why employee feedback matters and how to effectively implement ideas
• Small gestures that strengthen team morale and reinforce a positive culture

Thank you again for being part of this journey with us. Please remember to subscribe, rate, review, and share the show to keep these conversations going!

Connect with us:

Steve Doyle:

Website

LinkedIn

Email

Brad Herda:

Website

LinkedIn

Email

Hey everyone, welcome back to this episode of Blue Collar BS with your co-host Brad. And by the way, we need to make a change to that introduction because we are talking with the award-winning podcast co-host Brad Herda and award-winning podcast host Doyle. Yes.

And Steve.

Steve Doyle.

We were blessed and honored to be presented the 2024 Small Business Owners Community Podcast of the Year presented by Podcast Town here in Milwaukee this past week, the week of October 17th, 18th, whatever the hell it was. Whatever day it was.

yeah.

Whatever day.

but we are now award-winning podcast hosts.

Wow, that's actually not a small, that's pretty awesome.

We were up against Trash Talk from Andy Wines who's been on our show And then Laura Holloman who is a Endo type marketing person for coaches to give them tools and resources to be better coaches And there were probably another as I was told probably another eight to ten shows that were nominated We made the finalists lists and we won

wow. That's fantastic.

So congratulations, Mr. Doyle, for sticking out the Blue Collar BS podcast with us. And so when I accepted the award on the stage and told everybody, we started this idea in 2019.

Yes, it was an idea that, you know, finally we got out of our own way or somebody got out of their own way.

And we took action in 2022. So yeah, three years of inaction led to the opportunity and I was looking at numbers today and now we are in 71 countries.

Mm-hmm.

That's amazing. Couldn't have done it without you. So thank you for helping push this along.

71 71 countries and we picked up and this is weird as hell man we picked up where is it the last seven serbia in last seven days

Wow.

For some reason, like, OK, cool. Where'd that come from? Uganda as well is new. Uganda and Serbia were two new countries added to the list.

Okay.

Wow, that's just

Which just goes to show you people make shit everywhere.

They do. They do.

Blue collar is everywhere.

And the the problems that we all face are very similar no matter which country we live in.

Correct. So Mr. Doyle, my millennial friend, what are we going to talk about today?

Well, number one, let's let's let's set the record straight for reals. Right. We although we joke around about it, I do get a little heartburn over this millennial bullshit. So, you know, being born in 77, that is not smack dab in millennials.

build a bridge and get over it.

That's right. That's right. So let's talk about, you know, how to keep your people from leaving, especially when things are in a slowdown period like we're currently seeing right now.

This will air post-election, so it might be busy by then. I'm not sure, but we're pre-election now. And all the dumb fuckery that's going on with that and all the waiting and we gotta wait and see, you gotta find out and all this, all that. So you'd indicated you were at a conference earlier this week, pre-show, and the topic of how do you get people to not leave your business, create that culture of opportunity. What were some of the conversations that took place that were intriguing to you?

It could be.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so a lot of it was, you we kind of let off with the conversation of, know, what are some of the key strategies that, you know, others found to be successful. You know, a lot of conversation around as a leader to shut the fuck up and listen. Spend time to shut your pie hole and listen.

Hahaha!

Are you listening to respond or listening to understand?

Well, that's the whole thing. You got to listen to understand. Right. And as business owners were so consumed with wearing all the hats and doing all the things that sometimes we actually just need to be there and listen to to for our employees. And we don't always often do that. And how do we carve that time out?

So we spent some time talking about how do we actually carve time out of our busy calendar? Because we quote unquote are so damn busy. You know, we now have to have these little listening sessions with our employees like we're therapists. But in read. I know, right? But that's but that's what sometimes some of the owners are feeling is like, I don't have time for this.

With that attitude, why would anybody not want to stay?

Steve Doyle (05:50.368)

Right. Let's just be real.

Right. And what I find interesting is that it's across generations. had a conversation with a

Mm-hmm.

So I was just at a conference as well where we received that award and talking to somebody about their struggling with their older employees wanting to deal with change, to deal with, hey, we're moving forward, whether you're coming with us or not, we're moving forward. And how do we make sure that that doesn't get the

Yeah.

Right.

We don't lose the information, lose the opportunity. How do we keep them around after 34 years and engage versus they're there for 34 years and just punching the clock?

Yep.

And I found that to be very interesting. interesting. You know, and really what it boils down to, like I said, to be listened to. What I find interesting, because I don't know that matters for any of the generations, to be honest with you, is that almost everyone wants their idea implemented, because if I talked to you. I voiced my opinion, I gave you the suggestion.

You didn't do anything with it, you must not have heard me.

heard or now you don't trust me or I don't trust you.

Good point. a little trust edge, a little trust edge activity there. Way to throw that in there.

Right? A little trot-stedge action, that, you know, I'll throw that in there because if we, we as leaders don't truly practice that a component of empathy to truly understand like, Hey, yeah, they have a great idea. How can we implement this? Why would we want what like as a leader, the reason why we would want to implement some of these suggestions is ownership.

We don't have to take ownership for these changes. We can also say, I'd like to have you, would you mind helping lead some of these activities? So now we have employees actually helping lead things that they've helped suggest. There's more ownership and more pride because those employees feel like they had a say because they felt heard.

true. Don't disagree. But how do we, how do we address the question though of I gave you my opinion. I gave you my thoughts. I gave you my ideas and nothing was done. That, two way communication piece is really, really important. And too often we don't take the time to go back to the all employee meeting, the suggestion box, whatever you're using, or sitting at the bar with everybody and I got a great idea.

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Right?

cool and there was yeah yeah yeah and then two weeks later falls apart and now you want to work overtime and they're like yeah no not doing it and you got a big job with a deadline and you might have some penalties and they're like yeah no you didn't listen to me so I'm not gonna help you out

Correct.

Right? There is the.

That's not going to help your case to keep people there when it gets slow.

No, no, it's not. But it comes down to making that it's a choice, right? We have choices to say, you know what? That's a great idea. Let's put a timeline together. Right? When when are we going to circle back to do this, knowing that there could be some, you know, if nothing pops up, let's let's carve out an afternoon to actually figure out how can we implement this?

So let me ask you this Mr. Doyle. To that point, you know, Aaron comes up with the idea of we want to do X, Y, Z to improve some process. You as the owner are like, Aaron, that's a great idea. Bring me the plan. And then Aaron doesn't do anything with it. Now what?

Mm-hmm.

See, I'm more of the mindset. Don't bring me the pillion. Show me what you mean.

Let's go take a walk. Show me what you mean. I'm willing to spend more time with you to listen to you so that you felt heard, but I'm actually curious. Like, hey, if I can help improve efficiency and remove Roblox, that's a win for everyone from not just the employees feeling heard and taking ownership. At the end of the day, those improvements in efficiency hit the bottom line.

So as a business owner, you best stand back that if they have suggestions to help improve something, that it is going to be at the end of the day, more money on the bottom line for you as the business owner. And if you have profit sharing, if you have revenue sharing, whatever you may have, Employees feel heard and now they're seeing that you're interested in engaged in their ideas.

They felt heard, they feel more important, they feel like it's part, and now there's some ownership on their side, they end up staying.

as they're feeling, as they're seeing things get implemented. But if you, the business owner, are not pausing and going, okay, let's go for a walk. Let's walk the line. Help me understand what you see. Maybe I have to get off my ass and go out to a job site. All right, let's go.

I can accept that.

But it comes to the mindset of.

We here's the thing though, you know and I know that 95 % of leaders aren't going to do that. So when it when it comes back to Aaron, bring me the plan and we'll talk about it and Aaron doesn't do it. He's been given the opportunity. He doesn't. He does not take care of that. Now.

No.

Mm-hmm.

Come back to him, ask him, so what's the hold up? Like just straight up, hey, you sounded like you had a great idea. I'm curious to hear more. do you got? Why can't we, if somebody's got an idea, why can't we also hold them accountable? They're trying to hold us accountable as business owners, right?

There's there's there's what I was trying to get to is the the two way street here of. So you as the leader need to make sure that if somebody brings it to you and they bring the plan, you got to communicate why or why not you're going to implement the plan because they took time and energy to do it. Part of it as well as you as the leader need to give them. The permission. To spend some time to put it together and it might take.

I know exactly

Mm-hmm.

Correct. That is.

It might take, yeah, why don't you do that? You know, if you're going to do it at home, yeah, I'll give you a couple hours of, of pay to go take care of it or bring the idea or whatever it might be. You need to give them the permission and the authority to take the time to do it. Cause if it's just a side hustle thing and they got to do it on their own and they got this great idea, but they, they're not going to feel appreciated and valued. And then they're going to go, all they're trying to do is take advantage of my ideas and they're not going to it's going to be a shit show.

Yeah, absolutely.

Correct. Right. The other thing to keep in note is, know, usually what we see is, you know, people do want some form of recognition. It could be monetary. It could be an award. It could just be a genuine thank you.

Those go the farthest.

Mm-hmm.

Those absolutely 100 % go the farthest and that is those are sometimes difficult for people to take, particularly depending on their behavior style and things like that. And sometimes you just gotta, you just need to go there and show the appreciation and could be as simple as that. Like you said, the heartfelt thank you. It could be as simple as. Hey, you know what you've been working your ass off the last two weeks. It's trick or treat.

Mm-hmm.

Friday before the holiday. It's the whatever. Get out of here at two o'clock. Just go. Don't care. Just go. I know you want to spend some time with your family. I appreciate all the extra effort you put in over last three weeks. Just go. Those small little incremental things add value. Now for your the larger OEMs and manufacturing guys that are on that are listening to the show, they're like, fuck, we can't do that. We got HR in the way we got these things like

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Bullshit!

No, you can. You can do those things. You have the ability to do that. You need to have the Kahuna's to be a leader and stand up for your people so that your people are willing to stand up for you and not throw you under the bus when the hey, we gotta find 10 % across the board. And now you gotta play that freaking game of. Bullshit of.

Mm-hmm.

Yep. Mm-hmm.

Correct.

Mm-hmm.

musical chairs and negotiations and all that budget shit that's now in everybody's lap.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Yep. Because y'all guess what? That's coming up.

It's already here.

Yeah, it

It's already here. It's you know, like I said, we're pre-election and it's already happening. have a have a acquaintance that's going through some stuff. He's got to find $30 million out of their budget. Okay, good luck with that.

I've seen it, seen it, heard it.

Right. $30 million out of a $35 million budget. Not really, but you know, I've seen it.

Well, not really, But it's like, yeah, let's go find 30 minutes really. cause what do you really not want to do? And then they're all it's like, yeah, OK. And that's one way to drive people out is through all the bullshit from budgeting and different things and.

Mm-hmm.

If you're truthful and honest about what your expectations are to begin with and what's going on and truly listen to it from a top-up perspective, I'm sorry, bottom-up perspective, not top-down, you'll get to your budget recognition much faster.

Hmm?

too often we take and say, nope, Johnny, you only got this much money this year figured out, but yet we want everything done.

Yeah, doesn't work that way.