Chasing Impact: One bid at a time
A Father’s Impact
He never missed a game, well maybe 5 out of 10000. He bends down to understand them at their level. He taught them a sport that will teach them real life lessons. He gets “nasty” in their defense. Most importantly, he has tremendous impact in their life that motivates them to want to become a Dad one day.
Fortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know two of the men described above. My father and brother-in-law emulate what it means to have tremendous impact as the role of a father. This post will probably find them as a surprise, but they’re closet criers, so I know they’ll compose themselves well.
You see, they don’t realize how much I look up to them. They both married their high school sweethearts. They had five kids collectively, I can’t speak for myself, but the other four are incredible people. When they walk in a room people smile and never have a bad thing to say about them… unless it’s an opposing official. When you call them for help, they’re there with little to no complaints. And most importantly, they love unconditionally.
When I reflect on my childhood, I realize that money or career pursuit was never at the center of the Helms’ household. Instead, I was given a childhood full of impact. They taught me who Jesus was and is. They taught me how to pray. They taught me that how to love people. My Dad taught me that if you want to make the jumper, you’ve got to shoot 1000s of them. My mom taught me that a clean house is better than a messy house. And finally, they taught me that if I stay balanced with faith in the center, my life would be a much more enjoyable ride.
A Plumber’s Impact
When I first started Ease Plumbing, I didn’t know what I was doing. At times, I even lost sight of what I was taught at an early age.
Many people know that I always had a goal to learn how to ‘hire, manage, and fire people.’ I prayed the good Lord would give me an opportunity to do that, and for some reason He delivered a plumbing business. After a few months, I had learned more about the industry than I had ever dreamed of AND we started making money. Money and growth of revenue became the focus. How can we hire people faster? How can we get more customers? How can we be more profitable? I didn’t know it, but those were the exact questions that caused me more anxiety, stress, and frustration during the first year in business. Instead, I should have asked these questions: How can we impact people? How can we better serve our customers? How can we inspire and impact our employees?
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have it all figured out, but what I am chasing has changed drastically in the last 12 months. I’ve learned that dollars are important to business success, but retention makes the business last forever. Retention of key employees and customers are much more important to the success and well-being of a company.
The ironic part of all this is that what doesn’t matter is easy to measure and what does matter is difficult to measure. For example, I can share with you how much we’ve grown in two years, how we’re exceeding all expectations and we’re on pace to be the fastest growing service plumbing business ever. Yet, what good does that do? It’s a checkbox. It’s a dollar sign. And it stays on this Earth when we leave. However, I can’t explain the feeling of receiving a text from an employee thanking you for the opportunity and how they already feel like they’re part of the Ease family. Or how seeing a team member smile and laugh at work brings you more joy than a record revenue day. I guess it’s kind of what it feels like to hear your son/daughter tell you that he loves you for the first time.
An Auctioneer’s Impact
There’s been days in my life where I believe Jesus took full control of my body, aka, “Austin, let me help you with this one, trust me, it’ll change your life.” High school graduation, singing “I Will Rise” to my Aunt Tina with our family around, and essentially everyday as a business owner, oh yeah and Jan 30, 2021 was one of those days.
My girlfriend (Kenzie) and I were invited to a ‘virtual charity event’ for a non-profit called Dream On 3. To be frank, neither one of us knew what we were attending, but just wanted an excuse to get out of the house #COVID. We arrived at Papa Doc’s in Lake Wylie, SC to experience a night we’ll never forget. Quickly, we realized that we were some of the lucky ones to be invited (thanks Emma/Team Viva Electric). We learned that Dream On 3 was a nonprofit that was centered around giving ‘dreams’ (similar to Make A Wish) to children who had life altering disabilities with a specific focus around sports/entertainment. The event was a substitute for their annual fundraiser that usually raises $600k+. They raise the money by imploring small businesses to compete by fundraising and they have an auction at the event. Usually, they have a live auctioneer, but due to restrictions they were confined to doing it all online… well, until it crashed.
At this point in my life (Jan 30th) my only auction experience was my bloodline and a 10 min auction I did in college. My grandpa and cousin are both professional auctioneers and I’ve attended what feels like 100 estate auctions, but since I have never been a licensed auctioneer, I was not able to call bids. Bid calling (what most consider the fast talking) is an art. The best auctioneers have a chant that is soothing to the ear and if you’re not careful will cause you to spend more money than you planned.
As the event was concluding, Brandon Lindsey, founder and CEO of Dream on 3 came on stage to inform everyone that the silent auction site had crashed and that they were going to auction off some of the items live. Brandon had another guy on stage with him that was going to conduct the auction, but after about 2 min of listening to him, Kenzie told me I should go help him. If you know me, if there’s a Moscow mule at an event, I’m drinking it. I didn’t feel as if I was in the best state to be conducting any kind of auction. However, Kenzie had enough and shoved me on stage, “He’s an auctioneer!” They quickly asked, “Are you really?!?!” Of course, I had to be honest, and say I wasn’t, but I knew a thing or two.
In that moment, Jesus said, no more moscow mules, you’ve got me. I started rattling off numbers and bids faster than I could think. People were laughing as the bids kept climbing and climbing. My body was filled with adrenaline and joy. Real money was being raised for real kids with real impact, one bid at a time. Some might call it a coincidence, but I call it a God Wink.
Since that event, I’ve become a fully licensed auctioneer, Brandon has become my big brother/Christian mentor in Charlotte/friend, and the Dream on 3 team has invited me to be the auctioneer at the main event next January.
Life is funny, but I’ve learned that if you chase impact and not dollars, your life will never be the same again.
But what do I know? I’m just a kid from Valdese.
Just a kid,
Austin Helms
Interested in plumbing services? We’re located in the Greater Charlotte NC area + Greenville, NC. Call 704. 740.EASE or book online at www.easeplumbing.com
Interested in my auction services? Call me, 828–448–5521 or email me at austinhelms32@gmail.com
