IT’S OKAY IF PEOPLE DON’T KNOW MY NAME

Recently, a building construction company I do contract work for reached out with a new job. They’d started work on a new apartment building that was going up and discovered a serious mold problem. I went out there, conducted my inspection, and wrote up a report with a five-step guide on the best way to solve their problem.

Not long after, I got a call from the mold remediation guy the company hired to take care of the problem. Our call was pretty brief.

“I’ve never heard of you,” the gentleman pointedly informed me. “And when I asked around my office, no one else here has heard of you either. How do I know you can handle this project?”

I was caught off guard by this call. After 29 years in the business, I’m used to other people in the industry recognizing my name and company when it comes up during a job. Instead of sending this guy to my LinkedIn page, I let him know that I’ve been in the industry for over two decades, and considering his business specializes in asbestos work, it wasn’t surprising that our paths hadn’t crossed before.

If I’m being perfectly honest, having someone demand to see my credentials ruffled my feathers … at first. Then I realized the call was a reminder that not everyone in this field of work has heard of Travis West or Building Air Quality, and you know what? That’s a good thing.

Early in my career, I made the conscious decision to work with the clients I could best help. This means building owners and facility managers of commercial buildings. Sure, I am probably knowledgeable enough to address other kinds of buildings, but that’s not what I want to do. Besides the fact that I would never get to see my family and would end up giving myself a heart attack from the stress, taking on too many jobs would ensure my clients don’t get the quality service they deserve.

Putting aside my (slightly bruised) ego, I do have to applaud the asbestos guy for looking out for his clients. I’m always hesitant when I see my clients doing business with a remediation company that I’ve never heard of before. Occasionally they wind up being some inexperienced, fly-by-night company that’ll slap paint over the problem and leave my client with a bigger mess to clean up.

After my conversation with the asbestos guy, I sent him a nine-page report outlining the scope of work for mold remediation that he needed to stick to. At that point, he realized I was more than capable of handling the problem.

I recognized my niche long ago, and I’m happy to serve my clients here. The people I choose to work with and the projects I take on are the ones I know I’m best equipped to tackle. In my industry, if you haven’t heard of me, it’s likely because you haven’t had a problem requiring my specialized skills.