The TMG Fireside Chat Podcast

John Mackey
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Management

A podcast dedicated to the fire protection & life safety industry where we share podcasts and interviews with industry leaders and resources. We will be talking about industry wide challenges and highlight solutions that will help solidify the industry’s foundation while preparing for growth through new technologies and strategies. You can reach John Mackey through email, john@mackeygroupllc.com and you can find more info about The Mackey Group at https://mackeygroupllc.com/

  1. 3d ago

    Build to Grow™ | Ep. 9: The Future of Fire Protection: Innovation, Regulation & Risk | Jack Coffelt

    The fire protection and life safety industry is changing faster than ever, but are contractors keeping pace? In this episode, John Mackey welcomes back Jack Coffelt, Founder of CFC Fire Consulting, for a candid conversation about the intersection of technology, codes, compliance, and operational risk. Drawing on decades of experience in the field, software, inspections, and codes and standards development, Jack explores how digital adoption is reshaping the industry, why outdated processes create unnecessary challenges, and what contractors must do to prepare for the future. It's a practical conversation for owners and operators looking to work smarter, strengthen compliance, and build lasting business value. In this episode Key takeaways Technology is advancing faster than many contractors are adopting it. Staying competitive requires moving beyond paper-based processes and embracing digital tools. The real value of field service management software emerges over time. While implementation takes work, years two through five deliver opportunities for greater efficiency, visibility, and operational improvement. NFPA 915, NFPA 25, and NFPA 72 are evolving alongside connected systems and remote testing, creating new possibilities for how inspections and compliance are managed. NFPA 25 is fundamentally a wear-and-tear standard, not a simple pass-or-fail test. Understanding its intent helps contractors document conditions accurately and manage liability. Third-party compliance reporting is creating new expectations for documentation and data sharing. Contractors without integrated digital systems risk falling further behind. Code development and code adoption don't always move at the same pace. Differences between jurisdictions can delay implementation of updated safety practices. Labor shortages will continue to challenge the industry. Technology, training, and smarter workflows will be essential to supporting the next generation of fire protection professionals. Building owners, contractors, and authorities having jurisdiction all have distinct responsibilities. Clear communication, accurate reporting, and shared accountability are critical to safer facilities. About the guest Jack Coffelt is Founder of CFC Fire Consulting, where he works with fire protection contractors, building owners, trade associations, and authorities having jurisdiction to navigate codes, standards, compliance, and risk. His career spans field operations, national sprinkler business development, fire protection inspections, and field service management software. With experience across multiple sides of the industry, Jack brings a practical, operator-focused perspective to the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of fire and life safety. Explore more from The Mackey Group Build to Grow™ helps fire protection and life safety business owners strengthen operations, improve performance, and build long-term enterprise value. Schedule a meeting with John.  Learn more: https://mackeygroupllc.com/ Build to Grow™. Build lasting value.

  2. 3d ago

    Build to Grow™ | Ep. 8, Part 2: Where AI Actually Pays | Shawn Mims & James Jordan, Taskora

    In this episode of Build to Grow™, John Mackey, CEO of The Mackey Group, sits down with Shawn Mims, Co-Founder and CEO of Taskora, and James Jordan, Co-Founder and CTO, to explore how artificial intelligence is transforming operations in the fire protection and life safety industry. As AI adoption accelerates, the challenge for contractors is no longer simply experimenting with new tools. It's implementing secure, scalable solutions that deliver measurable business value. John, Shawn, and James discuss why AI pilot programs often succeed while company-wide deployments struggle, and what business owners can do to bridge the gap between experimentation and execution. Discover how AI can streamline administrative workflows, improve reporting, increase employee productivity, and support more efficient operations without replacing the human judgment and customer relationships that drive success. The conversation also explores why process improvement must come before automation, how frontline employees can help identify valuable AI applications, and why starting small and scaling strategically leads to better outcomes. As part of the Build to Grow™ philosophy, AI and automation support the four essential pillars — People, Process, Technology, and Reporting. When implemented with discipline, these tools can help contractors reduce inefficiencies, strengthen operational performance, and build more scalable businesses with lasting enterprise value. The Mackey Group is a Taskora partner. Results discussed from Taskora are company-reported. Read Inside the FLS Tech Stack — Tools Changing the Game Explore Growth Strategies Take the Build to Grow™ Leadership Scorecard Ready to Build to Grow? Schedule a strategy conversation with John Mackey Visit The Mackey Group website or contact john@mackeygroupllc.com to learn more. Subscribe for more Build to Grow™ conversations, industry insights, and strategies for creating lasting business value.

  3. 3d ago

    Build to Grow™ | Ep. 8, Part 1: The Customer Nobody Measures: Why Customer Experience Drives Value

    In this episode of Build to Grow™, John Mackey, CEO of The Mackey Group, explores one of the most overlooked drivers of growth and long-term enterprise value in the fire protection and life safety industry: customer experience. While most contractors focus on generating new business, John explains why strengthening existing customer relationships can have an even greater impact on revenue, retention, and profitability. From scheduling and inspections to deficiency reporting, quoting, and renewals, every customer interaction presents an opportunity to build trust, improve efficiency, and create lasting value. Discover how reducing friction throughout the customer journey can strengthen loyalty, increase recurring revenue, and uncover missed opportunities. John also discusses the importance of measuring customer retention, revenue per customer, deficiency conversion, and quote turnaround times to identify where operational improvements can drive meaningful growth. As part of the Build to Grow™ philosophy, customer experience connects directly to the four pillars — People, Process, Technology, and Reporting. When contractors align these critical areas around the customer, they create stronger relationships, more predictable revenue, and businesses positioned for sustainable growth. Read The Customer Nobody Measures Explore Growth Strategies Take the Build to Grow™ Leadership Scorecard Ready to Build to Grow? Schedule a strategy conversation with John Mackey Visit www.mackeygroupllc.com or contact john@mackeygroupllc.com to learn more. Subscribe for more Build to Grow™ conversations, industry insights, and strategies for creating lasting business value.

  4. Sep 24

    Build to Grow™ | Ep. 7: Why FLS M&A Keeps Accelerating | Caleb Armbrust, Ryan Fire Protection

    Consolidation is the environment every fire and life safety owner now operates in. In this episode, John Mackey sits down with Caleb Armbrust, M&A Director at Ryan Fire Protection and former Director of Membership at the NFSA, for a candid, buy-side read on where the consolidation wave stands and where it's headed. It's a practical conversation for owners thinking about growth, value, and their options, whether or not they ever plan to sell. In this episode Where we stand: how we got here and what inning we're in Who's buying, and why fire protection specifically The regeneration dynamic: why the base keeps refilling What buyers actually pay for Service vs. install, and how the multiple is set Labor: why people, not orders, are the ceiling Building an enduringly great company vs. building to sell What owners misunderstand about a sale Key takeaways Consolidation is the environment, and it has regenerated its own supply of targets for two decades. Recurring revenue, labor, systems, and integration drive the multiple. Revenue alone is table stakes. People are the ceiling. The workforce pipeline is the industry's hardest problem. The highest price isn't always the best deal. Fit and structure matter. Readiness is built over years, and it gives you options whether or not you sell. About the guest Caleb Armbrust is M&A Director at Ryan Fire Protection, an active fire protection consolidator based in Noblesville, Indiana. He previously served as Director of Membership at the National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA). About the show John Mackey is founder of The Mackey Group, a strategic growth advisory firm serving fire and life safety contractors, their owners, and the investors backing them. Build to Grow Mindset is TMG's monthly podcast on building lasting value in FLS. Links Take the FLS Seller Readiness Self-Assessment: https://mackeygroupllc.com/build-to-grow-scorecard Work with The Mackey Group: https://mackeygroupllc.com/

  5. Jul 30

    Build to Grow™ | Ep. 6: The 90-Day Operating System: Turning Strategy into Execution

    The TMG Fireside Chat Podcast

  6. Jun 18

    Build to Grow™ | Ep. 5: Two Lenses, One Business: How Family-Owned FLS Contractors Use Data

    Build to Grow™ Pillar #4: Reporting Most fire protection contractors say they have reporting. Far fewer make decisions with it. In this episode, John Mackey sits down with two leaders who run the same business through two different lenses — Pam Gartner, CFO, and Clinton Campbell, Director of Sales — at Approved Fire Protection & Security, a Central New Jersey contractor that's been family-owned for nearly a century and is led today by CEO and owner Diane. It's a rare, candid look at how reporting actually gets built and lived inside a real, well-run FLS business: how it evolved from instinct to system, which KPIs earned their place, what the weekly and quarterly cadence looks like on the ground, and how the financial and operational lenses get integrated into one operating picture. The newsletter gave you the framework. This conversation gives you the reality. In this episode: Why operations drives the financials — not the other way around — and what that means for how you measure The integrated tech stack (ProfitZoom / Valen Software) that lets the books close continuously instead of in a 25-day rear-view scramble The "are you with me?" moment that set the culture — and how radical transparency (a dozen screens of live financials throughout the building) creates company-wide alignment The KPIs that earned their place: new business installed, customer retention, gross margin and job profitability, AR aging, and tech revenue per day Best-in-class benchmarks in practice: invoicing in under a day (industry standard is 5–6) and a DSO around 15 days A quiet competitive advantage — ranking customers by number of solutions to drive stickiness and protect against churn The real operating cadence: daily dashboards, Monday sales huddles, end-of-week service reviews, a management cadence that graduated from weekly to bi-weekly, and quarterly all-hands alignment meetings How a CEO stays informed and leads without sitting in every meeting — and what "working on the business" looks like when you actually build the team and systems to do it Where the two lenses come together: how finance and operations collaborate on a big job — margin, resources, subs, capex, and training — without finance ever playing "the police" Rapid reflections: One KPI you'd never give up — Clinton: New business closed. Pam: Gross margin / profitability by job. One metric that's overrated — Quantity-based sales activity targets (number of meetings per rep), dropped in favor of qualified, quality pipeline. One piece of advice for an owner starting this journey — Get the right people in the right seats, and put a real accountant and a real financial system behind your operation. Without that visibility, you're guessing. ________________________________________   🎧 The framework behind this conversation: Read the May BTG Mindset newsletter — Reporting That Drives Decisions: The 10 KPIs the Best FLS Contractors Actually Run On - https://mackeygroupllc.com/insights/f...   👉 Get the tool: Reply "DECIDE" to the May BTG Mindset newsletter to receive the Reporting Pillar Readiness Diagnostic — a 10-minute, 20-question assessment across Metric Architecture, Operating Cadence, Data Trust, and the Decision Loop, scored against industry benchmarks with a 90-day focus output. Take it solo or run it as a leadership-team exercise. Three ways to get it: Reply "DECIDE" to the May newsletter and it lands in your inbox Email john@mackeygroupllc.com and we'll send it directly Download it from the BTG Mindset library at mackeygroupllc.com 📅 Next month: We close the four-pillar arc with the Built to Grow Operating System — how People, Process, Technology, and Reporting come together inside a single 90-day rhythm. ________________________________________   Guests: Pam Gartner, CFO, and Clinton Campbell, Director of Sales — Approved Fire Protection & Security (New Jersey). Hosted by John Mackey, founder and managing principal of The Mackey Group, a strategic growth advisory firm working exclusively with Fire Protection and Life Safety contractors and the owners, C-suite leaders, boards, and investors who back them.   The Mackey Group | BTG Mindset™ | Build to Grow™ | john@mackeygroupllc.com

  7. Apr 21

    Build to Grow™ | Ep. 4: Inside the FLS Tech Stack: Tools Changing the Game

    John Mackey sits down with Nick Sandberg, Director of IT at Hiller Companies, for a no-filter conversation about technology strategy in fire protection and life safety. No vendor pitches. No silver bullets. Just two operators who've lived inside FLS tech stacks for decades, comparing notes on what actually works — and what's coming next. 🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS • There is no silver-bullet platform — process before technology, every time • Only ~50% of US FLS contractors use technology beyond desktop QuickBooks • AI and agentic tools may disrupt the traditional SaaS moat within 1–2 years • "If your process is bad and you digitize it, you have a bad digital process — add AI and you have a bad AI digital process" • The technician is the brand, the customer is the purpose — technology serves the relationship 📊 FREE RESOURCES → Reply STACK to john@mackeygroupllc.com for the FLS Tech Stack Readiness Scorecard + Tech Stack Guide → Read the companion blog: "Inside the FLS Tech Stack — Tools Changing the Game" at mackeygroupllc.com → Take the Build to Grow™ Readiness Survey: mackeygroupllc.com/leadership-scorecard 👤 ABOUT THE GUEST Nick Sandberg — Director of IT, Hiller Companies. Started as a fire extinguisher technician in 1999. Built Hiller's internal inspection platform from scratch. Rare combination of deep field experience and enterprise IT leadership. 👤 ABOUT THE HOST John Mackey — Founder & CEO, The Mackey Group. Strategic growth advisor to fire protection and life safety companies. Works with owners, CEOs, investors, and boards on growth strategy, operational discipline, and M&A readiness. 🤝 CONNECT John Mackey: mackeygroupllc.com | john@mackeygroupllc.com | LinkedIn: /in/johnmackey Nick Sandberg: LinkedIn: /in/nicksandberg This episode is part of the Build to Grow™ Mindset series — monthly strategic insight for FLS leaders across People, Process, Technology, and Reporting. #FireProtection #LifeSafety #BuildToGrow #FLSTechStack #AIinFLS #BTGMindsetPodcast #TheMackeyGroup

  8. Mar 31

    Build to Grow™ | Ep. 1: Discipline, Optionality & the Future of Fire Protection

    In this kickoff episode of the Build to Grow™ series, John Mackey introduces a disciplined framework for fire protection owners and senior leaders navigating a rapidly evolving industry. Demand remains strong. But growth feels heavier. Compliance requirements are increasing. Customers expect more. Technicians are harder to find. Consolidation is accelerating. Technology is reshaping workflows. Many contractors are growing faster than their infrastructure can support. Build to Grow exists to address a simple but powerful truth: growth rarely fails because of demand. It fails because the business wasn’t built to absorb it. Why Build to Grow — and Why Now Many contractors began as technicians. They mastered code and compliance but were never trained to build scalable operating systems. Build to Grow focuses on installing discipline across four pillars: People, Process, Technology, and Reporting. When those pillars are aligned, growth becomes controlled instead of chaotic. Optionality Is the Outcome Optionality does not get created at the point of transaction. It gets created years earlier through discipline. Build to Grow is not about selling. It is about options — options to step back from 80-hour weeks, empower internal leaders, prepare for succession, or maximize value when and if a sale becomes appropriate. The Shiny Object Trap Large projects can tempt contractors to grow ahead of their infrastructure. Without guardrails, capital, staffing, and systems can fall behind revenue growth. Build to Grow helps owners define what work to pursue and what work to decline. Technology as a Force Multiplier Field service platforms, digital documentation, and routing optimization improve technician efficiency. Small operational gains compound across teams, helping offset labor shortages and improve compliance visibility. Common Misconceptions Many owners respond defensively: “I’m not selling.” But Build to Grow is relational, not transactional. It is about building a stronger business first — whether a transaction ever occurs. Too many owners only discover what drives valuation when it is too late. Discipline installed early creates freedom later. What to Expect from the Series Build to Grow will include: Monthly blog and newsletter insights Fireside Chat conversations with industry leaders Practical tools and scorecards Planned tools include Growth Readiness assessments, Recruiting & Culture diagnostics, and valuation-focused frameworks. Next Steps Request the Build to Grow Scorecard: Build to Grow Scorecard Schedule a strategy conversation: https://calendly.com/tmg_johnmackey/b... Subscribe to the Build to Grow Series: ??? Website: www.mackeygroupllc.com Email: john@mackeygroupllc.com

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A podcast dedicated to the fire protection & life safety industry where we share podcasts and interviews with industry leaders and resources. We will be talking about industry wide challenges and highlight solutions that will help solidify the industry’s foundation while preparing for growth through new technologies and strategies. You can reach John Mackey through email, john@mackeygroupllc.com and you can find more info about The Mackey Group at https://mackeygroupllc.com/

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