626: Rob Kimbel - Living By Your Values, Caring For Your People, Taking The Back Seat, & Creating Opportunities That Improve Lives
Mar 16, 2025
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Rob Kimbel, owner of Kimbel Mechanical Systems, shares insights from transforming a small family plumbing business into a national powerhouse. He discusses the importance of intentional leadership and building a caring company culture that prioritizes employee wellness. Kimbel emphasizes mentoring the next generation, raising resilient children, and the balance of family and business dynamics. He also reflects on personal growth, gratitude as a motivator, and the significance of strong values in navigating success.
Consistently showing up, performing quality work, and completing tasks sets individuals apart in an industry with perceived low standards.
The transformative journey of Kimbel Mechanical Systems emphasizes the critical role of determination, quality work, and risk-taking in achieving rapid growth.
Cultivating a culture of teamwork, humility, and care enhances employee engagement and fosters genuine connections within the organization.
Deep dives
The Importance of Showing Up
Demonstrating commitment to one's job by simply showing up, performing quality work, and completing tasks is emphasized as a crucial trait in the industry. In a field where the standards are often perceived as low, consistently adhering to these principles can set individuals apart. The notion is that it is easy to exceed expectations with minimal effort when one commits to attendance, quality, and follow-through. This approach allows newcomers, even those with little experience, to become prominent contributors and potentially superior performers compared to their peers.
Building a Thriving Business
The transformative journey of a small plumbing business into a national enterprise highlights the critical factors for such growth, including determination, quality of work, and taking risks by hiring the right people. The company, under new leadership, experienced rapid revenue growth through a focus on delivering exceptional service and meeting customer needs, often without an internal sales team. Intentions to improve processes emerged as the organization matured, leading to establishing key performance indicators and a more structured operational framework. The emphasis on hard work and grit instilled during early years proved foundational for the company's future success.
A Purpose-Driven Culture
The company’s culture revolves around key values such as teamwork, humility, hunger, grit, and integrity, which drive interactions at all organizational levels. Leaders stress the significance of creating opportunities to improve lives through various employee engagement initiatives like wellness, career advancement, and care teams. This culture cultivates an environment where team members genuinely care for each other, further solidifying the bonds and commitment within the organization. The importance of living the company’s purpose and values daily is recognized as paramount for sustained engagement and performance.
Lessons in Resilience and Growth
The journey through challenges and periods of uncertainty is acknowledged as a natural part of career development, emphasizing that success is rarely linear. Building resilience and an understanding that growth often comes with difficulties can help individuals remain steadfast in their pursuits. The notion that consistently delivering quality work during tough times will ultimately lead to recognition and advancement encapsulates the essence of sustained excellence. A strong focus on personal development aligned with organizational goals fosters long-term satisfaction and career success.
Creating a Legacy Through Generosity
The importance of involving the family in discussions about generational wealth and legacy is underscored, ensuring that values and principles are passed down effectively. Regular family meetings allow for open communication about financial matters and shared family goals for the future. Emphasizing values such as hard work, humility, and generosity creates a foundation that fosters a culture of responsibility among family members, encouraging them to contribute positively to society. This intentional effort serves not only to build a successful family legacy but also to instill a sense of purpose in subsequent generations.
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Rob Kimbel is an owner of Kimbel Mechanical Systems, located in Fayetteville, AR. He joined KMS in 1993, and in 2001, at the age of 26, he became the CEO and grew what was then 3 local plumbers making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year into a national company with more than 750 employees and earning hundreds of millions in revenue per year. Rob is also a partner in multiple start-ups, real estate projects, and real estate funds that specialize in affordable housing across the United States. Rob is also a mentor and advisor to several local businesses and entrepreneurs in NW Arkansas. He has also served on the boards of Generations Bank, NWA Home Builders Association, and Beyond the Game, a non-profit organization serving the impoverished of the Dominican Republic.
Notes:
Betty Joe Drive… Lived in the hood. $200/month. Rob regularly takes his children to see where they lived. "I want to remind the kids where we came from."
They started as a 3-person plumbing company. Rob was working for his dad, making $12-$14 an hour.
Now, they do $260m in revenue and have 750 full-time employees.
When Rob was 25 years old, his dad asked him to be the CEO. He initially said no.
Strategic risk-taking as a cornerstone of growth: Rob navigates the industry challenge of balancing new work with workforce capacity by making bold hiring decisions—demonstrating a greater risk appetite than his father. "We are always hiring" reflects their proactive approach to scaling.
Kimbel is good at growing people. They fail, and stick with them to grow. “Profits are the applause for growing our people.”
How to be good? Show up, work hard, and finish the job. The bar is so low.
The No Child Left Behind Act wasn’t great for the trades industry. They made it seem that every person needed to go to college. When every person shouldn’t do that. Some should go into the trades. There are high school grads who make $100K/year by their mid-20s at Kimbel.
The Kimbel Purpose: Create opportunities to improve lives.
Values - TEAM, Humility, Hunger, Grit, Integrity.
TEAM- We willingly sacrifice for the good of the team. Row together.
Humility - We never consider ourselves above anyone or anything. Take the back seat.
Hunger - We choose to continually raise the bar. Never complacent.
Integrity - We do the right thing, in all places, at all times. The how matters.
Grit - We persevere, no matter the situation. Remember the why.
Thank you notes – Each executive member writes at least one thank you note per week. This works as a forcing function for them to look for people doing great work and living by their values.
Touch points - Senior leaders (30 people) reach out to 2 people per week to check on them. That’s 3,000 touches per year.
Free from all, servant to all. Tattoos on Rob's forearms. I have made myself a servant. Free from work, I don’t care what society thinks. But I have a responsibility to be a steward. To be a servant to all.
Rob works out like a psycho. Super hard. Why?
Start with the end in mind. I want to hold Cheri on my shoulders when I'm 65.
I want to ski with my kids when I'm 80.
I like to compete. I want to win Spartan races. I like doing hard things.
It also creates clarity in my mind throughout the day. Karomy messages me that she knows I'm running the stairs when she gets emails from me with lots of ideas.
Marriage insights: "It must be intentional. We have fun together. We are genuine friends. We still have to work through stuff."
Parenting philosophy shaped by observing other wealthy families: "It's critical that kids do hard work. They shouldn't start in an office. They should be out with the chickens. Be in the mess. Start at the bottom. Start in the ditch."
Family-business boundary maintenance: "We get together every other weekend for family game night. We try not to have much business talk."
Sold 70% of the business last July. What was the feeling the moment the money was wired? It was surreal. Want to honor Dad with 25 years of GRIT.
Excellence defined: "It's continual learning. Wanting to get better. Think, what can I do better?"
Creating a truth-telling culture: "Have to be willing to hear it and create a space where the truth is spoken."
Life and career wisdom: "A career is not linear just like a marriage isn't. Have patience and live in the suck. Don't quit. There will be seasons of suck. Keep going."
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