When Brady Jolly (’14) was named CEO of Jolly Plumbing in 2014, most people expected the young executive to lead with an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality.
With an established reputation and solid customer base, all Jolly needed to do was support the plumbing services, respect clients and hire the best tradesman to keep the company on track. But Jolly had something else in mind—he wanted to turn the service industry upside down.
Jolly, a native of Campbell County, Kentucky, grew up in and around the family business. He loved Jolly Plumbing’s atmosphere and, most importantly, watching his father, Barry Jolly, grow and run a successful business.
“I was always around,” says Jolly. “Every summer during middle school, I worked on a crew for a guy named Scott. I could hardly ever last the whole day, so on the way home I would nap in his truck. Scott still works here and, to this day, still makes fun of me.”
Even then, Brady envisioned one day representing his family’s name while growing the business into the region’s trades leader. So after high school, he enrolled in NKU’s entrepreneurship program to learn how to run a company.
“I didn’t know what other companies looked like,” he says. “I had all these visions and ideas for Jolly but we didn’t know the best way to grow a business. Then comes NKU, who taught me about other businesses—both entrepreneurial successes and failures.”
Jolly learned to compare Jolly Plumbing’s business techniques of those of other companies, not just what his father’s company had done in the past. He also found success on the men’s basketball team and remains a dedicated Norse fan to this day.
While in college, Jolly served as a business development manager for Jolly Plumbing; he also restored and flipped houses on the side. Then, after graduating in 2014, Jolly took the reins as CEO. His first move as the man in charge? He knew attitudes in the service industry often soured fast, so he set to work improving employee culture, knowing the effect would extend to customers.
"It used to be about whatever it takes to make the customer happy,” he says. “Now we do whatever it takes to make the employees happy. We know that if our employees are happy, they’ll provide an incredible experience to our customers. It’s a new age of business thinking.”
Relationships and culture are essential to Jolly, who says that, with 50 employees in the field every day, he can’t know what conversations take place. But developing employee relationships and hiring people with a common vision created a culture of positivity, while anonymous employee surveys revealed target areas for improvement, including pride, balance and compensation.
“Money is a huge driver, so I made it a goal to be the highest paying plumbing company in Cincinnati. We also found that people want to be proud of the business they work for. The last thing we found was how important work-life balance is. The service business never stops—plumbing goes haywire every day—and it’s been a challenge balancing that with happiness.”
Jolly also focused on closing skills gaps in the industry through to an unconventional strategy—he finds exceptional communicators and works to make them great plumbers, rather than worrying over a fleet of employees with poor customer relations skills. He created an in-house apprenticeship program to improve employees’ skill sets and developed partnerships with local high school tech programs to help students find a career path.
In his five years as CEO, Jolly has tripled both revenue and workforce and, in 2017, enacted one of the biggest changes in company history, expanding services to offer cleaning and restoration, property maintenance and event management, as well as venturing into real estate, under the umbrella of Jolly Enterprises. He’s also built a digital strategy for attracting more customers.
“We have to be a creative and different type of company on social media,” he says. “You don’t see many plumbing companies doing what we do.” Digital tactics range from Super Bowl commercials and comedic skits on Twitter to the recently created Log Blog, which helps find the cleanest bathrooms in Greater Cincinnati. (The Log Blog even hosts the Loggies—awards for the best bathrooms in the area.)
“There is a stigma around plumbing, and I think it’s good to be different,” he says. “It’s appealing to both employees and customers. That’s how you drive performance and value to your business.”
