Steve Morgan - Our People - January 2015

January 2015
1
Our People…
with Steve Morgan
We wanted to kick off 2015 really strong with this next Our
People profile. We recently interviewed Steve Morgan,
Noise Solutions’ Executive Vice President, to share a bit
about his successes, not only in his career, but also in life.
In this Q&A, Steve invites us into his fascinating world that
will inspire, delight and engage. As you’ll discover, this
trailblazer lives life with passion. Steve is an opportunity-
seeker, an over-achiever and he puts 110 percent into all
aspects of his work life and his personal life – as he calls it,
work-life quality.
A jack of many trades, Steve is also an incredible artist and
shares some of his illustrations with us.
So, let’s take a look at what he had to say.
_________________________________
NS: Can you tell us a bit about where
you’re from and what inspired your
appetite for sales?
Steve: I was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada,
and lived in various parts of England and
Canada until the age of 13. Because we moved
around so much, I never put much value into
where I lived. It was all about family for me. As
long as I had that support behind me, it didn’t
matter where we lived.
My parents are immigrants from England and
they grew up living-side-by-side in
Birmingham during the Second World War.
They moved to Canada in the 1950s, and now
live in Niagara Falls, Canada. My dad is an artist
and my mom was a Realtor. She is the one that
got me interested in business, and my dad
always wanted me to become an artist, so
growing up, I was fortunate to have both
influences.
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Our People with Steve Morgan, Noise Solutions’ Executive Vice President

January 2015
2
Today, I share the skills and passion for both. I
really enjoy working with oils and charcoals
and I paint whenever I get the opportunity.
I have also made some pretty cool pieces of
furniture. I like that creative side of me, and I
think it complements my aptitude for business
because I’m not held to any boundaries as far
as the way I think. I can look beyond ‘the norm’
and what has been done in the past to find
new ways of doing things.
Through my high school years, we lived
Pickering, Ontario, just east of Toronto. I
worked part-time at two different jobs – on
Mondays and Tuesdays, I worked for a local
newspaper called Pickering’s Bay News, writing
and illustrating a comic strip, and also doing
the ad layouts.
I would sometimes
work until 3:00AM on
Tuesday nights to meet
the print deadline that
morning. It was a great
experience and it
taught me about
discipline.
I was also a sales associate at a shoe store. My
manager at the time, whom I still keep in touch
with, was a real strong and driven sales guy. I
latched onto him to learn all I could.
I continued working in the shoe business until I
was about 27. I really wanted to start working
for myself, so I put some money aside to
eventually open my own shoe store.
One afternoon, I was chatting with a friend
who was quite successful supplying window
coverings to businesses. The margins were
huge and he didn’t have to carry inventory. As
you sold, you would buy. I was intrigued by our
conversation and began thinking that I could
turn this into a small private business, which is
exactly what I did. I received my business
license for Statement Interior and Window
Designs in 1987.
I understood early on that if I multiply myself, I
could multiply business, so I ran an ad on the
front page of a local bargain paper in Niagara
Falls, where I was living at the time. I came up
with a concept that would allow you to build
your own quote right from the ad. You could
take rough measurements of your window,
select a fabric, and then figure out the price
from a grid pattern. I even offered free
installation. I put an answering machine in the
house and I went to work at the shoe store,
where I was still store manager.
When I arrived home that evening the machine
was completely full with messages from
people who wanted my business. I returned
every call and over the next three days, I made
house calls after work each night, and that put
$30,000 into my pocket. That’s when I realized I
had something very unique and extremely
profitable.
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January 2015
3
In three years, Statement Interior and Window
Designs became the largest independent
retailer of window coverings in Southern
Ontario. I had five people on the road selling
and four others installing. It was this
experience that taught me the secret to it all:
express confidence and appear bigger than
you really are as far as the company is
concerned.
Before I knew it, I landed the contract for all
Denny’s Diners in southern Ontario.
It wasn’t long after, that I started to work on
hotels and condo complexes. Then, after four
successful years, I decided to explore new
opportunities.
In 1991, I joined Brown Shoe Company as Sales
Manager and looked after the southern
Ontario district. One day, I was with my boss
driving around to see how my stores were
doing, and he told me that the Alberta district
was struggling, and asked if I would consider
going out there for two years to turn it around.
I was looking for a change of scenery and
without hesitating, I said yes.
That was 20 years ago and it was the best
move I ever made. I was ferocious in getting
that district back on track. I’ve never been one
to let bad business, the environment or news
affect the way we were going to succeed.
There had never been anyone to truly drive the
team, and that first year we struggled. It was
terrible. So, I hired driven and passionate team
leaders, and we built a strong training
program, which has become the standard
training program at Brown. In just one year, we
completely turned the Alberta district around
and it became the top selling district in all of
Canada. I was very proud of that time in my
career. We had the highest increases, the best
payroll, the most new programs and a surplus
of great talent.
That experience taught me a lot
that I apply in business today:
1) Never give up;
2) Always be there first;
3) Have high energy and a
competitive edge;
4) The hardest working people are
the luckiest
Always surround yourself with
people that are greater than you.
All they are looking for is guidance
and you can help them grow.
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January 2015
4
NS: What attracted you to Noise
Solutions and the Sales Manager role
that you were hired for?
Steve: I was living next door to the President
of Noise Solutions, Scott MacDonald, and we
became good friends. We would often help
each other with projects around the house,
and I was helping Scott with some landscaping
one weekend. He mentioned he was in need of
a Sales Manager, and I said, ‘You need to find
someone like me. Someone with high energy
who will push for you, believe in the product,
and build not just their sales, but also the
company.’ Scott asked, ‘What would that cost?’
I told him I wasn’t looking for a new job. I was
with Brown Shoe Company for the past 14
years and I really loved it. But Scott never gave
up and kept asking me to consider it. After
some time, I gave in and said I would meet
with Noise Solutions co-founder Rod
MacDonald and their Operations Manager, just
to discuss it. The way they presented the
opportunity sounded really exciting. I knew
nothing of what the company did, but I felt
there was a huge opportunity for me here.
So I bit the bullet and in September 2004, I
came to Noise Solutions.
The first year was tough. At the time, I didn’t
understand the industry or the products. It was
so far removed from where I came from in the
fashion industry. I spent many nights reading
and trying to figure it all out. I struggled to get
sales and to build relationships with clients. It
took about a year to really start to get traction
and once I did, I wouldn’t let it go for anything!
There were many times I quit in my head, but
every morning I got back up and went at it
again, and I never gave up.
I would be reminded of that little old lady who
came to the shoe store yelling because her
Cocker Spaniel chewed the heel off her shoe,
and was demanding a refund. She was a lot
tougher than any engineer and his issues.
I owe a lot to Scott and Rod for believing in me
that first year. I knew there was greatness here,
and that I could make a difference. Noise
Solutions was poised to grow and if I could just
get that traction, I could really be part of that.
After that first tough year, I’ve never looked
back. Once it all started to click into place, I
really began to enjoy the hunt and kill of the
industry.
I pride myself on staying on top of it all the
time. I was presenting more and more Lunch
and Learns, the sales were coming in, and my
confidence was growing.
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January 2015
5
I knew it was time to apply that recipe of
multiplying myself.
NS: You saw the potential to expand
your efforts early on, to not only lead
the industry in Canada, but also to
break into the US. Can you tell us about
that?
Steve: I was now with Noise Solutions for four
years and sales were the best they had ever
been. But on my own, I could only do so much.
I was chatting with Scott one morning and told
him I didn’t want to sell anymore. If I could
teach others to sell the way I sell, now we’ve
got the magic!
Scott was skeptical. But Noise Solutions
needed to get more leverage into a lot of the
bigger Oil and Gas companies, so eventually
he gave in.
In 2008, I was promoted to Vice President of
Business Development so that we could open
up doors quicker and to start building the
Business Development team. We hired
Lindsey, our first sales employee based out of
Denver, Colorado. We knew that area was ripe
for the picking.
Today, we have five brilliant sales people in
Canada and the US. Just last year, Noise
Solutions celebrated its best year ever and I
didn’t sell anything, all I did was guide my
team. In my earlier days a $250,000 sale was
massive, but now we’re getting jobs for as
much as 7 Million!
NS: Can you share some of your biggest
accomplishments during your time in
that role?
Steve: Some of my best successes, quite
honestly, are Anne-Marie, Lindsey and now
Christine. I’ve been able to mentor and grow
all three from their positions in Technical Sales
to three brilliant Business Development Leads.
I take a lot of pride in those three; what they
have achieved already and what they’re still
going to accomplish. I see them as future
leaders of this company.
Then we have others like Shawn, who is
brilliant in his own right, and very seasoned at
what he does; and Tyler who has been with the
company for about nine years and recently
joined the team. He is doing a great job and
quickly becoming a strong Business
Development Engineer.
It’s these types of things that I take the most
pride in, and because of those five people, we
were able to celebrate our best year yet.
Lindsey and I cracked open the Marcellus in
2011 and 2012. We went from 0 sales to 60% of
our volume in the first year.
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January 2015
6
Every two weeks for two years, we were out
there pounding the roads.
Then in 2013, we hired our first Business
Development Lead in the US East to focus on
that area. Now, Shawn and Tyler own it and
they’re making incredible progress out there.
NS: What made you realize Noise
Solutions needed to be in the Marcellus,
and how did you break into that
market?
Steve: The whole thing was well orchestrated
right from the beginning. I heard about
Marcellus, this up-and-coming natural gas
play. We did a lot of research on it and
presented a strong argument to the
management team. Noise Solutions needed to
focus on the US, and specifically into
Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. I
presented the opportunity and identified the
milestones over the next five years. I look back
on that with a great amount of pride because
we nailed it almost to the tee on everything.
We also tried things that we never did before.
LinkedIn was becoming a strong networking
tool for business, so I began using it to see
what I could get from it. It quickly proved to be
an instrumental tool. We were able to reach
into that area, find the right people to connect
with, and secure the meetings we needed.
There was one week where Lindsey and I flew
into Pennsylvania on Sunday, and on Monday
we had four back-to-back presentations with
prominent players in the industry. We had two
more on Tuesday and then drove to Michigan
for another big presentation on Wednesday.
That company’s Vice President of Sales had
been noticing all of my activity on LinkedIn
and asked if I would present to his sales group
on using social media for business. I did an off
the cuff presentation to his team and then
Lindsey and I drove off to Chicago where we
had our 8th presentation that week.
We began to realize that Noise Solutions was
doing something that a lot of companies have
never done, or even tried to do. We began to
talk about the youthfulness of Noise Solutions.
Something that we always felt we needed to
apologize for, we now wanted to embrace.
That was a memorable week. On our drive to
Chicago, a piece of plate steel fell off a truck in
front of us and it jammed into the front of our
rental SUV. We didn’t have time to trade the
vehicle in because we needed to be in Chicago
for our next meeting, so we drove it all the way
hoping the SUV stayed on the road. Thankfully,
it did!
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January 2015
7
That next Lunch and Learn presentation was at
a firm that did a lot of work in the mining
industry, and when I made the appointment, I
was told we have 10 minutes to impress them.
I began the presentation using their
whiteboard and building excitement around
the table. About 10 minutes in, I was told to
stop. I was instantly deflated thinking I didn’t
do it. Then the person who requested me to
stop, turned to the guy beside me and asked
him to gather up a few other people who he
thought needed to see and hear my
presentation. They entered the room and I
continued on until I was stopped again so that
they could bring more people in. It was
incredible, and we are still doing business with
that company.
I love the energy and the youthfulness of Noise
Solutions. The people who work here are
brilliant.
I love the charisma of Shawn, the passion of
Lindsey, and the eagerness of Christine. Anne
Marie is tough and such a great business
person. I love watching her! I’ve known Anne
Marie since she was 18 and to see her grow
into the person she is today is amazing. She is a
very strong force in the industry.
Then there’s Tyler, who began working part-
time as a welder at Noise Solutions
Manufacturing while he was still in high
school. He has moved on and up within the
company, and he recently received his
Professional Engineering License in Canada.
I’ve loved collaborating with him all the way
through his career, and now we get to have
him on the Business Development team. You
can’t turn him off. He is really on fire!
NS: Can you think back to a Noise
Solutions client that you worked with
where the outcome of your efforts was
heartwarming or left you feeling proud?
Steve: There have been many over the years,
but I would have to call out my friend Joe
Sanchez. He was at Anadarko at the time, in
Brighton, Colorado, and he was the toughest
guy I had ever met. I would take every
opportunity to knock on his door, send him an
email and take him to lunch, and he would
never bite.
Until that one day, finally we got a small job.
There was an auxiliary cooler that was situated
close to a resident that lived up the hill from
the facility and it wasn’t in compliance with the
Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation
Commission’s Aesthetic and Noise Control
Regulations, so it required noise mitigation to
get it into compliance. Joe finally gave us a job.
He said they usually deal with another
company for things like this but he asked Noise
Solutions to fix it. We did the job and blew
them away.
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January 2015
8
Joe couldn’t believe that you couldn’t hear it
running. From there, we did two more units on
the site, and then we got an additional 13
facilities on another site, and it has just grown
from there.
Now, whenever Joe needs something or has a
problem he calls me directly. There is a great
relationship between the two of us that I truly
value.
I ran into him last summer at a golf
tournament in Denver and he said, ‘Steve,
you’re my second most favorite sales guy out
there.’ I asked why I’m only second and he said
because Lindsey is first. Right then I knew I
completely won because I’ve molded this girl
into a machine that Joe Sanchez, with all this
power, just loves to deal with all the time.
NS: In 2014,
you were
appointed
Executive Vice
President at
Noise
Solutions,
how did that
come about
and what is
your vision for
this role?
Steve: I wanted to have more of an influence
on the entire company and its operations by
bringing in new ideas and applying what we’re
doing in the sales team to the rest of the
company. I wanted to bring that energy,
commitment and drive that we nurture in
Business Development to the rest of the
company.
I had been talking to Scott for a while about
my next role and what I wanted to do with the
company. In March of last year, I was
appointed Executive Vice President and since
then I’ve been focused on strengthening our
quality culture and implementing new
processes.
I enjoy my visits to our manufacturing plant in
Delburne, Alberta. I try to get out there as
often as possible and I always engage with our
staff working on the shop floor.
I like to learn about what they do, and I ask
them. When I do that, they become the teacher
and I’m the student and that empowers them.
Their ideas begin to flow and it’s exactly what I
hope to achieve. I’m not good with the details
but I’m great at inspiring people to be better,
to set goals for themselves, and then to help
them achieve it.
I want to bring the company to a whole new
level of professionalism and growth. I think
you can achieve anything you want if you are
truly willing to invest. I believe there’s a moral
compass that leaders must have within a
company. I think it’s important to give back
internally to those that are helping the
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January 2015
9
business grow. It’s important that it’s not just
about monetary giving back, but also helping
improve the quality of people’s lives, and I
think Noise Solutions can do that. That’s
something that Rod said to me when I first
started to work here, more than 10 years ago.
He said Noise Solutions can change my life,
and he was right, it did. I want to give that back
to others in the company.
My goal for about five years from now is to be
standing on stage in front of 1000 Noise
Solutions employees and their family
members, giving an emotionally-driven
motivational speech. I want to present our
employees with deserving awards at a gala
event.
Can you imagine being that person called up
on stage to accept an award for the best
designer, the top sales person, the most
successful patent, or whatever it is? Not only
are your peers and co-workers in the audience,
but also your wife or husband, your children,
and the people that mean the most to you.
Take that a step further and our clients are
there too. That would be an incredibly high
energy and exciting evening for everyone and I
intend on making it a reality.
NS: What are your biggest strengths?
Steve: I work very hard. I’m focused, I set lofty
goals and I achieve them. I’m not the smartest
guy out there but I never give up. I analyze and
figure out what the best path is for the
company, and what it is for me, both in my
personal life and in my professional life. I throw
everything I have at it.
I don’t believe in work-life balance. I only
believe there is work-life quality. Sometimes it
will be 80% work and 20% life, but I give 110%
to that 20% so that my wife understands how
much I love her. Other times it will be the other
way around, but I am fully committed to Noise
Solutions and its employees during that 20%. I
think that’s a better way of looking at it.
We make a conscious decision each day to be
in a good mood or a bad mood, to feel ill or to
not feel ill, and to push ourselves even when
we don’t want to. It’s very easy to come home
at night and say to your spouse, ‘Work was so
hard please don’t talk to me, take the kids and
watch TV, I’m just going upstairs to my room to
be quiet for the evening.’ Or you can come
home, hug your kids, kiss your wife and let
them know how important they are in your life
each day. That’s what I believe.
NS: In your opinion, what are the
characteristics of a star employee?
Steve: A company has a certain responsibly to
its employees to help them become a star
employee. There needs to be an opportunity
for employees to learn and grow, and they
have to be willing to grow.
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January 2015
10
A star employee comes from good mentorship,
good training, good opportunities, good
feedback, candid conversations and knowing
that it’s OK to fail as long as lessons are
learned.
I heard a great quote that I keep in my
collection of quotes: Failure is Life’s Feedback.
I just loved that. Who I am today is because of
a series of failures that got me to this point.
There are those pinnacle moments in a
person’s life where that one decision can
change their life.
That happened to me when I was driving in a
car with my boss who asked if I wanted to go
to Alberta to transform the company’s failing
district, and I said, yes! That one decision had
such a grand effect on my life, and it changed
completely. I would not have met my wife or
Scott, and I wouldn’t be where I am right now
if that didn’t happen.
It goes back to taking every opportunity you
can. You never know when it’s going to come
around again.
Opportunity is not going to kick the door
down. It’s going to knock and you always have
to be ready to open that door. You always have
to be ready to extend your hand and help
someone else because you don’t know what
that’s going to do for you in return.
I’m a big believer in karma and doing the right
thing to make someone else’s life just a little
better, whether for the long term or the short
term.
NS: What do you like most about
working at Noise Solutions?
Steve: There are so many opportunities to be
great and I love the freedom I’ve been
afforded.
Scott is the type of guy who continues to take
courses, read business books and constantly
look for new ways of doing things, and there is
a lot of freedom that way.
I don’t have a job description and I don’t want
one because it allows me to do what I want
and build what I want for the company. I can
stretch and push and go and do, and that’s
what I love about it.
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January 2015
11
Noise Solutions has also afforded me the
freedom to try new things like present at
Olds College in Alberta, and write my book,
The Experience, which I intend to finish in 2015.
I have been extremely fortunate, and I think
that’s because I’m open to the opportunities
that are coming at me all the time. If you truly
are aware and open to what is happening to
you all the time, and you can see the
opportunity, that is going to pay dividends to
you over and over and over again. I don’t miss
many opportunities. I’m always watching.
I’m a big believer in evangelizing what you
want to achieve. When I started to write the
book, which one day I want to speak on, I
started to put that out there and talked to
different people about it. Before I knew it, a
professor from Olds College called me and said
a friend told him about me and they have a
spot opening for a speaker in a couple of
weeks. They wanted to know if I would be
interested in the opportunity. There is huge
value in putting your goals out there and
talking to people about them. If you do that
they’ll focus on trying to help you. I spoke on
social media and sales and how they work
together.
NS: Do you have a favorite pastime or
hobby?
Steve: I love to paint, make furniture, collect
cars, travel, read… There have been times at
Noise Solutions when I have just suddenly said
to Scott, I have to take a week off. I will bury
myself in the basement and paint for an entire
week, to re-energize and re-set, and then I’m
good. Sometimes that creative drive in me gets
too strong and I have to get it out there.
My wife and I were going through boxes
recently and I come across an old sketch pad
that I have, which I forgot even existed. I
opened it to a page with a picture of a castle
that I drew, and right beside it was a picture of
a castle that my daughter drew when she was
six-years-old. It brought me to tears because
that was the start of the amazing creativity that
young lady has now. It was incredible.
NS: What’s the best advice you ever
received in business?
Steve: A mentor of mine, Robert St. Denis, this
amazing French man and my boss at Brown
Shoe Company, was a real inspiration to me.
He was elegant in the way that he dressed,
moved and spoke.
He used to say to me, ‘Steve, you’re the
toughest guy I’ve ever had to work with
because you are always testing me.’ I always
pushed to go further and further. But he would
always say:
“The hardest working people are the
luckiest.”
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January 2015
12
Robert passed away a few years ago, and that
was really tough for me. He ate up life in every
single way, whether it was working, in his
personal life, his love life, whatever it was. And
he had amazing taste in everything.
He could be tough at times but he was the
type of person who made a difference in your
life, how you conducted yourself and even
your philosophies. He had such an influence
on my life and he inspired me to quit smoking,
lose weight and
get healthy.
NS: Final thoughts?
Steve: I’m just very grateful for where I am.
I’ve been afforded great opportunities and I’ve
met some great people.
I’ve done my best to learn the lessons that
were there to teach me, and I’ve been able see
and grab hold of opportunities that are in front
of me.
I’m also grateful to
Scott and Rod for
bringing me to
Noise Solutions. This
is an amazing place
for me because I’ve
been able to grow
both myself, the
company and the
opportunities.
Our personal lives
will intermingle with our professional lives and
sometimes one will take over, but it’s all about
having the sense to put everything you got
into everything you do. NS
There’s no time to be sad or to be afraid, for me.
I think you have to lead your life in courage.
That means even the things you’re afraid of.
You have to push past them and that will
bring on true greatness.
________________________________________________________________________

Steve Morgan - Our People - January 2015

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