How to Build an Empire with Trust and Confidence

The Ron Howard directed film Apollo 13 has a very famous cast. From Tom Hanks to Kevin Bacon, it is packed full of notable actors and actresses. However, our favorite actress in the movie is the lady playing Blanche Lovell, Jim Lovell’s mother. In one scene in the film, Jim Lovell’s wife and two girls visit his mother and inform her that the crew has encountered a problem. They tell her that not only will the crew miss the moon landing, but the simple return home will be very dangerous.

As Jim Lovell’s youngest daughter begins to cry, Blanche looks at her and has this iconic line.

Blanche: “Are you scared?………….

Girl: (Non-verbal response, shaking head slowly)

Blanche: Well, don’t you worry, honey! ……………. If they could get a washing machine to fly, my Jimmy could land it!”

Wow! What an amazing level of confidence she had in her son!

Simple question here…… “Who is that one person that comes to mind that you would call at 2 AM when you run out of gas or have car trouble? Most everyone has that person in their life, and more than likely, a name just popped up in your head. It probably isn’t even someone you talk to every day. I would argue that the level of confidence and trust it takes for someone to obtain that position deep in your subconscious is the highest level of confidence. And why are they there to begin with? They are there because, at some point in your life, you needed something, and they were there immediately AND without question.

We honestly feel like that is who Russell Conveyor & Equipment is in the automation world! That 2 am friend you just thought of. We have the same level of confidence in our abilities to take care of our customers as Blanche Lovell had in her Jimmy!

• Why do we have that confidence? Because we have been that 2 AM friend to so many companies so many times.
• When a hurricane collapsed the roof on a pick module with the conveyor system on a Friday afternoon during a customer’s peak season, we rerouted the conveyor temporarily over the weekend and had the customer running the product on Monday morning.
• We have shipped custom conveyor and parts in 24 hours because another supplier missed a deadline.
• When a pharmaceutical company called and needed us to design, manufacture, deliver and install a custom conveyor system in 4 weeks so they could start shipping early, we did it.
• When an e-commerce company needed to install, wire, test, and Commission 5,500 feet of conveyor in three weeks at three different sites in three different states, no one else would touch it, but we did it.
• When an electric car company wanted a conveyor system to run a 260-pound battery module, but they wanted to do it with energy-efficient MDR, no other manufacturer would touch it, but we did it.
• We have worked through the night to get orders ready, so we could ship early because a customer had to change their Go Live date.
• We have driven to the airport at 2 am to air freight parts to customers.
• We have shipped complete orders in 2 or 3 weeks because an integrator was going to lose a sale.

Russell Conveyor & Equipment wants to be the one automation company you call when you need something at 2 AM. I am talking about those business-critical needs that are going to affect your success and your customer’s success. We honestly believe that when you give us a 1st chance, you will totally understand what makes us different and why we have the confidence of our clients and why they trust us at 2 AM

Now, back to the movie Apollo 13. Got any idea who played the iconic part of Blanche Lovell?……. It was Jean Speegle Howard, who is the mother of none other than director Ron Howard. Now, why did he cast his own mother for this part? Originally it was his dad’s idea, so that he couldn’t take credit for that, but the casting decision was his. Ultimately, he cast his own mother because he knew it was a very pivotal and important scene in the movie, and he trusted her and had confidence that she would play it perfectly, and she did just that. It is still our favorite scene in the movie.

Call us at 2 AM. We will be there immediately and without question, because your success means our success; quite frankly, it gets us out of bed in the mornings. Don’t get me wrong, we love providing excellent service to our customers in their everyday needs. However, those 2 AM requests from someone in need are what truly separates the companies that care about your business and those that only care about their bottom line.