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S3-135: Appel Outdoor Maintenance, Sister Bay Wisconsin
667 Plays7 days ago
The guys welcome Billy Appel of Appel Outdoor Maintenance to the show to hear about the journey and growth of their business and snow side since they started in 2011
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Snow Jobs Podcast
00:00:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
happy monday snow jobs nation we are back again bringing you episode 135 of the snow jobs podcast main show powered by top gun backblades as always i'm steve you know who's with me
00:00:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
mr richard james otherwise known as jeremy lindstrom glacier snow management what is up jay how we doing
00:01:05
RICK JAMES
Hey, Steve-O, not a lot. Just another Sunday night recording.
00:01:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sunday night, under the gun, questionable internet in Wisconsin. This could get interesting. How are you, buddy?
00:01:14
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:01:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
How was your week?
00:01:16
RICK JAMES
Pretty good. Pretty good. Didn't do nothing too special this week. How about you?
00:01:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Not much. Busy weekend, but yeah, the watched a little.
Disappointment with the Jets
00:01:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah The Jets reminded me why I do not watch them anymore. I did actually watch the last quarter.
00:01:29
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Football's back.
00:01:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, watched the last quarter today and immediately turned the TV off and said, this is why I have not watched the Jets in five years. and I will no longer watch them again this season. How they blew a nine-point lead with, oh, my God, not much time left. I have no idea, but I will not be ah ah will not be putting myself through that any further.
00:01:51
RICK JAMES
my misery tomorrow night with the Vikings to see how bad they piss it down their leg.
00:01:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go.
00:01:55
RICK JAMES
So...
00:01:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
so You're 24 hours behind me.
Army-Kansas State Game Analysis
00:01:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Army, I watched the Army-Kansas State game last night. Did you catch that?
00:02:03
RICK JAMES
Yeah. I was at some races last night i was watching that on my phone for a little while. and and was wasn't you think it was tied up for a while. was like, don't know what happened. They lose it?
00:02:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Dude, it was back and forth, and the the the cadets got it done, man. That was an absolutely outstanding game.
00:02:17
RICK JAMES
Really?
00:02:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, they pulled it out. They pulled it out.
00:02:21
RICK JAMES
K-State? K-State must not be the K-State of all them either.
00:02:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
they
00:02:24
RICK JAMES
They almost lost the team up north here.
00:02:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, listen, no, K-State is still very good. They got a great quarterback. He looked really good. The Army took him off the field in the second half. K-State only ran like eight offensive plays the whole second half.
00:02:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
I think Army's time of possession was like 40 minutes, 42 minutes or something for the game.
00:02:37
RICK JAMES
oh
00:02:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
So they just took the ball out of the offense's hands.
00:02:42
RICK JAMES
probably
00:02:45
RICK JAMES
well K-State almost lost UND which is a school thrown north that nobody likes up here so North Dakota State not the University of North Dakota you can't it's a big hatred between the two schools so yeah
00:02:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
North Dakota plays some decent football, right?
00:02:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh not Oh, not North Dakota. We can't confuse them.
00:03:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, nobody outside North Dakota cares about either one of them, so it's not a big deal.
00:03:11
RICK JAMES
Probably, but you know what?
00:03:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm just kidding.
00:03:13
RICK JAMES
Whatever. That's all we got.
00:03:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
But, yeah, Army got it done. That was awesome.
00:03:16
RICK JAMES
That's all we got.
00:03:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
It was great to see them get it done, man. they the The refs did everything they could to try and give that game to Kent. Where were they? They were Kansas State. ah
00:03:26
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:03:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, it was – dude, this guy put a helmet on this ball, wide receiver over the middle, caught the ball, took secured it, took two steps. This kid could not light this guy up, this safety.
00:03:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
He put his helmet right on the ball, popped the ball out. Everybody is saying, oh, that's an absolute catch and a fumble, Army ball. This is like with a minute and a half left. And then referees took a look at it and they're like, nope, incomplete pass.
00:03:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
So the same kid was like on the war path. This safety for Army tore it up. He leveled this dude on the sidewalk on the sideline. He knocked the ball loose, incomplete pass, and then he ended up making the game game-winning interception. So it was ah it was a great night for Army, man. They pulled that thing out. It was awesome.
00:04:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
So i am ah I am an Army football fan, as horrible as that is sometimes, you know, the three yards in a cloud of dust all game. But they got it done last night, so it was a good night. But youth hockey this morning for the daughter this time. And, yeah, just a ah early, early morning. And now we're getting this done under the gun for Snow Jobs Monday.
Introduction to Billy Apple and His Business
00:04:33
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah, always...
00:04:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
so what are we doing today so today we have a great young snow guy in the house with us right he is a really good dude uh just like us and all you guys out there listening to the show every week he takes snow super seriously uh we've had the pleasure of meeting him a couple times uh simon last year in pittsburgh and then the uh the last two storm field days.
00:04:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
We met a couple of his guys. They're super nice guys. Very happy to have him here making his snow jobs debut. All right. isnt He is Mr. Billy Apple of Apple outdoor maintenance. They're at a sister Bay, Wisconsin, which is up in door County.
00:05:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah He said, ah he said most of you would know door County rather than sister Bay. So, I'll throw the door county out there. But yeah, so that's what we got for you today. And before we get to Billy, as always, we're going to hear from Team Top Gun. We're going to come back to a quick week. Actually, not such a quick week review. We got a lot of announcements.
00:05:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
But then we'll get to Billy.
Upcoming Snow Events and Trade Shows
00:06:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, gang, we're back. So like I said, a couple of show announcements, regional shows, stuff coming up for guys.
00:06:05
RICK JAMES
Boutiques.
00:06:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Boutiques, yes, as ah the top doggies called them, boutique shows, which are gaining popularity and definitely gaining in importance. Wednesday, September 17th, Storks Plows in Leesburg, Pennsylvania is doing their Plow Tech School.
00:06:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah That'll train guys how to troubleshoot and fix issues with their Douglas Dynamics brand Plows and Spreaders. ah Outstanding class put on by Gene and the Storks gang. ah Really, really a lot of information. They give you the wiring diagrams and they they show you all the ah the possible problems and how to fix those problems. All right. So if you want to go to that, go to StorksPlows.com and click on the link to register for Plow Tech School Day.
00:06:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Thursday, September 18th is the S&S Snow and Ice Day. That's at S&S in Taylor, Pennsylvania. ah Another great one-day event. It's from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. And this year, I hear it's going to feature a couple panel discussions on different snow topics.
00:07:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
um Then from 5 to 8 p.m. is their after-hours networking event that was... as we've spoke about numerous times in the last year. ah That was a super top shelf event. Tony says same caterer this year. So if you're coming, try and stay after for that after hours event.
00:07:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Thursday, October 2nd is the second annual Northeast, the icing solutions field day. That's going to be an Uxbridge us. I can't even say it, dude. Uxbridge, Massachusetts starts at 9.00 AM. m And this event,
00:07:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's going to feature a talk by Jordan Smith on liquid de-icing, a discussion on the benefits of...
00:07:39
RICK JAMES
It's, ah oh, sorry.
00:07:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
What's that?
00:07:42
RICK JAMES
i would I had my events confused. I thought you were talking about SMS, but Jordan's not going to be there SMS.
00:07:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Jordan will not be there at S&S, but he will be at Northeast de-icing. So, yeah, it's all good.
00:07:54
RICK JAMES
It's kind of fun. Sorry so i interrupt you in the middle.
00:07:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
All...
00:07:57
RICK JAMES
um i got I got confused because i got the Tony and Patrick are both texting me at the same moment. It's
00:08:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
they Yeah, I just saw that on my phone pop up too, but I to i hope he's not canceling it because we already shouted it out.
00:08:07
RICK JAMES
just,
00:08:09
RICK JAMES
No, he he was sending me his um is a flyer.
00:08:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh,
00:08:14
RICK JAMES
So I posted that.
00:08:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh I got you.
00:08:15
RICK JAMES
And then and he then Patrick said, mention us on it. and I'm like, we're literally doing it right now.
00:08:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. Interrupting, Pat.
00:08:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nope.
00:08:28
RICK JAMES
if
00:08:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
So as we were saying, October 2nd, second annual Northeast De-Icing Solutions Field Day that Patrick just interrupted on our phones. Uxbridge, Massachusetts, starting at 9 a.m. m It will feature a talk ah by Jordan Smith on liquid de-icing, a discussion on the benefits of live edge wing plows, and a panel discussion with the Snow Jobs podcast guys. oh i guess we're doing a panel discussion.
00:08:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:08:52
RICK JAMES
Oh, it's new to me.
00:08:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:08:57
RICK JAMES
So we're doing the show.
00:08:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
Apparently. Apparently something.
00:08:59
RICK JAMES
but
00:09:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
We are part of the the entertainment. And it also we'll have an after-hours networking event. So please RSVP to Northeast Dicing Solutions by September 25th if you plan to attend.
00:09:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
What else? Keep hitting the ah Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Like and subscribe button. ah Do the reviews, guys. It helps us immensely. And, you know, we appreciate you doing that.
00:09:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
What else? Should we talk a little bit about the these the contractor survey that we dropped on Thursday with Jordan, the last ah last part that involved us?
00:09:33
RICK JAMES
yeah yep yep
00:09:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
So guys, Jeremy and I just wanted to take a second and just give a huge shout out to all the guys and gals out there that took part in that storm equipment contractor survey from both 24 and 2025. Um, and so the ones that selected, I i think Jordan was talking more about the 2025 one, uh, when he was giving us some numbers Thursday, uh,
00:09:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
and We just want to thank everybody that selected the snow jobs as, you know, ah for the question that said your go-to source for all things snow information. um he Jordan gave us some of those, the industry information numbers and stuff like that.
00:10:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
And for us to be listed as the, you know, I think we were what, social media was one, which we were basically our social media too. And then we were like right there.
00:10:20
RICK JAMES
Or one and two.
00:10:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, one and two were like neck and neck, and then there was a big, huge gap, and then everything else. So we just want to thank everybody out there for for telling the survey what you how you feel, and thank you for having us be a part of that. It's ah very humbling for us, and the the amount of you guys that did select us is staggering. So ah we just wanted to thank everybody for that.
00:10:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
um What else, Jay?
00:10:49
RICK JAMES
and We could buy sell some merch to be fun.
00:10:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay. So buy some merch.
00:10:54
RICK JAMES
Can we sell some more merch? It's getting cold.
00:10:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go.
00:10:57
RICK JAMES
It's getting, it's getting cold. It was down to like 35 last night out here.
00:11:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah That Carhartt shortage is coming, people.
00:11:01
RICK JAMES
it was. Yeah.
00:11:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's a long, as Jeremy said last week, it's going to be a completely long sleeve shortage this winter.
00:11:04
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah.
00:11:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. So pick up your long sleeve stuff.
00:11:09
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:11:12
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:11:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, man. But yeah, that's all. Snowjobsnationstore.com. Get everything you need, everything you want. ah Get it out of Jeremy's office. That would be great. And again, just thank you to everybody. It's ah completely humbling for both of us to ah have the show thought of so highly by all of our peers. And you guys are always there for us. Anytime we we need support, anytime we ask for help, you guys never say no.
00:11:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
And we really appreciate that.
Billy Apple's Business Journey
00:11:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
We couldn't do it without you guys. So ah let's keep pushing. What else? You got anything else, buddy?
00:11:44
RICK JAMES
I don't think
00:11:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
00:11:46
RICK JAMES
Should be good to go.
00:11:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sounds good. Then let's hear from our partners, guys. We'll be right back, and we'll get into this with Billy.
00:12:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, gang. So we're back. So let's, without further ado, let's welcome in Billy Apple to the snow jobs. Billy, how are we, buddy? Good to see you.
00:13:05
Billy Appel
Doing good. Thanks for having me on, guys.
00:13:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
No problem.
00:13:08
RICK JAMES
Hey, Billy.
00:13:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
No problem. We appreciate you coming on, man.
00:13:10
RICK JAMES
How's Wisconsin?
00:13:12
Billy Appel
Wisconsin is same old Wisconsin. It's starting to get a little colder here and maybe even a little colder than normal lately. But yeah, it's it's the same old, same old.
00:13:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
lot of cheese.
00:13:24
RICK JAMES
Yeah. yeah
00:13:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
lot of cheese.
00:13:26
Billy Appel
Yeah, yeah.
00:13:26
RICK JAMES
Cheese.
00:13:26
Billy Appel
yeah
00:13:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
man.
00:13:27
Billy Appel
Had my fair share of it today.
00:13:28
RICK JAMES
Cheese. Huh.
00:13:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh man
00:13:30
RICK JAMES
Cheese curds? Cheese curds?
00:13:32
Billy Appel
ah yeah. Cheese curds.
00:13:33
RICK JAMES
Did you watch some Packers? The Packers and...
00:13:35
Billy Appel
yeah
00:13:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
and
00:13:37
Billy Appel
You know, I'll be honest, for for being two hours away from Lambeau Field, and I was even in Green Bay today, you know, drove past Lambeau, or not past, but, you know, in the area of Lambeau, I don't follow the Packers very closely.
00:13:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
but
00:13:52
Billy Appel
I'll be the first to admit it.
00:13:54
RICK JAMES
Smart man.
00:13:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Do you not follow football you just have a different team?
00:13:56
Billy Appel
i don'
00:13:59
Billy Appel
I don't follow football. I'm more of a baseball guy.
00:14:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. Okay.
00:14:03
Billy Appel
Talk to me about the Brewers. who How about that win today?
00:14:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
don't know. ah Are they still playing ball?
00:14:08
Billy Appel
ah yeah, they're playing pretty good.
00:14:09
RICK JAMES
do you know they did baseball?
00:14:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, they're doing good.
00:14:12
Billy Appel
Yeah, come on. They're leading the MLB right now, think.
00:14:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh I didn't even know.
00:14:16
RICK JAMES
Huh.
00:14:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Dude, I could not tell you the last time I actually watched a baseball game. Just don't have the time.
00:14:21
RICK JAMES
Same.
00:14:21
Billy Appel
Sure.
00:14:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
cool buddy cool so you ready for the snow it is uh i don't know weather dudes are uh talking about early uh early snowfall they're they're they're saying it don't they do that every year though
00:14:28
RICK JAMES
Oh, God.
00:14:33
Billy Appel
I know I, I just saw it today.
00:14:33
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:14:35
Billy Appel
Like I was, I was looking, there's, you know, one of these regional weather guys and he put out his map for his first accumulating snowfall and covers our area in middle to late October.
00:14:47
Billy Appel
He says first accumulating snowfall.
00:14:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
fuck that
00:14:50
RICK JAMES
I saw that too. was like, nah, we're good.
00:14:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Anybody want to place odds on that shit?
00:14:55
RICK JAMES
We're good. We don't need that. too freaking early.
00:14:57
Billy Appel
I know we always, we always say we want to, you know, cause we were a,
00:14:57
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:14:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, absolutely.
00:15:01
Billy Appel
You know, we do pretty much all property maintenance and stuff. And we always say, you know, yeah, we're ready for snow. We love snow. It's our favorite time of year, but we want to get the leaves cleaned up first. I hate those years where you you get the leaves down, they're just they just finally get down on the ground, and then boom, you get a snowfall on it and they're wet and never dry up.
00:15:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh absolutely
00:15:15
RICK JAMES
mr
00:15:19
RICK JAMES
Or a rain, yeah.
00:15:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep, and then you got the ah very old people that are calling you during the snow saying, you never got my leaves and now there's snow.
00:15:21
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:15:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Listen, this will be gone in 24 minutes after it stops, all right?
00:15:30
Billy Appel
Exactly.
00:15:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Don't even worry about October snow is always a disaster, though.
00:15:36
Billy Appel
yeah.
00:15:37
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:15:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's always a total shit show.
00:15:37
Billy Appel
We're always, we're always, we're, I mean, we don't see October here very, you know, October snow here very often because we're surrounded by water, um you know, being on a peninsula, but, um,
00:15:37
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:15:49
Billy Appel
You know, we're usually good for at least one snowfall, you know, while we're still doing leaf cleanup. And it's always a shit show, right? You're set up for leaves.
00:15:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, yeah
00:15:58
Billy Appel
You got everything.
00:15:58
RICK JAMES
and
00:15:58
Billy Appel
You got leaf boxes on and all that kind of stuff. And then, boom, you got to scramble.
00:16:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah. 100%. And then you got to, then you after you're done, you got to put all the shit back on. It's a lot of, a lot of time, lot of expense, a lot of pain in the ass. So, I mean, just finish up.
00:16:11
Billy Appel
Yeah.
00:16:11
RICK JAMES
water What are leaves? Where do they come from? yeah.
00:16:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
um They come from trees.
00:16:16
Billy Appel
See. Those are those things that you don't have out there in the and the the abyss of North Dakota.
00:16:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's just, yeah.
00:16:20
RICK JAMES
Ah, yeah
00:16:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
The tundra, the flat tundra of ND.
00:16:23
RICK JAMES
copy that. they They sound like a pain in the ass so I'm glad we don't have them
00:16:28
Billy Appel
yeah
00:16:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
The dust disintegrates any leaves making their way to North Dakota.
00:16:30
Billy Appel
Yeah.
00:16:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
You don't have to worry about it.
00:16:33
RICK JAMES
Yeah good good I like it.
00:16:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, man. Yeah, that's, ah but they're all they're all banging that drum, though. Oh, you know, cold, colder much earlier this year. you know, all the weather dudes, all the weathermen are saying, you know, early snow for a lot of it.
00:16:47
RICK JAMES
All the weather.
00:16:49
Billy Appel
I just read an article last week.
00:16:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
What's that?
00:16:50
Billy Appel
Here's a new weather term. Analog year. Analog year. this one the library. Yeah. analog year okay
00:16:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
Analog year.
00:16:59
Billy Appel
analog year
Weather Predictions and Snow Management
00:17:00
RICK JAMES
No.
00:17:00
Billy Appel
so here you know add this one to the to the library
00:17:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Is that a throwback to before digital?
00:17:05
Billy Appel
yeah
00:17:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's like an old school winner. Is that what the hell does that mean?
00:17:07
Billy Appel
yeah i I have no idea, but first time I ever heard that one.
00:17:11
RICK JAMES
you know
00:17:12
Billy Appel
That's what they were calling it. They're saying it. They're comparing it to fall and winter of 2013 into 2014. So whatever the hell that means.
00:17:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, that was a really good year for us. I think that was a banger.
00:17:22
Billy Appel
Yeah, that was that was that was pretty good here, but don't know.
00:17:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah that was a call i don't think we I don't think we plowed a lot that year, but I think when we did plow, it was like mega storms. It was like 18 inches plus.
00:17:34
RICK JAMES
There go.
00:17:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
It was big.
00:17:37
RICK JAMES
Old school. Analog.
00:17:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
19 and 20 or 20. It was either 19, 20 or 20, 21 was our big our last big major year. i think 90, 91 inches or something. So that was the last one.
00:17:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
That was, I mean, half over half of that was two storms. We had two massive fucking bombs and that was it. But you know, the weathermen, they just, they'll invent terms.
00:17:58
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
00:18:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
They'll, they'll do, you know, so well, he's checking in.
00:18:05
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Excuse me, doctor. Yeah. So we'll see, bro.
00:18:10
RICK JAMES
ah
00:18:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
well We will see. They are saying, uh, and I, I gotta give it to them. Like this is probably on the colder side of September, the last week that we've had, you know, right after labor day, it seemed to drop like 15 degrees and,
00:18:21
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:18:24
Billy Appel
Yep.
00:18:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know it was definitely cooler.
00:18:24
Billy Appel
Same here.
00:18:24
RICK JAMES
We warm, sit same here, but we I just look at the weather for this week is you know back up to 80. So it's climbing back, yeah.
00:18:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, is it really?
00:18:33
RICK JAMES
So be fine.
00:18:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. I haven't really looked. I don't, I talked to Nick yesterday, but only cause there was like tornado warnings in the area. And I wanted to find out like, okay, where and when, cause I'm sitting in a 10 building with no basement. So where are these things supposed to hit? Just so I know.
00:18:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
But, uh,
00:18:51
RICK JAMES
You'll see if it comes of through.
00:18:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
well if you're watching a game inside yeah you'll see it when the roof leaves yeah
00:18:55
RICK JAMES
That's what I mean. that's That's what I mean. Then you'll see it. No worries. It'll let you know it's there.
00:19:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah definitely will but yeah i uh i usually don't start thinking about it till uh we get september 11th out of the way and then uh then i'll start thinking about snow then i'll figure it out but But yeah, this is ah this is more the wrapping up the the last second guys that you know want to want to renew their bids or or renew their contracts, stuff like that. and you know Generally, we're usually done in the next week or so with that kind of crap.
00:19:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
then Anybody that comes to the party late... You may or may not get a seat at the table with us because if it's not perfect, if it doesn't fit all our criteria in our little zone, then you got no shot.
00:19:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
No shot.
00:19:44
RICK JAMES
Krugmanacickevichardt-
00:19:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
We will not deviate. But how's it going for you so far this year, Billy, with the snow? Are you adding a lot of properties? What are you doing?
00:19:52
Billy Appel
Yeah. So, you know, one of the things that's happened, you know, here in our area we had one of the big, one of the big excavating companies that always did snow. They are completely done this year um and
00:20:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
done with business or just done doing snow yeah they got smart
00:20:07
Billy Appel
done with snow. um Yeah. Well, you know, kind of a sad story.
00:20:11
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:20:12
Billy Appel
The the Patriarch passed away last October. And so they ran
00:20:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
00:20:17
Billy Appel
They ran through the season. The sons have taken it over. Great, great guys, you know, went to school with one of the sons and, um you know, but they said, you know, we're going to kind of focus on where we want to focus.
00:20:27
RICK JAMES
Awesome.
00:20:28
Billy Appel
And snow, snow is not one of those things.
00:20:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
sure
00:20:30
Billy Appel
So we have bids in on, yeah, they were really nice. They, when they sent the email with their last invoices this last spring, they said, Hey, we're done with snow.
00:20:42
Billy Appel
And this is the guy to call. And we were, we were the guy.
00:20:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, that's great.
00:20:47
Billy Appel
And so so we've got we've got bids.
00:20:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good for you.
00:20:48
RICK JAMES
awesome
00:20:51
Billy Appel
um You know, some of them, you know, our our area is a little... i don't know if it's just because it's the Wisconsin plague. You know, it's you know it's it's going to snow, so we're just going to deal with it when it happens. But, you know, a lot of them are a lot slower to the game.
00:21:05
Billy Appel
It's not like other areas where, you know, oh, we want to jump right on to getting, you know, snow knocked in for next year. You know, they we kind of have to push them. You know, like like one of the one of the egg
00:21:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
afterthought.
00:21:17
Billy Appel
Yeah, exactly. One of the big anchor properties that we are, you know, really, i had to push them this last week to say, hey, I need an RFP.
00:21:19
RICK JAMES
Thank you.
00:21:27
Billy Appel
I need, you know, we've talked about this, but i I need that actual document so that I can bid this.
00:21:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:21:33
Billy Appel
And, you know, it was a lot of pushing. And that was just this last week. I mean, after Labor Day. to finally get an RFP from them. Same on on ah on another shopping center, you know, same thing, still haven't gotten the ah RFP. I told them, I was like, hey dude, I'm just gonna bid it the way I see fit and hopefully it aligns.
00:21:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah I think it's, I think you take that area by area. I think whatever the the accepted norm in the area is, whatever the company's like, some snow companies, some landscaping companies don't even start thinking about snow till mid-October.
00:22:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
And they're late to the game.
00:22:06
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
00:22:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
But if if though if they're not you know they're not answering their phones for snow until mid-October, then you know you calling in July saying, hey, you got to lock us down now in the next 30 days.
00:22:07
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:22:16
Billy Appel
you
00:22:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Otherwise, are not going to get us. That kind of weird. But most of the guys around here now are are going in early. The property management companies, to their credit, even the two newer ones that have come to the area in the last two years,
00:22:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
uh they had ah rfps out on renewals that contracts that were expired they had them out like june 10th i think they were out for what they were looking for for snow so good good on them for listening and getting it out early to guys so it's i think it's very area dependent though oh jay you want to take us away let us hear about the apple outdoor maintenance
00:22:46
RICK JAMES
Not here.
00:22:48
Billy Appel
Absolutely.
00:22:52
RICK JAMES
You bet.
00:22:55
RICK JAMES
You got it. All right, Billy, won don't you tell everybody about Apple outdoor maintenance when you guys got started and what you're all about if you want to go there.
Growth and Market Dynamics of Apple Outdoor Maintenance
00:23:02
Billy Appel
Yeah, absolutely. so I've got a story similar to a lot of other guys in the lawn, landscape, snow industry. I was that that kid that, you know, grew up riding in his dad's plow truck.
00:23:15
Billy Appel
You know, we're ah we're a rural area, but we're also very, you know, tourism based. um You know, our population in our entire county for year round residents is 30,000 people.
00:23:28
Billy Appel
But from Memorial Day to Labor Day, our population swells to about 300,000 people.
00:23:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm
00:23:35
Billy Appel
A lot of second homes, you know, resorts, condos, all that kind of stuff. And, you know, so you also had then a lot of contractors in the area who, yeah, we throw a plow in our truck and we plow our driveway and,
00:23:48
Billy Appel
you know, pick up a handful of properties and stuff like that. So I grew up riding with my dad who did the same kind of thing. You know, he taught me a lot about how to plow and all that kind of stuff. And, and any chance I got, I'd jump in the seat and, you know, take a rip up and down the driveway and stuff like that.
00:24:04
Billy Appel
And, and, you know, fast forward into high school, then, you know, started thinking about how didn't want to go to four year college, um wanted to kind of be my own boss and,
00:24:06
RICK JAMES
Thank you.
00:24:16
Billy Appel
started taking some business classes in school and came up with a business plan for a project actually. And um the local economic development corporation said, hey, we wanna give you a $500 grant to take the business plan that you wrote for your project in school and actually do something with it.
00:24:36
Billy Appel
No strings attached. You can take the $500, buy lawnmower lawns. and cut a few lawns great. You know, you don't have to, no verification really on it.
00:24:48
Billy Appel
You know, they just cut us a check and, you know, boom. So my buddy and I, who we did the project with, we started doing some jobs here and there, did that through high school. um You know, we both worked full time, you know, with regular summer jobs and did this on the side and And then, ah you know, and then we got to graduation. So I graduated in 2011.
00:25:09
Billy Appel
I'm 32. And I was like, hey, I want to make something of this. And my buddy wasn't quite sure where he was, you know, and I i was kind of ready to to do this on my own more so.
00:25:22
Billy Appel
So literally the day after we graduated high school, I came to him with a check for 50% of our assets and said Here you go. um I want to buy out.
00:25:34
Billy Appel
And so I took that in 2011, rebranded it to Apple Outdoor Maintenance and haven't looked back since. so
00:25:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good for you, dude.
00:25:44
RICK JAMES
Awesome. That's great.
00:25:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's great.
00:25:45
Billy Appel
So, you know, we.
00:25:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
So 2011, wow, nice.
00:25:48
Billy Appel
Yeah, we've been doing it since since 2011, the first two years. you know, I still worked a regular full-time job. you know, there's, there is no shortage of of jobs available in our area in the summertime. So I worked a full-time job. Um, and, and also as I started kind of, you know, figuring out how, you know, what all services I wanted to do, because we originally started just as pretty much lawn care.
00:26:13
Billy Appel
Um, I got to that, that first fall, um, after I graduated and this opportunity to buy this, uh, you know, 20 year old pickup truck with a plow landed in my lap, bought it for 7,000 bucks. and
00:26:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
Worst decision of your life.
00:26:28
Billy Appel
Oh, tell me about it. Two years, two years later, i plowed with that Dodge with a seven and a half foot straight blade for two years. And I'll give you one guess what failed on that truck.
00:26:40
RICK JAMES
Transmission.
00:26:41
Billy Appel
Absolutely. Transmission went out on it, but it was a good thing. We were able to upgrade to a whole new, better truck, all that kind of stuff. And, And so I, you know, two years or so I did the, you know, ran a, you know, worked a full time job and worked all my evenings and weekends, you know, taking care of these properties. And by 2013, I said, okay, enough's enough. I made the jump and made it my full time gig. And couple of years later, here we are, you know, hiring employees and just taking off exponentially.
00:27:14
Billy Appel
Um, so I was, i was super blessed to experience that, uh, that growth at the right time.
00:27:15
RICK JAMES
Yes,
00:27:21
Billy Appel
and it was a good time here locally and in our, market our, our market and local economy for all that kind of stuff. Um, you know, typically we're pretty unfazed by the economic swings that the rest of the country sees because, you know, I mean, we have, you know, here in our local town, we've got 2,100, you know, people that live here full time.
00:27:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
sure
00:27:42
Billy Appel
We have a valuation in our town of almost $3 billion dollars for property valuation.
00:27:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:27:49
Billy Appel
So that gives you an idea of the kind of people that live here mostly.
00:27:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Is that year-round residence, or is that a lot of the second summer homes?
00:27:55
Billy Appel
Yeah, your year round residents are 2100 people according to the census data.
00:28:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
So you're pretty bougie up there. and ah All right.
00:28:04
Billy Appel
Correct. And
00:28:07
RICK JAMES
goes to work on a boat. Yeah.
00:28:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, okay.
00:28:09
Billy Appel
Yeah. Yeah. Jeremy has seen those Snapchats i mean and me, me on the ferry, you know, um, we, there's a, there's an Island off the tip of the peninsula here that, um, it's called Washington Island.
00:28:13
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:28:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's great.
00:28:14
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:28:20
Billy Appel
It's got like 700 people that live up there year round. And we, we actually service properties up there too, every week.
00:28:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Very cool.
00:28:27
Billy Appel
So, but, um, but yeah, so no, we just, um, you know, we kept growing and kept growing and, Here we are today, you know, running seven ah seven seven guys full time um and then, you know, doing pretty much the entire you know the entire gamut of of property maintenance.
00:28:48
Billy Appel
you know Everything from from you know specific caretaking services, key holder services, all that kind of stuff. you know like a lot of A lot of homes sit vacant up here you know outside of the summer and or there's second homes and stuff.
00:29:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:29:01
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:29:02
Billy Appel
So there's a lot of market for that kind of stuff. And we do a lot of lawn care. um We do a little bit of landscape install, um you know, landscape maintenance then comes with like the commercial properties. And then our biggest, our biggest piece is actually snow though.
00:29:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, good for you, dude.
00:29:21
Billy Appel
So,
00:29:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
You guys do like you do a lot of house close ups and stuff and reopenings for like the seasonal ones that come in in the summer and leave in the winter. Like, do you do winterize and do like I know up up in our lake country, there's guys that just make an absolute killing doing that.
00:29:39
Billy Appel
So here, most ah actually the the the contractors here who have that market pretty well cornered is actually the plumbers.
00:29:40
RICK JAMES
Thank you.
00:29:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, yeah, that makes sense.
00:29:49
Billy Appel
um Yeah, the plumbers, you know, you got some some long.
00:29:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
That makes sense.
00:29:54
Billy Appel
family names and in plumbing up here. And they, you know, they've been working with a lot of these places for a long time. um They come in and do the shutdowns and the, and the startups and stuff like that. But, you know, we also do have quite a few ah these homes that are open all, all winter long.
00:30:10
Billy Appel
And that's where we come in then, you know, you know, the between the keeping it, drt you know, the driveways open for emergencies, access, stuff like that, you know, and then people do come up maybe on average about once a month.
00:30:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:30:13
RICK JAMES
Good.
00:30:23
Billy Appel
So, yeah,
00:30:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
cool
00:30:25
Billy Appel
makes for a good ah good niche market.
00:30:28
RICK JAMES
good
00:30:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
very cool so you founded it in 2011 you stopped doing the other job in 2013 so in like 12 years now you're at seven full-time employees and you're you're booming good for you dude how how did your snow grow like where were where where'd you make your most growth on snow what year between what year and what year
00:30:51
Billy Appel
So a couple of key years will stand out for that. So the when the year coming into, me see, it'd be 2015-ish.
00:31:02
Billy Appel
um
00:31:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
and Okay. Mm
00:31:03
Billy Appel
So you know a key thing happened around there. And again, it's you know unfortunate. um you know You've got a lot of these long legacy guys up here that have been doing a lot of this stuff. So one of the guys passed away who had some really nice commercial properties.
00:31:18
Billy Appel
And we were able to swing in then and we picked up a bunch of those properties. um Also at the same the same time, i don't know I don't remember if it was the exact same year, I think it was, um another long legacy, you know, plow guy, plow company, he retired.
00:31:35
Billy Appel
And so we swooped in and took a big chunk of commercial stuff in our area. And that was that was the point where we had a pretty good amount of growth.
00:31:47
Billy Appel
And then similar kind of thing happened then
00:31:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:31:51
Billy Appel
ah around 2019, 2020, 2021. And that window there, you saw another another company that said, okay, you know snow isn't really what we wanna be doing anymore.
00:31:57
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:32:03
Billy Appel
And they dropped a bunch of condos because we have a lot of condos up here um because ah you know just because of the ah type of market we are and and the people that we attract here.
00:32:14
Billy Appel
um So he dropped a bunch of condos all in one year and we came in and literally picked up all of them. And so we've been we've been extremely blessed over the years to be ready at the right time to swoop in and pick this stuff up. You know, one of the things that makes our our area unique is is you drive down the road and maybe not so much in the summertime, but in the wintertime, you meet a car and 90% of the time you wave to them because you know who it is.
00:32:46
Billy Appel
And so that makes it really hard to to, you know, there's only so many properties up here because we're a smaller market, but um it makes it really hard to chase after properties that you want because most of the time, if not all the time, really, yeah all the time, you know exactly who's doing it.
00:32:47
RICK JAMES
Sorry. Yep.
00:32:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:33:05
Billy Appel
And um most of the times, you you know, you know the guy or the person or the company and you've got a great relationship with them already.
00:33:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:33:13
Billy Appel
And it doesn't do us any favors to,
00:33:13
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:33:16
Billy Appel
go pissing in somebody's weedy bowl.
00:33:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
and Absolutely. Never does.
00:33:19
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:33:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Never does. ah With you guys with condos up there, are you guys the same as it is here where like condos, not everybody's lining up to go after condo complexes as snow guys.
00:33:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
Is it the same there?
00:33:31
Billy Appel
Correct, correct.
00:33:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:33:33
Billy Appel
I mean, it's, you know, you a lot of our condos, you can't plow them with a pickup truck. um You've gotta to be doing it with a piece of equipment, you know, a skid steer ideally. Um, and so that was, you know, that was one of the things that made us, you know, the premier company up here to take it on.
00:33:51
Billy Appel
And then the other part, the other problem is that you've got to have the guys to be out there shoveling the sidewalks and the walkways and stuff like that.
00:33:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure. Sure.
00:33:58
RICK JAMES
Right. very
00:33:58
Billy Appel
You know, ah we don't have our condos don't have the infrastructure where they necessarily have walkways going across the entire place, but you've got you know, 20 foot walkways to every door and every garage door has got to get shoveled and stuff.
00:34:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
sure
00:34:11
Billy Appel
So having the people that can do that. And that's what really, you know, us being a year round company and having year round employees and stuff gives us the ability to do that. Whereas a lot of the, you know, i i want to be careful.
00:34:23
Billy Appel
I don't say chucking a truck and mean it, you know, in a bad way towards any of the other guys, but, you know, some of these guys that do it, you know, where they just got a plow truck and it's them.
00:34:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
no
00:34:31
Billy Appel
And, you know, they, they, they provide a great service in the wintertime, but they don't have the means or the desire to go out there and shovel walkways.
00:34:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:34:40
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:34:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
And if they're pricing right, then they're not chucking a truck. They're a plow guy that has his own vehicle. That literally, like, chucking a truck refers to guy that's rolling in there and charging $10 to do a driveway with a rusted out, you know, 1974 Dodge and doesn't really care if he makes any money or not.
00:34:46
Billy Appel
Yeah.
00:34:46
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:34:50
RICK JAMES
It's just...
00:34:57
Billy Appel
Yeah, and and you know and there're there's definitely a history of that here in our area.
00:34:58
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:35:02
Billy Appel
You know, like you look at guys who were swinging a hammer um in the, say, from the 80s, 90s, all the way up through, you know, a lot of them had plows on their trucks, you know, up until probably about 2013, 2015.
00:35:16
Billy Appel
And that window is when it really started changing. You know, all those guys, you know, it snows. They don't care that they can't, they're not going to go swing a hammer. They're going to go plow snow. And, and for them, it was really just, you know, I can't swing a hammer.
00:35:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
00:35:28
Billy Appel
So at least I can go do this. And if I can make at least the same amount of money I would have made swinging a hammer, they were happy.
00:35:30
RICK JAMES
Thank you.
00:35:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
absolutely so what's your market like as far as the type of snow you get and the type of storms you get and your annual snowfall
00:35:43
Billy Appel
So we are a 52 inch average snow market. So that's about what we get on average. um But you see a lot of swings in that. um You know, it, it, you know, I mentioned this, you know, we're, we're on a thumb that sticks out in the Lake Michigan, you know, if you know where Green Bay is, and you look at a map, and you see that thumb sticking out from Wisconsin into Lake Michigan, that's us up on the tip of that.
00:36:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:36:09
Billy Appel
Everybody always thinks, you know, oh you guys must get a ah bunch of lake effect. But the thing is, is that with the Bay of Green Bay, on our west side that all ices up in the wintertime and with a predominant northwestern you know westerly wind we don't see a whole lot of uh lake effect but what we do see and the big variable for us is ah lake enhancement because when you get like one of those colorado lows that swings up and it's got the you know the rotation on the event it gets out kind of along the edge of the lake and all of sudden it picks up a whole bunch more moisture the lake
00:36:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. yep
00:36:43
Billy Appel
itself doesn't usually you know completely freeze over so it it brings a lot more moisture in so we can we can be forecasted for four inches all a sudden we end up with 16.
00:36:56
Billy Appel
And so we saw that specifically a winter that that still haunts me was winter 2018 into 2019.
00:36:56
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:36:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
wow
00:37:04
Billy Appel
I mean, we, I was, I was adding it up ah yesterday just for reference. It was like 103 inches. um And that year it literally snowed every three days.
00:37:16
Billy Appel
And every time it would snow, i should say half the time it snowed, we'd be forecasted for one to two inches and we'd end up with six, you know? And so it really, you know,
00:37:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
00:37:26
Billy Appel
that one really kind of kicked our butts through the month of February. um so we do have those variabilities, you know, the other thing being surrounded by water, obviously it takes time in the, in the fall and the early winter for the Bay of green Bay to cool back down and um for it to freeze over and stuff like that.
00:37:44
Billy Appel
So in in the early season, we'll often see, you know, wetter snows that, that concrete and you know, so we'll see that, but we've also seen it where it, uh,
00:37:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah baby
00:37:52
RICK JAMES
this
00:37:56
Billy Appel
Everywhere around us is getting snow and we end up with rain and the ground is the ground still too wet or still too warm.
00:38:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
hu
00:38:03
Billy Appel
Sorry to make ice out of it even. So, you know, we'll just, we'll get shafted on that. So we've got a lot of variabilities, you know, and stuff like that. And, and that's, what's kind of like, um you know, persuaded me on a, you know, funny enough is it's, we don't, we don't have a weather service or anything like that because, you know, we're so unique on that.
Weather Forecasting and Snow Removal Strategies
00:38:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
No weather service.
00:38:27
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:38:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
00:38:29
RICK JAMES
Weather rock. Weather rock.
00:38:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go.
00:38:31
Billy Appel
No, no, no, no, no.
00:38:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go.
00:38:31
Billy Appel
If you ask, if you ask any of the other contractors around here or any of my guys, even, even you look at the shout out to Justin McDonald over at village of E from the next town over. ah he knows it straight up.
00:38:45
Billy Appel
If he's got any doubt about the forecast, you know who he's calling? He's calling this guy because I'm the one who's out there, you know, reading the the detailed narratives on the forecast from National Weather Service and all that kind of stuff. And I just haven't felt like you can get, you know, a true, you know, detailed feel for where we are and stuff from ah from a weather service. So I put all the time in you know, digging through that. i I am my own weather service.
00:39:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go.
00:39:12
RICK JAMES
There you go.
00:39:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
You got to teach them.
00:39:14
RICK JAMES
Just be mad at yourself.
00:39:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
You got to teach them.
00:39:16
RICK JAMES
Just mad at yourself.
00:39:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go.
00:39:17
Billy Appel
Yeah.
00:39:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:39:18
Billy Appel
So yeah, I mean, we we just, ah you know, we do the whole, i do the whole pivotal weather thing, you know, looking at the models, taking a lot of that stuff in and and then kind of come up with, okay, here's what I i think is going to happen.
00:39:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Damn it, Billy.
00:39:20
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:39:30
Billy Appel
i You know, looking at, for you know, ah pavement temperatures and all that kind of stuff. You know, i and I like to feel like I'm usually pretty spot on, but.
00:39:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. whats What's your percentage?
00:39:40
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Well, most weathermen do.
00:39:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Are you above? Yeah. Are you above 300? What's your percentage? Your wind percentage is a weatherman.
00:39:44
Billy Appel
Oh, yeah.
00:39:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh yeah.
00:39:46
Billy Appel
Oh, better than
00:39:47
RICK JAMES
fuck.
00:39:47
Billy Appel
Better than the doctors. We'll put it that way.
00:39:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go. Apple weather, Apple.
00:39:50
RICK JAMES
Oh, there you go.
00:39:51
Billy Appel
Yeah.
00:39:51
RICK JAMES
Apple weather.
00:39:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice.
00:39:53
RICK JAMES
I have Apple weather in my phone.
00:39:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
I love it.
00:39:55
RICK JAMES
It's never very good.
00:39:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh Oh my God.
00:39:58
Billy Appel
ah
00:39:58
RICK JAMES
ah
00:39:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's great. So what type of sites do you you guys specialize in? Like you have a little everything or what do you guys like doing snow wise?
00:40:06
Billy Appel
Yeah, so we've got a little bit of everything. um The only thing we don't have, just because it's just purely not in our area, um we have no industrial. There is absolutely no industrial. And I don't know if is going to shock some people, but it is um it is an hour drive to the nearest Walmart from here.
00:40:23
Billy Appel
um
00:40:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
who
00:40:24
Billy Appel
It is an hour drive to the nearest fast food restaurant from here. um
00:40:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Really?
00:40:28
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:40:29
Billy Appel
Yes, we have zero fast food up here.
00:40:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:40:32
Billy Appel
nothing like that everybody always jokes and says that there's a county county ordinance that says uh no uh no no fast food north of the bridge yeah know no chains north correct so so you know because we're on a dead end peninsula it doesn't make sense for anybody to do
00:40:39
RICK JAMES
Chains.
00:40:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's crazy.
00:40:41
RICK JAMES
No chain restaurants.
00:40:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow. that's crazy wow
00:40:45
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
00:40:49
Billy Appel
you know, anything in that industrial kind of market um up up in our area. So we have zero industrial. um You know, most of what we've got, you know, being that we're, you know, everybody, Door County is kind of coined as the Cape Cod of the Midwest.
00:41:04
Billy Appel
And so, you know, if you if you picture that in your head,
00:41:04
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:41:07
Billy Appel
Um, you know, that's kind of where we're at. So a lot of mom and pop retail. Um, we have a lot of those kinds of stores that we, that we service to the winter. They're open all winter and stuff like that.
00:41:18
Billy Appel
We service the local banks, the post offices, the resorts that stay open through the winter here. Um, lots of kind apartment complexes, a lot of condominiums. I mean, multiple condominiums, uh, the entire, you know, doing the entire, ah complex and everything.
00:41:36
Billy Appel
um And then because of, you know, where we come from and because of, you know, it is such a great market here, we do, but you know, at one point I was ashamed, I'd be ashamed to admit it, but I'm not.
00:41:49
Billy Appel
We do a lot of residential. You know, we we, last year we serviced, in total, we had 250, about 250 properties on our list.
00:41:51
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:41:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
It pays the bills.
00:41:59
Billy Appel
um And
00:41:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:42:00
RICK JAMES
nice
00:42:01
Billy Appel
um two thirds of that is residential.
00:42:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
and Okay.
00:42:05
Billy Appel
you You know, regular just regular driveways, but we've come up with a really good system to you know, bracket that up based on region, you know, again, that peninsula, we're four miles wide at the widest of our service area, four miles wide, but we're 13 miles long.
00:42:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:42:20
Billy Appel
um
00:42:21
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:42:21
Billy Appel
and And so we've gotten that bracketed really nicely. you know, there's there's some commercial in all those different zones. um And, you know, and then those are your anchors. Those are where your big money is in those zones. And then everybody's got residential. the only The only route that really doesn't do residential is like our...
00:42:41
Billy Appel
our equipment routes in the in the towns where we've gotten to the point where we have enough commercial in those areas that we can dedicate equipment only routes you know and and i'll be honest you know we still probably catch a couple of driveways in those areas because ah you know you got to drive by it so you might as well zip in and do it and and sometimes it's easier in a skid steer or something like that so
00:42:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:42:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:42:57
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:43:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Now is the the tolerance for completing driveways and getting them cleared? Is that are most of these driveways like are they occupied houses or they summer homes like that don't care when you get them as long as you get them or you know, how have you worked that out doing that many driveways?
00:43:18
Billy Appel
Yeah, so the ah we've got it split. We've got two lists for residential. um You know, when somebody calls us and says, hey, you know, we've got a driveway, we want to plowed.
00:43:28
Billy Appel
um or we need to plowed this year or something like that. The first question that my wife in the office asks, she says, OK, is this a primary residence or a second home? And that you know changes it for us.
00:43:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:43:41
Billy Appel
if If it's a primary residence, um you know, we're going to look and see where they are.
00:43:42
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:43:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:43:47
Billy Appel
Does it fit in the route? All that kind of stuff. If it's not on our route already, most of the time we say, hey, you know, sorry, we're not in that area. We, you know, we're not going to, we can't take it on because, you know, we are pretty full.
00:43:58
Billy Appel
um You know, so we want to on those primary residences, you know, we're striving to have them done in a very timely manner. You know, we try to prioritize who's, you know, who are the people that need to get out with because, you know, our our median, our median resident age up here is very skewed in the elderly side.
00:44:16
Billy Appel
so you know, obviously retirement area, as well as tourism.
00:44:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah Gotcha.
00:44:16
RICK JAMES
Great.
00:44:20
Billy Appel
And so, Um, you know, the people that don't need to go anywhere, most of the time, they're pretty, they're pretty honest to say, Hey, you know, I just need to have the driveway plowed the day of, but get to us when we, when you can get to us, you know, and then we try to, we prioritize, you know, the people that still need to get get up and go to work and stuff.
00:44:33
RICK JAMES
right
00:44:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's cool.
00:44:38
Billy Appel
And then on those second homes, you know if they tell us their second home, we say, okay, great. You know, um, just so you know, second homes, we, you know, we've got abundance of room for second homes. You know, I, I forget what the number was last year, but it was,
00:44:51
Billy Appel
It was better than 80 places that we did for second homes last year. We tell them, hey, we're going to wait until the day after the snow event and come through and plow it then.
00:45:03
Billy Appel
And we still charge them the same price because it still costs us the same amount. The guys are still getting paid the same amount, all that kind of stuff.
00:45:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
sure
00:45:07
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:45:09
Billy Appel
And they're super understanding about it. um But um yeah, we've got the ability to wait until the next day to go in and do those.
00:45:16
RICK JAMES
Nice.
00:45:17
Billy Appel
And so that that makes for a really nice...
00:45:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
I love that yeah
00:45:21
Billy Appel
thing for us because it gets guys more hours. We don't have the pressure to hurry up and get there. You know, if we, if we've got another snow event coming in on the back door, you know, we can start early in the morning the next day and just boom, hammer it out, but we can put, we can put all the trucks and we will even sneak the skid steer as sneak skid steers and tractors out there to to do that too.
00:45:43
Billy Appel
um And just kind of bop around and we can hammer it with a bunch of pieces and be done lickety split.
00:45:43
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:45:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's great, man.
00:45:49
RICK JAMES
Are you ah you blowing these driveways or is it back dragging or what's your what do you guys do with them?
00:45:54
Billy Appel
Um, so a lot of these driveways are, you know, long enough that you need a truck plow.
00:45:59
RICK JAMES
Okay.
00:46:00
Billy Appel
Um, you know, I, I'm correct.
00:46:01
RICK JAMES
Wing it over to left or right.
00:46:04
Billy Appel
Yep. Stuff like that. We, I'd love to see like an inverted blower blower on our tractor, uh, to do something like that. But, um, yeah.
00:46:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
Great Northwoods.
00:46:13
Billy Appel
Um, but it, it hasn't happened.
00:46:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Long driveways, bro.
00:46:16
Billy Appel
So yeah, mostly just, you know, mostly just plowing them. Um, we do have a
00:46:20
RICK JAMES
Got you.
00:46:20
Billy Appel
We do have a handful that will actually will actually send a sidewalk machine out to plow some of these tighter ones or if they've got a you know a goofy tree or something like that. and And then it gives the sidewalk guys some hours more hours on the second day too.
00:46:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
Dude, I mean, a setup like that, why wouldn't you take on a ton of residential to offset? Because if you can do a ton of residential and there's no time crunch on it like here, one of the main reasons why nobody does driveways around here that also does commercials is because you have people that expect their driveway to be done before the hospital is done.
00:46:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, like like their their own self-importance is way skewed. And it's like, no, that's not going to freaking happen. And there's next to, like, there's next to nobody. Like, we've already gotten probably 10 calls asking if we know anybody that does driveways.
00:47:09
Billy Appel
Yeah.
00:47:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
And we don't have anybody to send to them anymore because there's just nobody around here that we know doing driveways anymore.
00:47:15
Billy Appel
yeah
00:47:16
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:47:18
Billy Appel
And for us, itd be it would honestly be stupid for us to drop driveways because we're seeing we're seeing the same kind of thing happening where a lot of a lot of the guys who used to do driveways and stuff, they they're retiring.
00:47:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
so um
00:47:23
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
00:47:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, why would you?
00:47:32
Billy Appel
And there's not people like my age getting into it, enough people getting into it my age.
00:47:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:47:38
Billy Appel
You're actually starting to see guys from like the city you know an hour away from us driving up to do driveways in our area.
00:47:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:47:46
Billy Appel
Because the market the market is so good for driveways.
00:47:47
RICK JAMES
Oh,
00:47:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's great. Yeah, I mean, if I had that set up, that would definitely be something I would do.
00:47:51
RICK JAMES
wow.
00:47:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
I would say, oh, yeah, give me all the driveways you want. Because, I mean, if you can get a density in an area where, you know, you're going 10 feet, 20 feet down the street, and that's your next one, and you're banging out 10, 15 of these things in half an hour an hour, that's a good
00:48:02
Billy Appel
yep
00:48:02
RICK JAMES
It's all about this. Yeah.
00:48:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, why wouldn't you do that? Like, and nobody is on you to complete them by, oh, no, I leave for work at 645. You know, it needs to be done 640. Like, yeah you know, that's what they do around here.
00:48:23
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:48:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
They try and dictate when you're going to be there. Like, I need your $100,000 setup to do my 18 by 50 driveway at exactly 640 because I'm the most important person on the planet and I need to get out at 645.
00:48:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
you know I don't care about all those emergency service places you service or the hospitals or any of the you know stuff like that or the the complexes with 300, 400 people that have to get out.
00:48:42
Billy Appel
Yeah.
00:48:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, no, no. My driveway is the priority. Nobody around here wants to deal with that.
00:48:56
Billy Appel
Yup.
00:48:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
We can't deal with that. like You can't justify that.
00:49:00
Billy Appel
Yeah. And that, you know, and that's where we learned, we learned, you know, I had a problem saying no earlier on and I learned it pretty quick. um You know, you got a field You got to field the right questions from your customers when they, the potential customers when they call.
00:49:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
100%. You got to qualify them.
00:49:15
Billy Appel
And, and if, if they, if they answer those questions the right way, boom, they're good to go with us. But if, you know, if they've got to have that, you know, you know, lickety split, oh my gosh, I'm more important than, than, you know, the getting the bank done or something like that.
00:49:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's it.
00:49:30
Billy Appel
No, you're see ya.
00:49:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, absolutely. No, good for you, dude. That's a great niche to have, man. That's really cool. um Jay, you want to take them into your favorite portion there, the Dinesse leasing equipment segment?
Equipment and Machinery for Snow Removal
00:49:46
RICK JAMES
Yeah, let's do All right, Billy, why don't you tell me what you got for equipment, everything you got, everything you want to say, I guess.
00:49:53
Billy Appel
Yeah.
00:49:53
RICK JAMES
Pickups, trucks, new stuff you got coming, on let us know.
00:49:58
Billy Appel
Yeah, absolutely. So, like i kind of alluded to, we're running we're running pickup trucks as a primary piece. um We're running all Fords, exclusively Fords, and and it works so perfectly because we have a certified Ford mechanic.
00:50:13
Billy Appel
on our staff and that's literally all he does in the winter. um So yeah, all Ford pickup trucks, you know, three quarters and one ton stuff like that. and we're running exclusively boss B plows on all of them.
00:50:24
Billy Appel
um And that, what's that?
00:50:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
You're in Wisconsin? You're in Wisconsin, right?
00:50:29
Billy Appel
Correct.
00:50:30
RICK JAMES
so
00:50:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Isn't that like Western territory?
00:50:33
Billy Appel
Well, but here's the thing, boss, boss is straight.
00:50:33
RICK JAMES
no
00:50:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
No? I thought they were in Wisconsin.
00:50:35
RICK JAMES
Well, Boss is up there too.
00:50:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
They're Michigan, aren't they?
00:50:39
Billy Appel
They're just North of us.
00:50:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Really? I thought they weren't they Iron Mountain, Michigan or something?
00:50:42
Billy Appel
Yeah.
00:50:44
Billy Appel
Yeah, and it's the as the crow flies, that's that's like an hour and a half, two hours from us only.
00:50:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
False.
00:50:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, all right.
00:50:51
Billy Appel
so So like you know like the last time...
00:50:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good. i was just starting I was just trying to start trouble. Go ahead.
00:50:55
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:50:55
Billy Appel
I mean, I'll tell you what.
00:50:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
00:50:58
Billy Appel
So, so my father-in-law has, uh, they have a business and they have their own truck to plow their own lot and stuff like that.
00:50:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
but
00:51:05
Billy Appel
And to plow the driveways of them themselves, their own driveway and their employees. And they've got, they've got a Western plow, a Western V and I don't know what the fuck it is. i don't know Western, but I'll tell you one thing.
00:51:15
Billy Appel
I tried running that thing when I was up there during a s snow event with them. They're, they're from Washington Island. Uh, it's where my wife is from. uh, I tried plowing with that thing. i couldn't do it.
00:51:27
Billy Appel
I could not do it.
00:51:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Really?
00:51:29
Billy Appel
No.
00:51:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:51:30
Billy Appel
i mean, I've been running boss plows for so long.
00:51:30
RICK JAMES
why
00:51:32
Billy Appel
I got into that thing and I'm sitting there, I'm looking like a jackass trying to plow with a Western. So, I mean, we, we, we bleed boss red, you know, that's, and that's just, it's because it's been that way for so long. That's where we started.
00:51:47
Billy Appel
And because every, everybody around us runs boss. So it made sense, you know, like if we, if we early on, if we broke down, guess what?
00:51:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah know
00:51:55
Billy Appel
I was calling Chris church, the local mechanic. who you know will do some of these installs for boss plows. I'm saying, hey, Chris, I got this issue. And he's like, oh yeah, swing by the shop. you know i'll ah I'll meet you there and and I'll get you the parts and we'll make a quick fix. That was the reason why.
00:52:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, no no well, that's a no-brainer if you got that, because how close is you your closest dealer?
00:52:12
Billy Appel
and that's... and
00:52:16
Billy Appel
um Our closest dealer is... i mean, the last... Again, the last time we had a plow put on by somebody else, it was about a four-hour drive to go to that guy.
00:52:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, my God. Wow.
00:52:28
Billy Appel
Now, now there's a, there's another dealer, you know, about an hour away, um that, you know, sure.
00:52:28
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:52:35
Billy Appel
Yeah, I could, I could go there. Um, but, um, the place that I want to go is about four hours away because he took really good care of me, you know, when I needed them.
00:52:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:52:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:52:46
RICK JAMES
that Yep.
00:52:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's one. That's why you have dealers. You have his favorites because they've gone above and beyond. You know, that's where there's guys from four different states that regularly go to Storks, you know, because jeans done right by him and made it right.
00:52:53
RICK JAMES
Take care you.
00:52:54
Billy Appel
Yeah. And,
00:52:59
Billy Appel
Exactly.
00:53:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, that's crazy.
00:53:02
Billy Appel
Exactly. And you look at like Monroe Truck Equipment, you know, has a location in Green Bay and we're, mean, they mostly work with municipal and and stuff like that. But like, you know, I call them up at eight o'clock in the morning, I broke something and I need a replacement part, I'm calling them up and I'm a small Small, small, you know, freckle for them.
00:53:22
Billy Appel
But, you know, I can be, I can be headed down to Green Bay and go pick that part up that same day and stuff like that. And, you know, that's, we've normalized that kind of stuff because of where we're at, you know, but when you find that dealer that that takes care of you, we'll keep going there.
00:53:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
hey
00:53:34
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:53:38
Billy Appel
So.
00:53:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
00:53:38
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
00:53:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
I mean, that's just smart business by the dealers.
00:53:40
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:53:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
some Some dealers have forgotten that and some dealers still. It seems like the more, even the larger dealers that remember the mom and pop way of doing things, those are the ones that are that are successful and continue to grow, even if they're on the smaller side, because they're they're doing the right thing.
00:53:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
They're getting, you know, and that's all snow.
00:53:59
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:54:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
I mean, let's face it. We're all snow guys. It's all we give a shit about, right? Like, Hey, we, we're not going to have a need all the time, but when we have a need, we have a big need. You got to get us back up and running. And the dealer that's going to do that and make that happen and make a, even a small guy feel like the most important customer they have.
00:54:11
RICK JAMES
right.
00:54:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's, that's the winner right there.
00:54:21
Billy Appel
Absolutely. and And I'll, and I'll shout out Bobcat plus and and Depeer as well, because, ah you know, they've been the same way. um You know, when, when, when our Bobcat breaks down, you know, you, you know, and they've done this for, for numerous other people, but when, when you need them, you call them and you're getting taken care of.
00:54:40
Billy Appel
And that's, that's the biggest thing that means the most to any of us in this industry or really into any industry, but so, so much for us.
00:54:47
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
00:54:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:54:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's the big secret.
00:54:51
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:54:53
Billy Appel
Yeah.
00:54:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's not a secret, you know?
00:54:53
RICK JAMES
Yeah. take care of Take care of your customer.
00:54:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Exactly. ah
00:54:57
Billy Appel
Yeah. But so anyways, yes, we we're running five five trucks all with Boss V plows. We've got a ah GMC top kick. It's got a stake pocket dump. We use that for de-icing here and there when we need to. Otherwise, mostly like hauling snow and stuff.
00:55:14
Billy Appel
We run a Kubota. L 47 60 cab tractor. We've got a, a frame mounted boss plow on that one, which is pretty cool.
00:55:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice.
00:55:23
Billy Appel
That is, that is a mean fucking machine. um
00:55:27
RICK JAMES
Oh.
00:55:27
Billy Appel
and then, uh, and then we're running a Bobcat S 76, uh, wheel machine, um, you know, plowing, plowing with that. Um, if you look at our, like our partner company on snow, you know, all in all, we've got, you know, eight, eight trucks out there.
00:55:43
Billy Appel
five skid steers, the, you know, the tractor, stuff like that. um and then um And then we're running for sidewalks.
00:55:48
RICK JAMES
it
00:55:52
Billy Appel
We are running Toro Multiforce, um which we've been, we've actually been very, very happy with for for a company like that that like us that does year round services.
00:55:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:55:56
RICK JAMES
oh
00:56:03
Billy Appel
that was the big That was the big draw for us.
00:56:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:56:06
Billy Appel
But the the downside is that you have no de-icing capacity with it. So, so then new for this year, we've got a snow Raider on order.
00:56:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
and Okay.
00:56:17
RICK JAMES
oh
00:56:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice.
00:56:18
Billy Appel
um We've the regular snow Raider, not, not the scout.
00:56:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
A mag or the regular Snow Raider? Good. Nice.
00:56:23
Billy Appel
We went with the, we went with the regular one.
00:56:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:56:25
Billy Appel
I think, I think that's what we ordered. I don't, I wasn't the one that actually placed the order to be honest, but, um but yeah, cause um so yeah, we're going to use that, add that into the
00:56:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
You get the exact pattern on it.
00:56:38
Billy Appel
um no, because we run exclusively liquids.
00:56:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Oh, see that we haven't even gotten to that question yet.
00:56:44
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:56:44
Billy Appel
Uh-huh.
00:56:45
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:56:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Here's your answer.
00:56:45
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
00:56:46
Billy Appel
so So, yeah, and then and then we are going to try a cage.
00:56:47
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:56:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Exclusively.
00:56:53
Billy Appel
um Try a cage this year. I've been kicking it back and forth. I'm going to try a cage this year, and then we did. We have a wolf loader waiting for us in West Bend.
00:57:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice.
00:57:05
RICK JAMES
Awesome.
00:57:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice. Harry and Aaron.
00:57:07
Billy Appel
Yep.
00:57:07
RICK JAMES
That'll be fun.
00:57:08
Billy Appel
we weve we We worked out the deal at at Storm Field Day.
00:57:09
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:57:14
Billy Appel
And now it's just, it's on us. You know, we got hit, we got hit with a big, a big storm here um right before storm field day. And so our partner company and i we haven't had a chance to get out there and go pick it up yet.
00:57:28
Billy Appel
um So, but it's, you know, the money's down on it.
00:57:29
RICK JAMES
Awesome. It's exciting.
00:57:31
Billy Appel
We just gotta, we just gotta get out there and pick it up.
00:57:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
that's awesome good for you you gotta let us know yeah you gotta let us know how it does for you this winter what are you gonna put on it plow wise
00:57:35
Billy Appel
So we're really excited. Yeah,
00:57:40
RICK JAMES
Yeah, definitely.
00:57:40
Billy Appel
absolutely.
00:57:40
RICK JAMES
Let's see how that thing goes.
00:57:41
Billy Appel
Absolutely.
00:57:44
Billy Appel
Okay, this should make you guys happy.
00:57:44
RICK JAMES
Cage.
00:57:47
Billy Appel
Arctic LD13. Yeah.
00:57:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
nice very nice that will uh yeah i definitely want to hear how that does with that setup that's uh that we'll be keeping an eye on that this winter
00:57:50
RICK JAMES
Yeah. There you go.
00:57:52
Billy Appel
Yeah, yeah i'd I'd be super happy to to let you guys know how that works out.
00:58:01
RICK JAMES
we Yeah,
00:58:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, absolutely.
00:58:06
RICK JAMES
awesome.
00:58:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
Where'd you find the wolves?
00:58:07
Billy Appel
So, where do you think?
00:58:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
I don't know. i you know, I mean.
00:58:12
Billy Appel
ha
00:58:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah These two jerk offs.
00:58:14
Billy Appel
You know, this little podcast that, you know, these two guys get on and talk about snow every week.
00:58:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:58:20
Billy Appel
yeah
00:58:23
Billy Appel
Yeah. no
00:58:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, that's great, man. I'm glad it worked out. You got to put hands on it at storm field day. And ah yeah, that was awesome.
00:58:28
RICK JAMES
but
00:58:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm glad you got to do that. I was pretty impressed with it. There's a couple, couple little things that I said I would change when Harry was asking me that, but the great thing is they make one phone call with a little help of a translator.
00:58:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
And he says those, those I'm serious. Like he says, those, those changes are made the next run.
00:58:45
RICK JAMES
I know. i was there.
00:58:49
Billy Appel
Yeah. and And, you know, for us, um the big thing, you know, we'd been kicking for the last two years about, okay, can we swing a loader yet or not? You know, and and our hands are kind of tied with the market. You know, a very, very unique market that we have.
00:59:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure. Mm-hmm.
00:59:04
Billy Appel
Our hands have been kind of tied. And, you know, with the the opportunities that are in our face this year and stuff, we said, okay, now's the time when we when we saw the wolf loader and we saw the ability to get into a loader for a cheaper price.
00:59:18
Billy Appel
You know, um we'll make some sacrifices on some creature comforts.
00:59:19
RICK JAMES
So
00:59:23
Billy Appel
You know, yeah, I totally agree.
00:59:24
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:59:25
Billy Appel
There's definitely a few things I would change on them, um you know, but the opportunity that we had presented with a to us, you know, we said, okay, now now's the time.
00:59:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, and I mean, it kind of makes a decision easy when you're paying just as much for a loader as you are a skid.
00:59:41
Billy Appel
Yep, exactly.
00:59:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, because it's not any different at that price point.
00:59:45
RICK JAMES
so
00:59:45
Billy Appel
yeah and the and the argument for so long for us you know when you look at our partner company you know they do they exclusively do dirt work during the rest of the year and so they're heavy on skid steers and so it always made sense to bring skid steers over and you know push snow with them in the winter and um you know there was never the the need for the front end loader over on that side and for us there's no you know there really hasn't been a need for more than one machine here or more than two machines here between the tractor and the skid steer
00:59:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
01:00:13
Billy Appel
But now, you know, we, we start to, you know, build these synergies and stuff like that. And with that lower cost, you know, I, I said, you know what, it I'll take, I'll take the gamble, you know, and, and, and I gotta to say, you know, Harry's made me feel very comfortable with it.
01:00:25
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:00:29
Billy Appel
Um, you know, and all that kind of stuff.
01:00:29
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:00:31
Billy Appel
Um, I'm, I'm really, I'm really comfortable with the whole thing and, and really looking forward to it. So, but, uh, yeah.
01:00:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, Harry's a super straight shooter, so...
01:00:40
Billy Appel
Yeah.
01:00:40
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:00:41
Billy Appel
But then on all of our skid steers, we're plowing, we're actually plowing with Boss straight blades with the wings on on the Boss OEM wings.
01:00:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
and Okay.
01:00:47
Billy Appel
um So we can we can, you know, we go into these smaller properties, you know, here, like our our average lot size for these properties are one and a half acres.
01:00:48
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
01:00:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
01:00:57
Billy Appel
You know, our biggest altogether in our portfolio is about three and a half acres.
01:01:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
01:01:02
Billy Appel
And you're you're really not going to find anything bigger here
01:01:03
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:01:06
Billy Appel
And so we go into some of these properties, you could you know, you could be wanting to windrow or you want to carry some snow. The boss straight blade plow for us has has fit that need. And it's super simple.
01:01:19
Billy Appel
You know, you've you've got less points to be able to break on it and stuff like that.
01:01:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:01:23
Billy Appel
And it's super simple. Like whenever we have breaking it, broken it. we bring it back to the shop and we get it fixed really quick and easy. So we're running, that's what we're running on there.
01:01:31
RICK JAMES
that Yep.
01:01:33
Billy Appel
You know, it does it, does it push and carry snow as great? No, yes. It spills off and all that kind of stuff, but works super great for us. We are, like I say, we're looking to, we do have to upgrade one this year.
01:01:44
Billy Appel
And so we decided to go with a cage. So we have the best of both worlds, windrow or, you know, or put the box on and, and you can carry and and all that kind of stuff.
01:01:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
Liquid De-Icing Transition
01:01:55
Billy Appel
So yeah.
01:01:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
right They're very good plows.
01:01:55
RICK JAMES
ah
01:01:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
know a lot of people that run the cages. They're very good plows.
01:02:00
Billy Appel
Now, if only, because i'm I'm the kind of purchaser that always wants to touch something before I buy it.
01:02:00
RICK JAMES
Very exciting.
01:02:05
Billy Appel
Now, if only there was Kate.
01:02:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, and you can't find one at Storm Equipment, so or at Storm Academy, rather.
01:02:07
Billy Appel
I know. I know.
01:02:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
You can't find one there to touch.
01:02:12
Billy Appel
yeah
01:02:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
so
01:02:13
RICK JAMES
so that Last year, they could have at the Sandco Field day the day before.
01:02:13
Billy Appel
ah
01:02:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, that's true.
01:02:18
RICK JAMES
Sandbox. Yeah.
01:02:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, it's Sanko at their...
01:02:18
Billy Appel
Yeah, I missed.
01:02:19
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:02:21
Billy Appel
I. i missed I missed that whole one by by the time, because we were there last year too for Storm Field Day. I missed that whole thing and how there was that the day before. I wish I could have been there, but.
01:02:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
We got to call Bo and make sure they do that in conjunction with Storm's event. That way, i mean,
01:02:35
RICK JAMES
He just sent me an email on Thursday. They're having another one. Like it's the next couple weeks, but I'm like, oh, yeah.
01:02:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
like if they would do that, they would get a lot more people to come in a day earlier for Storm's Day and go mess around with equipment for a whole day.
01:02:46
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:02:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Just have like, you know, that's it.
01:02:49
Billy Appel
Absolutely.
01:02:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Dig it. Done. But that's awesome, man. um So no no contracted weather service. ah You did mention you are entirely liquid. So do tell us about that.
01:03:02
RICK JAMES
Yes.
01:03:03
Billy Appel
So we always ran. So let me back up a little bit actually further.
01:03:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Go ahead.
01:03:10
Billy Appel
are Our market before, say, ah about 2014, 2014 is when we, for the very first time, brought on any de-icing. um but Before 2014, de-icing really wasn't a thing in our area.
01:03:24
Billy Appel
You know, nobody did it.
01:03:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome.
01:03:25
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:03:26
Billy Appel
nobody did it And so we we had a request, there was a, I think, I forget if there was a slip and fall or something like that. We had a, we had one manager who said, Hey, we, we want our lot de-iced.
01:03:37
Billy Appel
And so we, you know, we, we bought a, we bought a tailgate spreader and got into it.
01:03:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Crap.
01:03:42
Billy Appel
And, and you know, we started doing it and and we've kind of built from there, got, got into V boxes and is we were running treated rock salt. um And, you know, we were having a grand old time, you know,
01:03:57
Billy Appel
Hated it, loved it, all that kind of stuff in between. But um what what happened, what changed for us is, ah honestly, um not to toot your guys' as horns, as Jordan said the other day, you guys have big enough egos as you are.
01:04:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
Who says this?
01:04:13
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:04:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
like Jesus. And that's coming. That's coming from Jordan. That's rich. know. So do we.
01:04:20
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:04:20
Billy Appel
oh No, no, I just, i had to i had to get a jab in when I could.
01:04:24
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:04:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
i know was not away
01:04:25
RICK JAMES
oh
01:04:26
Billy Appel
but
01:04:27
RICK JAMES
the
01:04:27
Billy Appel
But no, i I had really not ever thought about liquids or anything like that until until I saw like the liquids 101 and stuff like that and learned who Jordan Smith was and stuff like that. And then got to sit down over at Storks, a year ago Storks, he did his you know intros to liquid over there. And I said, okay, wow, this is really cool. I went up, introduced myself, got to talking to him. ah We exchanged numbers and we kept going back and forth and Jordan jordan and I and And by the time we got out to storm field day, i was pretty much ready to go.
01:04:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
01:04:59
Billy Appel
i wanted to do it.
01:05:00
RICK JAMES
Nice.
01:05:00
Billy Appel
And Jordan was able to help help me get in, get my foot in the door, help me make some connections, stuff like that. So we we took the plunge and we went straight one year.
01:05:11
Billy Appel
We went from 100% granular And know it's completely... to one hundred percent liquid
01:05:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'd be shit in my pants.
01:05:16
RICK JAMES
Nice.
01:05:18
Billy Appel
and and i know
01:05:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
but
01:05:20
Billy Appel
i know it's completely
01:05:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like you went no backup, like no backup plan, no plan B.
01:05:24
Billy Appel
No, we, we did have a backup plan. Like I went in, I went into it, I went into it with backup plans and we, and we did have to break, we did have to execute the backup plan a few times.
01:05:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. Thank God.
01:05:34
Billy Appel
You know, one time was that the, the engine shit out on the, on the sprayer. um We were having some carb issues and I made the decision. I said, Hey, I could keep working on this all night long, or I'm going to go back to the yard and I'm going to make the swap and we're going put the V box on and we're just going to throw, you know, straight salt in there and,
01:05:52
Billy Appel
And so that's what we did that time. and then the other time was when we had a pretty significant ice storm towards the end of last winter here. And I said, you know what, we're not going to, we're not even going to fool with liquids on this. You know, i I honestly didn't feel comfortable trying to tackle it the best way. And so we said, Hey, we're just going to run granular.
01:06:12
Billy Appel
and
01:06:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
01:06:13
Billy Appel
and And that's the benefit of working with, you know having good partners in your local market, because you know our backup plan was also was always you know um our partner.
01:06:24
Billy Appel
um Shout out to Jonathan Ora, Country Acres Services. um
01:06:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Jump John
01:06:28
Billy Appel
you know you know he he was our backup plan last year.
01:06:29
RICK JAMES
okay Yeah,
01:06:33
Billy Appel
um Yeah.
01:06:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
He's a good dude man He's a really good dude
01:06:35
RICK JAMES
yeah for
01:06:36
Billy Appel
We came into it and said, okay, if we have a fault, you know, he'll swoop in and and catch that for us. And then in in return, we then also sprayed some of his properties here and there when the conditions were just, you know, were ripe for liquids, you know, dry, fluffy snow, stuff like that.
01:06:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:06:52
Billy Appel
We'd come through and spray some of his stuff. just And just in general, like I'd be, you know, I'd see, yeah I'd see that one of his lots are plowed and they hadn't been treated yet because I'm right across the street treating one of my lots.
01:07:02
Billy Appel
I swung over, sprayed his, you know, it works out so great. And, and, um, So, yeah, we we had a backup plan in place, but we absolutely loved it. And I love the science side of liquids.
01:07:15
Billy Appel
You know, I did a lot of of educating myself on my own um on liquids to get into it. I love that whole side of it, you know, figuring it out. And if I do this, I get this result.
01:07:27
Billy Appel
And if I do that, I get that result.
01:07:28
RICK JAMES
right
01:07:29
Billy Appel
And and so I felt pretty confident coming into it. um So yeah, we ran a VSI 305, Legacy 305 last year um and making our brine with a brine brine buddy.
01:07:41
Billy Appel
or
01:07:42
RICK JAMES
Brand buddy, brand buddy.
01:07:42
Billy Appel
Yeah, brine buddy.
01:07:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. yep
01:07:44
Billy Appel
um And we made it work. And what was I'm really proud of the fact that we made it work and all that kind of stuff. And what I'm also really proud about is that when we went public locally here that we were gonna bring liquids to the market and it'd be first to market in this in this area,
01:08:03
Billy Appel
I couldn't believe the great reception by other contractors here. We actually picked up as a subcontractor de-icing for a few different um contractors.
01:08:15
RICK JAMES
Awesome. That's great.
01:08:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's cool.
01:08:17
Billy Appel
They were like, you know, oh, this is really cool. You say there's no residue. There's no, you know, you don't have all this other crap sitting on the lot and, and so on and so forth. And man, i I could just get away with not even having to put a spreader on my truck, you know, and,
01:08:29
Billy Appel
you know, cause they were stuck in the, in the idea that, you know, crap, our, our, our area demands that service now.
01:08:29
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:08:35
Billy Appel
So now I've got to do it.
01:08:36
RICK JAMES
right
01:08:36
Billy Appel
So we came and did that. We, we took off, you know, really, really well. So now we've got a, we've got a legacy 750 on order for this year to put that on a F 600 then.
01:08:45
RICK JAMES
Wow, good.
01:08:48
Billy Appel
Yeah. um
01:08:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good for you guys.
01:08:51
RICK JAMES
That's awesome.
01:08:52
Billy Appel
yeah So we were running, we were running
01:08:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:08:54
RICK JAMES
So how about the customers?
01:08:55
Billy Appel
The customers really, yeah, the customers really liked it as well.
01:08:56
RICK JAMES
Sorry, sorry. yeah
01:08:58
Billy Appel
um Like a local, the big local medical clinic, obviously like our hospital, our car closest like, you know, rural hospital is an hour drive, you know, by ambulance.
01:09:09
Billy Appel
And so we have a clinic, a big clinic here in our town. And we went in and as
Business Philosophy and Customer Relations
01:09:13
Billy Appel
a subcontractor on that one last year, um doing the de-icing and I'd pull up and, you know, like if there's a, you know, midday event, I'd come through in the front and the valet guys were sitting there, how they were so excited.
01:09:26
Billy Appel
that we were running liquids last year because they weren't out there vacuuming the, you know, the entryway, you know, of all the rock salt getting tracked in and stuff like that.
01:09:27
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:09:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure. Mm-hmm.
01:09:32
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:09:35
Billy Appel
So really great reception. And, you know, in our area too is because we're surrounded by water and we have a very green-minded customer base around here, they also like the idea, well, you know, you're using 70% less salt, you know, potentially 70, you know,
01:09:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
you
01:09:53
Billy Appel
potentially seventy you know
01:09:53
RICK JAMES
that
01:09:55
Billy Appel
a lot less salt. And so they really liked that idea too. So really easy sell.
01:10:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Very cool. What are you running for additive? Anything?
01:10:03
Billy Appel
Headwaters hot.
01:10:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
01:10:05
Billy Appel
That was the, that was the harder thing for us trying to get ahold of was how headwaters hot. We had to buy it by the, by the tote. And so it was a little pricier, um you know, especially on the, on the shipping, but, um but yeah, you know, and we, and we didn't run it all the time, took the time to know what our temperatures were and,
01:10:12
RICK JAMES
Awesome. Great.
01:10:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
01:10:24
Billy Appel
when when we need it and when we didn't need it. so So yeah, this year we're building building up more infrastructure for that and expanding.
01:10:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Very cool.
01:10:31
RICK JAMES
awesome
01:10:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good for you, brother. That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, that to go back to what we were saying about the big secret that you know of doing good business, Jordan gets that. you know
01:10:42
RICK JAMES
right
01:10:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Personal attention, individual attention. you know You meet him for 10 minutes, and then the next time you see him, ah you know he makes you feel like you've known him for 25 years. He gets that, and and it's genuine. like He wants to help you improve your business, and he gets it, and he's killing it.
01:11:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
like I mean, that's what they're doing.
01:11:01
RICK JAMES
I mean, you're spending a lot of money.
01:11:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
You're spending a lot of money.
01:11:03
Billy Appel
Yep.
01:11:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
I mean, this shit ain't cheap.
01:11:05
Billy Appel
Yes.
01:11:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
like
01:11:06
RICK JAMES
what No, but it it all works. And that's all that, you know, that's what it comes down to.
01:11:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
It works, and they will get you through. And then he's got you know he's got guys that can help you out you know when if, God forbid, you do run into something, which is awesome.
01:11:11
RICK JAMES
So if you,
01:11:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah you know you You got the Patty Sammons that'll answer the phone for you from Wisconsin to Massachusetts at 2 in the morning. you know
01:11:24
Billy Appel
Mm-hmm.
01:11:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
if If he's not still awake, he'll get up and answer it.
01:11:27
RICK JAMES
Wow.
01:11:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
I guarantee it.
01:11:28
RICK JAMES
Yeah, sometimes he doesn't answer his phone, but that's because he's had a hard night tonight but before.
01:11:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Really?
01:11:32
RICK JAMES
sir
01:11:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
I've never had him not answer.
01:11:35
RICK JAMES
That was at Simon when I had to do a welfare checkup.
01:11:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
He always answers. Oh, ah ah yeah, I got you. Yeah, a little slow on that one. I wasn't at Simon, so that didn't hit close enough to home for me.
01:11:41
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Pat
01:11:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah.
01:11:47
RICK JAMES
yeah i don't know what we're talking about. And Matty Muscles.
01:11:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh yeah We had to do the welfare check, kick in the door with the cops. That's crazy.
01:11:53
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:11:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
01:11:53
RICK JAMES
No, no cops. No cops. Just... ah
01:11:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
01:11:56
RICK JAMES
oh
01:11:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
01:11:57
RICK JAMES
He almost got left at the hotel. Let's just say that. We had to catch a fight.
01:12:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
that's right But yeah, jordan Jordan gets that.
01:12:03
RICK JAMES
and
01:12:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
you know that That's the way they do business, and you know that's why the Storm is winning. that's you know That's why they're doing so well is because they're making they're making everybody feel super, super important, and they're getting shit done for their customers. And that's that's the two bottom lines.
01:12:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's all you got to do. Make stuff happen when stuff goes wrong. Make guys right again. Get them back up and running and treat them great. That's all you got to do. It's not a big fucking secret.
01:12:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
I don't know why some places still are just like, ah well, yeah, I know, right?
01:12:33
RICK JAMES
Kind of is.
01:12:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's its
01:12:38
RICK JAMES
Everybody's so corporate, they don't care about that, you know, too.
01:12:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, that is, and that's some of the problem when you have like a dealer network that, you know, the, the, it's not, it's not always the OEM's fault if the dealers fail, because sometimes the OEM is like, it was enlightening.
01:12:40
RICK JAMES
That's part of the other problem. so
01:12:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
If you listened to Thursday's episode yet, Billy, with the dustings,
01:12:56
Billy Appel
Yep. Mm-hmm.
01:12:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, so you know Jordan brought up how like a lot of these OEMs, not just boss, like a lot of these OEMs, the feedback from the customer, that from this dealer network that they have out there, the feedback from customer direct very rarely reaches the OEM going through the dealers.
01:12:58
Billy Appel
Yeah.
01:13:09
RICK JAMES
Doesn't get to them.
01:13:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
So like they don't even know half the time that that problems are existing. you know So it's it's tough.
01:13:19
Billy Appel
yeah
01:13:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
it's It's tough for them. like That kind of shed some new light where i I give the OEMs a little bit of a break on certain things because now, okay, I'm thinking about it in a different light that, all right, you've got a problem with the dealer.
01:13:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's not necessarily the the end OEM that's the issue. they they They'd probably make it right if they knew about it, but they don't even know about it half the time. So find a new dealer is my is my advice.
01:13:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, we we go an hour and 20 minutes into Jersey for a dealer.
01:13:49
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:13:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, we got one eight minutes away. It would be very simple to go to that one, but they are shit. So if we do not. But that's enough with that sidetrack. What's your contract structure like? You guys seasonal, you know, per push? Well, are you doing it?
01:14:07
Billy Appel
and So being that we're a market that's, you know, pretty, pretty slow to adapt change, we are about 85, 90% per push right now, and to for seasonal.
01:14:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
OK.
01:14:24
Billy Appel
And we're, we're, you know, we're probably, i can't confidently say that we're the only one pushing the idea of seasonal on customers right now, um, up here, you know, in the Northern end of our County on the peninsula.
01:14:25
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:14:38
Billy Appel
But, um, you know, we are definitely being met by resistance when we talk seasonal because it's not something that they're used to, you know,
01:14:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, it's not tradition there.
01:14:48
RICK JAMES
right
01:14:49
Billy Appel
Correct. it's not It's not something that that they're always doing. You know, the where we have the open door is, you know, on some of these condos where you've got people on the board who maybe are in business, you know, in other areas where this is a big thing.
01:15:03
Billy Appel
Like last year, yeah, exactly.
01:15:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:15:04
RICK JAMES
Your budget.
01:15:06
Billy Appel
The budget and all that kind of stuff. Last year, we picked up another condominium complex and we floated the idea of a seasonal contract. And thank goodness there was somebody on the board there who,
01:15:20
Billy Appel
was able to explain to the rest of the board, oh, this is the way to go. Absolutely. Let's let's take, you know, let's go with the seasonal and here's why we should do it. And and I was getting explained this on the backside from the property management company.
01:15:33
Billy Appel
um But, you know, we gave them both a per push and a seasonal and all that kind of stuff. And and last year was one of those years on that one where really, truly everybody won. It was you know, we ah we didn't have a gangbusters winter, but we didn't really have a shitty winter.
01:15:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
01:15:48
Billy Appel
Pretty average.
01:15:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:15:50
Billy Appel
And at the end, everybody everybody won on that year. and And so, you know, we're starting to pick up more traction on that.
01:15:54
RICK JAMES
This.
01:15:57
Billy Appel
You know, when we're sending out contracts now for renewals and stuff, we're including both a per push or a seasonal option, you know, having to do a lot of education and stuff like that.
01:16:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
here
01:16:05
RICK JAMES
this
01:16:07
Billy Appel
But, you know, the one thing I'm glad we don't, that we don't do is hourly. um There is hourly in our market. And so we do get met with some pushback on that. um But we're, where' our you know, we have pretty much said, no, we don't want to do hourly.
01:16:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, no, you're penalizing yourself for being efficient.
01:16:26
Billy Appel
Exactly.
01:16:27
RICK JAMES
Right. Right.
01:16:28
Billy Appel
exactly And that's what we've built our business on is efficiency. And so when you when you present them with, you know, when you present them with a number for hourly and they look at it and say, holy crap.
01:16:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:16:39
Billy Appel
Well, you got to understand that's what I'd be making on the per push side. That's what I need to make. You know, and now you need to understand that that we're not we're not ah we're not a company that's got the machine sitting anyways and guys who need stuff to do.
01:16:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:16:44
RICK JAMES
right
01:16:51
Billy Appel
And so, you know, and they, oh yeah, we can just go do it because it's, you know, do it for the regular skid steer rate or something. none None of this costs the same amount of money. You can't charge the regular skid steer in an operator rate.
01:17:00
RICK JAMES
Yeah,
01:17:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
Amen. 100%, man. Yeah, that's ah the hourly really penalizes you if you're if you're efficient.
01:17:11
RICK JAMES
yeah there's no, there's no reason to be efficient. I mean, that's, what that's a lot of these places don't understand, you know, they all, your hourly rate?
01:17:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nope.
01:17:14
Billy Appel
Yep.
01:17:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nope.
01:17:18
RICK JAMES
Well, what do you want to do hourly? Don't you want us to be efficient?
01:17:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, exactly.
01:17:21
RICK JAMES
Do per time? mean, I mean, who's going to, who's going to tell me it should only take this much time, you know, if I'm out there with hourly, but you know,
01:17:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
100%. Like, yeah.
01:17:23
Billy Appel
Yep.
01:17:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
like
01:17:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
01:17:29
Billy Appel
You know, and one of the things I learned from you guys is, you know, somebody asks our hourly rate, you know, when I respond to that, I'll give em them a number.
01:17:30
RICK JAMES
some um
01:17:38
Billy Appel
And when I respond is say, You know, like you guys have have, you know, advocated for the normalization of of talking about here's what my expenses cost. Here's what it costs to run this business.
01:17:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:17:48
Billy Appel
You know, I respond with them and say, well, here's the amount of money that I need to make so that I make a profit per hour, every hour.
01:17:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
yep
01:17:55
Billy Appel
This this is what I need to make per hour. And and they you know, when we respond that way to them and kind of turn that question around on them a little bit, then, you know, they back off and they say, oh, OK,
01:18:08
Billy Appel
you know, and it, you know, educating the customer.
01:18:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
01:18:09
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:18:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's true because they really, we've said it time and time again, they don't know what they don't know. If you're willing to share the numbers of what it actually costs to do this work, because they have no clue.
01:18:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like Jeremy always says all the time, like it's a throwback. People, it's an, snow is an afterthought. The guys pushing snow are an afterthought. it's still 40 years ago in most people's minds. Some guy with a truck is going to show up with a plow and I'm going to be able to get this, you know, a one acre parking lot done for 50 bucks.
01:18:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like it's so, but in some people's minds, even here, you know, we're, we're um not a super Metro area, but we're a suburb of a Metro area.
01:18:44
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:18:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
And here's still people are are like, what, how much? And what are you doing?
01:18:57
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:18:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Is that for the whole year? Is that for just the winter? I'm like, dude, you got a 25 acre complex here. You know, like, are you freaking kidding me?
01:19:06
Billy Appel
Yeah.
01:19:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, no, that's what it costs.
01:19:09
RICK JAMES
you know
01:19:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh my God. Our last guy. That's always the big problem too.
01:19:14
RICK JAMES
The last guy. Why are you looking for a new guy then?
01:19:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
The last guy.
01:19:16
RICK JAMES
Why you looking for a new guy then?
01:19:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
If I ever find this last guy. you know
01:19:20
Billy Appel
Yeah.
01:19:21
RICK JAMES
There's a reason he's the last guy.
01:19:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, there there's a reason why guys are in their early 40s and they're tired of snow and they're retiring, quote unquote, from snow.
01:19:23
Billy Appel
Exactly.
01:19:30
Billy Appel
Yep.
01:19:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
If they're making the right amount of money and they're pricing themselves right, there's no reason not to love doing snow.
01:19:40
Billy Appel
Exactly.
01:19:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
But that's my feeling anyway.
01:19:40
Billy Appel
That was, you know, one of the, one of the batches of condominium complexes that we took over, that was exactly the battle that we had to fight was, you know, why aren't, why aren't you charging what the last guy charged?
01:19:54
Billy Appel
Well, there's a reason that he decided he wanted to get out of snow. And there's a reason why we have this price and we can't match his price because he didn't want to stay in snow anymore because he wasn't making enough money to make it worth it
01:19:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:20:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
Or his plow or truck broke and he did not have the money to replace them because he he hasn't raised his prices since 1987.
01:20:11
RICK JAMES
but
01:20:13
RICK JAMES
All right.
01:20:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:20:16
RICK JAMES
right
Sustainable Growth and Industry Collaboration
01:20:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, oh, we've had a guy here for 30 years.
01:20:17
Billy Appel
yeah yeah
01:20:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, why is he? how Why is he done? Well, he he's just he decided to get out of snow. OK, why was that? Well, you know, he his truck broke. Why didn't he buy a new one? Because he hasn't raised you since 84.
01:20:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, that's the problem.
01:20:33
Billy Appel
we can't we came we came in on one of them better than one and a half times the previous rate and we had a lot of sticker shock and but we've come in and been able to prove our worth on it you know
01:20:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:20:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
i I think I've said it on here before. It's also the, our other, not enemy, but the other guy harming the the snow guys that that are serious about snow is the green guys that care more about the green.
01:20:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
They want the complex for all the green money and they go super low on the snow just to make sure they get money for eight months of green.
01:20:58
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:21:06
Billy Appel
correct
01:21:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
And that's,
01:21:06
RICK JAMES
And they're super low on the green anyway.
01:21:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
suit Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, that that but there's there's a problem then when those guys get out of snow and they say, well, we want to keep the green and we'll recommend these guys and you come in and give them your snow price and they're literally...
01:21:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
I mean, these are older board members, a lot of them. I'm grabbing a freaking defibrillator. Like you you see that when they they open the packet up and they see the price, you're like, is this for the whole year?
01:21:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, that's for snow. And then you got to explain to them, well, yeah, you listen, your landscape are lowballed because he just wanted your green money for eight months and that's okay. But you now need a snow company because he's no longer doing snow.
01:21:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Why? Because he didn't make any money doing snow and his guys don't want to do it.
01:21:51
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:21:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
this is what snow costs. You know, and then you got to start that conversation. And like you said, you got to educate them. You got to open your book and show them here's what equipment you are requesting to be, ah you know, mandated to this site.
01:22:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Here's how many guys are going to be here married to this site the whole storm, you know, for five months. Like this, this is not, you know, we're not doing this for, you know, $4.50 and, you know, $4.50 an hour.
01:22:15
Billy Appel
yeah know
01:22:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, I can't pay these guys in bubble gum and M&Ms. You know, it doesn't work like that.
01:22:25
Billy Appel
Well, and that' and that's the other issue, you know, piggybacking off of that, that's the issue we're starting to see here is that cost of living here is skyrocketing since COVID.
01:22:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
e
01:22:35
Billy Appel
And um and that's that's an issue in itself that you know is present in other areas, but it's really a big issue here. And i'm having you know I want to continue to keep paying my guys more and more and more because they need it.
01:22:52
Billy Appel
And I know they need it because i'm having you know i fight the same battles, right?
01:22:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:22:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, you'll lose them.
01:22:56
Billy Appel
you know Yeah, we fight the same battle. I'm trying to raise you know three kids and stuff in this area too. I get it. It's a super expensive you know place to live. and And when I go back to these customers and say, hey, you know I need to be charging this so that I can pay my guys to live here.
01:23:13
Billy Appel
But these are these are customers that to them, it's not an issue. not you know Not necessarily the the getting employees issue, but being able to afford to live there isn't an issue for them.
01:23:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
01:23:18
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:23:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
sure
01:23:24
Billy Appel
And it's really disheartening you know to to find people that have that attitude.
01:23:25
RICK JAMES
OK.
01:23:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
absolutely absolutely brother um you know let's take a break we'll hit some commercials and we'll come back we'll hit billy with the five and five and whatever else we got left we'll be right back
01:23:40
Billy Appel
you
01:24:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, we're back, gang. want to go five and five, Jake?
01:24:35
RICK JAMES
Let's do it. All right, Billy. Where would you like to see yourself going the next, or and your company going the next five years?
01:24:42
Billy Appel
Um, so the thing that I'd really like to see is, is just continued sustainable growth. I think that's the key to you know, not just in our area, but in, in across the board, you know, if,
01:24:57
Billy Appel
if we want to rush right straight to where we see other companies at, we're going to make choices that aren't very sustainable or they're not good choices and stuff like that.
01:25:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:25:07
Billy Appel
So really like I, I have a, you know, I have a goal and stuff like that of, you know, how many properties or stuff like that. I don't really pay a whole lot of attention to that specific goal.
01:25:19
Billy Appel
um But, you know, it's more so about that sustainable growth along the way. You know, what I really would like to do is, you know, trying to acquire some of the properties that we've had our eye on, you know, and there's been other good contractors there for years and they hold those contracts and I don't want to go in there and steal it from them.
01:25:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
01:25:39
Billy Appel
You know, but if the opportunity presents itself, they choose not to or something like that.
01:25:40
RICK JAMES
yep
01:25:45
Billy Appel
I'd like to try to acquire some of those other ones and then maybe start to cut back a little bit on the residential um you know, work for the customers that you want to work for, for the right price as far as residential.
01:25:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
sure
01:25:56
RICK JAMES
yep
01:25:57
Billy Appel
um and And we've started doing that already. um But, you know, really just, just continuing with that sustainable growth, you know, I can't really look at it and say, you know, oh, I want to, I want to get into industrial sites or you know, I want to get into this or that, like there, you know, there's no manufacturing or anything like that here.
01:26:14
Billy Appel
So I can't set a goal like that.
01:26:15
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:26:16
Billy Appel
But just, you know, sustainable growth and um stuff like that.
01:26:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Got it. Cool. What's been the most important decision you've made in the last five years to get you to this point?
01:26:30
Billy Appel
So I'm going to stretch it just a little bit past five years, but but this is a really important one to me.
01:26:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
01:26:36
Billy Appel
um The best thing that I've done in the last, you know, save from about, it was about 2015, 2016, is I became friends with my closest competitor.
01:26:49
Billy Appel
And he you know, he reached out to me because we were bidding on the same properties that were becoming available. And i was that jackass. I was lowballing them.
01:26:59
Billy Appel
I wanted the property.
01:27:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:27:01
Billy Appel
I wanted to have it in my portfolio. I wanted to grow and all this kind of stuff. And I said, well, if I i can come in and do it, you know, do it cheaper and and stuff like that. And honestly, part of it, I didn't know my numbers back then. And he reached out to me and said, hey,
01:27:13
Billy Appel
we've been bidding on these same properties and you're winning every single one. He's like, I think I, I think I know what's going on here and we need to talk about it. And so we started talking and, and stuff like that. And he said, you know, i think you don't realize what your expenses actually are.
01:27:30
Billy Appel
And he's like, I want to see you succeed because, you know, he's got kids that are my age, just a little bit younger than me.
01:27:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:27:38
Billy Appel
You know, he, you know, he's always been invested and in, you know, seeing me be successful um ever since and stuff. He's like, I want to see you succeed because there needs to be another generation, the next generation of people doing this kind of stuff here.
01:27:53
Billy Appel
And so that blossomed into ah fantastic friendship. We are best friends today. And we walk that line very closely of of, you know, being, working together as closely as we can without being partners.
01:28:08
Billy Appel
And, you know, and that and that's that's Jonathan Ork from Country Acres Services. You know, if he hadn't, if he hadn't reached out to me, you know, years ago and said, hey, let's let's be on the,
01:28:20
Billy Appel
you know, let's let's be doing the best thing for the industry as a whole so that so that everybody wins, um I probably would be out of business because i didn't know I didn't know what I was doing wrong back then.
01:28:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Amen.
01:28:26
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:28:31
Billy Appel
I knew how to do the job and all that kind of stuff, but I didn't know how to price it the right way. And so that's that's really the key thing.
01:28:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome.
01:28:39
Billy Appel
And I value that friendship so, so much. We've traveled out together to Storks. We've traveled to Syma together and all that kind of stuff. And we've
01:28:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, Jonathan's great. He's a really good dude.
01:28:49
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yep.
01:28:50
Billy Appel
And he's got a lot of really great ideas and high moral values and stuff like that um that have kept me in line and and stuff like that.
01:28:51
RICK JAMES
you know
01:28:59
Billy Appel
so So, you know, if there's anybody out there who has a competitor in their local market and they have ah maybe a standoffish, you know, you personally have a standoffish attitude, and i you know, I shouldn't talk to him or something like that.
01:29:14
Billy Appel
You know, I would tell you, reach out to that person because you know there can obviously we can't we can't in the and in this industry we can't price fix or anything like that and that's not what i'm advocating for anything like that but when we're when we're able to use synergies and stuff like that you know it might be as simple as hey you know now that i've reached out to him or something like that i've got his phone number he's got my phone number i might be stuck one night you know because I was pushing a snowbank too big for what I should have been doing.
01:29:44
Billy Appel
And I need somebody to, you know, pull, pull me out of a snowbank or something like that. he He could be that person. They could be that person or it could blossom into a really great friendship.
01:29:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Check.
01:29:52
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah.
01:29:54
Billy Appel
And and so that's, that's honestly the, the best thing in the last, you know, five plus years that I did with my business was having an attitude that, you know, we're all on the same team at the end of the day.
01:30:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Everybody needs somebody they can call.
01:30:08
Billy Appel
and
01:30:08
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:30:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's 100% right. And to have a have a mentor that you that will help you, even though he's a competitor, you know you can't pay enough for that. you know like they you that You can't put a price on that.
01:30:22
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:30:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's great.
01:30:25
Billy Appel
And that was, you know, that was where the idea originally got planted that you guys are advocating for now today, you know, that at the end of the day, we need to see the entire industry succeed.
01:30:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:30:38
Billy Appel
And that was that was the vision he had back there in a local market kind of idea. And and that's what made it's so easy to really enjoy what you guys are you know all about with seeing the industry move forward and you guys and and storm and storks. I mean, everybody Everybody is doing such a great thing for the industry right now. And if we can all get pushing in the same direction, we can see this industry do amazing things.
01:31:04
Billy Appel
But we have to have the mentality and the attitude that I'm not too proud to be friends with that competitor.
01:31:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
No. Or admit, holy shit, I didn't know that.
01:31:13
RICK JAMES
Right. Right.
01:31:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's okay.
01:31:16
RICK JAMES
Exactly.
01:31:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
look It's okay to say you didn't know. Like, okay, tell me what I don't know. I mean, people do it to us every show. Every episode, we
01:31:24
Billy Appel
Mm-hmm.
Encouragement for New Business Owners
01:31:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
learn something from somebody.
01:31:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
So it's it's awesome.
01:31:27
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:31:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's a lot of fun, too. you know, like, we've met a lot of great people doing this show, and It's it just keeps getting better and better. So we're glad he ah we're we're glad Jonathan was able to help you out. We're glad he told you about the show. And it's, ah you know, it's good. Hey, question. You know, Jordan brought this up and I wanted to actually start asking this from time to time.
01:31:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
How many people, how many people do you talk to now or i have a on your contacts list as a contact person? in the last two and a half years from somewhat, ah some kind of relationship with the show.
01:32:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
Do you think that you never, that you didn't have before it?
01:32:10
Billy Appel
Um, you know, I'm not, I'll be honest, I'm not a super social guy.
01:32:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
Ballpark.
01:32:15
Billy Appel
I'm, you know I'm more on the introverted side. So there's, you know, there's, there's not as many guys that I maybe talk to on the, on the regular.
01:32:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
all good.
01:32:21
Billy Appel
I mean, like Jeremy, I Snapchat you every day and stuff. And, um, but, um, oh yeah.
01:32:25
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:32:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
He's big on the snap. He's big on the Snapchat.
01:32:28
Billy Appel
Yeah. but
01:32:29
RICK JAMES
Snapchat's fun.
01:32:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
01:32:31
Billy Appel
But honestly, overall, I think there's there's easily 20 new contacts that I've made that I would feel comfortable shooting a text or an email or something like that out to them.
01:32:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
Perfect. That's awesome.
01:32:41
Billy Appel
I mean, i mean gosh, you look at just socials alone, you know, it's probably connected with, connected with with I want to say 50 to 75 new contacts just on socials, you know.
01:32:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's great. Good.
01:32:54
Billy Appel
100%.
01:32:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's what it's all about.
01:32:54
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:32:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
We're giant Rolodex.
01:32:58
RICK JAMES
Yep. A hundred percent.
01:32:59
Billy Appel
hundred percent
01:33:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Except the young kids don't know what Rolodexes are.
01:33:05
RICK JAMES
Snapchat.
01:33:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's Snapchat. There you
01:33:09
Billy Appel
Exactly.
01:33:09
RICK JAMES
Snapchat friends.
01:33:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
We're helping increase the Snapchat contacts for all the young young generation.
01:33:14
RICK JAMES
At cat loader is my handle. So, oh yeah.
01:33:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Is it really? That's funny. ah That's great.
01:33:19
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:33:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, man. Jeremy, you got anything else for Billy?
01:33:23
RICK JAMES
Yeah. One more thing. Um,
01:33:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Go ahead.
01:33:25
RICK JAMES
Obviously, it's been great having you on this, Billy, and becoming good friends the last couple of years. But we haven't done this in the last few shows. But let's see. ah You got any good plowing stories? you might ask somebody You might have hit the woods or something out there, you know, where you're at.
01:33:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
Bigfoot.
01:33:36
RICK JAMES
Sure.
01:33:37
Billy Appel
Yeah.
01:33:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Go ahead.
01:33:38
Billy Appel
i've got I've got a couple of good stories, but if I can really quick hijack it.
01:33:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
good
01:33:44
Billy Appel
One of the things that wanted share that i wanted to share is having gone through this myself, you know, and you talk about, you know, new guys coming up in this industry and stuff like that.
01:33:56
Billy Appel
And, you know, it's easy to struggle when you're trying to build your business and all that kind of stuff and have these goals and you want to chase them and stuff like that. And one of the things I just wanted to say, if if you're if you're new to the plowing industry, you're just starting this business, your business or something like that, or you have high hopes and stuff.
01:34:15
Billy Appel
One of the things that I learned in in my journey has been to enjoy the journey. Don't get fixated on, you know, oh man, I look at, I look at so-and-so on their Instagram or their Facebook or their TikTok and stuff like that.
01:34:30
Billy Appel
Like, it's really easy to quickly start to cut yourself short on, you know, things that you actually have accomplished. And and there was a time where I was pretty hard on myself and, um you know, saying, you know man, I'm just, I'm just not successful. it might Should I be doing this and stuff like that? but But the reality of it is that like, you just need to get perspective to see what it is that you've actually accomplished and what you have to be proud of and, and to learn, to enjoy the journey, you know, and, and I couldn't have done that without, you know, like, you know, Jonathan Orrick, I couldn't have done that without without my family.
01:34:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. yeahp
01:35:06
Billy Appel
I couldn't have done that without God. And, you know, when you stop and look, stop and look back and say, well, wow, you know, two years ago when I started this, you know, i was here and now I'm here.
01:35:18
Billy Appel
There's a whole lot to be proud about in that journey of the two years. So if you're out there and you're you're struggling or whatever, you know, just just know that it's all part of the journey and just keep your nose to the grindstone because it's going to pay off.
01:35:22
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:35:33
Billy Appel
As long as you put in the work and all this kind of stuff and do everything smart and, and you know, make strategy and and do it all it take the right risks, it's, it's really worth it.
01:35:45
Billy Appel
So, you know, if you're, if you're one of those people keep pushing and, and enjoy it.
01:35:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Amen.
01:35:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Amen. Love it. That was awesome.
01:35:52
RICK JAMES
Yep, for sure. but sure
01:35:53
Billy Appel
But, but yeah, no plowing stories. yeah So we've got a, we've got a guy, um his name's Buford. He's from Alabama.
01:36:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
01:36:04
Billy Appel
He, he moved up here to Wisconsin Straight from Alabama. He worked on oil drilling rigs for his entire life until he came up here, you know, marriage brought him up here and and stuff like that. and And so Buford came to work for us, never having worked in snow ever.
01:36:24
Billy Appel
Okay.
01:36:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
You
01:36:27
Billy Appel
didn't really, they saw it once in a blue moon where he lived in Alabama. And, and, you know, like this last year where you saw that snow down South, like back home, they got snow and, and he was laughing at them. But so, uh, so the, the funny part seeing him going through all this stuff and, and learning how to plow snow when he's never known snow in his whole life.
01:36:46
Billy Appel
It was the most comical thing, but he did a really good job of getting through it until one day he, uh, he Buford got run off the road by another one of our competitors.
01:36:59
Billy Appel
I'm not joking. We never figured out who it was. He never got a look at who it was or anything like that. But he literally got chased off the road down in the ditch bad enough that we had a we had to have and he had a full load of salt on the truck on a V box.
01:37:14
Billy Appel
We had to have a pretty good sized record get him out because he was the the regular local record couldn't get him out.
01:37:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow. Holy crap.
01:37:22
Billy Appel
we we laugh about it now but you know we've i mean we've always had a target on our back being being you know trying to trying to change the industry locally here and stuff but so that one's funny and and then there was this other time so uh before i uh we we laugh about it now it's it's you know and i guess i guess context
01:37:25
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah.
01:37:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Doesn't sound funny. You got run off the road by somebody. That doesn't sound too funny. That not there here.
01:37:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
that would not end there here
01:37:50
Billy Appel
I guess the kind the context of it, we laugh about it here, you know, in our company and stuff because really because of who it was and because it was Buford and stuff.
01:37:50
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:37:59
Billy Appel
He's a character. man. oh man
01:38:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'd be laughing because eventually I'm getting out of this ditch and and I'm coming.
01:38:01
Billy Appel
oh
01:38:04
Billy Appel
yeah yeah oh yeah oh yeah i was i was on a mission i was trying to like i was just short of sending him to hypnosis so i could figure out who was but figure me something out about what something about that truck that ran you off there because it was another plow truck you know it was another guy on the plow he's out out plowing and and uh i was just was this close to sending him to hypnosis to try to you know pull something out of that memory
01:38:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah ah
01:38:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
01:38:22
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:38:29
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:38:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's funny. That is funny.
01:38:32
Billy Appel
But no, there was one there was one time i'm before I had employees, I used to plow for like 24 hours straight, you know, chasing everything i could and and whatnot. And so I park in a parking lot, one of the parking lots I was plowing at the time. And I said, Okay, I'm gonna, you know, it's like one in the morning, two in the morning.
01:38:52
Billy Appel
i said, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna set my alarm for 30 minutes and just, you know, recline back and take a quick cat nap. And All sudden, and I still had properties left to get to, you know, because we were, I was taking on anything I could at the time.
01:39:06
Billy Appel
So all of sudden, next thing I know, it's three hours later, county plow is going by and the big plow skipping across the heaved pavement wakes me up.
01:39:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:39:15
Billy Appel
Oh man. I mean, it'd been three, four hours or something like that. That was, that was pretty startling, but fortunate.
01:39:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's daylight. but but ah It All right.
01:39:24
Billy Appel
yeah Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Sun's coming up and all that kind of stuff. And I had that, oh shit moment. I, uh,
01:39:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
it happens
Conclusion and Gratitude
01:39:31
Billy Appel
yeah, but, you know, fortunately we've never had anything, you know, in the, the, the funny thing of, you know, tipping over light posts or something like that.
01:39:32
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah. Yep.
01:39:41
Billy Appel
But, um, you know, but we've been pretty lucky.
01:39:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
right
01:39:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Very cool.
01:39:46
RICK JAMES
Good.
01:39:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Anything else, Jay?
01:39:49
RICK JAMES
I don't think so. Good show.
01:39:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Billy, you got anything else for us?
01:39:50
RICK JAMES
Billy's always a great guy.
01:39:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
10-4.
01:39:52
RICK JAMES
So.
01:39:53
Billy Appel
I got nothing really else for you guys besides keep doing what you're doing because it's,
01:39:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well...
01:39:59
Billy Appel
it's such a breath of fresh air to, to see the things and the momentum that's, that's gaining and building in the in the industry right now.
01:40:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
well Thank you very much, man. We appreciate the support. You guys have always been very outspoken, both of you, you and Jonathan. So ah you've been very outspoken about the show. So we definitely appreciate all that.
01:40:21
RICK JAMES
Yep, definitely.
01:40:22
Billy Appel
Yeah.
01:40:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
01:40:23
Billy Appel
Oh, and it, it's super humbling, you know, being asked to come on here and, I never had it in my head that we've got anything worth sharing, but really... 100%.
01:40:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, nonsense. Everybody's got something to share.
01:40:35
RICK JAMES
everybody Everybody's got their own story.
01:40:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's why we're doing this, man.
01:40:37
Billy Appel
we
01:40:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
you You don't know where you're going to pick up the next thing that you're like, wow. you know Big guys can learn stuff from smaller guys. Smaller guys can learn a lot from middle-sized guys and big guys.
01:40:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
you know it It never stops. you can pick If you're open to it and you're not so arrogant to think you can't be taught anything...
01:40:50
Billy Appel
and percent
01:40:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
then you can pick a bunch of shit up every episode that maybe not work exactly. But if you just tweak it a tiny bit or turn it, massage it a little bit, you can put it in play with your, with your business and it'll, it'll work.
01:41:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, I wish I could do the residential thing. I wish I had that kind of set up here, but it's just not, it's not feasible you know like what you have there is is that's a gold mine you know that you like that we'll get to it when we get to it and they're okay with it that's phenomenal that is not the way here it's awesome good for you dude keep killing it man we love hearing it we love hearing how well you guys are doing and uh good luck with that uh that wolf and keep us posted on uh how it does for you this winter
01:41:27
Billy Appel
Oh yeah. it it's It's so nice to have that, 100%. Absolutely.
01:41:42
Billy Appel
absolutely
01:41:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
You good, Jay?
01:41:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. Well, let's wrap it then.
01:41:48
RICK JAMES
Yep. yep
01:41:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. That's going to do it then for episode 135 of the Snow Jaws podcast main show. We want to thank Billy so much for the time. Wish him and Apple outdoor maintenance all the best for this upcoming winter and the future in general.
01:42:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Keep killing it, boys. For everybody else, that is it. All right. Everybody have a great week. Be safe out there and keep pushing.