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From Summer Job to a career. Hear Andy Mattrick's Career Path
165 Plays2 months ago
Nate and Kyle Sit down with Andy to hear how he started out as a summer installer and turned this into his career!
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:03
Speaker
Well, I got up early, got a crew to lead. Sitting up, pulls and ropes, that's lie for me. From a wedding to a fair, from the field to the town. the one you call when you need a 10 up or
4th of July Plans
00:00:18
Speaker
down.
00:00:18
Speaker
All right, we're back again with another episode of Under the Vinyl. As always, I got my co-host Kyle here. Kyle, how you doing? I'm good, Nate. How you doing? Good to see you again. Oh, I know. feel like it's ah been a fast but long week. I know.
00:00:34
Speaker
We are here. how you doing this week? I'm good. I'm looking forward to today's episode. Our guest is a good friend of mine, so I like that. That's awesome. That's awesome. What do you guys got going on this week?
Guest Introduction: Andy Matrick
00:00:44
Speaker
Anything fun? No, it's 4th of July week.
00:00:46
Speaker
I'm just trying to make it to Thursday like 3 so I can go on vacation, but we don't have much going on. It's weird. Where are you going? Lake George. Going to go spend the week up there. Get on the boat that I haven't used yet this season.
00:00:59
Speaker
so All right. Well, thanks for the invite. I appreciate that. But we'll be grinding it out over here in the nice humid heat in Tennessee. Not at the lake. Maybe at the pool. But it'll be 90 degrees in the pool. So it'll be not very refreshing. Hey, open invite whenever you want, man.
00:01:15
Speaker
Appreciate that. Well, you want to go ahead and introduce our guests then
Andy's Career Beginnings
00:01:18
Speaker
this morning? this morning? Yeah, so ah he doesn't need much introduction. He's a man that I think a lot of people know. But I don't think a lot of people know his full story, which is why I'm excited to have him on here today.
00:01:28
Speaker
We have Andy Matrick, I just said it wrong from 10 OX. But Andy, welcome to the show. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it Thank you for the invite. I'm excited. Absolutely. I feel like we've been pitching you enough now that we need to finally bring you on so that you can give everybody a little insight, especially for these up and comers or these smaller people that you need to kind of jump on and bring into the fold. So I think this will be good. But also to tell a little bit about yourself and how in the hell you got into this industry.
00:01:56
Speaker
Yeah, so I am in the central Pennsylvania area. i essentially was one of those guys. Out of high school, freshman year of college, and needed to put away as much money as possible during the summer break.
00:02:14
Speaker
And had a family friend that said, hey, I know somebody over at a rental company. I'm not sure what they do, but ah summer job and unlimited over time go Why don't you give it a shot?
00:02:24
Speaker
So Went there and applied, did not know what I was getting myself into. Again, just looking for a summer job while I was you know in between ah my freshman and sophomore year at college.
00:02:37
Speaker
The variety of people, the variety of the day to day, being in house, being out on the road, being on a large install, somebody's backyard, being you know all over the place, long days, ah hot days,
00:02:54
Speaker
crazy variety, it kind of drew me in And I continued to do that for another two to three summers until i got close to graduating college.
00:03:06
Speaker
Graduated with a degree in graphic communications and it was during the sort of economic downturn, 2009, 2010, applied jobs all over the mid-Atlantic. i applied for jobs all over the mid-atlantic you know Everybody's looking for people with experience, right?
00:03:23
Speaker
It just was a tough, tough go. And I continued to work at the rental company while I was applying for these jobs. you know I was going on some interviews and looking at some things. I did land a job, went to the owner and said, hey, I'm thinking about doing this and you know here's my two weeks.
00:03:42
Speaker
I went off and did that job with my degree for a couple months. and kept in touch with some of the guys. The sales manager at the time called me and said, hey, can we go out to eat?
00:03:53
Speaker
He pretty much offered me a position, made a position for me at that rental company. So I really enjoyed what I was doing there. The passion for what I graduated in, I started to sort of second guess and you know being behind the computer every day after being outside and being with people every day, it was a big jump.
Business Growth and Management
00:04:13
Speaker
It was not what I expected whatsoever. And I decided to stick with the rental company, then graduated into a manager role and then became general manager.
00:04:23
Speaker
At that time, the owner was looking to get out of it. I think this is where we probably should bring things full circle. The owner of that company was Scott Woodruff, who obviously started 10 OX after he sold his business here in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
00:04:40
Speaker
But I continued to stay on with the new owner of that business and essentially grow one and two locations to four locations over the course of about six to seven years, which was very exciting for me.
00:04:55
Speaker
the opportunity in regards to looking at this as growth and evaluating businesses and seeing you know where ah the opportunity was for all of us to join together, that was extremely exciting for me.
00:05:09
Speaker
And so just, you know, be traveling and be in different geographical areas, but still doing the same job and still working with, ah you know, sort of the same people and, ah you know, figuring out strategizing on, you know, what our advantages could be with that bigger reach and obviously having ah quite a bit of inventory as well.
00:05:29
Speaker
Now, here we are today, you know, getting close to 20 years in the industry for myself.
Industry Evolution and Tentox
00:05:34
Speaker
and you know And you never thought that would happen. No, not at all. Absolutely not. I did not think it was a career. i thought it was a summertime gig.
00:05:43
Speaker
You know, again, store that money away, use it for, you know, beer money in college days. And I paid my way through school. I'm proud of that. But it did not feel to me at the time like this was going to be a yeah definitely a career opportunity.
00:06:00
Speaker
Do you think the path is more outlined today than it was 20 years ago when you first came in? Unbelievably, yes. And I think we have to talk about what you guys are doing here. And definitely from an educational standpoint, no doubt about it.
00:06:17
Speaker
yeah I fortunately you know it worked for a company that was very much involved in in the matras, the ATAs, the ARAs, but the online education was definitely not what it is today in regards to whether it's SERP, whether it is forklift training, ballasting tools, even just 811, the Mistig calls. There were a lot of players.
00:06:42
Speaker
you know, and there still is this stuff going on. But I don't think it's nearly as much as what it was, let's just say 15 years ago. Well, you came up. I love Scott Woodruff. And I wish I got to work for him when he was a rental operator because he was innovative. He was just ah hearing the way he used to do things. I never had the chance to see Event Central, but just speaking with him, speaking with you, you're kind of lucky you got to work with a guy like that all those years and see all these innovative ways to do different things.
00:07:09
Speaker
And I'd love to talk about the innovations of the Tenox because you had, what, three or four versions before today's came out, right? Yeah, so prior to Event Central, you know Scott being strictly event party, it began as a Taylor Rental.
00:07:24
Speaker
And that Taylor Rental carried Toro Dingoes, and he was a dealer of those, and looked at you know how to create efficiencies with that piece of equipment.
00:07:35
Speaker
which then that graduated to essentially spinning image of the Avant loader, or what what he created with Tentox, and that was a gale loader. However, it was just this like Frankenstein piece of equipment that the tools on on the front end of the loader, it was a stake driver and a stake puller as one.
00:07:57
Speaker
And essentially from each side with different hydraulics that you're going up from each side and much larger, it very clunky. You know, I remember driving that around college campuses and you could like hear it coming from a mile away.
00:08:11
Speaker
But man, did it save us. And that's how it all started.
Employee Motivation Strategies
00:08:14
Speaker
And so just to go backwards here a little bit to when you were in the rental days to really show what you saw in the potential in the 10 OX here.
00:08:22
Speaker
How did you keep the guys motivated in the being the general manager in a company like that, you know, and having to drive those big clunky machines and everything and swing the sledgehammer and everything else? And, you know, what was the day to day processes look like for you guys at that time?
00:08:37
Speaker
Yeah, so, you know, again, probably very similar to what everybody's dealing with this time of the year. Really hot days, you know, long hours, you know, those were for sure 80 hour weeks and it was a competition sometimes. um or You know, I'm not trying to go back on the safety side of things, but, you know, we would sometimes have a running tally, you know, who's going to hit 100 hours this week.
00:09:00
Speaker
And, you know, was almost like that was celebrated. And, you know, when you're in your 20s, you know, maybe you can do those things. But, you know, for the guys that were experienced guys on our teams, you know, families and ah looking at this equipment, we definitely had some guys that said, you know, the the other side of this where you see a piece of equipment, you say, oh, my gosh, that's going to save us today. We had other guys that said, oh, that thing's going to take my my raise. That thing is, you know, I bet you I could beat that thing with with a sledgehammer. Let's do this the old school way.
00:09:33
Speaker
As the weeks and months went on with using that piece of equipment and sort of molding our operation around that single piece of equipment, how we loaded our trucks, how we put things back in our warehouse, whether they're on carts, whether they're on pallets, and then using that on the job site, whether it's a backyard or it's a college campus, whatever it is,
00:09:55
Speaker
pretty much everybody came on board, some a little bit slower than others. And there were people that looked at that and said, absolutely not, I'm not gonna get on that piece of equipment, even though we would offer training, they didn't wanna be held responsible for it for some reason.
00:10:09
Speaker
And I get that, you know I understand it it can be intimidating and they don't wanna be held responsible if something was to happen. But ah you know we we did try our best to you know make sure that each
Managing Diverse Teams
00:10:19
Speaker
crew had an operator, whether that's you know we were running that single piece of machine or not.
00:10:24
Speaker
What was the bread and butter of the work you guys were doing? Like what sector? You know, in regards to sector, corporate in this area, Central Pennsylvania, you know, you're you're close to D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, a lot of corporate businesses, right?
00:10:42
Speaker
A lot of warehousing. i would say that that was over 50% of our business. And then a lot of colleges as well. You know, and then there was also, you know, our fall weddings were were big for us here as well.
00:10:55
Speaker
But that would, the corporate side of things made up a majority of our business, yes. And what do you think your biggest learning curve was since, you know, since starting? Oh, my.
00:11:06
Speaker
Definitely managing people and understanding people. You know, we had all walks of life, whether it was the high school guy, the college guy, the guy that had been there for 20 years. And, you know, you can't tell him anything because this is the way it's done. And this it's works.
00:11:20
Speaker
Understanding how to speak to people, how to treat people, what motivates people, handling the tough situations, people don't show up, people give you their word, and then you know, things change, how to handle those and how to get through them, and how to make tough decisions.
00:11:38
Speaker
That was really hard for me to learn but in a short amount of time. And also, you know, that there's an there's an age thing there, too. You know, i was I was a younger guy and managing people twice my age. And that sometimes is intimidating as well.
00:11:52
Speaker
Yeah, that was a big challenge. But, you know, you live and you learn. And I made plenty of mistakes. Well, and in that process, have you ever considered quitting or what made you push through that? Yeah, never really broke down to say, hey, this is um this isn't for me, I'm done.
00:12:07
Speaker
You know, never really got to that point. Are are there hard days? No doubt about it. Are there tough days? You know, you gotta look for the positive in things. And that's easy to say when the world is burning around you.
00:12:17
Speaker
but I've had plenty of those days, but I never took it too serious to say, you know, there's going to be a solution, whether we know it or not.
Transition to Tentox
00:12:27
Speaker
Probably the hardest thing is, you know, when the customer is screaming at you, you've, ah you know, let somebody down and you've given them their word or ah your word that, um you know,
00:12:38
Speaker
to put their trust in you. And there's things that you can't control with weather. There's things that you can't control of a blown tire on the way there. He said that you're going to be there at 7 a.m. m and you ended up not getting on site until 10 a.m. m yeah And you screw up the whole schedule for the day.
00:12:51
Speaker
I mean, those things happen. You know how people react and then how you react to that. That was pretty much an everyday situation that I'm sure you guys are very much well aware of. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
00:13:02
Speaker
What year did you start with Tenox and how were you convinced to come on board? Yeah, so that was, i believe, 2021. That's probably four years for me. so you know, COVID was an interesting time for a lot of companies. I think that you know there are a lot of companies that did really well during COVID, but it changed things completely and flipped things upside down.
00:13:28
Speaker
in our area, You know, it was a fly out of your pants type situation. You get a call that day and hey, can you do it? And of course we can. And let's go.
00:13:39
Speaker
You know, let's let's figure this out. There were obviously a lot of jobs where you get a call and you throw a lot of people at it, you get it done and then you don't touch it for eight months, 12 months.
00:13:49
Speaker
But then things happen. Weather happens or oh, we got to move this from point A to point B and I need you to do it yesterday. That side of things really took us by storm in regards to not necessarily mismanagement, but hey, you know, these guys we're going to schedule off or we're going to lay some people off here.
00:14:09
Speaker
And then we would call them back in after we told them they were laid off. The COVID time, again, was tough. And so I needed a change of pace. I enjoy to work. I am a worker.
00:14:21
Speaker
i enjoy to be busy and to be looking at a variety of different things. I enjoy the fast pace. So I definitely look at how that played out as a lot of things that I put on myself.
00:14:34
Speaker
But again, I was looking for a change of pace, young family that played a big decision and, you know, just looking at my future and really, you know, again, what the opportunity was.
00:14:45
Speaker
It also helps that, you know, worked for Scott Woodruff for 12 years, you know, coming into that and, you his loyalty to me, my loyalty to him.
00:14:56
Speaker
you know That's a big decision change to go essentially from you know an end user to vendor you know overnight. And I did kick that around for quite ah quite a while. you know I've had this conversation. I think I've told Kyle this before. I sort of had like an ah identity crisis.
00:15:11
Speaker
This is all I've known as a career. And now I'm sort of turning a corner here. What are the pros and cons? You know, what am i looking at here? And is this the right decision? You know, you play all those things back.
00:15:23
Speaker
But, you know, fast forward to today you know, I definitely think it was the right decision. Are there things that I miss? Of course, there are. i miss a lot of things about it. But um definitely the right decision in regards to a lot of what other previous people on this podcast have talked about with with work-life balance, for sure.
00:15:41
Speaker
So in that identity crisis, what was what was the hardest thing for you between the differences of the two jobs, just being an a vendor versus, you know, selling as a general manager and managing those people?
00:15:53
Speaker
You know, it was a fear of the unknown, you know, in in in looking at a ah new business to say, you know, things look good here, but, you know, what does this role look like? The importance of the relationship with Avant, not only what we do with Avant, but then also, you know, being in front of our customers, the tent rental industry, creating a culture there with that. But, you know, just um what I had been doing, I essentially was in front of 120 plus employees on a daily basis, you know, sort of the ah firefighter. And, you know i liked, um you know,
00:16:31
Speaker
working with people and pushing people to be better and um you know ah learning from them as well. I like to do all of those things. I went from 120 people to a much smaller organization and had to put that hat back on into learning a new business very quickly.
00:16:49
Speaker
Again, had a really good teacher in that aspect, but um I had a team of people. I'm not saying that I didn't have this with Tenox, but in these organizations, I had a team of people that were hey, you know, here's our here's our admin side, here's our accounting side, here's, you know, X, Y, and Z departments.
00:17:06
Speaker
It was, ah again, completely different change of pace there. So again, i would i would say, you know, fear of the unknown there. But, um you know, after you kind of get your feet underneath you, and you start to learn things and ask a whole heck of a lot of questions, you start to get comfortable with things.
Job Satisfaction and Marketing Efforts
00:17:21
Speaker
Would you go back to the rental side? you know, not based on, you know, how things are going right now. But um I'm not. yeah Obviously, you love your job. But yes, do you think you could go back to that life?
00:17:33
Speaker
It's essentially a lifestyle. Yeah, after doing what you're doing. I've had that question before. a lot of the time it gets led into, you know, what do you miss the most about it? what What I do miss the most of is jobs start to completion. And, you know, I saw your reel, Nate, yesterday or or last night of that project that you guys have been working on.
00:17:57
Speaker
To work on that months in advance, years in advance, whatever it may be, Even down to like the truckload of just putting the mats on the ground, figuring out how to the logistics, looking at the back of a truck or multiple, you know, semis and saying, how the hell are we going to do this?
00:18:15
Speaker
And then having that crew of guys at the end, that camaraderie, that feel good moment of look at what we can do. Look at what we're able to accomplish. and ah It has its challenges, it has its personalities and the people and all the things.
00:18:30
Speaker
But to overcome that that, that is what would bring me back to it because that's what I enjoyed the most. And whether that's feel good hurrah moment That is a lot of what I took out of this, but growth and you know what people are doing and and seeing. And you know I think that there is going to be a lot of moving and shaking in the industry in future years in regards to ah consolidation and and other things happening.
00:18:56
Speaker
It's exciting. It's an exciting time. So, um yeah, to answer your question, for sure. But um yeah, i'm I'm pretty good where I'm at. Sure. Things are pretty good. I think you're in a good spot. Yeah, you you got a good you got a good thing going. And just to touch on, I know you're a big marketing guy and just touch on what you said on that project we did.
00:19:15
Speaker
I felt the need to show it from start to finish because there was all this great marketing from the planners and everybody else on LinkedIn. you know, how it went the day of and just kind of some things here and there that were, were just glamorous and everything looks so beautiful. But what I wanted everybody to see, and I was talking to one of my vendors this morning was the vendor portion of it and the truckloads that came in how much went into it and everything else. And let the vendors get some recognition because too many times it's the fancy photos and the designers and the planners get the recognition and the vendors that are really making it happen that are stressing to the, to the time it takes off just
00:19:50
Speaker
Not only don't get the recognition, but they just don't see the behind the scenes that go into it. So I like the i like to do the video afterwards to show everybody kind of start to finish on how that goes. Because you do get the recognition out of it, yeah but it comes with a it comes with a price tag too.
00:20:05
Speaker
yeah But anyway, so... on the When you came into 10 OX, you were the general manager for about two years. What did that look like for you transitioning as a general manager from a larger company where you're managing lots of people to more of the 10 OX side where you didn't maybe have as many people, the job duties kind of change and things like that. So what was kind of your day-to-day on the...
00:20:24
Speaker
that portion of 10 OCs? Yeah, day to day was a lot of strategy, right? you know When I first started, it was the tail end of COVID and production was low in the equipment world.
00:20:37
Speaker
And again, not understanding the equipment world, only understanding 10 industry, world. And, you know, I wasn't have relationships with 10 manufacturers, but, you know, I didn't really hear the woes of things during COVID other than placing a call to one of our vendors and saying, I need x Y, and Z, and I need it as soon as possible. yeah Well, wait a minute, you know, we're gonna have to wait.
00:21:02
Speaker
And I can get you some of these parts. I can get you all of them. And maybe I can get you a bigger profile or maybe I can get you into this and say, here's what's sitting on the shelf. I know you asked for a 60 wide, but I got an 80 wide sitting here.
00:21:14
Speaker
know, I think you guys all went through that. Understanding that aspect of the equipment world, understanding the Avant relationship, dealer relationship, sort of the, what what i what I mentioned to Scott when I came on is I'm sort of looking that at this as a startup.
00:21:29
Speaker
He had, you know, eight years under his belt, but working with a CRM system, you know, really looking at our website and, you know, what can we do, looking at our socials.
Tentox's Market Strategy
00:21:39
Speaker
It is that small business mentality of you got 100 balls up in the air.
00:21:44
Speaker
And what are we going to prioritize our time on? What can we give the biggest impact on? and what are our individual strengths? Scott Woodruff is, oh, my gosh, operational and his mind, curious mind and mechanical where I'm not necessarily that guy.
00:22:00
Speaker
I'm more of the marketing, I'm more of our presence in the industry. how are we going to reach these people? How we going to get the word out? How can we relay you know the fact that what we are producing can help you?
00:22:12
Speaker
And then you know the sales aspect of that. But you know i really wanted to I really dove deep into the Avant side of the business as well. and what our national account status is with them and how can we make that better? How can you know we we build our transparency, loyalty, honesty, you know all these things that go into a relationship to get to know me as well and looking at the future with what we see this business in the next 10 years.
00:22:43
Speaker
We have been um continuing that relationship as the days go on to ah be as close as we can to them with what they are debuting and you know their success is our success as well. So yeah, I hope that answers some of that question. yeah Yeah. And just for the people out there that may not know you know, maybe some smaller people that are coming into this industry as well, that know the machine is 10 OX. Avant is the manufacturer.
00:23:09
Speaker
And Avant comes from Finland, correct? It does, yes. Okay, so the main manufacturing is in Finland and then have you said a presence here in the US as well? Yes, in Chicago.
00:23:20
Speaker
yeah Okay, so just give a little background there. For anyone doing their research, they're gonna say, oh, there's like 10 articulated wheel loaders out there the same size. As someone who's run a lot of them, Andy's run a lot of them, they're not the same folks. ive promised I promise, I promise, I promise.
00:23:38
Speaker
You might say like x is cheaper than avan I promise your efficiency will not be the same. Well, it's like buying a, buying something off of team you. And yeah you know, you get the cheap thing that might fall apart in a couple of days or, you know, weeks, years, but yeah, I would agree that 10 Hawks has always been, been the best. And Andy's not paying us to say this guys.
00:24:00
Speaker
he's He's not yet. Yeah. um So Andy, how do you guys find your customers? What's your, what is your strategy on that? That's your strength. So, When you came in and you started to find customers and keep that national thing moving, what was your ideal customer and how did you find them?
00:24:17
Speaker
So, you know, based on what where I come from and the size of company that we were, and the amount of companies that we visit with and see and speak to on an annual basis or quarterly basis, the rental company that is, you know, two, three, four years old, that is looking at 40 wide pole tents, you know, 40 wide frame tents and growing and puts an emphasis on that growth,
00:24:45
Speaker
And, you know, and in in looking at getting getting larger with their inventory here start to look at the woes of, you know, what what goes with that, whether it's, you know, cleaning the vinyl, washing vinyl, taking care of it, labor not showing up or, you know, the geographical area of finding labor or can't justify having full time labor.
00:25:07
Speaker
Correct. And that person to say, hey you know, look what these other guys are doing. Look at what this is bringing to my operation.
00:25:17
Speaker
Do I have the ability to use this instead of two guys on a job site and still get done in a shorter amount of time or the same amount of time? Really digging into job costing, really digging into the cost of a full time employee or part time.
00:25:34
Speaker
you know, maybe looking at their insurance liability to say, you know, that that sledgehammer took, you know, Johnny's foot out last week or whatever it is, you know, and weighing those options. But we have the kickback as well.
00:25:46
Speaker
Okay, you know, that just doesn't make sense for us. It does take somebody with a, you know, a mindset to say, hey, you know, this is working for a lot of others. Let me give this a shot. And there are an array, there's six, seven different size machines at all different price points that you can look at.
00:26:03
Speaker
as well as our tools as well. You know, it's not uncommon for somebody just to order one tool with the machine based on how they plan on using the machine.
Word of Mouth and Economic Challenges
00:26:12
Speaker
And your pricing is kind of transparent at this point.
00:26:14
Speaker
i would assume 70% of the customers when they call have a rough idea of what it's going to cost them before you even send the quote. That is true. You know, and you know, again, there's different structured businesses yeah that I talked to a guy not long ago that basically said 90% of his tents based on where he is are all weighted.
00:26:35
Speaker
He's got a parking lot full of weights. He's driving stakes on one out of the 10 tents that he installs just based on where he's located. And he's only doing 40 wide, but he's got 2000 pound ballast.
00:26:49
Speaker
So he needs a larger machine for a company to get into that larger machine first It's not uncommon, but it is kind of rare, you know, and and somebody looking at that price tag to say, hey, you know, here' here's here's a forklift that I have been renting and here's all my rental fees as opposed to, well, I could own this and, you know, I can also use it for X, Y and z We're trying to sort of be that one stop shop in regards to all different array of operations and inventory and and what you can use this for. And the array of operations, you and I talk about this all the time.
00:27:20
Speaker
There's guys like Nate. How many do you have, Nate? four five five spread out between two locations and you travel nationally we have one at one location the other four at one location i'm mainly local roughly half the size of chattanooga tent and we have seven and then there's guys who are huge national companies they might have one yeah it's crazy to me and to me i'm realizing i think it all comes down to upper management you got to get them to buy because they're the ones signing the check it does and that was kind of my next question now
00:27:52
Speaker
Because do you think that more of your, do you think more business is coming from digital marketing and or word of mouth at this point? For sure, word of mouth. Digital marketing helps us trying to find new ways of relaying, you know, how this can help you.
00:28:09
Speaker
Like you guys just said, there are a lot of guys out there that have been around there, been out there for a lot of years that are now with four, five, six machines. So they know it works.
00:28:20
Speaker
They know. you know, what this brings to the table. It's, hey, you know, this one's getting a little long in the tooth, you know, it's got some 3000 4000 hours on it, either I'm going to run it into the ground and treat it like you know, I do my used car use truck on the lot, or I'm going to say, hey, you know, maybe I'm going to try to sell this myself and get into a larger machine.
00:28:42
Speaker
What else is 10 talks offering Avant offering in regards to new sizes and new capabilities? We do see that, but to sort of get back to the original question, yeah, there are the the social media side of things and the interest level and the hits that we get by stepping up our game with ah you know the the quality of video and the quality of concentrating on what we are doing.
00:29:10
Speaker
i take a lot of pride in that. You might trigger Nate by saying that. you know He's kind of mad about your social media content. Oh, no. We didn't talk about this. We'll get to that.
00:29:21
Speaker
ah this That was kind of my point, though. The word of mouth is what I was trying to get out. And I 100% agree with the word of mouth, but I also agree with Kyle and the upper management. yeah It all comes together.
00:29:33
Speaker
I fought that battle when I was at Bryant's Rennell. um I came in there in 2010. We started over the couple of years there. The 10 Ocks really started to come out and really be pushed.
00:29:44
Speaker
And I'll never forget, I finally got one of the Bobcat dealers to come by and show us one and let us use it. And I understood from a general manager point of view, when I was going out on jobs, how much it benefited and how much labor it saved and everything else.
00:29:58
Speaker
But upper management didn't, upper management being the owner. all he saw at that point was a $50,000 price tag. And looking at that now is a hell of a lot cheaper, but that's a big number for a business that's, you know, ah local business. I mean, you can be doing two, three, $4 million, dollars but $50,000 seems like a lot.
00:30:16
Speaker
But when you're out on site and you're physically seeing it, it's not. And I think that was the biggest issue for us is, You have to physically go out and see it. And when you see how much time it's saving physically on the site, you can't put a number on that.
00:30:30
Speaker
So take the time out of it. You can't put a number on morale. Oh yeah. I mean, I am 35 years old and I have severe lower back issues and go to PT at least every three weeks.
00:30:42
Speaker
And I equate it to being young and dumb and lifting up 60 wide tops when I probably shouldn't have been or swinging a sledgehammer back when I started. And now, everybody doesn't realize how how good we got it. And the morale is way up and going into just a different series and everything that we have and the innovation that's come with everything. But after we bought ours, and I think it was 2013, 2012 at Bryant's, you saw a shift. And so management finally saw a shift too, but you just had to bite the bullet and do it. I feel like that's how it is for a lot of these companies that you got to try and sell on it.
00:31:15
Speaker
And that's where people like me and Kyle will come in and you know talk to everybody about it and kind of sell the word of mouth for you all because it is, it's not just, it's not just something that I'm telling you to buy for no reason. I mean, and perfect example, the eight series, you know, we battled back and forth if we wanted to get it because how much we travel and we can just get a 5k. Right.
00:31:36
Speaker
But then there's a lot of sites where we can't use the tires that are on the 5k and everything else. And, and that 5k on that job we just did at Titan stadium. I texted everybody here in management and I said,
00:31:50
Speaker
that eight series is worth its weight in gold, hands down. I mean, I was lifting up 4,000 pound blocks and like it was nothing. And, and same with the TF2100 floor that we do, you know, the, the smaller Vons can't pick them up where the eight series can. And it's just like, just the versatility of that and not having to rent a 5k, but you can also charge a 5k price now for a piece of machinery that you have in, in house. it's going to pay for itself,
00:32:15
Speaker
quicker. Well, that's another good point, Nate. Like a lot of companies don't realize you can charge the customer for the machine if you're going to be bringing it on site. No, yes. Yeah, I think that's another whole nother topic that we need to chart talk about in a tailgate talk is just labor charging and and treating the 10 ox as a labor piece of labor or an employee at that point in charging for that 10 ox. But all that to be said, it has to come from The lower people that are using it have to go to management and explain it, and they have to go out and physically see it to get it.
00:32:48
Speaker
But, I mean, that's why you have seven, Kyle. You're out there all the time, and you're talking about it, and you're physically seeing it and doing it it makes it easier for your guys, and you know that. So a lot of these other people don't.
00:32:59
Speaker
My favorite's when the guys today. like, oh, this job's so hard. the new guy. ah they have no idea. I got some guys who've with us 20 years, and they're like, you have no clue.
Future Challenges and Innovation
00:33:09
Speaker
Like, we used to do this 100-wide. 100 by 100 would take all day, and you would do the center pulls by hand with 30 guys. Now we'll do three of them in a day like it's nothing. Oh, yeah, absolutely. But with the 10-Ox, you know, I feel like it should sell itself, being in it for this long now and understanding it.
00:33:27
Speaker
What's kind of the biggest challenge in this industry today that you all are facing? You know, if you fast forward to today and, you know, the the fear of of, you know, sort of ah the economy and the uncertainty and tariffs and all these things, the thought process of, you know,
00:33:46
Speaker
we're going to pull the trigger on this and then something happens and the decision to be a little bit more maybe conservative in regards to holding on to things to see how things will play out.
00:33:58
Speaker
You know, that has been the world that we've been living in for quite a while. And ah you guys, as you know, in the rental game, you know, and in saying to yourself, hey, you know, now's the time to get into that garden tent, get into, you know, these new things that cost a lot of money, right?
00:34:17
Speaker
And it's a big leap of faith to add them to your inventory where you may not have the rentals booked for them so that there's going to be an ah ROI. tough decisions, right?
00:34:29
Speaker
But you want to continue to grow. And you want to, you know, push the limit in your area and be that player for these customers in the future. Again, it feels like we've been in that area for about two years now.
00:34:44
Speaker
You know, we're we're doing everything of ah trying to be as creative as possible and work with Avant Direct, work with our financing partners direct. Yeah, your finances have been stellar recently.
00:34:57
Speaker
They've been great and we're we're super ah happy and and you know proud to be able to offer those and work with the financing companies because all you hear in the news and look at things of interest rates going up and we've kind of held strong and you know there's been some things that have happened where you know we're in the first day of July, new quarter, and um you know there's gonna be some new offerings here shortly, but um you know that has been a huge advantage for us.
00:35:26
Speaker
But yeah, challenges is just constantly you know trying to not necessarily reinvent ourselves, but what can we do as a company to whether it's offer new products in R&D or ah things as simple as ah you know the financing and you know looking at some different avenues and getting creative. That's that's what we're here to do.
00:35:46
Speaker
And that was bringing me in my next question about how have you guys kind of had to deal with the supply chain issues, inflation as far as all that goes. Yeah, so, you know, there's been some panic button moments where, you know, we wake up one day and see the news or communicate with a distributor and they say, get ready. You know, if you don't pull the trigger now, prices are going to go up 20% next week, you know, things like that.
00:36:10
Speaker
I'm sure manufacturers across the board are dealing with that, whether it's steel and aluminum or it's, you know, more mechanical items that we have as simple as just hydraulic parts, you know, whether those are, you know, we're buying here in the States, but in reality, they're actually coming from, you know, China, Korea, whatever it is that has been very hard to navigate because you want to have your transparency with your vendors, right?
00:36:35
Speaker
And what they're doing doesn't necessarily mean that's something that I believe we're going to do. So we have made a decision internally to watch it as close as we can. try not to lose our minds with all the back and forth, but stay true to what we believe is the right thing. and It's not necessarily yeah creating panic and saying, hey, you know we foresee potential increases here and there. We know what we have currently, and we are very close with our communication with our vendors to know what they're looking at as well. So if that time comes, we'll get there, but it hasn't come yet. You don't want to create the panic buy scenarios. oh No, absolutely not. and
00:37:20
Speaker
you know It's sort of my job to you know stay in front of that as best as I can. And it's not easy, but um you know I do trust a lot of our partners to relay that information to me so that, again, i can prepare myself on my end.
00:37:34
Speaker
When you are talking to potential customers, do you find that they are looking at this as taking the money out of their budget for inventory or a different line item?
00:37:45
Speaker
So I feel like that's a big point of contention for some people. I don't look at it as an inventory item. I look at it as labor. And to jump on to that question, too, do you help them break down the ah ROI on everything?
00:37:57
Speaker
We do, yeah. So we created a sort of an infographic that is on our website. We've thrown it on social media. We've thrown on a couple of email blasts just with a, our number one selling machine is the 528. 735, 755 is getting very close to that now as as this thing has grown and and and companies have grown, but we essentially do a breakdown of the cost of the machine and tools, the cost of a full-time employee, and what that looks like and what opportunity this gives you.
00:38:28
Speaker
And essentially, you know what that breakdown provides is what is $70,000 purchase on paper potentially, ends up on the bottom line after a year being about an $11,000 purchase.
00:38:43
Speaker
You've described it to me in the past, Kyle, as a payroll expense, and I do strongly agree that that is a really good way of looking at it. To answer your question, yes.
00:38:54
Speaker
We do have people that say, oh my gosh, I needed to get an 18 meter for you know my next customer here and that's X, Y, and Z and just don't have it in the budget. I have enjoyed some conversations with customers looking at this as my equipment purchase.
00:39:10
Speaker
I have the F-250 to haul and you know I have this box truck here. I just bought a box truck last year and this is my year to to get the tent ox.
00:39:21
Speaker
I think that looking at it from an equipment side of things, if you have the ability to do that is a really good mindset because that equipment is working for you, right? Whether you get the crew cab yeah or you get the new trailer that has all the bells and whistles to put your 40 watt, whatever it is inside of it.
00:39:39
Speaker
I think that's a really good way of looking at it. And, uh, you know, even down to, you know, the stakeholders, the stakeholders, whatever it is, if you want to categorize it as that and the 10 talks may be, you know, the biggest ticket item there, but we all need tools to do this job.
00:39:54
Speaker
How you do your accounting on your end in making those decisions, you know, again, that's on you, but, you know, looking at it as an asset to help your operation overall, that's what
Community and Relationship Building
00:40:05
Speaker
we're here for.
00:40:05
Speaker
And so do you kind of walk through with ah new clients kind of their needs and everything tool wise, I mean, from a two series to an eight, all the way up to an eight series.
00:40:17
Speaker
And how does that process go when they when they come to you and they say, I've been looking at these 10 oxes, but I don't know if I need a six, eight or two, what what do I need? And then what is your response to that?
00:40:29
Speaker
So it's so a series of questions in regards to understanding their operation. And that is probably one of the coolest parts about this job. you get to understand their operation, but you got you get to understand the person and you get to understand who they are and what they're looking at and what their pain points are, where they're looking to grow. And again, that is the coolest part about this job and the connections that are built from that. But to look at the guy that is growing fast and sky is the limit, the moment that he orders this size machine, his business could be completely different in two years.
00:41:07
Speaker
we want to guide them in the best possible way. And this isn't upselling or anything like that. We're going to give you our opinion and we're going to give you an array of options because there are a lot of options and there are options that different price points again, but getting very similar to lift capacity. And that is a lot of what we're talking about.
00:41:26
Speaker
You could have the guy that's doing 30 and 40 wide every weekend. But again, he's got 2,500 ballast. Yep. hmm. yeah 528 that can lift 21, 22 hundred pounds and then you are transporting those on a tractor trailer or you got to get them out of the box truck at that height, you know, six, seven feet with the boom up in the air and to lift that off the ground.
00:41:50
Speaker
It's not safe. you got to be in a bigger machine. And we need to hear about all of those things because our tools are going to last and the machine is going to last. We want you to stay in this machine.
00:42:02
Speaker
We don't want you to regret making this decision from a budget standpoint to say, okay, I really, I really should have got this bigger machine based on pushing it to the max every single day.
00:42:13
Speaker
i think Kyle, you can speak upon that. Chattanooga, they've gone through like 10 booms on that first machine. Well, yeah. Yeah. And I had to yell at the guys the other day with the eight series and then they were lifting about how they need to bring the boom in before they start doing their heavy lifting and everything. And I was just like, yeah, but what, it what would be some of your advice and Andy to some of that starting in the rental business that is looking at what's going to maximize the return on investment on this and just getting in, like, what is some advice that you would give them as far as 10 ox goes?
00:42:45
Speaker
I think one of the best things that I've seen as of late and especially talking to people like this, what you're describing is don't be afraid to talk to others.
00:42:57
Speaker
I've heard you guys talk about this and sort of the Facebook bullies and the keyboard bullies. There really is no dumb question. Right. And, um you know, sometimes the fear of putting yourself out there and you know, what that may bring, you know, so be it.
00:43:12
Speaker
I think the real people in this industry that have everybody's best interest in mind know that that could happen and put it aside. And it is what it is. Right.
00:43:24
Speaker
But to talk to other companies, whether it's a competitor that's running with a Avant or something else, stand behind whatever it may be to see what they're doing. And yeah, you know, fit it towards your operation. But again, don't be afraid to to lean on others, but also to lean on the vendors too, right? You know, there could be a bias, obviously, in what they're selling, but they're there for a reason. They see a lot of operations.
00:43:51
Speaker
They see, ah you know, what people are doing and what's trending. You got to ask these questions. And I think there's a lot of people out there that started that way 10 12 20 years ago and now have this unbelievable opportunity with the forums with these shows that are growing by the year to lean on others and that's that's what they're there for and there's a lot of helpful people i mean that's what keeps me in this industry is the people and the relationships that i have i think that that is a huge part of continuing this for everybody in that next generation well and i tell some and younger next gen guys i talk to them like all the
00:44:28
Speaker
old guys the ogs whatever you want to call them they want to tell you everything they know but they're not just going to walk up to you and tell you yeah they want you to get it out of them so you got to do a little bit of legwork to do it but yeah they'll tell you what pick up the phone and call ah mike holland george smith those guys they i think they love it when someone calls them and asks them a question because it makes them as all these people start to age out of the industry I see my dad doing all the time he starts to do the well what the hell am I here for kind of anymore when people start calling out their transitioning to more of a consultant role at this exactly the industry yeah they could start their own consulting company some of these guys right oh yeah absolutely and let me just tell you I know that a lot of rental guys love a good steak and bourbon and beer and Andy would be happy to take you out and explain all the benefits to sell you or not so you know just to give you some insight on exactly what it is and what he's got going on I mean it's fantastic
00:45:23
Speaker
What's one of the weirdest questions or things that you've had to deal with with 10 Ox? Is there something that came out to you that has been really odd or some questions about yeah what did the Ox could be used for? Yeah, I'm trying to, I'm racking my brain. I mean, you know, obviously ah there's different business models, right?
00:45:43
Speaker
we do have, you know, interest from, you know, the the very large, you know, bounce house guys that I just, I didn't realize. There's bounce houses that are 60 feet tall that have full blown, you know, waterfalls in them.
00:45:59
Speaker
And then watching these guys roll them up wet and they some of them weigh over 4000 pounds. That boggled my mind. I was like, Holy cow, there's bounce house guys that have a need for 800 series.
00:46:12
Speaker
You know, there was a Dallas Cowboys stadium, you know, where they had bounce houses for an event the whole way around that parking lot. And these guys are not only attendees, but, um you know, rolling these things up on a Sunday night at midnight and bringing them in by the tractor trailer load. I just I wasn't aware of it.
00:46:31
Speaker
And are you some of those people or is there like local dealers? Because what i also see a lot. If I'm driving down the interstate or if I'm in Nashville or if I'm in Chattanooga, even when I was in Kentucky and Lexington, I would see a lot of these landscaping and tree companies that got advanced.
00:46:45
Speaker
So I was just curious, are you guys reaching out to some of these different companies? Are you staying more in your realm in the within the industry? How does that work? Yeah, so first off Avant is really built a name for itself not only in Europe and Finland, but you know here with Arborist.
00:47:01
Speaker
That is their number one sector. Landscaping is is is very close behind that, but you know the forestry side of things is is their number one customer.
Marketing Evolution and Customer Feedback
00:47:11
Speaker
So our national account status, Tentox only sells to the event industry.
00:47:19
Speaker
Are there certain situations where there are, you know, maybe corporate players that are essentially ordering our tools to they have a facilities department that is setting up their own tents?
00:47:30
Speaker
Yes, there is. You know, there's our you know, some things there that kind of are tiptoed around to talk about in regards to, well, how are they using the machine? That's usually the number one question. But again, we only sell to 10 in event. And, you know, sometimes that's production, that's staging, that's lighting, you know, anything within, again, our community of the event related industry.
00:47:56
Speaker
okay that makes sense and you know i've seen with with the changing of the tide i'll say with 10 ox you know scott really brought this thing in heavy and he did a really great job and just getting it shown off and kind of explaining everything and and with you and your creativity i've just noticed all the different marketing and things that you've done over over time here and the cool swag and the pictures and everything that you guys have really embraced on that aspect have you guys kind of jumped in and and created a ah new company motto or catchphrase that really set you apart?
00:48:31
Speaker
So I've been basically changing it every year for, you know, show reasons and sort of, you know, updating the swag. You know, our our new one, you know, ah drum roll is no days off, you know, and it's 10 ocks lifting a pile of weights, right?
00:48:48
Speaker
You know, last year was time is money, right? You know, sort of this... culture of, you know, um the brand and again, reinventing ourselves in regards to what this looks like in front of people and following it and getting behind it.
00:49:06
Speaker
And oh yeah, you know, we have a tax or we have two of them, we have three of them. ah you know, how do you use yours and you know, things like that. It's ah all to gain attention, right? So kind of like ah what I said before, the shows are huge for us because we get in front of the customer, we're able to hear about, you know, things as little as a ah hose breaking and how can we control that for the future up to you know, hey, you know, I'm I'd like to talk about R&D for a new attachment.
00:49:33
Speaker
So the shows are huge for us. But um you know, what we're putting into this marketing and trying to, you know, update things and stay current. so There is so much more room to grow in regards to us being the experts with this equipment side of the industry.
00:49:49
Speaker
I want to continue to be that and be in front of the customer and, uh, The one motto that sticks out that I really enjoyed that one of our employees came up with was just simply here to help.
00:50:00
Speaker
Everything that I've already said about coming picking up the phone with the guy that's new and asking questions, whether that's with me OGs, whatever it is, here to help is is truly our standard in regards to we're not just here to sell you something.
00:50:15
Speaker
We'll talk about this specific job. You want to talk about racking in your warehouse and how to move that around better or look at things differently. What have you seen from another operation? How can we put our heads together?
00:50:28
Speaker
We're here doing that. We're having those conversations daily. And why not tap into that expertise? Absolutely. So then our with that, are you guys kind of on a new trends or technologies or something you're watching closely that's going to be changing within Tenox or Avant?
00:50:46
Speaker
Yeah, you know, Avant's implementing quite a bit of safety related things at the moment and safety is one of our number one concerns. So we're going to be all over that. We just took over a ah stake puller the beginning of this year. So, you know, we're doing some R&D there.
00:51:03
Speaker
Continuing to, you know, put the time into the attachments, even something that's been around for as long as it has. We're still doing little fixes to these things. The roof panel puller, you know, I So we're part, you know, looking at that different cap stands recently because we've been hearing some feedback about that.
00:51:20
Speaker
That feedback goes so far. And, you know, once one person says it and then you start to hear some other things, add in some height to the wheels on those wheel rollers to get across that ridge where it might be getting held up.
00:51:34
Speaker
You know, these little things, um people are, you know, breaking things and ah the cables, scratching vinyl, things like that. Anything that we can do to take these notes and to look at it a bit little bit different, lean on people such as yourselves to say, hey, let's do some fabric knots instead of cables.
00:51:51
Speaker
Give me your feedback. You know, I'm not necessarily looking for a video, but call me and just say, hey, Andy, this worked and I think it's a good thing. We're looking for people like that all the time just to try things. and provide a little bit of feedback. So I do lean on on you guys for that as well.
00:52:05
Speaker
I know you guys have a 10 OX user Facebook page, kind of like a 10 OX forum. So everybody that is listening, if you do have any questions, comments, or even just want to post some things so you can get feedback or anything to just communicate, if you don't know anybody,
00:52:20
Speaker
that you want to talk to you about it, you can jump on there as well and they will definitely help answer questions or just give some feedback on what you could be doing or what you're doing or maybe even teach somebody something, right? Yeah, and that that's been huge and it's been huge for us as a company and I have everybody to thank for this is because there's sometimes where we do engage and there's sometimes where we don't.
00:52:42
Speaker
When somebody is coming to that forum to ask a question about what size should I be in? Oh, this happened to me. What would you do? The backing that we get from other users, it's like going to a Google review page. And I know that there's a lot of things on there somebody is just complaining about. What I'm trying to concentrate on is the fact that people want to hear from other people, you know sort of like a Reddit type thing. you know People want to hear from other people's experience. They may not want to hear from the person selling it.
00:53:13
Speaker
And I think that we have a very strong backing there that's worked really well for us. And again, that's that word of mouth that you can't
Recognizing Tentox's Unique Place
00:53:19
Speaker
put a value off. Well, some customers are just never going to be happy. and but wow That's just how it is. No matter what product you're selling, someone asks an opinion, there's going to be one guy or two it's always going to have something.
00:53:29
Speaker
But I do feel like you guys have one of the only products and somebody can correct me me if I'm wrong, but I feel like you guys have one of the only products within our industry that is not super competitive with others. You know, you have a lot of different tech companies, a lot of different chair companies, a lot of different dish companies.
00:53:43
Speaker
But with you guys. You got one strong product that everybody knows. So I think everybody goes to bat for you on it because they know what it's capable of. They know who you guys are, what you're about, your customer service all the way down to the site, you know, just everything about it. It's bar none one of the best products and there's not a whole lot.
00:54:02
Speaker
you know I mean, there is some other things like we've talked about earlier that are similar, but they're definitely not the same. So I think you've got, kudos to you. You've done great with that. Just from taking it from where Scott had it up to now, I think it just continues to grow and watching it and the things that you're doing with it has just been incredible. So hats off to you.
00:54:21
Speaker
Thank appreciate and so yeah you. Appreciate it. Kyle, you got our final question here. Someone's been in the industry for 20 years, started from an installer. Now you're on the main manufacturing side. Best advice you have for a guy walking in today?
00:54:35
Speaker
To go back to that time and exactly what I said, you know not knowing that this could be a potential career, I look at it as what kept me there those summers were the people, right?
00:54:46
Speaker
Definitely being open-minded and hustling, right? you know Hard work and attitude is everything. But again, I'll go back to sort of what I said before. i didn't know that a matcher existed. I didn't know that an ARA existed. I saw something outside of just what was in the central Pennsylvania area.
00:55:04
Speaker
And yeah, we saw other tent rental companies working and doing other things, but to talk to the owner or anybody else that's in those organizations to see more inventory and meet other people and to look at other things, gotta do it, right?
00:55:18
Speaker
But this position, this job takes an unbelievable amount of patience as well, whether that's weather related things, having that mindset and staying cool, calm and collected in these situations.
00:55:31
Speaker
You know, you got to be that type of person as well. So that would be my
Podcast Conclusion and Appreciation
00:55:35
Speaker
advice for starters. so Awesome. Absolutely. Well, we appreciate your time today, Andy, and and the insight of just 10 OX as a whole and and kind of your path and everything that you've done. And everybody out there listening, if you if you are thinking about buying 10 OX or it's even a thought, do it.
00:55:51
Speaker
And if you have any questions on doing that, give Andy a call, get him a text, get with any of us and we can get you in contact with Andy as well. And yeah, it was great having you on today and thank you for your time, Andy.
00:56:03
Speaker
Yeah, thanks guys. I just want to say real quick, I think it's incredible what you guys are doing here and in the following that you're getting and the fact that you guys are able to stay consistent with this through peak seasons and acknowledge the fact that you guys probably have 20 missed calls right now and you're able to do this and get it out to the people and put the industry first. I think it's pretty incredible. So hats off to you guys.
00:56:26
Speaker
Well, we do it thanks to people like you who give us the right tools to be able to do that. So we thank you for that as well. But ah yeah, so thank you guys for being on again today. And this has been another episode of Under the Vinyl. Have a good week, everyone.