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From small Tent company to a national powerhouse. How did Jonathan Proto do it
257 Plays2 months ago
Nate and Kyle sit and chat with Jonathan Proto about his rapid growth and where he sees himself going in the future
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:03
Speaker
All right, we're back with another episode of Under the Vinyl. As always, got my co-host Kyle here. Kyle, how are you? I'm good, Nate. How are you doing?
00:00:19
Speaker
we're back with another episode of under the vinyl as always i got my co-host kyle here kyle how are you yeah i good ne how are you doing Man, I am dying as we were just talking in this humidity. I was out there for a little bit today, and it's every bit of 95 degrees, and it is not getting any better. What about you?
00:00:34
Speaker
Yeah, it's pretty rough out here. We just broke. Today was only 86, so I can't complain too bad, but we were in the hundreds the last three days in a row, so it's been rough out there. We had to send a guy to the hospital on Monday because he didn't want to drink water. didn't want eat lunch, but...
Weather Challenges and Projects
00:00:49
Speaker
too many cervezas too much i think he might add too many cervezas on sunday yeah so that might have something to do with it but his pride is definitely hurt i can tell you that yeah he won't do that again yeah we uh we have uh finished up our build on titan stadium and it is down and done that stadium was one of the hottest workplaces with that turf that i have been on but um Glad to be done with it. So let's go ahead and introduce our guest today. Our guest, I guess you could say he's kind of like an international man of mystery, I would say, in our industry.
00:01:20
Speaker
i would definitely say that. kind of came on the scene hot. Nobody knew who he was. And then, boom, he's everywhere. So but you never know where he is. So without further ado, I'd like to introduce Jonathan Proto. How are you doing, buddy?
00:01:32
Speaker
Oh, I'm doing good. Right now I'm in front of trees on the side of the road somewhere in an undisclosed location.
Mystery Figure in the Industry
00:01:38
Speaker
Exactly. That's exactly my point. That's exactly my point. have guys been doing lately?
00:01:45
Speaker
We've been doing good. um You know, typically summer we... Years ago, we started as our slower slower slower season being in Florida. You know, it's too hot, to what you guys were just saying, and too humid to do events. So the market in Florida typically slows down.
00:02:01
Speaker
But we've been blessed to be able to jump into other markets as we've continued to grow and people
Proto's Entry into Event Rentals
00:02:07
Speaker
have heard about us. So we've ended up just shifting inventory from time to time to places. And, you know, that's kind of what I was on the road doing last week. So things are good.
00:02:16
Speaker
Things are happening, but, you know, things, of I guess we'll say fortunately, things are not slow right now. and Yeah, no, i think I think it's that way for everybody right now. For sure. And it's good.
00:02:27
Speaker
And um let's just get to it. So you and I, I think i think what when I noticed you, you just kept popping up on the event rental page on Facebook, and I think in 2020, and finally...
00:02:40
Speaker
and finally I think I was talking in a group chat with some guys one night and, uh, Rams being one of them. And I said, you know what? I'll have the balls call the guy and just see who he is and what he's doing. And, uh, so I think that's when you and I first had our kind first conversation was in
DJ Career and Industry Potential
00:02:54
Speaker
2020. Uh, I remember it well. I was, I was putting my kids to bed cause I'm on the East coast and I was putting my kids, well, at the time I was on the East coast. So I was putting my kids to bed and I get this phone call, you know, I didn't have your number saved in my phone at the time. And,
00:03:08
Speaker
I think your thing was like, I mean, you just cut right to the chase, which I absolutely loved about you. Yeah. But you were like, so what are you doing? Like, who are you? What are you? yeah And I'll never forget it Well, it was everybody's question and nobody wanted to do it. And was like, you know what? I've had a couple of beers in me. Why not just give him a call and see who he is and what he's about? And I mean, that's the best part of this industry is just talking and networking. So was like, let's do it. And it was just wild because it seemed like you were jumping in all the chats, but then I saw you're buying inventory and things like that. So tell us a little bit about how you started because, mean, you started right around the craziest times of this year.
00:03:47
Speaker
century, and then how you got into it and in you know doing what you're doing. Yeah, so that's a long story. There'll be a lot of ums in there because I'm gonna have to recall some stuff, but let's start way back at the beginning and I'll give you the cliff notes, okay? Because a lot of people really don't know this story.
00:04:04
Speaker
I think you might even not know the entirety of this story. And so I started as a DJ in Orlando. So, you know, that's where this good camera energy comes from is a DJ in Orlando, not afraid of the microphone or the camera, but When I started that, I was standing there at a wedding one night. My wife and I, we got married very young. I mean, we were 19 and 20 when we got married. Full disclosure, I'm 33 years old today.
00:04:31
Speaker
Still younger than me. All right. All right. Well, I'm not going to make you throw out your age. But, you know, um being a young guy, I knew I had
Family Life and Financial Ambitions
00:04:40
Speaker
an entirety of life ahead of me. And one of the things, so when I got married, when I um had a baby,
00:04:48
Speaker
Full disclosure, by the way, my wife had the baby. I didn't. So when I got married, my wife had the baby. And then we were starting this family, you know, and I'm sure you guys might attest to this. I'm Googling stuff. Like I'm a business guy at heart.
00:05:01
Speaker
So even though I was a DJ, I'm like, how much debt should I have? How much should I make at this age? You know, what should I have saved? Like I'm looking at standards. And what I realized when I discovered standards was that the standards are all over the place. And it really depends on what you want to be.
00:05:17
Speaker
As you continue. And so you can't really look at just the vast majority of standards, right? Because all three of us on this call probably make more than the average income, medium income in the United States, which thank God, right? Because that's super low.
00:05:30
Speaker
And you really can't survive on that. So when I started looking into those things, and by the way, if you can't already tell in this call, I have a huge heart for finance. I absolutely love what finance can do, magnitude of finance, and also what a little bit of time poured into good financial goals can do for your
Transition to Event Rentals
00:05:47
Speaker
future.
00:05:47
Speaker
Anyway, back to the story. I was looking up all this stuff and I discovered that I didn't have a ah dream or a motivation problem. At that time, i i had an income problem and I had a life kind of debt to ratio was way out of whack.
00:06:03
Speaker
So I'm standing there. I'm DJing one night. I remember it like it was yesterday. was at reunion and resort in Florida. And I'm doing an Indian wedding. We've all done Indian weddings. They have more friends than I have friends and family combined in my entire ecosystem of my life and employees. We could throw that in there, too.
00:06:22
Speaker
There was like 350 people at this wedding, massive weddings, multiple days, right? Multiple days it's going on. And I'm standing there and I'm DJing and I'm watching the chair company come in.
00:06:34
Speaker
And they're delivering chairs. They're putting down these gold chivalries, right? And I'm standing there in the corner. I realized that I had a really good job. I had a job, but I didn't have a career and I didn't have a really good business.
00:06:48
Speaker
And so as I'm standing there, I'm talking to the guy who's dropping the chairs and I'm like, so, Hey, how much are each one of these chairs? You know? And he's like, well, you know, back then before the market has been trashed with Shavarian chairs, I think they were like $8, $12. I mean, Nashville, you're not terrible still today. You know, you're still pretty high up there in the echelon of chairs, but if you go down to Florida,
00:07:10
Speaker
or New Jersey, for instance, Kyle, you're lucky if you can scrounge five to six bucks a Shavari chair. And so there's just people that have killed the market. And so I'm like, all right, $8 a chair times 300 people, man, I can do some math. And that's really good numbers.
00:07:26
Speaker
You're making more than me and you don't have to stay here the whole night. You get to drop them off. You can do multiple of them. You get to pick them up tomorrow. And remember, not only was the money cool for me, but what was also cool for me is I love my family, right? So fast forward, I've got five kids today and we have just a freaking blast.
00:07:47
Speaker
You look at the time that I have to stand there DJing late into the night on Friday and Saturday and Sunday, and I'm missing kids' soccer practice, and I'm missing kids' baseball, and people think, you know, just like the tent business, right?
00:08:02
Speaker
People think you just snap your fingers and it's all set up. It just
Industry Challenges and Logistics
00:08:06
Speaker
happens. It just happens. I mean, we're just, yeah, we're just moving wands around. And, you know, the thing about it is though, right? It's the same thing with the DJ world.
00:08:15
Speaker
It's a lot of setup. It's a lot of preparedness. It's a lot of writing a script. It's a lot of all of these different things. And so anyway, I'm wrapping up here for you. But anyway, I just, I feel like I was at a position where I really wanted to do more of that. That was something that I could scale, that I can grow, and that I could do more of, and that didn't have a ceiling. I hate working in a job where it feels like have a ceiling.
00:08:39
Speaker
And that's what I love about the event rental space is there is no ceiling. You can just keep going. You can find yourself in crazy environments. that you would never think you would you would be in, like you, Nate, saying that you were just doing the setup in the middle of the stadium. Like, what other job are you there after hours, most likely, driving a forklift on AstroTurf, putting down plywood, protecting everything, and, you know. Tantox only. Tantox only, yeah, they sure. I'm sure they got some some crazy rules, but, yeah you know.
00:09:09
Speaker
Who else is standing there in the middle of the stadium besides the 1% who are a football player, right? I'll tell you, the same guy sitting in the tunnel at night watching a 60-mile-an-hour wind come through when his sailcloth is fully weighted on the field. That's the guy still in the stadium. yeah You know, it's just fun stuff. And so I was fascinated by this business, started out as a DJ, moved to the boat closer to the dock. And so I've been in this about, you know, 12 years as a DJ, started as a DJ.
00:09:40
Speaker
About five years after DJing, worked my way into the event rental space. But it was, it was humble, humble, humble beginnings. And we can leave it there and we can go on to the rest of your questions and I can address some of that.
00:09:53
Speaker
Well, Jonathan, do you remember when you and I met? No. SeaWorld in Orlando. It was like an IFAI show. You came, you didn't even come to the show. Like I was working for Tenox at the time and ah you were looking at potentially buying your first machine and you came in, we met at like 6.30 in the morning in the parking lot.
00:10:10
Speaker
I had you test driving it and I think it might've been you and your dad maybe. was you and an older gentleman. That was William. William was, so that was the beginning of the explosion. That was, what year was that? Do you remember?
00:10:22
Speaker
17 or 18, maybe. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, we were in a COE then. So that was an 1800 square foot warehouse. And then we moved into another 1800 square foot warehouse. We'll get to that.
00:10:34
Speaker
So when did you start then? So I started 2014 15. two thousand fourteen or fifteen But I was nowhere to be found, right? I stayed super low profile.
00:10:47
Speaker
I always wanted to do the big stuff. I would bid on it. But my costs were too high, you know, so I was never awarded it. And so so...
Business Expansion and Growth
00:10:55
Speaker
So then, okay, so you 2014. And so you went from a smaller, basically, you were a smaller...
00:11:00
Speaker
regional operation and then finally it was probably around 2020 2019 is when you started to make the leap into bigger stuff i guess you could say that so i started i started regional is generous paint it was more like the perimeters of winter garden florida stop and we start somewhere Wherever I had enough gas to drive.
00:11:21
Speaker
And so I started with roll up storage units. So I had roll up storage units in the storage place in Winter Garden and in Florida. I had ah one unit and I was like, oh, my gosh, three hundred dollars a month. this is a lot Remember, OK, do the math.
00:11:36
Speaker
I was like 17 years old here. And so, I mean, I was I was young Grew up, you know, living with my grandparents and my mom, single mom, born and raised in New Jersey, moved to Florida.
00:11:49
Speaker
And Kyle, that's where i get my hustle from. you You could thank the state of New Jersey for that. Didn't have much, right? It wasn't like mom and dad were filling my pockets with money.
00:12:00
Speaker
It was me cutting grass during the day, DJing at night, and trying to raise a really small family. And so what I did is squirreled. Saved up every bit of money. And I got that first storage unit. And it was $300 month.
00:12:16
Speaker
Roll-up storage unit. I think it had air conditioning. But of course, when you opened up the door, it all went out. So I had... one and then I got a second one and then i got a third one and then I got
Partnerships and Industry Support
00:12:27
Speaker
my first so to fill those units by the way was culinary tables chairs and like a hodgepodge of equipment right if I could go to a garage sale and find a table for 10 bucks I bought the table and rented it for 12 you know that was the beginning and then I remember i got a good djing job one time and I made like three grand you know or four grand
00:12:48
Speaker
And I took all the four grand and I went and bought as many Shibari chairs as I could. It was like 30, you know? and so And so, but everyone who called me needed a hundred and something. But now I at least had mye my start.
00:13:01
Speaker
So there used to be a company in Orlando called Kirby Rentals. And those guys really helped me out. And I give all the credit in the world to them. Because there was a guy named Paul Mimi who passed away now, I believe.
00:13:13
Speaker
She was probably 80 when she worked there back then. So I would imagine Mimi has left us. Then, you know, you Jeanette. You had Becky Boaz who's still with Pro-Am.
00:13:25
Speaker
These are all people I knew like back in Florida. So Kirby, I went in like, you know, a little kid and I'm like, please, Paul, you're a big guy. I'll never be like, I'll never be you without your help.
00:13:38
Speaker
And you'll be retired before I ever make it to you. Can you just help me get to be you? And I remember like he'd let me in his office. We'd sit there and talk with each other forever. He took a liking to me.
00:13:51
Speaker
Good guy. And he would give me like 30% off. Okay. And so when I would rent a chair from them, it would be like $4. And then I was able to charge the $6.
00:14:03
Speaker
And then I was able to use the 30 chairs that I had. And everyone that called looking for mahogany, for instance, I would say, oh, mahogany. You don't want mahogany.
00:14:13
Speaker
You want gold. Nobody likes mahogany. It doesn't photograph. Well, it doesn't, you know, all the things. Right. And I'm like, because I had gold here, I need those 30 chairs to rent. So, I mean, this was the start of it.
00:14:26
Speaker
And then I, I, I kind of, you know, just, I remember I bought my first 20 by 40, 10. There was a guy down in Miami. called Tent and Party Rentals. His name's Jose.
00:14:37
Speaker
i still am really good with Jose. He's still in the game doing it, but he can't produce the volume that we need anymore. But we still place small, like, sidewall orders with him just because we want to help out where we started.
00:14:49
Speaker
And so, I mean, we just gave him, I want to say for fireworks season, I want to say we spent like in sidewall, which Jose was like, this is awesome, you know? yeah And so, because Jose always stayed small in Miami.
00:15:03
Speaker
I got that first 20 by 20. I remember driving down to Miami. I picked it up on a Friday. I rented it on a Saturday. I'd break it down in the middle of Saturday night. I tried to find a rental on Sunday. Like, I mean, I was, I was just hustling.
00:15:16
Speaker
And then I ended up getting to a point guys where I had 10 storage units at this one place. The storage unit manager call came to me and she's like, you're doing a lot of stuff. Like, why don't you get a warehouse?
00:15:28
Speaker
I'm like, well, you know, this is less risk. Like if I start doing bad, I could just drop one and stack stuff on top of it and another one. And, but then I sat there and I ended up doing the math and something that I admittedly looked over was the storage unit is just 10 feet and there's walls in the middle.
00:15:47
Speaker
And so I'm losing all this space because I've got these walls. And so I can't like, it's not like a big open space where I can have aisles. So I ended up kind of mulling that over. Six months later, i sat on it for about six months.
00:16:02
Speaker
I looked for a place in Ocoee. I was still scared to death. It was like 1,600 to 1,800 square feet at best. And that's where my Starbucks addiction came in because there was a Starbucks like a light away.
00:16:15
Speaker
I thought I made it. I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. Like we were in the straight ghetto guys. Like someone tried breaking in our door in the middle of the night. I remember driving down the road. I saw a homeless guy who had one of my dollies that we had left outside in one of the trucks. And he was just pulling it down the road and it had our logo like on the bottom of it.
00:16:35
Speaker
like spray painted and I like pulled over. I remember like jacking the dolly off the guy again. Cause I'm like, Hey man, I need that dolly. Like, what are you doing? There were people living in the woods next door. It was a mess, but that was what we can afford. So it was about, I think back then I was paying about dollar square foot ish. So, you know, let's say 1500 bucks plus or minus.
00:16:56
Speaker
Then I remember that we were there for about two years and We moved and there was a storage unit that came up for for rent for us. Not next door, of course, but two doors down.
00:17:09
Speaker
That would have been too easy. and So I got that storage unit or that ah small you know warehouse, which is about the same size. Merge them both together. I'm at like 28, 3,000 square
New Opportunities and Risks
00:17:20
Speaker
feet.
00:17:20
Speaker
And I'm like, man, life doesn't get any better. This is amazing. And I'm doing it. And I've got a mess of the guys. I'm dealing with someone like coming in drunk and, you know, the quality of labor that I was able to hire at that time was not great.
00:17:37
Speaker
So I would, you know, OK, the guy shows up drunk. OK, I I thought everyone had a valid license. What are you talking about, officer? Why doesn't this guy have a valid license? like thought that was just ah I just thought that was a normal thing.
00:17:49
Speaker
You know, I remember like it was yesterday. This guy used to work for me. i won't put him on blast. But his, you know, he would he would like go get Chipotle and then he would just leave his trash in the warehouse, like hovering on something.
00:18:03
Speaker
And then that something would move and the Chipotle would fall over. And I walk in and there's like rice and beans all over the floor. Like, I mean, it was just it was a train wreck. The back of the truck was the trash can.
00:18:14
Speaker
So, I mean, why stop when you're driving? Just take that and just throw that back there. Like we would, you know, found some interesting things on some floors. and trucks from i had I had a patient guy working for me.
00:18:26
Speaker
He never liked to wear shoes because he was straight from Haiti. So he would set up tents. It's just what he was used to growing up. So I didn't fault him, but I'm like, Dude, you've got to wear shoes. You're going to break your foot. Like it's just, and it's just not presentable, right? Like it's not professional to show up. Hey, I'm here to set up your tent. And the guy's got no shoes on.
00:18:47
Speaker
Like I've got stories for days, but I won't bore you with those. I moved from Ocoee. We had the two warehouses for about a year. And then growth started pouring in a pretty good bit.
00:18:59
Speaker
And so then we moved to Apopka. the next town over. I found a church because I did a big job for ah for a large international church.
00:19:10
Speaker
And they connected me with this local church. And it was a TV pastor, pretty famous guy. And he had ah big TV studio and offices and all these things in the front.
00:19:21
Speaker
In the back, he had a warehouse that he just wasn't using. It was like 8,000 square feet. And he needed one eight pallets worth in the corner for his food, homeless food ministry.
00:19:33
Speaker
And so I was like, Hey, what can I do to rent the other part? You know, I'm like young, ambitious. I don't have a lot, like this is way more than I could ever get. And so I just thank God for connecting all these opportunities because I mean, I did a job and then I started talking to the guy and then, you know, gave me this local pastor who wasn't using this warehouse and He has future plans to develop it. I think today it's actually developed, but I needed that space at the time, but, you know, couldn't afford to to make that big jump.
COVID-19 Adaptations
00:20:02
Speaker
So I took a little bit of a risk and I was like, hey, I'll do all your events for free in exchange for this warehouse. And he would do like tables and chairs and some tents and some speaking things, mostly all local.
00:20:16
Speaker
he would have ended up spending maybe you know eight or 10 grand. But for me, my cost was like probably four grand. And I was like, this is perfect. And it also came so staggered that it wasn't like, you know, I needed to needed to get it done.
00:20:29
Speaker
At the first of the month, I had to pay my four grand. So, He gave me a big shot. During that time, to answer your question, Nate, that's when I started to explode. So I was dumping more money into Google AdWords.
00:20:43
Speaker
There was a lot of blessings along the way. There was a lot of luck along the way. And there was a whole, whole, whole lot of hard work along the way. I started getting tense, but I could never, I didn't even understand how this industry afforded structure.
00:20:58
Speaker
I was like, oh my gosh, what again, another big jump. It's like every time you put in this industry, it's another big jump. Things are going really good. COVID strikes.
00:21:09
Speaker
I tell my wife, I'm like, you know, think it's been a good run, but i don't think this is going to work. I think we've come pretty far, but I can't just go with no income for months. I mean, I wasn't at that point.
00:21:22
Speaker
Everything was like shoestring budget to this point. And so I ended up risking my last, think it was like five grand. And it was when everyone was freaking out, looking for hand sanitizer. And I still have the video up on, on my Instagram.
00:21:37
Speaker
And We took block and roll. We only had like four of them, by the way. So we thought we were cool. We stacked the blocks up. We put the hand sanitizer tote on the block and roll. And we would fill up, like we filled up five gallon buckets.
00:21:50
Speaker
I bought like squeeze tubes like that you would use for ketchup and filled them with hand sanitizer and put the logo on there or not the logo, but like the information as to what alcohol content it was and whatnot.
Significant Contract Secured
00:22:01
Speaker
And it was a, remember there wasn't a lot of airplanes flying around during that time too. So it was a jet fuel guy who ended up buying truckloads of hand sanitizer and he was willing to sell me like individual totes. So I like took the tote, I calculated how much it was per ounce.
00:22:16
Speaker
I added some profit in there. And then i I sold the hand sanitizer. I sold the first tote. I needed that money to go buy two more totes. Again, I just didn't make anything at this point. I bought four totes.
00:22:27
Speaker
And then finally, I bought the whole semi truck. And I was in Orlando, like just dishing out hand sanitizer. I was meeting people. at the gas station. Okay. Like doing deals out of the back of my truck. Like here's a five gallon bucket of hand sanitizer for 350 bucks.
00:22:43
Speaker
And I'm buying the tote for like five grand. So that happened. That got me by for about a month. And then a month later, I'm driving around the orange County convention center. And as I'm driving around, I kid you not, I'm literally in my car and I'm just kind of like praying. I'm like, God, like what in the world? Like,
00:23:01
Speaker
This is crazy. I'm watching, you know, other people set up tents like the the COVID work was starting to come at that point. Like you saw some stuff coming and I'm like, everyone's freaking out.
00:23:13
Speaker
I just want to make this work, you know? And so I'm like walking around couple hours later. I'm still at the convention center walking around because they were sorry. Let me mention they were putting up a big COVID site. And so they were doing like the first ever Orlando drive through tenting site.
00:23:27
Speaker
I'm walking around and Kirby Rentals did it. They're no longer around. So I'll tell you all about that. Their stuff wasn't nice. Okay. Like the legs were beat up. The tops were pretty rough.
00:23:38
Speaker
They didn't have like small blocks. So they had big, big blocks and they would wait down like a 10 by 10 with like a Jersey barrier, just crazy stuff. Right. And this was a big company. They're no longer allowed around. So I have no problem mentioning that.
00:23:51
Speaker
But it was their job. And I'm just kind of out there spying, right? I'm like, like I could do this so much better. i don't even have the stuff, first off. But if I did have the stuff, I would do it better. And so I kid you not, I'm standing there looking at their tents and my phone rings.
00:24:05
Speaker
And it is a guy named Josh Carlson, no longer in the industry. He now works for FEMA. But Josh, he calls me and I didn't know him at the time. He's working for an emergency company.
00:24:16
Speaker
And he says, hey, I got a need. I'm at the Orange County Convention Center. The current tent company that we're using does not have any more tenting available. They're doing apparently another site somewhere else.
00:24:29
Speaker
We need to cover the road. I need 15 meter car. by 30 meter at the time. I'm like, you
Scaling Operations
00:24:35
Speaker
need a what? Like a 15 by 30. That's easy. I didn't know. He's like, when can you meet me here? I'm like, sir, I'm at the Orange County Convention Center right now. I'm in the other side of the parking lot.
00:24:43
Speaker
I'll meet you there. What intersection are you at? Tells me the intersection. Five minutes later, I pull up. He gets out of the car, shakes my hand, gives me his business card. He's from Oregon in Orlando, just building this for the government.
00:24:55
Speaker
And he shakes my hand. He's like, hey, this is what I need. I need it up by 6 a.m. Yes, sir. I'll figure it out. No problem. Do you care about the price? Not really. I just need it up. I said, perfect. You're my favorite customer.
00:25:07
Speaker
He then called me. He's like, well, by the way, i think I do need a reasonable price. I'm like, all right, I'll take a risk, right? So I charged him like per week. But in my head, I knew that this wasn't ending like really fast, right? So I was like, all right, if I can get four weeks out of it, I'll be good. So I i called up Beachview.
00:25:24
Speaker
I knew a guy named Ken Crotty who used to work up there, right? I would sub stuff from good old Ken and we still talk. I mean, all the time, like all these people, nobody's left my life, by the way. Like everyone is still in my life, which is the coolest thing in the world.
00:25:36
Speaker
And I still talk to Ken often. And so, and he's obviously, you guys probably know if you follow him on Facebook, he's selling AstroTurf now. So AstroTurf, I'm a big buyer of AstroTurf being in this business. So he moved a a location directly across from me in Orlando.
00:25:50
Speaker
So I buy all my AstroTurf from Ken and it helps him and it helps me. Back to the story. The interesting piece here is that I didn't know what I was getting into, of course. They said they needed a tent. I said yes.
00:26:02
Speaker
Beachview gave me a screaming deal because, again, there was not a lot of work in the industry, right? So it's like if I can offload this asset, I took the price that they charged me. don't even remember what it was. might have been $40,000.
00:26:13
Speaker
forty grand I divided it. I'm like, okay, I'll do it for 10,000 a week, sir. And a mode fee of $2,500 each way. He says, yes, hang up the phone. I drive from Orlando.
00:26:25
Speaker
to Beachview, about four hours up to South Georgia from Orlando, turn around, drive back. Now we're in this thing about nine hours. I'm calling Ken. like, Ken, I need on the loading dock. This is my shot.
00:26:36
Speaker
I need this. I don't even know if it's going to fit, but I need it. And by the way, I don't even know how to put it together. So I need you to draw something. I need to figure this out. So I call up all my boys in Orlando. I'm like, hey guys, we got work. I need you to meet me at the convention center. I pull in.
00:26:49
Speaker
Let's say it's like midnight. I kid you not. We work all night till about six o'clock in the morning. Josh shows up. He's like, wow, you got it up. This is amazing. The big company couldn't even do that.
00:27:00
Speaker
Shakes my hand, says, man, we're going be talking again. I'm like, yes, sir. Thank you. My pleasure. Pays it. And we move on. From there, the rest is pretty much history because they ended up giving me almost, almost, not every job, but a big portion of the jobs in Florida.
00:27:19
Speaker
And that's when I started to get on people's hit list. All these big guys who'd been around forever, were sucking air. They didn't know how this young kid was coming in and doing it.
00:27:30
Speaker
I got a lot of hate for that. You can't fault me, right? It's just hustle. Like you guys were sleeping. i was out trying to put up tents. I was sleeping in the backseat of my pickup truck at a gas station and then brushing my teeth at the 7-Eleven because I never had enough time to go home during this time. And my wife understood like, hey, we were going to grow this and be really successful.
00:27:51
Speaker
And, you know, ultimately at a small expense, But we didn't know when the next, you know, when the industry was going to come back, when it was going to happen. So what I did during this time, guys, is and feel free to interject at any time because I'm just keep going. I'm giving you the story.
00:28:06
Speaker
But what I did during this time is I thought this was my time to, again, I always had that future mindset in place. So I never thought that this was my time to get rich.
00:28:17
Speaker
I think I probably frustrated my wife during this time. She's like, why are we buying more tents? Why are we buying more? Now we buy buildings. She's like, why are we buying more buildings? Because it's not my time to get rich during COVID, okay?
00:28:28
Speaker
It's my time to be a provider for both people in need and my family. This is my time to pour equipment into the business. So if I could take this time and I could get these long-term installs to buy the tents that I never in my life thought I could afford to buy, then that's what I was going to use this time for.
00:28:48
Speaker
There was a lot of risk in there, a lot of risk. Don't get me wrong, because if Beachview said that that tent was 40K and I only had like 20K in my bank account, I was upside down, right?
00:28:59
Speaker
And if it didn't last, like there was a lot of risk in there. But I just felt like I felt peace about it. And I was out there working so much that I don't know I ever sat down and thought about how much risk I actually had on my shoulders because I was in the field. And you guys might get like this, right?
00:29:15
Speaker
I get excited when I get to leave the office. It doesn't happen often anymore. I get to leave the office and I get to go on to the job site. And I'm like, no wonder I was so young and dumb. Cause I just, you get, there's times where I want to there's times where want to get back off that job site and I want to get right back to the office. It goes both ways. It goes back and forth.
00:29:32
Speaker
It does go back and forth, but aren't we blessed that we get to do both of it. And it's fantastic. Like, and so sometimes you just get out in the job site and then you get in the groove and you're like, Like, this is what I signed up for. I get to work with my hands. I get to build something.
00:29:45
Speaker
I get to walk away from it at the end of the day and see what we did. and that's ah and that's what yeah And that's what I tell my guys all the time. We've had this conversation on here before is, you know, they don't understand. They think it's great. And, you know, i've had this conversation with one of my guys back here and
Managing a Large Team
00:29:59
Speaker
and they say, oh it's great. You get to go to your office and you get to go home and...
00:30:03
Speaker
this and that we're working 60, 80 hour weeks. And I said, yeah, but listen, I said, let me tell you, when I go home at night and I finished feeding all my kids and I get my kids to bed, my wife goes to bed, I lay there staring at the ceiling. and when I do fall asleep, I either wake up in the middle the night with anxiety or I wake up thinking about things that i need to do for tomorrow or what's going to happen. How am going get this done? How am I, how my guys going to get fed, how they're going get work done and what goes on.
00:30:25
Speaker
I said, but differences with you guys, I said, I would love to go back and work 68 hour, 80 hour weeks. Sometimes I said, because With you guys, you work that 60-hour week, you park that truck, and you leave it.
00:30:36
Speaker
And you leave everything with it, and you go home, and you don't take it with you. We take it with us. Our mind never stops. Never stops. 100%. So I do love those days of going back out in the field.
00:30:48
Speaker
But the problem is now, when we go out to the field, you take your office work with you, and then you have to take it home and finish it, along with doing everything in the field. I woke up at 4.30 yesterday morning because I was out in Los Angeles the week before.
00:31:01
Speaker
And I and i ah left my office about 6 o'clock last night. And so I'm i'm like 13 hours. And I didn't take lunch. My wife came upstairs. She like brought me lunch, like brought me coffee. I'm like, I didn't leave my office. I was like, I even had to pee. I'm not going to lie.
00:31:17
Speaker
And I was like shaking my leg. Like, I got to finish typing this email because I'm on a roll. I got to stop. And then I got off to go to the bathroom. So it's like, oh, yeah, you know, there's just stuff. And it's it's all exciting.
00:31:28
Speaker
Oh, it's fantastic. And so, you know, with that, I know you grew that warehouse in Orlando and that's basically your headquarters now, right? it is i know you're not there, but your headquarters is in Orlando, correct?
00:31:40
Speaker
Yeah, headquarters in Orlando, we have, I'd say, 28,000 square feet in one building and then 15,000 to 16,000 square feet in another building. And then one mile down the road, we have a yard where we've got about three acres with a detached building and, you know, metal and Duratrac and stuff like that that could be outside but covered is typically in the yard.
00:32:03
Speaker
Well, I know you're kind of like Kyle in a way that Kyle has almost every any every manufacturer's tent in his warehouse because let's be honest, Brian can't say no. So what for you, how do you buy your product and what do you decide on? And and is there is it because you partner with somebody that has some of that? And then, you know, how do you go about that process?
00:32:21
Speaker
So we look at long term, what is going to be beneficial for us. And of course, we also look at and this is probably weighs more importantly than money and long term needs for us is we look at who is going to get it to us the fastest.
00:32:38
Speaker
Because the faster we can get it, the faster we can rent it. Last week, I mentioned just a minute ago that I was in Los Angeles, you know, so for the riots, we got called through the state national guard.
00:32:53
Speaker
We sent out, was like 40 semis, 45 semis. And we put up 260,000 square feet within 10 days from the time we got the call until the time that we arrived.
00:33:07
Speaker
And you shipped it all from Florida? So I was just going to say I shipped probably 30 semis from Florida and then the other 10 semis worth of equipment. Do you guys know Cora?
00:33:18
Speaker
know Yeah. Yep. So Ryan, I called him or his sales girl and I said, Hey, could you lend us a hand? We have a lot of stuff.
00:33:29
Speaker
We have a big need. i need, i need some stuff to get there and start setting up because I have a timeline I have to meet and then I'll fill in the rest. And they're like, you know, well, we have the stuff, but we don't have all the guys like tomorrow. I'm like, no problem.
00:33:42
Speaker
I literally bought think it was an entire, almost an entire flight. It was 150 airplane seats between two planes. How you even do that? And I flew everybody. I don't know because I wasn't the physical person who bought it.
00:33:57
Speaker
Cody, you know, Cody, I think my ops guy. So he bought it. And then Brent flew in like immediately that night. And Brent was there and he got, he went to the Marriott. He found the Marriott with like 50 rooms and he bought out all 50 rooms.
00:34:11
Speaker
And then we bought them for like, want say 12 days. And then we got rental cars and we got vans and we got a shuttle bus. And, you know, we just we're logistics, right? Like we just we hit the ground. And then we were really strong today at logistics.
00:34:24
Speaker
Equipment is like the secondary easy piece. Today, what we're really strong at is how do we move all these people and where do they come from? And with all the and ever changing immigration laws, you know, look at that. That was something we had to we had to battle probably four or five months ago is, you know, we we hired a new HR director.
00:34:43
Speaker
And, you know, at first TPS was was permitted and great. Then TPS, you know, they did away with I believe it was the 2019 round and before or after.
00:34:54
Speaker
And so we had out of everybody. Thank God we had. I don't want to say only three people because they were our three. Like, we love these people. They've been with us for a very long time. But we couldn't hire them anymore.
00:35:07
Speaker
We have too big of a target on our backs. We're too large. We can't have somebody say, hey, you know, there's three guys that are working illegal at IRAM. And, you know, all of a sudden we show up, right? It's probably going to be a competitor who makes that call.
00:35:19
Speaker
So I'm like, well, we can't have that exposure, especially with all the state work that we do.
Inventory and Partnerships
00:35:24
Speaker
So I call our HR person and we pay them in advance for the next 30 days of work.
00:35:31
Speaker
And then we had to say, hey, guys, the three of you, we can't have you anymore. Two of the three came from Kirby when they closed. Now they went back out into the industry for another very large tank company in Orlando.
00:35:43
Speaker
They decided to hire them. So it's like, you know, but we weren't going to be the ones to break the wall. How many guys you have on staff currently? I'll break it down for you. Full-time, we're at like 52, 53.
00:35:54
Speaker
I know because I just got the phone call yesterday from Celia in HR that said, Jonathan, we're over 50. We now need to offer healthcare. care And I insurance yep i said, oh joy, sounds good.
00:36:07
Speaker
We're in the in the marketplace for that right now. i think we found something, but we're in the marketplace for that right now. So we just hit over 50 full-time. Part-time, we've got about 160 part-time.
00:36:18
Speaker
And those are true part-time, like they're employees, but they're not where we need to provide that healthcare care stipend for them. They're not over that threshold. So are those guys, like they might work 70 hours this week and then next week they might work no hours? Is that kind of how it is depending on how busy you are?
00:36:35
Speaker
Yes, exactly right. And then we do fill in too with the with two staffing companies. We try not to use the staffing companies religiously because although it's hard not to, because it's so easy to pick up the phone and say, hey, I need 20 warm bodies.
00:36:48
Speaker
But, you know, the staffing company, you never truly know what you're going to get. So it's a little it's a little difficult to navigate those waters sometimes. Do you feel it's easier to make the connections with the with other companies? Or do you want to keep growing this thing to where you keep buying more inventory, you keep getting bigger and bigger and and more structure and more, just more assets? Or do you want to keep partnering with people in the way that you are? Because you have these connections, it may be a little easier to say the size you are and partner with these people.
00:37:19
Speaker
So two things. We are not anti-partnerships at all, although we get that, you know, people get that vibe sometimes, but we are not anti-partnerships at all. The thing about it is, is that a lot of our stuff is long-term.
00:37:34
Speaker
And a lot of our stuff is spur of the moment. I don't get stressed out when someone says I need a 40 meter tomorrow. I get excited. But it's very hard in this industry to find other people who are also excited and not stressed out.
00:37:49
Speaker
I think for me, you know, when I call some people, like they tell me, they like laugh at me And like, I just don't want to, I don't want to necessarily deal with that. You know, it's like, bro, like I've only got two hours to figure this out. Like, I don't, you're, you're laughing just took 10 seconds.
00:38:02
Speaker
So I'm never going to get that time back. Like, do you have it? Yes or no? Yes. Okay, great. Send me a price. Hang up the phone. Move on to the next thing. Like we are so operational that I haven't found a lot of people that get excited when the 40 meter needs to go up in the middle of the night tonight.
Strategic Acquisitions
00:38:17
Speaker
there's a lot of content something that you want to buy is that. So does that make you want to then buy it because they, their people don't want to do it? Yeah. I mean, I bought my first 40 meter, you know, last year or year before.
00:38:28
Speaker
And, you know, I added onto it just two months ago. It's a Lowe's burger. I bought it used again. Lowe's burger couldn't get it to me fast enough. So I called Tim at national and I was like, Tim, Could help me out with this 40 meter? He's like, if you give me two months rental.
00:38:42
Speaker
And I was like, yeah. So I gave him his rental money. And then I paid full purchase price for the used tent because I just needed it fast. And for me, I'd rather spend my money on a, what some people call a stupid decision to buy, to pay new price for a used tent.
00:39:00
Speaker
But I gave Tim rental money. I let Tim now go buy another tent, or maybe he decided he didn't need the 40 meter. So he's putting that you know million dollars, whatever it ended up being into some other asset to help grow Tim's business.
00:39:15
Speaker
And then for me, I'm able to do that, right? I'm able to have a 40 meter now that I can go re-rent. It's just about making smart decisions. And to answer your question, Nate, I mean, we just put money down on our on our first ever triple-decker.
00:39:29
Speaker
And it's because, you know, I found a customer that was willing to say yes and sign a four-year contract. Doesn't quite, of course, pay for the for the triple meter, but it pays for enough of it that it now makes sense for me to go and get that triple decker.
00:39:45
Speaker
I just haven't found a lot of people who like saying yes, so I buy stuff. but and No, that makes sense. I mean, and it also builds the relationship within the industry with Tim. Although I think Tim just sold his business, if I do recall. So maybe he did take that million dollars and go do something else.
00:39:57
Speaker
I don't know. messaged me. I don't know. He was messaging me. I think he emailed me yesterday for some South Florida border border work. So he emailed me yesterday and I was like, yeah, I'll help you or, you know, respond or what what have you. Like, you know, I try to work with everybody.
00:40:12
Speaker
Oh, I understand. Yeah, totally. Just some rapid fire questions I got for you here and then kick it over Kyle for Kyle's questions. What has become some of your best assets within your company?
00:40:24
Speaker
Durantrek. I bought about 450 to 500,000 square feet last year. Duratrek is definitely one of my best assets. I'll make Mark proud by saying, if you don't have Duratrek and you're like me, who at one point had 100,000 square feet of plywood and stringers, please stop and buy Duratrek.
00:40:44
Speaker
Because hundred precise I used to have a magnet with me like on wheels just to pick up all the screws at the end, you know, from all the plywood and stringers. Like it's just a mess and it's faster.
00:40:56
Speaker
So DuraTrek is a good one. And structure is our best thing, I would say is our best thing. And then in addition to that, I would also say
Continuous Growth
00:41:04
Speaker
disco beds. We do a lot of cots because of our emergency part of our kind of our of our business.
00:41:10
Speaker
Yeah, I would say I'll leave it at those three things, followed by maybe white Samsonites. Or I'm sorry, white resins. White resins are always a good one. We're up to about 20,000 white resins. What has been your best year yet?
00:41:21
Speaker
What do you mean? Best year financially? Yeah, financially best year. What has everybody, what has it been for you? Is it not number, you have to give to number one. It's the same answer for the last eight years. Every year? Last year. Last year has been the best year.
00:41:34
Speaker
Good job, Kyle. This year we are going to blow last year out of the water. And every single solitary year, except for I think there was a nominally right after COVID. Like COVID happened, we hit the slump.
00:41:47
Speaker
and And then we were like, okay, now we got all this stuff. We were done with that. We got to ramp up into events, right? And so now it's been a continual growth every single solitary year. And we were just named a market mover 2025, number one with percentage growth market mover.
00:42:03
Speaker
I think we clocked about 32 million last year. And this year we're on track to almost double our 32 to 60. my God. Jesus, your dues are going go up in ARA. You be careful. I know. I'll gladly pay them.
00:42:17
Speaker
We're about to hit 60, though. Good, good. What changed the game for you? So I stopped looking at it used to really like people didn't realize that they were feeding into the ego, the excitement, right? The the the like their negative impact was feeding into me positively and people didn't realize back then.
00:42:36
Speaker
And so when like when people would, you know, not picking on you, Nate, but like when people would call, you were nice about it. But a lot of times people would call me and be like, what are you doing? You know, and they kind of get angry at me because they weren't they weren't doing it.
00:42:48
Speaker
And so that gave me more fuel. And so what changed for me? um i used to look at those people as like motivation and truly we aren't competing. And that's why um' I have like peace.
00:43:02
Speaker
Right. Like I have total joy and total peace because. I'm not trying to compete with, you're on the call, so I'll use Chattanooga, right? But I'm not trying to compete with Chattanooga. We're not trying to take business from Chattanooga.
00:43:14
Speaker
We're just trying to do better than rent everything last year. And so I'm, I'll like, when people call, they're like, I don't know if you'll rent me these 10,000 chairs, but I need, like, of course I'll rent them to
Innovative Strategies
00:43:27
Speaker
you. And not only will I rent them to you, I'll do it cheaper than anyone else. Cause I just want to help you.
00:43:32
Speaker
And you know, you're in the industry too, right? Like, I just want to help you. So for me, I think what changed is when I stopped looking at people and like being so competitive with people and I just looked at myself and said, I just want to do better than we did last year.
00:43:46
Speaker
Now, like my team, we are driving towards a vision. We are driving towards a goal. and And that's how we're able to just keep doing better and better and better every year. One year, I imagine we'll we'll max out, right?
00:43:58
Speaker
One year, like we'll hit our plateau. But it hasn't been in the last six years. And I don't see it happening next year. I can already tell you it's not happening this year. So I don't see it happening next year. But one year, one year will hit that plateau.
00:44:10
Speaker
And then we'll like exist there for a minute or I'll probably bail at that point. I'll be like, I grew it big enough. I'm out. You know, as you said, the triple decker, it just occurred to me where I think that is going and what that is for.
00:44:23
Speaker
Because i'm pretty sure i just I'm pretty sure I lost a 30 by 60 meter to you because of that. So now that, the high moment. Yeah. All right. Next question. Next question.
00:44:34
Speaker
This is never getting posted. Oh, man. All good. Do you guys have any travel restrictions within the U.S.? like do you decide Is there anywhere is there a price tag?
00:44:45
Speaker
where you like Are you going to go do a 30 wide across the United States? and And if so, why would you do that? Or is it is it does it have to be a size restriction for you guys to travel?
00:44:56
Speaker
It does have to be a size restriction, but I would say it's more we put it back on the customer. So a lot of companies, when they pick up the phone and they say, hey, we need a 20 by, give you a perfect example, air gas.
00:45:09
Speaker
company, right? They call me in Orlando, Florida, and they're in Texas. And they say, I need a 20 by 40 for Friday. And I said, like the amount of money I got to charge you for a 20 by 40 to take it to Texas. Like it's like, just for me to be nice is going to cost you like 17 grand.
00:45:25
Speaker
And they were like, Yeah, but we've called everyone locally and no one can do it. And the two vendors that we had do it over the five years of doing it, like two of them, we know we don't like, we don't want to do it with them.
00:45:38
Speaker
And the other multitude of people, it's kind out middle of nowhere in Texas. It's not like in a big metropolitan area. So the other people are too small. They don't have it available. Like we need it. Our CEO is coming. I said, all right, it's 17 grand.
00:45:50
Speaker
They literally wired it that afternoon. And I was like, boys, load up the truck. You're going to Texas. So what we call that in our industry, right, in our business model is we call that an anchor event, okay?
Remote Setups and Opportunities
00:46:02
Speaker
I'm giving you some secrets here. But we y'all we call that an anchor event. So that is what's going to pay for us to go there and come back. Now, what we're going to do is we're going to call our marketing department and we're going to say, i need Saskatchewan, Wisconsin, middle of nowhere.
00:46:17
Speaker
I need you to drop within three hour radius of Wisconsin, this this location. I'm making up a location. I need you to saturate it with Google AdWords. We've got tents on sale this weekend. We've got chairs on sale this weekend.
00:46:28
Speaker
We need to get a truckload heading there. Now, I only have 10 days to book as many orders as I can. So I go to our sales department and I say, hey, anyone calls from Saskatchewan, Wisconsin, I want to know about it.
00:46:40
Speaker
Or our sales director knows about Or Alex, our GM knows about it. Whatever. And so we look at it and we're like, okay, no, we're not going to go do 10 chairs. We're not going to go do 20 chairs, but the wedding that needs 150 shabaris.
00:46:51
Speaker
Yup. Throw it in the truck. You need this, throw it in the truck. So now sometimes we'll take that route, which started at 17 K that didn't make any sense in the world. And we'll be profiting 25 K and coming back like with smiles on our face. Like, I'm like, guys, stop at the Exxon, buy whatever you want. You're doing good.
00:47:09
Speaker
And so like, that's kind of the model, right? Or like when we go to Kentucky, We take other things around Kentucky. So when we go to Kentucky and we're there for two months, we were doing stuff at the Utility Expo. We still have stuff at the Utility Expo. We've got our customer that we both share.
00:47:25
Speaker
We'll do Kentucky Derby Fest. We'll sub stuff to Kentucky Derby. We'll sub stuff to like a downtown marathon or whatever. like And we've got now some stack. to where we're filling out the trucks that are going there anyway with the labor and the staff that we already have anyway. And so we call that an anchor event. Anything above the anchor event is gravy.
00:47:44
Speaker
Right. That's a good way to put it. I mean, good. is that's That's great marketing. great You're the first person who's ever made traveling and putting up tents make sense to me. I tell Nate all the time, like, i don't know how you guys make money going on the road.
Building Relationships
00:47:57
Speaker
It depends. it Those go backs, you know, those go backs.
00:48:00
Speaker
Yeah. oh What's your favorite event? I will tell you one admittingly awful story. There was one time for a job that we were doing. I can't even remember where it was. It was across the country. And we were one base plate short. I don't know who loaded it. They miscounted it, whatever.
00:48:16
Speaker
I kid you not. We flew a guy back to the warehouse. He grabbed the base plate, checked it in his suitcase and flew back with it. Like, just Yeah, of course it's too brand. It saves way more time.
00:48:29
Speaker
And sometimes too, what you have to understand is there's opportunity cost too. And opportunity cost is not in your business loss bucket. That's in your marketing bucket.
00:48:40
Speaker
And so, you know, I'm doing a big event in Montana this weekend. It's um under the big sky. And I do this big event out there in Mumford and Sons and all these people coming out there to to perform.
00:48:51
Speaker
And they were like, hey, I need, you know, six foot tables. And my initial answer was no. And then this is a newer customer. So then my answer became yes. And I realized that I didn't have them locally because I'm in the middle of Montana.
00:49:03
Speaker
It was cheaper for me to call Shavari. So I call Shavari. I remembered, of course, right? They just opened up this Las Vegas warehouse. I look up, okay, it's 15 hours from Las Vegas to here. I call my broker. I get a truck.
00:49:15
Speaker
We load up the tables. They called for them yesterday. Today we're delivering six foot tables. It just comes down to logistics. Brand spanking new. It just comes down to logistics. Did I make money on that? No, I lost like 10 grand, but it's opportunity cost. That's in my marketing budget.
00:49:30
Speaker
Oh yeah. No, 100% agree with you.
Work-Life Balance
00:49:33
Speaker
What's been your, uh, one of your favorite events that you guys have done back when Trump was in his first term, Kennedy space center, he would go there back when Elon and him were friends.
00:49:43
Speaker
He would go there a lot. And I was able to do all the tents for the Secret Service when he would come and, you know, park the Beast and the stage when he would come off. And it was just cool.
00:49:55
Speaker
It doesn't matter if you're a Republican or a Democrat. It's just cool to see the president of United States coming down those stairs on Air Force One. It gives you goosebumps. And, you know, and you're standing there and you're just getting a front row seat to all of it.
00:50:08
Speaker
Fast forward today, those same Secret Service guys are around. And now, you know, we're in your neck of the woods, Kyle. That's the only thing I'm doing there. Okay, I'm staying away from you. But we're at Bedminster, Trump Bedminster golf course, and we're doing all the tents up there for Secret Service every time he goes and plays golf.
00:50:24
Speaker
Jonathan, you can tell us a little bit about your family and and your guys' life and how that how your work-life balance goes with, I mean, you're all over the damn place. And I know you you have a you were in Orlando, now you're out in Montana, which just tell us a little bit how that works and the lifestyle that you chose now versus what you were doing and how this whole balance is going as of today.
00:50:46
Speaker
Yeah. So, I mean, we need a whole nother podcast episode or to really get into that. But I became a workaholic at a certain point in my career.
00:50:57
Speaker
i think it was, of course, I just discovered a passion for this. And so with a passion became a purpose. And ultimately, I ended up putting too much of my purpose in my business.
00:51:09
Speaker
And, and too much of my and and and identity in my business and almost caused me to wreck my marriage. And we could just kind of leave it there. And we can do a whole nother podcast on that. I have no problem going into it because every guy needs to hear it But as far as work-life balance goes today, thank God I didn't wreck my marriage.
00:51:27
Speaker
I realized, and amongst a lot of counselors talking some sense into me as well, that, hey, this isn't sustainable. This isn't the dream and the vision that you want. What is enough, right?
00:51:39
Speaker
And so I think you, I slowed down a lot. optics have me looking like i'm all over the world we we work very hard on optics right to make sure our marketing and our advertising stays consistent however i'm standing on the side of the road because i'm on my way to go pick up a boat right in quarter lane so i'm doing something fun tomorrow's my son's birthday i won't pick up the phone you know throughout the entire day you know what are we doing this weekend this weekend we're going to an event we're going to go hang out and as a family like
00:52:10
Speaker
My average day-to-day, am in my home office working. I'm going to say, I mean, yesterday was an anomaly because I played hooky last week.
00:52:22
Speaker
But an average day for me probably consists between four to five hours in my office. The rest of the time is on the phone just as people call. And, you know, of course, that's still working. But I'm working while I do other things.
00:52:36
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. From wherever I am. Monday, I was working from a cabana. ah you know, and hanging out in the pool. And today I'm working from the side of the road, but it just depends.
00:52:47
Speaker
So for me, work-life balance is really important. I would say the vast majority of my time today is spent on my family and growing that. We have a beautiful house, lot of land in Montana.
00:52:58
Speaker
And, you know, how that came to be, as I asked my wife, when things were really good, I said, hey, I said, can you let me know, like you followed me around for 10 years? like hanging on to the back of a car, whatever I wanted to do, i did.
00:53:13
Speaker
ah went to work at all hours of the night. We ended up, you know, it was cool with one kid, but now we're at five kids, right? Or four kids at that time. And now with a fifth, And so I'm like, hey, like, what do you want to do? Like, this is my life, but it's also your life.
00:53:28
Speaker
And I'm making that conversation sound a whole lot nicer than it really was, probably. She said, I really want to go to Whitefish, Montana. And I'm like, really? Whitefish, Montana? I'm like, why do you want to go to Montana?
00:53:39
Speaker
I just want to spend more time outside in nature, side by sides and four wheelers and like just hanging out as a family, going on hikes, going to glacier. I'm like, okay.
00:53:51
Speaker
But they probably don't have a steam cleaner, like ah like a dry cleaner there. And they probably don't have Starbucks there. And I don't know if I can go. Anyway, I came here pleasantly surprised. They do have Starbucks, about six of them. was going to ask. They got Starbucks. They do have a dry cleaner. And I hardly wear dry clean clothes anymore.
00:54:07
Speaker
But things that were important to you no longer are. That's awesome. I love that. that's that is I feel like we could have a whole episode about the whole relationship. It's funny you say that because my wife has actually been on me about having a Wives of the Rental Industry podcast and be on here and bring the wives on so that they can be interviewed and talk about what it's like to live through the insanity of our, our day-to-day lives, but not only just our day-to-day lives, but our marriages at home and bringing everything home with us because God knows we don't shut off when we go home a lot.
00:54:40
Speaker
And when we take that shit home with us, it doesn't always end up good. So imagine, right. Right. When you're thinking about all the impossibles that you're doing, like, your brain doesn't stop. So then, you know, you walk around like a zombie or a shell of a person.
00:54:54
Speaker
And so, you know, you're just thinking, and this industry does that to you. So like I said, I'm not, I'm not joking. I'm totally serious because that's a big passion of mine. And, you know, just that work-life balance is huge. You can ask my team, my guys, like it's big because you have to enjoy what you do. And, you know, Alex, my GM, i'll I'll talk about him for a minute. Just, I mean, there's times where he's on the road too much.
00:55:16
Speaker
He asked if he could bring his spouse with him. And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. No problem. Like whatever it takes, because if things aren't good at home, things aren't going to be good at work. Sometimes it's more important to make sure that the yeah spouse is happy at home instead of the guy at work. Exactly.
00:55:31
Speaker
So those are the those are the things, you know, those things are very, very important.
Advice for Newcomers
00:55:34
Speaker
Jonathan, any advice for someone new in the industry, whether it be an installer, an owner, what's the best word of advice you can give someone?
00:55:41
Speaker
Best word of advice is you will grow in the margins of risk. you need to be careful about your risk and you need to make sure that you do it in order. You need to make sure that your house is protected first, meaning your family and everything under it, your roof, right?
00:55:57
Speaker
And then you need to then go and and only risk if you're willing to work. That's it. I wouldn't ever sign my name to anything that I wasn't willing to back.
00:56:08
Speaker
And so if I'm going to, when a hurricane happens, Don't do this anymore, but I did sleep in the back of my truck for two months and shower at the Love's gas station because I signed my name that this was going to get done and it had to get done and it paid off. So if you're not willing to do that, don't sign your name because more sweat happens in the banker's office than it does when you're setting up a tent on an event rental site.
00:56:32
Speaker
That's the advice i would give and don't overextend yourself because it's easy to do in this industry. There will always be another job. And I could also give more advice in saying, don't forget to say no, because there will always be
Future Plans and Industry Growth
00:56:45
Speaker
another job. Don't take the first job that comes in your door.
00:56:47
Speaker
And I'll attest that one too. Do you guys know Jacob Berardi? Hank Parker. So Jake taught me that one. He says, Jonathan, don't take the first job. Take the second job. Charge the first one really high because there's another one coming right behind it.
00:57:00
Speaker
And I used to never understand that until today. And I also have to tell you, I'd be remiss if I didn't say, you know, during COVID when I needed a bunch of equipment really, really fast, something that Jake helped me with is he was he had a partnership that wasn't going too well down in Florida and Tampa.
00:57:16
Speaker
A lot of people obviously know about it in the industry, but that partnership, without saying too much, needed to end. And when it ended, he sold me all of the assets that were down there in Tampa.
00:57:29
Speaker
And I had some jobs at the time. Again, I took another big risk. I mean, it was it was over a million dollars worth of structure. And I was able to scrape by and and pay for it.
00:57:40
Speaker
So you'll grow in the margins of risk. Well, that's some great advice. And I think we could do a whole nother dang podcast to finish out all this stuff here, but um um we won't keep you on the side of the road any longer. I know you got a boat to get, but you know, I do appreciate you coming on today and it has been interesting to just watch you grow and the things that you have done. And I also think it's really cool just to see, see somebody that has come in the industry the way that you have. And, you know, that's,
00:58:05
Speaker
a lot that you're talking about is things that we talk about and how people, you know, these manufacturers need to go after the smaller guys right now and get them in their, in their, you know, nest and, and take care of them because they end up like you one day. And, you know, and then one of these manufacturers passed on them because they were small and now they're growing and they're where you're at. So kudos to you.
00:58:27
Speaker
Awesome to watch. I love seeing what you're doing with your team as well, and especially with your family in Montana. And I'm kind of jealous about that, not going lie. But, yeah, we'll have to get you back and visit me anytime.
00:58:40
Speaker
We will. And we'll to get you back on here again. Maybe we'll do a live show out there and and come chat with you. so You let me know.
Closing Remarks
00:58:46
Speaker
hey Hey, if any listeners are interested in ah pulling back the curtain at I Rent Everything, there's an ATA boot camp there. There is. Yes.
00:58:55
Speaker
but 7th and 8th, 6th and seven yeah I should know the dates. I'm on the board. We'd love to have you guys. You've got to check out the place. You'll be totally unimpressed. It's all good, man. We appreciate you coming on today. get that boat.
00:59:13
Speaker
Appreciate y'all. See ya.