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Jeff Gepner An OG Tent Peddler
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Nate and Kyle Sit down With Jeff to discuss his career from "Peddling" tents to now entering the Temporary HVAC world!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Under the Vinyl'
00:00:03
Speaker
Well, I got up early, got a crew to lead. Sitting up, pulls and ropes, that's a lie for me. From a wedding to a fair, from the field to the town. the one you call when you need to turn up or down.
00:00:17
Speaker
All right, another episode of Under the Vinyl here. ah got Kyle with me as always. Kyle, how you doing? Hanging in there, Nate. Got a beautiful day out here in New Jersey, so I can't really complain. At least somebody does. It's been...
00:00:29
Speaker
between nashville
Tent Project Update
00:00:30
Speaker
and chattanooga it's been raining for two days straight and i don't think we can catch a break at this point yeah i think they're heading those storms heading my way by the end of the week so i'm trying to get stuff knocked out early in the week and survive the rain you guys got anything fun going on this week no we're just starting a long-term project we'll be on for the next three or four weeks so getting through the hurdles of getting mobilized and making sure everyone's on the same page which is always fun anything fun with that project No, it's all just pole tents. I'm a pole tank guy through and through, so a bunch of pole tents. There's 130 them by the time we're done, so it's pretty good.
00:01:06
Speaker
Can't complain about
Guest Introduction: Jeff Geppner
00:01:07
Speaker
it. Well, we've got another good guest lined up today, as always. We've got somebody... who's been multi facets of the industry. Everybody knows him. If you don't, you're about to get to know him today.
00:01:18
Speaker
But he has done a lot of great things with a lot of different people and probably some stuff that people don't know that he's done. So without further ado, we'd like to introduce Jeff Geppner. Jeff, how you doing?
00:01:29
Speaker
Thank you. Good. Thank you very much. Appreciate the opportunity to share a little bit of my 40 plus years in this industry with you all and your listeners.
Jeff's Career Beginnings
00:01:38
Speaker
Absolutely. So Jeff, you're currently the marketing and sales director for Whispercool.
00:01:42
Speaker
But as I said at the start, you've had quite the journey. ah If people know you, they they know a little bit about you or a lot about you. And then, you know, if people don't know you, I think they definitely need to get to know you because I think you've done some really cool things and could give some really good insights as to what you have done.
00:01:57
Speaker
So if we could, let's just start. I guess let's start at the beginning. And how long ago was that? This was probably 1984.
00:02:06
Speaker
and And actually, we could flip back to 1979 because at my core, I'm a tent peddler. In 1979, I went to work as a manufacturer's rep for Eureka Tent.
00:02:20
Speaker
Eureka Tent is a company that had been around in the in the tent and awning business for many years before I joined them. And i think I think you heard Steve say last week that in those days, it was the tent and awning guys who were the tent rental companies in this country.
00:02:36
Speaker
Eureka tent was purchased back in the early 70s by a consortium of Johnson Wax who thought that the United States was going to go on a four-day work week.
00:02:48
Speaker
So they started buying up all these recreational companies, which included Eureka Tents, Camp Trails backruck Backpacks, Old Town Canoe. They bought a Minn Kota Motors,
Evolution of Eureka Tent
00:02:59
Speaker
Rod and Reel Company, Fishing Tackle Company, and other big companies out there like Beatrice Foods.
00:03:06
Speaker
They all started doing the same thing. Some of the really big names that you know out there in sporting goods, Coleman, Evinrude, Mercury Motors, they were all all really got juiced up during that time period because these giant companies who had lots of big sales and marketing budgets bought them, thinking that there wasn't a four-day work week. Of course, there never was.
00:03:28
Speaker
But that didn't stop us from getting out there and trying to sell camping tents to the industry. And I did that for you know ah number of years. And then what happened was that the camping tent manufacturing went offshore.
00:03:43
Speaker
in about the middle of the 80s. And Eureka, which was based in Binghamton, New York at the time, they um they had a manufacturing facility and they had ah ah group of people who were who could sew and cut and do all those sorts of things.
00:03:58
Speaker
And the core of the Eureka tent company where were were the guys that had worked on the tent crew during the summer months.
Innovative Sales Strategies
00:04:07
Speaker
Johnson Wax did some study and said, hey, there's all these rental companies out there and they you know they' the tool business is kind of on the decline right now and there's a little bit of a recession and maybe maybe there might be some opportunity to put some of these tool rental guys in the tent business.
00:04:25
Speaker
And we have a place that we can make them and we have a company that and you know we have we have the resources to go out there and market this product. So in addition to making some of the larger canvas tents at the time, Eureka got into the party canopy business.
00:04:41
Speaker
10 by 10, 15 by 15, 20 by 20, 20 by 30, and 20 by 40. Who were the counter? And that's where I started. And one day, one of the one of the executives at Eureka had a bunch of the reps, hey, are any of you guys interested in selling the the the party and fair tents?
00:05:02
Speaker
Nobody really said anything. And a little later, we had a cocktail party, and one of my buddies from the camping side came up to me and said, hey, Jeff, do you know how long a backpack lasts? And I said, yeah, you know, 15, 20 years, something like that. He said, yeah. And he said, do you know how long ah a camping tent lasts?
Development of the Party Tent Market
00:05:19
Speaker
And I said, yeah, probably maybe about the same, maybe a little bit less. He said, do you know how long a party tent lasts? And I said, no. He said, five years. Up goes my hand. and i Much easier to market then.
00:05:33
Speaker
It has turned out that sort of my history in our industry has been pioneering projects. This was, you know the Eureka was at zero. They had put together a sales and marketing department to to ah sell the party candies. And that's what we did. And we we sold them on the phone.
00:05:51
Speaker
We didn't do a whole lot of calling and running around. My wife, who was a critical part of this project when we got started, you would have called her a telemarketer before they called the telemarketer.
00:06:03
Speaker
What happened was we took some of the things that werere that we were already doing in the camping industry that were new and revolutionary to the 10-rall business. One of them was dating.
00:06:14
Speaker
So we would call up in the fall or the early part of the year and said, hey, you want to buy some of these party canopies? You don't have pay for them. We'll solve it to give them to you in June, of April, June, whenever you want them. And you don't for them until August.
00:06:27
Speaker
That wasn't the way this industry worked at the time. You wanted something, you paid for it right then and there. Or you gave a deposit and you you gave them the rest of the money when they shipped it. So that was ah that was a huge revolutionary thing for everybody. and now How can you go down on that thing? I mean, that's funny.
00:06:44
Speaker
You know, we had explained it six times because they couldn't understand why we would be wanting to do this this way. But for us on the camping side, on the retail side, we've been doing this for long time. So it was no big deal for us.
00:06:55
Speaker
Then we started in on freight allowances. Well, there were no freight allowances that anybody was giving. Hey, you get a certain amount and, you know, we'll pay for half the freight or all the freight. And once again, yeah they're going, what?
00:07:07
Speaker
And yeah, rate allowance. Now we had additional discounts for, know, cash and all the other sorts things. So we started running these party canopy operations like we were doing our retail camping tent operations with, know, we were selling the camping tents to, you know, big companies like Bass Pro and Cabela's.
00:07:24
Speaker
Sears and Kmart. So this was kind of a and a little bit more of a less sophisticated crowd, but they were smart enough. You were all smart enough to to understand what we were doing.
Transition to Luxury Event Tents
00:07:35
Speaker
And we you know we really got that portion of it going. And that's kind how I got started.
00:07:41
Speaker
And how many years did it really take for that to to start taking off at that point? It started taking off probably pretty quickly. I can remember the first ARA show that I went to in Dallas, Texas.
00:07:53
Speaker
Once we got into a certain operation and they had our type of holes and counts and all that other sort of thing, it was maybe a three to four year process where we really started to, you know, really started to make a name for your, and they had all kinds of cooperative type advertisements, brochures and handouts and mobiles and all the merchandising things that once again, nobody else had ever done that in our industry ever.
00:08:22
Speaker
Once again, as I said, it was a kind of a carryover from what we were doing on the retail side, but it was very effective. in selling these party capes. And at that point, that's when started moving into, or Eureka started moving into but larger tents.
00:08:37
Speaker
It wasn't that many years prior that vinyl was introduced as the tent mature. In those early days, it was all striped, yellow, white, red, white,
00:08:48
Speaker
Now, the next phase we see is white, white tents where became not the rage, but all of a sudden, you you how can how can you go wrong with a white tent? It matches everything. And that's when we started to see the introduction, you know, the first introduction of the not sort of the backyard graduation tent business, but more like parties and events using larger white tents.
00:09:13
Speaker
There was an individual in our industry by the name of Harry Oppenheimer, HTO Productions. If there is one individual who's certainly in the Midwest and the East Coast, you know, was the precursor of the raising the bar on a party and event rental business that was a little bit more luxurious.
00:09:31
Speaker
He was the one. There were people doing it on the East Coast, B.J. McBride, Steve Frost, all those guys, you know, and now we're maybe 10 years down road.
00:09:42
Speaker
So we're featuring a lot of white tents, dancing parties, we're starting to dance floors, liners, lighting, you know, i'm trying to create these environments inside tents that were like a you know, like a ballroom.
00:09:55
Speaker
But there was a certain feature and a certain, you know, I don't know, a little panache of it being outdoors in certain, you know, pre-locations. know, you could plant a tent anywhere. There's a nice view of the lake or the ocean or the mountains or whatever. You could plop your tent down there and you could make a pretty fancy operation.
Introduction of Frame and Tension Tents
00:10:12
Speaker
And then from there, we we go to the tension style tents and the frame tents. All of a sudden they became, you know, a big part of the industry. You know, the frame tents got bigger and bigger. They were, you know, when we started, they were like 10 by 10.
00:10:25
Speaker
15 by 15, maybe 20 by 20 was a big one. And now all of a sudden we're seeing, you know, 30 wide and 40 wide frame tents. And we're seeing the introduction anchor in Eureka. They introduced the tension style tents, the peak top tents, a little more of the, you know, the sculptured look, you know, once again, trying to, trying to offer the marketplace something that was different and fancier.
00:10:47
Speaker
And that took off. And then we get another, and then we get 20 or 25 years down the road, and we start to see the introduction of clear span tents. Now we're getting bigger and wider and stronger and and more luxurious.
00:11:01
Speaker
The lighting and everything that goes along with what you're seeing today. And yeah, you guys just got 40 years with it. ah gi yeah So Jeff, who was your first customer? Do you remember? Or who were your first customers? My first customer was Gary Braun.
00:11:18
Speaker
probably And he is he is to this day one of my best friends. It's a vivid story. We tell it all the time. Carol, my wife, she would be on the phone prospect.
00:11:29
Speaker
This was even before we had a computer. And she had little know little little note cards with what do you call
Building Industry Relationships
00:11:35
Speaker
it? dial box, you know, those, I can't remember the name of it. But anyway, she had these note cards and so she's calling up people telling her who, we ah who she was, you know, what we had, blah, blah, blah.
00:11:46
Speaker
She gets ahold of Gary Braun one day. And she said, um, we lived in Madison, Wisconsin. Gary was in Chicago and she said, hey, you've got to go down and see this guy. He wants a 30 by 45. This is a big tent.
00:11:59
Speaker
So I said, OK, yeah, he wants a 30 by 45 green and white. And so I went down, and got in the car, and went down to visit Gary. And he's working at that time with his father. They had they they were they still had stick joints. You know, they were sort of carny guys. They had stick joints.
00:12:15
Speaker
In addition to tents, they had these little booths and had all kinds of games and Kewpie dolls and all this other sort of thing. I don't know. He was like 20 years old. And I remember walking in there one day, he said, you know, was young kid, you know, blue jeans, T-shirt, you know, arms as big as the you the telephone pole.
00:12:32
Speaker
And I introduced myself and I said, yeah, we have a 30 by 40. I'm going to sell you a 30 by 45. And he said, well, you know, I don't really have the money for it right now. I said, that's no problem. can tour an artist. And, you know, that's how we got started.
00:12:45
Speaker
As you well know, he built up a number of businesses over the year and sold them to wrap-ups and whatnot. And he he's still out there, still does, is in charge of the yeah the overall overall orchestration for the Bourbon Festival in Kentucky. i think he And I know he does the Chicago Marathon, and he also does St. Patrick's Day in Chicago.
00:13:06
Speaker
So he was my first real customer. We had a lot of real customers who actually turned out to be some pretty big operators around this country. If you name the top 25 over the last 20, 30 years, I probably was dealing with at least half.
00:13:23
Speaker
They started out small. They were not giant companies when we when we when we came across them. They were just like know everybody else, small, medium-sized companies that grew into larger, profitable, and you know very influential kinds of companies in our industry.
00:13:39
Speaker
So it didn't take long for you to make this whole thing run with for Eureka. So in this process, is this a did you think it was something you wanted to stick with, or did you think it was something that you eventually wanted move on from, and and how did you move on?
00:13:54
Speaker
Well, you know, I was a through-and-through. I was a through and through i and a road dog. I stayed with it because it was where we actually had we actually had two businesses, two rep businesses going on under one umbrella. We had the camping industry one.
00:14:07
Speaker
yeah And I had a partner who ran that. And then as the time transitioned, I ran the party to division. So, yeah, I didn't I never thought about it. I mean, like I liked it. I mean, I still one of the things that was that I was thinking about when you guys were asking me to come on today was when you look back over your your lifetime, when I look over my life, which goes back few years, you know, you think about the people that you came in contact with. And I think Steve got into this a little bit, too, is that is that on the retail side of things,
00:14:35
Speaker
when we were dealing with all these big retail companies you know they had buyers they merchandise managers they had these sales and whatnot and i think that right now i might have contact with two of those people and in our industry i have contact with scores of our of ah people who and many many who i would i classify as friends so it was one of those things where you know it's the kind of industry where you know we're dealing with real people here you know, they're they're making their own decisions.
00:15:03
Speaker
There isn't a lot of corporate-type influence, typically. and and And you find out who people were. And, you know, one of my tenets was, you know, don't burn any bridges. I like to say that, for the most part, I never burned any bridges. So some days you were in and some days you were out then got back in. And and it was it's an industry that never wanted
Independent Sales Career
00:15:24
Speaker
leave. Actually, I am left.
00:15:27
Speaker
Well, and I think that's that's a good piece of advice for anybody in the industry, especially people coming up is, you know, whether you take a new new job in the industry or with a different company, it's not like you just left that company and and you're never going to see them again. This industry is just small enough that everybody knows each other and everybody talks and you know and I never thought that was the case until I moved from my first ah the first company I was with, A's Rent-A-Lot of South Bend, to Brian's Rent-A-Lot in Lexington, Kentucky.
00:15:55
Speaker
And it's such a small world that I ended up buying back the 18-meter structure that i first was the first structure I ever put up at A's, and I bought it and brought it to Brian's. So this industry is this industry is very small in that way, so you are correct. So you don't want to burn any bridges. You're sold the structure that I sold to A's.
00:16:12
Speaker
I don't know if you remember this, but it was the first that you were the first one that ever showed me how to put up that structure. Brett came down and, you know, we bought that structure. It was out of AM general, actually.
00:16:23
Speaker
Yeah, you're no you're absolutely right. I mean it all all the people who are listening, you know you all have sales departments. And that's what you're doing. You're selling your product, you're selling your service, you're selling yourselves.
00:16:35
Speaker
And you've got to keep listening and you can't burn any bridges because that's what really... If I had to say one lesson, that would be the lesson that I would say about you know but but working in this industry.
00:16:47
Speaker
And so when you were at Eureka, were you, you were a full-time Eureka employee or were you like a 1099 contractor?
Brand Transitions and Experiences
00:16:52
Speaker
I was always an independent salesman. That's all that I've ever done. I never worked as an employee for it for anybody and still have it.
00:17:00
Speaker
So I was trying to put the pieces together because you had Great American Tent and Party. Was that when you were, you had Great American Tent and Party? Great American Tent and Party was the rep company. We represented Eureka Tent and a ah lot of ah lot of other hardware items that were underneath it.
00:17:16
Speaker
Tables, lighting, flooring, that kind of stuff. How then did Loesberger fall into play with that? Did you you guys repped Loesberger through Great American? Yes. What happened was that when Loesberger first came over here, they had had sort of a working relationship with Eureka Tent.
00:17:33
Speaker
I think it didn't take too long to figure out that that the relationship, wasn't it wasn't the people relationship, it was the profitability relationship. There wasn't enough margins in there for both people.
00:17:44
Speaker
And I do have to i do have to take tip my hat to Eureka because they for a couple of years they did an incredible marketing job, which is one of the things they were quite good at, of of promoting and and getting Loisberger's name out there. And then when Loisberger separated from Eureka and just began to do their own thing, then I just stayed with both.
00:18:03
Speaker
and and then eventually left Eureka, went to Aztec. That was the end of my... you know I stayed with Aztec for a while. That was the end of my... pole tent career. Yeah.
00:18:14
Speaker
Well, we did interview Alex the other day, and he did tell us a little bit about how you came on with him, and and you were working at Aztec. So you were at... you You kind of you rep the Eureka brand, you rep the Loisberger brand, and now you've rep the Aztec brand. So what was the most fun brand to rep out of those? Or was it just different times and different eras?
00:18:33
Speaker
I think this certainly and answer your question. I mean, we had a lot of fun developing Eureka from zero to something. I left Eureka for a variety of reasons still wanted to stay in the business. And Chuck Miller at Aztec had just bought the remains of Academy Tent after they filed for bankruptcy. And i kind of wanted to stay in the tent business. So I called him up one day and said, hey, look, you know I'm not doing anything with Eureka anymore.
00:18:57
Speaker
Would you consider maybe us you know representing your your your equipment and in the Midwest? yeah And I remember his comment was, I'm Just falling off my chair onto the
Founding Whispercool
00:19:10
Speaker
floor. Let me get up and answer that question for you.
00:19:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'm serious. we want it We want to do this. And he said, okay, we can manufacture some equipment that's compatible with what you've been selling. And that's kind of how it got started.
00:19:25
Speaker
I came on board with them. Giff Gench came on board with them. Another good friend of mine from the industry that we've been boossing buddies and competitors for a lot of years. That's how we got into Aztec. And that was another process.
00:19:38
Speaker
We started starting all over again. You don't get all your customers back when you go on to the next thing. But we worked our way through it and we did quite well until we sold off Great American Party, I think late or early 2000s.
00:19:54
Speaker
And you sold off the Brett then? The Brett. Correct? Yeah. And then a little later on, we sort of got back into it a little bit. That's sort of when I got into the air conditioning units. When you were at Aztec, what was kind of your duties there? Because I know you were still a rep outside of that, right?
00:20:11
Speaker
When they brought everything in full coal in-house, did you go in-house with them or did you stay out? By that time, I had sold out. So when they you took everything in-house, I wasn't a liar.
00:20:22
Speaker
And then... If I recall, you had Leary in there at some point too, right? after After there was a short period of time for two years when I was helping the guys at Leary get started here, Wolfsburger wanted to take everybody in-house.
00:20:35
Speaker
I guess somebody could argue that might have been aging out, but Marlin Hunter, like I am, they wanted somebody that would travel around more and and do more of that, which is fine. Then I said, okay, let's do that. and Then I had known the Broncados for a long time.
00:20:50
Speaker
Another big company out of Kansas City that sold out to one of the roll-up groups. And ah the two brothers, Steve and Nate, were you know putting this thing together with Leary. They said, hey, could you come on board with us and give us a little help as far as getting this thing started?
00:21:08
Speaker
And I stayed with them for you know two years, I think, and decided, hey, you know what? I want to be just kind of done with it. That was about the same. so And I said, I think I'm going to retire. I did contemplate that for about, don't know, somewhere between 15 and 25 seconds. just out of the you know So much of what's happened to me has been like circumstance and coincidence and maybe good luck.
00:21:33
Speaker
But I got a call one day from this guy who found me on the Internet, who just happened to live in the suburb little over south from Madison. And he said, Hey, um I've been building air, portable air conditioners for Tencent structures for a while. And I see your, see your name in there. And he said, I'm kind of looking for somebody that has more contacts in the event business.
00:21:55
Speaker
I have a lot of contacts in the power and air business. I've been contracting and I kind of want to do my own thing.
Whispercool's Innovations
00:22:01
Speaker
Can we get together and meet? And so we did. He convinced me to invest in his company.
00:22:07
Speaker
And are in our company, I guess, to meet it to manufacture these locally. That's kind of how it got started in that business. This individual, I can't tell you the nickname we had for him, but he really didn't have it together. Now, neither did I, but I guess that ah as it turned out, by a quirk of good faith, he walked out the door one day and I found somebody locally who actually knew a lot about this stuff.
00:22:30
Speaker
who also wanted to, and he was more of a manufacturer type, said, hey, I've been doing this for a bunch of years. I've built 300 or 400 of these things. I'd like to incorporate some of the things that I've done. Let's do it. I said, okay, we'll we'll go for it. And that was the birth of Whispercool.
00:22:44
Speaker
And that's the current product that you're selling, That's the current product that I'm selling, yes. So that's how that happened. So we just keep bouncing off the walls andre like a pool ball.
00:22:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So I'm very intrigued by this Whispercool thing, as I know a lot about the tents, or I think I know a lot about tents. The Whispercool, that has really struck me as something very interesting.
00:23:07
Speaker
So just break it down for us a little bit. What I've seen over the years, guys, is all these things that have you know that have sort of become mainstream. you know Not only is our industry and the things that go on it become mainstream, but years ago, you would put up a tent.
00:23:24
Speaker
sidewalls, then we see flooring, lighting, lining, you know, all the other things that are, that are once again, are pretty, pretty mainstream by today's standards that weren't around. and And I guess as, as, as I was getting into these later years, I'm saying, well, you know, when somebody, when somebody has a big event, whether it's in a fancy event, whether it's an intent or a clear span, know, they, they, what they needed to be the same ballroom or an events space.
00:23:52
Speaker
It needs to be decorated, it needs to be lit, and it needs to be climate controlled. Because even when it's not particularly hot or particularly cold outside, if you're in a big structure and it's all buttoned up, you know you need to get some air for it.
00:24:08
Speaker
And it was my idea at that time that, hey, the air conditioning thing seems to kind of make some sense. And you know secret that I'll share with you in the group is I wanted to be a captain of industry before I died.
00:24:22
Speaker
ha Let it be known that I've got up to about first lieutenant. So 12 years ago, we started this company and um and it was it was going well. you know we We found a few customers and we made a decent product. and One of the things about the world things about getting the air conditioning business, I asked a lot of my tent people, I said, not very many people were using air conditioning, but those that were, I said, well, what do you like about what you're doing and what you don't you like about it?
00:24:52
Speaker
And what they didn't like about it was that, you know, these package units were really giant things. You know, it took up a lot of space, took up a lot of truck space and, you know, weren't, you know, weren't all that pretty even if you came and went.
00:25:05
Speaker
And the other thing they didn't like about them was that they were noisy. And the other thing they didn't like at about them was that they were you know maybe they weren't so easy to operate and maintain because the that type of equipment really wasn't made to go for the road.
00:25:18
Speaker
was made on top so we took some of those and and and so we took some of those things into into consideration when we started making we wanted to make them smaller, quieter, lighter.
00:25:32
Speaker
with a whole lot less buttons and bells and gauges and all those things on because when those things don't work, then the whole thing doesn't work. That's what we came up We came up with, you know, a we're the last guys in the world do it.
00:25:46
Speaker
Other companies out there that were already making these things, but, you we kind of took what what what they liked about these things and what they didn't like about these things and incorporated them into ours, and we made them, you know, rental grade that they could pretty much fall off truck and still be one piece and operable.
00:26:02
Speaker
What's the size of these things? we build them We build them in 10 ton, 15 ton, 10 ton. We use 75 to 100 square feet per ton formula, depending on what part of the country.
00:26:15
Speaker
And they also have heaters in them that heat about the same amount of space as the cool electric heat. Okay, so it's basically an an air conditioner that will sit outside of the tent just like normal and then ducked in through the wall?
00:26:30
Speaker
Two ways. You can trim the wall around the AC unit and just plant it there, or you can pull it back and you can put a duct adapter kit on it and run ducting into the tent if you so choose. Three-phase power for those? Well, 230 or 480 volt three-phase power.
00:26:45
Speaker
but four hundred two hundred and thirty volt or four hundred and eighty volts we say For the most part, those all can fit on the back of a trailer, nothing crazy, or pretty easy to transport. Yeah, they're easy transport. There's port pockets on all four sides.
00:26:58
Speaker
On 30-ton units, which are biggest units, which are about footprint, you can get a 50-foot plait, 12 or 15 feet.
Air-Conditioned Tent Demand
00:27:07
Speaker
twelve fifty Are you seeing a heavy push from somebody individually in the industry that is buying a bunch of these yet, or is it still... We've actually got two things going on here. We've got but legacy rental companies like Hurt and Sunbelt, United.
00:27:23
Speaker
They do a lot of sub-renting to our industry. A lot of people like that because don't have to do any work. you know you know That was kind of my question, yeah. easy and you attack another 10 or 15 points onto the price of it. And, and, uh, but others, others, others have like, for example, if you have a longer term product project project,
00:27:41
Speaker
and you kind of want to get into the business, that's a good way to get in because they need that stuff. In many cases, come close to, very close to owning it if you rent it.
00:27:51
Speaker
Some of the people in industry, they just want to control everything. They want to be in there. It's true. What's our price range if this falls into to get to get started? Well, you know, I would say that i would say that anyone who in our industry who is sub-renting more than also six figures a year and air conditioning,
00:28:11
Speaker
it was probably a candidate. It's got benefit. And we're just not talking about the air conditioning, just so everybody knows you know you need some power, from the either from the building that you're at or the generator, and you need the wires and the distribution system and whatnot to run it. But I mean, at the end of the day, it's not a whole lot different than all that everybody got into with their tent business, buying all the other little things that go along with it. but It's not an expensive process, but In the long run, they're easier to install than putting up a tent.
00:28:43
Speaker
Ain't that the truth? Yeah. Yeah. Tell me about it. also but And the structures get bigger and bigger. You're going to see more and more need for that because the customers just aren't going to put up with sweating their face off you on the live firm for a really nice event. It's just not not the way it is. And it's a tough sell.
00:29:02
Speaker
But and I've walked away from a couple of events yeah that I said, I can't be in here anymore. It's just too hot. Well, I think that's a lot of the way of the future with how tenting is going. I'm putting a lot more AC, especially in these garden tents lately. It's like everybody wants a everybody wants a garden tent, but they don't understand how hot they are in the middle of June.
00:29:22
Speaker
And then they get the AC bill from you know a Sun Belt or United, and and it's it's a high bill. It totally changes the ballgame for trying to sell a tent now in the middle of summer. It's a beautiful product, and we love to do it, but it's hard to try and justify that price to them for AC or, you know, or heat. But, you know at the end of the day, it's like how I pitch it is you're essentially asking me to build a building and HVAC it.
00:29:48
Speaker
And you can't go build an an actual building and HVAC it for a fraction of the price with what I'm trying to give you here. So which way would you like to go? If you want to be fully AC and heated and you don't want to pay for it, then go inside.
00:30:00
Speaker
You know, this is a tent at the end of the day. Exactly. Well, and and and and sometimes they don't have a choice. I mean, I think there's times when people are are doing things intense because I can't get it. You can't find anywhere else to do it.
00:30:11
Speaker
It's certain times a year. Everything gets pretty crowded for you, you know, pretty backed up. And, you know, some, you know, some of these are bad things. You're absolutely right. You have to have to make them fully aware of the cost of it and the downside.
00:30:26
Speaker
It is a tough sell. it tough Yeah, but I think it's ah it's it is the right sell for so for somebody that I don't think people in our industry do a deep dive enough into that side of the
Simplifying Tent Air Conditioning
00:30:37
Speaker
business. You know, us tank guys just do tents or just want to do tents and maybe don't want to jump into the AC side.
00:30:42
Speaker
But I think, you know, the AC and power side is the way to go, especially when you marry those two together so much. It's just a matter of do you want another headache? Do you want to deal with another tech on site? Do you want to get another phone call at the end of the day?
00:30:54
Speaker
There's definitely a market out there for the people. it just depends where you are and where you're traveling, I guess, too. We've seen you know exponential growth in our industry over the years. What's interesting is once they're into it, it's like it's like a foregone conclusion. I mean, they they'll never get out of it. They really like it.
00:31:11
Speaker
And it it makes it makes that whole, especially when you're doing maybe when you're sort of a medium large to large operation, all of a sudden, you know, you're waiting around for Sunbelt to show up.
00:31:22
Speaker
You're waiting around for Sunbelt to show up if they get out of there. or or Or it goes down and and, you know, your Sunbelt guys, you know, they're there're no they're nowhere one to be found for a few hours. Yeah, they don't answer the phone, but all that.
00:31:36
Speaker
there's There's all that. and And, you know, on that note, you know, we we tried to dumb this equipment down as far as you could possibly get it. No offense for the company included. But, you know, the whole idea of plug and play is what we're after.
00:31:52
Speaker
turn it on, turn it off, set the thermostat just like you'd set the thermostat in your house. And if something if something does go wrong, you know, any any qualified HVAC tech can come out there and just look at what what green lights are on and off, and he can find out what's the matter with it.
00:32:09
Speaker
So that was another thing that that I was really concerned about because if I was going to put my dent buddies in the air conditioning business, and didn't want them I didn't want them pulling their hair out next to the machine that wasn't Whatever hair's left.
00:32:24
Speaker
Oh, man.
Working with Family
00:32:25
Speaker
So, Jeff, you mentioned... i want to jump back here a little bit, but I love the way you're going with Whisper Cool. I think that's absolutely great. But want to jump back to what you said about your wife being wi along with you for this ride and how she kind of was prospecting for you and with you through this whole thing.
00:32:42
Speaker
Did your... And it sounds like with everything that you had going on, you had a lot going on with these different products and everything. Did you guys kind of do this together? Was this ah an an effort that you both did together and you're both in the business together? Or how did that work?
00:32:54
Speaker
We were both in the business together. Okay. you know i think that I think that if you were to split it into micro and macro... You know, i was sort of the macro guy. You know, I was out there, you know, later on in calling on calling on customers like, you know, like Gary Braun and HTO.
00:33:11
Speaker
And I had the world. I mean, I was in Florida. I was in California. yeah I was everything except sort of the Northeast post. But I was around in a lot of places trying to sell whatever it was that we were selling at the time. So, but Carol and Carol's, Carol's, her bailiwick came as we got on with, you know sort of the smaller and mid-sized scrum guys.
00:33:32
Speaker
who were doing sorry you know part maybe maybe party and Tool and maybe party that had that had come over from Tool over the years. So that was her mix. And I took care of the bigger guys that needed somebody to come and call on them and shake their hands.
00:33:49
Speaker
Do the little dance. so she was So she was a very big part in in in the whole Great American Tent Party and then... Huge. I mean, I can't, you know, and once she stopped, there was no amount of money that could give her to come back to work.
00:34:07
Speaker
So once you guys sold that out, it was kind of, she jumped out of that, ah everything there? and Well, one of the reasons, you know, she wanted to be done. You know, by that time, you know, our kids were kids were out of you out of college and on their own, and shet want she didn't really want to do that anymore, and that was fine. So we had you on yeah had an opportunity with Brett, so we took it.
00:34:25
Speaker
But in the meantime, I think, I mean i have to tell you, We would go to ARA shows, and the customers would wait for her. We'd go, can I help No, no, I'll wait for Carol.
00:34:38
Speaker
She was great on the fall. She was really a huge help. And besides that, we started hiring hiring a few people. you know She ran the office for Carol with a lot of the you know the over overseeing and the admin. So she was a huge part of it.
Favorite Products and Sales Experiences
00:34:54
Speaker
Love that. So in all your years of selling for a bunch of different brands, do you have one product that you enjoyed selling the most? I think, I think that I enjoyed selling most.
00:35:06
Speaker
And why was that? Cause it was, it was something and to think about, you know, I was really good friends with Matthias Roth. Who was the, who was the, who ran the U S division. Great guy.
00:35:18
Speaker
and ah and And, you know, it was ah it was another one of those pioneer projects. I mean, we started at zero. but Let's see if I can put it into words. You know, the way that way that product kind of fits together makes so much sense.
00:35:31
Speaker
By that time, you know, when we were I liked the bigger stuff. I had a little bit more affinity for of the the larger ticket items and the smaller ticket items. But that wasn't the main thing. The main thing was this was such a great product.
00:35:45
Speaker
Wolfsburger US had got it. They inventoried it. where they They supported it. They made the job. real easy I really liked all those guys, Pat. and And all the guys that were at Loseburger at the time. And I guess as I look back on it, it was just, a you know, I liked them all. But I guess if you'rere you're asking that question and I have to single it out, think I enjoyed selling that the most because I could. Okay. Now I got to ask ah a little hard hitter of a question then.
00:36:15
Speaker
So then you went went on to sell Leary. Yes. You know how that goes. Leary and Loisberger here. So how was that? And did you get any backlash on any of that at all whatsoever?
00:36:27
Speaker
Sure, i got backlash. I guess it it was just the circumstance of the time. i guess that that at the end of the day, now that now that that know that now that that's all come and gone, you it's pretty much of pretty much of a I was with Loesberger for 20 years.
00:36:44
Speaker
I was moved by mean helped out Leary for two. and and That was kind of my thing. It it it just felt like back then it when you did it and everything, it it seems like it was kind of in the heat of everything. So it was like,
00:36:56
Speaker
Oh, gosh, you got this guy that's been with Lohsberger for 20 years, and now he hopped over to Leary. What the heck's going on? The way that I explained it was, hey, to the you know they they're they're they're a decent company. If you have room in your inventory for something that they have that you don't have, I mean, you know how it is in in our business. you know Once you get locked into a vendor...
00:37:16
Speaker
because of Because nothing is interchangeable, except maybe California, for tens but outside of that, there isn't much that's interchangeable. So, I mean it wasn't but it wasn't like I was going out and trying to convert people from... I was just saying, hey, if there's some there's some opportunity for you to you know to put a size in your profile, then we can take a look at that.
00:37:37
Speaker
But, you know, as it is the as the time went by, you know, honestly, it wasn't working
Maintaining Industry Relationships
00:37:42
Speaker
that way. So I just decided that... I think it's kind of looked at it like anything else now in the industry where you have all these different manufacturers of a pole tent, all these different different manufacturers of a structure. But then I was just thinking because of the times and and when that was, it was probably really interesting. But seems like everything, once again, you didn't burn any bridges.
00:38:01
Speaker
So, and you know, you've you've kept your name, you've kept your name great over
Current Role and Retirement Thoughts
00:38:06
Speaker
the years. And so that's helped a ton, I'm sure with, with how everything went there. Yeah, I don't know that much different than maybe some professional sports guys who, you know, jump around from here to there and everybody still likes them.
00:38:19
Speaker
I guess, ah and like I say, i I could see that it wasn't working, so I think I'm proud of it. All right. So do you see an end in sight? You know, you said you thought about retiring for 25, 30 seconds, but now, you know, you've got into something new and and very efficient and cool. That's something sexy to bring to the industry. Is it kind of rejuvenate everything? Does it make you want to stick it out for even longer? Or how are you looking now?
00:38:46
Speaker
Three years ago, I sold Whispercool to my McCourt manufacturer. I was ready. I was too old to take it to the next step. I needed somebody else to take it to the next step. We needed more product offerings. We needed a bigger location.
00:39:01
Speaker
We needed a different kind of a production plan. So when that all happened, you know my contract with him was to stay with him for a year. And then after a year was up, he asked if I was interested in staying in the staying in the harness for a little while longer because you didn't find anybody to replace
Advice for Newcomers
00:39:18
Speaker
me. And I said, sure.
00:39:19
Speaker
And so that's where I am today. The last person, the last person that asked me that question, and I said, yeah, when the door slams, I'm out. And so that's where I am today. So certainly for the short foreseeable future, maybe a year or two, we'll take a look at it and see how it's going. But I enjoy it.
00:39:41
Speaker
Mark is giving me, you know, a quite a bit of freedom to operate. he He's accepted my ideas for how to make this business grow. and And and i don't have any of the kinds of responsibilities that I had before as far as administration, as far as finance, and how I can and just be a big mouth and i go on my merry way. let's Let him worry about the details. And it's it's working out we pick it not pretty good for both of say So you're having fun still with the product and what you're doing, and it probably helps to have some really good, valuable friends in this industry that keep you around, right?
00:40:14
Speaker
um yeah. It's it's fine. i have no I have no complaints. And to answer your question is no. I haven't really given too much thought about it about retiring. I think as long as I can string a couple sentences together and my you know I can get up and walk around a little bit, i mean I'll stay with it.
00:40:31
Speaker
Well, that's great. I think... I think they're lucky to have you, and I think that the industry is still lucky to have you around and guys like you around. And with that, Kyle, you want to go ahead and ask our last question? You got any advice you can give to the younger generation or guys coming up in the industry?
00:40:46
Speaker
sure I've got all kinds of advice you. I would say one thing, I mean, you all and as far as I know, and i've I've been around a little bit, this is a great business. you know it's ah It's a very people-oriented business.
00:40:58
Speaker
It's something that you can derive immediate satisfaction from and immediate pain from. But, I mean, it's one of those things that gives you you know a lot of what I would consider life's lessons, and not all jobs do that.
00:41:10
Speaker
I think that the other part of it is that you are in a, you know, sort of a festive, you know, event-oriented type of atmosphere where where people have a lot of fun.
00:41:21
Speaker
We'll tell you it's labor-intensive. It is capital-intensive. And, um you know, it it probably wouldn't it probably wouldn't get on the top of anyone's ideal business to get into list-wise. But everybody that that I know, you guys included, I'm looking at you you're both smiling over there.
00:41:38
Speaker
What's the matter with you? you talk Because we don't know how we got here either. Yeah, we're still confused. It makes me feel good. The advice is that, you know, keep after it. and not It's not a bad way to go. i mean and And at the end of the day, and you can build up a business and, you know, can maybe theoretically sell to somebody and you'll have, you know, your your efforts will paid off.
00:42:02
Speaker
Well, Jeff, we appreciate everything that you've said to us today and every all the advice and everything you brought to the table. You know, i think it's very honorable everything that you've done in this industry.
00:42:12
Speaker
And i know a lot of people, like I said, look back on this and and hear this and and either have known or will now know how much you've actually done and the impact you've left in this industry. So I appreciate you coming on today and chatting with us. And we look forward to seeing you soon.