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Greg - Commercial Window Tint/Blast Window Coatings/Anti-Graffiti Coatings/Etc.
60 Plays1 year ago
With a solid work ethic and a small compliment of hand tools, Greg has developed a name for himself and his window coating company. Greg started by serving his country in the Navy, and then started tinting vehicle windows. After branching out to residential window tinting, he took a leap of faith and started window tinting large office and multi-story buildings. Fast forward a few decades, and Greg now installs whole building wraps, bomb blast coatings for sensitive facilities, and so much more. He's been able to travel to many other countries to oversee large projects with a set of tools that can fit in a backpack. Sit back and listen as Greg shares his interesting story.
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Music by: SnoozyBeats - Song Title - "Keep It Calm". Please check out SnoozyBeats on PixaBay for a ton of awesome content! -LINK
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Transcript
Introduction
00:00:11
Speaker
Hey folks, you're listening to the jobs podcast. I am your host, Tim Hendricks. Your time is valuable. I'm not going to waste it. Let's get right to the interview.
Greg's Journey in Window Film Industry
00:00:19
Speaker
Our guest today has a solid work ethic and a small bag of hand tools that have allowed him to make a phenomenal living traveling all over Central America, Mexico, and the United States.
00:00:33
Speaker
And our guest today is Greg. He works with window films. That's not just window tint. There's blast protection coverings. There's anti graffiti coverings. There's all kinds of different films. It's a whole different world that I didn't even know existed. So Greg, thanks for joining me today. How are you?
Early Life and Navy Experience
00:00:50
Speaker
Hey, thanks for having me. So Greg, let's just start off with where were you born and give us a little little story about your childhood and and your grown up.
00:01:01
Speaker
All right. Well, I was born in Springfield, Missouri, grew up just outside of Marshfield at Nyangwa, Missouri, a very small small town, but even smaller out on a farm. So we were quite a ways away ah from from the city life, right? So I grew up just the doing hard work, and know working with my dad and my brother and doing everything on the farm along with school. And once i once we got into high school, I worked in Marshfield in the grocery stores. And from there, as I graduated high school, me and my buddy, my best friend went into the Navy on the buddy program. So that's kind of my early beginnings, ah knew a lot of hard work.
00:01:51
Speaker
and played a lot of sports in high school. So when we went into the Navy, I was, uh, it was kind of like bootcamp was like a summer camp for me.
Transition from Navy to Tinting
00:01:59
Speaker
And, uh, I enjoyed that. But, uh, from there, the Navy took me out to, to California and then onto Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. And so I spent four years in those areas on submarines. So as an electrician on submarines for four years. so Right on.
00:02:22
Speaker
That's a tough assignment, isn't it? Hawaii, even though you're in a submarine. Yeah, yeah. It was ah it was during Desert Storm and I can honestly say Waikiki Beach had never been safer. I made sure yeah during wartime that that everyone on the beach there in Hawaii was very safe. ah Thank you for your service. You're you're quite welcome. It was an interesting experience for sure.
00:02:50
Speaker
Would I do it again? Definitely. Uh, but I would, I would go into it a little more wiser for sure instead of just raising my hand and said, Hey, do with me as you, as you, as you please. Right.
00:03:02
Speaker
going back to the the window film when I was in high school, and this may be jumping ahead of your questioning, but in high school, when I got my my first, I had an S10 pickup truck in 1986, and my brother was working in Springfield at ex executivetic Executive Coach Builders. And he brought some window film home and said, hey, you want to You want to tint the windows? I'm like, you can do that? And so he and I in 20 degree temperatures in January probably tinted the the back window of my truck. And that's where it all began right there in Marshfield, Missouri. Huh. So you just enjoyed the process so much that you decided to make a career out of it. In a long about way, yes.
00:03:52
Speaker
it So during in high school, I tinted my car and my buddy's cars and you know different friends' cars here and there.
Career Shift to Full-Time Tinting
00:04:00
Speaker
And after I joined the Navy, I can kind of continued that with my my friends and buddies there on the the boat and we would just I continued in both processes. Seeing what the Navy was about, seeing if there's something I'd like to do full-time. But I also kind of kept window tinting on the on the back shelf. I was like, hey, you know this this still makes good money and puts a lot of cash in my pocket. So when it was time to re-enlist, they were asking me to to please stay in. But the the money part of it just wasn't wasn't there for me. So I decided to continue on with with tinting windows.
00:04:44
Speaker
in At this point, I was back in California when I was discharged. Even though even though I did sign up and and going into submarines, you do get the hazard duty pay right at 18. It's like, hey, I can get paid $100 more for hazard duty. Let me do that. Not knowing I would be ah underwater for four years and and all the different stresses that come along with that.
00:05:12
Speaker
But the it was enjoyable. How long, you just had a curiosity, when youre when you're in a submarine, how long do you typically stay underwater? It depends on the the type of submarine. There's there's two types. There's a ah fast attack, which I was on, and then there's a a boomer, which is the the larger ballistic missile submarines. And those go out for six months, disappear, nobody knows where they're at, and then they come back.
00:05:39
Speaker
and And being a fast attack, we're we're in and out. So we would spend typically a week, two weeks out to see. We'd come back for the weekend, get everything restocked, prepped up, and go back out for another week or two. um But we did do a couple of Westpaks, meaning from Hawaii we would go over to the Western Pacific and visit the several of the the Asian countries over there.
Advancements in Window Film Technology
00:06:05
Speaker
um And that, I think the longest I was underwater without seeing sunshine was probably about 34 days. And that was definitely long enough. i was I was good with that. Six months would have gone stir crazy for sure. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I got to see a lot of different countries. Oh, and okay.
00:06:31
Speaker
No, I was just going to say you were talking about you. They were wanting you to reenlist, but you were making too much money doing the window window tending stuff. So you decided to go that route.
00:06:43
Speaker
Were you just working out of the truck of your car essentially, or? Pretty much, pretty much, yeah. ah You know, tenting on the street, you know, or or in a driveway or, you know, if you're lucky you'd have somebody that would have a garage space that's available, right? I wouldn't say I was making too much money, but I was definitely making equal to what I was making in the Navy and not having to be underwater. So so that was definitely a plus for me.
00:07:14
Speaker
But yeah, sure I got out. I was in the bay area San Francisco Bay Area that where I decided to relocate when I got out. Through some mutual friends, there was another friend of mine that was tinting windows in in San Francisco. and So we kind of we hit it off.
00:07:41
Speaker
Long story short, he ended up becoming my, my brother-in-law and we opened a shop in the Bay area doing mainly automotive work at the time. And for several years, we just, we did automotive work as far as just window tinting. We didn't do any auto wraps or, or clear bra or paint protection, anything like that, because that was developed kind of after the time. I would say that was probably 90,
00:08:11
Speaker
93, 94 when we had the shop first open up. From from there, doing doing cars, tinting windows there, the the clients would see the benefit from the heat rejection and everything, and they would start they were asking about doing their homes and and businesses. So I kind of expanded my reach into to residential. I didn't do a lot of commercial work early on.
00:08:40
Speaker
But residential, I did quite a bit of residential work. um And that was ah was enjoyable. You get to see a lot of different homes and different ah clients, different locations throughout Northern California that ah I hadn't seen before.
00:08:59
Speaker
I have a a specific question about tint. I remember back in the 90s and when cell phones were kind of, you know, you had the bag phones in the 80s and then it started to where everyone would have a cell phone in the 90s. But the tint back then, there was something about, was there metal in the tint that would interfere with your cell phone reception?
00:09:21
Speaker
Exactly. I'm showing my age probably. yeah yeah mine Mine as well. so but I've been window tinting since 86. I was looking at that, I was like, wow, next year I'll be 40 years. I'm not even 40 years old in my mind. you know It's like, this is crazy.
00:09:43
Speaker
yeah so yeah so in the but Even going back into the 60s, ah There was a liquid film that they would it was kind of a starch-based product with dyes in it and you would you would flow it over the glass and it would eventually just coat the whole glass and and darken the glass, which I was never part of that process. But in my my early years of installing, um I removed several several of these installations or or projects that had been installed with this type of material. And it wasn't ah it wasn't the best
00:10:29
Speaker
product to work with, for sure. So from from that point, that moved into a dyed film on a polyester liner. And there would be different colors, different dyes, but that would turn purple and and bubble very quickly because there was no UV inhibitors that would block the sun from eating away at the color and at the adhesive. So that's the reason for the purple and the bubbles.
00:10:56
Speaker
And that was a very inexpensive, both of those were very inexpensive ah products. So then in the early to mid 70s, they started developing more of the metal films, which which you were referring to. They were metalized, metal-based, and very effective, except for cell phone signals. And a lot of times, and even now in commercial buildings,
00:11:21
Speaker
receiving and sending cell phone signals inside or with the radio frequencies or Wi-Fi's, sometimes it'll interfere with those signals as well. So yeah, that was a metalized product that would would ah distort those signals. Now there's a product, there are different products, but the main the main products now are ceramics, the high performance films that allow the the signal to pass through without any interference. And and that's some pretty very interesting nanotechnology with the different ceramic products for window film.
00:12:04
Speaker
What other benefits are there with ceramic besides the lack of interference with cell phones and whatnot? The benefits of a ceramic film would be less less reflection. So if you're in a house or or a apartment or office building and you're not wanting to have a a mirrored finish on the the outside during the daytime and then at nighttime with your lights on, you're trying to look out with the metalized films, you would have that reflectivity. So it's like you're looking in a mirror when you're trying to see outside. The ceramic films mimic and have the same reflectivity as your natural glass. So daytime or nighttime, you'll still have that same view. So for me, the the reflectivity would be a high, high
00:13:01
Speaker
selling point. And and you know most of my customers enjoy the benefits of that part of the ceramics. But also with with that film and and most of the other window films too, you get you get a very good heat rejection and you get ultraviolet. So any of your artwork or your furniture, your floors, having any fading issues, that would greatly reduce the amount of fading.
00:13:28
Speaker
So with that being said, we would see like with hospitality hospitals and and hotels and stuff, they're constantly, you know, every four or five years are switching out their carpet, switching out their furnishings because they'll get a big faded spot in one area. And with this, that extends their longevity out seven or eight years versus four or five.
00:13:51
Speaker
So it ends up being a cost savings for them. You know you could you could calculate out of ROI pretty easily for them just just on that and not the energy savings for the heat rejection and all that. It's it's it's complicated, but there's there's some really fascinating things about window film. Sure. I know I kind of jumped ahead there.
Comparing Tinting Sectors
00:14:11
Speaker
You had just opened up a shop with, I believe it was your brother-in-law, is that who it was? And you guys were doing automotive stuff.
00:14:19
Speaker
how would you transition from doing How did you transition from doing automotive mostly to window to commercial stuff? You said you were doing some residential and whatnot, but what was the big turning point to move to hotels and things of that nature?
00:14:34
Speaker
ah So the turning point was I had had worked with and for my brother-in-law because he had his own independent film company from what we had started doing automotive. And he would have projects that would come along that were larger commercial projects in San Francisco or Sacramento or San Jose.
00:14:55
Speaker
And so i would I would help him on those projects. And then there would be other companies. So that i would I got to know the film reps from the different manufacturers and I got to to work with all the different products.
00:15:10
Speaker
And so i saw which products worked really well and and and you can install very well and the customers were happy with and i saw that the ones that would have like a failure rate that weren't a good product or didn't have a good company behind it to backup their their warranties or something like that so i was able to.
00:15:31
Speaker
kind of pick and choose what products I really liked working with. And at some point, probably by the guidance of a couple mentors I had, I decided just to to go out on my own and and open up my own shop doing commercial film and and some residential, but mainly commercial projects.
00:15:55
Speaker
And that was probably the best choice I ever made. It was it was scary. I was like, man, i'm I'm cutting off the hand that feeds me. You know, everybody I've worked for are now my competition. So now none of that money is coming into me. So I had to believe in myself and decide, hey, either either I sink or swim, but if I don't give it a shot, I'll never know what could be.
00:16:27
Speaker
I was going to ask you, what is it that you like about when you compare doing automotive and residential to commercial? Is there something that you like more about the commercial? I mean, I'm sure it it pays more because it's a much bigger project, but you're at one location probably for an extended period of time versus jumping around quite a bit. Is that accurate?
00:16:48
Speaker
ah Yeah, very accurate. So let's let's start with automotive. Automotive early on was was good. it was There was always cash in your hand. There's always cash in your pocket. you know I mean, hundreds if not thousands of dollars in your pocket early on before debit cards and and credit cards were a big thing, right? that all That all went away once the cards come out. It's like, I have no cash in my hand anymore.
00:17:17
Speaker
But the other thing, being in the backseat of somebody's dirty car with their French fries and their child's seat and trying to work inside of this and it's hot and stinky. It's like, yeah know i can make and you it takes two or three hours to to get the car done nicely, right? And you made 150 bucks in two or three hours.
00:17:44
Speaker
Not bad but you're you're in the midst of all this stuff and then the clients not have all there's a little spec over here oh why is this not exactly and so it's it's the the automotive side of things people are very very meticulous with their cars and.
00:18:02
Speaker
I don't want to say a perfectionist, but I'm i'm very meticulous and quality has got to be first, otherwise you have no you know you're only as good as your last your last project. right so So cars are just very nitpicky and not a whole lot of money. So going into homes, much better, a cleaner environment, better people they pay they pay on the spot on completion,
00:18:31
Speaker
a little bit larger ticket than what what a car would be. You know, you may do two or three windows and you're done in in an hour and you get, you know, two or $300, something like that. But then you have to warrant, you know, the car you'd warranty as well, but the house you have to warranty, typically a lifetime warranty on on a house.
00:18:51
Speaker
And they're still you know a little less particular than the automotive, but but they're still there looking right over your shoulder. It's like, what's this spec? What's that spec? It's like, you know if we're in a clean room environment and and we're doing surgery, I could understand why you'd be upset about that, but you've got dogs running around and the fans blowing, right? It's like this.
00:19:12
Speaker
so So those are the the goods and the bads of the cars and the houses, commercial work, completely different ball game. The monies, there's more money, but it's a whole lot longer to get.
00:19:30
Speaker
yeah to get to it even, because ah you know you're waiting on the the general contractor, you're waiting on the government, or you're waiting on somebody else to to pay the bill, and it's not on completion, right? You're usually 30, 60 days, sometimes 90 days out. If you if you're a small company and you're trying to float you know all the product, all the installs, all the travel back and forth to the to the building,
00:20:00
Speaker
You know that can extend a person out quite a quite a while. So that's the downside of it.
Major Projects and Security Films
00:20:06
Speaker
The upside of it is there's a lot of square footage in a building and you can you can go pretty quickly typically.
00:20:16
Speaker
and they're not nearly as particular about a little spec here and there. As long as it's performing like you said, and it's up to the building standards, then they're they're good to go. so So commercial work quickly became a very good favorite of mine. When you go to a large structure, you know it's an office building, for example,
00:20:47
Speaker
I don't know. Can you tell me some of the size buildings that you started with? Two, three, four stories. How long would you be at a location like that? Are you going to be there for a couple of days or a week or? Good question. So the first commercial project I ever worked on.
00:21:05
Speaker
of any size other than like one or two windows, well I would say it's the FDIC building in San Francisco. And this was working through another contractor. And it was, I want to say 18 stories. And it was it was right before September 11th happened.
00:21:32
Speaker
And we're removing old film that had been on for 20 years and we're putting on new film. It was just very, very thin, silvery reflective film. And we get the whole project done. It looks great. The the contractor was paid. He paid myself and three other guys that were working on the project together.
00:21:53
Speaker
and everybody's happy. A week or two later, 9-11 happens, and they call the contractor back and it's like, we got to have security film. It's like, you know after all the events that have taken place, we need we need a bomb blast film that's going to hold all the glass together if if there's some sort of event on the outside of the building.
00:22:16
Speaker
So within within three weeks to a month, we go back in, remove all the new film we just put up, and put the same performance as far as heat rejection and privacy with the silver reflective film. But then we also ah had an eight millimeter thick security element to it that holds the glass together. It's it's basically called a fragment retention film.
00:22:43
Speaker
and So it holds all the fragments from atomizing or falling out to the street, ah something of that sort. ah And so that was that was a pretty amazing project to do it once and then a month later we're back doing it again.
00:22:58
Speaker
To answer your question, as far as time wise, there was, I want to say three or four installers myself and another guy was relatively new to other guys were experienced. So that was kind of where I was cutting my teeth on matt seeing how the large commercial project it was managed.
00:23:18
Speaker
you know product management, client management, time management, and so I really got a good feel of what what it would take on something of that size of a project. The security film, the blast film that you were talking about, that goes on the inside, correct? It could go on either side, but but for the ideal performance, you definitely want it on the inside for a couple of reasons.
00:23:48
Speaker
longevity. If you put it on the inside, it'll be there until you have to replace the glass. On the outside, you're going to have about seven to eight years before it starts to get weathered from the ultraviolet, kind of tearing away at the the surface of the film.
00:24:05
Speaker
So cost-wise, you do it once on the inside or or you replace it two or three times on the outside. So cost-wise, doing it inside is good. The other thing I'd mentioned, it's fragment retention. and What they found is with the bomb blast films, if you remember Timothy McVey when he blew up the Oklahoma Federal Building,
00:24:32
Speaker
there was a lot of people died from from shrapnel and and different things. But what they found is most of the people there had internal injuries and internal bleeding from breathing in the atomized glass when the when the explosion happened.
00:24:49
Speaker
So they weren't necessarily killed from the explosion, but the the the damage was so great internally that they theyc succeeded to their injuries. So that's why it's more of a fragment retention. you know It's best to put it on the inside because you don't want that glass to atomize and come into the space when people are trying to trying to run for their lives or or escape through through a tragedy. You know, people trying to escape through that that type of environment in a tragedy, you know, the last thing you want to do is is be breathing in this, not toxic, but this that's harmful atomized glass into your lungs, right? That would be a and be a horrible, horrible way to go.
00:25:34
Speaker
I've not seen any testing, I'm sure there's videos on YouTube that show the types of blasts that these things are set up for. yeah do you deal Would this be something that would complement bulletproof glass or are those completely different type things?
00:25:51
Speaker
There's, yeah, they're very, very different. The the film itself, you would have to have, I don't know, probably a three quarter inch thick glass with, you know, a 21 mil film on each side of it to to hold together if you were firing a weapon at it. And then it depends on the caliber and the angle and velocity and, you know, several different things versus if you have a, what's, what's the bullet crew, the acrylic or the, um, the bulletproof glass, which is more of a, a plastic version versus a, a glass version.
00:26:39
Speaker
Do you do installations of this type of bomb blast glass or whatever you would be the technical term, do you ever do military installations or government buildings or is it mostly the private sector? Across the board. so there's There's private, there's governmental, there's you know federal, local, state ah state projects, there's also hospitality, hospitals,
00:27:08
Speaker
schools, a lot of schools for for like active shooters are breaking and entering. you know If the the kids are there and they're trying to trying to hide from from you know an attacker of sorts, you know they can't just smash the window and unlock the door and get into the space. So it's pretty much across the board. I've worked on worked you know several different Air Force bases, ah several different airports.
00:27:35
Speaker
um Just yeah across the board, a lot of lot of interesting projects for sure. I would be curious. You're out in California. I'm i'm in Missouri. and I would be curious if there's companies around here that do this for tornado resistant type stuff or you know high winds and storms, if that would help with projectiles coming through a window, I would think there would be a market for that. Yeah, it it would it would definitely help. you know If it's an F5, I don't know what's going to help with that, just the grace of God. i but Yeah, you're in trouble. On on higher winds, you know even hurricanes, there's ah There's films that that aid in that so you don't have to board up your window if it's if it breaks. right it's The safety films versus the bomb blast films, right you put a safety film on and if it breaks and shatters, it still holds in place and it doesn't allow you know water or or an intruder or someone to get into the space so you don't have to run out and do an emergency board up right away.
00:28:43
Speaker
Same way, like jewelry stores, smash and grab, right? They'll smash it, and but they're not necessarily able to get through it into the glass right away. Anything's... Oh, I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, yeah. Anything's penetrable as as as long as you're determined to get through it, right? If I've done... Sure. Say convenience stores, right? It would do a 7-11, or a what what you guys have Casey's or or something out there, right?
00:29:10
Speaker
or get and go or whatever. right You do the storefront so nobody would break in and get that six pack of whatever they desperately need. and so so We do the storefront, everybody's safe and sound. and we're We're watching the videos of the the next time they try to break in, they came back with a truck.
00:29:32
Speaker
they couldn't They tried breaking the glass, that didn't work, so they backed their truck up through the doors, you know, climb under and get there there their needs met, and they take off again. So, you know, it just depends on how determined the vandals or bandits or robbers are.
00:29:50
Speaker
Sure. so before When we were talking before we started the interview, you had talked about traveling to some pretty cool places in your line of work doing these different films.
International Training and Work
00:30:02
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. What places have you been to? ah We've been to several, probably the largest projects. I did a training project for a friend of mine who has a company or several companies in Mexico.
00:30:19
Speaker
So we were there and trained probably 35 to 40 installers in different throughout Mexico. We did Mexico City, Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, a couple others that don't come to mind right now, but we we were there about two and a half to three weeks and we trained probably 10 to 15 people in each location, um the different types of products, the different types of films, different types of window frames, because a window frame can be very different. And your install technique is is totally different than what it would be if you're if you're doing a wooden window frame versus a a vinyl or plastic window frame.
00:31:08
Speaker
or get into like some of the older schools that have the the metal with the grouted edges around the windows. So technique is is really important when you're when you're installing and the the frames are very um very different. So we were training training several people on the different types of frames, different types of glass, what types of films can go on, what types of glass.
00:31:37
Speaker
you know there's There's glass breakage. So if you if you install the improper film on the improper glass, you can have a thermal breakage in the in the window. So there's a lot of different avenues, different techniques, I guess, depending on what what type of film and what type of glass you're you're applying to. One of the things that comes to mind as I think about you doing a job is that Well, there is expense in purchasing the product that you're going to apply to the windows, whether it's the blast film or a reflective window tint or whatever. You also do graphic things, but the the amount of equipment that you need to do your job, it's not like someone who's building a home where they have to have, you know, $15,000 worth of power tools and and everything in order to be able to build a home.
00:32:35
Speaker
What and big types of equipment do you typically have? A truck. Definitely need a source of of a transportation to get to the client because not doing cars, they they don't come to you, right? So you need you need to go to the client. right The other thing you typically use, you'd have just a small amount of hand tools. And it's it's still, you know, 40 years later, amazing to me the amount of of money and amount of success that I've been able to to have with just
00:33:13
Speaker
Three four five little hand tools that you could carry in a small backpack I can I can walk into a project You know, I don't i't I could be a if it if they didn't have blades or if they didn't consider them hazardous I wouldn't even need to check a bag on the airplane. I could just carry it in a backpack so so small of amount of tools needed and you know Obviously, you need your your scrapers to clean the glass very good. You need your your cleaning squeegees to clean it after you've scraped any of the surface debris off. You need a sprayer, so you know a little pump sprayer or a larger canister sprayer for your water and and soap mixture, and then just a cleaning squee squeegee. So you know five, six tools. you can
00:34:05
Speaker
You could have the same exact tools as the pros have and and hopefully become a master at it. What you just said right there to become a master, how long do you think it takes someone to get to where they can do a quality job to where they would feel comfortable charging for it? Is that something that you can pick up relatively quick or does it really take doing it for months and months to really get smooth and efficient?
00:34:35
Speaker
it takes quite a bit of practice. So it depends if you have the product, if you have the film and and a glass you want to practice on, you can just sit there and practice on that and become very proficient and probably two or three weeks where you feel comfortable, like, Hey, I could charge somebody for this work. It looks, it looks good enough that that someone would pay me for this work.
00:35:05
Speaker
But the other thing is you're not going to have every window type or every frame type or above some planters or off a boom lift 90 feet up in the air or out in the wind when the wind's blowing, right? so So it takes for me to to bring someone on and train them and be confident in their abilities and then be confident in themselves, usually about six months or over to become proficient enough where I could send them out on their own. and it's you know it's It depends on the person as well. The skill sets that that you would need would be if you're you're good with your hands or you're mechanically inclined,
00:36:01
Speaker
And you're not, you know, you're not fumbling around with with tools or your fingers. If you can get a grasp of the tool part of it, the the rest of the install is very, very simple. It's much like, but I would say like painting in a car where you, it's all into prep work. If you do the prep work properly, the the finished product is going to look really good.
00:36:25
Speaker
the The prep work, when you show up to remove window film or tint, is that typically what takes the most time as opposed to putting on the new tint? Is that something where it's like, good grief, I'm scraping this stuff? Or or does it usually come off pretty good?
00:36:43
Speaker
That's an excellent question. You never know until you try it. You bid a project, you know half of it's removal, and they're like, oh, it's this type of film, it's been on this line. You're like, okay, they you know it should should take me you know half a day to do this removal portion of it.
00:37:05
Speaker
And it ends up taking three days and and you know much more time and effort. and it's you know So you've you've lost money on the project. right But yeah you never know until you try. So I would always, with the client, I'll always ask if they have an area they'd like me to try first. That way I can give them a good assessment of what it's going to take.
00:37:27
Speaker
because it depends on the the film type how long it's been in installed what direction right if it's facing west and getting cooked every day of the the year versus on the north of the east where it's not getting as much sun you know that may come off a lot easier So it's it's kind of a hit and miss, and it it usually takes longer, or definitely takes longer than installing, and it pays probably a quarter of what it does to install. So you get paid much less for the amount of time and work that you're putting into it. But it's it's a necessary evil in the in the overall process. if i Let me say this, if I was to go out-
00:38:15
Speaker
If I was to go out and do an install and I knew that there was a removal involved, you know, I would bid it at one price. But if there, if a client called and said, Hey, I got this film I need removed and I don't want anything else installed, my price would probably be double just for the removal portion of it. Yeah.
00:38:37
Speaker
I bet you have a lot of people that are happy to see you when you come walking into an office building and you're going to be putting a window tint up where they're not going to be just staring into the sun all day long. not always. Typically, not happy to see you because you're interrupting their work, you're in their way, you're stepping on their desks, right you're kicking their papers over. i you know Ideally, you're not doing any of that, but but you know that's what they're thinking. Here comes this guy, he's going to distract our whole our whole day's work here. and and A lot of times they'll have us do off-hours work, and weekends or or evenings even, depending.
00:39:12
Speaker
a lot of the the Googles, the Facebooks, the Intuits, you know, they want they want more off-hour work versus and during production hours. But... Oh, that makes sense, yeah.
00:39:26
Speaker
But they're they're not happy to see you typically unless you know one person is sitting right at the glass and just sweating all day long and you know just burning up. They're happy to see you. But most people aren't. But then at the end of the project, because they don't know what to expect, right at the end of the project they're like, oh thank you so much. It looks so nice. you know the The glare has gone from our computer screens. It's not so hot over here you know by the windows or the a lady who's in the the middle of the building is freezing to death because they're pumping the air so cold to keep it cool enough so that people can work at the windows. right so She's freezing to death, so she recalibrates the whole air system. and Now, she's more comfortable, the people by the windows are more comfortable. so everybody Everybody's happy to see you leave based on you know the the performance of of the film that you've installed.
00:40:24
Speaker
Right. You had talked earlier about anti graffiti film.
Specialized Films and Graphics
00:40:31
Speaker
Can you elaborate on what that is and what types of locations would you install that?
00:40:38
Speaker
Yeah, not a problem. So there's there's two types of anti-graffiti film. There's a a four mil clear product, which four millimeters thick. What it does, it allows it prevents ah the liquids, the inks, any etching creams.
00:40:56
Speaker
from from getting onto the surface of the glass. And it's it's a sacrificial layer, right? So you put it on, somebody somebody marks it up, marrs it up. You can peel it off and put a new piece on. You don't have to have profanity or whatever else on your on your windows.
00:41:13
Speaker
for a long amount of time. you know Some of the cities have ordinances that within 48 or 72 hours of the graffiti being on your building or on your windows, you have to have that removed. Whether it's replacing glass or or if it's on the brick or whatever, you have to have it chemically removed.
00:41:33
Speaker
So anti-graffiti film can be quite a benefit to that. The the other type is a six mil clear. ah Same thing, it resists the the liquids, but also it has a scratch resistance. So when people come through with a a glass etcher or something to to gouge into the glass and carve their names or their symbols or whatever, they're they're carving.
00:41:58
Speaker
it'll It'll carve into the the surface of the film, but it doesn't penetrate into the glass. So same thing. yeah yeah It's sacrificial. You take it off. It has an easy release liner. Kind of going back to your question and about, are there there films that are easy to remove or you don't like the removal? Anti-graffiti film is is designed to be removed, so it it comes off very nice. So anytime anytime I can do that removal, I'm i'm very happy to do that.
00:42:26
Speaker
yeah So you ah it prevents the the scratching and the the etching. I typically just, for the clients, I just offer the six mil version because it it it works for both. But if it's a budget issue for the client, and the the four mil for the liquids could be a little a little less expensive for them. Places you would use them,
00:42:52
Speaker
I've used them in in Hollywood. I've used them in downtown LA. I've used them in San Francisco and Sacramento. I even have a project in Albuquerque, New Mexico that had water stains on the glass. So we went in and we polished all the glass and in order to keep the water stains from coming back onto the film or onto the glass, we installed the the film that would would repel the liquids. And so we we put it onto the glass and they had no more water stains because it would just it would just run off the film instead of etching into the glass.
00:43:29
Speaker
So it's not always the intended purpose, but it met the need very well for them. That's pretty cool. You also do graphic type installs and more artistic stuff as opposed to just a see-through film or something that's used for graffiti. What types of work do you do in that regard?
00:43:55
Speaker
I've done a variety of things. We do building wraps. We could do the whole exterior. We could do a billboard. We do interior wall graphics. There's a project we had. It was a night project in San Francisco and we would work.
00:44:12
Speaker
and probably from five at night to four in the morning. And we would we wrapped all the interior walls with a with different images and different sir diagrams that they had for their company. And ah we just spent probably three months there ah doing that. And so it was a very, very cool project. I'm not really allowed to say who it was for, but it was definitely one of the highlights that I've done over the years.
00:44:47
Speaker
the building wrap that you just mentioned. I'm trying to envision how that, I mean, it's just a bunch of guys on ladders holding a wrap and putting it onto the building or how do you, do you do it in manageable sections or how would that be done?
00:45:03
Speaker
it It just depends. Typically it's manageable sections and it's two people, maybe maybe four people on two two boom lifts or two people on one boom lift, depending on the size of the the graphic. But the material is usually not any wider than five or probably five to five and a half feet wide and you can make it as long as you want so typically projects may come in like a five by eight five by ten section and you just you match up all the the images as you go you have a little bit of an overlap
00:45:41
Speaker
And some projects, you know, depends on the the surface, right? If you have a very ah porous brick or or stonework that you're going over versus a nice, smooth metal or stone finish. So you may need to heat it with a torch. You may need to trim it in advance before laying it down because you wouldn't be able to run your knife over the the the stonework or something. So there's you know a lot of different nuances that you have to you have to consider you know with the the project management or the where the setup in advance before you get to the project.
00:46:25
Speaker
How long do those building wraps typically last? in you know You're out in California where there's a lot of sun and and it's warm. Are they years, four, or five, six years, or is it every couple years?
00:46:38
Speaker
Depends a lot on the product and what it's used for. If it's just a quick advertisement for St. Patrick's Day, you know they'll just throw something cheap up that's not going to last very long at all, and you're just going to take it down and you know the day after. you know I've done projects. I did a project for Apple.
00:46:57
Speaker
uh it was a it wasn't a wall wrap but it was a floor graphic but it was going from their their parking garage over to their main campus and i believe there's a performer there maybe a lady guy or someone who was coming to perform and they wanted these huge graphics on their their walkways so we go in you know i had a career eight guys we go in spend all night delay you know a thousand foot of graphics down and you know everybody's happy. They love it. you know Spend a whole lot of money on it and turn around the next night, go back and rip it all up and throw it in the garbage. so it can be It could be just for a night. i've I've had projects that have been installed. I have a hospital I've installed some graphics on and I i just drove by but this morning. and I would say that's probably been about 16 or 17 years.
00:47:55
Speaker
and it's still looking very good. So it just depends on the dependless on the need and it depends on the type of material that's selected. So if a client says, hey, I want this for this amount of time, then we would steer them towards a certain product versus the other other products. Are most of these wraps a vinyl of some kind just varying thicknesses and UV protection and whatnot?
00:48:22
Speaker
Uh, yeah, it can be vinyl. Like I said, there's some polyesters that we use for, for window films as well. And we can, we can kind of double up if they want graffiti protection, we would put the graffiti film on first and then we come over the top of that with the.
00:48:38
Speaker
with the graphics. ah so There's a variety of of combinations. We can match kind of both sides of the company, whether it's film side or graphic side. We can and kind of marry those two together and and offer the client a larger larger opportunity than they may have been able to look at or think about before.
00:49:03
Speaker
If you, you know, we don't want to live in the past, but if you could go back and kind of do some things over again, what what would you kind of do differently when you were starting early
Business Education and Career Choices
00:49:14
Speaker
on? Or do you think that all the things that you learned by making the mistakes that you did got you to where you are now and and you're pretty happy where you're at?
00:49:25
Speaker
Oh, good question. I would take maybe, being a business owner, I would probably take some business management classes.
00:49:38
Speaker
Because even even if I was just working for someone else, the moneys the money was pretty good. It was pretty good. So just learning how to manage money, that was not something I had learned but before becoming a business owner. So you know easy come, easy go type of thing. I would have definitely should have taken some business classes.
00:50:05
Speaker
I'm really happy in where I'm at and who i'm who I am right now. So it's created me into who I am kind of by default. So I don't regret it, but that would probably be one of the few changes I would but have done. i I'm of the opinion that if you, let's say you're graduating from high school, because I've had this conversation with my oldest son.
00:50:32
Speaker
It's okay if you don't know what you wanna do just yet. It might benefit you to just get a job and maybe learn a trade. It could also benefit you if you don't really know if you wanna go to a four-year college because you're gonna be a doctor or whatever. You can go to a community college, take some basic classes, but get just get a business degree. A two-year business degree, you can do part-time while you're working, and you'll get the skill set that you just mentioned where you'll have some some business management advice.
00:51:02
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I agree. I did not go to a four-year college. I've taken several courses since graduating high school. But to go to a four-year institution and and acquire the the debt that comes along with it, I i did not go that route. i've As we had mentioned earlier, I've traveled around the world in certain areas, mainly in Latin America.
00:51:32
Speaker
I worked in Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Aruba, Panama, Columbia. I had an opportunity to go to Amsterdam and we were ready to go. And that project fell through at the last minute. So it's not necessary for a four year degree. And honestly, I think vocational schools are going to be at a premium or at graduates, vacation vocational school graduates are probably going to be at a premium pretty soon because most people want the ah high-tech corner office come in from 10 to 2 and have the easy life and there's not a lot of people that want to get their hands dirty and be the plumber, be the carpenter or the, you know,
00:52:28
Speaker
anything that's going to require a lot of physical effort, right? So I think those are going to be the yeah high paying jobs in the in the near future, honestly. Yeah, I would agree with you. Yeah, nobody wants to be a plumber. So if you're the guy that's the plumber, guess who gets to choose what they charge. Exactly. exactly but And the other thing too is a lot of people you know, everybody wants to do what they're best at, right?
Current Role and Reputation Management
00:53:01
Speaker
So whether it's I play basketball or I, you know, I ran cross country and I was really good at those things. But if, if you address the things that you're the least skilled at, that, that makes the whole,
00:53:20
Speaker
the whole repertoire or your your whole tool bag even better, right? Because now you have X, Y, and Z yeah plus you mastered something that maybe you're a little bit afraid of before and you realize, hey, I shouldn't allow this fear to hold me back because I'm able to continue on in any direction I choose now versus Isolating myself in my mind for only one direction or the other because that's what I'm uncomfortable at and Not not stepping out into the the unknown Yeah What I think I know the answer to this after hearing you talk about all your the travel that you've done But what do you like most about your job? Is there one or two things that are at the top of that list? I?
00:54:09
Speaker
yeah Travel is definitely a plus. I really enjoy that. i have Even though I have my own company, I work for another company right now that's hired me as as a supervisor to go out and supervise a lot of their graphic installs.
00:54:25
Speaker
And, and that's a really nice setup. They, they pay for my, my, all my flights, all my hotels, and it's always four to five star hotels. They pay my, all my food. They give me stipends. They pay me exceptionally well at an hourly rate to be on standby. So I'll fly in on a, on a Thursday afternoon. I get my full days pay for, for flying in.
00:54:55
Speaker
the install will happen on a Friday or Saturday. So I oversee the super and supervise the install. And then I sit in the hotel in Philadelphia or Miami or or San Diego. I'll sit there for four to five, six days waiting to see if there's any issues. you know If they call and say, hey, we need some help on this or that, then I go in and supervise that again, which in five years, I've never got that call.
00:55:25
Speaker
And then the you know there's the the takedown. They'll take down all the graphics. and It's typically for trade show events and different things. So they'll have they'll end the trade show, take it down, and then I fly out the next day. So I'm i'm putting maybe 10 to 14 hours of work supervising everybody else working.
00:55:48
Speaker
and you know i'm I'm there the whole week and in a very nice hotel and a nice city and get to explore and see this and that. So that that's the travel part of it that I really enjoy and you know the years of putting the time and effort and dedication, you know keeping keeping the reputation Good is is so important because i've never advertised in forty years ah everyone you know i've i've built a reputation to wear contractors architects designers.
00:56:27
Speaker
you know other other company owners call me because they know if it's a high profile or or very specific type of job, they call me to either manage it or to to kind of lead the the team on the project. So those those years of staying dedicated, hard work, and and and just being honest and and keeping your word have have paid off to where now I can kind of enjoy the the the benefits of that by someone one else seeing my worth in what i've but I've built over the years.
00:57:07
Speaker
Yeah, your reputation precedes you now and and that speaks for itself. so that's the best way to If you don't have to advertise and your restation reputation is what gets customers, that's the best kind. Exactly. exactly so i i i look at it like i i mean ah would like to you know I would take a loss on a project to keep a client happy versus versus settling for the money and be like, you know what, that's what you wanted. That's what you got. You know, good luck with that. I would rather take a loss and keep my reputation and have that client, you know, tell 10 other clients about his good experience, the best experience that could have come out of a bed but a bad situation. You know, and that's very far and few between, but you know, that's that's just the approach I take. What would you say is
00:58:04
Speaker
An aspect of your job that you dislike because not every job is 100% perfect. There's always things that it's like, well, this comes with the territory. What would you say would be something that would fall under that umbrella?
00:58:16
Speaker
I'd say a couple of things. The project, say I have a project in Seattle, I get everything ready, I get up there, I'm i'm basing it on the architect and the superintendent the project superintendent, everything's ready, it's you know it's good to go, so I get to Seattle.
00:58:35
Speaker
and there's nothing ready. There's no glass in the window frames. right there's you know the The glass company is like, oh, we we ordered the glass. you know It should be here next month. right So the communication there back and forth between the glass company, the architect, and then the superintendent you know contracting me to get up there. they you know They usually end up compensating for the time and money spent.
00:59:01
Speaker
But it's it's frustrating walking into something and you're like, oh my goodness, there's I can't do anything. you know I got five guys here and and nothing. And the other aspect would be it is there, even though I enjoy the travel there, there can be a lot of travel if you're connected with the right people and, and being away from home. You know, I have three, three kids and school age kids right now. So I miss them tremendously when I'm not there hugging on them each day.
00:59:38
Speaker
And my wife, of course, is see and she gets to actually travel with me sometimes. so That's why I didn't include her with the kids. They stay with their aunties at times, and my wife gets to travel with me. That's another huge benefit of what I do. You know, i can I can take my wife at times, or even the kids will do If we have a project nearby and they're not in school, we can we can make ah a family trip out of it and I'll supervise the installs and they're out playing at the beach or whatever. Nice. They'll always remember those when they get older. Exactly.
01:00:16
Speaker
exactly what What kind of, if someone came to you and said, I want to follow in your footsteps. I like what you're doing. I think it's interesting.
Interpersonal Skills and Challenges
01:00:25
Speaker
What kind of soft skills do you think someone would benefit from to be successful in your line of work?
01:00:33
Speaker
You got to be a people person, right? Because you're, like I was mentioning just a moment ago, you got to deal with an architect who in his eyes is God of the building world, right? And so everything he says is correct, whether he knows one ounce of information based on what your your product is in the film type and how it's gonna match together right but he's still the architect right so you gotta deal with that personality you got the you got the general contractor who's gotta meet his deadline and be on budget and go go go and then you got the glass company who's like i thought i ordered the right glass but it's not the right size right so you get these personalities are the homeowner
01:01:18
Speaker
the office manager, the the your suppliers. right So you got all these different personalities. You got to juggle and and you know you got to be on point with each of them at their their point of need. So that's that's kind of interesting. So being a people person is very important.
01:01:41
Speaker
and And honestly, you got to look within yourself, right? And you got to understand who you are and be big content and happy with who you are before you can present that to someone else. You know, you got to be honest as well, so you got to be honest with yourself before you can present honesty to someone else. And if, you know, I've never i've never sold anything to a client. I've always educated them and been like, if you know there's there's many other companies out there, if if you know you find what you know what I've offered is to your liking, I'd be happy to to you know meet your needs and proceed with the contract.
01:02:26
Speaker
and a lot of times probably eighty percent of the time the client comes back and you know you felt genuine we could sense your honesty and you know this is why we want to go with you so so having interpersonal skills like that is very important.
01:02:43
Speaker
But then having the ability, you know like I said, to work with your hands and be confident that you can problem solve if you get into a sticky situation. No pun intended, right? Because the the film has a sticky adhesive on the backside. Right.
01:03:00
Speaker
you know Being able to forward-think or perceive potential problems in advance and and problem-solve, you got to be fluid in the in the moment on the end stall, right? So so those would be some of the the most important things.
01:03:22
Speaker
Whenever you experience a mistake or failure, because even the best of us, we're all humans, we make mistakes from time to time. What is your advice for someone up and coming that when they make a mistake with a client or a customer?
01:03:39
Speaker
with a client or a customer, own up to it. Be 100% honest and and and positive upfront. Be like, look, this is what I thought and expected and it didn't happen. And that's on me. I would like to you know have the opportunity to make this right, do what I can, or or before you go to the client, have the solution already figured out.
01:04:00
Speaker
Instead of saying, here's a problem, I don't know what we're going to do. Well, that doesn't give them any confidence. So you want to you want to be like, here's here's the problem we have. Here's one or two solutions that we can do. How would you like to proceed?
01:04:16
Speaker
And that takes all the the frustration anger whatever they may be feeling you know it puts it on you but you also created them a comfort zone because they know you have the ability to fix the situation.
01:04:34
Speaker
I think that would be important. And then as far as an install or you know working as an installer, not working with the client, but the product, fail as much as you can. Because without failure, the you know the the fear to succeed, right? Without failure, you're not going to become successful. Without the six months of install and the training, you're not going to get to the point of confidence that you need. So fail until you make it.
01:05:05
Speaker
yeah Keep keep doing it well doing it. Keep trying it. If you're continuing to fail, it means you haven't quit. and so You just got to keep going. Just keep going. and and I always say, you know people are like, man, you make that look so easy in it. How do you do it? That looks perfect. i'm like you know Sometimes I get lucky. right After 40 years, i don't I don't know the right way to do it. you know There's so many ways he could do it.
01:05:30
Speaker
but i know a thousand ways it's not gonna work right and if you're gonna if you're trying to install like that that's not gonna work i know that will not work so try it this way or try it that way you know i'm. I'm really get what i do but i'm not. I'm not at the point that i know everything so i'm still learning and and keep an open mind that hey. The way you've done it for so long may not.
01:05:56
Speaker
may not be the way you can do it on this window because of of a certain situation, right? So so be open to to change and learning. and And I think there'll be great success.
Alternative Career Paths
01:06:09
Speaker
If you weren't in your current career, what other career did you always have kind of in the back of your mind that you thought, you know, if I wasn't doing what I'm doing and enjoying it doing so well, I think I'd like to do that.
01:06:22
Speaker
That's another good question. And it's probably what brought me here today was my brother's a firefighter in in Springfield, Missouri there. And that's the that's why you were able to get in touch with me. And that was a course I had pursued out of the Navy as well.
01:06:40
Speaker
I like helping people. I feel best when I'm giving back to people. So I thought, well, let me let me try this along with doing my my window film company because after you work a day, you have a weekend.
01:06:56
Speaker
as a firefighter right so it's like hey what can i do on all my weekends when i'm not fighting fires so i pursued that i took i took all the tests pass all the tests you know get my get my empty certification and. And then i started applying for different different.
01:07:15
Speaker
sir fire departments. I applied in San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and other than enough, in Springfield, Missouri. And I missed the tests by one point on each. In Seattle, I was i was from 5,000 people. I was down to the top, I think, 55 people. And And I missed a test by one point. I'm like, I've i've been i've been top of my class in everything I've done. How is that possible? And I'm like, you know, God, I got i gotta to look at it as you telling me the saying this ain't where I have you going. And and from that point, i I ended up kind of putting that on the on the back shelf and I purchased a distributorship for Wendell Film in Costa Rica and Panama.
01:08:08
Speaker
and I've met some of the some of my lifelong connections and friends. I met my wife my current wife in Panama. You know, I worked on the the presidential palace in Panama. I've worked in the the director of Latin America for Coors, Michael Coors. So i've I've traveled, you know, through Latin America for for them, doing the ah the director for Latin America for Coca-Cola in Costa Rica, worked in his home. Made great connections and relationships through the years. And it's it's been pretty awesome.
Conclusion
01:08:48
Speaker
That sounds I, you know, when I, when your brother told me. that this is what you did. And then he was telling me about all the places you've traveled and you know working for Apple doing their their buildings and and stuff like that. I thought, i I just immediately thought, well, I was just thinking window tint. I didn't realize that there's a whole world out there of all different kinds of blast films and stuff. But when you you start to think about it, you realize it's just an onion. You just keep peeling it back. And there's just a ton of different opportunities. And you've found a lot of good ones at it. You've done well for yourself.
01:09:22
Speaker
so i've i've I've not been afraid to say no. It's like, hey, can you do this? Sure. I may not know how to do it or nor the product or this, but I know somebody that does, or or I can Google it now. or Whereas before you couldn't Google it, right? so But I can Google it or i can i can I know enough people now through my networking that I can pull almost anything together, especially with window film. you know that's That's pretty much a wrap at that point.
01:09:54
Speaker
Yeah, no pun intended. Yeah, yeah exactly. Yeah. Hey, this has been a really interesting conversation. i you know The blast film stuff, i I know when we're done here, I'm going to go hop on YouTube and look up some videos to see. you know I'm sure they've got video of testing that kind of stuff and there's many and whatnot. but this has been yeah This has been very interesting. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me and hopefully somebody listening to it that might want to look into this further. Now they've got some good information to do so.
01:10:25
Speaker
And that wraps up another episode of the jobs podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. Hopefully you found that interesting. As always, I wait until the end of an interview to ask you to like, subscribe and share. I feel it's important that I earn that support from you. Thanks again, and we will see you on the next one.