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00:00:01
Under The Vinyl Episode 2
157 Plays3 months ago
Nate and Kyle Back for round 2!
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Transcript
Introduction & Podcast Name
00:00:01
Nate
And we are back, back again. And we, uh, we got a new name. What's our name looking at now, Kyle?
00:00:10
Kyle Richardson
under the vinyl it's been pretty good we had some snow up here in the northeast so luckily i didn't have much in the air to worry about but we survived can't complain too much
00:00:12
Nate
So it's under the vinyl with Kyle and Nate. Um, two, um, I guess episode one went pretty well. So we're, uh, we're back again and we're going to get this, get this ball rolling. Kyle, how's your week been?
00:00:34
Nate
Awesome, awesome. Luckily, we didn't get that snow over here. and It's been kind of cold and you know I'm seeing the snow down in Florida and everywhere else, and I'd just rather keep it there. we got It's cold here, but it's ah it's sunny. So we'll get into a little bit about tenting in the snow later, but I think for this episode, we'll start by ah start by giving Kyle a little intro. We went over my background and where kyle or where i was where I started that in the industry last week. So I think this week we'll kind of
Kyle's Background & Family Business
00:01:03
Nate
intro Kyle. So Kyle, you want to tell us a little bit about yourself?
00:01:05
Kyle Richardson
So I'm obviously Kyle Richardson with LNA Temrentals out of Hamilton, New Jersey. My father started the business back in the eighties with a couple of tents, a pickup truck, and has turned it into what we kind of do today. And now we specialize in large pull tents, hunter wides, and we're moving into the structure market as well. But I grew up and I, much like Nate said,
00:01:33
Kyle Richardson
didn't really know if I wanted to be a tent man. Um, working for your dad is not the easiest thing to do in the world. So like through high school and middle school, I would always work here weekends and summers. And there was a lot of tension between me and my father. So in my head, I didn't think this is what I wanted to do. And I just kind of wanted to get away from the family business. So I got a degree in landscape design and landscape contracting. So I went to work for a landscaper for awhile and then
00:02:04
Kyle Richardson
I had an itch that that wasn't really for me. So I was looking around for another job and Scott Woodruff, love the man, innovator from 10 ox reached out to me and said, Hey, I got this new thing and I need a sales kid and you like to run equipment. So I was wondering if you wanted to take that on. So I worked for 10 ox for a while and I had a girlfriend at the time. Scott kind of wanted me to be on the road a lot.
00:02:33
Kyle Richardson
girlfriend. I was young and dumb.
00:02:39
Kyle Richardson
And I didn't really know how to handle the whole thing. So I also realized quickly that sales wasn't my thing. I'm not a pushy sales guy. I'm not going to walk in the back door of a place and just try to get myself in the office or forced my way.
00:02:51
Nate
Hey now, hey now.
00:02:53
Kyle Richardson
I know Nate does that all the time. That's a specialty, I think. But so I, it kind of wasn't for me. So I was like, i screw this. I guess I'll go back into landscaping. So,
00:03:03
Kyle Richardson
I got a job offer from a landscaping firm and it was sitting on the counter at home and I just had to sign it and mail it back or fax it back, whatever the deal was. And I came home and it was ripped up and just sitting on the counter. I'm like, that's weird. Mom, what happened to that? She's like, I don't know. Your father ripped it up. He said he wanted to talk to you. So dad, what the hell's the deal? He's like, no, if you're going to get a new job, you're coming to work for me. So you don't really have a choice.
Return & Growth in Tent Rentals
00:03:28
Kyle Richardson
So I came back. I was just working on a crew, uh, just threw me on a truck and i've kind of worked my way up from just being on the crew to now I run the operations, the warehouse, hiring, firing, logistics, all that stuff.
00:03:41
Nate
So what really pushed you to make that jump over to the landscaping? Because obviously, you know, people hear family business, they think, oh, well, I mean, um'm he's the boss of SUT, he's gonna have it easy. It's gonna be nice and a cush job over there. Why would he leave that and go to something like landscaping? As we talked about in the last episode where I did landscaping and God knows, like it it pushed me to this industry, not that ah ah that it was better at the time, but it it was a little bit better. So what made you do that?
00:04:10
Kyle Richardson
So my dad never went to college and he basically told me I didn't have a choice. You're going to school. And if I didn't want to go to school, he was going to find me a job somewhere out of state and ship me out there.
00:04:21
Kyle Richardson
And I had to stay for two years.
00:04:22
Nate
Oh wow.
00:04:23
Kyle Richardson
That was kind of the deal.
00:04:24
Nate
Wow.
00:04:25
Kyle Richardson
So I didn't want to do that because I was scared. Uh, looking back a hundred percent, that's what I should have done. Uh, he was going to ship me to another 10 company and just had me work for them.
00:04:33
Nate
Mm-hmm.
00:04:35
Kyle Richardson
But when he said, you're not working for me, if you don't go to college, I was like, well, screw it. I got to go to college for something. Um, so I found something that was kind of the same. I like working outside. I like getting my hands dirty. So landscaping kind of fit that niche for me. Um, I'm kind of an equipment nerd. So I like, I still love excavators, tractors, stuff like that. So it really kind of filled the void for me at that point.
00:05:01
Nate
do you Do you think that, I mean you can make a great point there, do you think that other people that are in this industry, you know, there's ah it's a lot of father and son relationship or even father, daughter, mother, whatever that relationship looks like in this industry. You made a great point that they go out of state to work for another company for two years. Do you think that's something that you kind of look back on and think maybe I should have gone to another tech company and got the knowledge and kind of seen what they had done versus what what we do to kind of help you run the business today?
Value of External Experience
00:05:36
Kyle Richardson
So I think you should go work for someone else, whether it be in the same industry or not. I learned some of those valuable lessons that I still use today when I wasn't the boss's kid.
00:05:46
Nate
Right.
00:05:47
Kyle Richardson
I was just an employee at the company I was working for. But it opens your eyes to you can't get away with everything. You can't show up five minutes late and go, I'm the boss's kid.
00:05:58
Kyle Richardson
What are you going to do about it? Or you can't say I'm leaving to go to a concert. No, you don't have these choices when you're not the boss's kid. so I learned a lot. The guy I worked for, I still talk to him at least once or twice a week. He kind of mentors me and him, his son is now taking over his company and he even kind of admitted to me that he wishes he forced him to go work for someone else and kind of understand that you can't. It's a different world when you're not the boss's kid. Granted, when you're the boss's kid and you have all those eyes on you, it does make things a lot harder.
00:06:36
Nate
Right, right. So it's not just a free ride and you got to understand that and I mean I get that. I understand.
00:06:41
Kyle Richardson
And some of that some of that's just parenting me, you know.
00:06:43
Nate
Oh yeah. i mean We talk about that with my kids every day. i mean and they Kids crave structure. and i mean Even us as kids, I raised hell when I was a kid. my wife you know My wife now tells me ah you know it's it's a good thing we met when we did because I don't think that we would be together with how much hell I used to raise when I was a kid. so i mean Looking back on it, you need structure. i mean And if you if you don't have that structure, i mean it'll you kind of just do what you want. And kids crave that. And I've learned that a lot with my three kids. um So was your dad the owner at that time? but ah Was it somebody else? Or did he solely own the company when you came in?
00:07:26
Kyle Richardson
Yeah. So he owned it, uh, when I came in and he could, so the whole thing. So here's the whole background of my dad. He started out out of high school, like traveling up and down the East coast, doing fairs and festivals for a LNA tent and awning, which is based out of Maine.
00:07:41
Nate
Okay.
00:07:45
Kyle Richardson
So they're still in business up in Maine. Uh, so he branched off when he met my mother on a job site down here, actually. And kind of decided, hey, I met this nice lady. I'm going to stay here and start a family, start roots. They were doing some work down here so he knew he could get some jobs. So his brother owns the operation in Maine and he came here and started this one. So, yeah, that was kind of how that deal went down. And then from there, he kind of just grew it. He got some good jobs and things like that.
00:08:15
Nate
Okay, so landscaping into the tent company went with Tenox. What was it like working for Scott? Scott, I mean, I know Scott and he's a great guy. ah You know, what what were kind of your day-to-day duties over at Tenox?
00:08:28
Kyle Richardson
So Scott is a great guy. um And part of me wishes I wasn't so young when I worked for Scott, because I probably would have taken a lot more away from it. Looking back on everything now, he is a smart man. He really is. And he's an innovator. And the way he thinks about things is crazy to me because his brain works in such a different way than mine does, which sometimes caused us to clash because I was like, Scott, what you're saying doesn't make sense. But as you slow down and listen to what he's saying, it actually does. So I was answering the phone, doing sales. People wanted a demo. I was taking a machine out to a little demo machine and just day to day sales, trade shows, things like that.
00:09:14
Kyle Richardson
Um, I did sell a couple of machines while I was there. It was still relatively new when I was working there. Um, people still had sticker shock when I would send them a quote. Whereas Hey, it's worth it.
00:09:24
Nate
I think we still have Sticker Shack today, but for good reason.
00:09:30
Kyle Richardson
They are worth every penny.
00:09:30
Nate
It's worth it. Yeah. I mean, I think, right.
00:09:33
Kyle Richardson
And that was, that was the issue back then is people didn't see the value in it yet. So whereas now it is worth every single penny, any machine you can buy.
00:09:43
Kyle Richardson
I don't think we can na politically correctly say just Tenox, but Tenox has done a great job. I own a lot of them. Nate owns a bunch.
00:09:53
Nate
which I don't think that we could, ah I mean, I'll give Tenox a plug here, looking for sponsorship, but I'll give you a plug now. Tenox, if you're listening to this podcast and you don't exactly know what Tenox is, it's truthfully an Avant machine, um built overseas, articulating machine, many different attachments. You got a stake driver, stake puller, which changed the game for our industry, which you know me being 35 years old now, my back probably wouldn't be in the shape it's in if we would have had Tenox's back in when I started.
00:10:23
Nate
um But I think you know ten oxes have evolved in size from small stuff to you know big stuff now and Just all the different attachments and versatility that that machine has has Opened up for our industry and and we hopefully we can get Scott on the push that a little bit more of anyways so moving on from ten ox and you jump back over
Operational Changes & Leadership
00:10:45
Nate
and you immediately went to a truck and
00:10:48
Kyle Richardson
Yeah, I was on the road every day. Um, and so it's funny looking back at now that I'm thinking about it. So I can remember, I mean, in my first year, there was definitely clashes between guys who'd been here for a long time and myself landscaping. We were a 6am start every day. So I was, yeah, screw it. Let's get in. Let's get in and get the day going. Whereas they were starting at eight o'clock here. So I came back and I ended up bringing two or three of my buddies with me. So after a week, I'm like, Hey guys.
00:11:17
Kyle Richardson
Let's start at 6 a.m. So my guys would be here at 6. We'd get trucks loaded, unloaded, and it rubs some people the wrong way. But it's funny now looking back on it.
00:11:28
Kyle Richardson
Like we start at 6 a.m. now every day. Every guy's here at 6 a.m. And the biggest thing is now we're not getting home at 7 or 8 o'clock at night.
00:11:33
Nate
Mm hmm.
00:11:38
Kyle Richardson
Trucks are most likely back in the park about 5 36 o'clock every night now, which is a huge difference. Oh, my God, Nate.
00:11:46
Nate
You'll have that.
00:11:48
Kyle Richardson
You'll have that on these big jobs. But so yeah, I came back. I was on the truck. Um, I had my CDL, which was a big thing. No one here had their CDL. So I convinced Brian to buy a tractor trailer, which we probably didn't need at the time, but I just thought owning big trucks and driving big trucks was cool. Uh, so we bought a tractor trailer by gooseneck. And from that point on, I kind of took the reins on let's flip how this business operates. And we went, we had one 10 ox when I came back.
00:12:18
Kyle Richardson
We're up to six now. Uh, my dad thinks I'm crazy because I keep telling him anymore, but I don't, I hate to say this, but I'll admit I'm a lazy kid.
00:12:29
Kyle Richardson
I don't want to have to carry 150 chairs across the field when a machine can carry 300 at a time. But if there's an easier way to do it, I want to find it and I want to do it that way.
00:12:41
Nate
Absolutely.
00:12:42
Kyle Richardson
but The, once you get the older crowd of the industry to buy in on is great. but getting the buy-in does take time. But yeah, it's definitely tough.
00:12:55
Nate
Yeah, I think we could do a whole episode on the 10-ox. and in in i many yeah i Going back to the sticker shock, yeah, it's it's ah it's a hefty price, but if you do it the right way, it'll pay for itself, not only in labor and employees, but but overall, you can have it paid for.
00:13:13
Nate
if you press it incorrectly. So, got some trucks, got some goose necks. You guys were, when you were there, when you started then to this point now, are you doing pull tents or did you jump in the structure? Where were you at?
00:13:25
Kyle Richardson
We were doing mostly pull tents back then. I like to tell people we specialize in hunter-wide pull tents.
00:13:31
Nate
Okay.
00:13:32
Kyle Richardson
My guys are really good at them. I'd go up against any company if they wanted to do some hunter-wide. I can put 10 guys out on a hundred by 300 and we can have it done by lunch and they love it.
00:13:43
Kyle Richardson
And I love it. I think their fun is shit, but probably COVID was when we made a big jump in this structure. That was just to meet demands of what our clients were asking for.
00:13:54
Kyle Richardson
We've kind of. had the philosophy of we're never going to tell certain clients. No. So if they want it, we're going to do it. We don't care what it costs. We'll figure out how to pay for it. It's kind of that mentality here.
00:14:07
Kyle Richardson
Is it a good thing? No. Hasn't bit us in the ass. Yes. But most of the time it ends up paying off.
00:14:16
Nate
Right.
00:14:16
Kyle Richardson
So that's kind of how the business has progressed. And then since then we've, as the industry has moved away from poll tents, we're finding that Since we have such a large inventory poll, we're getting more and more calls to travel further and further.
00:14:31
Kyle Richardson
So like we do some jobs out of state with a bunch of poll 10. And it's just because they couldn't find a vendor closer. not We don't want to travel. I know you guys travel a lot. I honestly can't figure out how people who travel 100% of the time make money.
00:14:47
Kyle Richardson
But that's a whole other conversation.
00:14:47
Nate
Well, well there's there's the days. yeah We'll talk about that one later. yeah the in in the poll point The point to your pole tents there, you know we have the same way. you know We had a ton of pole tents and that's how we kind of started and then the old school you know chain. and rope days and everything else and and it does seem like those pole tents are dwindling now because everybody's and we're almost pushing them towards the structure and that's like the new wave just because one it's I mean it's more sturdy it's more versatile um you know with glass doors hard wall um but also the feeling of being at home and knowing if a 70 mile an hour wing comes through I don't have to be
00:15:33
Nate
worried about going in at one or two in the morning like the old days of the pull fence. But there is still a need for those to your point. I mean, what kind of what kind of events are you guys still doing with pull fence?
00:15:44
Kyle Richardson
Uh, so we do a lot of fairs and festivals. That's where our poll tents are going June, July, August, really. Um, biggest one we do is I think takes 30 or 40, 40 wide polls and some 80 wide. Uh, so we travel out of state for that one. Uh, but yeah, we kind of jumped fairs and festivals across state of New Jersey in the summer. It's good business for us. It filled in a void that we were slow anyway, and July and August. So now we have them.
00:16:10
Kyle Richardson
all kind of back to back to back so we can move product from job to job, which works out really well for us.
00:16:16
Nate
And then with that, how are you? Uh, you guys have, uh, you guys have a Tico, right?
00:16:21
Kyle Richardson
Yeah.
00:16:22
Nate
Okay. So you're watching.
00:16:23
Kyle Richardson
So we, we have a Tico and we're washing stuff as needed. The good news about the fair and festival market is it doesn't need a grade.
00:16:32
Nate
Right.
00:16:33
Kyle Richardson
So the hardest thing for us as a company
00:16:36
Nate
Which, which I'm going to pause for a minute, explain to the people that aren't in the industry here. If they're listening, what is, what do you, what is an A grade?
00:16:45
Kyle Richardson
If you wouldn't want it at your daughter's wedding, it's not a grade.
00:16:49
Nate
And you're talking about the tent tops, essentially.
00:16:49
Kyle Richardson
It's kind of, yeah, yeah. So that's kind of, we have wedding grade and then we have kind of everything else grade. The hardest part for us is to get the guys to know when to differentiate the jobs, you know, where, where is this?
00:17:04
Kyle Richardson
Okay. And where is this not okay. And that's an internal battle. We're currently fighting. Um, there's a lot of checks and balances now that has to be done before a top can leave just so we know understand what kind of quality is expected of this job.
00:17:19
Kyle Richardson
And that's a really hard thing. You know, I'm envious of some of these guys. Oh, we only do weddings. Well, they know everything has to be perfect every time. Whereas my guys might do a wedding today and tomorrow they're doing a county fair.
00:17:26
Nate
right
00:17:30
Kyle Richardson
Well, I'm pissed if I walk up to that county fair and they got the brand new 40 wide pull 10 up that I just bought last week.
00:17:36
Nate
right right who determines that, who determines what tops go out and do you guys have an ah RFID system or how are you deciding those tops
00:17:36
Kyle Richardson
They're like, why are you so upset? And I'm like, well, now it might, something might happen to it here. And I can't use it for Mr. Smith's daughter's wedding in two weeks that I needed it for.
00:17:54
Kyle Richardson
oh are
00:17:56
Nate
The age old question.
00:17:57
Kyle Richardson
RFID.
00:17:59
Nate
That's a whole nother another ball game, but if you could just hit on it real quick, what what is your guys' process on picking those tops? Is it because when I was at Bryant's, I ran back there or you know I would go in the system and pick, you know if a 20 by 40 had two ends in the two minutes, then you know we would just run put it in the system and then the guys would pick what grade we want based on what we told them.
00:18:20
Nate
Is that kind of how you're going?
00:18:20
Kyle Richardson
Yeah, exactly. I got a guy, the warehouse guy. I say, Hey, this is a wedding or this is a fair, or this can be B quality, or this could be, I'm not sending anything out that C or D really, unless it's construction.
00:18:35
Kyle Richardson
Um, so it's really just, this it needs to be a, or this needs to be B don't send something nice here, but I'm putting all my faith in a guy.
00:18:42
Nate
Right.
00:18:45
Kyle Richardson
Um, I've given him lists a week in advance. So that way if stuff doesn't need to get in the washer, he's taken care of that and make sure that gets done. but
00:18:52
Nate
Those are the real heroes, by the way, the guys in the washroom, the guys that are working those long hours. i mean they They either, I mean, excuse my language, are getting the shit for sending something that they didn't do correctly or they're being praised for for everything that they've done correctly.
00:19:09
Nate
But at the end of the day, they're the ones that get dumped on when somebody on the tank crew doesn't necessarily use a tarp and drags the tent top through the mud. And now it goes back and it's got to go through the wash process. And I mean, those those guys.
00:19:20
Kyle Richardson
Which is not a fun process.
00:19:22
Nate
No, and I mean, if you know, I mean, I've worked in the, ah several times, you know, either when we're slow or, or when we're busy and we got to hurry up and get a top ready. I mean, or in even in the wintertime, you know, back when I worked at A's and Bryant's, I was in the back washing tops. I mean, we were using power washers, washing 60 wides on the floor and and buffers. And I mean, I can remember Mike Murphy and I were just out there grinding in the wintertime washing, washing 10 tops. I mean, it's a, it's a grind.
00:19:50
Kyle Richardson
It's, so it's funny. My wash, I have the same wash and warehouse guys. That's all they do. And they argue with my field guys that they have a harder job. It's gonna, it'll forever be an argument of whose job is harder.
00:20:03
Nate
Absolutely Yeah,
00:20:05
Kyle Richardson
There are times being in the field it's harder and there are times when being in the washroom is harder. I personally would go nuts if I had to wash tents every day. That our washer was hot as balls all the time.
00:20:19
Kyle Richardson
just because you need the stuff to dry. You're getting soaking wet every time you open the washer door.
00:20:25
Nate
yeah
00:20:26
Kyle Richardson
And yeah I get so frustrated when you have to untangle the web of walls or top or whatever's in the washer. It just makes me so pissed every time I have to walk away. So they are the unsung heroes of the industry.
00:20:39
Kyle Richardson
I'll agree with you on that. The hardest part I have is I take a guy from the washer when I bring him in the field. He never wants to go back to the washer.
00:20:49
Nate
Yeah. Well, and that's, I mean, if you think of it, I mean, for everybody listed there that doesn't know, it's it's like working in a factory or working out on a construction site. I mean, you're either stuck around the clock doing the same repetitive daunting thing over and over again, and it's super hot or it's super cold, but you don't see the outside necessarily all the time. And I think that's ah that's the reason everybody gets out. I mean, it's like when you hire a laborer and you put them in there washing chairs and then all of a sudden you get busy and you're like okay hey I need you to go out in the field that chair cleaner doesn't want to go back inside I can mark mark my words he gets it he gets a taste of the outdoors and the freedom out there and it's like okay I'm staying out here so yeah so I get it
00:21:26
Kyle Richardson
Yeah exactly.
00:21:34
Nate
So I guess we got off track there a little bit, but good conversation. But so you guys came back, you're doing the pole tents, and then you were on the truck. How long until you kind of slowly moved into where you're at now and kind of exactly what you're doing and and all that?
00:21:54
Kyle Richardson
This might sound wrong, but I kind of forced my way in here and looking back on it, that that's what you have to do.
00:21:59
Nate
And it's not wrong because it's it's not wrong because it's what I did.
00:22:03
Kyle Richardson
You know what?
00:22:04
Nate
Yeah.
00:22:04
Kyle Richardson
I, I wanted it. I fought for it. And that's, that's how it works. If no matter if you're the bus kid or not, if you're listening to this, you're an employee. If you want someone's job, fight for it and take it.
00:22:16
Nate
Go get it.
00:22:16
Kyle Richardson
Yeah. Take his job.
00:22:17
Nate
Go get it.
00:22:18
Kyle Richardson
Uh, so that's kind of what happened.
00:22:18
Nate
Yep.
00:22:19
Kyle Richardson
It kind of just fell in my lap. The guy who was doing it before me.
00:22:25
Kyle Richardson
couldn't handle it, really. So I kind of just started to taking it over and doing it. And i there was no conversation like, oh, now you're the ops manager. It just kind of naturally fell into place. And everyone kind of understood that I was taking over. I think the biggest factor when it kind of clicked in everyone's head. So I realized that we're having a labor problem. I found a recruiter in Puerto Rico who was able, i pay you pay them a fee.
00:22:55
Kyle Richardson
They basically send you 10 guys. So we did that for a year.
00:22:58
Nate
and And just to stop you there, let's go ahead and preference that by saying it's totally legal. And what's the program called?
00:23:05
Kyle Richardson
No, so that's the, that was before H2B, which is what you're referring to.
00:23:08
Nate
Okay. Okay.
00:23:09
Kyle Richardson
So Puerto Rico is a U S territory.
00:23:09
Nate
Yep.
00:23:13
Kyle Richardson
Uh, and there's great employees there who want to work. Some of my leads, best guys to have are from the year I brought over the guys from Puerto Rico. Uh, we can get in a fight story about one of the guys if you want.
00:23:25
Kyle Richardson
he did He gets off the plane, me and Brian are there to pick them up.
00:23:31
Kyle Richardson
I love the guy to death. So, and I tell him this all the time, he probably weighed 350, 375, big boy, short five foot, big guy round.
00:23:39
Nate
A while. Yep.
00:23:43
Nate
205 pounds to 180 now. Right.
00:23:47
Kyle Richardson
No. So he's, he's still probably roughly the same size, but just funny. He'll outwork anyone, but me and Brian look at each other.
00:23:54
Nate
Yeah.
00:23:57
Kyle Richardson
I don't think that one's going to make it. This is going to be a hard job for him. And God damn it.
00:24:01
Nate
I love that.
00:24:02
Kyle Richardson
He was the best one out of all of them. He was a natural born leader. I can send him out today. He puts up everything we own. Just all around great guy. He started his family here. And like, that's a great story.
00:24:12
Kyle Richardson
I love about the whole thing is I brought these guys over. He loved it so much. He said, Hey boss, can I stay for the winter? Yeah, sure. You know what? You're doing great. You can stay. And the winner comes to, Hey, I really want to bring my wife over.
00:24:24
Kyle Richardson
Great. Bring your wife over. He's got kids here now. His kids go to school here.
00:24:28
Nate
Love that.
00:24:28
Kyle Richardson
It's kind of awesome. Yeah. He's just become part of the family. So after we did the
Recruitment & Workforce Challenges
00:24:32
Kyle Richardson
Puerto Rican thing, which if anyone wants that information, reach out to me.
00:24:38
Kyle Richardson
It's bringing outside labor in from other countries has challenges. I'll be honest with anyone who wants to talk about it. It's not easy, but it's doable. It's all on you though. Next we went to H2B.
00:24:49
Kyle Richardson
which is a government program where you get visas. It's a lottery.
00:24:56
Kyle Richardson
It's the most stressful thing every year for me. Like right now I'm waiting to find out if I'm going to get my guys. Uh, but it costs a lot of money. The government tells you what you got to pay them. There's a lot of things that go with it, but you're getting great employees every year. and Um, and I'm bringing them back the same guys every year. So they show up day one. They know exactly what we do. I'm not really training.
00:25:18
Kyle Richardson
It's awesome from that point of view. But the downfall is you never know if they're actually going to come.
00:25:23
Nate
So you're you were like a bull in the China shop, right kicked and screamed and got yourself into the position that you're in because you wanted to be there. And just like we talked about in the last episode, took the leap forward and and wanted to be there. um So then your tool that you had in your toolbox that really helped was then to bring these people in. So then you brought everybody in and then where did you go with them after that?
00:25:46
Kyle Richardson
So from there we were able to actually like before that we're using temps what are you everybody uses temps knows if you ask for 10 on a Monday you're gonna assume you're getting five exactly so you know you're basing what jobs you can take off of that assumption when you have full-time staff and you know they can handle the work and you know they can get the jobs done you can start taking out a lot more work
00:25:59
Nate
And two will probably make it through the day. Correct.
00:26:16
Kyle Richardson
So we were able to take out a lot more work, which in turn means more revenue, which in turn means growing the business.
00:26:23
Nate
And making Brian happy.
00:26:24
Kyle Richardson
Exactly. Just by having decent staff here, we weren't able to find it locally. So I got smart and looked elsewhere and it worked out.
00:26:34
Kyle Richardson
I know some other people who've tried it. It doesn't work out, but it's at least worth a shot to try. And that has kind of helped us grow because now All my guys come off my payroll like December 15th, they all roughly go back home and they don't come back till April 1st to April 15th.
00:26:54
Kyle Richardson
So I lose a lot of weight on payroll for the winter term when we're not really doing anything, which helps significantly in terms of revenue, profit, share, saving money, all that stuff.
00:27:06
Nate
Oh yeah, oh yeah. Okay, so you did that. now Now you've got these guys over here. What is your position then? what do you What are you doing in the company?
00:27:15
Kyle Richardson
Me or the guys?
00:27:17
Nate
You, because now you said you basically came in, you came into the company.
00:27:19
Kyle Richardson
So at that point, i I'm running projects. I am doing the schedule. I'm doing logistics. I'm kind of taking over operations. I wasn't really handling the warehouses much back then because the warehouse guy kind of still had the old school attitude and he didn't like me because I was the boss's kid. So I let someone else handle him. ah We've come to terms now. We've come to an agreement between him and I, but it works out good.
00:27:45
Kyle Richardson
So then, yeah, after that, I was just kind of, I became the, the guy for the employees. I learned Spanish because I had no choice. If I wanted to talk to them ahead, they don't, most of them didn't speak English. So I took the time to learn Spanish. I had them teach me. They keep telling me I'm fluent now. I don't believe them because I'd never just walk up to someone start speaking Spanish, but my, my Spanish is pretty good at this point. And.
00:28:13
Kyle Richardson
i basically became the first year a father to these 15 guys that came over they're calling me on a Saturday saying hey we want to go to ShopRite or hey we want to go to the mall or hey can we go to New York City so for the first year I was like a dad running them all over the place whatever they wanted to do which that's one of the things I would tell you is that's the worst part about it until they get settled in so yeah that
00:28:37
Nate
Yeah.
00:28:41
Kyle Richardson
Taking that under my wing kind of is what boosted me up the ranks. um We had some people leave, which obviously helped me move up. But then I was also bringing in key guys below me and putting guys below me to back fill the positions, which is so much of what you need to do. If you want to get promoted, you should find your successor before you get promoted. I've always said that.
00:29:02
Nate
So you just came in and basically turned this company on its head over how many like a year or two years?
00:29:08
Kyle Richardson
No, it was a long time. it was
00:29:10
Nate
ah Okay, okay.
00:29:11
Kyle Richardson
It was three or four years.
00:29:12
Nate
So they basically the guys that were there before you may not, how many of those do you still have? Anybody?
00:29:23
Kyle Richardson
We've only lost two.
00:29:24
Nate
Oh really?
00:29:25
Kyle Richardson
Yeah.
00:29:26
Nate
So you you just you just came in and added more labor is all you did.
00:29:27
Kyle Richardson
We for yeah we went from a staff of like 12 to 30 or 40 guys within three years.
00:29:35
Nate
How did the guys that were there at the time take all that?
00:29:38
Kyle Richardson
So the first year, they didn't like it. I kept pitching, we're doing this for you. We were trying to make their lives better. Uh, once they understood that, they loved it. They were really happy. Once you reassure them, they're not going to lose their jobs. They're not going to get a pay cut. They're not going to do all this stuff. Then they understand it. Uh, once we went H2B, it actually kind of worked out well for all my full-time employees because the government tells you what you have to pay them.
00:30:11
Kyle Richardson
What that means is you cannot have anyone in your company making less than what the government tells you you're paying your H2B guys.
00:30:13
Nate
Mm hmm.
00:30:17
Kyle Richardson
So some guys end up getting raises just to get myself above the minimum I had to pay anyway. Um, and obviously COVID inflated the crap out of wages in our state, but thank you Amazon for that.
00:30:33
Kyle Richardson
But yeah, so we did all that.
00:30:33
Nate
Yeah, absolutely.
00:30:35
Kyle Richardson
We, yeah, we basically just bolstered the fleet with more labor, Nate. Now I'm in the
00:30:39
Nate
Okay.
00:30:40
Kyle Richardson
problem of I need to find more management level people with them working on.
00:30:45
Nate
Right.
00:30:47
Kyle Richardson
But I have a hard time hiring someone with no experience and putting them at a management level because they don't know what they're doing in terms of the 10 industry.
00:30:51
Nate
Mm hmm.
00:30:56
Kyle Richardson
So we are a lean beam machine over here.
00:30:58
Nate
So that yo Yeah, I get it. And I know you wear multiple hats just like the rest of us. um So what is, so from there you moved on in kind of, you were in the office, you're in the office now. What is your current day to day? Like, what do you, what do you currently do? I know you wear multiple hats, but what is your main points that you hit every day?
00:31:19
Kyle Richardson
So I am still in a truck when we're real busy. I'm mainly doing bigger projects, multi-day installs, things like that.
00:31:28
Nate
Stuff you want to do.
00:31:28
Kyle Richardson
i Yeah, I pick and choose my jobs. they right i do I do sales to an extent.
00:31:32
Nate
Okay.
00:31:36
Kyle Richardson
I'm going to deal with, I think last year I had four clients. um And they're like you said, I pick who I want to deal with.
00:31:46
Kyle Richardson
And then I'm handling all of the operations. So I'm dealing with the warehouse manager. I'm dealing with this. I am the dispatcher. So I'm picking what trucks go to what jobs when we're doing them scheduling. I am scheduled in the cruise when they got to come in every day, if they got to work a weekend, I'm going back and forth with sales on, you know, where specific sites are and how laid out things have to be and things like that. What else am I going to handle? I'm HR, hiring, firing.
00:32:17
Kyle Richardson
Logistics trucks. I handle the whole fleet and I keep Brian happy.
00:32:24
Nate
Hey, and that's the biggest, best job right there, you know.
00:32:26
Kyle Richardson
I wouldn't say that's the best job.
00:32:28
Nate
So that, so that that's awesome. So now that how many employees do you all have currently?
00:32:35
Kyle Richardson
Peak season, we're at like 45 and right now we're down to 15.
00:32:40
Nate
Okay. And so now you're looking for more of the management level. What is considered the management level that you're looking for?
00:32:46
Kyle Richardson
We refer to them as project managers. So most of our work is multi-day install. So I'm looking for the guys who can, I can hand them off a job and they can see it through from start to finish. That means they have to talk to the client. They have to attend some client meetings, answer emails. What I've been running into is that also means they have to actually do some work. It doesn't mean you can just go sit in your truck and watch the guys work. I'm expecting you to you know be on site.
00:33:14
Kyle Richardson
helping the guys, making sure things go smooth. I'm not saying you should be out there with a sledgehammer driving mistakes.
00:33:20
Nate
Right.
00:33:20
Kyle Richardson
But there's no reason you can't be in the TEDx if you have nothing else to to do and cleaning up the site or moving things around.
00:33:28
Nate
Yeah, absolutely. And i I always say to my project managers, anybody who's running my jobs, your key job is to be the liaison between me and the customer and the guys. You are bouncing back and forth. As long as you're communicating with all them, I'm happy. Now, if they need you to jump in and you know help measure the floor or help jump in the 10-ox or the forklift, you know, do that.
00:33:51
Nate
But I don't need you carrying things. I don't need you doing the grunt work and everything else. But I do need somebody talking in between the guys.
00:33:57
Kyle Richardson
yeah
00:33:57
Nate
Yes. I mean, I think that the way our industry is going is, you know, we are a construction industry, a lot of
Skills in Tenting Industry
00:34:03
Nate
these businesses. now there's you still have your regional companies that are kind of your backyard warriors and doing the you know the biggest tents are the 40 wide or you know anything like that that they don't they're not specializing in construction style stuff but our guys i think you you could say this too or they're carpenters at the end of the day and so the stuff that they're doing yeah steelworkers metal fabricators yeah
00:34:23
Kyle Richardson
Yeah. And steel workers. sorry i tell you Yeah, we're we're a mixture of us iron worker a carpenter a plumber if you got restaurant trailers electricians We kind of do a touch on every base on every single job site.
00:34:37
Nate
Yeah.
00:34:40
Nate
Oh, absolutely. Which leads me into my next thing here. So tell us a little bit about your number one and the number two business.
00:34:49
Kyle Richardson
Oh Yeah, so 2020 I convinced my dad to help me start a Porta John restaurant trailer company.
Expansion to Restroom Trailers
00:35:00
Kyle Richardson
it's It's going good.
00:35:01
Kyle Richardson
ah and it's It's definitely a different industry to be in, but it does all right. We half did it because the restaurant trailer vendors we were using sucked. So it kind of made sense to look at other avenues of how we could just supply our own customers.
00:35:22
Kyle Richardson
Um, and the licensing in New Jersey is very, very difficult, which took a year for us to get, um, they dive so deep into your life that they were picking up stuff that my dad did when he was 17.
00:35:33
Nate
Oh,
00:35:39
Kyle Richardson
Like it run ins with the law when he was 17 and questioning him about that.
00:35:39
Nate
ah wow.
00:35:46
Nate
Oh my gosh.
00:35:46
Kyle Richardson
Yeah. So like they were questioning family members. I was dating my wife and they wanted information on her parents.
00:35:54
Nate
Interesting.
00:35:54
Kyle Richardson
That's.
00:35:54
Nate
and Why would they need that information?
00:35:56
Kyle Richardson
So New Jersey is corrupt as shit. Everyone knows this. So back in the day, the mob ran the waste industry. So there was a lot of mob money in here.
00:36:03
Nate
Okay.
00:36:05
Kyle Richardson
So they enacted all these rules because it's the same license to haul trash.
00:36:05
Nate
Ah.
00:36:09
Kyle Richardson
So I can have a dumpster business if I wanted to. But yeah, so it's all mob based. It didn't help that my mother's last name is Italian.
00:36:16
Nate
Okay.
00:36:17
Kyle Richardson
So like they follow that lineage to make sure there was no connection and stuff. It's the, I didn't say it wasn't doing that, but cool it's it's an ongoing joke.
00:36:22
Nate
Like you're not dumping bodies in the trash or the sewer.
00:36:28
Nate
Oh, Lord.
00:36:31
Kyle Richardson
Like the people in New Jersey, I say to them all the time, Hey, don't fuck with me. I got a waste license and everyone in the state knows that, Oh, that means, you know, you can get rid of some stuff if you had to.
00:36:35
Nate
Yeah.
00:36:40
Nate
Absolutely. That's hilarious.
00:36:41
Kyle Richardson
So. Yeah, we, so we have like 300 single unicorn Johns and seven restroom shows at this point. Um, so it's, I bet LNA occupies maybe 15% of my total business.
00:36:48
Nate
And so are those going out for most of your job zone, like your guys' is jobs in-house? Are you renting them out separately? Are they going to job sites? Are they going to weddings? Is it a mix of everything? what Where's your main clientele and how do you ah distribute those?
00:37:09
Nate
OK.
00:37:10
Kyle Richardson
Um, Another 30, 40% of the business is construction sites. Uh, so I got a guy that's all he does. He cleans on average 200 units a week, which is a brutal job, but he loves it.
00:37:20
Nate
It's a lot of shit.
00:37:22
Kyle Richardson
I don't know why it's a lot of shit. All right. Um, and then I'm marketing to wedding planners, other rental companies, anyone who wants to rent a trailer or rent it to him.
00:37:33
Kyle Richardson
Uh, it's funny when I first started the business, I went to some 10 companies and I knew they weren't going to like it. Cause I was Brian.
00:37:41
Nate
Mm-hmm.
00:37:42
Kyle Richardson
And I, it's, I had someone with a, Hey, look, I can't stand working for my father anymore. So I'm trying to start, get this business off the ground. You know, I know you guys rent some restroom trailers.
00:37:52
Kyle Richardson
I'd really appreciate if you could help me and rent trailers for me. And it worked on a couple of them, but I think now they're kind of seeing that I was just trying to grow the business, but you know, sales and sales, you gotta do what you gotta do.
00:38:02
Nate
Absolutely.
00:38:05
Nate
Hey, and you said you weren't that sales guy, so take that shit back.
00:38:06
Kyle Richardson
I know. And there's still, it's funny.
00:38:08
Nate
that Conflict of interest, sir.
00:38:09
Kyle Richardson
There's still 10 companies locally who will not. rent for me just because obviously they think they're competing with themselves. Yeah, but I don't, I'm not trying to steal their work.
00:38:20
Kyle Richardson
I don't really care. I went to some of them. I said, Hey, look, if you want, you don't have to tell me the address of the, uh, delivery till the day before. That way I can't like go door knocking on them, shit like that.
00:38:28
Nate
Yeah.
00:38:30
Kyle Richardson
But it's a good business. Honestly, uh, full disclosure, if I could grow it to a number where I can make a nice living, I would do that. It is so much less stressful.
00:38:40
Nate
So how many units do you have then, you said?
00:38:44
Kyle Richardson
I guess seven trailers and 300 single plastic units.
00:38:47
Nate
Seven trailers and 300. Wow. Yeah. Okay. So what's your, uh, I gotta know what's the biggest horror story of that industry that you've had to deal with?
00:38:53
Kyle Richardson
oh
00:38:55
Nate
Cause I can only think of all the things in my mind on what I wouldn't want to do. And although this just seems like it's physically liquid gold at this point, um, what, what is a horror story?
00:39:07
Kyle Richardson
So we were new. This was year one.
00:39:12
Kyle Richardson
I didn't really know what I was doing and I had to go pump out a restroom trailer. You know, you don't know how much is, I didn't know how much was in the truck. So I go pump this trailer out. I hook up the wrong hose basically, and I didn't have a shut off valve on it. So the truck gets full and now I have to, and the trailer still has waste in it. So now I have to disconnect the hose from the truck.
00:39:38
Kyle Richardson
But the hose is full because there was so much waste. I just kept pumping and it just filled the whole hose. So I'm with another guy and I'm like, all right, we're going to gravity is going to help us here. So I'll disconnect it real quick and I'm going to throw it up above my head.
00:39:52
Kyle Richardson
The hose and you cap it, you cap it real quick.
00:39:53
Nate
Oh no. Oh God.
00:39:55
Kyle Richardson
It'll be great. So I think everyone's probably seen that. I think it's the movie RV ah with the poop waterfall.
00:40:00
Nate
Easy.
00:40:02
Kyle Richardson
And that's basically what happened to us. And there's people watching us. And so like, you just have to I just take it like it's another day and I'm standing around. So we finished, we cleaned up, whatever.
00:40:14
Kyle Richardson
I get back in the truck to leave and I thought I was cool. So I took a Snapchat ah selfie, like telling everyone why my shirt was so wet. And a guy snapped, texted me back. He's like, what's all the white shit all over your shirt?
00:40:27
Kyle Richardson
So I looked down and it's all toilet paper stuck in my shirt.
00:40:31
Nate
Oh my god.
00:40:33
Kyle Richardson
But I worked the rest of the day and just kept on going with it. But I learned that. After that, you always keep spare clothes in every truck, no matter what.
00:40:42
Nate
Uh-huh.
00:40:43
Kyle Richardson
So, but yeah, that was kind of the worst of it.
00:40:43
Nate
Uh-huh.
00:40:46
Nate
So there are some poor stories, but with that, there there's a lot of money to be made in that industry.
00:40:51
Kyle Richardson
Yeah. It's a great issue to be in. Uh, it's much less stressful. You can do a lot more revenue with less employees, which is what I love about it.
00:40:58
Nate
Uh-huh.
00:40:59
Kyle Richardson
But is there.
00:41:00
Nate
Do you guys think that you will continue to pursue growing that even more or do you think you're in a steady good spot right now and you've found your niche ah of amount of units and everything else?
00:41:11
Kyle Richardson
No, I'd love to double or triple revenue. Is it doable? I don't know. Everyone knows United States services and if they can decide tomorrow, they want to stop on me and they could, but oh, that's always the plan.
00:41:22
Nate
Yeah, or they can buy you out.
00:41:26
Kyle Richardson
So I'm just going to let it organically grow. I'm not forcing it at all. Um, I don't have guys out doing blitz sales. I'm kind of just letting it happen as it happens. We're paying our bills.
00:41:37
Kyle Richardson
Everyone's happy. It's not easy to find guys who want to drive a shit truck all day anyway so
00:41:43
Nate
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
00:41:43
Kyle Richardson
i gotta get you love I have two employees over there full time and a part-time guy comes in and like cleans units and cleans the trailers in between. So it's working out really well, how it is right now.
00:41:54
Kyle Richardson
So I'm just kind of taking it day by day, month by month to see how it works.
00:41:58
Nate
as Have you had any issues on getting some of those units into certain places for weddings, you know, the trailers and everything like that?
00:42:04
Kyle Richardson
So that's a big selling point for us, which I think is why I get a lot of jobs is because, you I'll offer, Hey, know, I can bring a it's like, you know, 10 ox out for an additional fee and put it wherever you want it. Whereas, whereas other companies aren't going to do that.
00:42:14
Nate
Oh that's a good point.
00:42:16
Kyle Richardson
They're going to say, Oh no, we can only back it in your driveway. And that's where we're leaving it. So that does help out a lot for us.
00:42:21
Nate
Okay.
00:42:24
Kyle Richardson
Um, it also helps out LNA sales because we can say, Hey, we can offer this restroom trailer and we can put it where, like you just said, wherever you want it.
00:42:35
Nate
Right.
00:42:36
Kyle Richardson
We'll get it where you want it. Oh, you want it delivered Wednesday? All right. No problem. We can take care of that. And it's no additional fee just because we're there anyway. We have the machine. We can move it anywhere on your property. Whereas if United shows up, they're going to say, no, we can only get it right here in the drive, but we're not driving in the grass.
00:42:52
Nate
Yeah, and with the truck and everything else, and we can't jack it up high enough. and Yeah, so you got a good business there double dipping.
00:42:56
Kyle Richardson
Yup.
00:42:59
Nate
So if you need any restrooms or any tenting up in the Northeast, holler at Kyle and everybody up there from LNA, you can find
Promotion & Social Media
00:43:09
Nate
them on Instagram.
00:43:09
Nate
What is it? L underscore A, tent rentals, tent rentals.
00:43:12
Kyle Richardson
10 rentals. Yeah.
00:43:14
Nate
Yep. Find them on Instagram, find Kyle on Instagram.
00:43:17
Kyle Richardson
I like my pictures. I pay that guy a lot of money to take nice pictures. So.
00:43:20
Nate
Yeah, Kyle does have some really good ah video and pictures, some of the best in the industry. So jump on jump on over to their page and and give that a a like as well. So shifting gears here a little bit, let's talk a little bit about, since we're getting on this snow gig right now with everything coming down everywhere, um what's it like for winter tenting
Winter Tenting Strategies
00:43:41
Nate
for you all? And do you currently have anything up that is getting snow on it and how do you maintenance it and things like that?
00:43:47
Kyle Richardson
So I got some 40 wide up down in Philadelphia right now. If we're winter tenting like 40 wide, for example, I chose, uh, to put up a Fiesta legacy out of Canada. I trust the shit out of that tent in the snow. Um, Alex and Julie make a great product and they'd come out of Canada. So they're dealing with this stuff all the time. We just got six inches down there.
00:44:14
Kyle Richardson
I'm not worried about it until it gets down up to like 10 or 12 inches. So I just had someone go down the next morning and pull the snow off.
00:44:19
Nate
Mm hmm.
00:44:20
Kyle Richardson
The client did leave the heat running all night, uh, just based upon our suggestions. So, uh, that always helps as well. Um, but if we had something bigger up, we just usually station staff out at the site and just have them working it periodically.
00:44:36
Kyle Richardson
So.
00:44:37
Nate
Yeah, we we're currently in a situation down in New Orleans, which is crazy to see that they have up to 12 and 14 inches of snow in different places. We're working at the Super Bowl. um and They don't usually see snow like that. and I know there's a you know we go down to 30A, down to the beach down there in Florida, and they currently have snow as well. and ah Most of our guys, they were supposed to have the day off yesterday and they were pulling snow off of structure all day yesterday as it continued to come down. and i mean They were drifts that were probably up to your waist up against the tents of pulling stuff off. and you know that The horror stories of that is you know the weight on there, if it's and it's something that's not an engineered um you know ah snow-loaded structure,
00:45:23
Nate
then the horse stories are the weight builds up on top and it collapses. I think just as you said, you got to either one, have the heat underneath there and blowing in at the same time and as well as pulling that stuff off and get some of that weight off or a horse story. There's a venue and I won't say what state it's in, but it is a It's a venue that didn't really listen. And it it wasn't my structure, but they bought a structure. um And I just saw a picture recently of a 12 meter structure, 12 by 30 meter structure that they they did not remove the snow off of and did not heat it. And I've never seen a structure collapse in on itself before ever in my life, but it got so much weight on it that it it ended up collapsing. So do you keep people
00:46:10
Nate
On standby, when you start to get the big storms, because I know you guys do plowing too, and is that part of LNA or is that part of do something that you do on the side? How does all that work?
00:46:20
Kyle Richardson
So the, the plowings are kind of on the side. We just, I, the landscaper I worked for actually, uh, we just want to work for him. But my guys know, obviously if we had to have them at LNA, that's first priority. Um, so yeah, we just have a guys, if we know we need guys to go sit out or go the next morning to do stuff, we just tell them right away, Hey, this way you got to do, uh, you're either going to sit there during COVID. Uh, we had a lot of stuff up in the snow. So we were just stationing guys at tents and they would sit there all night and do stuff like that.
00:46:49
Kyle Richardson
But yeah, so we do plus all my guys, most of my guys plus snow for the, uh, landscape, which just has additional revenue. I like offering that to my guys because it gets them up. Like they plowed so all weekend and none of them came in on Monday.
00:47:02
Kyle Richardson
So it got off my payroll for the day and they were happy.
00:47:04
Nate
Yeah.
00:47:05
Kyle Richardson
So it worked out really well for me. Um, but yeah, we just kind of do it as a bonus program for, yeah.
00:47:12
Nate
That's great. So you can kind of transfer payroll around a little bit between bathrooms and tents and snowplows. So yeah, we don't we don't keep anybody on on call as well either. We do have a emergency line that somebody can call and you know typically We probably need to get something in place where we have something more of an emergency line and we've talked about it where, not an emergency line, but an emergency, somebody on call type deal. um Now it goes to the recording service and then texts us and let us know exactly what's going on. But you know we don't usually have to worry about the snow stuff a lot now. You're going back to traveling and
00:47:48
Nate
you know, hitting on that a little bit is, you know, if we weren't in New Orleans, as we finished setting up right now, down there, and we came back here, now we gotta make sure, hey, did we budget in for sending somebody back? The go-backs. The go-backs is where we tend to lose some money, um, a lot of the time, um, if we do work out of town. Now, mostly, we will try and build it into the bill that, hey, we'll leave a guy on the site for however long, and it depends on when the event is, but,
00:48:16
Nate
you know that's That is where you lose money. You're right. Traveling is the go-backs. Whether we forget inventory or there's issues on site and you got to run out to the site. It happens local, but when you got to get on, send the guy in a truck 10 hours away or 12 hours away or on a flight, it's a totally different story.
00:48:32
Kyle Richardson
Yeah. And like, I remember you reached out to me this summer about a job you were doing out of town. That was kind of near here.
00:48:38
Kyle Richardson
Hey, you're closer. Can you go do help us out with this? And yeah.
00:48:38
Nate
Yeah.
00:48:42
Nate
Absolutely and the good thing about this industry is I mean you and I have enough connections in this industry now that you know we can make some phone calls and and I do call on people like Kyle or anybody else that I know and in the industry and I know people that have called on me and Tommy Wilson had a big job in Kentucky one time and called on me to to go out and help him with that and you know i don't i think that nobody really it's not really uh nobody's really scared you're going to take their business they're not going to help you it's this there is some of those people out there but i think that it is it's good enough that people know who you are and if you need help they'll go ahead and help you out oh yeah i mean it's just a camaraderie i mean if like i said if it wasn't for that i probably would have left this business back in 2020 and you know it's
00:49:20
Kyle Richardson
Yeah, exactly. Well, that's the best thing about the business.
00:49:29
Kyle Richardson
And if you, if you don't have that camaraderie with anyone and and you want to be put in a group text, just let me they know. We can get you a text.
00:49:35
Nate
Yeah, we'll make you those connections. And I always encourage everybody, I mean, get in a group text, get in a group of guys in the industry. You know, I i would always say I don't need more friends, but I love everybody in this industry. And I'm always always willing to help everybody out. I mean,
00:49:51
Nate
I get calls probably three times a week on people saying hey what would you do about this how would you price this and it's not because i don't know they just need to bounce ideas often. That's another good thing is we have bad groups in this industry and a lot of the older guys are in those and and there's some now some new generations of people coming up in that and.
00:50:10
Nate
and the the business analysis groups where people like to bounce ideas off of each other and get together and go over there go over their business and everything, and I think that's great. But yeah, if there's anybody out there or anybody that's listening that is looking for you know um somebody that they can bounce ideas off of or talk to, 100%, give us a call or text, and we'll be happy to try and help you or set you up with somebody that you can talk to.
00:50:32
Kyle Richardson
And if anyone wants to start a bad group that talks about business for eight hours one day, and then sit on the beach in Cancun for another four days, you let me know because me and Kevin Vasquez are trying to get it off the ground.
00:50:32
Nate
with
00:50:41
Nate
yeah Yeah, which brings me to another point here, yeah you know, wrapping up. We're going to be headed out to Vegas. I'm heading out Tuesday. I think you're heading out Tuesday as well, right?
00:50:53
Kyle Richardson
I'm out Tuesday morning.
00:50:55
Nate
Yeah, heading out Tuesday. So we're going to be in Vegas. I will be there pretty much the whole week. Thank you, Will, too. So what we're going to be doing is just you know trying to get some people on and and having some conversations with some different people about the industry. um I think we'll try and drop a pod about you know maybe mash up some different people and just some different conversations about the conference and what kind of knowledge you're getting from the conference. what you know what is What is it that they're looking to get from this or how long they've been coming as well as just getting some different conversation on there? I think that Kyle and I are going to come up with some good guests and you know hopefully we'll get a little bit of the OGs and the next gen guys and and get some guys in there to have some good conversation.
00:51:39
Kyle Richardson
Did you, uh, get our secret idea in, you know, I'm just going to allude to it. We're not going to tell people what it is, but yeah.
00:51:47
Nate
yeah Yeah, we're going to try and see what we can do about um using our connections to get in there on the floor and really deep dive into ah maybe a couple of booths and see if we can set up and and talk with some people. i think that ah Anything we can do to really get out there and start getting people on and kind of bringing them on the podcast and you know Hopefully we can keep growing this thing to get people you know, I don't necessarily yeah Want people to have to listen to my voice all the time But if we can do anything to help them in this industry make connections learn anything Teaching I think that's what this is for
00:52:24
Kyle Richardson
Exactly. So it'll be good. If you want to be on while we're in Vegas, if you want to get a drink in Vegas, let us know. We're, we've never said no to a beer.
00:52:35
Kyle Richardson
So yeah, exactly.
00:52:36
Nate
Yeah, we'll let you buy us the beer. How about that?
00:52:38
Kyle Richardson
Yeah.
00:52:39
Nate
We'll let you buy us the beer and then we'll we'll have a conversation and get you on the podcast. So ah yeah, we'll continue this on. We'll drop this one this week and then drop a try and drop one next week or even a couple next week, depending on how many people we get on.
00:52:53
Nate
But yeah, hit us up. Hit us up on Instagram, phone, whatever it is. Nespo130 is mine and Kyle is
00:53:02
Kyle Richardson
And J 10 guy.
00:53:05
Nate
and Jay Tank guy.
00:53:05
Kyle Richardson
Yeah.
00:53:06
Nate
So hit us up, let's get this thing together and we'll see you next time.
00:53:10
Kyle Richardson
Sounds good.